Weird Fiction discussion

This is the discussion topic for May's group read, The Horror in Clay: Act I by Thom Brannan.

If you are wondering whether or not to invest in this month's book, I would like to inform you it is available on Kindle for just 99 cents. How wrong can you go for that price? On Amazon I see a Look Inside section, so you can sample it a bit before deciding. Not only that, but Thom Brannan has made quite a bit of his work available absolutely free at his website, if you care to sample that: http://worldoftrouble.net/ebook.htm

I wish I could have found a better photo of our author. If one becomes available, I will use it. Until then, the one I put up will have to do. Thom Brannan is an ex-Navy man, a submariner, who currently resides in Texas. The Masthead is an artist's rendition of the elder god Cthulhu, based on Lovecraft's description.

You might think this a collection of Lovecraftian short stories, but you would be mistaken. It is actually a 135-page novel, written in first person. Although published three years and ten days ago, only two GoodReads reviewers have yet read it. Both gave it five stars, but did not write anything in review of the book, which I find not particularly helpful. A real shame, considering we paid them to do so much more for us.

So this book is a complete unknown, really. I commend our membership's willingness to experiment. Now, who wants to put their toe in the water and report back first? Let's start reading this book as soon as we can and begin sharing impressions with one another here at this topic.

I informed the author we'd be reading this book and issued an invitation to him to join us in discussing this work, but have had no reply. It is often hard to reach authors and he probably didn't and may not see my invite at all. Authors must get quite a bit of spammy fan mail, but I hope he might drop in at some point to say hi. We'll have to see.

Dan wrote: "This is the discussion topic for May's group read, The Horror in Clay: Act I by Thom Brannan.

If you are wondering whether or not to invest in this month's book, I..."

I hope I am not overstepping here, but seeing that you invited the author and have not heard from him, I sent a Facebook message to him; he responded and said he'd join.

Hey, y'all! Thom here. This is my first time having anything of mine as part of a group read, and I'm as humbled as I am confused, heh. Thank you! I don't know what my participation will be, so I'll just kind of hang back and see.

EDIT: It was suggested to me I include something about how the work came to be, and so I will!

In May of 2010, I made a point of reading things which were both weird and first-person. It so happens that the next two things I read were HPL's "The Call of Cthulhu" and then Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves, and some kind of fireworks went off in my noggin.

The next thing I knew, I had one of my leftover hardcover green logbooks from my Navy days and I had penned the first lines of the story. In those days, I wrote exclusively while I was at work (night electrician on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico) and did this work on a steady diet of starshine and Bruce Dickinson or G//Z/R or Queen II.

It took a very long time to actualize into the ebook which is on Amazon because I first wrote it longhand, and then used the built-in voice recognition on my Sony Vaio which led to a phalanx of hilarious misliterations on the software's part. It took me quite some time to find and get rid of them all, even with the handwritten source in front of me, as sometimes I got sloppy and then neither I nor my laptop knew what was going on and I had to wing it.

Well. Writing about myself writing makes me itchy, so I'll stop here, ha. Thanks again!

Excited to have you here. Thom. And thank you Zina for taking the initiative. I don't do much with FB, so it seldom occurs to me to use it as a resource.

I have begun Thom's work. Guys, it really did cost me just 99 cents to get it from Amazon. What a deal! It appears professionally edited and well written from my perspective. I'm really glad we picked this book to read as our book of the month.

Most importantly, I want to let everyone know that having read HPL's "The Call of Cthulhu" IS NOT A PREREQUISTE to reading this story, at least not so far. The novel begins with no references to the macabre (not even foreshadowing) and has nothing, at least in the beginning, to do with HPL. It's just (so far) about a guy going to a family funeral. We're treated to the family dynamics this guy faces. Who should he stay with? Who should he avoid, and why? He's kind of a loner in his family, and we sense there's some history that's going to unfold about the family happenings. The work is really approachable--an easy, solid read so far. There's no need to be afraid, if you were, about not being steeped in HPL culture. I have the impression it won't at all be needed for enjoying this book, that it might have been an inspiration for the author, but little more.

