Innsmouth Literary Festival 2026

 And I'm a special guest! 

More to come later on how NecronomiCon Providence went. I'm still recovering. 

Most excellent piece on the real problem behind AI thinking.

I want to share this on the various Discord servers I'm in, but I'll get murderized by the artists and their supporters just for bringing AI up.

https://bigthink.com/the-long-game/it-was-never-about-ai-we-are-not-our-tools/

The article doesn't call for the use of AI; far from it. It reminds us that short-sighted disposal of the human will destroy us.

What is this symbol?

 It's on the skull logo for The Apocalypse Players, and it's familiar enough to nag me.

"Genius Loci," Clark Ashton Smith: A comment for Strange Shadows: A Clark Ashton Smith Podcast.

Today's YouTube video on Strange Shadows: A Clark Ashton Smith Podcast is on Smith's excellent short story. Tim Mendees, co-host with Rob Poynton, was so kind as to mention me as someone who'd have ideas on the landscape in Smith's story. 

First, the bib entry.

Smith, Clark Ashton. "Genius Loci." American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to the Pulps. New York: Library of America, 2009. 681-697.

If you've not read the story, I urge you to do so. Get the PDF here, else nothing that follows will seem wondrous.

"Genius Loci" begins as Amberville, an artist who is a sensitive and a friend of the narrator Murphy, describes the pond and its environs. From the start, we have some of the conventions of weird fiction: the ordinary is established as context for the weird, and the speaker expresses reluctance combined with fascination. 

Landscape is the motivation for Amberville's increasingly strained health and obsessive manner: Murray notes the "profound horror" and "balefully contorted features" perceptible but not explicit in Amberville's sketch. The "strange veil, a spirit of despair, malignity, desolation," is unseen and seems to be "something wholly outside of humanity" (682). In other words, the landscape is haunted by something beyond human history. The spectre of Chapman is not the source; the force, blank-faced, ethereal, yet violent, is the force in the environment that threatens the characters. History, referenced by tropes of vampirism to reflect the passing of ages, dismisses the possibility of conventional hauntings such as vampires, ghosts, and the like. 

The landscape exhibits the push/pull typical of a haunted landscape: "'The place repels me--but it fascinates me, too. I've simply got to solve the mystery, if it has a solution,' he added with a slightly defensive air" (684). Amberville first, then his fiancee Miss Avis Olcott, then Murray are lured by, not the land or place, but the presence, which Amberville describes as an "emanation" during the passage where he disavows Chapman's pond and swears never to return (691). Later, Murray sees "a faint, unholy aura, neither light nor mist, that flowed and wavered about the meadow, preserving the outlines of the willow, the alders, the reeds, the pool. Stealthily it appeared to lengthen, reaching toward Amberville like ghostly arms" (690). The haunter Amberville becomes the haunted artist of weird fiction, unable to resist Chapman's pond. 

The hallucinatory nature of a haunted landscape becomes part of Smith's narrative: "The place haunted me like a fantasm, horrible but seductive. I felt an impelling morbid curiosity, an unwholesome desire to visit it again, and fathom, if possible, its enigma" (695). A mere haunting isn't enough; the overlay of a ghost onto a landscape is too simple. A haunted landscape actively engages the visitor in ways that go beyond simple ghost stories and horrors of conventional tales. 

As with similar places, the haunted landscape of Chapman's pond is multilayered: Chapman's ghost is overlaid on the eerie pond, which itself is overlaid on the original, unnamed and unknown source of evil. In haunted landscapes, nature is not the landscape; nature is not the source of evil, a matter that distances them from the landscapes we find in early American writers. This layering appears at the climax as well: 

It was not this spectacle alone, however, that drove me in mad and shuddering flight from the meadow, without making even the most tentative attempt to retrieve the drowned bodies. The true horror lay in the thing, which, from a little distance, I had taken for the coils of a slowly moving and rising mist. It was not vapor, nor anything else that could conceivably exist—that malign, luminous, pallid emanation that enfolded the entire scene before me like a restless and hungrily wavering extension of its outlines—a phantom projection of the pale and deathlike willow, the dying alders, the reeds, the stagnant pool and its suicidal victims. The landscape was visible through it, as through a film; but it seemed to curdle and thicken gradually in places, with some unholy, terrifying activity. (696)

I've a lot to say about the notion of haunted landscapes in my book Ripples from Carcosa; I'm happy to add these thoughts about Smith's story to that larger idea.

