Black Ribbons: "The Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft

Black Ribbon: (noun) an award for stories which inspire me and make me say "Damn, I wish I had written that."

H.P. Lovecraft is better known for Cthulhu and cosmic horror, but my favorite tale of his "The Rat in the Walls". Yes, it begins with his trademark penchant for just a little too much exposition, but I think it works here. The ending--despite being told in the 1st person--chilled me the first time I read it. I literally shuddered and then lost myself in awe of an author being able to conjure that chill with words.

On 16 July 1923, I moved into Exham Priory after the last workman had finished his labours. The restoration had been a stupendous task, for little had remained of the deserted pile but a shell-like ruin; yet because it had been the seat of my ancestors, I let no expense deter me. The place had not been inhabited since the reign of James the First, when a tragedy of intensely hideous, though largely unexplained, nature had struck down the master, five of his children, and several servants; and driven forth under a cloud of suspicion and terror the third son, my lineal progenitor and the only survivor of the abhorred line...

"The Rats in the Walls" is readily available to read online and a free audio version can be found at Voices in the Dark.

"The Rats in the Walls" read by Sean Puckett at Voices in the Dark (mp3)

"The Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft text at DagonBytes (online reading)

"The Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft PDF

There are more Black Ribbons to come. What do I need to read next?

What? H.P. Lovecraft could almost smile?

Fearing the Unknown

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." 

H.P. Lovecraft, right? Fear sounds like a great topic for a horror writer's blog, especially during October. Just don't tell anyone I haven't finished a story since March, okay? Besides, I'm a human being before I'm a horror writer. And this human being has faced a lot of fear in his life. Note the past tense: faced.

Last night, someone very dear to me asked if I was "scared" of the future. I took a minute to feel the the question, weigh it a little, and try to understand my feelings before I responded.

No. Not scared. I don't fear the future anymore. While I wrestle a bit with the unknown, it's a much healthier relationship than fear. Fear paralyzes and leads to poor judgement. Fear kills dreams and clogs the pathways to achieving goals. Maybe a better word than fear is anticipation, that heightened sense of reality when expecting something important, something big. Something challenging but wholly good. 

And the future is good. Life is good, even when it is a struggle. Even when awful tragedy happens, I still have the choice to focus on hope and goodness and the gifts I've been given. Yes, it may be impossible to feel hope and goodness in the midst of the tragic event. I know--I've been there. But the lesson looks different seven months later. None of us make it through life without scars, but scars become stories, and stories remind us of the preciousness of each day. Besides--when "bad things" happen, they will do so whether I allow fear to eat away my life or not. An abundance of fear makes no one safer. That is the lie that fear whispers to us. 

Wasted energy, if you ask me. I'd rather save my energy for the road ahead.

So how do I feel about the future? Hopeful. Filled with a healthy level of anticipation. Ready to roll up my sleeves and go to work. It's good.

On Second Reads

Do you read a story/novel more than once?

I'm a chronic re-reader. Some books, like Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, I've read three or more times. Of course others, Of Mice and Men, I've taught for ten years or more. I almost have that poor little book memorized.

Sometimes the re-read doesn't carry the same impact as the first time. I couldn't sleep last Friday night, and so pulled one of my H.P. Lovecraft collections off the shelf and tackled "The Rats in the Walls" for the third time. It is a brilliant story, wonderfully set up and paced. But--and here's the spoiler alert--upon my second and third reads, when the protagonist and his compatriots open the secret staircase and descend into the "grotto of twilit horrors" it didn't have the same effect as it did upon first reading.

I felt a tad sad. The first time I read "The Rats in the Walls" I felt a sense of discovery and revulsion upon making the discovery. Knowing "what was coming" softened the blow. The overwhelming sense of dread and terror just wasn't there.

Are there types of stories which fair better upon re-reading? How so?

Write 1 / Sub 1 Weekend Update #2

I know, it's the third weekend and this is update #2. So I'm a slacker.

