H.P. Lovecraft, Yo

So, when I started this site it was read only by Me, then it was read by Me and the few friends I told about it, and then it was being read by a few of their friends or family, and now, based on the visitor stats, I'm pretty sure it's being read by lots of people I don't know. (Not a whole hell of a lot, but far more than the original six or so and far more than I expected.) Hello! I'm not going to tone down the occasional Language. I assume you've already figured that out, and can live with it.

When I started getting ref links from Negrophile, I wondered about that. I read that site regularly but I never submitted my url to it because, frankly, the thought never hit me. There's TONS of links on Negrophile. You'll understand why I never noticed that Myself had been added.  Everyone I can think of who might have submitted it has denied it, so I can only assume someone I don't know did it. Thank you, o unknown one, because I think it's cool that the man who is my first stop in the daily news troll to find out What They're Saying About Black People Today has BGF Central on his side rail.

And for you DC/Baltimore people, I'm totally going to break out with my adventure visiting the set of Homicide as soon as I can find the pictures. I've been looking for them on and off for weeks. If I can't find them, maybe I'll post scans of the business cards.

Anyways, there IS a reason this place of Geekery is called And We Shall March. It is in the interests of that Mission that I'm posting this note below from Jeremy Lassen of Night Shade Books. What you need to know:

1. Yes, he is serious.
2. No, you will not see or find further details about it on the Night Shade website, or on any other genre news/pr outlet.
3. No, I can't answer any questions beyond what he says below, and I will not attempt to do so. How handy not to have comments!
4. You can find this note on the archives of his personal journal, but I've pretty much just replicated it verbatim here except for one line I cut because it was irrelevant.

Jeremy is fine with this going out far and wide outside of the usual haunts. Because he's aware that not-white fans and creators do not necessarily congregate at genre hot spots, he is fine with this call for a novel being sent to places he's not immediately aware of. So if you want to email or post it around further, do so. Cut, paste and do what you will.

Please note: It is not a requirement that you are not-white in order to make an attempt. You just need to be able to pull of hiphop and Cthulu at the same time, in the same book. The "Move Under Ground" guy (which this Cthulu Geek got a big kick out of, and people who complain about the ending are WRONG) is already at work on a book to submit. Should you care? No. Should you let that stop you? No. If you are jazzed about the idea, or know someone who might be, or know where a bunch of not-white writers lurk harboring secret dreams of indescribable horrors hang out? Send Lassen's note to them.

The way he put it was "Far and wide. Think big. Spread the meme."

The way I put it is Each One Tell One.

www.nightshadebooks.com. Editorial contact information at the website.

Here's the note from Jeremy.

I'm only half kidding... The first writer to send me a publishable novel entitled "Straight out of Arkham", which features a a gangster/hip-hop protagonist from the "dark" side of Arkham, who ends up battling the forces of whitey/cthulhu.... That person will get a contract, and be published. I'm serious. Give Me your Gangsta-Cthulhu fiction now! I can sell something if I can describe it as "NWA meets HPL" Though not a requirement, it would help if you the author was Afircan American. I mean... really... Nobody takes vanilla Ice or Marshal Mathers seriously.... It's all about the PR... I can't put a picture of whitey on the back cover of "gangsta cthulhu" novel, and maintain my street cred. Sorry. Seriously... If you can write a decent Lovecraft pastiche... and a decent Gangsta-hip-hop pastiche... drop me a line with a sample chapter, synopis, and outline. I'll let you know if you should continue or not.

And with that, tomorrow brings the original post that was supposed to go up today. It is a tale of fact and woe and people who know more than they need to and decide not to keep it to themselves. Okay, I don't mean that. Victor Carretta definitely should NOT have kept this information to himself. I'm just still in shock about it, and so a bit Sensitive.