HPLHS News & Events Winter 2024

HQ Update!

• March 18, 2024

The Gentleman from Angell Street

• March 18, 2024

Our good friends at Helios House Press have just launched a new Kickstarter project: The Gentleman from Angell Street. It's a deluxe new edition of the memoir by Clifford and Muriel Eddy about their friend H.P. Lovecraft, now expanded with never-before-seen photos from the Eddy's grandson, Jim Dyer, new art, and other bonus content.

CHECK IT OUT!

Featured Member

• 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."

Iron Maiden

• March 1, 2024

The newest episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre™ is nearing completion, and the final cover art by Darrell Tutchton is now available, as seen here. Reber Clark is composing the music. Most of the props are already printed, and the liner notes are now in the works. Beware the ides of March! People who pre-order will get a bonus prop document!

CHECK IT OUT!

Redbubble Sale!

• February 26, 2024

Redbubble is celebrating its 17th anniversary of existence by donating $1 of every sale they make on February 27, 2024, to help fund select arts-focused campaigns through Global Giving, a non-profit for non-profits. If you've ever thought of checking out the dozens of HPLHS designs available via Redbubble, February 27 would be an excellent day to do it! We have garments of all kinds, stickers, posters, framed art, mugs, bags, notebooks, and all kinds of other fun stuff as well. Designs that are no longer available directly through our online store have been brought back to life on Redbubble! We've been very favorably impressed by both the quality and the delivery times on all the test pieces we've ordered for here at HQ, and since their printing and shipping are globally distributed, customers from all over the world can get Redbubble products made close to where they live.

You can get fun stuff and contribute to arts non-profits at the same time!

CHECK IT OUT!

The Iron Maiden

• February 15, 2024

We're happy to announce that pre-ordering is now open for the next episode of Dark Adventure Radio Theatre®, "The Iron Maiden". It is an adaptation of Prosper Mérimée's classic weird tale "The Venus of Ille", relocated from France to the Isle of Wight, and featuring Nate Ward near the beginning of his career. The show is now in post-production, and we expect to be shipping in mid-March.

PRE-ORDER IT HERE!

Adocentyn Library

• February 9, 2024

The HPLHS extends congratulations and gratitude to member Don Frew and his colleagues at the Adocentyn Library on their official opening! We are very honored to have some items featured in their display case, and look forward to other wonders that appear there from time to time!

Adocentyn Research Library: 1025 Solano Avenue, Albany CA 94706

To quote from the library's press release: "The Adocentyn Research Library is an on-site use only, multi-cultural, and inter-religious library serving the East Bay and the world. Founded in 2011, we are a California Nonprofit Public Benefit 501(c)(3) corporation.

The purpose of the Adocentyn Research Library is to collect, archive, preserve, and make available information related to Paganism—understood as all Indigenous, tribal, polytheistic, Nature-based, and Earth-centered religions, spiritualities, beliefs, practices, and cultures around the world and throughout human history. This includes a broad range of information on Pagan diversity, history, beliefs, adherents, organizations, and many related areas of study for use by researchers, scholars, and the general public.

Our catalog of the over 17,600 books on our shelves is available to the general public on OUR WEBSITE. We also feature many Pagan periodicals and special collections – such as historic artifacts and Tarot & Oracular decks. The Whealton collection on Egyptology is prodigious. We welcome donations of books, periodicals, ephemera, art, artifacts, and funds!

Our starting weekly hours are: · Thursday nights, 4-8pm · Sundays, noon-6pm · …and by appointment · (Volunteer cataloguing days – second Sunday, third Thursday, fourth Friday)

While we hope that interested parties will support us by becoming ongoing members (as described on our website), we are waiving use fees for our first few months. So, please stop by and encounter the wonder of Pagan scholarship that is the Adocentyn Research Library!"

Featured Member

• 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."

Graveyards of Arkham

• February 1, 2024

Our year started off with a very busy calendar, and we frankly can't believe it's already February! Last year, HPLHS worked with Chaosium to design a map of the Old Arkham Graveyard for their new Call of Cthulhu live play series, "Graveyards of Arkham". The show itself will be launching on Twitch next week, and the HPLHS' own Andrew Leman will be a guest NPC in the premiere episode! It was fun to be part of!

The launch is Wednesday February 7th, 6:30pm Pacific/9:30pm Eastern. WATCH IT HERE! Episodes will air at the same time, weekly, for six weeks. The VODs for each episode will go up sometime after the episode airs, but before the following week.

Happy New Year

• January 4, 2024

Thank you to all these lovely people and everyone else who sent warm holiday greetings to HPLHS headquarters during the solstice season! We have put the cards up on the refrigerator door so we can enjoy them well into spring. Wishing you all a terrific new year!

Featured Member

• 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."

Ave et Vale
Casey Kramer

• December 28, 2023

The HPLHS mourns the passing of Casey Kramer, a beloved friend and a member of the Dark Adventure Radio Theatre® company. You heard her voice as Mrs. Corey in "The Dunwich Horror" and Agatha Broadmoor in "Masks of Nyarlathotep". She also appeared in our film of The Whisperer in Darkness. She was a member of Theatre Banshee, where she shared her tremendous talent in a number of stage plays. She will be missed.

Jupiter Ammon CDs

• December 20, 2023

The CDs for "The Temple of Jupiter Ammon" have been delivered, and the Shipping Shoggoth is sending them out as quickly as inhumanly possible!

2024 Renewal Stamp

• December 18, 2023

The new HPLHS Membership renewal stamps for 2024 are now here, and will be going out to all new and renewing members starting today!

Featured Member

• 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!"