Edit: Okay. one third the way in now and I've found a number of copy mistakes needing the services of an editor. Still, they don't intrude into the story badly.

Yay, the grades are in; a few more errands to run tomorrow and I will finally have some time for a fun book! buying Thom's book on Amazon now.

If you are wondering whether or not to invest in this month's book, I..."

Hi Dan,

It's not the money investment as much as the time investment that makes me hesitate. I read a book of short stories loosely based on Lovecraft's mythos with some big names (Neil Gaiman among them) but found it quite boring and 2 years later, I can't remember any of those stories...

Why not tell us why you chose this book by Thom Brannan, not knowing anything about it. Why do you think we should give it a shot?

Richard wrote: "Why not tell us why you chose this book by Thom Brannan, not knowing anything about it. Why do you think we should give it a shot?"

Sure. I personally am giving it a shot because it's written in the weird genre. Not that many books are. And because it was nominated by a member of our group.

I indicate in message one above that the book is NOT a collection of short stories, but rather a short novel (135 pages). In message four I talk about the starting premise, a man named Wayland is attending a funeral for his father, and has some family dynamics to navigate that are causing conflict.

I don't want to say more for free of encroaching on spoiler territory. At this writing, I am still only one third of the way through the book. I appreciate that the story makes good narrative sense. I'm between three and four stars right now. It could go either way. I'm definitely reading the last two thirds.

I am just over half way through the novel, but must say I am really struggling with the middle third. The protagonist starts meeting dead ancestors (somehow) and we begin to get mentions of Cthulhu. I can't determine what is going on. Maybe I missed something or paid inadequate attention. I'm going back to reread. Maybe I can make more sense of this on a second pass.

Okay, I figured out my trouble. For the first 36% of the book, the first person narrator is Wayland Thurston. Then the narrator abruptly shifts to his great grandfather's grand uncle who also confusingly shares a first name with Wayland's little brother. In fact, this shift takes place on four separate occasions with most often very little to mark the transition between who is behind the "I" of the narration. If you're reading my message before you're reading the novel, let me help you. Any time you see the name Wilcox, the "I" narrator is Professor Gammel, not Wayland.

I've never seen an author change who the first person narrator is mid-book like this, and I don't think it's recommended. But now that I have figured that issue out, the book once again makes sense and I have resumed being able to enjoy it. I can't wait to see what the resolution will be in the final third.

I have finished the novel and here is my review, if you're interested: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I wish my review could have been more favorable, but honesty compels. Please do not allow my review to discourage you from giving the book a try or posting here if you have a better take on the book. Mileages can certainly vary and my tastes often differ from others radically. For example, books that get one my one star include Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Vonnegut's The Sirens of Titan, and William Gibson's Neuromancer. I consider this novel superior to any of those three. I've no regrets at my 99 cents spent, the time I used to read the work (most of it at least twice to make sure I was getting it), and I enjoyed some aspects of the story. It was an interesting reading experience.

I can see how it would be confusing. I thought I had made it clear when Wayland was re-experiencing the thoughts and events of the things in the box, but I guess I had not. heh

I can also see how the ending might leave you cold, since it's the first act of a story, with more to come. If that wasn't clear, I will have to revamp the description, to make the ACT I more prominent somehow.

(As an aside, I'm just grateful to have an actual review. It's been quite some time.)

Thanks for being understanding, Thom. I hope you get more book reviews with different takes than mine. Usually I am not the only one to comment on a book. I wasn't the only voter of your book for this month. Nor was I its nominator. The month is still young.

I am glad you have chosen to write in the Weird field. Have you written other novels that could be classified as unambiguously Weird as this one?

One, kind of, but it's now out of print. My first novel, Lords of Night, was influenced by a lot of weird things. It would be like if the Warriors were in the Canterbury Tales in a background of Army of Darkness along with the ancient astronaut theory. Specifically weird in and of itself? I'm not entirely sure if it fits that bill.

I have a burgeoning Urban Fantasy series, but it's a little more straightforward than the weird stuff. Harrumph.

Your Lords of Night sounds really cool. I have read and formally studied Canterbury Tales, seen Army of Darkness at least three times, at least once even uninfluenced, and read maybe fifteen various Dynamite comics on it. So, I think I know my next Brannon read.

