Discussing Cthulhu At Capclave 2016

From LEFT to RIGHT: Darrell Schweitzer, Tim Powers, A.C. Wise, and some other dude

Capclave 2016 is now a pleasant memory and I had the pleasure of moderating two panels this year:

An Animal World discussed the roles of animals, both normal and anthropomorphic, in genre literature and included such luminaries as Mike McPhail, Bernie Mojzes (pronounced "Moses"), Michelle D. Sonnier, and Lawrence M. Schoen (pronounced "Shown"). All of them have impressive publishing credentials.

However, the highlight for me was moderating Sunday morning's panel Cthulhu Wants You! For Breakfast! with some of the biggest names in the field:

Darrell Schweitzer churns out novels and anthologies in the field of Lovecraftian horror and other Mythos work like you and I sneeze. And when he drops the big names known in Lovecraftia, he isn't being grandiose. He knows them all. His Facebook account is here.

If you don't know Tim Powers, you are missing one of the best writers in the fantasy genre of secret histories. A true gentleman, he is erudite and knowledgeable and the amount of research he puts into his books before he puts hand to keyboard is astounding. His best known work in the field of Lovecraftian horror is Descent, a Cold War espionage thriller involving Kim Philby, djinn, and the Ark on Mount Ararat.

A. C. Wise is a prolific author and her short fiction has appeared in publications such as Clarkesworld, Apex, Shimmer, and the Year’s Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2015. Her latest journey into Mythos territory is her short story, When the Stitches Come Undone in Ellen Datlow's anthology, Children of Lovecraft.

So how does a hack like me best known for dark fantasy romances with a body count get to moderate a panel with such notable masters of the craft?

Well, let me tell you. Listen carefully 'cause I'll only tell you once:

You get on your hands and knees and you beg and weep and plead and sob and wail until they let you have the gig simply because you're being an embarrassment. 

But, hey! It works!

PS: My own foray into experimenting with Lovecraftian horror is my collection, Dark Dreams and Darker Visions. It is presently available as an eBook, but a reedited Kindle version will be coming out soon.

Dark Dreams and Darker Visions paperback (Amazon US)

Dark Dreams and Darker Visions paperback (Amazon UK)

Dark Dreams and Darker Visions paperback (Amazon Canada)

Dark Dreams and Darker Visions eBook (Amazon Australia)

Also, of interest, might be my chapbook Come Into My Cellar: Darker Tales From A Cerebral Vault, only available for the Kindle Reader also available from Amazon.