Below is the fourth in our series of author interviews celebrating Cosmic Horror and Cthulhu Mythos Month by investigating how authors define the terms. Thanks to author Simon Bleaken for his time and answers! Check
Below is the fourth in our series of author interviews celebrating Cosmic Horror and Cthulhu Mythos Month by investigating how authors define the terms. Thanks to author Simon Bleaken for his time and answers! Check out our Cosmic Horror and Cthulhu Mythos Page for more interviews and original fiction.
How do you define the term Cosmic Horror?
For me, cosmic horror is about the ultimate fear of the unknown and unknowable, it’s horror that highlights how small and insignificant humans are in the grand vastness of space and time, especially when confronted with forces that we cannot know and cannot begin to comprehend, like mayflies staring at eternity right before it engulfs them. In my view there also has to be a bleakness (no pun intended) to cosmic horror too, a stripping away of the hope and beliefs that we have created (or told ourselves) to buffer us from the harsh realities of our short and meaningless existence in such a large, unknowable and uncaring (even hostile) cosmos (though it doesn’t always have to be actively hostile, sometimes we are just so small it doesn’t even notice us as it squashes us or ploughs through our concept of reality). When approaching cosmic horror, I of course look to Lovecraft, but also to Ligotti (arguably) – who has a more philosophical slant to his horror – and other authors including John Langan, T.E.D Klein, Peter Rawlik and Laird Barron (to name only a few).
How do you define the term Cthulhu Mythos?
I see this as a series of loosely connected tales based around a series of tales created by H. P. Lovecraft, initially, and actively expanded by other authors since to form a nebulous and often contradictory fictional mythology. That these stories continue to speak to us and continue to call to authors speaks volumes to their potency and enduring appeal. There is some criticism that by being so heavily used and explored by so many, the potency has been diluted out (especially by authors such as Lin Carter, who sought to write stories to ‘plug the gaps’ within the mythos – which I think goes against what makes it so powerful, that it should ultimately feel unknowable and contradictory, that we are always only glimpsing a part of something greater).
Can you recommend a tale of Cosmic Horror, in the Cthulhu Mythos, or both?
For more modern tales, I would point people towards Scott J Couturier’s collection The Box and in particular the story “Hatchling” which originally appeared in Cosmic Horror Monthly back in 2021. I’d also recommend Blaine Daigle’s A Dark and Endless Sea, John Langan’s The Fisherman, and The House at Black Tooth Pond by Stephen Mark Rainey. For classic cosmic horror, start with Lovecraft or Ligotti and explore outwards.
Can you recommend something of your own work? Cosmic Horror, Cthulhu Mythos, or Otherwise?
I think one of the strongest cosmic horror tales I have written is a story called The Mark on the Stones. This was written for a submission call from Eerie River Publishing, a collection called Beyond the Threshold, edited by the fantastic Tim Mendees. The story was later republished in my latest collection of short stories: The Empire of the Moon and Stars and Other Stories. It was also adapted in November 2025 for the Creepy Podcast. When writing this tale, I wanted to get away from more obviously ‘Lovecraftian’ cosmic horror, as I figured that many of the other stories being submitted probably would fall under that heading, and I hoped to send something a little different. So, my tale has more of a folk horror feel to it that slowly evolves into cosmic horror as events progress. An adapted version is free to listen to on the podcast here.
About the Author
Simon Bleaken lives in Wiltshire, England.
His work has appeared in magazines, ezines and podcasts, including Lovecraft’s Disciples; Tales of the Talisman; Dark Dossier; Strange Sorcery; Lovecraftiana; The Horror Zine; Schlock Webzine; Night Land; Weird Fiction Quarterly; Eternal Haunted Summer; and on The NoSleep Podcast, Creepy Podcast and HorrorBabble Originals.
His first collection of short stories: A Touch of Silence & Other Tales was released in 2017, followed by The Basement of Dreams & Other Tales in 2019, Within the Flames & Other Stories in 2021 and The Empire of the Moon and Stars & Other Stories in 2025.
About the Interviewer
Jeremiah Dylan Cook is the author of A Mythos of Monsters and Madness, which includes Cosmic Horror and Cthulhu Mythos short stories. He founded Cosmic Horror and Cthulhu Mythos Month in January of 2023.
