Ancient Exhumations +2 Read online

  Ancient Exhumations +2 is published by Elder Signs Press, Inc.

  This book is © 2004 Elder Signs Press, Inc.

  Preface © 2004 Robert M. Price.

  Introduction © 2004 Peter Worthy.

  Author’s Preface and Acknowledgements, and all stories © 2004, Stanley C. Sargent.

  “The Rattle of Her Smile” originally appeared in Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999). “Dark Demonize” originally appeared in Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999). “The Hoppwood Tenant” originally appeared in NetherReal (September 1997) and was reprinted in Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999). “The Tale of Toad Loop” originally appeared in Nightscapes (January 1998) and has appeared in Dark Legacy #1 (August 1998), Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999), and Eldritch Blue (Lindisfarne Press, March 2004). “When the Stars are Ripe” originally appeared in Nightscapes (November 1997) and has appeared in Tales of Lovecraftian Horror (November 1998), Al-Azif (Yhtill Press, 1998) and Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999). “The Paladin of Worms” originally appeared in Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999). “Self-Correcting Mechanism” originally appeared in Cosmic Visions (January 1997) and has appeared in Ancient Exhumations (Mythos Books, November 1999). “Famine Wood” originally appeared in Strange Tales (March 2004).

  Cover art © 2004 by Daniel Alan Ross.

  All artwork © 2004 to the artists:

  Pages 70, 89, 113, 162, 166, 170, 189: Daniel Alan Ross

  Page 34: Daryl Hutchinson

  Pages 74, 135: Jeffrey Thomas

  Pages 20, 56: Peter Worthy

  Page 44, 180: Stanley C. Sargent

  All characters within this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is strictly coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the written persmission of the publisher.

  SECOND EDITION

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Published in July 2004.

  ISBN: 0-9759229-0-4

  Printed in the U.S.A.

  Published by Elder Signs Press, Inc.

  P.O. Box 389

  Lake Orion, MI 48361-0389

  www.eldersignspress.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Preface by Robert M. Price

  Author’s Preface and Acknowledgements

  Introduction by Peter Worthy

  THE RATTLE OF HER SMILE

  DARK DEMONIZE

  THE HOPPWOOD TENANT

  THE BLACK MASSIF

  THE TALE OF TOAD LOOP

  WHEN THE STARS ARE RIPE

  THE PALADIN OF WORMS

  SELF-CORRECTING MECHANISM

  FAMINE WOOD

  Artwork

  Cover - Daniel Alan Ross

  Illustrations -Pages 70, 89, 112, 162, 166, 170, 189: Daniel Alan Ross

  Page 34: Daryl Hutchinson

  Pages 74, 135: Jeffrey Thomas

  Pages 20, 56: Peter Worthy

  Page 44, 180: Stanley C. Sargent

  Dedicated to Robert M. Price, my mentor and great friend

  Preface

  I like to flatter myself that I “discovered” Stan Sargent as a writer. Sure, that is a lame gesture trying to siphon off glory from the guy who did the real work. But it remains true that Stan had the stereotypical artist’s trial of running through several disappointing turn-downs before he got to me. And I had the stereotypical delight of being that editor from whose eyes the scales fell away. In fact they were never there. I liked his work as soon as I saw it. And what’s not to like? In my humble opinion, Stan’s imagination is every bit as fertile and brilliantly quirky as the young Ramsey Campbell’s. Stan’s canon of stories thus far have formed a body of coherent tales and mythemes, his own private sub-mythos in the best tradition. In creating these tales, Stan is defying and destroying yet another stereotype, namely that the Lovecraftian Mythos is a preserve for fan hacks. That prejudice, it ought to be obvious, is merely a case of the “anxiety of influence” discussed by Harold Bloom. Lovecraft is the rock from which 20th century horror was hewn. Some, like Stephen King, are big (and secure) enough to admit this. Others (Charles L. Grant, Peter Straub) feel they must dump on HPL and all his works in order to escape from their master’s long shadow. Writers like Stan are honest with themselves and their readers: they cut their teeth, as Campbell and Bloch were happy to do, on Lovecraft pastiches. No doubt he will go onto to greener pastures (or is that “more blasted heaths”?), but we will never write off Stan’s early tales as mere juvenilia, mere teething rings. They are already winsome, fascinating, and horrific tales in their own right. And they already evidence Stan Sargent’s boundless creativity. We don’t have to wait for that.

