HPLHS News & Events Winter 2025

Fire Update

• January 15, 2025

We could not be more pleased to announce that the Eaton fire, the one that most closely threatened/threatens HPLHS headquarters, is now 45% contained. HPLHS staff member Kacey Camp, who has been evacuated from her Altadena home since the fire began, is now allowed to return to her home. Early reports indicate that although she's got some damage from the wind, there is little if any from the fire itself, despite the fact that her house is just a block or two from the western perimeter of the fire. Her neighborhood has power and potable water, although no gas service. She is very glad to be going home!

HQ Fire Update!

• January 10, 2025

FIRE

• January 8, 2025

The Los Angeles area has been hit by high winds which have in turn fanned a series of massive wildfires. This happens most years, but it has never been so close to headquarters before. Several members of the HPLHS team have been ordered to evacuate their homes until crews can get the flames under some control. HQ is not currently in the evacuation zone, but that could change. We may or may not be open regular hours this week. We send our very best wishes to everyone in the affected area for their safety and for a swift return to normal, and our thanks to all the personnel who are fighting the fires.

The Dagon Collection

• January 3, 2025

We were pleased to learn that The Dagon Collection was named "Best Anthology Book" of 2024 in the year-in-review column of the latest issue of Rue Morgue magazine! The issue is on newsstands as of today. Our congratulations to Nate Pedersen, the editor, and all the contributors including Andrew Leman of the HPLHS, who designed it!

Featured Member

• January 1, 2025

Our Member of the Month for January, 2025 is Robert E. Petersen of Boise, Idaho.

Robert says: “I discovered H.P. Lovecraft in 2005 at the crotchety age of 17. I had fallen head-over-heels for Edgar Allan Poe a few years prior, and after nearly wearing out my copy of his complete tales, I needed something else to scratch that itch. That turned out to be a tall order. In Poe I had found not just a compelling writer, but a conjurer who could transport me wholesale into his twisted worlds. His stories weren’t just frightening and entertaining, they were vivid hallucinations—like reading a dream. Poe was the closest thing to magic I had experienced in art up to that point in my life. Contemporary horror writers like Barker, King, et al. were a lot of grim fun, but none of them grabbed me by the soul and shook me the way that Poe did.

Enter HPL.

H.P. Lovecraft was a name I had heard floating around, but all I knew was that he was some sort of a weird cult figure from the early 20th century – a name you might toss around alongside Aleister Crowley or Rasputin. I’m not even sure I knew he was an author until I saw one of his books on the shelf in the horror section of a chain book store.

It was called The Doom that Came to Sarnath and Other Stories. The name was all I needed to be sold. I was in. I bought it, along with a stack of other Lovecraft del Rey paperbacks, threw them into my ancient, punk patch-covered North Face backpack, and devoured them the moment I got home.

Here, finally, was another writer who got it. These weren’t just stories, they were vivid phantasmagorias that tapped into a deep, primal sense of otherworldly awe that lurked in… well, certainly me, but I’d like to think in most other people, too. Reading them was like staring into the starry sky, alone, in the middle of a chilly night. Or vaguely recalling something glimpsed in a half-remembered childhood nightmare.

Yes, there were crazy monsters, wooden dialogue, and a little bit of melodrama and kitsch, too. But that just added to the charm.

A film degree, a marriage, two career changes, a child, and a cross-country move later, I’m now entering my 3rd decade of enjoying H.P. Lovecraft. These days I particularly like reading his stories from the original pulps when I can – the crumbling, yellowed pages and 1920’s advertisements helping to sweep me a century back in time. I particularly enjoy perusing The Eyrie letters section in Weird Tales and seeing that Lovecraft was spellbinding my fellow nerds of a century ago in precisely the same way he has spellbound me."

HQ Update!

• December 2024

MLS Vol.2 No. 4

• December 19, 2024

We are pleased to announce that, after some regrettable delay at the printer, the fourth and final issue of Volume 2 of the Miskatonic Literary Society is now on its way to subscribers. Arthur Machen's "Novel of the White Powder" is accompanied by a label for Vinum Sabbati, sampled above. Subscriptions to Volume 2 are now closed, but you can now purchase all four issues as a complete set!

