A number of Motif authors, illustrators and affiliated talents took part in the recent “Write like Lovecraft” contest created by The Providence Journal. What it is about our staff that draws such a disproportionate number to the weird and creepy is a subject on which we shall decline to speculate. However, to help their efforts […]
When the ominous box arrived on my doorstep, I didn’t even notice. I was in the middle of a sale. A very well-dressed woman took a liking to the antique grandfather clock in the window. I just signed for the box absently while running her credit card. I didn’t even look at it until almost […]
I. The Plan “Knowledge wants to be free!” The increasingly impassioned assistant professor defended his plan to the chief librarian who had summoned him to this awkward and unpleasant meeting in a room filled with dust that seemed to have collected slowly and inexorably since slimy, tentacled tetrapods first evolved to crawl from water onto […]
The crow refused to blink. The dark, hard obsidian of its eyes conveyed an inhuman awareness of its surroundings, acute but soulless, absorbing light from the abandoned mill and the soft, rotting bricks where the feathered beast perched. Its rapt attention recalled its Jurassic ancesters, raptorous hunters who had dominated their food chain. The dark, […]
It was a Friday at some god awful hour in the morning, when I heard a terrible crash that shook me out of a dead sleep. I sat up in bed and tossed the sheets aside. There was a hurricane making its way through the New England town of East Providence. An evacuation wasn’t necessary […]
The discernible omission of publication pertaining to WaterFire circulated infamously throughout northeast editorial circles. It became frequent water cooler chinwag that while the metropolitan publication of record, The Providence Journal, related Barnaby Evans’ art installation at regular intervals, other intervening agencies proved abortive in their attempts. The absent narratives were not the repercussions of New […]
For four days this year, H.P. Lovecraft’s life, literature and 125th birthday will be celebrated at NecronomiCon; however, Lovecraftian groups and shops can be found year-round, from the Lovecraft Arts & Sciences Council in the downtown Arcade to various walking tours held in the evenings. One that stands out is a small local publishing company […]
As Providence gears up for NecronomiCon, a semi-annual gathering to celebrate the life and work of one of Rhode Island’s most influential, revered and let’s face it, controversial writers of weird fiction, H. P. Lovecraft, an overview of a new comic series from comics legend Alan Moore titled, appropriately enough, Providence, seems in order. Alan […]
Dick Martin was born and raised in Gloucester, RI, and made his living as a teacher at Burriville High School (and then Killingly High School in Connecticut) while moonlighting as a columnist for various local newspapers. He won numerous awards and inspired groups of students who have also won awards. He had humble beginnings growing […]
I wanted to do things a little differently for this year’s summer reading guide. There are so many fantastic classics out there that go unread unless suffering through it during an English class (which, in theory, takes all of the fun out of reading due to our subconscious hatred of authority). The literary canon is […]