  His work, while fitting into a recognizable genre (on purpose!), is already fresh and innovative. And he is a scrupulously careful and indefatigable researcher, again like HPL. His Qom-maq epic, which still leaves me breathless, is a masterpiece of both research and manic imagination. I have enthusiastically published just about every scrap of Stan’s work he would let me use. I continue to pursue the same policy.

  Robert M. Price

  1/99

  Author’s Preface and Acknowledgements

  As far as I’m concerned, the mere fact that this second, expanded (and corrected) edition of my first collection of tales, is being published is amazing. When I first began writing weird fiction, just under a decade ago, I never expected any of my stories would see print. I wrote tales that I, as a reader, would like to read but could rarely find. I had no intention of writing popular fiction honed to fit the taste of the widest possible audience. Writers who do that actually make money and become well-known. Expecting neither of these rewards, I wrote whatever I wanted the way I wanted to write it. It takes a long time to write my stories as they go through several incarnations before I am satisfied, but when they are finally complete, I harbor no doubts that the final product is far better as a result; sometimes the final product bears only a passing resemblance to the original concept and/or plot.

  As a result of this nerve wracking, tedious process, I know I write good stories. When I decided to test the waters by sending a few stories to editors, I had confidence in the quality of the stories, but deep down inside I didn’t believe anyone else would understand what I was trying to accomplish in my work.

  I simultaneously sent my first four tales to two editors. The first to respond didn’t hesitate to offer his opinion that my work was “way over the top.” He told me frankly that, in his opinion, I was not cut out to be a writer and should stop wasting my time trying to be one. It seemed my doubts that others would understand had been totally confirmed.

  A week or so later, I received a response from the other editor. His reaction to the same four stories surprised the hell out of me. He said he loved them all and wanted to print them all, adding that one of the stories, the longest of the four, literally “took my breath away.”

  That was all I needed; nothing could stop me from writing after hearing that from Robert M. Price, an editor I highly respected. Bob has continued to encourage and publish my work, and I consider him not only my mentor but a wonderful friend. I jokingly promised I would dedicate my first book to him despite the fact that, at the time, I felt sure there was no chance such a book would ever be published. Now that book is being published a second time in a fancier format, with two new stories, and it is still hard for me to believe. I’ve kept my promise by dedicating both editions of this book to good ol’ lifesaver Bob as he certainly deserves that and so much more! Had he not unfailingly encouraged me throughout the years, I would almost certainly have taken the advice of that first editor and thrown in the glove.<
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  The first edition of Ancient Exhumations (500 copies) sold out in less than a year after receiving great reviews in “Locus” and “Cemetery Dance” magazines. I was classified as a Lovecraftian Mythos author, which was fine with me at the time, as the work of H.P. Lovecraft had inspired much of my work. Despite the fact that I used several of Lovecraft’s characters, alien monsters, and locations in a number of the stories that ended up in Ancient Exhumations, none of the tales required the reader be familiar at all with Lovecraft’s work; that’s the way I wanted it.

  Many of my stories did require foreknowledge of Lovecraft’s work, however, so I rounded up most of those for inclusion in my second collection, The Taint of Lovecraft. My first novella, set in ancient Egypt and heavily researched for historic accuracy, “Nyarlatophis, A Fable of Ancient Egypt,” is the longest piece in The Taint of Lovecraft, and I was pretty nervous about how reviewers would respond to it. To my utter delight and relief, Ellen Datlow gave it honorable mention in her annual of the best fantasy and horror of the year. In his review of the book for “Cemetery Dance,” Garrett Peck dubbed the novella “astounding” and referred to me as “the most intelligent of the current crop of Mythos-inspired authors, as admirably demonstrated in his first collection, Ancient Exhumations.” I was elated!

