Author |
Topic: Hello from DF Lewis (Read 1308 times) |
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
  
Gender: 
Posts: 136
|
 |
Hello from DF Lewis
« Thread started on: Apr 14th, 2007, 06:00am » |
|
Hey, glad to be here and I intend to contribute.
Meanwhile, I thought people here may be interested in my Ebay sale over the next few years of most of my books and mags:
http://tinyurl.com/38lq3r
|
|
 Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
Calenture
Guest
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #1 on: Apr 14th, 2007, 07:18am » |
|
Hello Des,
(Unless you prefer the initials.) I had the pleasure of reading a couple of your stories recently while helping with a little proofreading. I've studied what's on my plate carefully since.
Need to get back to that job, too; Mr Black decided I needed a break while I was sorting the Filthy Catastrophes. Hope you enjoy it here!
Rog
|
| « Last Edit: Apr 14th, 2007, 07:19am by Calenture » |
Logged
|
|
|
|
demonik
Hail Horrors Hail
member is offline
Thirsty Dog
Gender:
Posts: 4131
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #2 on: Apr 14th, 2007, 07:43am » |
|
Hello [again] Des
... and I came across some of your work this week too when I found six issues of Margaret Carter's The Vampyre's Crypt I'd forgotten about! Did you keep copies of all the fanzines and small press publications your work appeared in? I think I even saw something of yours in Skeleton Girls!
Great to have you here - hope you enjoy yourself!
|
|
Logged
|
The inn sign ... was in the nature of a coffin supported by six headless bearers goose-stepping towards a white headstone, and underneath this somewhat forbidding daub with grim irony, the legend 'Ye Journey's End' - Guy Preston, The Inn.
|
|
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 136
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #3 on: Apr 14th, 2007, 08:38am » |
|
Thanks, both.
Yes, I've kept all my contributor's mags (about 1500 of them from 1986-2000) and others. Will be selling these over the next 30 years in a steady stream.
Plus my book collection.
des
|
|
Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
Dr Terror
Crypt Kicker
member is offline
My Name is Death
Gender:
Posts: 862
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #4 on: Apr 16th, 2007, 12:23pm » |
|
Hi Des,
Welcome back!
|
|
Logged
|
The Black Book of Horror on sale now.
|
|
|
Craig Herbertson
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 233
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #5 on: Apr 17th, 2007, 06:31am » |
|
Hi,
we are almost neighbours then. I'm published in Auguries 16. werlome. Good looking ebay stuff. I'll have as root through
Craig
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 136
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #6 on: May 1st, 2007, 1:19pm » |
|
WHOFAGE
by DF Lewis
This short essay was first published in USA - 'Atsatrohn' 1993 and then in UK - 'Midnight in Hell' (which once did a DFL special with only 20 published copies!) 1995
When I corresponded with Peter (now Petal) Jeffery back in the 60’s and 70’s, a convenient acronym cropped up for the type of literature we both enjoyed: WHOFAGE (Weird, Horror, Occult, Fantasy, Avernal, Ghost, Egnis). You will have to read the mighty Tome that we conspired to write at Lancaster University in 1967 (THE EGNISOMICON) to understand Avernal and Egnis. Only two copies exist. Petal’s and mine. One a photocopy, which we consider to be the pukka one. As you may know, in the 80’s, Petal was to become the Red Brain in the now late lamented Lovecraft fanzine DAGON.
