After completing Lord Dunsany’s single tale within the previously mentioned collection compiled by Mr. Crane, I immediately took to the gathering of Mr. Dunsany’s books which were all but completely out of print during the early 1990’s. I rummaged through old book stores seizing any collection that carried at least one of his tales, which brought me upon a book titled Stories of Suspense which held a story titled, Two Bottles of Relish. Although little more than a detective story, in the tradition of Sir Arthur’s Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, it had a sinister criminal element to it and before long I found myself holding a cheap copy of Lord Dunsany’s fantasy classic, The King of Elfland’s Daughter. Between its covers I found myself immersed in a wonderful world of imagination and fancy. With its end I was forever ruined for books dealing with the mundane laws of our own world desiring those of other realms. To feed this craving I moved on to devour the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, E.R. Eddison, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, L. Sprague De Camp, Michael Moorcock, Clark Ashton Smith and finally H.P. Lovecraft, of who in the aspect of literature, changed me forever.

            It was the seeds of Lovecraft that captured my imagination never to let go and who ultimately inspired me to write my own tales of the weird and fantastic. Lovecraft is one of those writers that once you read his work, you either sit back and read it in admiration believing it to be the best horror you have ever read, or you simply do not care for it. Most of his writings were short stories and usually written in “first person” giving the reader an impression that the tale they hold in their hand to be a factual account. Although Lovecraft readers today do not actually believe his narratives to be true , they are best enjoyed when read in such context. Of all his works, I place the weird and fantastical novel The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath as not only his best piece, but one of the best examples of dark fantasy available to us today. I also believe Lovecraft to have been a literary genus who brought the genre of horror into a new age by creating new gods and monsters on a cosmic scale instead of rehashing monsters of legends and myth such as the vampire and the werewolf as did most other horror writers of the early twentieth century. Lovecraft’s antagonist are far more than things that go into the night, making mankind seem insignificant in the scheme of things being ancient chaotic creatures tied to the very fabric of the universe.

It was the compilation of Lovecraft’s works that brought me upon the discovery of the small but legendary weird fiction press Arkham House. Arkham House was founded in Sauk City, Wisconsin in 1939 by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, where they published the pulp fiction of Lovecraft into high quality collectable hardbacks. Not knowing how to reach the press and being in the days before the availability of the internet, I remember calling information In Sauk City, Wisconsin and receiving the phone number for Arkham House from the operator and upon calling it a lady on the line told me, “We don’t do phone orders” before asking me, “How did you get this number anyway?” Several weeks later after a convincing argument, I received an Arkham House catalog in my mailbox which led to my first H.P. Lovecraft book. This very book, along with many other Arkham House editions, still graces my personal library where they will stay until my death. It was from this magical publisher I discovered the dark inimitable works of the Sorcerer of Auburn, Clark Ashton Smith.

To date, it is the fiction of Clark Ashton Smith I admire the most. It is the writings of CAS that hold the spirit of the true “weird tale”. Being an avid reader of fantasy, I had read Terry Brooks’ Shannara series, R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf series, the fantasy puns of Piers Anthony, the classic novels of J.R.R. Tolkien as well as the fantasies of Darrell Schweitzer, Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague De Camp, Lin Carter, Fritz Leiber, Ursula K. Le Guin and Michael Moorcock of which are all good writings, but all hold the aspects of popular fiction having clear cut protagonists with safe destinies or simply put, assured happy endings. For example, as I read the Dark Elf Trilogy, I knew its main character Drizzt Do’Urden would or could not die as he was the center or “pillar” if you will of the story. This same literary inclination reoccurs through most works of fiction so not to disappoint the reader by ending on a down note. Everyone who picked up The Hobbit, even those who read it when it was first published, knew that evil would not prevail in the end. We all knew from page one to the very end that the loveable Bilbo Baggins would somehow find a way to survive and right the wrongs of his world. I believe for a tale to be a true “weird tale” it must lack the predestined victory of the story’s protagonist. This doesn’t mean a weird tale cannot have a traditional happy ending, but that it needs to have one as much as the other to leave a true sense of suspense in its reading. A true weird tale might not even have an actual protagonist or antagonist with all subjects in the tale being equals simply there to drive the plot of the story. When a reader picks up a “weird tale” he or she should have no idea who will succeed or fail. It is this suspense that makes the weird tale in comparison to other genres of fiction so special.  It was this very thing that made the writings of CAS so special. His main-characters were necromancers, vile sorcerers and common thieves without a grand calling to save the world which is the major theme to most tales written in the past, those written today and those that will be written in the future.

It is this principle of the story being more important than the characters that has guided my own works over the years. As a writer not all of my writings fall neatly into a particular category, but I primarily write in one of four genres: horror, fantasy, science fiction and weird fiction. Of these four genres, I like to write on the darker side of the spectrum meshing the four into a type of dark fiction where primal creatures, chaotic forces and indiscriminate evils reign supreme. My first book Cosmic Contemplations collected a novella, a novelette, two short stories and a poem. As the title suggests, the collected stories fall within the category of science fiction, but not that of “hard” being too over concerned with technical accuracies such as in the works of Arthur Clarke or in any way “soft” having aspects of fantasy as in the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, but more in tune with the infancy of space travel when man first begins to explore the last great frontier of space. The stories deal with the struggle of man as he discovers new wonders, life and entities where all things are not as they seem within the perpetuity of the cosmos.

My second book Funky Shrooms and Other Exquisite Delights includes a full length novel, a novelette, two short stories, a play and six poems that fall within the genres of horror and weird fiction. The feature novel, The Final Infection is over one hundred thousand words in length and to date has been my best received piece bringing in a huge fold of zombie fiction fans. It has been so well received, that I’m currently working on a sequel, Days of Blood, effectively creating an Infection Saga. The novelette included in the book Autobiography of a Necromancer, is my only published piece of work that actually fits in H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and to date is one of my personal favorites. The only play included in the book, Satan’s Side of the Story, has actually had my book banned in more than a few bookstores for stepping on several basic Christian doctrines.

My third book, which is currently sitting on an editor’s desk of which I hope to be released by Christmas 2008, is titled The Lands of Dream and collects two novels, a novella, a novelette, four short stories, four poems and a glossary of dream. This book definitely falls into the genre of fantasy and if I had any say so in it I would place it into that of high fantasy. It includes two trilogies, the Mhorhean and Dreamer, and deals with an alternate realm just outside our own where time stopped thousands of years ago becoming a haven where gods, magic, monsters, heroes, kings, mortals and immortals still dwell.

As a child and young adult I was complimented and recognized for a “creative mind” which presented itself in my artwork, daily activities and the stories of which I told unscripted fueled only by my imagination ever since I had been old enough to talk. Of course as do most rambunctious youth, this creative talent was not always used for the best of intentions something of which my parents can bear witness as at the age of six, I thought it funny to change all the labels on the cans in the cupboard making the next few meals that of a random potluck. With this aptitude, came another skill of which I am not so proud, my uncanny ability to tell a believable lie in almost any situation. Although it served me well getting me out many a tight spot, I later found that this “unscrupulous” talent had other applications and eventually I applied it to the writing of fiction.

Today I write feverously to form my thoughts into tales for one simple reason, to entertain others of the same interest as mine. By the writing of this article I am in no way declaring that my works compare in any sort to that of the individual writers previously mentioned in this essay, but I do believe that they have their own place in literature and make a positive contribution to the genres of fantasy, horror, science fiction and weird fiction, whether this contribution will be one of major or minor significance, only time will tell.

Charles Clemons

October 2008