Members of the Month

September 2024

• September 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for September, 2024 is Anders Lundgren of Alta, Sweden.

Anders says: “What a lovely surprise that the forces of randomness picked me as member of September 2024. I am very happy and truly honored.

My first encounter with H. P. Lovecraft came back in the late 1980s through Chaosium's classic RPG Call of Cthulhu. The enclosed reading list inspired me to look for books by HPL at the local library where I found a worn copy of the first Swedish Lovecraft collection called Skräckens labyrinter (Labyrinths of Horror). My introduction to Lovecraft’s singular world was "The Hound". This and the other selections like "The Lurking Fear" and "The Rats in the Walls" gave me an overview of his prose style and subjects. I was completely hooked. The fascination with the man and his works continues to grow now almost forty years on. My favorite story was then, and remains, the sublimely tragic "The Colour Out of Space".

One Lovecraftian anecdote that I think other members might appreciate happened to me in the ninth grade. Me and a couple of friends had managed to worm our way out of gym class on the proviso that we would take a long walk. As a lark I suggested we go to the biggest book store in my old home town of Norrköping and ask for the Necronomicon. We did but with unexpected results. Unbeknownst to us the Simon edition had been released recently, so when the clerk casually answered my query with "Yes, we have a pocket version that somebody ordered but never picked up. Would you like to see it?" jaws dropped all around.

These days I am a writer and connoisseur of the uncanny, living close to Ältasjön in Sweden with my wife. For a quarter of a century now I have written about films for Hemmabio (Home Theatre Magazine) and for the past couple of years have had my own column in Bild & bubbla (Image & Thought Bubble). I have also contributed essays to anthologies such as occultural journal The Fenris Wolf and, comics being my other great literary passion, titles such as Mignolaverse: Hellboy and the Comics Art of Mike Mignola and Judge, Jury and Executioner: Essays on the Punisher in Print and on Screen. In the past I have worked in a Spookshow, as a projectionist and film curator, comic book librarian and event organizer. In 2012 I founded the Stockholm H. P. Lovecraft Festival and in this endeavor have been very fortunate to work with Andrew Leman, Sean Branney and Mike Dalager of the HPLHS. Back in 2017 I presented my paper “Mike Mignola and The Lovecraft Circle - Inspiration and World Sharing” at the "Dr. Henry Armitage Memorial Scholarship Symposium" during The NecronomiCon Providence. I am also an ordained Priest in the Church of Satan."

August 2024

• August 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for August, 2024 is Logan Nance of Monroe, North Carolina.

Logan says: “My name is Logan Nance, and I am honored to be selected as Member of the Month!

I first encountered Lovecraft in middle school; having adored Poe, I found a collection of Lovecraft’s stories at Barnes and Noble. My first story was, if I remember correctly, “The Music Of Erich Zann”.

I discovered the HPLHS during my freshman year at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and was delighted to be able to do a brief profile on our esteemed Mr. Branney for a journalism course assignment. My final undergraduate history thesis was on Lovecraft, and I continued the trend established there with my masters thesis, which charted change over time in the attitudes towards race in Lovecraft’s letters and stories, and set compared to trends in the broader culture of the 1920 and 1930s.

My favorite story changes occasionally, but right now it is probably “The Dreams In The Witch House”. Part of that is probably due to the fantastic rock opera adaptation.

Lovecraft’s works appeal to me because he crafted entirely new towns, new mythologies and gods, yet still sought to incorporate elements of reality into his works: the blending of the real and unreal into an uneasy simulacrum of the possible. Plus, he just has some delightful prose!

Outside of Lovecraft, I enjoy reading history books (my most recent read was the fascinating Jet Set by Willam Stadiem) and gaming, preferably while enjoying a cup of coffee."

July 2024

• July 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for July, 2024 is Mark Trinkwalder of New Baltimore, Michigan.

Mark says: “First off, I want to say thank you for honor of being able to show my ugly mug and for having the ability to share about me.

I was about 19 when I had my first run in with The Call of Cthulhu RPG. Our GM had us make characters and then took our sheets. We never saw them again. He kept them private and we all died in pretty gruesome ways.

My first HPL story was "The Call of Cthulhu", had I stopped there, I would never have picked it up again. My favorite story is "The Thing On The Doorstep".

I currently live in Michigan, just outside of Detroit but plan on moving north.

I am a forever cook and an aspiring author who hopes to publish by the end of the year.

While there probably isn't much more to say, this community and everyone have been all sorts of amazing and I am proud of the friends and family it has brought to me."

May 2024

• May 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for May, 2024 is John Wick of Phoenix, Arizona.

John says: “John Wick... is a game designer and author... bought his first roleplaying game, Call of Cthulhu, in Spencer's Gifts in Ames, Iowa for $10 and didn't play D&D until 2 years later in Albany, Georgia... died three times... suffered the wounds of Hiram Abiff... uses his knowledge of confidence games for the power of good... made love on the deck of a tall ship in a thunderstorm... got a lapdance by Bayushi Kachiko... burned the first dollar bill he made telling stories in a magic ritual... collects orks... calls himself an omnetheist (because you can't have too many messiahs)... beat the Devil in a game of questions... was healed by Harlan Ellison... was called a "scoundrel" by Dave Arneson... knows the secret name of Baba Yaga... tricked the Faerie Queen with seven knots... was invited to Freja's great hall Fólkvangr... still believes in Santa Claus... shook the hand of Sherlock Holmes... lives with three cats, a dozen monsters, and a Rah!... wrote five novels, a handful of short stories over two dozen games and this bio. And it's all TRUE!"

April 2024

• April 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for April, 2024 is Andrew McKown of Lubbock, Texas.

Andrew says: "Artist. Comedian. Musician. Veteran. Born in 1970, Andrew was adopted by Great Depression survivors who instilled in him a great love for reading, particularly those stories from the pulp era. Those stories made an interest in roleplaying games practically a foregone conclusion, beginning with D&D in 1980. A high school graduation gift of the Call of Cthulhu boxed set (pictured here) drove Andrew to a renewed interest in the strange and unusual, which served him well as he spent most of his working life in various branches and components of the U.S. military. Now living in northern Texas, he enjoys feeding wild birds and listening to their stories."

February 2024

• March 5, 2024

Our Member of the Month for March, 2024 is K.M. Hall of Cocoa, Florida.

K.M. says: "Many thanks to the forces of cosmic randomness for choosing me as HPLHS member of the month! I’ve been a fan of Lovecraft ever since the 1980s, when I came across a ratty old paperback copy of The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror. "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" is still my favorite Lovecraft story after all this time, even though I know he didn’t think very highly of it…

Although an avid reader of his Cthulhu Mythos stories, I had never paid much attention to the details of Lovecraft’s life or read any of the eleventy-frillion letters he wrote, until I joined the HPLHS a few years ago. Thanks to the HPLHS’s Voluminous podcasts and Miskatonic Missives collection, I learned that Lovecraft had spent time in DeLand, Florida, only an hour or so from where I live. In January this year, I took the short road trip over to the Barlow house where Lovecraft had stayed in the 1930s. I have included a photo of me in front of the house, wearing my Miskatonic Tibetan Expedition hoodie (a necessity for this “Fortunate Floridian” when temperatures drop below 80 in January).

I have also included photos of my Lovecraft collection and of Sara and Sammy, members of the Kappa Alpha Tau Florida Chapter."

February 2024

• February 3, 2024

Our Member of the Month for February, 2024 is Allison Rich of Exeter, Rhode Island.

Allison says: "I don’t remember exactly when I was first introduced to Lovecraft but it was going to happen eventually. I was a voracious reader as a kid and I read a lot of history and archaeology. In terms of fiction, I really liked the creepy stuff like Poe. I spent a lot of time in the public library at the end of my street. I probably discovered Lovecraft while I was in high school and it spoke to my love of the creepy stuff, archaeology and history, and books.

My first aspiration for a career was archaeology, specifically Egyptology. However, I ended up as something even better: a librarian, and a rare materials librarian / cataloguer at that. There are MANY librarians and archivists in Lovecraft fandom. I think that we are drawn for the same reasons: the writing, the hidden and mysterious history, and the ancient tomes, either real or imagined. If I had to pick some favorite stories, they might be “The Haunter in the Dark”, “The Picture in the House”, “Pickman’s Model”, “The Music of Erich Zann”, and “Cool Air”.

I have lived in the Lovecraft “nexus”, Rhode Island, since 1998. I went the last NecronomiCon in 1998 (?) when it was organized by Mike Michaud. I have vivid memories of Andrew and Sean screening “A Shoggoth of the Roof” there and I was so excited to go to the next one and then it was no more. I was thrilled in 2013 when the Lovecraft Arts and Sciences organization re-animated it. I got a ticket for the weekend and it was amazing. After it was over, I contacted the organizers and volunteered my services in any way they might find it useful. I remember meeting Niels and Carmen on Thayer Street on New Year’s Eve in 2013 to talk about it. I brought along my copy of Joan C. Stanley’s Ex Libris Miskitonici published by Necronomicon Press and the HPLHS' Archaeological Interpretations of Myth Patterns in the Iconography of the Cosex Beltrán-Escavy (one of my favorite bibliographical “follies”) which I had bought at the HPLHS table (and which Andrew and Sean had signed for me after I presented them with a gift of Joan Stanley’s book). I told them how I loved the library and old books aspect of Lovecraft’s work and they must have thought me a little insane (in a good way) because they made me head of registration. Cut to five NecronomiCons later and, apparently, I have become assistant director of the bloody thing.

I’ve been honored to help Andrew and Sean out with some HPLHS endeavors. I have derived Dewey number for books printed in the 1920s (I have a 1926 digitized edition of Dewey saved in my files at work should they need me to do that again), in doing microfilm research for old newspaper articles for The Spirit of Revision, and for looking at case designs for The Complete Fiction. I told them it was on my bucket list to be part of a DART someday and Sean asked if I wanted to be one of the foley artists for Purgatory Chasm for 2022 which was a blast, something which I will never forget.

I am happy to be among my fellow HPL enthusiasts as a Lifetime Member of the Society which took me until 2018 to join. I am also honored to be part of the esteemed all-volunteer crew of NecronomiCon Providence and I am looking forward to welcoming you back in 2024.

Finally, I would be remiss in not including a shelfie of my HPL related books, my needle-felted Lovecraft creations, and a photo of my cat Murnau, who is, indeed, named after the director of Nosferatu, Wilhelm Friedrich Murnau."

January 2024

• January 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for January, 2024 is Philip Michael Phillips of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

Philip says: "First, I have to thank my parents for their indulgence and patience in granting an 8 year old the ability to stay up until 10pm on summer nights in the mid '70s to watch Night Gallery, and to my mother who not only drove me to the library every few weeks to check out a dozen books, but acquiesced to my constant demands for a Creepy or Eerie magazine way back when the grocery stores carried such things. One late night view of ‘Pickman’s Model’ on Night Gallery and I was destined to become hooked into the old Gent and his tales.

Role playing games in the '80s with Deities and Demigods and Call of Cthulhu books were more fuel to the fire. I was lucky to be part of an active gaming group that included RPG, tabletop games and some 30 or so LARP excursions. Period and accurate props quickly became essential and interesting, and I’ve amassed a huge collection. Growing up in M. Night Shyamalan’s haunted southeastern Pennsylvania provided the perfect backdrop for horrors in those sylvian woods and would also enable me to springboard North to where my cousin lived in Cumberland R.I, very near Providence where I would also come live for a short time. I would attend the last NecronomiCon Convention in the '90s where I first met Andrew and again four more Con’s put on by Niels and his stalwart crew from the Arts and Sciences Council.

My friends tell me I may have a bit of a reading addiction, and I also try to find time to paint and sculpt a little. Oh, and of course there is a cat that lives with me. His name is Lewellyn, and he is napping next to me now, as I type this. I am positive he has traveled to faraway places at night in his many years, and I suspect he holds a high rank in a cat army."

December 2023

• December 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for December, 2023 is Matt McHorris of Arlington, Virginia.

Matt says: "I was born in Tennessee, and joined the Marine Corps to see the world but was only sent to neighboring North Carolina. I then joined the US State Department and travelled to Philippines, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Angola and Brazil. I got the “Call of Cthulhu” during the Great Hunker of 2020 when working in Angola by playing Call of Cthulhu online and listening religiously to the godspell of Strange Studies of Strange Stories, Voluminous, The Lovecraft Tapes, Ain’t Slayed Nobody, and Good Friends of Jackson Elias.

Although I’ve always been a horror and suspense fan, I became obsessed with all things HPL over the last three years and have been impressed by the craftsmanship of the HPLHS Gamer Prop Sets and other products. I completed pilgrimages to Providence for the 2022 Necronomicon and the 2023 HPL Film Festival, and finally to HPLHS headquarters in 2023 where I met Andrew Leman and Sean Branney. I’ve been a lifetime member of HPLHS since 2020 and my favorite HPL story is "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". I enjoy listening to Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, meeting fellow cultists and plan to celebrate this holiday season with my Brazilian fiancée Aline listening to A Very Scary Solstice. I hope to meet more of y’all at the 2024 Necronomicon. Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

November 2023

• November 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for November, 2023 is Vincent Molina of Los Angeles, California.

Vincent says: “Born in Pasadena in 1986 and living in Eagle Rock all my life, I entered a weird world only to make it weirder with my own brand of weirdness. Growing up, I had a huge fascination with alternate dimensions, sci-fi, fantasy worlds, and just plane weird stuff. It wouldn't be until my college years when I started hearing about Cthulhu through my friends. Then in 2020, I used my Lockdown time to read The Necronomicon Collection. After reading Dagon, I got hooked!

Now I have immersed myself more into The Lovecraftian world. I was even fortunate enough to find a Dark Adventure Radio Theatre CD/Prop of "Dagon: War of Worlds" at SDCC. Hearing the story as told in an old-timey theme transported me to The Weird Eldritch World of Lovecraft. I now have a binder full of the prop sets that I buy from The HPLHS HQ and have joined The HPLHS Lifetime Tier! I even incorporate Cthulhu in my Drawlloween prompts.

Lastly, I am including a picture of my cat Pierrette because why not? To all my fellow cultists, I wish you a mighty, "IÄ!" And to everyone at The HPLHS, I thank you for letting me join and dive deeper into this fanatical universe! Stay weird, everyone!"

October 2023

• October 5, 2023

Our Member of the Month for October, 2023 is Carlos of Johnson City.

Carlos says: “I discovered H.P. Lovecraft in 2007 when a colleague recommended his writings to me and was blown away by At the Mountains of Madness. A few months later I stumbled across the Society and was similarly hooked on the Radio Theater productions. The Society continues to curate and produce such amazing works of tribute to Lovecraft - it's my privilege to support the team and be a small part of these efforts to reintroduce Lovecraft through such dynamic and creative projects!"

As you can see from the above photo, Carlos is a highly-decorated member of ten years standing, and although we have some hints about his very interesting life, we respect his wish to remain otherwise confidential. We thank him for his many years of stalwart support!

September 2023

• September 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for September, 2023 is Deanna Brown of Whitby, Ontario, Canada.

Deanna says: “Since childhood, I have always been an avid reader and usually could be found with my nose deeply in a book. Fantasy books led to a fascination with myths and legends and science fiction. Once I discovered the horror genre, it quickly became a favourite. So when I discovered Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos around my early 20s, I was pretty quickly engrossed in the Mythos. Cosmic horror became a sort of comfort blanket – a good cosmic horror movie or short story is usually my go-to to decompress after a rough day. Or on any day, really.

Relatively recently, I discovered the Call of Cthulhu tabletop RPG. Having played Dungeons and Dragons for many years and interested in roleplay games, I’d heard of the game before but didn’t know a lot about it. During the pandemic, I started listening to Call of Cthulhu actual plays and fell in love with the system. Perhaps ironically, Call of Cthulhu helped keep me sane during the pandemic. I quickly went out and bought the core rulebook and once we could get together again convinced some of my D&D friends to come join the madness with me.

The gamer prop sets from HPLHS have added an extra special something to my games. The Dark Adventure Radio Theatre productions have also been a great inspiration as well as just plain great audio drama adaptations. I’m thankful to the HPLHS for all their great creative work that helps bring Lovecraft’s stories to life.

It is safe to say that Lovecraft, cosmic horror in general, and the Call of Cthulhu RPG have become obsessions of mine. I’m always looking for new movies, games, and books. I wonder about picking up Abdul Alhazred’s Necronomicon next for some light reading?"

July 2023

• July 5, 2023

Our Member of the Month for July, 2023 is Johan Häller of Göteborg, Sweden.

Johan says: “I felt a bit daunted when asked about being the member of the month, though the great honour of being chosen won out fairly quick. I have always found that the nautical setting in the stories, with small fishing hamlets and the vast unknown of the deep ocean, connected me even more on a personal level to the works of the Old Gent.

