Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire, Esq., is the author of many books of weird fiction in the Poe/Lovecraft tradition. His past books include DREAMS OF LOVECRAFTIAN HORROR, SESQUA VALLEY & OTHER HAUNTS and THE FUNGAL STAIN AND OTHER DREAMS. Forthcoming books include WEIRD INHABITANTS OF SESQUA VALLEY (Terradan Works, Summer 2009. His most recent anthology appearance will be in S. T. Joshi's anthology of modern Lovecraftian fiction, BLACK WINGS (P. S. Publishing, Autumn 2009).
2011 has seen Miss Pugmire writing like some daemon-possess'd lunatic. Three new hardcover collections and one new paperback collection will have been publish'd by year's end. Earlier this year the definite edition of THE TANGLED MUSE, a deluxe illustrated hardcover omnibus, was published by Centipede Press. Early this summer Arcane Wisdom Press will publish SOME UNKNOWN GULF OF NIGHT, a book-length prose-poem/vignette sequence inspir'd by H. P. Lovecraft's FUNGI FROM YUGGOTH. The hardcover edition sold out in pre-order, but a trade pb edition will be available here at Amazon early next year. Last summer Dark Regions Press will publish GATHERED DUST AND OTHERS in a hardcover edition limited to 100 copies. After those copies are sold, the book will be available as paperback and ebook. And in October that rad publisher, Miskatonic River Press, will publish THE STRANGE DARK ONE--TALES OF NYARLATHOTEP in paperback. Early next year Wilum's second collection from Hippocampus Press, UNCOMMON PLACES, will see print. And late next year the book he is writing with JEFFREY THOMAS, a collection of Lovecraftian weird tales concerning the sinister New England artist, Enoch Coffin, will be published by Dark Regions Press.
Wilum specializes in prose and poetry of a Lovecraftian nature, supernatural fiction that is set in the fictive world of H. P. Lovecraft or in Wilum's own invented locale, the Sesqua Valley. Unlike Lovecraft's cosmic fiction, Wilum's work is utterly supernatural, at times outlandishly so. His prose style reflects the keen influences of Lovecraft, Poe, Oscar Wilde and Henry James, just as his poetry is tainted by his profound love for the Works of Shakespeare.
At present Wilum is working on two new solo projects, and on a collaborative book with Maryanne K. Snyder. Their first collaboration, "The House of Idiot Children," was published in the famous national magazine, WEIRD TALES.
Wilum is the Queen of Eldritch Horror.
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14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dreams You Can't Escape,
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This review is from: The Fungal Stain And Other Dreams (Paperback)
I have had occcasion to read and to reread a great deal of Lovecraftian prose and poetry and prose-poetry in my many years of Mythos editing. Many writers can be fit without hesitation into certain ready categories, and this is in no way bad. I like to know there is another like So-and-so in mood or approach, etc, so I can enjoy him or her, too. But there are a few who are a classification unto themselves. Wilum Pugmire is certainly one of those. Reading him, as I have for many years, makes me realize at once that I am entering directly into the interior zone of his spirit. The tone of joyful sadness, or precious terror, of friendship with death and decay is powerful, and the distance separating the text on the page and the experience of the author is very, very short--much like Lovecraft's occasonal stories that were little more than dream transcripts written at bedside in the middle of the night. Pugmire himself is an event, and any collection of his wonderful work is therfore an event. This one sure is. You are lucky to have the opportunity to be a part of it!
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Dark and Lush Collection,
By
This review is from: The Fungal Stain And Other Dreams (Paperback)
I think it took me two good examinations of the cover to realize that the subtitle is "and Other Dreams". Nothing could be more appropriate for this delightful collection of Wilum's work. No other writer synthesizes the two aspects of Lovecraft's writings-his horror and his dream sequences, as interestingly and as thoroughly as Wilum Pugmire does. Which is not to say that this is a book of stories that are familiar to someone who has read Lovecraftian. They are not. These stories, although they owe a great debt to Lovecraft, are not imitations of his plots or tropes. Each of these stories is uniquely and originally Pugmirian.