The fact a book is out of print is usually not an impediment to locating a copy of it. There's a burgeoning book resell market and a meta search engine for that market called bookfinder.com. Wow! Some copies for sale, but costing about $40 to acquire one. Your book really went up in value!

Too bad I don't see any of that, ha.

I'll tell you what, give it a little time and when it's ready for re-release, you'll get a beta read. (I'm revising it right now so it's much less of a first novel, with all the first novel foibles.) I want to use that book and the sequel (Plague of Locusts) as my agent-bait, so it'll be some time until I have it republished, but I've been working feverishly on the revision. Your name is on the list of first readers.

Wonderful! I look forward to it, but understand it may be some months (maybe years). Best wishes with it.

As can be seen in the poll results, here are some of the voters for this month's group book. I am looking forward to reading what they have to say about it! (Well, minus the Dan below. That's me. And I know what I had to say.)

Zina nominated and voted for:
House of Cthulhu

Greg voted for:
House of Cthulhu

Stan voted for:
House of Cthulhu

Dan voted for:
House of Cthulhu

Ronald voted for:
House of Cthulhu

Kirsten voted for:
House of Cthulhu

So I finished the book. It was fun. The story breaks on a cliffhanger. and is interesting enough that I will get sequels.

Remind me folks how are we on spoilers. Or, perhaps, there is another thread where spoilers are OK? I will avoid them for now.

So, it's a fun book that takes a variety of themes and tropes and builds a story out of them. A simpleton average Joe discovers Hidden Family Secrets and gets to approach Unspeakable Horrors while wielding Amazing New Abilities. (Spoilers be damned, GREEN OOZE! that's cool right there). The supporting cast includes a doctor with a degree from Miskatonic University, as so very appropriate; psychotic relatives, weird ritual of coming into his own that reminded me of the 9 Princes of Amber, and -unexpectedly- better doors than Arthur Dent had.

The story is properly dramatic and includes a variety of proper menacing props and an OP adversary.

Since I was warned by the previous posts to expect a switch in the narrator, I expected that and had no difficulty there. It was pretty organic. I imagine, people might be less confused if chapters for a different narrator had a slightly different icon, like that skeleton leaf upside down or something.

I discovered a certain bias in my preferences: I apparently prefer more sophisticated protagonists with more refined verbal skills, intelligence and education, and probably a historical rather than modern setting for such stories. Still, it was fun.

I gave it three stars - I liked it.

I have some questions for the writer - CAN we have a spoiler thread?

I used to do two threads, a general and a spoiler thread. But neither seemed to get enough posts to warrant two entire, separate threads. So I decided to go with one. I figure, if you want to include spoilers in the one thread, you can always include spoiler tags, (view spoiler)[like this one. (hide spoiler)]. That said, if you think a spoiler topic is needed, nothing stops you from creating one yourself. Moderators and members alike have the power to create discussion topics.

I enjoyed reading your review. Your take on everything is different than mine. For example, I didn't feel the protagonist was as limited as you did, just new to the game he was getting in to because he had kept himself separate from his family. I liked that the same way I liked the inexperience of Zelazny's protagonist in the Amber series when he starts out as an amnesiac. It's a great device for getting a reader in the same shoes as the protagonist.

If you don't want to let any cats out of any bags, feel free to message me on the Book of Faces. (Zina or anybody else. I don't bite unless you pay extra.)

Earlier, Dan said previous knowledge of "The Call of Cthulhu" wasn't required, and it isn't, but it does help make a lot more sense of what's happening in the flashbacks and what the box is and the names being used. I had the first part of the story printed on separate pages and tacked onto the wall next to the seat where I did my writing for this, hehHA.

(view spoiler)[

Thom, how come the other siblings were so acutely aware of what was going on and the whole family history - but not the birthright elder son? Even the twin Zs were in on it - but not this guy?

Why did they send him unprepared - when all his ancestors were prepared?

Who are the black-winged?
(hide spoiler)]

I will second Thom's statement that "The Call of Cthulhu" helps here. Then you would know exactly where all these people went in their dreams. Although... You will get the idea even without having read that, it's just nice to know.