  In the preface for The Taint of Lovecraft, I announced that, with that volume, I was bidding adieu to the Lovecraftian genre. Garrett Peck, Dick Lupoff, Ken Faig, Jr., and others expressed the mixed feelings they harbored about this decision but added that they were curious to see what I would do next.

  The two stories (hence the “+ 2” extension of the original title) I have added herein to the original Ancient Exhumations line-up represent my “post-Lovecraftian” work. One is set in my fictional Madland County, Ohio, and the other is my tribute to the fantastic writings of Clark Ashton Smith. The latter has not seen print until now, so the jury is still out.

  I would like to briefly add a few notes about the tales in this book. Half of them are in Madland County, Ohio at various times within the last 150 years or so. Madland County is a fictional place, although the Mad River, after which it is named, does run through the part of southwestern Ohio in which I spent my first eighteen years. The landscape and descriptions of farmhouses, barns, etc. in these tales all derive from my memories of my maternal grandparents’ 120 acre (originally 200, but they sold it off it chunks over the years) property, their rambling old farmhouse (now a state historical site as is the log cabin built by my forebears in the early 1800s), their barn, etc. I’ll provide a couple examples.

  The burrow in the bank of the creek that used to scare the hell out of me ended up in “The Paladin of Worms,” as did the farmhouse, both interior and exterior, as well as the century-old tree that stood just beyond the large porch that fronted the house. Another example is the eerily sallow wooded area around which “Famine Wood” revolves. My grandfather and father forced me to go hunting with them (only once!), and these are memories of the place they took me as seen through the eyes of a twelve-year-old who did not want to be there. That remote section of my grandparents’ land totally creeped me out. Luckily we returned home with nothing but a big bag of wild mushrooms my grandfather had miraculously spotted growing beneath the at times knee-deep groundcover of dead autumn leaves. The description in the story of a fallen tree and what lay beneath its bark derives from my actual experience that day as well.

  “Self-Correcting Mechanism” reflects the pessimistic, to say the least, attitude I often harbor when I consider mankind’s progress. The planet in the tale is named in honor of my wonderful friend from 5th grade on, Cathy Denny. She always wanted to be a writer but became a very popular and award-winning college-level teacher and just never found the time to really do much writing. I am so glad she got to see her name in a preview copy of Ancient Exhumations just a few days before she died of cancer. The story, for what it is worth, stands as my tribute to Cathy, the woman my mother always insisted I should have married, something Cathy and I chuckled about on many occasions (yes, she knew I am gay).

  My fascination with the cultures and religions of ancient Mexico and Central America led to the writing of “Rattle of Her Smile.” All of the mythological information cited in the story is historically accurate with the exception of my interpretation of the broken image between the statue’s feet. I someday plan to stand face-to-face with the statue described in this tale if I ever get to the anthropological museum in Mexico City. The exterior of the tomb-den in which Coatlicue lurks is based upon a mausoleum built into the side of a grassy mound that caught my attention when I went to visit Lovecraft’s grave in Providence, Rhode Island.

  “When the Stars Are Ripe” is my attempt to compress into a single, comprehensible creature the several differing descriptions Lovecraft provided for his Shub-Niggurath entity. I proceeded to transform Lovecraft’s beastie into a species rather than a single entity, and I am quite pleased with the nasty explanation I created for their existence.

  My day-long visits (I had to go back a second time before leaving the country) to the fabulous ruins of mighty Persepolis in 1979 led me to study more of the history of the Persian Empire and inspired some of the scenes and creatures of “Dark Demonize.” The griffin demon’s name is a play on the name of and a loving salute to my beloved friend Sheila Achs.

  As mentioned above, the landscape and barn described in “The Tale of Toad Loop” directly reflects the landscape of my grandparents’ land and the barn in which I so often played.