But my first introduction to whofage started even earlier when I was at Colchester Royal Grammer School - and who was in the same Sixth Form class as me? None other than Michel Parry. And it is that fact which reminds me that Anthologies were my real spur toward whofage. In Great Britain, there were a good many horror anthologies edited by Michel during the early 70’s, mostly in Mayflower, Corgi and Panther paperbacks, such as The Supernatural Solution (spook sleuths), Mayflower Book of Black Magic Stories (six volumes), Strange Ecstasies (drug fantasy), Rivals of King Kong, Rivals Of Dracula, The Hounds Of Hell (doggy horror - and aren’t all dogs horrible?), Beware the Cat &c. &c. There were also two Devil’s kisses anthologies edited by Linda Lovecraft (who was Michel Parry in disguise!), one of which was banned because the early 70’s were too early for this brand of erotic horror. So, if you have the Devil’s Kisses anthologies (as I do), they’re probably valuable. But, no, of course, the early seventies were too late to have influenced me in my most impressionable years. My first real taste of WHOFAGE (even though the acronym hadn’t been invented at that stage) was when I accidentally met Michel Parry in the Colchester WH Smiths bookshop in 1964(?) where he picked the Panther edition of HPL’s Haunter Of The Dark off the shelf and recommended it to me. He scored his nail under a few tales (the Dunwich Horror being one, I recall) as particular favorites of his. Despite still being at school, Michel had a flat of his own where he later showed me an amazing Arkham House collection. And that was strange in those days, I guess.
Whofage only really came home to me a year or so later with August Derleth’s anthologies. You must have seen these. Or perhaps you haven’t. In the late sixties, one could often find English paperback editions of these American classic anthologies in secondhand bookshops. I always recall travelling round Peter Jeffery’s home town of Southend, picking a goodly trawl of Derleths from market stalls &c. Not now, I’m afraid. Derleth, to my mind, was not a good writer, but he did assemble some pretty amazing whofage tales by motley crews under single roofs. Among the best of these are Who Knocks? and When Evil Wakes. Herein I furthered my love of HPL and people like John Metcalfe, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, J. Ramsey Campbell, C.M. Eddy Jr., Arthur Machen, and Seabury Quinn. Oh, the list is gloriously endless. These anthologies are Required Reading. Or they certainly were when whofage was sparse on the shelves. Now there’s too much of it. All those wide black spines. Ramsey Campbell (yes, the J. Ramsey Campbell mentioned above) and Stephen King are the only two worth reading to my mind. But who am I to say?
Peter Haining’s anthologies of the sixties and seventies also inspired me: there are literally scores of these, so I imagine you still may be able to obtain them secondhand. Robert Aickman’s and later, R. Chetwynd-Hayes’ Fontana Ghost Story volumes that they edited were amazingly good, too.
Robert Aickman...Aaah! Well, that’s another story. Perhaps next time.
I’ve just returned from a holiday in Sark, Channel Islands. It is an island 3.5 miles by 1 mile, ringed by back-breaking craggy bays to get down to. Its only transport horses, bikes or the odd tractor. Definitely no cars. Well, this was an ideal spot to renew ancient acquaintances. And some of these anthologies have been better friends than most people. Sitting in a cave, I listened to the waves gently whofage, whofage, whofage on the pebbles outside - the only way for a sea to gurgle or ripple or softly sough.
|
| « Last Edit: May 1st, 2007, 1:29pm by weirdmonger » |
Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
Craig Herbertson
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 233
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #7 on: May 1st, 2007, 1:30pm » |
|
That would Sark of Mervyn Peake fame I presume. Is it still a writers and artists haven?
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 136
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #8 on: May 1st, 2007, 1:47pm » |
|
Hi, I had no idea about Mervyn Peake's connection with Sark. (I've just googled the connection following your comment).
My holiday in Sark was in 1992 (?). It would then have made an ideal artistic enclave but I met no artists there as far as I know!
If anyone is interested, this is the story I wrote there (some of which is based on what I saw there):
http://weirdmonger.blogspot.com/2007/05/fall-from-grace.html
|
| « Last Edit: May 1st, 2007, 1:48pm by weirdmonger » |
Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
Craig Herbertson
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 233
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #9 on: May 1st, 2007, 1:52pm » |
|
Yes Peake was out there too. Your writers instinct probably got attracted to the magnet
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
Calenture
Guest
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #10 on: May 1st, 2007, 3:15pm » |
|
Your story reminded me of a pre-Raphaelite painting of Sirens; the painting is curiously grotesque and tasteless. It might have been by Moreau; but members won't be surprised to learn that I can't find my copy of Dreamers of Decadence (it happens often), so I can't be certain.