Zina!

(view spoiler)[
Wayland and Gammell were the potentials, but they were both quite intractable to the idea, if that's not clear. The twins say Wayland has run the farthest, which was truer than Wayland had thought. He cites Frank having gotten farther, but Frank wasn't running, ha.

The black winged ones, who they are and what they do will be more clear in the next bit, riffed right from the second part of the story, "The Tale of Inspector Legrasse." If you remember from TCoC, when the police break up the bonfire/torture thingy in the swamp, what they see is one of the Black Winged Ones (BWO) coming up from a pit in the earth. As for why... you know, I'd talked with Lovecraftian fiction luminaries and small press gurus for over ten years before I wrote this, and not only did nobody know, but they'd never seen them being used in any other story that we knew of. Even Daniel Harms, of the Encyclopedia Cthulhliana, came up totally blank! So. It's up to me, ha! Everybody talks about the Cthulhu cults and how they're trying to release the Big Bad from his underwater sleep. I think the BWO are really the ones behind this, where the good info comes from. There are forbidden books and all that, but if the Bible isn't free of the touch of Man, why would those books be any different? The BWO keep the message pure, at the very least.
(hide spoiler)]

I hope I did that right.

how do you do the spoiler tag?

Using the brackets over the comma and period, it's spoiler and then /spoiler

If you're on a PC/laptop, check the link above the comment box which says (some html is ok) it has the HTML you can use.

Thom wrote: "Using the brackets over the comma and period, it's spoiler and then /spoiler

If you're on a PC/laptop, check the link above the comment box which says (some html is ok) it has the HTML you can use."

Thanks!
(view spoiler)[
But why did nobody tell him anything when they clearly informed all the rest?
(hide spoiler)]

Dan wrote: "...I didn't feel the protagonist was as limited as you did, just new to the game he was getting in to because he had kept himself separate from his family..."
It's more on his very limited vocabulary and simplistic way of articulating himself, along with the sweatpants :)
(Contrast with the black attire with silver rose and the general elegance of Lord Korwin from the 9 Princes, for example).
It's just a personal quirk at the time, for sure. The soul is craving fancy settings :) Doesn't take away from Thom's story.

Thom, it's actually quite awesome that you are deepening the Black Winged epos here. I didn't realize the extent to which you researched it all. But the City is indeed very well built. That whole non-Euclidianness of it so very graphic. and oh maaaaan that green ooze

Zina wrote: "question with a minor spoiler..."

Hmm. How about...

(view spoiler)[
... remember how Wayland was wondering what Frank was talking about, how he didn't have any close quarters combat training? And then they got close and, uh, fisty about it and holy shit he did have some! The whole thing is like that. Perhaps I didn't articulate enough of it. When he comes out of the trance when the glyph has appeared in the signet ring and he remembers everything is the first time he's thought about any of this stuff since he went away after being, ah, reprogrammed.
(hide spoiler)]

Let me know if there's still confusion. I've been told I sometimes obfuscate things a little too much when they're clear to me and not everybody will make the same connections.

Thom wrote:
Hmm. How about...
"
Thanks for explaining! Yeah, I noticed this mysterious hint on training, but it sort of fell off right there for me and seemed unconnected to the rest, leaving Frank to still look like a brainless bully orc who shoves his fists into people's faces just because he can't do much else, and the whole lot of them inexplicably awful by leaving the protagonist in the dark to begin with. I hope the rest of the readers are more attentive than I. It might also help to state a bit more explicitly on why and when they did that to him.

@ThomThomas Brannan, so IS there a sequel? I went over the list of the books but none look like they are the sequel. We wantssss a ssssssequels, my precioussss

Zina wrote: "Thom, so IS there a sequel?"

There's an unfinished sequel. (It's looking at me right now from my Pile of Unfinished Projects. It's being quite insolent, I might add.) When I'm done with the story as you started it, there should be four parts, then more if warranted.

Also, you're right about the Family. They're tigers, who famously eat their young.

