Welcome to the fifth installment of my “Author of the Week”! Every Sunday, I post about a Weird Fiction and/or Lovecraftian author that I think more readers should know about. If you have suggestions, please email me at lovecraftezine@gmail.com .

This week’s author is Elizabeth Bear.  I asked Elizabeth four questions:

Please tell us about yourself — as much or as little as you’d like to say.

I’m a writer! I also run, rock climb, cook, kayak, and generally have at least one pet. I play terrible guitar. My adorable boyfriend claims I am Powered By Tea.

That about covers it.

How and why did you begin writing?

I always have, honestly. I figured out in first grade that books got made by real people and immediately started trying to figure out how to do it.

So I got the job I wanted in first grade. Well, without the princess/jockey/astronomer/geologist/firefighter part.

What is it about Lovecraftian horror and Weird Fiction that appeals to you?

The funny thing about Lovecraft, for me, is that what seemed so horrific to him–that we are just meaningless specks under the vast indifference of heaven–the existential horror that basically kicked the hell out of the 20th century–seems to me to be pretty much business as usual. I mean, it’s sad… but we do the best we can.

We barely exist. And we really don’t matter. But we care that we exist, and–well, Kurt Vonnegut said it very well. “God damn it, babies, you’ve got to be kind.”

For the Lovecraftian and/or Weird Fiction reader, what books of yours do you recommend that readers begin with?

Hah! Probably right off the top, the Jacob’s Ladder books–Dust, Chill, and Grail–and the Eternal Sky books–Range of Ghosts, Shattered Pillars, and Steles of the Sky.

For something that’s really Lovecraftian, Sarah Monette and I have done a number of collaborations involving a spacefaring Lovecraftian continuum. All are available online in various formats: Boojum, Mongoose, and The Wreck of the Charles Dexter Ward.

Visit Elizabeth Bear’s website here.  And read her popular Lovecraftian tale Shoggoths in Bloom for free!

(Previous “Authors of the Week”: Richard Gavin, Molly Tanzer,William Holloway, Brian Hodge.)