Brian John McNaughton (23 September 1935 - 13 May 2004) was an American author of both novels and short fiction whose focus was the horror and fantasy genres. Many of his pieces include references to the works of H. P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, and Robert E. Howard amongst others, and he has contributed several stories to the Cthulhu Mythos. A selection of his works have been published in their original formats by Wildside Press.
Born in Red Bank, New Jersey, McNaughton began his career writing for fanzines while in high school. He attended Harvard, but did not graduate. He worked as a reporter for the Newark Evening News for ten years. He later worked for ten years as the night manager at a "decrepit seaside hotel."[1]
Mythos Writing[]
McNaughton's Mythos writing is characterized by black humor, considerable gore, and frank sexuality; "every character in [his] novels of any significance has a sexual identity and has thoughts and actions regarding sex and potential partners," critic Bobby Derie notes.[2] H. P. Lovecraft often appears as a background element in McNaughton's stories, writing fictionalized accounts of "real" Mythos entities.
McNaughton wrote a series of sexually explicit "romance" novels under the pen name Sheena Clayton, "all of which to greater or lesser extent contain references to the Mythos."[2]
Selected Bibliography[]
Short Stories[]
- "Meryphillia" (1990)
- "To My Dear Friend, Hommy-Beg" (1994)
- "The Return of the Colossus" (1995)
- "Beyond the Wall of Time" (1996)
- "The Dunwich Lodger" (1996)
- "Ghoulmaster" (1996)
- "The Doom That Came to Innsmouth" (1999)
- "Herbert West--Reincarnated" (round-robin, 2000)
- "Mud" (2001)
Anthologies[]
- The Throne of Bones (1997)
- Nasty Stories (2003)
- Even More Nasty Stories (2003)
Novels[]
- Satan’s Love Child (1977)/Gemini Rising (2000)
- Satan’s Mistress (1978)/Downward to Darkness (2000)
- Satan’s Seductress (1980)/Worse Things Waiting (2011)
- Satan’s Surrogate (1982)/The House Across the Way (2002)
As Sheena Clayton[]
- Love and Desire (1982)
- The Aura of Seduction (1982)
- Tide of Desire (1982)
- Danielle Book Two (1983)
- There Lies Love (1983)
- Perfect Love (1983)
External Links[]
- Brian McNaughton at Wikipedia
- Brian McNaughton at Internet Speculative Fiction Database
- Obituary at Legacy.com
References[]
- ↑ Nasty Stories, "About the Author" (Wildside Press, 2000).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Sex and the Cthulhu Mythos, by Bobby Derie (Hippocampus Press, 2014).