Noxious Fragments Reviewed

Noxious Fragments is a collection of eleven tales selected from the first seven issues of Fantastic Horror. For years, Fantastic Horror has been a ghostly presence on the web as a longstanding e-publication, dishing out regular servings of frightful tales. A large proportion of these stories have mirrored classic weird fiction in style and content (especially Lovecraftian pieces), so it is little surprise that Noxious Fragments contains tales like this. As is often the case with small press anthologies, this one presents a range of diverse stories differing in quality, though about half of the eleven offerings could qualify as Cthulhu Mythos pieces.

Stefano Magliocco's "The Lure of the Kraken" opens the collection, and clearly represents Lovecraftian atmosphere. It is, in effect, a re-telling of Lovecraft's "The Call of Cthulhu," substituting Kraken mythology for the Old Ones. It is solidly written, but struggles to escape the gravity of HPL's literary style and plot trajectory. This piece would have been better served by using more of the interesting Norse and Kraken folklore that occasionally crawls through its pages. "Song of Shub-Niggurath" by Richard Eline, as its title implies, is another Mythos story. A hardened investigator and Vietnam veteran encounters the shadow of Shub-Niggurath by prying into the workings of a local cult with his reporter girlfriend. Here, the Cthulhu Mythos elements are married to a slurry of Vietnam War flashbacks, alongside unusual regional horrors from York County, Pennsylvania--spikes of originality that impale the reader's mind to these pages.

J.J. Burke's "The Coyman Manuscript" is another injection of Lovecraftiana. A man attempts to unravel clues left by the disappearance of his friend Robert Coyman. The tale shows off Burke's talent for constructing a well researched story told through real time action, letters, and manuscripts. Fairly visceral imagery also seeps through as the narrator Emiel encounters the horrors of the otherworldly "custodian." Unfortunately, the narrative becomes slightly disjointed by the end--perhaps a product of wavering between several different literary mediums--yet it still offers enough creaturely terror to appeal to H.P. Lovecraft fans.

Jerome Banks Brown's "The Horror in the Traquair Maze" similarly relies upon careful research, and could be read as a sequel to Lovecraft's "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward." In it, a typically Lovecraftian Professor lurches to his doom via a trail of clues that lead him to a mysterious maze in Scotland. Though this sort of Mythos story has been seen before, Brown nevertheless constructs an engaging story that utilizes historical tidbits in the manner Lovecraft himself was hailed for. Slightly more subtle Lovecraftian references appear again in "A Terrible Binding" by D. Alexander Ward. This story sees a young boy accompanied by a mysterious stranger, who shows up at his house, set off to combat a monster in the woods--the source of their troubling nightmares. Lovecraft's/Derleth's Elder Sign shows up, though the protection it yields is questionable by the dark conclusion of this story that is nearly equal parts horror and adventure.

Amid these deeply Lovecraftian stories are others that may tip their hats to Lovecraft from time to time, but move into stranger territory. "Burkhardt's Masterpiece" from Jack Faber/John Wright features an alien influence that warps a wealthy intellectual's treatise on modernity. Evil book tales of various kinds hold a special charm, and this one is no exception, as the masterpiece and the master fall prey to the unexplained madness poisoning each word. John Di Rosa's "Beat the Devil" brings another questionable influence into the limelight--is it demons or her own head taunting and tormenting his character? Di Rosa answers with a rather predictable ending, but also a gallery of unsettling imagery along the way.

A slightly less compelling tale is Matt Shaner's "A Pale Horse," which places a new doctor in a nodding southern town haunted by a witch. Shaner establishes a convincing backdrop and even an interesting history of bondage involving the witch and the townspeople, but the story feels rushed to a hollow conclusion. Fortunately, the anthology houses another curious southern tale in the guise of Ronald E. Wright's "Rough Justice." This story conjures up its own myth in the form of a monster kept in an old smokehouse to torment prison inmates. The lawyer protagonist unravels the mystery behind this entity and its connection to his respected grandfather's legacy at a gnawing personal price. Without giving away too much, he finds a horror that is both gut-wrenching and in the finest tradition of what might be called weird curse fiction.

Though quite a few of the tales mentioned above are adept, the clear standouts of Noxious Fragments are "The Levee" by Ben Thomas and Anita Dalton's "Gray." Thomas' contribution, like some of the best strange tales, creates its own logic and answers only to itself. Set in a city alternately wracked by unnaturally long periods of rain and drought, a Twilight Zone like twist becomes apparent through the mysterious presence of a meek old man and a sanity demolishing vision in the sky. "Gray," on the other hand, has little supernatural or traditionally weird about it at all. This makes its emotionally charged presence all the more surprising. Dalton shows us an awkward marital relationship with a husband who decides to take the ultimate plunge into inhumanity with an agonizing series of cosmetic procedures. The husband's suffering and its impact on his wife is gripping, and relies only on mildly fantastic technological advancements to achieve its horror. Personally, I usually shun realism in favor of the surreal and pure weird, but not this time. There is something almost damnably indefinable, but nevertheless excellent about Dalton's tale, a quality prompting an immediate desire for a fiction collection from her, if her other works are even half as good as this one.

