Book Giveaway! Arkay Tilghman's "The Secret History of the Necronomicon"

I do love any and all things Lovecraftian, so when I saw that there was a short book called The Secret History of the Necronomicon available, I knew I had to check it out. The book is a perfect blend/blur of historical researching and Lovecraftian tomfoolery, and it's a fun bite-sized piece of literature that I got a lot more enjoyment out of than I had originally thought I might. With a travel through the history of the idea of The Necronomicon to some of the fictional information to go along with it, it's a cool addition to the overall genre and Cthulhu Mythos.

The author, Arkay Tilghman, was kind enough to offer us two copies of the ebook to give away. I have one MOBI (for use on Kindle) and one ePub (which will work on a Nook or with most anything else) for giveaway, but this one is more interactive: if the Great Old Ones actually came by and brought about the end times, and you were lucky enough to not descend into complete and total madness, which Lovecraftian creature would you want to keep as a pet?

Add which version you would like in your comment with your pet, and I'll choose one from each pool at random at the end of the week. You can check out Tilghman's website here, follow him on Twitter, and purchase the book (or borrow it if you're American and on Amazon Prime) at Amazon.com

Book Review: Shakespeare v. Lovecraft by D. R. O'Brien

Thanks to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, there has been no dearth of mashup novelizations as of late. While transferring characters from one universe to another has gone on for ages, as has retellings of classic tales, it's only when Quirk started its little cottage industry did things really start to ramp up.

As for me, some of them I really love, and some I don't. Two of my favorite things in the world are William Shakespeare and HP Lovecraft, so when I saw that there was a mashup novella that applied the Cthulhu Mythos with the works/characters of Shakespeare, I had to ultimately dive in and give it a shot. The end result? Well...

Black Wings of Cthulhu, edited by S. T. Joshi

As a fan of all things Lovecrafty, a new anthology of Mythos short fiction curated by ST Joshi, the leading Lovecraftian scholar was very exciting.

As someone who doesn't really love short fiction, and has found a lot of the mythos short story collections wanting, I was a little ambivalent about trying yet another one.

Nerd History: The Bloop!

Once upon a time, there was a sound. The sound was picked up by the United States National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, sometime in 1997. The NOAA was tracking oceanic sounds and picked up on this one specific sound. You can hear it above.

What's strange about this sound, however, is that scientists feel confident that it's from an animal. The problem is that the sound came from roughly 5000 kilometers away, meaning that the animal in question, theoretically, would have had to have been larger than a blue whale.

What the bloop is, we don't know. I'm betting on Cthuhlu.

Coming This Summer from Looney Labs... Cthulhu Fluxx!

Everybody loves Fluxx right? It's the card game with ever-changing rules! I'm sure some of the heavier gamers aren't big fans, but Fluxx has always been a good time for me and my group. It's light, (sometimes) quick and their production quality goes way up with each variation.

Speaking of variations, Looney Labs seems to really have found their niche. And it's it's every niche. On their product page alone you can find Fluxx, Oz Fluxx, Star Fluxx, Pirate Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx, Monty Python Fluxx, Martian Fluxx, Family Fluxx, and EcoFluxx. There was even a Stoner Fluxx (??) years ago, but it's missing from the site. The tiny, random card game has come a long way since the first black and white edition was released in 1996.

And now 16 years later we have Cthulhu Fluxx!

Follow the wild-eyed Poet, the obsessed Artist, and the expeditions of the Professor, as they investigate Eldritch Secrets no mortal was meant to discover. Someone has stolen the Necronomicon from the library at Miskatonic Univeristy, and a Farm in the hills is undergoing a horrifying Metamorphosis. Meanwhile, unspeakable abominations stir in Penguin-riddled Tombs beneath the ice. Are you Inevitably Doomed to a lifetime of Nightmares in the Sanitarium, or are you, in fact, a Secret Cultist, worshiping the Minions of Darkness? Gaze upon the ever-changing face of Madness with Cthulhu Fluxx!

Are you ready for this madness?

Jeff Raymond's "So you want to dive into the Cthulhu Mythos" Guide

When it comes to getting involved in a new fandom or interest, often the entry can be paralyzing. For every Firefly with a season, a movie, and a few books, there's a Doctor Who with nearly a dozen Doctors and entire lost episodes. With the sustained popularity of HP Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos, especially on the internet, trying to navigate your way through the muddy waters of the Miskatonic isn't going to be as easy as someone simply handing you a copy of The Necronomicon at a nearby coffee shop. So, in celebration of, uh, Cthulhumas, here's a quick and dirty on Lovecraft and the Mythos to get you started on your long dark road to insanity!

Follow the jump to madness

Kickstart the Week: We All Scream for "Ice Cream Cthulhu" Mixed Media Triptych by Echo Chernik

If you like sweet snacks, tentacles and nearly nude fantasy maidens, this might make your head explode. If not, your head may still explode. 

Click here to visit and support the project on Kickstarter!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/155549251/we-all-scream-for-ice-cream-cthulhu-mixed-media-tr

More about the project (including lots of images).. after the jump. Also possibly(?) NSFW. 

Boards and Beers - Elder Sign

Insanity! Madness! Woe and despair! All things that happen if you try to read an instruction manual from FFG and expect to play the game in the same night. That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but it certainly seems to be true. The first time I tried to play Arkham Horror I sat down with the rules a full three hours before we sat down to play and started going through them, and we still had difficulties in understanding what we just read. In all fairness, that was a while ago, we started late at night, and there was much drinking to be had,  but not when reading over the rules mind you. Since then, AH has been a great game to play, but it rarely makes it to the table due to the sheer time commitment it takes to actually play the damn thing. However, FFG has recently release a game that is heavily similar in theme and plays in about a 1/5th of the time.