Ran Cartwright

Gretchen's Woodby Ran Cartwright is a collection of mythos stories set in Columbiana County in northeast Ohio. The publisher is Publishamerica, with a website at www.publishamerica.com. For the life of me I could not figure the company out, although admittedly I only spent a half hour browsing their website. They solemnly proclaim that they are not a vanity press or POD for authors' to finance their own printing but I remain suspicious. The cost was $19.95 eligible for free shipping from Amazon, all in all a bit steep. The book is a standard trade soft cover with 198 pages, with stories actually beginning on page 13. The cover is an atmospheric red and black photo of some woods, what I guess are in fact the real Gretchen's Wood. I would call it nondescript, neither detracting from nor enhancing the book. There are 11 stories here. Either they are newly published or else they have been extensively revised for this book, as is explained in the useful author's introduction. In fact, if you visit the author on Facebook I believe he has an album of atmospheric photographs from Columbiana County, well worth seeking out. Production qualities seem standard. I do not know if the book was edited by anyone. There are a fair number of minor typos, more than I am used to seeing in such a book, but nothing severely egregious like HP Lovecraft Institute. I think this has to do wtih how Publishamerica works with its authors. These were not a major distraction.

The only thing I ever read by Ran Cartwright was his story about Azathoth in issue #1 of Dreaing in R'lyeh. It did not move me at all when I read it a year ago and I only found out about it again as the magazine was mentioned in the brief bio on the backcover (albeit as Dreaming of R'lyeh). I went back to it today to confirm my impressions after slogging through this book.

I really don't get these books with the intent of panning them. I want to like all the mythos stories I read. Alas sometimes it does not happen. I guess a tipoff about what you are getting into is the fact that four stories use the word horror in the title, a direct nod to HPL's The Dunwich Horror. All the old mythos tropes are trotted out here: people don't laugh, they cackle. In the first several stories whippoorwills are prominently mentioned. Shrill piping echoes everywhere. Everyone and their brother seems familiar with mythosian books and entities. Copies of musty old tomes abound. Everyone seems to not just lose touch with reality but to go stark raving insane with the greatest of ease. And they all are studying obscure cults. Just about every tale features a chanted Ia Ia. (To prospective authors I just say get your ia ias out!). Well, I suppose that's OK; I think most fledgling mythos authors start out with heavily tributory stories before branching off on their own paths. And I still enjoy a good standard mythos story.

The biggest difficulty I had was that I was not impressed with the prose. Read a story here, then pull out Horrors Beyond and reread "One Way Conversation." The differences are stark. In Gretchen's Wood the characters are paper thin, undistinctive and ultimately forgettable. Their motivations and actions were contrived or incomprehensible. They did not relate to one another in any believable way. Frankly I don't think giving them surnames, or in some cases middle names, was necessary. It sure didn't lend depth to the story. Not much here ventured off very standard mythos plotting. There are a few new mythos entities introduced, which many authors like to do but doesn't do much for me. I really only liked three things about this collection. First, the rich detail about Columbiana County added much needed depth to the book. Obviously Mr. Cartwright knows this area well. Second, the best parts of each story was generally the action sequence near the end. The build up, however, was in general arduous and uninvolving. In fact "Black Horror of Dungannon" was a disorganized mess, but the final shoggoth attack was a decent read. Third, in my opinion the best story was reasonably good, "Dreaming in Darkness." The most direct antecedent to "Dreaming in Darkness" was "The Whisperer in Darkness" by HPL. Of everything in the collection, this story had the most clever plot, the best characterizations and the best dramatic tension.

So I can't really recommend this book. I kept setting it aside and only managed it in drips and drabs. On the other hand it is vastly preferable to A Darkness Inbred or Nightmare's Disciple, and maybe falls close to Island Life or Other Nations on my ratings scale. I can think of some fans who would like it: those readers who are new to the mythos and still have a very strong preference for conventional knockoffs that don't cover new territory and don't stray from the usual plot tricks. You know most of us were at that point at one time or another. Some fans won't even consider a story mythos if it does not contain these elements. Those of you who will get a book for one decent story might do so for "Dreaming in Darkness." This is why I still don't completely deride Cthulhu and the Coeds, which contains "The Scrimshaw Museum". And some fanatics need to buy everything, which is, I guess, why I got it. As usual I would be interested to read differing opinions.… (meer)