So, who am I you might ask if you have read this far. I was born and raised on the west coast of Sweden always living close to the sea. The family tree traces its roots back to a small fishing village island as far back as 1670. The genealogy records peter out after this, usually the cause was record destruction by fire (or maybe it was deep ones?). No longer working in the family's traditional trade I find myself working as a postal worker and package delivery. This line of work gives me a lot of time to devote to artistic endeavours.

Being a relentless bookworm since learning to read I found my way to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft (along with Dungeons and Dragons) in high school at around the age of 16. His work intrigued me since I love history, art and archeology. Mix that with a hefty dash of cosmic horror and I was hooked big time. With the rise of the Internet I found a fountain of all things Lovecraft. Since I have always loved to paint, and Grandpa Theobald's oeuvre is a more than an ample well to draw inspiration from, I have been crafting bits of his great mythos on canvas, clay, stone and more.

After some years I was made aware of the HPLHS. Joining the society I found out what a treasure it is, with all my fellow members. My cabinet of curiosities would be far more empty if I never crossed path with the society's excellent online store. My on-going mission to fill that cabinet with baffling and cosmic horror related things is still going strong.

To conclude, a score years and more after I first found Lovecraft's writings I am still on the same red hook."

June 2023

• June 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for June, 2023 is Alastair McBeath of Morpeth, in the United Kingdom.

Alastair says: “I've had a lifelong fascination with myths, legends, fantasy and horror that began in early childhood. Thankfully, it shows no signs of abating six decades on! I first read a Lovecraft tale in late 1975, in my early teens, when my Dad bought me a two-volume set of paperbacks, The Ghouls: The Stories Behind the Classic Horror Films, edited by Peter Haining. Among these, deep in Vol. 2, was "The Colour Out of Space", hidden behind its movie version's UK title, Monster of Terror (Die, Monster, Die in the US; 1965, American-International). While the film's plot extracts elements from the story, it's no adaptation of Lovecraft's original. Luckily, the text here was pure Lovecraft, and the story made a lasting impact on me, for all I knew nothing of Lovecraft then. That understanding began only in 1983, after I discovered Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu role-playing game (RPG; I started playing RPGs in 1977, with the original Dungeons & Dragons set). Call led me to start tracking down Lovecraft's works, and I recognised "Colour" as soon as I re-read it. Its opening sentence still creates a frisson of anticipation: "West of Arkham the hills rise wild, and there are valleys with deep woods that no axe has ever cut."

Years of preparing notes for RPGs led to my working-out timelines for those Lovecraft stories with detail enough to allow it, drawing sketch-maps for the few places similarly described, such as Innsmouth and the Dunwich area. Chaosium began publishing their Lovecraft Country RPG sourcebooks around the same time, during the early 1990s. In addition, the use of realistic RPG handouts for players in Call of Cthulhu, meant I'd been tinkering with those too from discovering the game. Lovecraftian boardgames followed into the 2000s, such as Fantasy Flight's Arkham Horror, plus greater access to more tales from the Lovecraft circle of authors, fresh editions of Chaosium's RPG, and increasingly impressive numbers and designs of Lovecraftian miniature figurines to use in RPGs and pulp-period tabletop wargames.

Suddenly, it was the 40th anniversary of the Call of Cthulhu RPG in 2021, when Chaosium's KickStarter for a reworked reprint of the original boxed set led to my discovery of the HPLHS and its many wonders, visual, tactile and audio - and what a whirlwind of adventures that's been, and continues to be, ever since! And now, I am to be elevated among The Chosen, a Member of the Month. "One of us...One of us..."

A few images. Apparently, I don't record well on photos; not sure why... However, viewable exclusively in the Member Sanctum is a copy of my final sketch map for the Dunwich area, completed in June 1991 (several months before I learnt of Chaosium's Dunwich RPG sourcebook, first published that May; no Internet in those days), and a couple of montage shots of tiny fractions of my Lovecraftian collection, including Vol. 2 of The Ghouls, open to the first page of "Monster of Terror", and a few samples of my HPLHS items, with a mysterious package and letter sent me by a firm of solicitors in Switzerland... I love that the cover illustration for the Mesoamerican Codex booklet has been accidentally fixed in the wrong orientation!

Lastly, a couple of shots of my favourite local haunt, five minutes away, and visible from my back windows, St. Mary's Churchyard, a ten-acre burial ground, whose legibly-datable stones are only 18th century, for all the church itself reuses some 13th century grave covers as windowsills. Most of the church stonework, and one of its larger stained glass windows, is 14th century in date, restored in the 19th. The burial ground has a pleasingly Gothic feel, and I got to know it well, as it was on my regular walk to and from work during the later 1980s and 1990s, occasionally well into the night. Oh, and there were ghouls here once, as a watch-house was built into the graveyard wall's south side in 1831, to guard against them (also known as body-snatchers)."

May 2023

• May 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for May, 2023 is William Malkames of Allentown, Pennsylvania.

William says: “As a relative latecomer to the HP Lovecraft culture, I find it particularly humbling to be selected as member of the month by this esteemed organization. I’ve spent the majority of my working years practicing law in the state of Pennsylvania. I have always however been an avid reader, and have lately taken a particular interest in all things horror, and the occult.

Now that I am nearing retirement, I am actively involved in film production, and I am honored to be working with Arkham Cinema and Bryan Moore in his new project Pickman‘s Model."

March 2023

• March 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for March, 2023 is Samuel Hemphill of Bismarck, North Dakota.

Sam says: “I grew up all over the US, for most of my life my father was a project manager for a large construction company that built interstates. So every two years we would pack up and head to the next job spot. Although I am originally from Wyoming, we also lived in a few places in Arizona, and a few places in Montana before settling down on a ranch just outside the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations. The constant moving, meeting new people, and exploring new places gave me a nomadic heart and wandering feet. Knowing that if I was going to make something out of myself without many prospects, I joined the military and never looked back. I've been to the ruins of Ur and Babylon, drunkenly explored the time haunted alleys and byways of Sarajevo, and patrolled the primordial forest of Kosovo where werewolves and worse things seem to be behind each massive tree. It has been the adventure of my lifetime, and given me opportunities I couldn't have imagined in my small Wyoming community. Now at the twilight of my career I work on a HAZMAT response team based out of North Dakota. We are designed to respond to everything from meth lab busts to WMD incidents. I'm sure there are at least one or two good Delta Green scenarios I could get out of my experience.

I got into H.P. Lovecraft in the dark days before the internet, although it was only a few years down the road. I frequented used book stores and would buy the horror short story compilations that were so common back in those days. In one I found "The Music of Erich Zann" and the editor's note before the story gave a short outline of HPL and stated that this wasn't even his best story. I fell in love with it and the author and spent most of my time and money after that tracking down more of the stories. Around 1997 I finally found the Del Rey publishing collections, with those amazingly horrific covers and was able to read the collected works. I've been a devoted member of the fandom since then.

Thanks to the HPLHS for what you do to keep the HPL fandom alive. I appreciate all the things you do from the society itself, the collected reading, and the excellent Voluminous!"

February 2023

• February 1, 2023

Our Member of the Month for February, 2023 is Dalton Pittman-Cahill of Westland, Michigan.

Dalton says: “Growing up I was the kid who would rent VHS tapes constantly of all of the old Universal and Horror classics from the local library. I guess that would be my proper introduction to the world of horror, however, it would be many years until I would be introduced to the world of Weird Fiction and Lovecraft.

A Maine native, I was raised in a small coastal town surrounded by foggy fishing villages, mysterious coves and caves, and ripe with classic New England character. I guess I already was experiencing Lovecraft before even I knew it! My first proper introduction was at a convention in Portland, Maine. One of the guests that year was an author of "Yog-Sothothery" (The late C.J. Henderson) and on a whim, I picked up his "Tales Of Inspector Legrasse" which starts with Lovecraft's original "The Call Of Cthulhu". It was a snowball from there.

I went on to study film and have worked in and out of the industry for years doing freelance prop/set design work. In 2013 I produced a Lovecraftian found-footage Youtube series entitled TheWestRecords which went on to achieve some mild success! That series never did officially finish, however, it was "put to bed" just recently this year. After moving to Westland, Michigan in 2014, I started integrating myself into the local art scene around Detroit and Ann Arbor.

Currently, I have started a multi-media project that incorporates short radio plays, RPG elements, and collectible props to display called The Eldritch Antiquarian. This project is currently in its beginning phases, but the story has already started! The world of TEA is dark and filled with mysteries, secret societies, and forces unknown to our world... Find out more HERE!

In addition to being behind the scenes on a lot of projects, I am also a working performer, actor, and musician. Mostly I perform musical theater or my own performance art pieces. My favorite is performing in non-traditional venues and creating an immersive experience for my audience. You can find even more additional info about me and my other artistic endeavors over on my PORTFOLIO!"

January 2023

• January 4, 2023

Our Member of the Month for January, 2023 is Michaela Waltz of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Michaela says: “I first became aware of H.P. Lovecraft in the early 1980s. I don’t remember how, but maybe through the Cthulhu Mythos in the original D&D Gods, Demi-Gods & Heroes book. I heard about the Arkham House Books around the same time and proceeded to acquire copies, through a local bookstore. My first Lovecraft books were illustrated by Lee Brown Coye which I loved. I now have a small collection of his original art work.

In the mid 1980s I connected to other local Lovecraft fans in the Twin Cities, including Philip Rahman, who founded the publishing house of Fedogan & Bremer around that time. We would get together formally once a month at one of our houses, and less formally weekly at a local Mexican restaurant called Montanita's that had 2-for-1 margaritas and a free taco bar.

One day Philip asked me if I would like to design a dust jacket for one of Fedogan & Bremer's upcoming books. This was an opportunity I could not pass up and that led to designing quite a number of books and CDs for them over the next couple of decades. This included books by Donald Wandrei, Brian Lumley, John Palen, Scott Nicolay, and collections edited by Joseph Pulver, S. T. Joshi, and others.

Since 1997, I have also been the book designer for the Sidecar Preservation Society, a small press which published many genre related books by the likes of Karl Edward Wagner, Donald Wandrei, David Drake, Jessica Amanda Salmonson, William F. Nolan, Ramsey Campbell, Hugh Cave, and Lee Brown Coye. Our last book to date, "Three Tales of Madness" by Robert James Collas Lowry, came out in 2018.

I have been a frequent attendee of World Fantasy Con, World Horror Con and NecronomiCon.

In 2002, when World Fantasy Con was in Minneapolis for the second time, I was nominated for a World Fantasy Award for my work with the Sidecar Preservation Society. The organizers wanted to do something special for the nominees that year. They wanted to design a pin that was a miniature version of the then current award statue, a bust of H.P. Lovecraft designed by Gahan Wilson. I had the honor of sculpting that pin and getting to collaborate with Gahan on making it just right. Those pins were subsequently given to everyone that had previously been nominated for the award and to future nominees until the award design changed in 2016.

After many years of living in the Twin Cities, I now live in Pittsburgh, PA with my partner and continue my eternal love and fascination with all things Lovecraftian.”

December 2022

• December 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for December, 2022 is Alfredo Gómez Mansilla of San Sebastián de los Reyes, Spain.

Alfredo says: “Since I was a kid I have been a lover of science fiction, especially Star Wars, the Marvel Universe (both comics and cinematographic) and many TV shows from my childhood that I continue following today: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, Mighty Max, Biker Mice from Mars, Street Sharks, etc., as most children who grew up in the '90s. When I think about it in hindsight I realise that each one of these series had elements with reminiscences from the Mythos, some characters or villains, which I was not aware of back then.

It was around 2011 (when I was 21 years old) when the first edition of the Mansions of Madness board game was released. Until then I heard little about Lovecraft's work and the little I knew was thanks to the Call of Cthulhu® roleplaying game. But I was mind blown when I acquired Mansions of Madness and started playing it. I wanted to investigate more and more and learn about the works of the author from whom all those ideas came. That’s when I fully discovered H. P. Lovecraft. I started by reading a compilation of stories that I got as a present and that was the beginning of the madness. I remember long nights reading and enjoying stories where the endings weren't as happy as I was used to, playing video games that were clearly inspired by the mythos, and playing more and more board games, which was the original reason why I got introduced to this.

Then 5 years later, all this became an absolute obsession when I started playing what for me nowadays is one of the best existing board games out there, which is no other than Arkham Horror: The Card Game, an immersive cooperative game that transports you to Mythos as when playing a role-playing game. This is an amazing solo experience, but becomes even better when playing with friends which I did, and led to meeting plenty of other fans. And it is thanks to this game that I became part of "Los Archivos de Arkham", a weekly podcast in Spanish about this and other Lovecraftian games and products. In our episodes we often talk about news related to the Mythos, review books and much more. And thanks to all this I started buying more books, reading much more, going further and further, and this is something I continue to enjoy every day. We also organise events regularly and have created an amazing community around our channel.

One of my best experiences in life occurred in August this year, when two good friends of mine (David Avilés and Egoitz Uribeetxebarria, also life members of HPLHS) and podcast colleagues at Los Archivos de Arkham, and myself organized a trip in which we toured New England. Our trip took us from Newburyport to Salem through the coastal road, ending in Providence where we had the chance to spend a couple of days visiting our beloved Lovecraft’s hometown. This is was a trip of our lives, enjoyed every single moment in the region and we all highly recommend to anyone who might like to experience it. Then the cherry on top, we travelled to Indianapolis for GenCon 2022, the largest board game convention in the US, where we visited the HPLHS booth to acquire forbidden tomes and artifacts, and we had the chance to meet the fantastic crew that form this association. And we were carrying our membership passports—of course!—so they could receive the appropriate stamps.

But after all written so far, I must say that I still consider this the beginning of the road. This fantastic universe is growing every minute thanks to all the people who collaborate creating content in one way or another, whether it is by designing board games with great original stories based on the works of Lovecraft or by writing books and stories that have the essence of Mythos, or building communities like The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (thank you!). And there I will continue, as a content creator now, trying to help expand this universe more and more, for as long as I have any sanity left.”

November 2022

• November 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for November, 2022 is "Evil Ed" Macias of Seattle, Washington.

Ed says: "My cousin and I ventured into the wonderful world of Fantasy role-playing games by the age of eleven. We would love pitting our heroes against some of the most vile and powerful monsters that the Dungeons & Dragons Monster Manuals would have to offer. I recall seeing the image of a Mind Flayer for the first time, and instantly knew that I had to place one of these these tentacled-faced terrors into our adventures. When I opened up the book and revealed this nightmarish, alien-looking creature to my cousin, the horrified look on his face made me smile, and I knew that this was going to be an encounter to remember for the ages. Many tears later, I learned that H.P. Lovecraft had inspired the creation of a vast variety of tentacled monstrosities, as well as cosmic horrors that lurk beyond the fragile veil of this reality, which I would take great glee to throw into a D&D campaign, much to my cousin’s trepidation.

I have been a huge fan of Classic Radio Shows since I was a kid - the Theater of the Mind! They would stimulate my young and impressionable imagination to no end. I would listen enraptured for hours to various stories of science fiction, mystery, and detective dramas. Then, I discovered Dark Adventure Radio Theatre! "The Brotherhood Of The Beast" was my introductory experience to the weird and wonderful world of HPLHS. Since then, I have collected every DART dramatization, my favorite being "Masks of Nyarlathotep". My eternal gratitude for the passionate work that you do at HPLHS, to keep the memory of H.P. alive and spreading into everyone’s nightmares.

October 2022

• October 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for October, 2022 is Randy Hargis of Terre Haute, Indiana.

Randy says: "Being born and raised in Robinson, Ill. leaves most with the notion of a typical mid-western fellow. That may be true on the surface, but a curiosity that began with a youthful fascination with horror and true crime led me to an interest in the darker side of human nature.

My introduction to Lovecraft began in a secondhand bookstore in 1979 when I discovered a paperback copy of The Dunwich Horror with the otherworldly artwork of Rowena Morrill on the cover. I was hooked and it went from artistic interest to collecting obsession in short order. The thing I enjoy most about Lovecraft’s work is the nihilism of the mythos and man’s attempt at trying to understand it. A complicated yet simple definition of cosmic horror.

At the Mountains of Madness, "The Dunwich Horror", "The Hound", and the poem "Nemesis" are some of my favorite works. Other interests of mine in a similar vein are collectable “cousins” such as 1982’s The Thing. The practical effects and storyline tear a page out of the Lovecraft universe in my opinion.

H.P. inspired me to pursue and complete my master’s degree in Mathematics so I could tell when the stars were right and navigate the non-Euclidian pathways of life.

My love of H.P.’s stories has grown from fandom to collection, from books to statues to boardgames, as can be seen on my bookshelves (with apologies to my wife).

When I am not geeking out to the latest Dark Adventure Radio Theatre release, I live in Terre Haute, In. and work at local university helping students navigate the straits of transferring college credits.

