You guys. YOU GUYS. Ross Lockhart’s ToC is up for The Book of Cthulhu, coming out through Night Shade, and OMFG OMFG OMFG:

Caitlin R. Kiernan – Andromeda among the Stones
Ramsey Campbell – The Tugging
Charles Stross – A Colder War
Bruce Sterling – The Unthinkable
Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Flash Frame
W. H. Pugmire – Some Buried Memory
Molly Tanzer – The Infernal History of the Ivybridge Twins
Michael Shea – Fat Face
Elizabeth Bear – Shoggoths in Bloom
T. E. D. Klein – Black Man With A Horn
David Drake – Than Curse the Darkness
Charles R. Saunders – Jeroboam Henley’s Debt
Thomas Ligotti – Nethescurial
Kage Baker – Calamari Curls
Edward Morris – Jihad over Innsmouth
Cherie Priest – Bad Sushi
John Hornor Jacobs – The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife
Brian McNaughton – The Doom that Came to Innsmouth
Ann K. Schwader – Lost Stars
Steve Duffy – The Oram County Whoosit
Joe R. Lansdale – The Crawling Sky
Brian Lumley – The Fairground Horror
Tim Pratt – Cinderlands
Gene Wolfe – Lord of the Land
Joseph S. Pulver, Sr. – To Live and Die in Arkham
John Langan – The Shallows
Laird Barron – The Men from Porlock

Sooooo yeah, the ha ha. . . ha? you hear is the sound of that aforementioned nervous laughter, because unlike Théoden King, I am not so sure I’ll be going into this company unashamed. Also, I have been assured by none other than Mr. Lockhart himself that “if I like the TOC, just wait ’til [I] see the cover…” which means I will probably explode and thus never get to hold the book in my hands.

Seriously, though, I can’t even? Charles Stross’ “A Colder War” is one of the finest pieces of Lovecraftian horror I’ve ever read, and I’ve devoured writing by nearly everyone else on the ToC that has made me shiver and gnash my teeths with awe. That the Twins are rubbing their filthy shoulders with Michael Shea, whose In Yana, The Touch of Undying is so completely insanely awesome I, again, can’t even, fills me with joy and fear. And I would be remiss without mentioning that I owe a debt to ToC-mate Silvia Moreno-Garcia, without whose confidence I could never have submitted my story for consideration, as she was kind enough to select it for its initial publication in Historical Lovecraft.

Whew. Whew! This is an awesome last-day-of-internet access (tomorrow I’m heading off into the wild woods for a week-or-so of role playing, hiking, and—likely—total insanity), but while you’re all busy missing me (ahahaha) why don’t you console yourselves by seeing what Jesse’s been up to over on his blog (getting awesome reviews, posting amazing covers for his international editions, discussing Danish directors he enjoys, you know—the usual), or checking out a copy of Jeff VanderMeer/S.J. Chambers’ tremendously gorgeous The Steampunk Bible, or going out and reading some of the amazing fiction penned by those badasses listed above! Caitlin R. Kiernan had a kick-butt reprint up on Lightspeed a while ago, Charles Saunders’ Imaro is pretty much the awesomest (also, his story from this anthology can be found over at Innsmouth Free Press), Joe R. Lansdale’s The Magic Wagon is a FTW piece of weird Western-ry, and Silvia Moreno-Garica had a truly truly truly outrageous story up on Fantasy a while ago.

Gots to run! Oh, and I’m still kicking ass with my Virtual Boot Camp, my latest triumph being hiking Green Mountain base to summit. Woo-hoo!!

x-posted to my LJ