Plans are now in the works for Volume 3!

Featured Member

• December 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for December, 2024 is Michelle Perry-Brooker of Sheffield, England.

Michelle says: “It could be said that I discovered HP Lovecraft in 1991, when Star Trek actor, Walter Koenig, who was doing readings of ‘The Rats in the Walls’ at conventions, made a cassette available for members of his fan club. But I have since realised that my favourite horror/sci-fi film, The Thing From Another World, is lightly disguised Lovecraft, as are other films I’ve enjoyed like The Haunted Palace and Alien.

A short bio: I’m a Canadian, who’s lived in England for over 26 years. I just turned 60 in mid November. I love history, being especially drawn to the Mayans, Aztecs and Egyptians. I can remember creating my own ‘Book of the Dead’ for a history project. Being unemployed, I spend my time writing, something which I’ve done since an early age, be it sci-fi stories, songs of many genres, children’s stories or poetry. Due to arthritis in my hands, I had to stop playing guitar about 6 years ago, and that — along with discovering ‘The Lovecraft Investigations’ podcast — led me to where I am now. With the help and support of my husband, I created a podcast series called I is for Investigate. I write the shows, and he helps with editing and is in charge of music, sound effects and production. Our first podcast, ‘The Shambler From the Stars’, premiered on New Year's day 2024. A cast member commented at the time that he didn’t know how I took such a short story and turned it into a five part series of 50+ minute episodes! I found myself tossing in bits of HPL stories to flesh it out and (hopefully), make it more appealing.

It’s a miracle that ‘Shambler’ came into being. I had no voice actors at my disposal, and only one friend agreed to join in our madness! My husband considered AI altered voices with us playing all the characters. But then I put up a post in both the member and non-member HPL goups, asking if anyone was interested, and things started to take shape. Eventually, all roles were filled and we’d gathered a cast of twenty. Our current season of IifI, ‘Dagon’, has a cast of 29 voice actors from England, Wales, Scotland, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Canada and the USA. We’ve come a long way, and at eleven episodes, this is a big adventure which also takes in a healthy dose of ‘The Shadow Over Innsmouth’. Cast members are still having great fun — or so they tell me!"

The Temple

• November 19, 2024

Dark Adventure Radio Theatre®: The Temple is now complete and available for download! The CDs are being manufactured and we will begin shipping ASAP. Barring unforeseen complications, they should be in plenty of time for Solstice!

Featured Member

• November 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for November, 2024 is Karl White of Eden Prairie, Minnesota.

Karl says: “Thank you for this great honor!

Growing up in the quiet expanse of the rural Midwest, I was always a voracious consumer of horror and the supernatural. On the hunt for stories that stoked my wonder of what things lurked beyond the deepening shadows or what ancient horror was watching from the cosmos. My introduction to HPL began with some of his early influences, Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, Algernon Blackwood. I kept coming across his name, having it on my list of authors to explore. But it wasn’t until my love of Hitchcock’s Psycho led me to Robert Bloch, that I realized the connective web and far-reaching influence Lovecraft had on so many of the authors and creators that fueled my imagination. Reading his stories, it’s fascinating to see the reverberation he's had throughout so many different mediums and genres -- even inspiring my own works as a writer. Moving to Los Angeles in 2011, I was lucky enough to stumble onto the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, visiting the storefront in Glendale and attending a few events - what a blast! I’ve since relocated back to the Midwest, but my search for answers of the dark unknown keeps me coming back to Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos over and over."

Cinema Powerhouses

• October 24, 2024

Davey Robertson, cinematographer and editor of the HPLHS motion pictures The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness has just made a new movie entitled Mistake. He was joined at the cast & crew screening at the iconic Nuart Theater in Los Angeles last night by Matt Foyer, who stars in all three films!

Hideous Monster

• October 23, 2024

HPLHS shop dog Booger dressed up in a very scary costume for Halloween! She wishes everyone a happy and healthy spooky season and wouldn't mind getting another treat.

The Temple

• October 11, 2024

A stalwart group of daring die-hards gathered at HPLHS headquarters last night for a table read of the newest Dark Adventure Radio Theatre script, "The Temple"! We plan to move into production expeditiously and bring you the completed episode as quickly as possible! Stay tuned!