August 2022

• August 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for August, 2022 is John Newman of Rosamond, California.

John says: "My first exposure to Lovecraft was in in the summer between 6th and 7th grades. My cousin lent me the the Scholastic “The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror” with the picture of Barnabas Marsh in a Tuxedo on the cover. The first story was “The Colour out of Space”. The story scared and horrified me. By the time I had finished the cover story I was hooked. Our public library had several Lovecraft collections, and I recall reading "The Lurking Fear" that winter. Now I am a bit of a wimp with an overactive imagination, so I had to stop reading as soon as it got dark. I lived in the Northern Montana at the time, so there was not a lot of daylight in the evenings.

My real life isn’t as exciting. I work in Aerospace as a materials tester. Basically, I break things and get paid to do it. I have my Cthulhu idol and I am contemplating creating a shrine for it. I also have a small yule tree I put up during the holidays.

I discovered HPLHS quite by accident with a random search and am extremely glad that I did. My first exposure was At the Mountains of Madness (with the requisite Antarctic expedition Hoodie). I started slowly, but my addiction has grown to where I am impatiently waiting for the society to create my next fix. I have also been trying to evangelize to friends and family who have a similar interest.

I have attached a picture of myself before I had the antlers removed as well as a picture of my daughter’s cat, Tom, making his first Horcrux (wrong mythos, I know...)

July 2022

• July 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for July, 2022 is Antonio Herrera Martin currently of Toronto, Ontario.

Antonio says: "I was born and raised in Progreso, Yucatan, Mexico, but currently I am living in Toronto, Canada.

I have been living in several places around the world from Glasgow in the UK, to Christchurch in New Zealand before arriving in Canada.

I discovered Lovecraft by pure chance. I enjoyed books, but during a book sale I found "The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories". This was the moment I became a cultist. The same day I bought the book I finished it. And from that moment I haven't stopped. I have enjoyed Lovecraft stories in two languages and I have several copies of the collections. I enjoy movies and video games with Lovecraftian themes. I have even enjoyed some of Andrew Leman's narrations from HPpodcraft.

I have been a fan of horror since young, but there was a big difference between movies and books. I could not find for a long time a book that could actually inspire a sense of dread or tension like a movie. The only exception was Frankenstein from Mary Shelly, but when I found the writings of Lovecraft everything changed and found the type of horror I enjoy the most. He became one of my two favourite authors next to Lewis Carroll. I would have enjoyed a collaboration from both of them.

My favourite stories are "Nyarlathotep", "The Haunter of the Dark" and At the Mountains of Madness. What I found most interesting and trapped me from Lovecraft was the ambient. I found it simple and captivating how it narrated these indescribable horrors, which is more fascinating than more simple subjects, and keep lingering in the imagination and wondering what it is far away from our grasp of reality.

I have embraced the mystery professionally, as I did a PhD in Physics and Astronomy in the University of Glasgow, some day in Occult Studies from Miskatonic, researching Dark Matter in the Universe, and currently I work in the University of Toronto researching unknowns of the universe in astrophysics in concepts like Planet Hunting and Fast Radio Bursts. This is my webprofile for the brave of heart. And this is the link to visit another planet.

Given my constant moving (countries) I don't have a big collection, but try to keep it curated. I also like to wear costumes for halloween, to change from my plain attire that I wear the rest of the year."

June 2022

• June 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for June, 2022 is Jason Ewert of Bemidji, Minnesota.

Jason says: "Born and raised in the rural north woods of Minnesota, I was indoctrinated into a religious stew of nondenominational charismatics, traditional Anishinaabe practices and my Grandmother’s Filipino ghost stories. Fast-forward many awkward years later, you’ll find me as a graphic designer and filmmaker, telling weird stories through a variety of mediums.

Lovecraft has popped up throughout my life but it was through his people, in more recent years, where I found a connection. It was at the H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival, through a short film submission, where I discovered like minded folk who were just as passionate for weird stories and unspeakable horrors. I was evangelized on the spot and saw the light! Cue the HPLHS! My consumption of all things Lovecraft was awakened and hasn’t stopped. It was a connection that felt like home and having a family that I can share my stories with is fuel for creative fulfillment. I’m grateful, humbled, and honored to be counted among this society of dreamers, thanks for letting me hang with the cool kids!"

You can see some of Jason's films on his YouTube Channel!

May 2022

• May 1, 2022

Our Member of the Month for May, 2022 is Sean McLaughlin, of Sacramento, California.

Sean says: "I honestly couldn’t say when I was first exposed to Lovecraft. I have a lot of interests, and I tend to jump back and forth between them. Some things I become intensely involved in for only a couple of weeks, while others I work on for a while, put them on the back burner for a time, and then return to later on. Lovecraft and cosmic horror are things to which I find myself coming back time and time again. I’ve always felt a draw to the unusual and strange, especially when it lies just under the surface of our comfortable little reality or just outside our field of vision. So naturally, it was just a matter of time before I fell until the endless spiral of the mythos – stories, books, games, movies, artifacts, all of it.

I’ve also been a fan of tabletop games since I was a kid. Fortunately, there is no shortage of Lovecraft-inspired material in that realm. Like many other members, I’ve developed something of a disorder when it comes to collecting Call of Cthulhu books, other games, and more than a couple of props. I feel it is my responsibility to note that my time as a member of the HPLHS has done nothing to help me overcome this affliction.

I often find myself musing on the nature of the mythos and the madness it causes – I don’t think I’ve been caught muttering to myself, but would I even know. The idea that insanity could be synonymous with a greater understanding of reality is fascinating to me. Either as a development of these interests or another problematic symptom, I’ve spent a not insignificant amount of time channeling my love of Lovecraft and cosmic horror into games and related creative works. I’ve been slowly dabbling in the creation of a tabletop game – one that could make use of the dozens of scenarios I have for other systems – as well as making props and display pieces for what I have affectionately taken to calling my “Shelf of Madness”. Not content to dwell in my burgeoning insanity alone, I have recently begun considering opening an online shop to sell some props and artifacts. After all, why should I alone suffer when so many of us enjoy exploring the depths of the dark truths Lovecraft revealed and inspired?

When I joined the HPLHS I found many kindred spirits. Thanks to all of you I’ve learned and been exposed to more about Lovecraft, his works, and all the works that followed. I’m proud to be a lifetime member and honored to have been smiled upon by the dark forces of randomness."

April 2022

• April 4, 2022

Our Member of the Month for April, 2022 is Lauren Austin, of Glasgow.

Lauren says: "Hello fellow HPLHS members, my name is Lauren Austin. I live in Glasgow, Scotland with my parents and my two children.

I distinctly remember the first night I discovered Lovecraft. It was 2 days before Christmas and I had just been admitted to hospital with severe abdominal pain. After making my way through A & E I was admitted to a ward. I found myself, unusually for the NHS, in a private room overlooking the Necropolis. For those not familiar with Glasgow, the Necropolis is a Victorian era cemetery behind the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. Suitably gothic, particularly on a dark winter evening, I looked out my window and wondered what I could do to pass the time. I decided to try audiobooks as I needed something to drown out the incessant drone of the hospital.

Scrolling through Audible I had no idea what to listen to at first. Inspired by my gothic and slightly eerie neighbour I decided to try a horror. Off I headed to browse Audible's horror selection and I soon came across a book called 'Necronomicon, by someone called H P Lovecraft. I was intrigued by the name, and even more so by the unusual name of the author. Reading the brief bio it was apparently a mix of horror, science fiction and cosmic terror. It sounded interesting, and it was long which I needed as I had a long night ahead full if nurse checks and pain relief. So, I clicked purchase and started to listen.

That was my introduction to Lovecraft, and it was a revelation! It was bizarre, unique, and utterly compelling. I listened to that audiobook on repeat for about 6 months until I found the HPLHS Complete fiction of H P Lovecraft and fell even more into the strange and cosmic world of Lovecraft. I've listened to that book every night for years now. No wonder I have such strange dreams really...

It was this book that brought me to the HPLHS and my joining as a member. Lovecraft's work had meant a lot to me over a difficult period in my life. My husband died almost exactly 2 years ago. I was left to pick up the pieces of my life and that of 2 young children. Lovecraft provided me with the escapism, and weirdly the comfort, so needed. His work is so visceral and powerful it blows me away. I think I take comfort from the fact that there was someone who had an even stranger imagination than me! I have since bought and read for myself his work, as well as Providence by Alan Moore.

Outside of Lovecraft I am a civil servant, horse owner and avid gamer. I live to colour in but that is the extent of my creative talents unfortunately. One day I hope to have the guts to write, about what I'm not sure. For now, I’m concentrating on getting life back on track and staying relatively sane. Ironically, Lovecraft, and the HPLHS, helps me to do that!"

March 2022

• March 5, 2022

Our Member of the Month for March, 2022 is Noah Van Buhren of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Noah says: "Growing up in a frigid, shunned northern valley in the shadow of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, I have always been a seeker of strange things and strange places. My first early encounters with the Cthulhu Mythos came from furtive glimpses into the horror graphic novels in the local occult bookstore. Those grotesque images of blood drenched pulpy tentacles and of men going insane at the mere glimpse of the colossal ancient gods waiting to bring about the world’s destruction, were permanently seared into my childhood imagination. Since then my fate was sealed, and I have spent my life as a horror Artist, Animator and Filmmaker trying to recreate that same feeling of creeping cosmic dread in my work.

My literary appreciation for Lovecraft’s work grew even deeper when I moved to storm shadowed Vancouver, to study Animation and Film. While looking for dark creative inspiration for my animated student film, I procured for myself a copy and read ravenously through the complete fiction of H.P. Lovecraft. When I read “From Beyond”, with the mad scientist Tillinghast discovering deadly Interdimensional alien life forms, I had struck upon the story that would become my first film The Jovian Project (2017). I started out making a direct adaptation of the original set in the 1920s, but after watching a documentary on the creation of the Manhattan project I decided to set my film in the Atomic Era. Whereas the original Tillingast was only one desperate inventor experimenting alone, I imagined that it would be even more frightening if Tillinghast’s grandson had taken his grandfather’s early discoveries and now had the full resources of the military industrial complex behind him to conduct his ruthless experiments. But just like the Atomic scientists, they unleash a cosmic power that they can not hope to control.

While animating my film, I began searching for and collecting all of the best adaptations of Lovecraft’s work that I could find. That is when I first became acquainted with the works of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, watching their adaptations of The Call of Cthulhu (2005), and The Whisperer in Darkness (2011). The German Expressionist visuals and classic Pulp style of these films were very influential for me. Then when I premiered The Jovian Project at the 2017 Lovecraft Film Festival in Portland, I had the great pleasure of meeting and talking with Sean Branney and Andrew Leman over that weekend. That’s when I decided that I wanted to join the HPLHS. For myself this was akin to how I can imagine a young Robert Bloch or Frank Belknap Long felt when first joining the Lovecraft Circle. As an artist, going from working mostly on my own to being part of a group that is also incredibly passionate about Weird Fiction has made a huge difference for me and been an endless source of inspiration for my darkly creative endeavors. In this society I have found the support and camaraderie of fellow scholars and seekers of strange horrors in literature and in life, and true lovers of the Grotesque and Macabre!

It was during that same weekend at the Festival that I decided to begin work on my next film project The Old Gods. I wanted to create something in the same silent film style of the HPLHS Cthulhu film, and I wanted to animate the same blood drenched tentacles I saw in those comic books all those years ago. It has been a great artistic challenge, and by collaborating with stop motion animators I’ve been learning how to recreate the look of old stop motion in my 3D animation. The film is almost complete, with just a few more shots left to finish animating. I hope to have it ready to premiere at this year’s Lovecraft Film Festival. It has been a long project, but knowing that I could one day share it with my fellow HPLHS members and Cthulhu cultists around the world was a huge motivation. Here’s a link to the film as it looks so far. Password: TheOldGodsAwaken

I now work in Vancouver as a full time Creature VFX Artist. And whenever the HPLHS is next undertaking another cinematic venture, I would certainly love to be involved with helping to bring more of Lovecraft’s eldritch monstrosities to life.

Stay weird my friends, and keep making strange things!

February 2022

• February 7, 2022

Our Member of the Month for February, 2022 is Donald Frew of Berkeley, California.

Donald H. Frew is an Elder in the NROOGD and Gardnerian Traditions of modern Wicca, and High Priest of Coven Trismegiston in Berkeley CA.  Within the Gardnerian Tradition, he is known as a historian and theologian.  Working with his wife, Anna Korn, they compiled, edited, and in 2007 circulated a new edition of the Gardnerian Book of Shadows, incorporating material from their research in early Gardnerian texts and resulting in a Book of over 650 pages.

Frew’s coven is a member of the Covenant of the Goddess (CoG), the world’s largest religious organization of Witches.  He has served ten terms on CoG’s National Board, as Public Information Officer (PIO) and as First Officer (President).  As PIO, he served as a consultant on occult crimes for various law enforcement agencies.  This led to collaboration with the Committee for Scientific Examination of Religion, the FBI, and the Justice Department to create a report for law enforcement on so-called “Satanic” crime – Satanism in America: How the Devil Got Much More Than His Due (1989) – credited by the FBI with reversing the tide of the “Satanic Hysteria” in America.  (This is soon to be republished in an updated edition.) At the same time, Frew operated as a free-lance occultist, providing consultation for authors & others, investigating and dealing with “haunted” houses (and other places), and helping those believed to be “cursed”.

Frew is a National Interfaith Representative for the Covenant of the Goddess and has represented Wicca in interfaith work for over 35 years, on the Boards of the Berkeley Area Interfaith Council and the Interfaith Center at the Presidio, at all of the modern Parliaments of the World’s Religions (as a member of the Parliament’s Assembly of the World’s Religious & Spiritual Leaders), and as Vice-President of (and frequent contributor to) the online interfaith journal The Interfaith Observer.  He was the creator & organizer of the 2004 international Interfaith Sacred Space Design Competition – incorporating 160 designs from 17 countries – and editor of the resulting book, Sacred Spaces (2004).

On top of all that, Don was a playtester for the original Call of Cthulhu RPG and one of the authors of the CoC supplement The Stars are Right!. He co-authored an essay incorporating real astrology into the game, noting the planetary configuration that correlated to the rising of R'lyeh in "The Call of Cthulhu". The founder of Chaosium - Greg Stafford - was a good friend and traveled with Don to Egypt on one of his trips.

Don says: "I found Lovecraft when I was 11 years old, in the Scholastic Book Services edition of The Shadow over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror. I had no idea who Lovecraft was, but the book’s cover looked cool in the little catalogues from which my 6th Grade class used to order books each month. The book included only seven stories – an odd mix of classics, one-offs, and revisions – but in addition to the titular story, it included “Imprisoned with the Pharaohs”. This struck a chord with my lifelong love of Ancient Egypt and I vowed to visit the Pyramids some day and find those underground passages.

I have now visited Egypt seven times, entered and climbed those pyramids (back when that was legal), and crawled through passages beneath the Giza plateau. I’m keeping a running tally of tombs entered and it stands at eighty-three.

The gigantic tunnels of Lovecraft’s (and Houdini’s) imagination aren’t there, but there is plenty in Egypt to stir the Lovecraftian imagination in any enthusiast. My favorite such site is the baboon & falcon catacombs at Tuna el Gebil, the necropolis for Hermopolis, the city of Thoth. The first time I went there my Egyptian guide Ahmad, who was a devout Muslim, said that it was the one ancient site that he would not want to stay at after dark.  It’s a very lonely place out in the desert, and the maze of catacombs underneath can be disconcerting.  As Ahmad had said this, the wind was blowing across the sand accompanied by howls of wild dogs.  I could see what he meant, but he would still love to spend the night there.

Back home, my day-to-day life involves work with the Wiccan community, the interfaith community, and the intersection between these two. One way this manifests is through a private Pagan library I am opening in the San Francisco East Bay – the Adocentyn Research Library. The Library has recently reached capacity with over 15,000 volumes on its shelves and has now negotiated to triple its space. In addition to the occult subjects one might expect of a Pagan library, Adocentyn has special collections in Egyptology, esoteric Islam, Central American indigenous traditions, and Arthurian Studies, and – with the expanded space – will be adding a large collection of Lovecraft Studies.

I recently went back to school at UC Berkeley to study Middle Egyptian and have completed three years of study. I have some thoughts about the “correct” rendering and translation of Nephren-Ka that I’ll share soon. (BTW, I have visited a temple dedicated to Nitocris, but it’s dedicated to a 25th Dynasty priestess of Amun, not the infamous 6th Dynasty Ghoul-Queen of legend.) I am also managing a micro-crowd-funded Egyptology project to gather small amounts of money in the US to fund small but necessary archaeological projects in Egypt.  This project has built structures at Karnak and Luxor, but doesn’t yet have a name."

January 2022

• January 6, 2022

Our Member of the Month for January, 2022 is Jean-Philippe Ranger of Fredericton, New Brunswick.

Jean-Philippe says: "I came to Lovecraft later in life, but in many ways, it seemed that I had been preparing myself to love his work long before. In my first university degree, I studied Latin Literature and Classical Archaeology, so I quite liked the characters in Lovecraft’s stories. For many decades, I had been a fan of fin de siècle decadent literature, so I recognized some of Lovecraft’s tropes and style and felt at home in many of his stories. Four of my favorites are “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward,” “The Dunwich Horror,” “Dreams in the Witch House,” and “The Thing on the Doorstep”. I love the idea of cosmic horror, combined with the notion that in order to be able to fully grasp knowledge of the inner workings of this bizarre cosmos that we are part of means that we lose some of our humanity. I don’t believe this is the case, but I think it makes for good stories!

From Lovecraft and through others who enjoy his stories, I have come to discover other authors who influenced him like Arthur Machen, Robert W. Chambers, and M.R. James. Lovecraft’s stories have opened a whole world that was unknown to me before.

I first heard of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society through one of the early episodes of the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast and I quickly became a fan. I have many of their DART adaptations and a few pieces of apparel. I make sure to wear my Arkham Sanitarium lab coat for all my kitchen experiments, my Miskatonic Antarctic Expedition Hoodie for my arctic travels (I live in Canada’s maritime provinces, and it gets quite cold in the winter) and my Miskatonic Metaphys. Ed T-Shirt when I practice my calisthenic exercises in the summer. My family like to laugh at my two favorite Christmas decorations: a Cthulhu ornament as well as a Miskatonic University Antarctic Expedition commemorative ornament. I like to carve and print old alchemical images, some would have been in books that HPL’s characters pour over.

I am currently having great fun running the Horror on the Orient Express, Chaosium’s classic 1920’s era campaign.

In my spare time, I teach Ancient Greek Philosophy at a small liberal arts university. Secretly, I spend my days reading tomes of ancient lore in dead languages and strive to learn the wisdom that the Ancients have tried to impart on us.

Finally, I have a historical doppelgänger: Alexander Hermann, a 19th century magician. What was that story about the 'essential saltes'?"

December 2021

• December 2, 2021

Our Member of the Month for December, 2021 is Lee Villatoro Strand of Milton, Washington.

Lee says: "I was born in the great Golden State of California as the “middle child” of four siblings to a Mother from Oregon and Father from Guatemala. My family moved around a lot in my early childhood - at one point residing in Huehuetenango, Guatemala in the mid-90’s. Once I was a teen (or pre-teen) I lived in or around the Pacific Northwest- so I would say I grew up in the state of Washington.

I was still in High School when I first heard the name Howard Phillips Lovecraft, largely in relation to Cthulhu, but it would be some time before I actually read any of his stories. In fact, my interest in Lovecraft started with a different author with the name Howard - that is Robert E. Howard. I had read a small news article published in 2014 (or some time around then) featuring Robert E. Howard’s most famous creation, Conan the Barbarian. Like most people I was already familiar with the 1982 Arnold Schwarzenegger film but never really thought about the origins of the Conan character. I was genuinely surprised to find he was dreamed up by someone in a small Texas town back in the 1930s. My interest peaked, I picked up a collection of Conan stories, which bled through to reading further of Howard’s adventure stories like Solomon Kane and the like.

As I got more into Howard’s fiction, I learned of his connection to Lovecraft and that they had a legendary correspondence as pen-pals - a small part of a larger correspondence between similar Pulp writers in what was dubbed the “Lovecraft Circle”. A group of writers who were encouraged to share and adopt each other's ideas, building stories on each other’s styles and themes. Many of the monsters or nameless cults featured in the Conan stories were borrowed or inspired by his correspondences with Lovecraft. Subsequently, I decided to get a little more interested in reading Lovecraft’s work.

I can’t recall which of his stories I picked up first. It may have been “Dagon” or “The Statement of Randolph Carter”. I do recall the first story I really enjoyed was “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and I’ve been a fan ever since. Reading his stories led me to search for further Lovecraftian entertainment in other media such as Stuart Gordon movies or different comic book adaptations. Eventually, my pursuit of all things Lovecraftian led me here to the HPLHS website. I would frequent the site to purchase the latest DART episodes or anything else that might catch my eye. Eventually I became a card-carrying member in 2017.

As to what I’m doing now, currently I am working in the Medical field. I actually got hired for my position just as the COVID outbreak began. I’ve had a few different jobs before but the larger part of pursuing my current occupation was my desire to help people. During this time there have been some rough days but I’m impressed by how a lot of us have been able to pull together. My message to you all is to stay smart, stay safe, and stay healthy."

November 2021

• November 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for November, 2021 is Annika Hurtig of Mölndal, Sweden.

Annika says: "I have always been drawn to horror in one way or another (to my mother's dismay), either through reading horror books for children or writing stories without happy ends in school. I was around 14 when I found Edgar Allan Poe, fell in love with Stephen King's IT and his Creepshow comic and was also introduced to tabletop roleplaying games. A good start that I'm proud of. In my late teens I also started to really dig in into horror movies with Mr. Kreuger and his nightmares alongside more Stephen King movies and different kinds of vampires.

I was first introduced to mister Lovecraft in my early 20s through my then boyfriend and his friends when they got me to listen to Cradle of Filth's song 'Cthulhu Dawn' and started to explain about Cthulhu and pieces of the mythos and it intrigued me. Didn't search for the stories yet though. Without having read the story — yet — I watched Dagon with a friend and the, to us, unfamiliar end left us with the jaws hanging wondering what we had just seen in a shocked but good way. It was about this time I checked the local library to find out more about this Lovecraft fellow and one "The Hound", "Pickman's Model" and "The Colour out of Space" (in Swedish) later I was hooked. Even the end of the Dagon movie suddenly made sense.

I read the other Lovecraft stories the library could offer and then continued my descent down the abysmal rabbit hole of the mythos to find out more, and the more I found the more I loved what I found; invisible monstrous twins, handwriting that shouldn't be there, that genealogy research can give you answers you don't want, don't call up what you can't put down and that some things should never be disturbed...

More and more I also realized that the old gentleman had been lurking around me all my life because he was a great influence on authors and movies I loved and that made me love him even more. More research on the Internet made me find an interesting group for short called HPLHS. They were both out of their minds and had a huge portion of humour which I liked and even though it took some years before I joined as a lifetime cultist I was lurking around and enjoyed both radio theatre, movies and other fun inspiring stuff they came up with.

I really like how Lovecraft's mythos has grown over the years without losing its ambience. It's still about showing how tiny we 'puni humis' are in the larger picture and how much we still don't understand about the world around us. It's something that keeps my feet on the ground and thoughts humble while I gaze up to the stars to remind myself that "well I'm not Walter Gilman so I should be able to deal with the next problem".

In the meantime the collection is constantly evolving, as you can see."

October 2021

• October 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for October, 2021 is James Cornell of Decatur, Georgia.

James says: "I didn’t come into contact with Lovecraft directly until I was in my twenties, but he was always on the periphery of things I’ve enjoyed my whole life. Being a fan of comics, pulp fiction and horror movies, there’s only so far you can go without eventually coming to Lovecraft’s work. I first heard his name as a fan of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy, and how inspired he was by the work of this guy from Providence named Lovecraft. Curious, I went to a bookstore and picked up Tales of H.P. Lovecraft, edited by Joyce Carol Oates. After that, I was off to the races, devouring first Lovecraft’s work directly, and then branching out to the larger Lovecraftian genre, eventually arriving at the HPLHS itself, and their outstanding Dark Adventure Radio Theatre. I absolutely adore the work the HPLHS does to explore and expand the incredible worlds of Lovecraft and his successors, and I cannot wait to see what Sean and Andrew come up with next!

I have attached some of my artwork, including a piece from a tabletop RPG my friends and I are producing called Terrors and Tommyguns. (It’s HPL-inspired, but not explicitly Lovecraftian). I hope you enjoy it!"

September 2021

• September 4, 2021

Our Member of the Month for September, 2021 is SSG Joshua Hanafin of Guyton, Georgia.

Sgt. Hanafin says: "For better or for worse, I am from everywhere and nowhere all at once. Such is what I tell most folk upon first meeting them and having to briskly answer that imminent question as to my origins. Furthermore, I am half-Japanese, half-Irish, and an only child. I was born at the beginning of 1974 in a Baltimore hospital, right across the street from the historic reformatory and orphanage of George Herman "Babe" Ruth's childhood years. My father always led me to believe that I was also born just down the road from that revered place of rest for none other than the American literary icon Edgar Allan Poe himself. Regardless of the calamity and mystery concerning the truth of his burial site (befitting the story of his life, really...), the simple reality of the matter is that his remains were originally buried many blocks away from the specific place of my birth. Yet, get this. The historical Baltimore error of his originally-indicated birthdate is truly my own birthday, while he actually was born the day before by only a matter of hours. Curiously enough... I do indeed play baseball (pitcher and left field), and I am most definitely an enthusiast of classic American literature, science fiction, mystery, horror, and even detective stories. Imagine that...

Anyroads, I did not remain in Baltimore for very long at all beyond my being a wee babe. As soon as my enlisted Regular Army veteran, Army National Guardsman, and Air Force R.O.T.C. cadet father completed his Bachelor of Arts degree in History at the nearby University of Maryland, he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the U.S. Air Force. From there began my life of moving around the country as well as the world every 2 to 3 years. The first language that I learned to speak was Japanese, since my mother brought me back to her family in Japan for over a year while my father dealt with his very first assignment fresh out of the Armed Forces Air Intelligence Training Center at Lowry Air Force Base (Denver, Colorado) - his mandatory and unaccompanied hardship tour to Cyprus. Upon completion of his duty requirements in that far edge of the Mediterranean Sea, our nuclear family was eventually reunited for the duration. Though my father's duty stations were colourful, geographically widespread, and many, he did his damnedest and succeeded in getting reassigned to various air bases thus scattered across the entire Japanese archipelago for my mother's sake. Thus, I was mostly raised in Japan and with the culturally diversifying as well as emotionally and intellectually structuring influences of my stern Japanese mother (of course, along with the omnipresent Japanese world at large beyond our household at the time).

Very closely to my father's retirement from the U.S. Air Force, I officially joined the U.S. Army in 1992 at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, New Mexico. Roswell might be a truly minor "city" in the middle of nowhere. Yet, to quote the narrator's introduction for every episode of that Courage the Cowardly Dog series, "but creepy stuff happens in Nowhere" to be sure! Thus, Roswell is noted mostly for its close associations to the early-20th Century development of rocketry through Robert Hutchings Goddard (events and a man ironically tied to Massachusetts during that classically Lovecraftian window of time and point of interest to us), the wildly notorious and controversial 1947 sensation of U.F.O. and extraterrestrial significance, as well as the consequently ever-popular location for what would eventually become the International U.F.O. Museum and Research Center (cues The X-Files theme) from the ruins of Roswell's historic "Plains Theatre" which rather interestingly opened its doors for their very first time in 1946 (awesomely close proximity to that "Roswell incident" of note which would soon follow during this fledgling theatre's second year). By the by, Robert H. Goddard also happened to die in Baltimore, Maryland. Fancy that... 'Tis such a small world of wonders.

When my father saw fit to leave his service, my own lengthy military career and resumed process of again moving every 2 to 3 years began right there in Roswell, NM during mid-September of 1992. Such..."coincidences" as these never truly cease for me, not even for my honoured selection here as this "Member of the Month" for September 2021 of all months (and the plot only continues to thicken). Sure enough, I am still today a career soldier with a most atypical service record spanning the Army National Guards of New Mexico, California, and South Carolina as well as the Army Reserve and Regular Army - all without a single break in service for any reason. In a few weeks, I will have completed my 29th consecutive year of service to this "Total Army" - as they have been frequently calling it within the past decade. Again, I began my warrior's journey right there at the N.M.M.I. in 1992 as a cadet and then rather quickly as a commissioned officer of the Armor Branch (tanks, that is). After 9 years of being an Armor Officer, I volunteered myself down into the enlisted ranks of this same branch in order to jump right into the heat of action during Operation Iraqi Freedom I. I have remained a 19K Armor Crewman as a noncommissioned officer ever since... Though I have officially been a "tanker" throughout the entirety of my career, my own tracks of training and their yields of unique experience have weirdly taken me well away from the tank line into some extremely unusual directions and destinations for a Combat Arms soldier of any rank and status - including assignment to play trombone for an Infantry Division Band as a tanker! Since every other aspect of my being seems to be inherently designed for breaking all of the rules and violating all manners of boundaries, containments, and expectations (even without my will to actively do so), why should my career paths and progressions be any different - right...? It has all been quite a fascinating and dubiously wild ride for me, but in truth, I would never recommend it nor wish it upon anyone.

As for the myriad details which "make me tick" as a person, well... I will do my very best to faithfully summarise. After all, they are just as manifold and complex as I am. Military science, martial arts, pipes and pipe tobacco (including narghile or hookah pipes), natural history and science, archaeology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, world religions, metaphysics, divination, occult science, parapsychology, demonology, etymology, and languages are all examples of my various interests. My tastes for music range from Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and 20th Century among the musical traditions of Western history; opera and musicals; computer or video game, television, and movie soundtracks and scores; Celtic; Irish folk and "rebel songs"; traditional Japanese; Gothic soundtracks; jazz; classic rock; 80's pop; heavy metal; and alternative rock among a broad scale. Horror, fantasy, science fiction, drama, comedy, and action (in television and movies) all represent my film preferences. Books of my particular fancy can easily be found among the history (all periods and subjects), world mythology, classical literature of the Western world, English and American literary classics, classical military treatises, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stacks. My favourite sports to play (never watch) are baseball, softball, badminton, volleyball, racquetball, tennis, and even table tennis. Among my plethora of hobbies and favoured activities are music (performance by voice and numerous instruments as well as simple appreciation), theatre (performance and appreciation alike), fantasy role-playing games (especially Dungeons & Dragons - all old school TSR tabletop, pencil-and-paper versions from the late 1970's and early 1980's primarily), classic strategy games, war games (military and historical simulations), board games (family and thematic), trivia, outdoorsmanship, horsemanship, birdwatching, wildlife and pet care, amateur astronomy, living history (all periods with an emphasis on military subjects), English composition (writing), and collecting (fine books, out-of-print materials, antiques, comic books, CD's, DVD's, figurines, toys, and games). Obviously, this is not a flawlessly comprehensive list of all that there is to me, but one should nonetheless get the idea...

Now, in laboriously putting all of these revelations of informations together, one might expectedly be compelled to ultimately ask the question here. Just how is it that someone like me finds his way to an especial respect and enjoyment of H.P. Lovecraft's work as well as directly into the ranks of a lifetime membership in the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society? Well... All of the clues to the answer are rather plainly situated in the open, above - right here among these unapologetically so very many words. My design is so dynamic, and my pattern is so pronounced for all to detect and perceive. As my own variety of gamer... As an unquestionable scholar... As a..."nerd", really... This was all rather inevitable, and no mistake. Would ye not agree...? Besides, amongst the great mass of you out there with your highly similar inclinations of culture and subculture alike, it is not really as if you too have not already come to this special place of darkly magical fascinations and realisations in much the same way - by one road or another. Generally, for most of us... I assert that it is simply just a matter of time. Some of us arrive sooner, while others merely arrive later (when at all given the time and opportunity to do so in this life of course - shite always happens, I know). Alas, I must concede that I am with this latter group of latecomers. Nevertheless, here I finally am! 'Tis a genuine privilege and pleasure for me to join this fine organisation and deliberately promote its endeavours of prolific creativity through persistent quality. How so genuinely...Slytherin of the H.P.L.H.S. to most commendably be this way and conduct its artful business in such an elevated fashion of elite professionalism... Anything worth doing is only worth doing well, eh? In any case, 'twill be a grand delight to be with y'all for many years to come as I resume my own individual venture to delve ever deeper into the universe (or even multiverse) of H.P. Lovecraft. Thank you ever so very much for this distinguished honour of being made September's Member of the Month for 2021. Kanpai... Sláinte!!!

August 2021

• August 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for August, 2021 is Bret McDaniel of Austin, Texas.

Bret says: "Thank you! I'm delighted to be chosen member of the month. Strangely enough, I grew up reading the works of Poe, but somehow never managed to read Lovecraft until much later in life. I guess it goes to show that his impact stands the test of time as people continue to discover and be entertained by his writings. His work opened up a whole new group of authors to me like Machen, Chambers, Howard etc. that are just as fascinating. I have a career in the geology field and it always puts a smile on my face to see geology (and geologists-thank you Professor Dyer!) in Lovecraft's writings.