How about you and me start being mad, being wrong, and being happier?

The title is a quote from this week's newsletter from Warren Ellis, Orbital Operations. If you're not subscribed, why the hell not? 

Also, Warren mentioned my book in his 27 July newsletter. I spent the next week in a silent squeal of delight. 

Charlie Stross on where we are.

This isn't my usual post content, but I recommend it.

Antipope, The Pivot

Innsmouth Literary Festival 2025

 This year's Innsmouth Literary Festival was a ton of fun--great seeing everyone and a helpful discussion with the attendees at my author session. 

 Many thanks to those in the session! I'll credit you in the paper (assuming it comes about and doesn't get too big to handle).

 Now to decide what next year's NecronomiCon Providence article is going to sail toward, given the discussion and response.  

A quick catch-up and a fun short story.

I'm almost...ALMOST finished editing the paper on Melville and Lovecraft. The due date to the editor is this Friday, August 15. Yikes. But I think I'm just about there. I'm happy with how it's turning out. As always, the time it's taken has been necessary, and as always, I don't grasp that until I'm nearing the end.

Here's a fantastic short story:

http://strangehorizons.com/wordpress/fiction/librarians-in-the-branch-library-of-babel/

It's called "Librarians in the Branch Library of Babel" as in the URL and is best read if you've already read Jorge Luis Borges's short story "The Library of Babel." I urge you to take the time. 

A Weekend with Good Friends 2025: Panels and Links

Improvising as a Player or GM

Featuring: Scott Dorward, Matt Sanderson, Newman, Tom Malcolm Wright, and Heather M. Moderated By: Hedge

Managing Information and Player Attention in Investigative Horror

Featuring: Sue Savage, Keris McDonald, Leslie “XPLovecat” Horn, and Lydia Moderated By: Heather M.

A Weekend with Good Friends on YouTube

The Haunted Life of Edgar Allan Poe (updated 22 July 2025)

I'll need to give this some more thought, but it's gotten me thinking more about Poe's unity of effect and Lovecraft's theories on writing. 

The Haunted Life of Edgar Allan Poe

Edited 22 July 2025 to improve link and font.

Good Friends of Jackson Elias interview, part 2

It's out!!!

Haunted Landscapes on Good Friends of Jackson Elias

In this part of the interview, I talk with Matt Sanderson and Scott Dorward about the idea of haunted landscapes, how it's not the same idea as hauntology, why ghosts have nothing to do with it, and how it ultimately points to both Lovecraft and Call of Cthulhu. 

I hope you find it as delightful to listen to as I found it to record!

I'm delighted to share the new episodes of Gunpowder and Glass, the AP that I'm in on WasabiBurger's channel and Patreon. Gunpowder and Glass takes place in Pyrrhion, Wasabi's world set in the Worlds Without Number RPG system.

The first episode has Bernard's character on an adventure (Bernard's a Discord buddy, I've no idea of his last name):

Gunpowder & Glass - Worlds Without Number Actual Play #1

The episode below (second in the series) has Martin's character, a good-natured but vaguely slippery type, on his own adventure (Martin's a Discord buddy as well):
Gunpowder & Glass - Worlds Without Number Actual Play #2

And the third episode is mine!

Gunpowder & Glass - Worlds Without Number Actual Play #3

I play Amethelia Vexx, a courtesan-turned-necromancer who's joined the Venators because they seem like they're doing good in Pyrrhion.

Another player, Dan, has episodes of his own, soon to be published, and future episodes have our four characters together for an adventure. Consult the oracles for visions of the future posts to come.

