Benjamin Szumskyj has accepted an article from me on the pseudonymous horror novels of John Brosnan for inclusion in Studies in Australian Weird Fiction Volume 3. The piece is based on an earlier essay published in Bloodsongs #3 in 1994, but has been completely rewritten to bring it up to date and correct some errors and omissions contained in the original article. Sadly, John Brosnan has now passed away but hopefully this piece will honour his memory and revive interest in his wonderful tongue-in-cheek horror novels.

A correspondent contacted me after trying to buy a copy of The Cthulhu Cycle on Abebooks last week. He was shocked to learn that copies are not only in scarce supply, but also hideously expensive. In fact this week the price of the book on the second hand market reached a new high with a Californian bookseller asking a huge US$250.00! A second copy was on offer from a Florida bookseller for US$141.65. Strangely, a third copy autographed by the editor was available from another Californian bookseller for a mere US$30. Not sure what conclusion to draw from that.  🙂

I recently discovered there are now two unauthorized foreign language editions of the award winning Chaosium anthology The Cthulhu Cycle which contains my story “In the light of the Lamp”. According to the book’s editor, Robert M Price, neither he nor any of the contributors have ever received any payment for these books.

The first of these editions appeared in the late 1990s when the now defunct French publisher Oriflam produced an unauthorized French language version titled, Le Cycle de Cthulhu. Chaosium apparently took action and the French publisher subsequently withdrew the book.

But now I find that a Spanish language edition, called La Saga de Cthulhu, was published by La Factoria de Ideas in 2006. Apparently neither Chaosium nor Price had any knowledge of this book. In fact a mutual friend brought it to Price’s attention after I purchased a copy via Abe Books!

Amusingly, an extract from my story appears in Spanish on cyberdark.net advertising the book, except that they spelled my name wrong:

“Desprendiendo malsanos vapores, cubierta de lodo y chorreante, una fabulosa ciudad ciclópea de espiras y monolitos y confusa geometría parecía extenderse interminablemente ante él. El agua se derramaba por sus negros contrafuertes y sus extrañamente torcidas torres, y un limo verde rezumaba denso por sus prehumanos edificios y muros, como si la ciudad hubiera estallado repentinamente a la luz del sol tras eones de permanencia en el fondo del mar”.
— Steven Paulson, “A la luz de la lámpara”