Mike Davis here; I would like to welcome you to the fourth issue of The Lovecraft eZine!  A friend reminded me recently that so many online magazines fizzle out almost before they even begin, and complimented me that such is obviously not the case with The Lovecraft eZine.  Our readership is growing every month, thanks to all of you who are spreading the word.  Please continue to do so — we can use all the help we can get.

We’ve got five great stories for you this month by some very talented writers!  Click each title to read the story:

All the Gold, by Joseph S. Pulver, is a sequel of sorts to his story in last month’s issue, A Meeting On the Trail to Hot Iron: Lotta men throwing their lives around down there under the snowline. Speaking of death and born and suffering. They drink but don’t cross the distance of a prayer. All they carry bleeding in their eyes…

Dreams of Fire and Glass, by Neal Jansons, is part 1 of 2.  It is longer than the typical story that I publish here, but I was so mesmerized by this tale that I knew I had to share it with my readers, hence the decision to publish it into 2 parts: The name of the game was Fire and Glass, and it was brilliant.  That was the only way to describe it. A massively-multiplayer online role-playing game that would make Warcraft look like Hello Kitty Online. The details provided were flawless and omitted nothing, right down to the placement of the stars. The premise: a world much like our own, with normal people leading normal lives, but melded and interspersed with the world of dreams. Ancient cities of crystal and glass shared space with skyscrapers. Eldritch monsters, long forgotten in the ancestral memories of our earliest mammalian ancestors, stalked the shadows alongside muggers and corrupt policemen. Within this realm, one part noir and two parts myth, players lived a life of wonder, fighting monsters, exploring ancient ruins, discovering bizarre creatures, and living out any fantasy…

O, Lad of Memory and Shadow, by W.H. Pugmire.  What can I say about Wilum Pugmire?  I love his writing; it’s so surreal.  Reading his stories is like being in a dream: I crept like a frightened girl on silver-sandalled feet beneath an arc of moonlight, toward the House of Shadows. The street of sorrow on which I crept was as hard and cold as reality, and I was eager to be off it. Finally, I arrived at the porch that would lead me into the infamous dwelling, and so I hopped onto its first step…

Draon Star Lucky Food, by John Medaille.  And speaking of surreal, I know you’ll enjoy John’s story.  It can’t be described, it can only be read: So, honey.  So, I went to that Chinese grocery store, that one you don’t like to go to because you think it smells weird.  It used to be an Alpha-Beta.  I had some time to kill and I’ve always liked things that are exotic and cheap.  I guess I was kind of just loitering around…

Curse the Child, by David J. West, is a story I’m told that made it to the final round of the Historical Lovecraft anthology.  I’m happy to have been given the chance to publish it, and I know you’ll enjoy reading it: Declaring the stars were right, Solomon, Sheba and the boy prepared the invocation of the Outer Gods. The world would be reborn, reorganized in their image. In the garden and vineyards of Gehenna, signs were drawn in blood and glyphs carved into stone and wood. The moon hung overhead uncaring…

I hope you’re enjoying The Lovecraft eZine.  Please tell your friends about us, join our Facebook group, follow me on Twitter, and subscribe to the magazine for free (top right corner of this webpage).  I’m glad you’re here!

Mike Davis
Editor, The Lovecraft eZine