Steven James Scearce

It was an unremarkable three-story building with rough-faced stone construction, a slate-tiled roof, and an unfinished carriageway that led to a covered stone porch at the front entrance. Where it stood on a remote seventeen-acre wooded tract at the north edge of Cook County, the Almshouse at Dunning Wood was an eternal testament to human frailty and mortality.

Erected in 1835, after the first major outbreak of cholera in Chicago, the hospital played host to patients with highly-infectious diseases, such as cholera, scarlet fever, and smallpox. Patient overcrowding, minimal heating, and poor ventilation hampered treatments and high death rates followed. A mass grave was dug on the north side of the building. When weather conditions did not permit immediate burial, bodies were wrapped in blankets or sheets and carried to the root cellar, where they were sprinkled with quicklime and abandoned.

In 1912, the old hospital was ordered closed. The doors were chained shut.

For more than a decade the old hospital at Dunning Wood sat dark and silent among the tall blades of switchgrass that whispered in the wind through the fields that surrounded the decrepit stone structure. The forlorn building had stood empty for more than a decade, abandoned but not entirely alone. Within its walls, the hallways echoed no sound of footsteps. The bare bulb ceiling fixtures gave off no light. The small Birchfield steam boiler that fed a network of heating pipes was seized with rust and cold. The casement windows and roof dormers were cracked and darkened by years of dust. But the Almshouse at Dunning Wood was not alone. It was never alone.

There were field mice, rats, crickets and cockroaches that scurried through the empty rooms and hid in its dark corners. Outside, crows congregated in the branches of the surrounding black walnut trees, filling the air with the sound of their caws, rattles, and clicks. And on a moonless November night in 1924, Liam Finnegan’s small band of bootleggers and racketeers cut the chains to the doors and entered the old hospital. Once again, the Almshouse at Dunning Wood served its purpose and hosted a terrible new malady.

[This is an unused preface to a short story that is up for consideration in a new anthology.]

Through mirage-like heat waves shimmering on the far-eastern desert horizon, they first appeared as wavering black specks against the reddish sunrise.

The herdsman was first to notice. He leaned out from inside the small mud hut near the pump well. Behind the hut, his flock of young camels took water for their journey to market. He stood and squinted against the coming light. A dust cloud momentarily obscured the black specs in the distance. He cocked his ear to one side and heard the distant rumbling of military vehicles. A great number of military vehicles.

So, once again, I’m back to the drawing board: Yellow pages from the legal pad scribbled over with copious notes. Collections of downloaded images saved to the project folder for inspiration. A stack of clean, white printer pages ready and waiting. Red pencils sharpened.

Ah… short stories for anthologies. So much to say within a limited word count. This one will be unique. I even sought some assistance from a Professor of Cultural Anthropology in Olympia, Washington. He had great notes:

… any sort of “magical” element tends to be denounced as heretical within the dominant orthodoxy, as these magical elements are dangerous to the state and to the official religious order.

- Eric Stein, Ph.D

This one will be fun to write. Should be a great story. I hope they like it.

H.P. Lovecraft (Aug. 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) was a man possessed of strange genius. He is one of the most influential horror writers of the 20th century. Clive Barker, Stephen King, Peter Straub, Robert Bloch, Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and countless other writers, artists, and filmmakers refer to Lovecraft as one of their greatest influences.

And although most would gladly avoid a chance to walk around in Lovecraft’s shoes for a bit – considering the madness that governed his life and career, I was personally thrilled to hear that Dagan Books had a call for submissions and excited to tackle a daring new Lovecraftian project that took his work in bold new directions.

After a few weeks of intense research, writing and editing, I turned in a horrific little tale titled “The Assistant from Innsmouth” that was accepted for inclusion in the anthology.

So, when the submission period finally closed on September 15th, and all the dust had settled, the project was filled with stories and artwork that will surely impress even the most-hardened Lovecraft fanatic.

It is now my great pleasure to announce  “Cthulhurotica,” a new take on the Cthulhu Mythos, “where sex and madness meet.”

