The strange dark one and others

I've not been around much, nor have I recorded any new vlogs for almoft one week -- because I am lost in that wonderful realm of intense artistic creation. I've had an idea for a book that I thought was far-off in ye future, a wee collection of my tales of Nyarlathotep. Well, over the past couple of years David Wynn of Mythos Books has been hinting big-time that he wants to publish a new Pugmire collection, and suddenly I didn't want to wait any longer for my collection of Crawling Chaos tales. I had just completed my sequel to Robert Bloch's "The Cheaters," a story in which I allude to Nyarlathotep, and now I have just completely rewritten an old tale, "Immortal Remains," dropping the character of the wee child and bringing in Simon Gregory Williams. I am now working on the title story, "The Strange Dark One," and have just reached 4,000 words and have yet to actually begin to tell the tale, so I feel certain this will be a very lengthy novelette. It is set in Sesqua Valley and makes reference to "The Haunter of the Dark" and Derleth's "The Dwellers in Darkness" -- indeed, the main character is the granddaughter of Laird Dorgan from Augie's story (one of his Mythos tales that I like except for his tying the Great Old Ones to earth elements, and the ending is rather a bit much for my mature tastes although I loved it as a kid).

One thing I am considering is to bring Nyarlathotep into this new novelette as a character. He does make his presence known among humanity in mortal guise. This is a tricky thing to do, but if done with caution and cleverness, it can work. I'm thinking of having him call himself "Khem," and will use this story to investigate his relationship with the dark woodland of Sesqua Valley, which he habitually haunts. I am loving the writing of this novelette. Part of my research is sinking back into "The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath" for clues about Nyarlathotep's nature. Lovecraft is inconsistent in this regard, but that's cool because it means I can do my own thing while yet trying to stay true in some fashion to HPL. I am so into the writing of this novelette that the world has faded from view. I have no regard of time or ye mortal plane. I am lost within that pure artistic haze of intense creation.

I did a search here for Nyarlathotp and was shocked to see that he seems not to be mentioned in any threads as of yet! As soon as I have completed my new book, I must begin a Nyarlathotep thread, unless some clever fiend beats me to it!