Equally strange was how I first heard of the HPLHS. A short while after having read most of Lovecraft's stories, I was listening to a podcast where the guest was talking about the best movie based on Lovecraft's work. When he said "Call of Cthulhu by the HPLHS", I was shocked that (1) there was a movie and (2) there was a whole society out there dedicated to his writings. Well, I was hooked. And my sanity points dropped permanently.

I currently enjoy playing D&D, Arkham Horror, the card game, and the occasional game of Call of Cthulhu with my gaming friends. I think I also have an unhealthy obsession with making prop documents. I wish continued success with the HPLHS and to many more sanity blasting shows, props and artifacts. I can't wait until the next Necronomicon in Providence to meet other members that share this crazy passion.

Yog-Sothoth Neblod Zin!

July 2021

• July 7, 2021

Our member of the Month for July 2021 is Nancy Steinecke of Laurel, Maryland.

Nancy says: "Here I am (Figure 1) trying my hardest to resemble White Eagle (Figure 2), turn-of-the-century juggler extraordinaire, pater familias (I wish), and personal muse. Like everybody else in HPLHS, I enjoy our jerky St. Vitas dance to the grave and perhaps beyond (Figure 3). Mostly I'm just another schmoo raking the manure (Figure 4) in our Boschian landscape, with the occasional romp in foreign climes, like Afghanistan (Figure 5). In the absence of Chthulululesque paraphernalia, here is an image of my vaguely pornographic keychain collection (Figure 6: visible only to members in the Member Sanctum).

A testimonial: 'While the critics have taken their time to recognize Nancy Steinecke as her merits deserve, her devoted following (including seven budgerigars and two human daughters) have long acknowledged her unaussprechlichen precognition and devastating repartee. This beloved cult classic is as ground-breaking today as the day Grandma (Figure 7, center) said, Cut, print!' --Charlotte Steinecke, non-budgerigar daughter."

June 2021

• June 15, 2021

Our Member of the Month for June, 2021 is William "Ike" Eisenhauer of Omaha, Nebraska.

Ike says: “’What if the shadows are real?’ ‘Of course, shadows are real.’ ‘No, I mean what if the THINGS you think ARE the shadows are real’. ’Shut up Billy, you are freaking me out‘. A simple childhood conversation at night was the start of my twisted fascination with what is really out there, beyond the perceptions and of the objective and rational. Of course this path leads one quickly to the works of Lovecraft, and so I joined those already on that journey to a hellish destination.

Like many others, imaginations on this level for those of a young age also gravitate to role playing games, like D&D. Where these seeds of insanity can grow to full-on jungles of madness. Amplified by a similarly deranged, but in a "good" way, 5th grade teacher who felt that exploring the works of Lovecraft along with Tolkien, Howard, and Poe along with a healthy dose of fantasy role playing as education entrenched me in this love of the works.

Fast forward to much later in life and finding the love of my life, my wife Dawn, who I merged into a joint shared insanity for the last 29 years. I could not be happier. During our time as the owners of a now defunct escape room company (thank you pestilence with the cursed name of COVID), I joined the HPLHS. After the wrath of the pandemic stripped us of all material possessions we fled to the midwest from our coastal abode with our two androgrous spawn, who also have been entwined in the collective madness. Where I sit in my semi-retirement and permanent delusional reality and continue to inflict a different kind of punishment on my college engineering students at the school where I attended many decades before."

May 2021

• May 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for May, 2021 is Nathan Sells of Ottawa, Canada.

Nathan says: "I first found my way to Lovecraftiana in 2007. I perused the stacks of my local library beset with the questions that haunt all middle-schoolers, like “Who’s this guy my D&D books keep referencing?” and “What the heck is this word? Why does it have so many consonants?” I found the answers tucked away in a book of short stories where I first read 'The Dreams in the Witch House', a story that remains one of my favourites to this day. That was enough to hook me. I quickly read all the other stories the library system had to offer me, and like any good cultist I began spreading what I found. Lovecraft quickly became a way to connect with new friends, an inspiration for the roleplaying that had drawn me to him in the first place, and a lens through which to explore history.

At some point early in my explorations of Lovecraft I found my way onto the HPLHS website, and…well, there’s a reason I’m still here. Suddenly there weren’t just books to read, but props and movies and radio plays and a whole community of like-minded weirdos. It propelled me deeper into the hobby. The HPLHS is also directly responsible for one of my favourite Lovecraft memories.

When I worked at an overnight camp, I was known to have the best cabin to watch at night. Where other cabins were likely to be full of rambunctious children battling against sleep, the children of mine were quietly gathered around speakers to listen to a chapter of a DART show. Not only did this give me ample time to engage in nameless rituals, it was amazing to watch the general confusion in the dining hall, as a group of ten-year-olds arrived discussing what exactly an Elder Thing looked like, instead of the day’s activities.

I now feel confident answering the questions of my younger self (well, I’m still not sure how to pronounce a few names…) and I prompt fun ones from friends like “Nathan, what’s that on your shelf?” and “Was that NPC Nyarlathotep, again?” It a stage I could never have reached without this wonderful and august community."

April 2021

• April 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for April, 2021 lives in San Francisco, Cal.

His name is Guillermo Uribe, a Miskatonic University dropout. Rumors say that he was found being held in an asylum, his sanity shattered.

It all began in Old Aztec lands, where hideous human sacrifices were held in the name of blood lust gods. An ordinary person, curious about the secrets of nature and mysteries beyond. It was around 2007 when he was playing in a psychobilly band when he became aware about a writer called HP Lovecraft, rumors say that one song from their set depicted stories about unimaginable creatures and horrors; little did he knew the venomous seed was planted in his soul.

It was around 2010 when he befriended some mysterious beings who lured him to become one of the first members of the cult called "Círculo Lovecraftiano & Horror". For some years he kept studying dark and eerie stories regarding unthinkable horror, sharing them with other members of the cult in one of their many monthly pagan rituals. It wasn’t long after, on a cold winter, he became aware of another group of people far away called the HP Lovecraft Historical Society. He started to show symptoms of madness after he spent days hearing hideous melodies about Christmas carols and old documentaries regarding sea expeditions. He needed to know more, he couldn't stop anymore.

Fever dreams about infinite dimensions and non-Euclidean geometry, indescribable beings called him from beyond. He learned to play the bass guitar every evening to make those voices go away, to appease them off. Last time he made contact with relatives he said he was lured by the call from the sea, that he needed to go to a far away place called California, to find the answers to his never ending nightmares.

For many years, nobody heard from him until now.

March 2021

• March 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for March, 2021 is Joshua Willenbring, of Kenosha, Wisconsin.

Joshua says: "In one form or another horror has almost always been a part of my life. Growing up my father was — and still is — a big fan of B-list horror movies. So watching all those overly gory, jump scare style movies you would think I was a huge horror buff. What happened was exactly the opposite; it actually put me off horror. It all felt too samey: scary man kills dumb teenagers, dumb teenagers escape or all die. I eschewed the genre entirely until high-school. It was there I started seriously reading Poe, and found out that I actually did enjoy horror. The difference being that I could put my own imagination to work on what was happening. This only got better as “Cthulhu Fever” hit my school. I had been on the fringes of that fever and didn't really dive into it. I enjoyed the surface knowledge and jokes my friends and I made. It wasn't until a few years ago that I told myself it was time to knuckle down and actually read the mythos stories. My progress has admittedly been slow but I understand more of the jokes now!

I actually found out about the HPLHS because I started running Call of Cthulhu online for some friends. I was looking for The Masks of Nyarlathotep module and found the prop set here. Then found the D.A.R.T. plays, and before I knew it I was planning listening sessions for my gaming group. It's been a lot of fun writing out scenarios for my players, as most of them have no background with Lovecraft's work. So just about anything I throw at them is shocking and new, and I haven't even touched most of the mythos creatures...yet. I do hope one day to properly emulate a mythos story into a session, and achieve the same mind bending horror the story conveys. ​

Overall my admittedly short time in the society has been great. I love the creativity and memorabilia that's sprung up from the group (I absolutely love the Innsmouth Sea Shanties). I really only have two concerns about my continued membership. One, that I find enough shelf space to accommodate my new addiction. Two, that I never see any slightly hunched dark figures emerging from Lake Michigan (I live very close to the shore).”

February 2021

• February 1, 2021

Our Member of the Month for February, 2021 is Sue Hill, of Hancock, Michigan. Sue has generously served the society as a science advisor for a number of episodes of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre, and shares a few shelfies with us.

Sue says: "The first story I read was "Dagon", back in the mid-'80s. I was blown away by the surreal imagery of the slimy expanse and monolith. I never got a chance to roleplay, but I read pretty much everything by Lovecraft before finishing grad school. I did physics research abroad and was thrilled to visit some strange locales, like unknowable London (according to Machen), Highgate Cemetery, Stonehenge, Dover Castle, Lliogor-land Wales (Colin Wilson), Paris (could not find the Rue d’Auseil), and Toledo (The Pit and The Pendulum). I dwell in the frozen lands of Ithaqua now, but I hope to visit the motherland Providence some day.

When the internet and Facebook emerged, I joined the HPLHS main Facebook group early on. Later I became a Society member and have enjoyed the sanctuary-like ambience of the weird and august member’s group. I love all the Society productions, especially The Whisperer in Darkness. Participating in the annual Eldritch Elf exchange has revealed the stunning generosity and artistry shown by members across the globe.

The best part of the group is the camaraderie. One can find a balance of quirky supportiveness in the members, against the “new norm” inflicted by current events. I’ve had the privilege of acting as a Science Accomplice on Society projects, such as consulting physicist on the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre production of “Mad Science.” I also like to watch short films and write microfiction, so I hope that the HPLHS, Arkham Bazaar, HPL Film Festival, H. P. Lovecraft Archive, and all such affiliates persist until the Sun cools and we need to escape into other forms.”

January 2021

• January 4, 2021

Our Member of the Month for January, 2021 is Nicholas Corkigian, of Ontario, Canada.

Nicholas says: My very first exposure to the Cthulhu Mythos was back in 1980 with the original Deities and Demigods AD&D manual. The descriptions and artwork caught my attention and imagination, and I sought out those referenced Lovecraft tomes. I bought all of the Ballantine editions, and read through them one after the other. I started noticing ads in Dragon Magazine. First, that Indiana Jones guy for Grenadier miniatures, and then eventually the Chaosium ads for their Call of Cthulhu game. I found a copy of the second edition of the game, and have been hooked on Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos ever since.

I attended the occasional gaming conventions. As comic conventions became more mainstream, I dabbled in cosplay. Steampunk and Doctor Who were my favourites to do. I realized, however, that I got more enjoyment out of gaming, especially LARPs where I can still dress up. Of course, my favourite LARPs are Cthulhu-themed.

Up until recently, I was only a casual visitor to the HPLHS web site. Then I discovered DART audios. And then of course the props. I really like the props. Last year, I thought my lack of membership needed to be remedied.

As a child of media, the Call has wormed its way into all aspects of my life: books, comics, games, movies, clothing, props. With some subtle influence, some of my son’s earliest words have been ‘Cthulhu fhtagn’. Corruption, they say, starts at home. It's not easy having a malevolent shapeless monster like that hanging over your head, but there it is!”

December 2020

• December 9, 2020

Our Member of the Month for December, 2020 is Brian Overton of Cary, North Carolina.

Brian says: "Hi, I am Brian, a joyful member of HPLHS. The web didn’t extinguish the HPLHS, and I came back at a certain time of the week when a new post would appear. They sold a couple of quirky items, saying they “thought it would be fun,” and I bought them under the fabricated Affliction Reduction Incorporated business as Dr. B.P. Overton. While a real archaeologist, I hold no such honored degree."

HPLHS really nurtured a good, healthy fun with HPL, roleplaying and props. By posting regularly, before visual social media bloomed, they keep me coming back and grew my greater HPL fandom. I met them at NecronomiCon, choosing to spend near a week in Providence R.I. over being with my loving and tolerant wife on her birthday which is one day removed from HPL. I have been honored to be a member and learn more about HPL and his thoughts and times from the recent podcasts, yet another successful endeavor by the Society. I have collected too much Cthulhu stuff – my daughters say the name perfectly. The Facebook group and Eldritch Elf brings a lot of fun into my life – as a Christmas baby, I really look forward to the exchange."

May your CthulhuGram arrive soon, frequently and bursting with stamps."

November 2020

• November 3, 2020

Our Member of the Month for November, 2020 is Sean Whittaker of Vancouver, British Columbia.

Sean says: "I first encountered Lovecraft’s fiction as a young reader in the mid-80s at the same time as my close circle of friends were becoming enthusiastic fans of a new hobby, role-playing games! Serendipitously I discovered the existence of Call of Cthulhu a couple of years later which provided the best of both worlds. I have remained a devoted fan of both Lovecraft’s cosmic horror tales and collaborative story-telling ever since.

Given my lifelong affinity for books it should come as no surprise that my bookshelves have, over time, become the repository for Lovecraft’s complete works of fiction, nearly all of the Dark Adventure radio plays, and many items from the catalogues of Chaosium and other publishers of Lovecraftian horror role-playing games. If there is a blessing to be found in this challenging year of 2020 it’s that I’ve found more time with my friends to explore some of Lovecraft’s ideas around both physical and virtual tables. Now if only my group’s enjoyment of the HPLHS’ props for Masks of Nyarlathotep was not so constrained by social distancing . . ."

October 2020

• October 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for October, 2020 is Frank Dukowski of Berlin, Germany.

Frank says: "I am into Lovecraft since I saw those strange books in the library back in the seventies. They were black with green pages and had nearly all of Lovecraft stories available in German in those days. During the eighties I had some frightening adventures with the „Call of Cthulhu“-game, too. But Lovecraft turned into a real obsession when I discovered, (after having read his work for over 15 years!) that I shared the birthday with him, although not the year...

I grew up in Western Germany, in an area called „Bergisches Land“ (deep forest and a lot of rain) similar to Berkshire County, Massachusetts, except that we never had an UFO happening. Today I live in Berlin, but I still own a 300 years old house close to Wuppertal, NRW where I was born. At the moment I suffer the loss of an unnamable amount of sanity, by putting „Fungi from Yuggoth“ and 60 other poems by H.P. Lovecraft into proper German rhymes. We will see what it does to mankind and the world, when it will be published (hopefully on green pages!).

I got to the H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society via facebook. I got hooked by the big LOVE put in every prop, and in every music, and the wonderful Radio Theater. I’m already looking forward to listening to all the Scary Solstice tracks again, when the darkest night of the year comes closer.

September 2020

• September 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for September, 2020 is Brandon Berry of Surprise, Arizona.

Brandon says: "My name is Brandon Berry and I'm 26 years old. Originally from Waterford, Michigan, I've lived in Surprise, Arizona for the past 2 years. I initially got into Lovecraft in middle school with the story "The Rats in the Walls". Already a huge fan of Poe and other horror masters, I instantly fell in love with Lovecraft's atmosphere and style. Every fall, I read through his collected works with my cat Abner purring in my lap. During this period, my long suffering girlfriend of 6 years patiently listens to me rattle on about Elder Gods and the Dreamlands for the umpteenth time.

My Lovecraftian collection includes a slowly growing selection of Chaosium publications, the HPLHS radio shows, and the fabulous Eldritch Horror game along with its expansion packs. I feel very lucky to be living in a time where there is no end to literature, games, and collectibles based on Howard's work, as I know this wasn't always the case.

I'm honored to be a member of the HPLHS and I hope they never stop creating wonderful Lovecraftian goodies for me to devour. Thank you guys and gals for all the great work you do and keep it up! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!"

August 2020

• August 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for August 2020 is Arnaud Duroy of Paris, France.

Arnaud says: "I am 48 years old, I live in Paris and I have been an avid reader of Lovecraft since my earliest childhood. I discovered it in the middle of the '80s through The Colour Out of Space published by Denoël. I have never stopped reading it and rereading it.

The first French translations were, shall we say ..., at least fairly loose and several passages of the text were quite simply deleted. It took me many years of learning English and sleepless nights to be able to read it roughly in text. I am still very far from getting there, as the text can sometimes be outdated and complex.

I have also been a roleplayer for over thirty-five years and have discovered a certain idea of the Myth through the prism of role-playing. This approach is very different from that of Lovecraft and ultimately quite far from the author's vision. The Myth has completely overtaken it to the detriment of the author.

I was delighted and very happy to discover the HPLHS of which I am a life member. The approach to Lovecraft's writings and the quality of the company's projects is simply stupendous! I congratulate you on that. I hope, on occasion, to drop by and say hello to you in Glendale, CA!"

July 2020

• July 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for July, 2020 is Brad Ferris of Indianapolis, Indiana.

