Cthulhu Fhtagn, Baby and Other Cosmic Insolence
Oscar Wilde wrote that "the real tragedies of life occur in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their entire lack of style." Not satisfied with that, Will Ludwigsen chooses instead to add humor and flair to the horrors that surround us. Why settle for the lesser of evils in your newspaper when you can read an entire book of stories about zombie-exploiting, plesiosaur-chopping, alien-dissecting, robotically-enhanced, lunatics instead? This premiere collection by Will Ludwigsen brings together thirteen of his best horror, mystery, and science fiction stories from magazines such asWeird Tales, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and Cemetery Dance, plus three originals. Though the work of a single deranged author, these varied tales share a flippant disdain for common decency, courtesy, and sense. Witty and irreverent, they remind us that we have more hope than we think – if only because we have wit and irreverence.
Contents:
- Introduction by Matthew Warner
- Anomie
- And Justice for Doll
- Nessmass
- Speaking Mouth Dog
- The Trespasser
- Billy
- Cthulhu Fhtagn, Baby
- Soured
- Portrait of the Horror Artist as a Young Man
- Raw Recruits
- Representative Sample
- Bingo
- You're Welcome
- Solidity
- Exit Laughing
- Grandpa, What Happens When We Die? (poem)
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Will Ludwigsen
Will Ludwigsen's work has appeared in Asimov's Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Cemetery Dance, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Strange Horizons, and the Interfictions 2 anthology - among many other places.
He artfully avoids writing as much as possible by training sales agents by day and teaching creative writing to undergraduates by night. Yet sometimes, he's stricken by a dissociative fugue and manages to compose some fiction anyway.
He lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with writer Aimee Payne and two greyhounds, also possibly writers of some sort.
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