Noxious Fragments might appear a bit rumpled in the final analysis, but it nevertheless contains skilled the stories that will appeal to several demographics: the general horror reader, the weird fiction aficionado, and the Lovecraft purist. This alone makes it worth the price of admission. Best of all, it is free to read if one cannot be bothered with a physical copy, as is every issue of its benefactor Fantastic Horror. It should also be remembered that these stories were drawn from a market often pigeon-holed into the category of "for the love" (i.e. little to no payment for writers besides exposure). Virtually every tale in this anthology is a sturdy step beyond what one would expect from this sort of market. In fact, Fantastic Horror may well be playing the role low-to-no-paying small press magazines once did in the 1980s. From those bygone outlets, names like Thomas Ligotti, W.H. Pugmire, D.F. Lewis, and a host of others are still with us. Who can say what--or who--may emerge from Fantastic Horror's continuing online presence, and this new foray into print publication?

-Grim Blogger

Weird News: Distant Poe Relative Haunting Cathedral?

In the lives and deaths of great weird writers, it appears even distant relations can take on a strange existence years after their earthly one has come to a close. One wonders how much certain people want a haunting by a Poe relative to be true for sheer folksiness. The mystique of Edgar Allan Poe adds a touch of bizarre legitimacy to anything creepy connected with the long dead author. It also makes this haunting more interesting than it might otherwise be, and perhaps more "authentic" as well.

Late at Night, Edgar Allan Poe Relative Might Haunt Cathedral

Next time you’re walking alone on the third floor of the Cathedral late at night, don’t forget to look around. Though the hall looks empty, you might have company.

You might be sharing the space with Martha Jane Poe, the ghost of the Early American Room and a relative of Edgar Allan Poe.

Maxine Bruhns, director of the Nationality Rooms and Martha Jane’s granddaughter, likes to tell the tale.

She says the spirit lives in the Early American Room, located at room 327 of the Cathedral of Learning. It’s a space with 16th century décor, including a table with chairs and a large fireplace. At first glance, it appears to be the only room. But on the right side of the room, a secret wall panel reveals a narrow passage leading to a staircase and a hidden bedroom above.

When climbing to the bedroom, the stone steps exhale with force, sighing in relief as the visitor reaches the doorway. This bedroom is decorated with 19th-century-style furniture, much of which was donated by the Poe family. Grandma Poe’s wedding quilt is draped over the bed, with her framed picture next to it. There is also a cradle with bedding that Bruhns used when she was a baby.

But how did this room become haunted? Bruhns said the ghost stories started in 1979, when former Pitt janitor John Carter was in the bedroom for routine cleaning. The quilt on the bed was turned down, which was odd, but Carter quickly remade it, dismissing the coincidence. He turned around and started to clean another part of the room. A few minutes later, he turned back to the bed and could barely believe his eyes.

The quilt was once again turned down, as if he had never made the bed. But what really chilled Carter was an imprint on the pillow that looked like someone had been resting her head.

Carter waited an entire year to tell anyone the story because he didn’t want to seem crazy, Bruhns said.

But Carter wasn’t the only custodian who flirted with the unknown.

Floyd Clawson, one of the current custodians in charge of maintaining the room, was never a believer in spirits until about a year ago. Clawson said he was walking up the stairs to clean the bedroom when a shadow glided past him, too close for comfort. Clawson stopped in his tracks and turned to his partner, Ruth Mullen, who knew he must have seen something.

“You don’t shock Floyd,” Mullen said.

After hearing these stories, Bruhns thought that something had to be done. In hopes of communicating with her grandmother’s spirit, Bruhns decided to spend a night alone in the bedroom on her grandparents’ wedding anniversary.

Bruhns said she curled up in her sleeping bag at the foot of the bed and placed her purse on a chair beside her. As she lay there, she listened to the Cathedral breathe around her, moaning with creaks and groans.

Bruhns was just about to fall asleep when she suddenly awoke to a “swishing” sound above her head, similar to that of moving material, she said.
Seconds later, she heard a loud crash.

Huddled in the silent darkness for a few minutes, Bruhns grabbed her flashlight and scanned the room to find the source of the noise.
What she saw freaked her out. Her water bottle had fallen from its secured spot in her bag on the chair. It was as if someone, or something, had moved it.
“That’s when I picked up my belongings and said, ‘Grandma, you can have this damn room!’” Bruhns said.

There are more eerie stories. When the University was renovating the Early American Room a few years ago, someone carefully wrapped the picture of Grandma Poe and placed it in a drawer. After the room repairs were complete, Bruhns took the picture out to find two large cracks in the middle of the frame. The contractors insisted they were careful with the picture and didn’t break it.

So who was responsible? The room can only be opened with a key for guided tours. Bruhns blames it on her phantom ancestor.

If that story doesn’t make you want to run into your dorm and hide under the covers, then maybe this next one will.