I'm definitely down for the sequel. I will make sure I have read Lovecraft's The Call of Cthulhu by then. We're reading the major works of HPL one per month here, but haven't reached that one yet. I'll make sure I've read Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves you mention back in message 3 too. (The Literary Horror group talks about that book on occasion with mixed reviews, so it's been on my list.) Then, I'll reread this book and finally be ready for a buddy read here at this group for Book 2, when it's ready. Are you more inspired to work on it now?

I decided to part with the $43.69 needed to acquire your out of print Lords of Night. Sorry you don't get any of that, but it just looks too cool to pass up. For what its worth, the reseller claims to support charities, and to help the environment by recycling, which apparently includes your book. I'll read it next month.

Dan wrote: "$43.69"

For what it's worth, I hope you're able to enjoy it. It's my first novel and I love it, but I know it's very much a first novel, full of first novel things.

Almost every author I have met or read about thinks his early novels, especially his first, was crap. I've yet to find I agree with their assessments. The case that comes most prominently to my mind is Ben Bova. His first novel, The Star Conquerors, became so hard to find and their was such demand for it that you couldn't locate a copy of it anywhere for less than $1000. He finally relented near the end of his life and let ReAnimus Press (an awesome publishing company by the way; maybe they'd reprint your first novel) republish it in 2013. It is one of Bova's best.

In my Werewolf group, we are reading Robert R. McCammon's The Wolf's Hour. McCammon thinks the first decade or so of his career and first eleven novels are crap and won't allow them to be republished. He's mistaken of course.

Even Stephen King frequently rewrites an early story. I've read both his versions side by side. I see why he made the changes he does. Technically, the revised version is better. Yet it inevitably lacks something the earlier version had.

Isaac Asimov used to rewrite his early robot short stories until he realized people preferred the first version, warts, sweat, and inspiration and all. He never went back to revise his earlier stories later in his life.

A. E. Van Vogt's original first story "Black Destroyer" is so much better than the rewritten version that appeared in The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

The point of all this is that I would bet a large pot of money, or its equivalent, $43.69 to me, that your first take is going to be so much better than your projected revision. And since you don't plan to republish it, I figured I'd better snag a copy before it gets to $1000.

The nicest thing I will say about that book is it has a beautiful cover by David Seidman. I've only been to one convention (Crypticon '13) and that cover alone led to more book sales (of that book and the others I had with me) than any hawking of wares I could have done.

I hope you enjoy it!

No artist wants to believe their earliest work was their best.

As May winds down, I'd like to thank the group for inviting me here, and also those who read and left a review or a rating, whatever that might have been. Thank you very much for your time (and the 34¢ I garnered from each of you who bought a copy) and effort.

It's been a good deal to interact with everybody who weighed in, and if any of my peers find their works nominated or chosen for the group, I will encourage them to join. (I have quite a few from my editing days, when Cthulhu Unbound was fresh and new, like Willie Meikle, David Conyers, Brian Sammons, John Sunseri, C.T. Phipps, David Dunwoody, etc.)

Thom wrote: "As May winds down, I'd like to thank the group for inviting me here, and also those who read and left a review or a rating, whatever that might have been. Thank you very much for your time (and the..." It was fun having an actual author available to explain stuff! and generally interact. I will be looking forward to the continuation of House of Cthulhu - any way you could give a heads-up at the time you actually get to finishing it, by any chance?

Would it be totally inappropriate of me to ask if you could particularly recommend some of those other authors since you know them and their work?

I was hoping there'd be more people reading with us. As it stands, we only added 4 ratings and 2 reviews (I promise to post mine soon) to the book.

In your photo, you are holding a beautiful baby - is that your kid? Adorable.

Oh, also - forgot to say - you are sticking around in the reading group, are you, Thom? Please say yes :)

That's my daughter, about ten years ago. Thankee!

As for authors and their work, the one which springs immediately to mind is Dave Dunwoody's The Harvest Cycle. I mean, his other work is weird, but this one is capital-W Weird, ha.

I'm not very good at keeping up with things, but I'll try. I'm right now working on revisions to a novel titled Nikola Tesla and the Emperor of Plagues, co-authored with D.L. Snell, as we search for a home for it, and that's eating up most of my reading time. But never say never, right?