Guillermo del Toro – Nicholas Diak's Homepage

Personal / Website News

Three weeks in a row of articles at my website. I hope I can keep up the momentum.

Two New Book Reviews

I’ve published not one but two book reviews at my website in the past two weeks.

First up, stepping in the realm of middle grade, I’ve done a review on Lora Senf’s debut novel, The Clackity. It can be read right here.

Monster mayhem continues in my second book review which is on Robert P. Ottone’s newest novel, Nocturnal Creatures. This one can be read right here.

New Episodes of H. P. Lovecast

More double trouble, two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast have also been published in the last two weeks.

First is our monthly Transmissions program. For September we interviewed Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke. That episode can be listened to at our Buzzspout page, the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.

Next, roughly a year after we discussed Mimic on our podcast, we return to the franchise by discussing Mimic 2.

This episode can be streamed at the HP Lovecast Buzzsprout page, via the embedded link below, or via your podcast app of preference.

Horror Book Sale at McFarland

McFarland is doing a sale on horror books during the month of October. During checkout, use the code “HORROR22” to get 25% of books in their horror category.

There’s three books included in the sale I have involvement in (The Twilight Zone book is tagged as horror, but it isn’t out yet, so I’m not sure if the sale applies to it or not):

This is a great opportunity to pluck these books up and be supportive to what Michele and I do.

Miscellaneous Tidbits

Footage Fiends Zine

Evan Jordan of the Void Video Podcast and Madeleine of the Unnamed Footage Festival are launching a brand new zine called Footage Fiends that is devoted to all aspects of the found footage genre of films. Tweet embedded below:

Exciting news: my good friend @DVDBoxSet and I are starting the first ever zine exclusively covering in-world camera films (found footage, mockumentary, faux doc, screenlife, hybrid, etc.) and we're now accepting pitches for the first issue!

Submit yours to the email below! ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/92UaAArDni
— 𝔼𝕧𝕒𝕟 𝕁𝕠𝕣𝕕𝕒𝕟 (@thatevanjordan) September 14, 2022

I’ve completed and submitted a short-form essay about Mario Bava’s film Caltiki: The Immortal Monster. The submission window for issue 01 is still open, so send them a pitch! Email address is footagefiends at gmail dot com.

Artist Gilead Kickstarter Campaign

Sword and sorcery artist Gilead has started a Kickstarter campaign for his Sketch book and print art.

Check out the campaign on Kickstarter and consider supporting.

Personal / Website News

H. P. Lovecast Podcast Episodes

This past week we published not one, but two episodes of the H. P. Lovecast Podcast (due to timing: 4th Sunday and last day of the month).

For the Fragments episode we took a look at the 1997 Guillermo del Toro’s film, Mimic. This episode can be heard on our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast application of preference.

Next, our Transmissions episode also went up. This is our interview episode, and we talked to three folks, all three who are alumni of the Ann Radcliffe Academic Conference:

Farah Rose Smith on their short story collections Of One Pure Will
Rahel Sixta Schmitz on their debut non-fiction book The Supernatural Media Virus
Kevin Wetmore on their newest book, Eaters of the Dead: Myths and Realities of Cannibal Monsters

This episode can also be streamed at our Buzzsprout website or via your podcast app of preference.

Exotica Moderne Cover Reveal

Issue 13 of Exotica Moderne will be released soon! House of Tabu has done a cover reveal:

This issue will contain my review of the book Cuban Cocktails. The pre-order page for this issue can be found at the House of Tabu website.

Of note, my article for issue 14 is in the can! It will be an interview with pinup model Miss Corsair Debonair. The interview is done and sent in, just waiting on photos to go with the article. That issue will be released in early 2022.

Issue 15 I hope to finally do my write up on Caltiki: The Immortal Monster.

Academic CV

Updated the About Me page to include a link to the newest version of my academic CV.

General Neo-Peplum News

Aegean RPG

Stoo Goff has a Kickstarter going for an interesting neo-peplum table top RPG called Aegean RPG.

The Kickstarter description is as follows:

Aegean is a tabletop role-playing game about a group of mythic heroes building a new, free city on the shores of the Aegean Sea. There are neighbouring cities to trade or war with, monsters to kill, gods to appease, deceptions, negotiations and bloody skirmishes.
The world of Aegean is an ancient Greece that never existed – a mix of mythology and classical history. The gods visit the earth and converse with mortals, granting gifts of magic and life to some and fear and terror to others. Fearsome monsters roam the lands and seas making every journey an adventure. Strange creatures, some mortal, others half-divine, can be found in the wilderness. These centaurs, nymphs and tritons teach, harass or ignore humans as their whim takes them.
The polis—the city and its surrounding lands—is your home and where your loyalties lie. Your polis is a recently founded colony on the coasts of the Aegean Sea. The leader is called an arkhon, a democratically elected ruler after the Athenian fashion, rather than the hereditary king that many cities still use. The polis sits in a precarious position, between many similar neighbouring states who may wish to trade, ally or make war.
Your character fits somewhere in this world, between the capricious force of the gods, the wilderness and the structure of the polis and its ambitions.

Gladiator 2 Being Written

An article at IndieWire says that Gladiator 2 is current being written and will be ready to hit production after Ridley Scott’s Napoleon movie is made.

Afterlives Podcast

Egyptologist Kara Cooney has started a new podcast in September called Afterlives.

It can be streamed on Spotify or your podcast application of preference. Newest episode talks about being an academia, so extremely helpful!

Recent Aquisitions

Figure I would jazz up my news my showcasing any new neo-peplum texts I pluck up. While at a Zia’s Records last week I happened upon two metal releases: Warkings’ Revolution and Ex Deo’s The Thirteen Years of Nero.

I’m enjoying both, especially the adventure metal sound of Warkings. That album is interesting in that in a true neo-peplum fashion, it’s blending genres/histories together: Vikings, Spartans, Templars, etc.

HPLCP Transmissions – Ep 15 – Brenda S. Tolian and Ian Welke – H. P. Lovecast Podcast

Ep 55 – Jean de Segonzac's Mimic 2 – H. P. Lovecast Podcast