Publisher: Dagan Books

Cthulhurotica, an anthology of seductive and scary horror tales inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos.

Editor: Carrie Cuinn

Cover Artist: Oliver ‘Fantasio’ Wetter

Contributors: Richard Baron, Gary Bernstein, Kirsten Brown, Clint Collins, Nathan Crowder, Carrie Cuinn, Mae Empson, Constella Espj, Gabrielle Harbowy, Asima Kerp, Travis King, H. P. Lovecraft, Juan Migel Marin, Matthew Marovich, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Don Pizarro, Andrew Scearce, Galen Smith, K. V. Taylor, Leon West, and Madison Woods.

Genre: Horror / Erotica

Release Date: December 15, 2010

Website: http://cthulhurotica.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Cthulhurotica

Ahhh… an entire anthology filled with tales of zombie love and lust. How could I pass up an opportunity to submit a short story for inclusion? After much labor, I fired off a touching wedding story titled “Second Sunday in September.” Evidently, the editors like what I’ve written. My story will be included among other fine tales by a wide range of authors from around the country.

So, with all due excitement, I am pleased to announce the details of an anthology that is certainly a “first of its kind” in the literary marketplace.

Description:
Horror and erotica. Zombies and romance. Rigor Amortis.

Maybe a tender love story is your thing, a husband doting on his wife’s rotting corpse. Or perhaps a forbidden encounter in a secret café, serving up the latest in delectable zombie cuisine, or some dirty, dirty dancing in the old-time honky-tonk. Voodoo sex-slaves and vending machine body-parts? You’ll find those here, too. Whatever your flavor, these short tales of undead Romance, Revenge, Risk, and Raunch will leave you shambling, moaning, and clawing for more.

Published by: Absolute XPress

Editors: Jaym Gates & Erika Holt

Cover Artist: Robert “Nix” Nixon

Contributors: Pete “Patch” Alberti, Damon B, Renée Bennett, Xander Briggs, Jennifer Brozek, J. R. Campbell, Johann Carlisle, Nathan Crowder, Carrie Cuinn, R. Schuyler Devin, Annette Dupree, Michael Ellsworth, Jay Faulkner, Kaolin Imago Fire, M. G. Gillett, Sarah Goslee, Kay T. Holt, Calvin D. Jim, Alex Masterson, Edward Morris, Don Pizarro, Michael Phillips, John Nakamura Remy, V. R. Roadifer, Andrew Penn Romine, Armand Rosamilia, Jacob Ruby, Lance Schonberg, Lucia Starkey, R. E. VanNewkirk, Wendy N. Wagner.

Genre: Zombie / Romance / Erotica
Pages: 148
Release Date: October 1, 2010
Print ISBN: 978-1-894817-83-7 ($ 14.95)
e-Book ISBN: 978-1-894817-84-4 ($ 2.99)

How to purchase?

1. You can request personally signed copies from the author by sending a note to himself (at) stevescearce dot com. Details will be in the reply.

2. You can buy from Amazon.com as well.

I was recently given an opportunity to write a short story within the confines of the Cthulhu Mythos (still having trouble spelling Cthulhu correctly, but I’ll get it right). Although I’m fascinated with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, I cannot honestly say that I’ve read a great deal of his writings (and I realize that they are short in number). I’ve seen a variety of films and shorts based on his work. None of them seem to do his vision (or nightmare) much justice.

So, off I went to the bookstore to pick up a few selections. One title, “Tales of H.P. Lovecraft,” has a phenomenal introduction by Joyce Carol Oates. The other, “Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos,” is a tribute by a good number of famous authors. I selected this book solely because I wanted to see how others treated Lovecraft’s unique atmosphere and environment.

Given a little free-reading time in the next few days (what are the chances?), I may just get my head wrapped around the setting and character styling I need to “flesh out” this little story of mine. Tentatively, the short story is called “The Assistant Appears” and will be submitted for a to-be-named anthology of Lovecraftian horror and lust. Here’s hoping they like it!