October is here again, and while for some that means pumpkin flavored beverages, for us here at the Sentinel Hill Press, that means it is time for our second annual

October-ganza!!!!*

(*That’s one exclamation point short of actual insanity, in case you’re worried)

We will be having a new post every day this month, not just to make up our lack of posting for the past couple months, but to celebrate the (imminent) release of the latest issue of the Arkham Gazette.  (For last year’s October-ganza, see HERE.)  Today I thought I might give everyone a little background on what has been going on with Sentinel Hill Press of late and perhaps preview what we might cover for the rest of the month.

As the backers of our Kickstarter know, it has taken quite a lot longer than I had hoped to get issue #3 ready for release (and once the issue is out I’ll do a review for out Kickstarter backer breaking down some of the details there).  Nevertheless I am very proud of the quality of the issue, which at 120 pages is by far our longest to date.  I am currently awaiting the delivery of a print proof and once I’ve confirmed that it is of adequate quality, it will be going out to our backers and be released for general sale.  A PDF version has already gone our to our backers and I am hoping they like it. 🙂  I’ve talked about the content previously and will do so again when I can announce it has been released, but if you’ve missed it previously, this issue’s theme is Witches and Witchcraft in Lovecraft Country.  We’re already looking for submissions for issue #4 and beyond as well.

As for this year’s October-ganza, I’m hoping to cover the same sorts of topics we looked at last year – New England folklore, weird history, and curiosities as well as Lovecraft and related writers.  I’ve put together a month’s worth of topics (well, 28 days worth, I’ve not quite sorted the last few out) that I hope will entertain and amuse.  Some of them might veer close to some of the territory covered last year, but as I was willing to throw in whole categories like “New England’s Cryptids”, I was admittedly painting with a rather broad brush.

Let’s wrap up today’s intro with my favorite bit of October-y audio, Vincent Price reading “All Saints’ Eve”, from his album A Hornbook for Witches: