Sample file VOL. 66, NO. 4 • ISSUE 360 Table of Contents Weird Tales was the The Eyrie 3 first storytelling magazine The Den 5 devoted explicitly to the Lost in Lovecraft 87 realm of the dark and fantastic. THE ELDER GODS The Long Last Night by Brian Lumley 8 Founded in 1923, Weird Momma Durtt by Michael Shea 25 Tales provided a literary The Darkness at Table Rock Road by Michael Reyes 36 home for such diverse The Runners Beyond the Wall by Darrell Schweitzer 45 wielders of the imagination Drain by Matthew Jackson 55 as H. P. Lovecraft (creator The Thing in the Cellar by William Blake-Smith 63 of Cthulhu), Robert E. Howard (creator of FoundSample in a Bus Shelter file at 3:00 AM, Conan the Barbarian), Under a Mostly Empty Sky by Stephen Gracia 67 Margaret Brundage (artistic godmother of goth UNTHEMED FICTION fetishism), and Ray Bradbury To Be a Star by Parke Godwin 69 (author of The Illustrated The Empty City by Jessica Amanda Salmonson 75 Man and Something Wicked Abbey at the Edge of the Earth by Collin B. Greenwood 83 This Way Comes). Alien Abduction by M. E. Brines 85 Today, O wondrous reader POETRY of the 21st century, we Mummified by Jill Bauman 7 continue to seek out that In Shadowy Innsmouth by Darrell Schweitzer 24 which is most weird and The Country of Fear by Russell Brickey 54 unsettling, for your own Country Midnight by Carole Buggé 62 edification and alarm. by Danielle Tunstall ALL writers Cover Photo OF sucH stORIES ARE PROPHETS SUBSCRIBE AT WWW.WEIRDTALESMAGAZINE.COM 1 VOL. 66, NO. 4 • ISSUE 360 Publisher Creative Director John Harlacher Editor Marvin Kaye Managing Editor James Aquilone Contributing Editor Kenneth Hite Design Director Jeff Wong Consulting Art Director Dave Buchwald Public Relations Terry Kaye Editorial Consultant Eugene D. Goodwin Contributing Artists Mark Bilgrey Sample file Fabian David Hartman Danielle Tunstall WEIRD TALES ® is published by Nth Dimension Media, Inc. Postmaster and others: send all changes of address and other subscription matters to 105 West 86th Street, Ste. 307, New York, NY 10024-3412. Single copies, $7.95 in U.S.A. & possessions; $10 by first class mail elsewhere. Subscriptions: 4 issues $20 in U.S.A. & possessions; $40 elsewhere, in U.S. funds. Single-copy orders should be addressed to WEIRD TALES at the address above. Copyright © 2012 by Nth Dimension Media, Inc. All rights reserved; reproduction prohibited without prior permission. Typeset & printed in the United States of America. WEIRD TALES ® is a registered trademark owned Photo: Danielle Tunstall Model: Andy Rose by Viacom International Inc. 2 EYRIETHE mportant Note—As this issue was being readied evolution, its most recent incarnation has both dramatically Ifor press, we were saddened to learn of the death increased its readership and won both Hugo nominations on June 5th of Ray Bradbury, one of America’s greatest and awards. fantasists. From 1942 to 1983, he contributed 26 short So what’s next? stories to Weird Tales. While our intent has been to We must be Janus-faced. Some of the classic look and honour the memory of H. P. Lovecraft in this edition content of the 1930s-’40s-and ’50s will be brought back of Weird Tales, we believe that it is also appropriate as an important part of the mix, for Weird Tales’s greatest to dedicate this issue to the memory of Ray Bradbury. years still capture the imagination of readers of all ages, We have secured, with the permission of his literary thanks to the macabre power of such great contributors agent, three examples of Ray’s writing: a movingly as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Robert E. Howard, personal poem, a fascinating, little-known essay, and Fritz Leiber, H. P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson, etc. an extremely à propos short story. But we are also keenly interested in continuing and expanding the splendid work of Stephen Segal and Ann —John Harlacher VanderMeer. Publisher When Nth Dimension Media, Inc., purchased Weird SampleTales file from Wildside Press, LLC, it also acquired H. P. —Marvin Kaye Lovecraft’s Magazine of Horror, which ran from 2004 Editor through 2009 in six issues edited by Marvin Kaye. Weird Tales’s new publisher points out that there are no plans to bring back Lovecraft as a separate magazine, Weird Tales is an American trust. but it will remain an ongoing portion of Weird Tales. In Ever since 1923, for nearly four hundred issues Weird fact, the current issue (# 360) pays special homage to Tales has offered outstanding fantasy, mystery, science Lovecraft by featuring new stories about the Elder Gods. fiction, and unclassifiable weird fiction and fact, guided The editor, who still has a fairly large inventory of by a series of distinguished editors including (chronologically) fiction intended for