Wilum has imagination to spare, and he brings it to bear with the a sharp intensity that makes his stories, whether a short piece of flash fiction like "His Splintered Kiss", or a longer piece such as "An Eidolon of Nothing", come alive. His imagery is lush and alive, neither smothering nor too light-just the right amount to establish the (usually decadent) atmosphere of the story. The Fungal Stain-only two hundred pages or so-is remarkable in the time it takes to read and digest. Pugmire's prose doesn't slide away from the reader, allowing the pages slip by unnoticed. Something is always going on below the surface, like sharks under calm water, and this reader wanted to make sure he didn't miss any of it. His prose has a profundity and a complexity that is a welcome change from many of the facile, shallow books I have been reading. Wilum is at his best in the Sesqua Valley. He is clearly comfortable there, and has a well-established dreaming, brooding atmosphere that soaks into his words. The difficulty in reviewing these stories is that they are so unique that the reviewer is tempted to summarize and explain them, a task that is nearly impossible. The collection begins with "An Eidolon of Nothing," which therefore introduces the reader not only to the Sesqua Valley, but also some of Pugmire's recurring characters, "Hour of their Appetite" is a dream sequence, strange and misty in its logic, and yet there is a curious sense of closure when the story is done. Of all of Pugmire's stories, this dream-logic story fascinates me the most. I do not dream as much as many writers seem to, and the ability to create a narrative, especially when it is not what one ordinarily thinks of as a story, out of the shattered fragments of sensation and vision that fill our minds as we sleep is something remarkable to me. Long or short, there is always a poignance to Pugmire's work. "Jigsaw Boy" draws a brilliant, bitter portrait of an unnamed narrator who is in the last stages of metaphorically devouring himself, distanced from his humanity, sadly searching for the missing pieces of his life. "Blam of Nepthene" is as gently nihilistic a story as can be imagined, about a yearning for the peace of the grave. Unlike so many post-Poe stories with the same theme, Pugmire's story has some sense of aching weariness to it, rather than boredom. "Stupor Mundi" is an ekphrastic piece, writing about art, which has occasionally been compared to dancing about architecture. Yet Pugmire seems familiar enough, or able to fake it extremely well, that the reader can visualize the art described in the story. Strangely, it is the last story, "Your Metamorphic Moan" that explores the Sesqua Valley to the fullest. Perhaps because several of the previous stories have been set in the Valley, it seems most familiar and realized in the "Metamorphic Moan." What I enjoy about Pugmire's plotting is the lack of conventional morality which dictates the ending of so many horror stories, rendering them predictable. In other hands, the story of a goth girl who finds a kindred spirituality with the Sesqua Vallery might come out to a happy ending in which she tries hard and earns herself place among the strange folk of the Valley. Pugmire is not so... predictable. Some authors acknowledge their debt to Lovecraft with a simple "Cthulhu" or a "Yog-Sothoth" and merrily ignore Lovecraft's major themes. Wilum Pugmire, shows a deeper, more studied appreciation of Lovecraft, incorporating certain of his literary idol's themes and mixing them in with his own writer's voice. It's a combination that works; these stories are truly unique. Pugmire's prose rewards careful reading, and his stories stayed with this reader. Although he states that he wishes to always remain in Lovecraft's titanic literary shadow, Wilum Pugmire is clearly original and skilled enough that he casts his own.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Mesmerizing prose from a master of the mythos,
By
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This review is from: The Fungal Stain And Other Dreams (Paperback)
This book is an essential purchase for any serious mythos collector. Wilum Hopfrog Pugmire is a unique voice among modern Lovecraftian writers. Unfortunately, he is really only known to a select few as his books have not been widely circulated. Dreams of Lovecraftian Horror was a paperback from Mythos Books in 1999; Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts was a 2003 limited edition hardcover from Delirium Books. Both still may be acquired from used bookstores online, but for handsome prices. Unless you picked these up or you subscribe to an assortment of esoteric magazines devoted to horror and Lovecraft you will not have heard of him. Now that unique voice among the small presses interested in HPL, Hippocampus Press, has released a new collection of stories by Mr. Pugmire and this will hopefully gain him a wider audience. And his voice is very worth hearing! I truly became lost in the words, I was so enamored of the prose. For those who are unfamiliar with him, Mr. Pugmire is not exactly a recluse but more an antiquarian, like his favorite author, Lovecraft. For the most part he eschews modern conveniences, not having a personal connection to the internet. He dislikes the pace of modern life and prefers the more flowery language of bygone days. His attire is similar to Boy George during public appearances; there is a photograph of him on the cover, which may be seen at www.hippocampuspress.com (he calls himself the Queen of Eldritch Horror). The fortunate few who live in the Seattle area may run into him at the annual Lovecraft Film Festival.
