Friday, August 14, 2009
Cthulhu-Hoops
I write only in English but sometimes my work appears in other languages first. For instance, my story 'Abomination With Rice' has just been published in the second volume of the Cthulhu Unbound anthology, but its first appearance was in Portuguese in the Sombra Sobre Lisboa anthology back in 2006. That's not an uncommon occurrence for me. Both anthologies seek to perpetuate and extend the so-called Cthulhu Mythos. Because I'm not really a Lovecraft fan, my own contribution to the mythos is tongue in cheek, but the tongue is forked and the cheek sunken. The real villain of my story isn't a cosmic octopus god but a gentleman by the name of Pedro Marques. The real Pedro Marques isn't a villain but a decent chap who recently gave me 200 euros. Elsewhere I have proved to my own satisfaction that he is actually Lord Greystoke, the original Tarzan. These photographs show both anthologies. I wanted a Lovecraftian background but couldn't find one in Swansea. In Swansea, it's the foreground that's Lovecraftian...
I am currently working on my 499th story. It's set in Albarracín, one of the nicest villages in Spain. The first time I went there, back in September 2007, I already guessed accurately that one day I would write a cycle of short tales inspired by it. I don't know how many tales will form this cycle. Maybe they'll constitute a chapbook, maybe not. If they do, I already have a title for the sequence -- Tucked Away in Aragon. The first story in the cycle actually takes place in the sky above the village, with the clouds looking down and trying to see coherent shapes in the formless mass of seething humanity below. It's all just an optical illusion, of course.
# posted by Rhys Hughes @ 3:21 PM 
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