publication in H. P. Lovecraft’s Edwin Baird, Farnsworth Wright, Dorothy McIlwraith, Magazine of Horror, plans to secure rights to as many Sam Moskowitz, Lin Carter, Gordon M. D. Darb, George of these stories and poems as possible for inclusion in H. Scithers, Darrell Schweitzer, John Gregory Betancourt, future issues of Weird Tales. Stephen H. Segal, Ann VanderMeer, and now genre The new Weird Tales will be open to nearly all sorts anthologist-editor-novelist Marvin Kaye, who, with John of genre fiction and poetry, including, but not limited Harlacher, cofounded Nth Dimension Media, Inc., to to absurdist humor, conte cruelles, fantasy, horror, new continue the Weird Tales legacy. riffs on fairy and folk tales, as well as nonsense, terror, Over its long life, the style of Weird Tales’s contents and surrealism, possibly even theatre. The only kind of story appearance has evolved to reflect the expectations of its that probably won’t fit would be neo-realism, though readers, as well as the taste and judgment of its editors, even here the editor is willing to be convinced otherwise. especially in the past few years. While some of its long-time The editorial approach to the Nth Dimension readers have perhaps lamented the magazine’s latter incarnation of Weird Tales will be similar to the way 3 WEIRD TALES Mr. Kaye balanced content in his thirty-plus anthologies writing Parke is convalescent; I am waiting for word edited for the Science Fiction Book Club and other from his friend and agent Connor Cochran (“Freff”) as publishers: to the condition of Parke’s health. Our next issue of Weird Tales—# 361—will feature • Stories by well-known authors, some of whom fairy tales/folk tales, with new stories by Dick Baldwin, have already expressed interest in appearing Marc Bilgrey, Tanith Lee, Jane Yolen and a new tale (or reappearing) in Weird Tales, among them from the great fantasist Peter S. Beagle. (though not limited to) Peter S. Beagle, Carole —THE EDITOR Buggé, Parke Godwin, Ron Goulart, Alan Dean Foster, Tanith Lee, Brian Lumley, William F. P. S. I just saw the new movie, The Cabin in the Woods, Nolan, Roberta Rogow, Jessica Amanda and highly recommend it. I was fortunate in not knowing Salmonson, Darrell Schweitzer, Michael Shea, anything about it beforehand, except that The Onion Jay Sheckley, Jane Yolen, and many more. gave it an A- … which is an unusually high rating for • Contributions by “midlist authors,” which that publication. means excellent writers who deserve to become I don’t want to commit a spoiler, but there’s a strong better known. reason why I felt I HAD to mention The Cabin in the • Newer writers culled from online submissions, Woods in Weird Tales #360! as well as those discovered and developed by —mk the editor during twenty-plus years of teaching fantasy and science fiction writing at New York Marvin Kaye, author of sixteen novels and editor of University. Among the authors discovered and over 30 genre fiction anthologies, has had a long personal encouraged by the editor are Carole Buggé, history with Weird Tales. Fascinated by the “creepy- Shannon Cork, Rachel Mann, Jean Paiva, looking” magazine that his sister Dorothy (now Dot Roberta Rogow, C. H. Sherman, Kathleen Miller—of Florida) brought into their Philadelphia Snow, Kathleen C. Szaj, Carolyn Wheat, etc. home, he was an avid fan by the age of nine. He edited • A small number of reprints of classic stories two anthologies celebrating the magazine’s distinctive from back issues of Weird Tales, as well as world brand of fiction: Weird Tales - the Magazine that Never literature. Dies, in 1988, and The Best of Weird Tales: 1923, in 1997. He also edited H.P. Lovecraft’s Magazine of Each new issue of Weird Tales will feature a presiding Horror, which will become integrated into Weird Tales. theme, although other stories and poetry will be included along with tales that fit the governing idea. SampleNo novice file to the world of fantasy and horror, publisher Our current issue is devoted to the Elder Gods and John Harlacher is director of “Nightmare,” an interactive begins with a new novella by the great British fantasist theatre experience widely recognized as New York’s Brian Lumley, followed by Cthulhu-ish stories from most horrifying haunted house. Last year’s motif, a veteran authors Darrell Schweitzer and Michael Shea, creepy rendition of familiar fairy tales, was described and newer author William Blake Smith. by Fangoria as “entirely spooky and full of nasty, nasty Also in this issue is a non-themed story by renowned fun … imaginative, and yes, hilarious and repulsive.” fantasist Parke Godwin, who is my personal friend and Harlacher also wrote, produced and directed the urban often collaborator. I am grieved to report that at this horror film, Urchin.