The Blog In Yellow

Magnum Innominandum. Milk of the Void. Nyog-Sothep. One of the oldest gods, it is the parent of Yog-Sothoth and great grand parent of Cthulhu. In typical fashion the myths created by Lovecraft are a bit vague and confusing. It is mentioned in "The Whisperer in the Dark" and "The Mound," but this later story paints it as the husband of Shub-Niggurath. This might mean that Yog-Sothoth is the Magnum Innominandum. For my purposes, the Mist and the Magnum are the same.  This creature, like many of Lovecraft's creations is largely unknown. What was it's purpose besides creating Yog-Sothoth? The god is also mentioned in "The Shambler from the Stars," which may lead to its connection to the Shamblers.  I've caught a glimpse of what may have inspired the god. During a night drive I came across mist piercing the darkness. There's a nearby stream that becomes cloudy during the cold. I wondered what monsters or creatures awaited in an obscured view. De...

After weeks of fun and frustration, I finished Blood West. A game about the mythical American west developed by what I believe to be Sweedish developers. I spent over twenty hours exploring an apocalyptic wild west filled with wendigoes, skin walkers, zombies, witches and all sorts if strange monsters. Time well spent on a game with a rogue mechanic that kills your soul every time you die. The game follows a man risen from the dead by an strange power to rid the land of evil. This revenant character explains the rogue elements of the game as you will be dying, a lot. The game allows you to go into towns and graveyards guns blazing with pistols, shotguns and rifles but encourages you to use stealth. Weapons like crossbows, axes and knives are plentiful, and the guns only alert enemies if you miss them or are too close to another one. Often I'd find myself dropping an enemy only for his friend to be drawn to the scene of the death, not my gunshots. Despite the openess of the three le...

The  Nuclear Chaos. The  Daemon Sultan.  Blind Idiot God. The  Lord of All Things. Little is known about the creator God. Like Lord Dunsany's Mana-Yood-Sushai, Azathoth sleeps under the other gods' song and music. No one knows if he is the creator of the Big Bang or is encompasses it. Little is known about him except that he created the Nameless Mist, the Darkness, and Nyarlathotep before sleeping and dreaming our existence. Then we have the true horror: we may be only his dream. What happens when he wakes up? Do we disappear or does he destroy us? Perhaps ignorance is better. Better to not know what happens because we can't comprehend his ways. So mindless is he that he mutters things he can't understand. And it's not that he's so beyond us that we can't understand. Lovecraft makes it clear that this god is mad by our standards. It's like time has an effect on even the gods. But let's look deeper. Terrible things happen in an awakening. Look to lite...

I'm better now. I forgot my source.

God help me, I love this blog but is it enough? Do I use these posts so I can pretend to write when the real work is untouched? It's a form of Hell when your goal is in front of you but you don't take a step. I sat in front of three computer today for over an hour and got five minutes worth of work done. Sleep stole most of the day and distractions stole the rest. Is this really what I want, to prepare but never go forward? The writing world is full of people who write until they bleed. What chance does a a procrastinator like me have? It's like an block is in front of me and I can't get around. If God can hear me please help me.

Without giving away too much of my plot, I've discovered two Kings in Yellow in my research. The first is what Ambrose Bierce created and Robert Chambers followed up on. This concept of a god that is madness incarnate. A being beyond logic. Gods before Jesus are seen as polytheistic representatives of elements like lightning, wind, and the sea. Post Jesus gods transform into monotheistic entities that preside over all elements with a focus on humanity's well-being. The King in Yellow is presented with an interest in torturing his subjects. People seem unaware that they are even part of this god's design. The protagonist in "In the Court of the Dragon," is caught off guard by the sudden reveal of the King in Yellow. This is also the only story when then King appears.  In fact, the King feels more like a devil or interloper rather than a creator. He doesn't preside over anything other than madness and is more akin to a trickster god. In the play mentioned in the...

One of the issues I'm having is with my main character being too blank. I know he doesn't like his new school and loves to look at the stars but that's about the full gist of what I have for him. I've written on other essays about how I hate the "normal" character in stories. The particular characters I'm thinking of are Doug from the show of the same name and Arnold from "Hey, Arnold." Both shows were part of my childhood and while I enjoyed them at the time, today I believe they were poorly designed. If everyone around the protagonist is more interesting, the story messed up. People need to attach somewhat to the protagonist. I get what the meaning behind making the main character boring. It's like the character is saying "Welcome to my wacky life. Here's a bunch of strange people and I'm your lense into this world." Cartoons tend to be wacky but the "normal" character has never felt like a good lense to me. It...