Featured Member

• October 1, 2024

Our Member of the Month for October, 2024 is David Brokaw of Portland, Oregon.

David says: “I am an HPLHS lifetime member, and longtime dreaded supporter of the eldritch arts. I also feel proud to have supported the acquisition of FB Long's papers for the library archives as well.

A short bio: I am 47 years old, a clinical pharmacist selectively poisoning my patients for their benefit, an accomplished pianist, and a book collector looking to get into publishing against my better judgment. I did leukemia and stem cell research for 10 years before pharmacy school. (I've seen stem cells turn into heart cells that beat in a Petri dish of their own accord....paging Dr. West!). I've often been called a blood-sucker or vampire by other people: For 20+ years I've used blood and bone marrow in my medical research or patient care. I always say that I don't need a Halloween costume this time of year! I've worked as a science & philosophy advocate in the past with the Center for Inquiry (Indianapolis), but I've made Portland my home for the last 10 years. I do freelance music on the side, solo, or with my group ARCO-PDX.

I've always loved fantastic and speculative stories, starting with ancient Greek mythology as a kid. About 15 years ago, I was browsing the bookstore shelves for something other than the usual SFF, and "The Dunwich Horror" title caught my eye. Uh-oh. That was it: hook, line, and Shoggoth. I simply could not get enough horror-reads after that. Reality started seeming like the real horror after a while. Now, I collect a wide variety of small-press Weird and Spec-Fic, and in the early stages of developing a publishing business with family. I've enjoyed immensely coming to Portland's Horror and Lovecraft film festivals for the last 10 years, but the stories are still the things closest to my bloody heart. (I highly recommend checking out Mark Samuels, the late British author of a collection called The White Hands. Fantastic stuff)."

The Whisperer in Toronto

• September 28, 2024

You can now stream our motion picture The Whisperer in Darkness on Tubi. But we're happy to report that the Toronto Public Library is hosting a screening in their Northern District Library on October 12 at 1pm. It's part of their "Cinematic Conversations" series.

"Join us for a spine-tingling film screening that masterfully blends horror and literary brilliance. Follow mythology professor Albert Wilmarth as he delves into eerie reports of bodies floating in the rivers after a historic flood. His investigation leads him to the reclusive Henry Akeley, who unveils a terrifying secret...."

GenCon LARP Pix

• September 28, 2024

Our friends at Chaosium have given us access to some of the official photos taken of the Cthulhu Lives! game that we hosted with them at GenCon in Indianapolis on the night of August 3rd. Our renewed thanks to Brian Holland and Bridgett Jeffries of Chaosium, Mark Meer, Joe Givan, and all the brave folks who joined us for that evening of auction-based horror!

The Shunned House

• September 28, 2024

All Kickstarter backers have now been shipped their copies of "The Shunned House" and remaining copies are available for purchase in our online store! Also now available is Night-Black Deeds, the enriched edition of the story!

Now Streaming

• September 1, 2024

If you have a device that will play DVDs, then the best way to watch our motion pictures The Call of Cthulhu and The Whisperer in Darkness is by getting yourself the DVDs and playing them. That way you can enjoy all the special features that come with the films. But if, like a growing number of people, you can't do that, we're happy to say that the movies are now streaming on Tubi! We hope they will become available on other streaming platforms in the near future.

Featured Member

• 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."

Cthulhu Lives! Content At Last

• September 1, 2024

Many many years ago, we kept records of all the games of Cthulhu Lives! that we played using a HyperCard stack. (If you're too young to know what HyperCard was, you can learn all about it here.) When the internet came along, we converted that stack into a website, and that was the original purpose and nucleus of the HPLHS site. It was full of graphics and other things that slowed down page loading in those days of dial-up access and modems, and when we remodeled the site in general to take advantage of faster speeds, that whole original section of the website was put into mothballs until we could improve all the graphics. We still haven't had the time to really do that, but we are happy to say we have at last finally restored some of that original content to this site. Only three of the 65 games are online, and even those are still a work in progress, but at least it's something. You can check it out by navigating to the Cthulhu Lives! section in the drop-down menus above by going to Productions/Games/Cthulhu Lives!, or you can just click here.