Cliffourd the Big Red God, or, How Michelle Nephew Was Right
My newest Mini Mythos book, Cliffourd the Big Red God,1 is on sale in glorious glossy hardback now! It's a charming mashup, if I do say so myself, of Norman Bridwell's beloved classic about true friendship and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror."
But it was almost a forced and untenable mashup of Norman Bridwell's beloved classic about true friendship and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space." I had got it stuck in my head that the key element of the original was Clifford's ever-growing nature; I thought we could do something very clever with that and the redness as a parallel to the Colour, with Emily's house a stand-in for the Gardeners' farm. I excitedly pitched this to Michelle Nephew (Lovecraftian scholar in her own right, and editor of my Mini Mythos line for Atlas Games) and she said something like: "You're wrong. It's 'Dunwich Horror.'" I pitched it two or three more times as The Cliffourd Out of Space and each time she shot me down. Then my flinty-eyed publisher John Nephew said he wanted a title closer to the original, so it became Cliffourd the Big Red God, and then he signed me to a contract to write it.
So I finally bought my own copy of Bridwell's book rather than relying on forty-year-old memories, and lo and behold -- Michelle was right. It's a story of a giant beast who scares the bejesus out of the whole town, whose games endanger life and limb, but who remains tied inextricably to his friend. That's bloody "Dunwich Horror," people, and Michelle Nephew Was Right to say so. So that's the story I wrote, and the story that the maniacal Andy Hopp illustrated, with the results you see before you.
***
Speaking of editors who were right, pretty much every decision dr_kromm made in the course of editing the now-on-sale-in-beautiful-PDF GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition2 turned out to be right, but I didn't so much disagree with him as shilly-shally over whether he was Convincingly Overwhelmingly Right or Just Mostly Right. Turned out to be about 80/20.
1) You may note that this link goes to Warehouse 23 instead of to my previous habitual Amazon Associates link. This is because Illinois passed its "Amazon tax" with the entirely predictable result that Amazon has ended its associate program in Illinois. So since I don't get my sweet Amazon vig any more, and my royalties are the same wherever you buy the book, I might as well send you somewhere run by a pal. If you feel that you simply cannot live without helping me buy stuff from Amazon, my wish list is always open for business.
2) While we're on the subject of extra money for me, I get a much nicer royalty on the PDF edition of GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition than I will on the hardcover, due in August. That said, the hardcover will be pretty sweet, too. I'd advise buying both, but buying the PDF in bulk. And I don't think I can emphasize too strongly that pretty much everything good in my old Nightmares of Mine guide to horror is also in GURPS Horror, because Iron Crown went bankrupt instead of paying me, so I got to re-use the text. How sweet is that? Plus, like I said, many more good ideas from dr_kromm.
But it was almost a forced and untenable mashup of Norman Bridwell's beloved classic about true friendship and H.P. Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space." I had got it stuck in my head that the key element of the original was Clifford's ever-growing nature; I thought we could do something very clever with that and the redness as a parallel to the Colour, with Emily's house a stand-in for the Gardeners' farm. I excitedly pitched this to Michelle Nephew (Lovecraftian scholar in her own right, and editor of my Mini Mythos line for Atlas Games) and she said something like: "You're wrong. It's 'Dunwich Horror.'" I pitched it two or three more times as The Cliffourd Out of Space and each time she shot me down. Then my flinty-eyed publisher John Nephew said he wanted a title closer to the original, so it became Cliffourd the Big Red God, and then he signed me to a contract to write it.
So I finally bought my own copy of Bridwell's book rather than relying on forty-year-old memories, and lo and behold -- Michelle was right. It's a story of a giant beast who scares the bejesus out of the whole town, whose games endanger life and limb, but who remains tied inextricably to his friend. That's bloody "Dunwich Horror," people, and Michelle Nephew Was Right to say so. So that's the story I wrote, and the story that the maniacal Andy Hopp illustrated, with the results you see before you.
***
Speaking of editors who were right, pretty much every decision dr_kromm made in the course of editing the now-on-sale-in-beautiful-PDF GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition2 turned out to be right, but I didn't so much disagree with him as shilly-shally over whether he was Convincingly Overwhelmingly Right or Just Mostly Right. Turned out to be about 80/20.
1) You may note that this link goes to Warehouse 23 instead of to my previous habitual Amazon Associates link. This is because Illinois passed its "Amazon tax" with the entirely predictable result that Amazon has ended its associate program in Illinois. So since I don't get my sweet Amazon vig any more, and my royalties are the same wherever you buy the book, I might as well send you somewhere run by a pal. If you feel that you simply cannot live without helping me buy stuff from Amazon, my wish list is always open for business.
2) While we're on the subject of extra money for me, I get a much nicer royalty on the PDF edition of GURPS Horror, Fourth Edition than I will on the hardcover, due in August. That said, the hardcover will be pretty sweet, too. I'd advise buying both, but buying the PDF in bulk. And I don't think I can emphasize too strongly that pretty much everything good in my old Nightmares of Mine guide to horror is also in GURPS Horror, because Iron Crown went bankrupt instead of paying me, so I got to re-use the text. How sweet is that? Plus, like I said, many more good ideas from dr_kromm.