  After originally writing “The Hoppwood Tenant,” I shipped it off for Bob Price’s appraisal. He didn’t like the ending, and after re-reading it, I didn’t either. I returned to the middle of the story and tried again. When I realized the plot was becoming that of a typical monster tale in which someone stumbles upon a giant alien which kills them before moving on to terrorize the countryside, I stopped and tried to devise the most unexpected turn of events I could imagine. The result is what you will find herein. Some readers find it silly, while others have taken the time to appreciate the not-so-subtle social comment I tossed in at the very end for good measure.

  I managed to type about six single-spaced pages of “The Black Massif” before realizing the story required further fermenting in my mind before I could continue as the plot I had in mind was not a worthy tribute to the great Clark Ashton Smith. Moving on to another project, I expected to return to this tale in a few weeks. It wasn’t until five full years later that the bulk of the storyline came to me. Like I said, I’m slow but sure, and I feel the final narrative was worth the wait.

  Peter Worthy originally came up with the idea for Ancient Exhumations as a collection and inspired me to pursue the idea. Thanks to Peter and David Wynn of Mythos Books, the book was published and another followed.

  I owe much to the several artists who have added so much to both editions of this book. Most of the interior artwork that appeared in the first edition is reprised in this second edition; only two small, insignificant pieces of my own didn’t make this edition. As we wanted a glossy color cover for this edition, Daryl Hutchinson’s original and extremely fine black-and-white cover drawing could not be carried over to this newer edition. My dear friend (and a real trooper!) Dan Ross came to the rescue by not only agreeing to create a fabulous, all-new color cover for this edition but additional interior illustrations for the two extra stories. I consider all of the artists who contributed to this book very good friends who have once again proven they are ready and willing to chip in and help whenever called upon. Thanks, guys!

  In closing, I wish to acknowledge the great debt I owe to all the wonderful people who have unwaveringly encouraged, supported and believed in both me and my work. Were it not for them, I wouldn’t be writing and you wouldn’t be reading this or any other book by me.

  I offer my very special thanks to, among others, Sheila Achs, Lucas “Rocco” Alexander who is married to the greatest singer in the world, warm-hearted master and kin
d friend Hugh B. Cave, my buddy James Chambers, sweet Maggie Cooper, buddy Ken Faig, Jr., unpredictable Rick Faust, poet-musician James Gruetzmacher, the ever-elusive Greg Kroll, my delightful friends Dick and Pat Lupoff, super couple Ray and Wendy Meluch, my mentor extraordinaire Bob Price, great friend and author Joe Pulver, my fairy-godmother Wilum Pugmire, the poetic Ann K. (‘Ankh’) Schwader, Helen Simone and Tinkerbell, the ever-generous and giving Barbara and Jeff Stevens, my brother buddies Jeffrey and Scott Thomas, the threesome of John Wise, Danni and John Smith, my talented and wonderful friend Peter Worthy and his fantastic wife Jan, and last but never least my dear Hans-Krishna von Hagen and our pal Ralph. You folks kept me going on those numerous occasions when I doubted myself and when my world fell apart, and I lovingly thank you all!

  In addition, I wish to thank David Conyers for his generosity, his help, and especially for introducing me to William and Deborah Jones. As they say on TV, “The following is brought to you by …”, in this case, William and Deborah! It is great to work with such cooperative, knowledgeable, and friendly people! Thanks for everything!

  Stanley C. Sargent

  San Francisco 6/23/04

  Introduction

  I know I can say without fear of contradiction that Stanley C. Sargent as an author and an artist is one of the few class acts to emerge from the amateur press in recent years. This is no easy task. I’ve been involved with the small press in most of its incarnations since late 1996/early 1997 whether it is traditional print or the evolving e-press, and I’ve ‘paid my dues’ as well as taken some hard knocks too. What I mean to say is that I have learned what it takes to make it in the business of writing, editing, and illustrating, and it is by no means as easy as some people think. Those who deserve the plaudits don’t always get where they ought to be. Don’t take that as an expression of discontent or disrespect for the amateur vein; I wholeheartedly believe it is the sole garden, if you will, that welcomes and propagates new talent and original ideas as well as departure from the mainstream of professional print. I just meant to say that it is no kinder a business than any other, but sometimes there rises a voice so unique that you cannot help but listen to the song it sings.