One of my favorite restaurants closed today. I had my last burger and chocolate cake at Frishes's today and while i am sad about it, the store has been running ragged as of late. The food isn't as good and the service, while great, just isn't the same. Is that how things die? With a whimper? There's a set of years in Lovecraft's life where he wrote his best works. Call of Cthulhu, The Mountains of Madness, The Dunwich Horror, and The Shadow of Innsmouth. You can almost see the conservation of energy in his writings because he trails off as he gets older. While his life was cut short it does seem as if the works feeder out. Not bad, but not great. It's the same with Stephen King in my opinion. A long list of fantastic books. Today? Not bad but not great. It's like the flame is going out little by little. Then again, King wrote Revival at a time that I thought he couldn't scare me anymore. 

 Recently, I finished up a documentary by Extra Credits about the part Occultism had to do with the rise of Nazism in Germany. I never knew how much the occult had in bringing such terror to Europe. One of my favorite points that the documentary tried to nail in was how even if an idea is stupid, it doesn't mean its not dangerous. And it's true even today. I've met people who believe the world is flat or that birds aren't real. It's so easy to post anything stupid on the net and even easier to build a cult following. It's scary how people will use pointless facts or psudo science to build their theories. At the end of the documentary, the narrator turns the camera on America. It's true that we weren't anywhere as bad as the Nazi's, but hints of racist theories and psudo science were in our home. Blood bags for soldiers were seperated by skin color, black for black soldiers and white for white. Imagine that for a moment, your blood which is the same t...

As i work on the KIY project I'm reminded that working on this stuff is like working with clay. I've had little i traction with clay besides making ash trays but the idea is still there. Working on the Lovecraftian universe is like raking someone else's work and adding to it. Like making a smaller statue next to Lady Liberty. It seems pointless doesn't it? The key, for me, is to differentiate enough to become my own work. One of the biggest differences is that my story is what happens after the discovery of the horror. The awful fact is that Lovecraftian stories, at least proper horror, follow a strict formula. They establish the normal, the protagonist investigates something, then the horror comes. It's a fine formula but what happens after is what I'm trying to work on. Say you discovered so.ething awful in the woods, who do you tell? Will anyone believe you? What do you do about that thing? Lovecraft's characters often die or wind up in a straight jacket ...

After reading a few of Clark Ashton Smith's stories i discounted other writers from having the same pull as Lovecraft. Lumley meets and supersedes my expectations. The House of the Temple follows a man who inherits a home from his uncle. In a letter, the deceased relative explains the history of the house and it's inhabitants the McGrath family. Bit the inheritance is on the codition that the narrator destroys the old house. Our narrator is joined to his journey to the house in by an uninspired artist friend. Once there the artist is struck by inspiration and sets in to canvas a new work. As the narrator reads into his uncle's notes, he discovers how his uncle died and the curse that affects the family. A pool sits outside that slowly unveals the creature that inhabits the water. In the end, the friend dies a horrific death and the narrator succeeds in blowing up the house only to be haunted by the thing in the pool. Lumley cleverly inserts artistry into the tried and true ...

Over the last year I've been collecting pics, mostly on Pinterest, to fuel my world development. A picture is worth a thousand words and I feel inspired when I see something interesting. When I first started writing, I would take pics from tumblr and use one to several to frame my story. It was a good exercise to make something out of whatever caught my eye. I strained my brain trying to figure out what rats in a robe and a little girl had to do with each other. But more importantly, it told me what I didn't like. When I started, I was writing RTF, another story series. I had no boundaries or cutoffs for the world. How much magic was in this world? Are we talking Game of Thrones or Harry Potter? Originally, there was everything from elves and orcs to dwarves and leprechauns. Not a good basis, so began to cut and flesh out the world like a woodcutter scraping a log. Slowly the world became more defined and I understood what I wanted. Now I'm doing the same for The Kid in Yel...

