December 2010
NIGHT
GAUNTLET
Dr.
Emil Hesychius’s former office at the University of Texas is
covered with souvenir postcards from many places, including: Derry,
Maine; Arkham, Massachusetts; Glory, West Virginia; Sesqua Valley,
Washington; Brichester, England; Binger, Oklahoma; Mirocaw, Idaho;
Crouch End, England; Telfer, Australia; and Nan Madol, Federated
States of Micronesia. Hesychius went on a shooting spree from the top
of the University’s clock tower, claiming he was shooting
“nightgaunts.” John Giloh and Dr. Susan Derby go on a date to see
Red
Dreams,
a Korean horror film directed by Harry Chang. Susan, a member of the
Derby-Pickman clan, shows John the Sign of Koth.
Round-robin
story by Walter C. Debill, Jr.; Richard Gavin; Robert M. Price; W. H.
Pugmire; Jeffrey Thomas; and Don Webb, The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction,
March–April
2011. Derry, Maine is featured in many of Stephen King’s works.
Arkham, Massachusetts is the site of many of H. P. Lovecraft’s
tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Glory, West Virginia is a recurring
setting in the works of author Davis Grubb. Sesqua Valley, Washington
appears in Cthulhu Mythos tales by W. H. Pugmire. Brichester, England
is part of the Severn Valley in Mythos fiction by Ramsey Campbell.
Binger, Oklahoma is a real place that appears in Lovecraft and Zealia
Bishop’s story “The Mound.” Mirocaw, Idaho is from Thomas
Ligotti’s Mythos story “The Last Feast of Harlequin.” Crouch
End, England is a real place that served as the setting for Stephen
King’s Mythos story “Crouch End.” Telfer is a real place
located in Australia’s Great Sandy Desert, the latter of which was
referenced in Lovecraft’s story “The Shadow Out of Time.” Nan
Madol, Federated States of Micronesia is a real place that was the
setting for A. Merritt’s The
Moon Pool.
The nightgaunts and the Sign of Koth are from Lovecraft’s Dream
Cycle stories. Rick Lai writes, “Red
Dreams is
from the prologue to Ramsey Campbell’s ‘The Franklyn Paragraphs.’
This prologue is generally printed on a page preceding the story, and
sometimes has the title ‘Errol Undercliffe: A Tribute.’
Undercliffe is a fictional horror writer whose short story was the
basis for Red
Dreams.”
Dr. Susan Derby is probably related to the namesake of the Nathaniel
Derby Pickman Foundation from Lovecraft’s “At the Mountains of
Madness.”