Anyway, I managed to ship off my third Write 1 / Sub 1 entry this week, a flash story titled "The Fisherman's Son" to Cezanne's Carrot. I subbed another story, a rewritten flash piece, to 100 Stories for Queensland, but I'd written it last year, so no "working ahead" here.

I also received my first rejection for a Write 1 / Sub 1 story (one other piece is still "out there"). But, as the wheel turns, I did place a pseudo-Lovecraftian tale, "The Wings of Çatalhöyük" with the Gloaming Magazine. I guess that's one of those give/take sort of things.

Here's a little inspiration for "Wings" (you can click the link for the rest of the article):

The vulture frescos at Çatalhöyük may show excarnation practices. Bodies were exposed, as in Tibet or among the Jains, in open funeral houses, to the tearing beak of the griffin vulture which stripped the skeletons of soft tissue.

Now if that doesn't get you thinking about something weird...

The Tundra

By tundra I mean my front yard. The twelve inches of snow from Christmas has yet to melt, and we've added another foot since then. Now, before any Northeasterners start to poo-poo our paltry two feet of snow, might I add our projected high temp for the day is 5 Fahrenheit? That equates to -15 Celsius. Then you add wind chill, and our 5 degrees feels like -15 Fahrenheit (-26 Celsius). If you live in Canada, North Dakota, Montana, or Antarctica, mock away. We still have Caribou, Maine beat.

Brrrrr.

So I bring you Jack London's "To Build a Fire". If you've never read it, you're in for a treat. I think H.P. Lovecraft owes a bit to London and other Naturalists--they were the first writers to remind us that the universe doesn't really give a shit.

Have a frosty one.

Chilling Short Fiction: Five of My Favorites

I've never been much a fan of "best" or "top five/ten/twenty-five" lists (even though I've thrown together a few myself). Call this a list of some of my favorite works of short fiction fitting the Halloween spirit. I'm sure I'll add more in time.

1. "The Lonesome Place" by August Derleth. No other single story has influenced my own writing more than this short story by Lovecraft's biggest fan. You can find snippets on the 'net (like at Google Reader), but the real value is in finding a dusty old book with the whole text.

2. "The Assembly of the Dead" by Chet Williamson. I've read this piece more than any other I've not taught. (as a teacher, I have too many touches with some stories to count) The end still baffles me, but in a good way: just enough mystery, just enough darkness.

3. "The Caterpillars" by E.F. Benson. You can read this one yourself.

"Occasionally one fell off on to the floor, with a soft fleshy thud, and though the floor was of hard concrete, it yielded to the pincerfeet as if it had been putty, and, crawling back, the caterpillar would mount on to the bed again, to rejoin its fearful companions."

4. "The Rats in the Walls" by H.P. Lovecraft. Only recently has this piece unseated "In the Vault" as my favorite by Mr. Lovecraft. Gawd...the ending. Just read it.

5. "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" by Joe R. Lansdale. Say what you will about Mr. Lansdale, he spins one helluva entertaining story. "Incident..." kept me going right up to the end, then blam!--punch to the gut (in the best way possible).

I'll add more before Halloween. Promise. I haven't even touched King or Poe, so you know it's going to get messy.

What else should I consider? What are some of your favorites?

WIP Wednesday: Huzzah for the Short Form!

Okay, I ended my first draft of Loathsome on Monday with a sub-stellar word count of 62K. With 10-15K of needed additions, I can sit with that.

Now (rubs hands together), I can write some short stories. First up to bat: "Climb". I'm about 1,000 words in, and like what's shaping up thus far. The finished product should land around 2500-3000 words.

The elder god, M’bori Sangu, sleeps in his shrine at the center of the plateau. Before each rainy season, the five villages bring their best dishes: spiced yams, ground nut stew, tender mutton. Only two ropes lead to the plateau, and the top climbers—always boys under seventeen years—make the ascent, each carrying a basket of human skulls filled with the delicacies.

Have I mentioned I'm reading a collection of H.P. Lovecraft's short fiction? Man, "The Rats in the Walls" chilled my marrow. I know prevailing wisdom says to write with specific markets (especially anthologies) in mind, but I've never worked that way.