I keep this video on my desktop to remind myself that I needn't be like the others. I'm sure other people are holding on to it, too. 

Here's the source of the video. I thank Mr. Rodney kindly. 

Ripples from Carcosa: H.P. Lovecraft, Haunted Landscapes, and True Detective

Here's my book, y'all1 Take a look via the link below.

RIPPLES FROM CARCOSA: H. P. LOVECRAFT, HAUNTED LANDSCAPES, AND 𝘛𝘙𝘜𝘌 𝘋𝘌𝘛𝘌𝘊𝘛𝘐𝘝𝘌 by Heather Miller. Cover by Dan Sauer Design.
Hippocampus Press link to book

The first season of the show 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘦 𝘋𝘦𝘵𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 (HBO, 2014) is one of the most compelling amalgamations of horror, detection, philosophy, and personal conflict ever presented on television. The show’s creator, Nic Pizzolatto, has drawn upon a wide array of sources for the eight episodes of this season, which starred Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as two police detectives investigating mysterious deaths in an impoverished region in Louisiana.

In this pioneering study, veteran weird fiction scholar Heather Miller has unraveled the complex network of influences that made True Detective so memorable. First and foremost, there is H. P. Lovecraft, whose rich pseudomythology underlay the entire series. Then there is Robert W. Chambers, whose “King in Yellow” mythology was utilized in a profound manner by Pizzolatto. Finally, there is the fiction and philosophy of Thomas Ligotti, the modern-day apostle of pessimism and anti-natalism.

In successive chapters, Miller dissects each of these influences, drawing upon her extensive knowledge of primary and secondary sources. She understands that the show, aside from merely drawing upon past literature, also makes keen statements on such contemporary issues as environmental degradation and domestic trauma. Her conclusion—“It is necessary that we be the bad men sometimes so that the light can win”—exhibits the paradoxical morality embedded in an unforgettable instance of modern media.

--

Professionally, Heather Miller is a medical writer for the National Institutes of Health in Washington, DC, where she specializes in oncology. She has a master’s degree in English, is ABD in technical communications, and has been a regular presenter at the Dr. Henry Armitage Memorial Scholarship Symposium during NecronomiCon Providence since 2015. In her personal life, she is a tabletop roleplaying game player, writer, and editor, having played in actual-play games for, among others, Into the Darkness, Miskatonic Playhouse, WasabiBurger, and Symphony Entertainment. She is a wine enthusiast, holding a Level 2 Award with Merit through the Wine and Spirits Education Trust, and is a trustee for the Mensa International Charitable Foundation.

Guest host on The Good Friends of Jackson Elias!

Many thanks to Scott Dorward and Matt Sanderson of The Good Friends of Jackson Elias for having me on as a guest host! 

We talked about my book Ripples from Carcosa: H.P. Lovecraft, Haunted Landscapes, and True Detective and connected a lot of the ideas in it to the TTRPG Call of Cthulhu via scenario writing, scenario structure, themes, and numerous other topics. It was a delightful conversation. I hope you enjoy listening to it half as much as I enjoyed being a part of it!

Clive Barker's Undying!

Update: This says something about me that is unpleasant, perhaps, but I just came across my copy of Undying. I don't know where I'd find a system that would run it.

--

I've been wrecking my brain trying to remember the name of this game.

Clive Barker's Undying (Wikipedia)

(images from Wikipedia)

I was crap at it, but god, did I love the aesthetic. 

Ten Horror Novels with Intriguing Backstories

Ten Horror Novels with Intriguing Backstories

Some I've read, some I've not.

Game Idea

A chapel that wants clearing.

Writing Multiple Plotlines: Everything You Need to Know

Writing Multiple Plotlines: Everything You Need to Know

This should be helpful in getting my Deadlands campaign more structured and filled out as a living world, with things happening independently of the PCs.

Sandy Petersen on the Yellow Sign and mathematics.

Sandy Petersen on the Yellow Sign and mathematics.