Some housekeeping: The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams is a nice trade paperback, up to Hippocampus Press' high standards. Editing was tight; I think I saw only a few scattered typos. Page count is 179, with the stories starting on page 9. Cover art is by Robert H. Knox. It depicts a scene from one of the stories but didn't really jazz me at all. Augie Wiedemann's cover for Sesqua Valley and Other Haunts was much more moody and evocative. The price at Amazon is $15.00, and it is available for free shipping if you buy $25 worth of stuff (like, say, Black Sutra by DeBill). Pugmire is most famous for his cycle of stories set in the Sesqua Valley. I highly recommend this book as an introduction to the Sesqua Valley for those who cannot find his earlier stories. Stepping into this collection is like coming into a saga already well begun. The environs of Mount Selta, the twin white peaks of which dominate the Sesqua Valley, have been around for a long, long time. Mr. Pugmire has more meticulously and lovingly developed this world than any other Lovecraftian location, like, say, Braving, MN or Goatswood. You quickly get to know the prominent citizens of Sesqua, the not exactly human Simon Gregory Williams and the Whateley sisters, transplanted citizens from Dunwich via Arkham. But you also really do have a sense that they have a history and have been carefully developed by the author. This world building alone is strikingly original to Mr. Pugmire among Lovecraftian authors and worthy of wider notice from genre fans. Most of the stories in The Fungal Stain and Other Dreams are set in the Sesqua Valley, but not all. I am a great fan of Clark Ashton Smith and alone among contemporary mythos authors Pugmire's prose approaches the poetry of Smith. Often language and imagery assume more importance than specifics of the plot. Mr. Pugmire strives to create a mood, capture a feeling. He loves elaborate vocabulary. Here is a sample of words you may need to look up (well, I needed to look them up!): plash, ataraxic, nubilation, fuliginous, atramentous, caliginous, threnodial, eremitic, pleached, theophany, effete, hoary, brume, empyrean, porphyry, supernal, lissome, thole, hypogeal, quiddity. There are certain themes that recur in Mr. Pugmire's work, characters who wish to dispense with existence or who have been touched by the Great Old Ones and are going to be swept away from this destiny but only gradually realize this. They either eagerly embrace their fate or become resigned to it. His writing is almost poetic; he tries to create visceral imagery so you can imagine the sights, sounds, smells, textures and tastes of this valley where the borders between competing realities become frayed. None of the stories are potboilers. In fact, unlike Hard Boiled Cthulhu, I don't suggest anyone try to devour this book in one sitting. Pugmire's prose is best savored one or two stories at a time, read and reread as fancy strikes. If you have the opportunity to get his other books then you can appreciate almost the entire sweep of time in the Sesqua Valley. Otherwise I urgently recommend you come and spend a few hours here in the shadow of Mount Selta. Just make sure, however, you can find your way home. Few people visit Sesqua and fewer still return.
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