Welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, in which I’m chatting to Ari Marmell about his upcoming novel Litany of Dreams, the latest instalment in Aconyte Books’ growing range of Arkham Horror novels. It’s due out from Aconyte Books as a global ebook and US paperback on the 13th April, with the UK paperback following on the 24th June, and if you’re on the lookout for something supernatural which leans towards the cosmic horror end of the spectrum then this might just be the book for you. Read on to find out more about Arkham Horror and what to expect from Litany of Dreams.
First of all, here’s the publisher’s synopsis:
The mysterious disappearance of a gifted student at Miskatonic University spurs his troubled roommate, Elliot Raslo, into an investigation of his own. But Elliot already struggles against the maddening allure of a ceaseless chant that only he can hear…When Elliot’s search converges with that of a Greenland Inuk’s hunt for a stolen relic, they are left with yet more questions. Could there be a connection between Elliot’s litany and the broken stone stele covered in antediluvian writings that had obsessed his friend? Learning the answers will draw them into the heart of a devilish plot to rebirth an ancient horror.
With that done, let’s get straight on with the interview!
Track of Words: How would you describe your new novel Litany of Dreams?
Ari Marmell: Hmm. Investigative horror? Occult supernatural mystery? Somewhere in there. Basically it combines an aspect of mystery with the cosmic horror pioneered by Lovecraft, with just the thinnest veneer of pulp adventure.
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?
AM: Elliot Raslo is a student at Miskatonic University in Arkham. Chester Hennessy, his roommate and best friend (and more?), has vanished after substantial research into some mysterious project. Elliot is troubled not only by Chester’s disappearance, but by a peculiar foreign phrase stuck so completely in his mind that it’s beginning to interfere with his life.
Daisy Walker is a staff librarian at Miskatonic, with access to many of the restricted tomes that Chester (and then Elliot) were consulting. She’s drawn into the mystery of Chester’s disappearance trying to keep Elliot safe. (She’s also one of the pre-existing characters in the Arkham Horror game.)
Billy Shiwak is a Kalaallit – that is, Greenlandic Inuit – hunter. He’s come to Arkham on the trail of an artifact that was stolen from his people years ago, by an expedition of “discovery.” That missing relic turns out to have potential links to Chester’s secret project.
(I should mention, at this point, that Aconyte and I found a Kalaallit fact-checker and sensitivity reader to work with on this book. Kirstine Møller’s feedback was invaluable, she was fantastic to work with, and if any errors crept through despite her efforts, they are entirely my responsibility, not hers.)
ToW: For anyone not familiar with the world of Arkham Horror, how would you describe the setting and your particular take on it?
AM: Arkham Horror is a slightly lighter take on the work of HP Lovecraft. It includes his mythos of Outer Gods and Great Old Ones: horrific, inhuman, and in many cases inconceivable powers that lurk just beyond our reality, or in the darkness between the stars. Some human cults serve them, seeking to bring about their return, and occasional unfortunate occultists stumble onto partial eldritch truths about them.
When I say “lighter”, I simply mean that Lovecraft was focused almost solely on horror, whereas the Arkham Horror game – and its fiction – tone down the horror a bit (though we haven’t abandoned it by any means!) and add an element of adventure. The forces of the Old Ones are somewhat more possible to defeat, at least on a temporary level, in Arkham Horror than in the source material.
As for my take on it? Well, I might have tried to tug back a little in the direction of the source material. My understanding is that Litany of Dreams is more of a horror novel than the prior Arkham Horror tie-ins [in keeping with The Last Ritual, as I understand it – ToW], though I’ll admit it still doesn’t go nearly as dark or horrific as I would have if I weren’t writing for a pre-existing property/audience. 😉
ToW: Were you already a fan of Arkham Horror before writing this, or was it your introduction to the setting?
AM: There are two layers of answer to that, since Arkham Horror is itself a variation/tie-in to Lovecraft’s cosmic horror. I was already quite familiar with Lovecraft’s work, and I’ve written some Lovecraftian fiction before (though that was all shorter fiction, never anything novel-length).
For Arkham Horror specifically, I’d played the game a time or two, but I wasn’t as familiar with its specifics – its characters, locations, plotlines, general mood or feel – as I was the original source material. So I had to do some reading and research, but that’s not unusual for tie-in, and it was pretty easy (and enjoyable) brushing up.
ToW: Where did this specific story come from? Of all the Arkham Horror stories you might have written, what made you choose this one?
AM: All right. Let’s address the Cthulhu-sized elephant in the room.