This story is about a female ghost who might live a bit too close to some Pitt students. Before Bruce Hall was a dormitory, it was an apartment building that belonged to the man who built the Schenley Hotel, which is now the William Pitt Union, Bruhns said. The story claims that both his wife and mistress committed suicide in room 1201. One woman was found hanging from the stairway behind the fireplace. The other is said to have jumped to her death from the building’s stairwell. Though these reports cannot be confirmed, it is interesting to note that the building’s entire staircase is now caged in, indicating that perhaps something dangerous did happen.

Whatever the reason for the protection, many believe that a woman’s spirit, often referred to as “Harriet,” haunts the 12th floor of the building.

The floor is now used as a rentable catering facility for special events. However, on some late nights, employees served more than just party guests.

According to “Ghost Stories of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County,” many of the room’s waitresses complained about strange and unexplainable incidents, like hearing footsteps and voices.

On one occasion, a waitress was in the room cleaning by herself cleaning. She was putting away the last items when she heard a loud noise coming from the staircase, according to the book. The waitress said the noise grew so loud that she ran to the kitchen, grabbed the phone and locked herself in the bathroom, trying to persuade someone to come get her. The noise eventually stopped, but it started again every time she walked out of the kitchen.

There have also been reports of people feeling like “they are being watched,“ according to the book. In fact, night waitress Pat Castelli believed that the spirit Harriet had followed her home. The incident started when she was cleaning up by herself but got the feeling that someone was watching her. When she came home, she walked into the house with a lingering eerie feeling.

Like most nights, she turned out the kitchen light and began to walk down her dark hallway until she bumped into someone’s chest. Castelli thought she had collided with her husband, so she said, “I’m sorry. I didn’t even see you there.” She continued down the hall only to find her spouse in a deep sleep.
But what do the students actually living in Bruce Hall think of Harriet?

Jordan Frank, a Pitt sophomore who lives on the eleventh floor of Bruce Hall, was skeptical of the ghost story until strange things started happening around him. He’s heard weird noises and doors opening and closing, he said, and items in his suite would suddenly go missing.

But those episodes were nothing compared to the one that really creeped him out.

“I came home late one night, around three in the morning. A weird lady got on the elevator with me,” Frank said. “She was wearing a neck brace. I asked her what floor she was going to, and she said 12.”

A bit freaked out by the brace, Jordan got out of the elevator on his own floor, leaving the woman to ride to 12 alone. He hasn’t seen her since.

So are these stories fact or fiction?

Ask Bruhns what she thinks, and she’ll tell you.

“I’ve had enough experience here for the past 20 years to make me a believer,” she said.

-Grim Blogger

Weird Fiction Holiday Reading at Toronto's The Central

Two upstart weird writers of note, Simon Strantzas and Richard Gavin, will be conducing holiday readings of their respective works at Toronto's The Central next month. The evening should provide an extra chill as the cold grip of winter sets in amid the eerie blanket that ordinarily clings to holidays set in the dead of winter. Full details are available here:

A Ghost Story for Christmas
Spectral Hauntings for the Holidays

Date: Sunday, December 27, 2009
Time: 7:00pm - 10:00pm
Location: The Central, 603 Markham Street, Toronto.

A night of frightful original fiction read by the city's finest authors, including:

Richard Gavin, author of "The Darkly Splendid Realm"
Ian Rogers, author of "Temporary Monsters"
Simon Strantzas, author of "Cold to the Touch"
"Apparitions" editor Michael Kelly, and contributor Michael Colangelo

Doors open at 7:30PM, readings begin at 8:00PM.

-Grim Blogger

H.P. Lovecraft's Enlistment Card

Thanks to Chris Perridas of the H.P. Lovecraft and His Legacy blog, we now have a scan of Lovecraft's enlistment papers. The registration card is a harrowing ghost of the Great War era, and perhaps an appropriate specter, seeing as how Armistice Day passed by last week. Lovecraft never quite saw action once America entered the war, but he came very close to joining the military after years of fierce polemics in defense of Great Britain and the Entente. The document gives us a thin, but clear snapshot of Lovecraft's life: his Angel Street address in Providence, and his status as a self-employed writer.

-Grim Blogger

Miskatonic Valley's Truly Authentic Cthulhu (and Other Horrors)

Joe Broers of Miskatonic Valley Fine Arts makes a Cthulhu the way idols were really meant to be made--at least according to a drawing by H.P. Lovecraft. Broers is perhaps the only artist to attempt a statue of this sort, which brings Lovecraft's actual vision to life as much as possible. This resin monstrosity adds the insectoid flair that Lovecraft seemingly intended: six eyes rather than the standard two that usually turns up in today's Mythos depictions.


To date, Miskatonic Valley also has a sinister looking statue of Shub-Niggurath available. "Fictitious documentation" accompanies the two horrors. These are curious letters and news clippings that "vouch" for their faux authenticity. The documents add a dimension of blurred reality between art and life to the enterprise. As far as quality statues go, they're fairly cheap too, at under $150 for either chiseled lump of cosmic insanity.

It's easy to imagine Broers' gleaming sentinels guarding one's library of weird fiction, or at least making one hell of a paperweight. Keep an eye on him. This is an artist who may go far, with his outre visions chained to a business model that emphasizes presentation as well as product.

-Grim Blogger