Brad says: "My first encounter with Lovecraft was in 2008 in the form of Stephen King’s novella “N.” In an interview about the story King talked about finding inspiration in the works of Arthur Machen and H.P. Lovecraft, and he described, in brief, the Cthulhu Mythos and the idea of a universe filled with indifferent monsters. I was intrigued. I dropped into my local library and found a copy of some of Lovecraft’s stories and devoured them quickly. However, as I was in college at the time and had many competing priorities I had to set Lovecraft aside and didn’t revisit him for almost ten years.

My deep dive into the Mythos came recently. It began after a conversation with one of the fine people at Chaosium at GenCon in 2016. I was encouraged to purchase the 7th Edition Quick Start rules for the Call of Cthulhu RPG and the rest, as they say, is history. I’ve now read most of Lovecraft’s stories, and have taken a roleplaying group through the first few portions of Masks of Nyarlathotep

I’ve really enjoyed my time with the HPLHS. It’s fun to be able to say hello to Andrew, Sean and crew every year at GenCon, and it will be sad not to have that pleasure in 2020. Another of my favorite parts of being a member is actually this, the member of the month board. It’s fun to read other member’s stories and to know there are other people out there whose interests align with mine.

When not contemplating the indifference of alien gods in the far cosmos, my earthly interests tend a little closer to home. In my free time I can often be found wandering the nearest available wilderness with a backpack. I also have a passion for space and space exploration, particularly the history of crewed missions, and I’m currently in the research phase of what will eventually become a book about the International Space Station."

June 2020

• June 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for June, 2020 is Kathleen Dawson of Gypsum, Colorado.

Kathleen says: "I first found Lovecraft at 16, while sitting on the floor in the fantasy/scifi/horror section of the used bookstore near my high school. I grabbed one of his books off the shelf thanks to the creepy but awesome illustrations on the cover. I was hooked from then (I even spent my bus money for the next two days to buy the book. Luckily, my destination was only a couple of miles.) My favorite stories are At the Mountains of Madness and any of the Randolph Carter stories.

A few years later, I found the HPLHS through random internet browsing. The Dark Adventure Radio Theatre productions have been a constant companion ever since. The Dreams in the Witch House rock opera is also a perennial favorite!

I live in Colorado with my husband, cats, and dog. Someday I hope to convince my D&D friends to let me run a CoC campaign. I'm also an avid photographer and I hope to get back to New England to shoot a number of places. I'm sending a picture of bare trees that always put me in mind of The Color Out of Space."

You can see some more of Kathleen's photos in the Member Sanctum.

May 2020

• May 3, 2020

Our Member of the Month for May, 2020 is Mark Saunders of Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.

Mark says: "I first discovered Lovecraft through Stephen King. My parents had an old copy of Night Shift and the first story in that collection is "Jerusalem’s Lot". After I read that story, I discovered that it was inspired by a Lovecraft story. So, I sought out this story, "Rats in the Walls", and I was hooked. From there, I read every Lovecraft story I could get my hands on until I eventually read them all.

I was turned on to the HPLHS through my love of old radio dramas. When I was kid, I’d listen to the Sherlock Holmes, Shadow and Lights Out shows. I was absolutely delighted to find that someone was making quality audio dramas based on Lovecraft stories. From there, I took a deep dive down the rabbit hole of the HPLHS and the wider Lovecraft fandom.

The HPLHS showed me that there is a much larger group of Lovecraft fans than I ever thought there could be. Last summer I attended my first NecronomiCon. I met so many great people, including Andrew, Sean and Kevin, and even participated in the live version of "Mad Science". It has been an absolutely amazing experience.

I love being a member of the HPLHS and am always excited to see a new project in the works. I am looking forward to seeing what the Society will do next."

April 2020

• April 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for April, 2020 is Kilian Wittebolle of Gent, Belgium.

Kilian says: "I was pretty much introduced to the work of Lovecraft at the age of 7 or 8, thanks to a friend of the family who filled the “slightly crazy but lovable uncle” position. We often watched movies together, and The Evil Dead and Re-Animator quickly became some of my favorites. Responsible choices for a boy that age or not, he helped me grow a love and fascination for horror and the unknown. I've also always been an avid reader, but my first real encounter with Lovecraft's tales was when I was 18 years old, after discovering a collection of his works in the local book store. I was hooked, “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” being my absolute favorite. While visiting a convention a couple of years later, a friend and I discovered something we never expected. A book titled Masks of Nyarlathotep.

Ever since, the tabletop RPG has been my prime hobby. The mysteries and investigation, submitting your players to horrible, unspeakable evils and powerful cults... But most of all I enjoy making props for my players to discover. From somewhat realistic invitations to start the adventure, to custom character sheets for every adventure, to a handmade set of A3-sized Sedefkar Scrolls that took many, many hours to plan and make. There is little that pleases me more than seeing the look on my investigators' faces when they are handed such an item.

Enclosed you will find a couple of photos. I'm usually the one taking the pictures, so I don't quite have many of myself. For your entertainment, I have also included scans of my Sedefkar Scrolls. They are completely legible once you can decipher the script. They're written in a slight variation on the “Bullskrit” script used in an Evil Dead 2 collector's edition booklet, with an error or a forgotten letter here and there. I must mention that one paragraph is a children's song in Dutch I added on a dare. It really confused the couple of players trying to translate it."

You can see more of Kilian's props in the Member Sanctum!

March 2020

• March 3, 2020

Our Member of the Month for March, 2020 is Mark O. Martin of Tacoma, Washington.

Mark says: "I was born in Compton, California, and raised in North Long Beach. To stay away from the bullies, I spent a lot of time in libraries. My older brother Jack was my literary guide, and he adored (and adores) all things Gothic. So when I was ten years old, Jack got me reading HPL. I was really, really taken by many of HPL's tales (while ignoring the unsavory things that appeared from time to time). "At the Mountains of Madness," "The Whisperer in Darkness," and "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward" remain my favorites.

I was never a gamer, and was always a bit of a loner, but HPL was always with me, and took me to Bierce, Machen, and Blackwood.

So after getting my degrees from UCLA and Stanford, I became a college professor, and am an Associate Professor of Biology at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington. My wife Dr. Jennifer Quinn is quite a 3D printing fan (and a fine mathematician), so she made me a bust of HPL, and even painted HPL using the bioluminescent bacteria that I study in my laboratory. Here in town, my friends Jason and Robyn Alexander love HPL and related topics, and have made their tiki cocktail bars reflect that, with cocktails like "The Terrible Old Dram," and "The Arkham Investigator." If you are ever in Tacoma, and visit either "Devils Reef" (for "The Third Oath") or their soon to open "Gilman House," I would be happy to buy you a powerful beverage and discuss all things eldritch!"

February 2020

• February 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for February 2020 is Johannes Mattsson of Umeå, Sweden.

Johannes says: "Lovecraft came into my life in my early teens after being recommended by some older friends who, like me, were heavily into roleplaying games at the time. “If you really want to have nightmares and suffer from lack of sleep, this is the guy to read.” they said. It sounded just great for me and I ran to the library and borrowed every Swedish translation of our favorite writer I could get my hands on. I spent a whole summer reading and enjoying those books and it didn’t take long after that until I dared to read the stories in Lovecraft's native tongue. I was now, like I think many of you, hooked on ghostly tales of forgotten monolithic ruins and ancient black magick.

The stories steered me towards the roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu by Chaosium and through that game I have taken many of my friends on horrific and fantastic journeys and the game remains my favorite one until this day.

January 2020

• January 1, 2020

Our Member of the Month for January, 2020 is Gina Stephens of Los Angeles, Cal.

Gina says: "Gina L. Stephens is a botched creation of the Mi-Go, sent to Earth in 1982 with instructions to "take care of things." The Mi-go, however, were a little vague on the details, so after wandering the west coast of the lower 48 states for a time, she settled down in Los Angeles and started a pet-sitting business. Taking care of things.

Gina discovered the writings of H. P. Lovecraft in her early 20s and felt a strange kinship with his love of the otherworldly and ancient. She picked up a set of the Selected Letters of HPL and learned all about his life and the context in which his stories were written, and eventually taught a fun class about HPL at UC Berkeley in 2004. Gina has a bachelor's degree in Earth and Planetary Sciences from UC Berkeley.

She now resides in Los Angeles, where she takes care of people's pets."

December 2019

• December 5, 2019

Our Member of the Month for December, 2019 is Christopher Rightmyer of Lake Charles, Louisiana.

Christopher says: "I was first introduced to HP Lovecraft in 1988 by a close friend and his brother who had recommended The Best of H.P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. I have always enjoyed the classic horror stories and dark tales, however, when I stepped into the cosmic horrors of the Lovecraft universe there was no turning back. The repugnance of such stories as, "The Dunwich Horror" or the consternation of "At The Mountains of Madness" set my redoubtable desire for the outlandish cosmophobia. Reading the designs of his mind in books, however, was not enough, I wanted to be a part of his stories, investigating the paranormal, face the folk of Insmouth and attend classes at Miskatonic University. The game Call of Cthulhu was introduced to me in the late '80s as well, and I have been immersed in the caliginous world ever since."

November 2019

• November 7, 2019

Our Member of the Month for November 2019 is William McKinney of Duxbury, Mass.

Will says: "My love for Lovecraft started without knowing that it was Lovecraft. One of those instances of knowing about something without really knowing anything about that something. Ya Know? I knew of Cthulhu as a monster creature and had heard the term "lovecraftian" for a loooong time before I realized that it was in reference to an actual person, I just thought it was a term for a style of horror. Thats when I discovered that it wasn't just a style of horror, but it came from one person... H.P. Lovecraft. (insert forehead smack here). So once I discovered that these movies and stories were written or inspired by one person... I had to indulge. Which eventually brought me here and opened a gate to so much more! The collection of props and anthologies and radio shows, etc.. I especially love the DART series, working my way towards the full collection. Not to mention the community HPLHS provides. Just knowing there are others out there that LOVE and appreciate all things Lovecraft is really great. Thanks again for the honor and I look forward to what the HPLHS brings next!"

October 2019

• October 4, 2019

Our Member of the Month is Cameron Seago of Wimberley, Texas.

Cameron says: "I actually got into Lovecraft through D&D. I was at a game shop, saw the rule book for Call of Cthulhu, and started leafing through it. The concepts of investigation and survival where so different from the games I had been playing. Investigating strange occurrences, and cults devoted to interdimensional terrors while trying to maintain your sanity had me hooked. After that I started to read his stories and books from authors that expanded the universe along with the people who wrote the game modules. It’s interesting that our monsters, or demons could just be beings from another dimension or place in our universe. That magic is just their science or natural ability. The psychological aspect of the stories and games modules are very interesting to me as well. Regular people coming face to face with these creatures, or some other bizarre event and forever being changed by the encounter. All in all it just has everything I enjoy sci-fi, horror, suspense, and strange cults.

I’m including a few pictures. One of me, some of my stuff, and a portrait of me that my mother had painted. She was a fantastic painter, and the one who got me started on suspense and weird tales....

September 2019

• September 15, 2019

Our Member of the Month is César Zamudio.

César says: "I live in Virginia, just blocks away from the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, in the very old, very full of history city of Richmond.

I have a sweet spot for horror stories and movies since very young. I distinctly recall being horrified with the IT miniseries, or the Nightmare on Elm Street movies when I was a kid (while some thought it was a questionable parenting choice, I can’t thank my mom enough for letting me be exposed to horror when I was just a kid!). Given this interest it was only a matter of time before I became familiar with the works of H.P. Lovecraft. I remember very fondly when, one day, the “forces of randomness” pulled me towards the local bookstore, where I asked for some recommendations on what to read. It truly was a day to remember as there I bought my first Tolkien book (The Hobbit) and my first H.P. Lovecraft book (a collection of short stories)!

As of today I still re-read (or re-listen to) Lovecraft’s work frequently and with the same passion as with the first. There’s something about his writing — as pulpy, abstruse and sometimes unnecessarily complicated as it is, it is unquestionably beautiful, unique and delightful to read. Picking up a Lovecraft book one more time will always be a fresh new adventure for me — whether transported back to Innsmouth, Arkham, Miskatonic University, the swamps of New Orleans or the Alert ship, I can’t wait to go back there!”

Members can read a bit more from César in the Member Sanctum!

August 2019

• August 12, 2019

Our Member of the Month for August 2019 is Joan Ribera Vañó of Mallorca, Spain.

Joan says: "I live in Mallorca, Spain, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. So naturally, I’ve been dragged into an excessive interest in the ocean and traveling.

I’ve always been an avid reader, and from a very young age I have been attracted to the dark and the inexplicable. I remember the fascination that produced me, more or less at 10, the reading of “Frankenstein”. From there I went through “Dracula” and practically all of Poe's narrative, until, eventually, “La narración de Arthur Gordon Pym” fell into my hands, leaving an everlasting mark on me with that combination of everything that has always fascinated me: sea, travel and mystery. The fascination for that book follows today, and I even use of Arthur's good name as my alter ego on the web.

My mother was a professor of Spanish literature, and she has an extensive library where I have always been nurtured, so I asked her about related books ... and in this way, through my mother's recommendations, and with a book called "Los Mitos de Cthulhu" that began, of course, with “La Llamada de Cthulhu”, an interdimensional one-way portal to Lovecraft opened in front of me.

I still remember as if it was yesterday the first time I read "Tekeli li" in the pages of "At the Mountains of Madness" ...

HPLHS Members can read a bit more about Joan and see an additional image in the Member Sanctum....

July 2019

• July 1, 2019

Our Member of the Month for July 2019 is Patrick Ferguson of Kimobetsu, Hokkaido, Japan.

Patrick says: "Long long ago, back in high school, I was taking two courses at the same time: geometry and religion. Correlating their contents led me to flee the placid island of the religion with which I was raised. After crossing the black seas of infinity I washed up on the shores of R’lyeh where I embraced Cthulhu.

“I love all the works of the HPLHS, especially DART. I also listen to the HP Lovecraft Literary Podcast, and “In the Mouth of Madness” is one of my favorite movies. I would even say that my favorite anime (Evangelion) has some very Lovecraftian elements. The idea that simply knowing or seeing something could drive you mad is incredibly fascinating to me.”

HPLHS Members can read a bit more about David and see an additional image in the Member Sanctum....

June 2019

• June 3, 2019

Our Member of the Month for June 2019 is David Laughton of Arlington, VA.

David says: "At the age of four I first heard the 5th Organ Symphony of Charles-Marie Widor. It instantly became one of my favorite pieces of music and remains so more than 60 years later. What does this have to do with Lovecraft? If you ask this, you obviously haven’t heard the symphony, but more to the point, this event was the first of many that would mark me as the Odd One among my peers.

Even before I began elementary school I was a prodigious reader, and fantasy was my preferred genre. I eagerly absorbed the works of Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, and other popular writers of the 1950s-60s. It wasn’t long before I happened upon a collection of Lovecraft, and fortunately the first story I read was "The Call of Cthulhu". This happened long before S. T. Joshi’s research brought Lovecraft out of the cardboard box at the back of the closet and onto the bookshelf where he belongs, but the edition I found at the local library was reasonably faithful to the source material (I always suspect that fantasy fans who don’t like Lovecraft – and I’ve met a few – either started with a late story full of incomprehensible references or encountered one of the many incompetently edited texts).

Fast-forwarding past my school years and into my career, I worked for many years in the IT field for various US government and international agencies. While my focus was highly technical, my interest in literature never faded, and I never missed a chance to leaven dense manuals and memos with quotes from and references to my favorite books. Much of my employment was pre-internet, so my office bookshelf was my primary resource; it was filled not only with books on systems analysis, information security, and related topics but also volumes of Lovecraft and other fantasy authors. In the days of constant and turbulent technological change, a red-leather-bound gilt-edged At The Mountains of Madness sometimes seemed more relevant to my work than any soon-to-be-obsolete technical manual.

Currently I spend much of my time as an organizer for two local clubs: the Alexandria-Arlington Regional Gaming Group (AARGGH) and Oddball Cinema, both based in northern Virginia. Games based on Lovecraft’s works are popular with the former, with A Study in Emerald appearing quite frequently. It’s one of my favorites, based on a story by Neil Gaiman that combines the worlds of H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur Conan Doyle, but the designer’s use of the mythos irks me at times (there’s a way for a player to kill Azathoth – what was he thinking?).

Alas, there aren’t early enough good Lovecraft-based movies to satisfy Oddball Cinema. I do what I can, especially during October’s annual festival, Dr. Oddball’s Chamber of Horrors. In 2018 I showed a double feature of the HPLHS productions The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness that was enthusiastically received (thanks again to the Society for granting me public-performance permission). While the club is dedicated to offbeat, obscure, and downright weird productions, I hesitate to show my copy of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, a semi-animated film that’s best described as a Reading Rainbow episode for very disturbed children."

David also runs some interesting contests that are free and open to the public. You can even win prizes! Check them out!