I did enjoy the story. I gather that you have about 1000 of these stories on the net, now. Do you see the net as replacing traditional books?
The brevity of most of your stories - I've only read about half-a-dozen so far - make them ideal for internet browsing, I think.
A few of the stories seem to show a morbid suspicion of food... At any rate, I'm pleased I'd had my tea before reading of that "pork snake".
on May 1st, 2007, 1:19pm, weirdmonger wrote:| These anthologies are Required Reading. Or they certainly were when whofage was sparse on the shelves. Now there’s too much of it. All those wide black spines. Ramsey Campbell (yes, the J. Ramsey Campbell mentioned above) and Stephen King are the only two worth reading to my mind. But who am I to say? |
|
Wagner, Tessier, Grant, Ligotti, etc - of course some of them made their mark since you wrote this.
I think we all wish that there were more of those "thick black spines" on bookshelves now.
on May 1st, 2007, 1:19pm, weirdmonger wrote:| WHOFAGE (Weird, Horror, Occult, Fantasy, Avernal, Ghost, Egnis). You will have to read the mighty Tome that we conspired to write at Lancaster University in 1967 (THE EGNISOMICON) to understand Avernal and Egnis. |
|
I'm intrigued. I've just learned that Avernal gets its name from a lake in Italy whose waters gave off vapours so poisonous that birds flying overhead dropped dead. While Egnis is connected with fire. Fire demons? Spontaneous combustion? No; I think that'd be too specific. Like I said, intriguing. 
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 136
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #11 on: May 1st, 2007, 3:23pm » |
|
Thanks for those comments, Rog.
Yes, at my age, I've stopped farting around trying to get published properly. As well as the 1200 plus stories on the net (most of them previously print- published but new ones, too), there are (also on the net) three new novels, a novel I wrote in 1974, and three new novellas (I think!).
|
| « Last Edit: May 1st, 2007, 3:32pm by weirdmonger » |
Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 136
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #12 on: May 1st, 2007, 3:30pm » |
|
Yes, Singe is Egnis, opposite of Mellow: evil and good in the 'religion' of Egnisism.
I don't read much genre horror these days. I sort of enjoyed Lisey's Story. I love Ligotti, but he is hardly a writer you find in most shops. I'm currently renewing my love affair with the old anthologies and Aickman etc ...and Elizabeth Bowen.
|
|
Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
Calenture
Guest
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #13 on: May 1st, 2007, 4:24pm » |
|
The Sirens by Arnold Böcklin
I found that book. It was in a stack, flattening some papers... It's probably the most often-opened volume in my house, full of delightful horrors.
This was the sort of picture I had of your sunbathing waitress.
"Singe" - hmm, another word I'm about to Google. 
Of course, you'll have thought of putting a number of your stories into a print-on-demand collection, for people who don't know which thousand publications to track down to read them. And dismissed it, presumably.
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
weirdmonger
Ghoul Patrol
member is offline
Gender:
Posts: 136
|
|
Re: Hello from DF Lewis
« Reply #14 on: May 2nd, 2007, 01:53am » |
|
Thanks, Rog, for unturfing that picture. Redolent cross-fertilisation between the arts, even though I was unaware of it, I think, till now. (Forgive me for wrapping up my own story in 'the arts'!).
Re your mention of a p-on-d book, there is the Prime trade paperback Weirdmonger: The Nemonicon: Synchronised Shards of Random Truth and Fiction (2003) with 80 odd stories.
CWG Press are due to print-publish my novella Weirdtongue, they having seen it on the internet (where it still is).
|
| « Last Edit: May 2nd, 2007, 01:54am by weirdmonger » |
Logged
|
www.weirdmonger.com
www.nemonymous.com
|
|
|
|
