Happy 120th Birthday Lovecraft! A Giveaway.

David and I have been reading a lot of Lovecraft recently, usually while we're winding down for the night (as you can imagine, that has a fun effect on dreams :P).

If you're not sure who H. P. Lovecraft is, chances are you've heard of some of his creations. The Necronomicon for example, Cthulhu, and all manner of weird creatures and myths. He's a well loved horror and science fiction writer from the early 1900's, and his work has inspired a huge following of horror writers, game designers, toy lines, and even several of the decals we have in our shop.

If you would like to find out more about Lovecraft, you can find all sorts of information on hplovecraft.com, including full texts of a lot of his public domain writings.

What's really amazing to me about Lovecraft is that over 70 years after his death he's remained a very relevant influence in his genre. As a celebration of his life work, I'd like to feature some of the modern things that he's influenced, and do a little giveaway.

These two videos, both made by badadvicegoodtimes on Youtube, are just great:




Then there's the plush Cthulhu, everyone's favorite Elder God, designed by Toy Vault. My daughter had her very first little stuffed Cthulhu before she was a year old :) This isn't the only stuffed version of Cthulhu out there, and he and several of the other Elder Gods have been turned into statuary and miniature models, from companies like Reaper Minis, among others.

Then there's the endless line of games. Arkham Horror is a fantastic board game, and Call of Cthulhu is a horror role playing game in the vein of Dungeons and Dragons. There are video games for several different consoles, from games based directly on Lovecraft lore, to games that are heavily influenced by his work.

One of my favorite movies made from a Lovecraft story is Reanimator, where Jeffrey Combs has earned a special fangirl slot in my heart for his portrayal of Dr. Herbert West, a doctor who has found a way to beat death. And of course there are the Evil Dead movies, and In the Mouth of Madness. There are tons of really bad horror adaptations of his short stories roaming around too, so if you love really bad horror films as much as I do, they're worth looking for.

His work is featured in several modern songs, including Call of Ktulu and The Thing That Should Not Be by Metallica, Behind the Wall of Sleep by Black Sabbath, as well as inspiring the work of bands like Morbid Angel, Nile, and Cradle of Filth.

He's also inspired other writers in his genre, allowing the Cthulhu Mythos to grow. Brian Lumley has written several books using Lovecraft's mythos, Donald Tyson has turned the Necronomicon into a memoir of the bizarre life of the Mad Arab, Alhazred.

The Giveaway!
As a happy birthday gift, we're offering up one of our Cthulhu decals! The winner can choose from either the Nom, or the O'Rlyeh decals, or any of our Miskatonic University decals, in whatever color they'd prefer.


There are three different ways to enter:
1) Leave a comment telling me your favorite Lovecraft story, or your favorite thing that his work inspired. (Required)
2) Become a follower of our blog! (Optional)
3) Become a fan of us on Facebook (Optional)

Leave one separate comment for each entry, and be sure to leave your E-mail address so that I can contact you if you win! I will choose the winner on August 27th, at 12:00 noon central time. The winner has 48 hours to claim their prize, or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is open to participants world wide!

Ender's Game

A few years ago, I read through a few of the books in the Ender's Game series. I was introduced to the series in my Science Fiction Literature class while at college, and have really enjoyed reading it. I recently picked up a book in another of Orson Scott Card's series, The Seventh Son, and it rekindled my love for his writing style. I ran out to the used book store to find the second book in the series, and finding that it wasn't available, I came home with Ender's Shadow.

There are two story lines in the Ender's Game series and there are a number of short stories that flesh things out. I haven't read all of these (though I plan to in the future), and have stuck to the Ender Series so far. I have been curious about reading Ender's Shadow, which focuses around another boy in Battle School named Bean. I was also a little hesitant because Ender's Game doesn't really give Bean much of a personality, and so I didn't find him particularly endearing, or know what his story could add to the story line.

Well, I read it, and I loved it. Card succeeded in making Bean a genuinely interesting character, and even though a good portion of the book centers around things that were already talked about in Ender's Game, having it from another view point really rounded out the story.

After reading Ender's Shadow, I dug out my old beat up copy of Ender's Game, and started to re-read it. Ender tends to examine things internally, he's wrapped up in emotion and fear. Bean, on the other hand, is interested in analyzing other people, and so his story examines other people, and why the events in the first book happened as they did.

All of this has also reminded me about how much of a story I forget over time, and I'm considering re-reading some of my other old favorites.