After digesting the movie, I've decided to write a review about Candyman, the original. I've seen it before but this time I watched it with a friend who watched it with his chatty girlfriend and missed much of the story. Tony Todd is worthy all the fame, or infamy, that comes with being a slasher horror villain. His voice and acting is a fesrsome mix of gentlemanliness and psycho killer. Todd's acting mimics a shark encroaching its prey and adds subtle menace to the film. The way he hypnotizes and then rips through his victims with his hooked stub is excruciating to watch. It's not just Todd's performance that sells it but the backstory. There are clear separations between black and white culture. Most of the film takes place in the ghetto that's filled with rumor and superstition. On the other hand, the whites always live in upper middle class establishments free of fear. It seems almost as if the whites live in a different world. A subtle nod to the despairity...

I've been reading some of Lumley's works who is most know for the Necroscope series. I originally discounted his works because I thought he was another copycat like Ckark. To my surprise, Lumley is a near perfect copy, in a wonderful way. I've only read, The House of the Temple, but it feels like a modernization of Lovecraft's work. Even an evolution. Written nearly fity years after Lovecraft, this takes moderninity like cars and radios and blends them into a feast. I'm aware these technologies existed during Lovecraft's time but the way we use them has changed over the decades. Lumley works in theses of heritage, hits of the other world, and that creeping horror that Lovecraft was so keen in. For me, it's a foundation piece for my own work. I'll post a review later but Lumley hit a jackpot with this story even if it re-treads older themes.

I've forgotten something in my creative process. When I was in middle and high school, I collected things on the floor. Pens mostly, which i disassembled and reforged in my own designs. I turned them into heroes and villains that did battle for the flimsiest of reasons. But my best work came about when I had fewer resources. Less pieces equated greater results. It felt like an achievement, pure creation magic when I built from so little. I've dived into the Lovecraft world and there is much to take from but in that deep pool, o forgot that I do more with less. Perhaps I don't need a lot of characters to make a great story. If less is more works for me, why argue with myself? It's something to think about.

Today I sat in front of a blank screen ready to type my heart out. When I left less than one page had been written. While it was bios about characters I wanted to write about, there was barely any info about them. Is it this hard to create new characters? I have dozens of factions but no one to represent those roles. That's what scares me, the idea that the magic will stay bottled inside or worse, come out diluted. It becomes a poor representation of my inner thoughts and those two failures scare me to the point that I can't move. It's the autism, I know it. That petulant child, hanging off of me and screaming "No" at the top of its lungs. Why can I write about the horrors of writing but not do the real writing? It's a curse. 

I usually try to avoid politics but I thought I'd bring up how people act. Sometimes they say they're moderate, in the middle people when they hide their slant. It's obvious that they think they think a certain way because they have to keep telling me they think that way. "I see myself as a moderate." But do you act that way? People seem to have this projected view of themselves and their politics. So when the election came up yesterday I sat on the fence as best as I could. I nodded my head to both sides, never correcting the left or the right. I find it's easier to survive that way. But even I'm skewed in some aspects. I like to think I'm moderate but I lean toward extremes at the same time. Maybe this is what the false moderates felt when they were yakking my ear off about politics. I don't think politics has as much power as people think. I don't think the president can do as much as people say. I still try to understand their concerns thou...

Dragon Age is a series of ges I've been partially interested in for a number of years. The developer, Bioware, has had ups and downs when it comes to developing ges. There are companies, like authors, that fans cling to and it's heartbreaking to see them go out in a poor way. I haven't been with Bioware for the highest of highs they had with their Star Wars games or other series which is probably why I'm not as fanatic a fan. The latest in the Dragon Age series just came out and it has upset a lot of fans for different reasons. Maybe it was the actiony combat in a fantasy rpg game or making the stranger races look too human that caused the problems. Or perhaps olit was the preaching of gender politics that set the fans off. In one scene, a character is forced to do push-ups after misgendering a character. Said character says physical punishment teaches better. What an awful scene. Identity politics is a current issue of our world, not the fantasy world. The original Dra...

One of Lovecraft's forgotten stories, "Cool Air" is more in line of his more scifi stories such as " Reanimator." After re-reading the short story, it reminded me of HG Well's "The Invisible Man." It has that same sense of discovery over time, although Lovecraft's work is much shorter. Our narrator recalls how the feeling of cold air brings an unearthly chill to him. After moving into a new apartment, our narrator is hit with a heart attack. He's saved by a doctor on the floor above. While in his room, the narrator notes the cold temperature of the room but discounts it having any meaning. The two strike up a friendship and the narrator helps the doctor make the room colder and colder until only the lab and bathroom are left alone so the pipes won't freeze. During their talks, the narrator sees the doctor become more erratic and insane. He talks about the medical miracles of defying death and of preserving human remains. One day the pum...