Steven Paulsen

June 2010 - Finished the Cthuhu Mythos short story I began back in January, except now it's a 10,000 word novelette titled "Ancient Shadows". I'll let it sit in a drawer for a while before I give it a final re-read and send it out into the world.

March 2010 - Both "Logic Loop" and "Two Tomorrow" have made the short list for proposed "flash fiction" anthology, but the editor has informed me it will be some time before he makes the final cut.

February 2010 - Submitted the short stories "Logic Loop" and "Two Tomorrow" to a proposed "flash fiction" anthology. Hopefully one will be successful.

January 2010 - Started a new Cthulhu Mythos short story based in part on “Travels in India” (1845) by Captain Leopold von Orlich, translated by H. Evans Lloyd, ESQ. This is the first time I have used another writer's work as the basis of a story and it will be interesting to see if I can meld my characters and plot, plus my own experiences in India, with some of the settings and experiences in this antiquated journal and craft them into a viable story.

02/05/09 - Short and Twisted book launch was held on May 2nd, 2009.

05/01/09 - "Severing Ties" selected for Short and Twisted anthology.

"Severing Ties", a short story written in collaboration with Maurice Xanthos, has been selected by Kathryn Duncan for inclusion in Short and Twisted 2009, an anthology of short stories and poetry with a twist to be published this year by Celapene Press.

December, 2008 - Finished a new Cthulhu Mythos story (the first one in almost 20 years) and submitted it to a US anthology.

This story has been under consideration for well over 12 months now, and I expect we should know which stories have made the final cut around mid-2010.

09/08/08 - New article on John Brosnan's pseudonymous horror novels

Benjamin Szumskyj has accepted an article from me on the pseudonymous horror novels of John Brosnan for inclusion in Studies in Australian Weird Fiction Volume 3. The piece is based on an earlier essay published in Bloodsongs #3 in 1994, but has been completely rewritten to bring it up to date and correct some errors and omissions contained in the original article. Sadly, John Brosnan has now passed away but hopefully this piece will honour his memory and revive interest in his wonderful tongue-in-cheek horror novels.

11/05/08 - The Cthulhu Cycle Reaches a New High

A correspondent contacted me after trying to buy a copy of The Cthulhu Cycle on Abebooks last week. He was shocked to learn that copies are not only in scarce supply, but also hideously expensive. In fact this week the price of the book on the second hand market reached a new high with a Californian bookseller asking a huge US$250.00! A second copy was on offer from a Florida bookseller for US$141.65. Strangely, a third copy autographed by the editor was available from another Californian bookseller for a mere US$30. Not sure what conclusion to draw from that.  :-)

10/03/08 - Pirated Books!

I recently discovered there are now two unauthorized foreign language editions of the award winning Chaosium anthology The Cthulhu Cycle which contains my story "In the light of the Lamp". According to the book's editor, Robert M Price, neither he nor any of the contributors have ever received any payment for these books.

The first of these editions appeared in the late 1990s when the now defunct French publisher Oriflam produced an unauthorized French language version titled, Le Cycle de Cthulhu. Chaosium apparently took action and the French publisher subsequently withdrew the book.

But now I find that a Spanish language edition, called La Saga de Cthulhu, was published by La Factoria de Ideas in 2006. Apparently neither Chaosium nor Price had any knowledge of this book. In fact a mutual friend brought it to Price's attention after I purchased a copy via Abe Books!

Amusingly, an extract from my story appears in Spanish on cyberdark.net advertising the book, except that they spelled my name wrong...

   

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