Lovecraft had a fantastic imagination in many respects. He created a mythos people still to read, and to write in, over a hundred years later. He effectively created the cosmic horror sub-genre.
He was also a screaming xenophobe and racist, extreme even for the time in which he lived. And those attitudes, unfortunately, infect a lot of his stories if you even lightly scratch the surface (and sometimes blatantly on the surface).
I’ve had the first stirrings of the character who would become Billy Shiwak in my head for quite some time. Lovecraft had many stories in which brave white American explorers wind up collecting lore or relics from various ‘uncivilized tribes’ of, well, non-whites. I loved the idea of turning that on its head – not just as a social statement, but because of the really cool story potential – and when I learned Aconyte was looking for authors for Arkham Horror fiction, that seemed the perfect opportunity.
The rest of the story sprang from a combination of that, and from my realization that I needed another main character to actually be the book’s primary point of view. (I felt I could do the research to effectively and respectfully write an Inuit character, but having him be the primary PoV character was another story.) Elliot, and my desire to make use of the existing character of Daisy Walker, both came from there.
I also wanted to see if I could pull something else off, in particular, in Lovecraft’s mythos, but I can’t really go into the details of that without spoilers.
ToW: Can you tell us a bit about some of the influences you drew upon while writing this, outside of the game itself?
AM: Lovecraft’s own work, certainly. A lot of more modern cosmic horror writers; I tend to enjoy a good Lovecraft pastiche more than I do Lovecraft himself. Some of my more overt horrific visuals – and how I try to combine them with scenes that aren’t innately horrific – comes from the work of Simon Green. And I can never let one of these ‘influence’ questions go without mentioning Steven Brust. None of the horror comes from him – that’s not what he does – but he’s where I learned how to combine mystery stories into genre fiction, be it fantasy, horror, or other.
ToW: As well as writing novels, you work freelance in the RPG industry – how does that experience come into play when working on a project like this?
AM: Well, the experience of writing RPG material to contract – and prior tie-in books, as well – is always helpful when writing to a pre-existing property. Any sort of tie-in work requires an author to be able to tailor not only the story, but more nebulous requirements like ‘mood’ and ‘feel’, to the property. Sometimes this means sublimating one’s own preferences to better fit what the property and/or its audience require. (See above where I mention that I would have made this book a lot more horrific if it were general cosmic horror rather than Arkham Horror specifically. That doesn’t mean the book is better or worse than it would’ve been, just different.) That’s something that can take practice, especially since we writers are mostly an egotistical bunch.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
AM: I’m probably supposed to say something profound here, especially regarding the diversity of the cast or the elements of hope, fear, grief, and all that, the truth is:
As long as readers finish the book having enjoyed the experience – and having, at some point, laughed a little, been spooked or disturbed a little, and been sad a little – I’m pretty content with it.
ToW: Do you have more plans for stories featuring these characters in future, or more Arkham Horror stories in general?
AM: Nothing concrete. I left myself a few plot threads I could pick up, and I have some vague notions brewing, so I’d say it’s entirely possible, maybe even likely, but said plans haven’t crystalized yet.
ToW: Can you tell us anything about what else you’ve got coming out or recently released, or what you’re working on at the moment?
AM: Right now I’m in the middle of a fantasy novel. It’s also a tie-in, for an upcoming fantasy combat board game called Bloodstone. Right in the sweet spot for fans of D&D or WoW, although on the bloodier end of such things.
My most recent releases are The Iron Devils, which is post-apocalyptic sci-fi/light horror, in which some of the last surviving humans are caught between the machines that have enslaved them, and a recently awakened Nineteenth Century vampire lord; and Ash and Ambition, the first in a series (I hope?) about dragon trapped in the shape of the knight who supposedly slew him.
My agent is currently shopping around a sci-fi horror novel dark enough that it makes horror of any of my previous works look like Sesame Street, and there might be some movement (knock on all the wood) on a screenplay I wrote. I’ll certainly announce that if and when it actually happens, but I might not have to, because you’ll probably all hear me screaming from here.
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Ari Marmell is the author of the Mick Oberon urban fantasy series, the Widdershins YA fantasy series and many others, alongside novels in Magic: the Gathering and the video game, Darksiders, as well as writing for several roleplaying games.
Check out Ari’s website for more information.
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Many thanks for Ari for taking the time to talk to me for this interview, for giving such great answers and giving us the lowdown on Litany of Dreams.
See also: all of the other Arkham Horror-related interviews and reviews on Track of Words.
If you’re in the UK and would like to support local independent bookshops, you can order Litany of Dreams from my store on Bookshop.org*
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