HPLHS Members can read a bit more about David and see some additional art in the Member Sanctum....

May 2019

• May 6, 2019

Our Member of the Month for May 2019 is Connor Wilson of Pittsburgh, Pa.

Connor says: "Growing up on a staple of classic Universal monster movies and books on the paranormal, I finally discovered Lovecraft in high school when I picked up a copy of Penguin Classics’ The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories and have been a fan ever since. The cosmicism of Lovecraft’s writing is what captured my imagination the most, and the invasive elements of the weird, the grand scope far exceeding the comprehension of men, and the pervasive atmosphere of dread found throughout his works set them apart from anything I had previously read. (I also immensely fancy the stories in the “Dream Cycle,” including “The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath,” with its sweeping scope and bizarre cast of creatures.) Simultaneously, Lovecraft’s writings were also my introduction into the literary tradition of the weird, where I’ve since found other favorites like Chambers’ The King in Yellow and continue to discover new stories and authors through mediums like the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. I’ve also recently found a fellow Lovecraft fan in my grandmother, who I introduced to HPL’s writings last Christmas with the same volume that began my descent into madness."

April 2019

• April 3, 2019

Our Member of the Month for April 2019 is Colin Christenson of Minneapolis, Minn.

Colin says: "I think my first experience with Lovecraft was when my big brother got the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying book from Chaosium. I read "The Call of Cthulhu" short story that was at the front of the RPG book and got hooked on it. After that I "borrowed" (and am still borrowing to this day) a couple books of collected stories from my brother, and then I bought all the Del Rey paperbacks I could find at the used book store. I think I found the HPLHS looking for some props and finding their free prop sets. I ended up putting Miskatonic Library stickers on everything.

Since then I've been collecting all manner of Lovecraftian props and artifacts, but my favorite ones are usually the Historical Society ones. They have a very realistic feel to them and always look beautiful on a bookshelf or display.

It's hard to choose a favorite story but I think I like "The Shadow over Innsmouth" the best. Just the pervasive creepiness of the town and the people gives you that sense of dread before anything even happens. It's also an awesome setting for games or other stories."

March 2019

• March 4, 2019

Our Member of the Month for March 2019 is Shane Truesdale of Eugene, Oregon.

Shane says: "Hello fellow Cultist. As a young boy growing up in various small towns in the Pacific North West I grew up with somewhat of a fascination with the Occult and all things related. From Books, to Movies and Music. My mind was eager to the point of being over anxious for the next thing to spark my interest in the genre. Now an Adult, I’m a collector and constantly looking for the next thing that will ignite that spark in me, while still a serious fan of the older gems in Scientific Fiction and Horror. I’m proud to be a Member of the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, and be given the opportunity to meet others with like interests. Keeping Lovecraft’s works alive and well for Future generations."

February 2019

• February 7, 2019

Our Member of the Month for February 2019 is Nathan Darling of Whitesboro, Texas.

Nate says: "I have been reading Lovecraft and associated authors for years, and have always been a bibliophile. There always seem to be like minded folks around, and this group is a fantastic way to get to see how widespread HPL's influence is, I feel like less of a misfit. Thank you again for this singularly peculiar, and spectacular, award."

January 2019

• January 7, 2019

Our Member of the Month for January 2019 is Douglas Ward of Fitchburg, Mass.

Douglas says: "Thank you all for choosing me for this glorious honor of the HPLHS Member of the Month. I would like to thank the academy for all their votes.... wait, wrong award! I have been a fan of Lovecraft for many years since I was intrigued by the lore from Jingo by the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett. He mentioned Cthulhu in a kind of behind the making of the story while I was at a book signing I was lucky to see him at. Since then I have seen the connections HP has had in a whole slew of modern day writers.

I am lucky enough to live in Massachusetts and have been down to Providence to walk the same streets that HP had and have even visited his gravesite. When I was looking up places to visit I found about the store in Providence, the Lovecraft Art and Sciences, and it had the HPLHS website linked and I clicked on it and the rest is history!

I have almost the complete collection of the DART series (which I listen to almost daily as I drive) and have plastered my back window with many stickers! My job keeps me on the road and down in the Cape Cod and Providence area and reading and listening to the stories has opened up a whole new understanding of the area for me.

Thank you so much for what you have done for HP's stories and bringing it to life in a whole new way.

December 2018

• December 19, 2018

Our Member of the Month for December 2018 is Charleen Briggs of Parker, Colorado.

Charleen says: "I am super excited to have been randomly chosen for the honor of December member of the month! I never win things like this! The Others have gibbered in my general direction, and I am cautiously thrilled!

A little bit about me, besides being completely unlucky in contests and drawings: I enjoy obnoxiously singing Innsmouth sea shanties and solstice carols all year long while trying to keep my cats from summoning elder things while I’m away...above is a photo of one of the evil little demon-summoners, because they are much more photogenic than me. (My Innsmouth look is beginning to show...)"

November 2018

• November 16, 2018

Our Member of the Month for November 2018 is Stuart Welbourn of Derbyshire, England.

Stuart says: "I first came across the name Lovecraft as a teenager in the 1980s when I watched Stuart Gordon's From Beyond followed closely by Re-animator (the order I watched them in, not release). As a film fan, I then always looked out for more Lovecraft releases, but only actually read a few of his tales back then. I thoroughly enjoyed what I did read & clearly they left a lasting impression.

Fast forward to 2014 & as a bit of a midlife crisis, I enrolled on a Masters Degree in Film Course. I was working on my own screenplay for a dark & twisted feature film, which my mentor commented sounded a bit Lovecraftian. I then spent the next 2 years studying both Directing & Lovecraft himself. I must have read half of his fictional works during this time, but am pleased to say there are still delights for me yet to discover. For my final film I shot a modern-day adaptation of "The Terrible Old Man" based on a screenplay penned by a local writer; which has literally just been accepted for a pretty big Horror Film Festival in the UK.

Only days later, I was humbled to receive an email informing me I had the honour of being selected as Member of the Month by HPLHS. Would seem the Elder Ones bestowed upon me two great birthday gifts, as I share the same birthday as Winfield S. Lovecraft (which might explain a thing or two); but what will be the price?!"

Above is a still from Stuart's film of "The Terrible Old Man", featuring Chris Lines in the title role. Congratulations to Stuart on its festiva success!

September 2018

• September 1, 2018

Our Member of the Month for September 2018 is Eric Lawrence of Los Angeles, California.

Eric says: "I was born and raised in West Lafayette, Indiana, the home of Purdue University (in retrospect, a Midwestern version of Misktatonic University, especially when one considers one of their noteworthy achievements is having graduated nearly two-dozen astronauts, who surely have seen some strange things out there in the inky darkness...) With my family I moved to Los Angeles when I was nine, and unlike HPL's experiences in NYC, I took to the big city like fungi to Mi-Go, and have lived here ever since, graduating from UCLA in '93, working as a DJ at a local public radio station for over 20+ years, and now currently working towards my M.A. in English Literature from Cal State Northridge (with a bit of a focus on the gothic, the subgenre into which HPL tends to get lumped by academics).

It was while at UCLA, with their borderline eldritch library collection, that I discovered the likes of Robert W. Chambers, Arthur Machen, and, of course, HPL. In fact, if I recall correctly, some cheeky librarian had created fake records for books like The Necronomicon, the play script of "The King in Yellow," the original 1st edition of the Principia Discordia, etc. I began visiting annual antiquarian book fairs, looking to collect assorted Arkham House books, beginning with a signed copy of one of Derleth's collections of his own short stories, but soon branching far afield & acquiring many favorites from that beloved imprint (no A Hornbook for Witches, alas). I even ventured into the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game, but rarely found investigators brave enough to venture too deeply. But the key Lovecraftian works remain a personal favorite, ones I am happy to reread and celebrate often!

I am honored to be among such august company, and honored even further by this recognition!

August 2018

• August 8, 2018

Our Member of the Month for August 2018 is Jack Duddington of Werribee, Australia.

Jack says: "One fateful day when I was a child and avid reader, I was at my local library looking for a new book to read. I couldn't find a single thing I was interested in. After a while of looking, I stumbled across a book called Dagon & Other Macabre Tales by H.P Lovecraft. I grabbed the book and scampered away, looking for a private spot to read. As I sat down, the librarian asked "Do you think you should be reading that?" to which I replied "Probably not" and began reading anyway. That day I learned the horrifying wonders of Lovecraft, and I could not get enough.

So, naturally, here I am today! I run many varied Cthulhu events within my home town, including board game & role-playing evenings. I also run a Live Action Role-playing Cult in a fantasy setting called the 'Children of the Dreamer', as my character High Cardinal Vulpa. Recently, I've tried my hand at writing some weird fiction, and am currently working on a few short stories centered around Australian history and tropes.

My dream is to visit Providence, preferably when NecronomiCon is happening.

All in all, without Lovecraft's amazing fiction, I would not be the person I am today. So to him I simply say, thank you.

It is an honor to have my name placed here with you all, and look forward to meeting some of my fellow Lovecraft fans one day! Cheers HPLHS! Keep sharing Lovecraft with the world!

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu fhtagn!".

July 2018

• July 11, 2018

Our Member of the Month for July 2018 is Alasdair Macleod of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Alasdair says: "I was aware as a young teenager that there was this weird author called Lovecraft who was responsible for the kind of chilling stories like "The Tomb", and saw illustrations suggestive of a kind of shivery ghosty horror, but it wasn’t till I got hold of a paperback copy of At The Mountains of Madness, aged about 17, that I was stunned by the depth of the concepts in his work, and was hooked.

Before long I had read everything he had published, but often go back to enjoy them again. I still don’t think there’s been anything written in this field that’s better the "The Colour out of Space".

I like other sorts of Sci fi and Fantasy, so here’s me in a GOT outfit."

June 2018

• June 5, 2018

Our Member of the Month for June 2018 is Fiacre O'Duinn of Burlington, Canada.

Fiacre says: "I was born in a town containing what was once the largest telescope in the world, the Leviathan of Parsonstown. I played in the the ruins of Leap Castle, the most haunted in Ireland. I walked the bogs where my ancestors sacrificed their kings to appease the gods.

Distant stars, malign entities and ancient deities.

When I discovered H.P. Lovecraft, I knew I was home.

In high school in Dublin in the '80s I had a few friends who were horror fans. When I was fourteen one of them loaned me a forbidden tome called The H. P. Lovecraft Omnibus 1 by Panther Books where I read “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward”. I was hooked. I quickly tracked down the rest of the omnibus editions and fell in love.

I disappeared down a tentacle filled rabbit hole, discovering Ramsey Campbell, the Call of Cthulhu 3rd Edition RPG, Brian Lumley, Clive Barker, William Burroughs, and so on. It peaked around ‘94 when I walked into a tiny art house cinema, The Lighthouse on Abbey Street, and saw a movie titled Cronos by some unknown Mexican guy, Guillermo del Toro. I still have that ticket stub.

I always felt that “The Case of Charles Dexter Ward” had a lasting influence on my life. I moved to Canada from Ireland in the mid-nineties and, after working in the casino industry for a few years, went to university to study new religious movements (or, as they were called before we went metric, cults) and the history of western esotericism. For my graduate degree I ended up doing fieldwork among former members of The Process Church, certainly one of the more Lovecraftian groups from the '70s. I completed a second masters in information science and worked in that most antediluvian and blasphemous of professions, librarianship, for a decade. My later activities included taking a class on how to start your own cult from Ivan Stang and working with Genesis P-Orridge of Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth for three years, but those are tales for another time.

And I’m still trying to solve that essential saltes problem….

Last year everything seemed to come full circle as I had the opportunity to visit Providence and pay homage. Guillermo del Toro brought his exhibition “At Home with Monsters” to Toronto and on the opening day I met him, entirely by accident, as he was walking through the museum. I finally got to shake his hand and thank him for the nightmares.

To close, after ten years of marriage my beloved wife, who has to endure my Lovecraft, horror, cult and occult obsessions, has only ever imposed one rule; “No practicing evil in the house!”"

May 2018

• May 8, 2018

Our Member of the Month for May 2018 is David Baxter of Guelph, Canada.

David says: "I grew up in Niagara Falls, Canada, where I worked at no fewer than six crappy tourist attractions. As a teenager, a friend of mine mentioned a horror author named "Lovecraft" and my imagination was deftly captured. I picked up the one HPL book they had at my local bookstore, which was Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre, and thus, my first three HPL stories were "The Rats in the Walls", "The Picture in the House", and "The Silver Key". I was a little overwhelmed and took a break from the original fiction. From there, I detoured into the board games and the horror movie adaptations and had a grand ol' time. In 2010 I discovered the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast , and with Chad and Chris's guidance, I resolved to read all of HPL's stories. I almost succeeded (I just could not get through "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath"). I enjoy the bleakness of HPL's cosmic horror, but I live for the "weird and unexplainable neighbour" tales: I often recommend "Cool Air" to HPL neophytes, and my single favourite tale is "The Music of Erich Zann".

Nowadays, I am a librarian by day (a mental health librarian, which is like, the farthest possible thing from forbidden mind-shattering tomes, unfortunately), and by night I am often found pretending to be a crow on the internet. In my HPL time I like to learn more about the history of the man. I am slowly making my way through the collected letters of HPL and Robert E. Howard, and I still listen to the HPL Literary Podcast religiously. Someday soon I will make my pilgrimage to Providence.

It is my utter delight to have been selected by our cold, uncaring universe to be the HPLHS member of the month. Thank you everyone at HPLHS for all you do!"

April 2018

• April 2, 2018

Our Member of the Month for April 2018 is Caleb Long of Toney, Alabama.

Caleb says: "I was born in, and have the dubious pleasure of having lived most of my life in, northern Alabama. Skipping the boring parts, I discovered Lovecraft when I was about thirteenish. Without going into detail, a combination of beginning homeschooling and maternal apathy and neglect meant that I was basically out of school entirely for a few years, not getting any mental exercise and — more importantly — not reading at all. I think the creatures are what first got me interested in Lovecraft, although the concepts are easily what kept me along for the ride. In spite of having ADD, of having not read fiction in years, and having to contend with migraines resulting from those two facts when I did try to read, I was able to brute force my way through completing some of Lovecraft's tales. ("The Shadow Over Innsmouth" was the first, though "Colour," "Rats," and "Witch-House" ended up trading spots for favorite back and forth ever since.) With the first few tales, reading became easier, and in time I started to actually enjoy the process of reading itself—all thanks, ultimately, to Lovecraft.

Nowadays, I spend my time whittling away at a little worldbuilding project in AD&D 2E and playing 5th Edition on the weekends, in which I have the unquestionable pleasure of playing a (scientifically accurate) velociraptor monk of the Sun Soul martial arts school named Tikitill. (I also try to convince other people to play 2E, though I've yet to gain traction on that point.) I've also been helping my best friend, who is trying to write out his own translation of the Necronomicon using Tyson's as a base — basically keeping everything relating to al-Hazred's history, personality, and philosophy the same, but trading out the occultist nonsense with research- and mathematics-backed science fiction. While he obviously doesn't intend to publish it, this project has lead to a lot of useful worldbuilding between us, and permanently colored my perception of the Mythos. (It's hard to go back when you've found a system of physics that actually allows "magic" of the Lovecraftian variety to function.) I've also spent a considerable amount of time and money assembling my own lararium — a Roman-style shrine to the household Gods — following said best friend's example, and I've included a picture of such for all the world to see."

February 2018

• February 1, 2018

Our Member of the Month for February 2018 is Håkan Torevik of Rättvik, Sweden.

Håkan says: "I was born in a boring small town in the west of Sweden and had a normal, boring childhood. However, at the age of nine I had my first literary revelation when my mother gave me a copy of The Hobbit. This has led me to a lifelong addiction to reading. The addiction to words had me scour the local library for the fantastic and the terrifying, so there among the shelves I first encountered the magic of HP Lovecraft a few years later.

The first fix was Skräckens Labyrinter, a collection of the master's short stories selected and translated by Swedish SF-legend Sam J Lundwall. I borrowed that many times over the years until I could afford to buy my own books by the master. One of the first stories I remember reading, which still is my favourite, is "The Colour Out of Space". Since then I have read his collected works numerous times and I keep returning to him, no matter how many other authors I read and like.

Out of the many wonderful things created by the HPL Historical Society my definite favourites are the Call of Cthulhu motion picture and the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre.

Since my discovery of HPL, I have grown up and moved to Stockholm to have a career in IT. After some years, I realized my city apartment didn’t fit all my books so we relocated to a 19th-century house overlooking the hinterlands of Dalecarlia in the middle of Sweden. My days are spent as a middle aged public servant and my nights are spent reading, cooking, playing the guitar (badly) and most importantly being the servant of an eight-year-old Cornish Rex cat goddess.

Deeply honoured to make your acquaintance!

(Note, that old grimoire in the back of the picture is most definitely NOT a copy of Olaus Wormius' translation into Latin of the Necronomicon)"

December 2017

• December 11, 2017

Our Member of the Month for December 2017 is Kenneth Shaw of Brooklyn, New York.

Ken says: "I am a designer/animator for television living n H.P. Lovecraft's least favorite place to live, Brooklyn, NY. On the weekends I can be found in a print /shop in Gowanus screen printing. My prints often take their inspiration from works by Lovecraft and Poe.

I grew up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, connecting with H.P.L.'s image of a Gothic New England.

I first discovered Lovecraft in a comic adaptation of "Pickman's Model" I read when I was in junior high. H.P.L.'s name kept coming up even amidst the horror media available to a 13-year old in the early 80s. I found the classic Del Rey, gray and red Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre at my local Waldenbooks. I have to admit my attention span at the time made his writing challenging, but I kept returning to it. While reading "The Dunwich Horror"" I felt a key turn in my head and became hooked. I then discovered his hand was in many of the things I loved. Ridley Scott's Alien, John Carpenter's The Thing, Stephen King novels, comics and videogames to name a few.

I am thrilled to be selected as HPLHS Member of the month.

The camaraderie of Lovecraft enthusiasts is amazing. We have inherited not only a connection to his work, but his love of correspondence. The more I mention him online, the greater number of digital pen pals I have."

The HPLHS was proud to offer a limited edition of screen prints of "The Shadow Out of Time" by Ken in our online store, although they are no longer available. Be sure to check out Ken's portfolio online!

November 2017

• November 3, 2017

Our Member of the Month for November 2017 is Paul Helfrich of Dayton, Ohio.

Paul says: "My first introduction to H.P. Lovecraft came via my purchase, at age 11, of this 1971 Ballantine edition of The Shuttered Room. Without question, it was the cover art that attracted me:

Ironically, of course, not a single tale in that volume is actually by Lovecraft! But I loved it, and I went on to purchase all the remaining Ballantine editions – plus others I discovered at used book sales, including this one: ..and I still have both, over 40 years later.

Like many Lovecraftians, I’m an avid reader of all sorts of things; while I put Lovecraft at the top of my list, I’m also a big fan of the work of Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Tolkien, and George R.R. Martin. My favorite Lovecraft story is "The Haunter of the Dark"; I’m also very fond of "The Whisperer in Darkness", "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward", "The Shadow Out of Time", and "The Thing on the Doorstep", the latter a bit underappreciated, in my view. I also especially enjoy two of Lovecraft’s non-Mythos stories, "The Picture in the House"" (that outrageous dialect!) and "Cool Air". My most vivid experience with Lovecraft was reading "The Dreams in the Witch House" at probably age 12-13; scared the crap out of me!

If anything I am growing in my Lovecraft fandom as I get older; I’ve been an HPLHS member since 2011 and feel very fortunate to have been able to attend Necronomicon Providence in 2015 and 2017. My (Ohio) license plate is HP LCRFT.

For me, Lovecraft’s cosmicism is not depressing, but rather I find it liberating and enervating. It’s a constant reminder that whatever the trials of daily life, things could be - probably really are, but we’ve got that whole “placid island of ignorance” thing going for us – far, far, worse.

When not faltering down black cobwebbed steps and lingering around sinister monoliths, I’m a performing arts administrator in Dayton, Ohio, where I live with my wife and two children. I’m a lifelong musician and particular fan of all the various flavors of metal and prog rock, as well as symphonic music, so for me, the rock opera version of The Dreams in the Witch House is like the greatest thing ever! I’m also a big fan of the D.A.R.T productions, which I most heartily recommend to all fans of HPL.

October 2017

• October 2, 2017

Our Member of the Month for October 2017 is Ezriel Joshua of London.

Ezriel says: "I started reading H.P. Lovecraft’s works when I was a teenager, in Brighton, England, in the 1970s. A man called John lent me a copy of At the Mountains of Madness. He told me he’d been on Christmas Island in 1957, serving in the British armed forces, when they tested a nuclear weapon. Like many nuclear test veterans, he experienced physical and psychological problems for the rest of his life. He told me that when the bomb exploded he could see, through the ‘protective’ goggles he’d been given, the bones in his hands, and that the mushroom cloud appeared to contain shadowy images of parts of various creatures - claws, tentacles, wings, and suchlike. John claimed that he had a copy of the Necronomicon in a brown leather satchel. When I said that I didn’t believe him, he took me – and the satchel – to a nearby church. We’d only been in the building a couple of minutes when a priest emerged from the vestry and shouted at us to leave immediately. I never asked John about the Necronomicon again, but sometimes I wish I had. When John passed, he left me a hand-written volume of prose and poetry fragments called The Book of the End. I treasured it for many years, but it mysteriously disappeared about 10 years ago. Today I read Lovecraft regularly, as well as related fiction such as Matt Ruff’s Lovecraft Country and Paul La Farge’s The Night Ocean. I also enjoy dipping into the essays in the volume The Age of Lovecraft, edited by Carl H. Sederholm and Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock. I am proud to hold Lifetime Membership in the HPLHS, and honoured to have been chosen by the Powers of Randomness to appear on the website.

September 2017

• September 14, 2017

Our Member of the Month for September 2017 is Timothy Tellier of Pensacola, Florida. Tim says:

"My first exposure to Howard was age nine. Family was visiting my grandmother in Milwaukee, WI. There was a kid, David, who lived across the alley. He was an avid reader who exhorted me to read Lovecraft. That kid is now a professional stage magician.

Over the years I read Lovecraft when I could. Surprisingly, during my high-school years in Zion, IL, there was even a grade B rock band called HP Lovecraft that spurred myself and others to acquaint themselves with his work and others in the genre like August Derleth.

As I have aged (I am now 67), I've found his particular brand of terror philosophy increasingly panic-inducing...the destruction of reality and the reordering of consciousness is not comforting but it is entertaining in a macabre way. The Ancient Ones are incapable of any consideration of our existence."

July 2017

• July 9, 2017

Our Member of the Month for July 2017 is Chad Redding of Dunedin, Florida. Chad says:

"Hello ! fellow Lovecraftians, I am Chad Redding, proud member and follower of the Cthulhu Mythos! I am a history major at USF in central Florida, and avid creepy tales aficionado. I enjoy reading anything Lovecraft, my favorite but not limited to is of course The Call of Cthulhu!. A great honor to be the member of the month!!"

September 2016

• September 1, 2016

Our Member of the Month for September 2016 is Chris Lott of Santa Clarita, California.

"I don’t remember exactly when I first became an HP Lovecraft fan, but once I caught the fever it never left. I think that one of the reasons that Lovecraft’s works have has such a lasting impression upon me is that I relish the idea that as I go about my mundane, day-to-day existence that there might be shadowy, unseen forces at work or occult mysteries waiting to be uncovered. Or it may just be that they’re damned fun stories. Thanks to the HPLHS my passion for all things Lovecraftian has only grown and now I’m a full-fledged addict and lifetime member of the Society."

"When I’m not reading Lovecraft or listening to the latest Dark Adventure Radio Theatre serial, I spend my free time immersed in RPGs, board games (Eldritch Horror is a favorite, naturally), comics and other suitably geeky pursuits. I currently live in Santa Clarita, CA with my wife Carly and our two dogs."

July 2016

• July 1, 2016

Our Member of the Month for July 2016 is Michael Jenkins of St. Petersburg, Florida.

Mike is a professional graphic designer who enjoys making Lovecraftian props. Several of his props hang on the refrigerator door at HPLHS global headquarters. "One of the first props I made was a crude, hand-bound Necronomicon," he says, "used mainly as a prop for a photo series in college. My skill set being what it is, most of my props are of a printed and 2D nature. I’ve made silly mock postcards, designed matchbooks, tickets, title pages and the odd invitation. The Silver Key you see below is an assemblage of found objects, cheap metal jewelry beads, strung together to resemble a medieval Arabian Kaaba key. My Black Seal (from The Novel of the Black Seal, by Arthur Machen) was actually designed in a browser-based 3D program and 3D printed by an online vendor. The more tongue-in-cheek Corona/Cthulhu bottle cap parody was also printed on demand for me by an online vendor.

Member Spotlight: Michael Jenkins

• July 1, 2016

Mike says, "I discovered HPL in late high school or early college, which I gather is later than most of us. Besides ‘weird fiction’ like HPL, REH and Poe, I enjoy science fiction and historical non-fiction. Though I find picking one single story out of the corpus to be like choosing one ‘favorite’ family member, I will champion The Haunter of the Dark, which I feel gets less appreciation than it deserves."

March 2017

• March 12, 2017

Our Member of the Month for March 2017 is Paul Maclean of West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom. Paul is a truly delightful fellow who works tirelessly to promote Lovecraftian gaming in the U.K. and around the world.

Paul says: "My name is Paul Maclean and I’ve been a fan of Lovecraftian worlds for over 30 years - ever since I encountered Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game back in the early ‘80s. The back pages of those games featured lists of Lovecraft’s works - but being British, it was something I couldn’t get hold of until several years later with the advent of cheap UK paperback reprints. I devoured all of HPL’s stories over one long summer, while listening to lots of early Mike Oldfield.

It may have had an effect. Following those formative years I became an archaeologist, which is great in a certain Lovecraftian way, but less so if you want to earn any money (though the lack of such is also probably quite Lovecraftian).

It was during this time I found the HPLHS. I clearly remember hearing the clever songs of “Shoggoth on the Roof” in the early 2000s and watching tiny videos put online by Sean and Andrew. A few years before this I had begun my own little fan site focused on the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game: Yog-Sothoth(.com), and later on the HPLHS were very generous in letting me stream a few bits and pieces of their content for the dedicated visitor - in the days of dial-up connections you had to be pretty patient for *anything* to download…

I remember the landmark year of 2005 and the HPLHS’ film The Call of Cthulhu - it showed just what amazing things could be done by dedicated folks even on a shoestring budget. Its production still astounds me today.

Despite being across the Atlantic I’ve had the good fortune to meet Sean and Andrew along with other members of the HPLHS including Chris Lackey of HP Podcraft (now an honorary Englishman) who sometimes joins our podcasts (The Cthulhu Breakfast Club and News from Pnakotus). They are all great people.

As soon as the HPLHS re-opened membership a few years ago I joined up; I always look forward to whatever they have in store next!

If you want to see what I (and a few friends) get up to, just visit YSDC. As for what the HPLHS are up to, well you’re already here. :-)"

June 2017

• June 8, 2017

Our Member of the Month for June 2017 is Ryan Hörst of Hedgesville, West Virginia. Ryan is a highly decorated and active Lifetime Member of the Society, and very kindly sent us his handmade King In Yellow Journal to examine. Its ingenious flaps and hidden extras reminded us of the crime dossiers that Dennis Wheatley published in the 1930s, which have themselves inspired HPLHS prop document projects. And it made perfect sense when we learned how he got into Lovecraft in the first place:

"My foray into Lovecraft came more round-about than most other die-hard fans of his work, I would wager. While I read quite a bit growing up, my bookworm tendencies leaned towards the science-side of the fiction realm versus the horror for which Lovecraft was known. I was a nerd in the stereotypical sense – roleplaying (mostly Star Wars and D&D 3rd Ed.) and video games, comics, etc.

I remember in late 2002 while attending college being introduced to the new Wizards of the Coast d20 Modern table-top roleplaying game. I was utterly fascinated with their “Shadow Chasers” setting which involved a small band of “heroes” being aware that there are things beyond normal mortal comprehension, concealed by a supernatural veil, out there dwelling among the rest of humanity. That year, over Christmas break, my friends and I delved in to the setting and I was hooked. I had to know more about the influences behind this “shadow realm.”

Since I’m sure that the Mi-Go the Society has on retainer would drag the truth from me, I may as well confess that Robert E. Howard was where my initial research led me. As many know, Howard was a contemporary of Lovecraft, even contributing several of his own elements to the Cthulhu Mythos. Regardless, I soon thereafter discovered Lovecraft. As a roleplaying gamer, I love both of these authors for different reasons: Howard is excellent from a player’s perspective as most of his characters fight back against the darkness and often win, but Lovecraft is my preferred from a Dungeon Master’s perspective since normally it’s the antagonists that frequently consume the characters – either figuratively or literally.

As is often the case with people who run roleplaying games for their friends, creative writing is a side interest of mine. I spent a lot of my time while I was stationed with the Army in South Korea from 2007-2008 practicing my skills. Fast forward a few years. Christmas 2015, my mother-in-law sent me a most wonderful gift – an experience from The Mysterious Package Company titled The King in Yellow. Being the roleplaying nerd that I am, I decided to journal my experience “in character” as if this whole thing were real. I don’t think I can properly convey how much fun I had creating this journal (see picture). The most enjoyable part, though, was how it led me down a rabbit hole of research and connections to other authors. I took a few creative liberties and suggested some conspiracy theories of my own, but all highly plausible if one’s mind was being… influenced… by supernatural forces.

It was also at this time that I decided to join The Society as a life member in support of their mission. While I’ve never played a game of Cthulhu Lives!, I love that the whole point of The Society is “we thought it would be fun.” And having fun I am. I participated in my first “Secret Shoggoth” this past year and received a very nice thank you note from the recipient. I also have started my collection of DART performances to accompany my Mythoscope DVD copies of The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness. I never thought I’d be a stamp collector, but I find myself trying to plot out how to acquire additional stamps for my membership passport. It’s addictive. My best friend’s wife grew up in Lovecraft’s home town of Providence, RI and her family has extended an open invitation for us to come visit. I think a pilgrimage is in order. I’m pretty sure there’s a stamp waiting for me there.

Lately though, my focus has been on adjusting to fatherhood. My wife, Ashley, and I added our first addition to our family, a little girl named Eve, on May the 7th. I’m excited since now I have someone to begin sharing my enjoyment of all things Lovecraft (see picture). Ashley just shakes her head at me, but I think she’s probably a Mi-Go spy."

May 2017

• May 6, 2017

Our Member of the Month for May 2017 is Sophie "SoMK" Klesen of Sherbrooke, Quebec, near Montreal. With her husband Alex, So describes herself as a "two-headed entity", which should not surprise anyone from this group, really. One head (Alex) is a translator by day and gamer by night. The other (Sophie) is artist by day and night. Both heads have a similar background: their love for science fiction and horror goes way back to their childhoods. It was nurtured by movies but started with books: HPL's among them. We asked Sophie and Alex which book started it all and how they began reading Lovecraft.

Alex: "Always been fascinated by SF/Fantasy genre, starships and Jules Vernes. The very first book I bought was Tintin's Explorers of the Moon, when I was about 7. I remember that years later my mum thought it was a good idea to get me some 'real' SF books for my 11th birthday since I loved SF so much. So I got The Martian Chronicles and The Illustrated Man and that was that. I first read Lovecraft when I was 16 years old. I remember it was "The Shadow over Innsmouth" and I read it during the summer holidays with friends on the Brittany coast. We were camping near some cliffs overlooking the sea, reading until dusk to the sound of the crashing waves… and as an added difficulty, we were three friends who wanted to read the same book (which also included Charles Dexter Ward) at the same time! We were lucky to have good translations of Lovecraft's novels, be they French or German."

So: "My grandmother read me some Tolkien when I was very young but as far as I remember, I think that the first book I bought with pocket money was a Zelazny. I came to Lovecraft during my reading bulimia that started around 12 or 13 years old. I bought and read everything I could find about science fiction and horror. It was shortly after the first Alien movie, definitively my turning point. I totally fell into it and I didn't look back ever since :p "

We asked them if Lovecraft directly influences their actual work.

Alex: "I am a translator, and mainly for the game industry so yes, I frequently use or come across references. Lovecraft's mythos is a pillar on which a lot of worlds are built. What fascinates me in Lovecraft's novels is that moment when the limitation of the human mind makes the perception of the protagonist — and that of the reader — jump back and forth between horror and fascination. So, the Elder Things, the Great Race of Yith or the Fungi from Yuggoth totally fascinate me. (…and the way HPLHS brought 'The Whisperer' to its logical conclusion, it was really excellent!)"

So: "It is a sort of background task, something I go back to again and again. A few years ago it was mainly through jewelry and more recently with illuminated manuscripts, but there is always something brewing. My favourite story still is "At the Mountains of Madness" (for the both of us), mainly because of the setting itself (South Pole ! Could as well be Mars!) but also the sculptures and the Elder Things themselves. I have a fascination for this alien species, their art, their society. They are not malevolent, they are different. That is the part I love. Not quite sure about the idea that something wants to come back and eat us but I don't need reminders that we as a species don't count for much in this universe XD"

In the slideshow above are a couple of pictures of the gorgeous jewelry that So and Alex have made, and you can check out more of their past work at this link. You can see Sophie's illuminated manuscripts and other current work at Sophie's website.