My Work
My Essays
The Ultimate Hellblazer Index
The Whateley Family Bible
Space Madness for Starcraft
My blog--Flawed Diamonds
Home

"John Goodrich is a Cthulhu Mythos talent to watch. His tales are engrossing, with strong human elements." - David Conyers

What Ive published
Cthulhu Unbound, edited by John Sunseri and Thom Brannan

March 2009:
A dying soldier receives a macabre history lesson in the corpse-strewn trenches of World War One. “The Patriot” has been reprinted in volume one of the Cthulhu Unbound double anthology.

Brian Sammons has written a review over at Horror World which specifically mentions my story:
“I really liked John Goodrich’s ‘The Patriot’ for many reasons. First and foremost, it is well written and very creepy. Second, it’s a war story, and I love war stories when they’re done right. Third, it’s set in a war mostly forgotten today, World War One. From start to finish, this tale is simply great, but as for that finish, it’s a doozy. While it is tough to pick my absolute favorite of this anthology, this one would be one of the contenders.”

Jorge Solis, a reviewer on Fangoria's website, wrote:
“The most effective anti-war message comes from John Goodrich’s ‘The Patriot.’ A dying WWI soldier is carried by Death across a plain of rotting corpses. Death recounts the centuries he has witnessed of men killing each other for the sake of victory. As the solider drowsily listens on, he knows when his eyes finally close; Death will eat his flesh.”

Matthew Carpenter, wrote in his Amazon review:
“‘The Patriot’ by John Goodrich – Mr. Goodrich has a story in the upcoming Cthulhu’s Dark Cults from Chaosium but otherwise I am uncertain about his publication history. This is a ghoulish yarn set in WWI, reminding me a little bit of Curran’s ‘The Chattering of Tiny Teeth’ from the book Warfear. On its own merits this was a very creepy and well written piece that I enjoyed until the end…and the denouement just blew me away, it was so good!”

The estimable Robert Freeman wrote in his review at Monsterlibrarian.com:
“The crowning achievement in the anthology goes to John Goodrich’s ‘The Patriot’, a ghoulishly creepy war story that was atmospheric and a delight to the end.”

  
American Exorcist, Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty, edited by Benjamin Szumskyj November 2008:
“Lebanon, the Fightin’ Irish, and Billy Shakespeare; The Comic Novels of William Peter Blatty” appeared in Benjamin Szumskyj's American Exorcist: Critical Essays on William Peter Blatty. Before Blatty shocked the world with The Exorcist, he wrote comedies. Does a study of his earlier, lighter work presage the monumentally chilling book that changed American horror? 		 
Dissecting Hannibal Lecter, edited by Benjamin Szumskyj February 2008:
My essay “Hannibal at the Lectern: A Textual Analysis of Dr. Hannibal Lecter's Character and Motivations in Thomas Harris's Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs” appears in Dissecting Hannibal Lecter: A Critical Anthology on the Writings of Thomas Harris (ISBN 978-0-7864-3275-2) from McFarland Books.

Consider this exchange from The Silence of the Lambs:

     "What does he do, this man you want?"
     "He kills —"
     Ah —" [Dr. Lecter] said sharply, averting his face for a moment from her wrongheadedness. "That's incidental. What is the first and principal thing he does, what need does he serve by killing?"

Did you ever wonder what need Dr. Lecter serves when he kills?
  
 

April 2007:
“Champagne” took second place at the Horror World Gross Out Contest. Getting one of the judges to comment “Dude. You’re WEIRD” was a real bonus. Click on the story title to read my really gross story for free.

  
Two-Gun Bob, edited by Benjamin Szumskyj

November 2006:
“... From Acorns Grow: Robert Howard Revealed in Post Oaks & Sand Roughs” appears in Hippocampus Press's Two Gun Bob: A Centennial Study of Robert E. Howard (ISBN 0-9771734-5-3), edited by Benjamin Szumskyj. This essay is an attempt to apprehend some of the phenomenal mind of pulp writer Robert Howard by comparing his letters to a fictionalized autobiography he wrote between 1923 and 1926.

  
The Right Hand of Doom

October 2006:
“Mr. Boy: Hellboy & The Struggle to Adulthood”, a study of father-son issues in the Hellboy graphic novels, appeared in Benjamin Szumskyj's Right Hand of Doom: A Critical Study of Michael Mignola's Hellboy. The limited edition of 333 has sold out.

 
Cthulhu Express September, 2006:
“The Patriot” appeared in Rage Machine Books' Cthulhu Express anthology (225 pages, ISBN: 1-8970-8417-X). After selling eleven copies, this book has gone out of print.

 
Arkham Tales, edited by William Jones August, 2006:
“Arkham Rain” appears in the Arkham Tales anthology (ISBN 1-56882-185-9), published by Chaosium. The story received an honorable mention in the Year's Best Fantasy & Horror 2007.

Matthew Carpenter writes in his said in his Amazon review:
“Mr. Goodrich is active on the mythos scene but I don't recall seeing his work before. I'll have to remedy that! ‘Arkham Rain’ was a terrific story about the Innsmouth taint visiting an unwitting family. An old mythos trope? You bet! But this was a wonderfully original take.”

Another review from Nancy Oakes on Goodreads.com:
“Arkham Rain*, by John Goodrich: Very well done story in which the protagonist discovers some unsettling news which takes him to Innsmouth. I really enjoyed this one -- a new take on the Innsmouth legends.”

  
The Keeper's Companion 2 2002: The Keeper's Companion 2 (ISBN 1-56882-186-7) is a collection of articles on Prohibition, Firearms, Tomes & Creatures for the Call of Cthulhu game. I edited "The History Behind Prohibition", a lengthy article by Adam Gauntlett bringing anti-alcohol advocates, law enforcement, gangsters, rum-runners, and consumers into focus. This article fills more than a quarter of the book's 168 pages.  
The Unspeakable Oath 16 March 2001:
“That Horrid Book!” in The Unspeakable Oath's double 16/17 issue. It details many ways for the unholy books of the Cthulhu Mythos to haunt seekers into the unknown without resorting to game mechanics.		 
Ticklebritches and the Cowboy 2000:
I helped to edit Ticklebritches and the Cowboy (ISBN 0-9700464-0-5), a collection of humorous and insightful stories, musings, and poems spanning all decades of the 1900s. Part One (1900-1947) recalls Lois McClurg's early life in the San Joaquin Valley, California foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Through her unique eyes, she vividly describes life as one of ten children being raised by a Catholic mother/teacher and a pack-train guide/father; becoming a teacher; marriage to a cowboy/rancher and bearing children during the first half of the 20th century. Part Two (1947-1999) records her life in the Flathead Valley, Montana foothills of the Rocky Mountains near Glacier National Park.

Written over a fifty year span, we share Lois's amazement on life and societal changes from the early, rugged 20th century pioneering days to growing old in the 1990s. Ticklebritches was a nickname given to Lois by her father, because she loved to laugh and found fun in so many things. These recollections reflect that sense of humor that she still had at the age of 91.		 
The Doomtown Epitaph Winter 2000:
“Stranger and Stranger” in Doomtown Epitaph #2 as part of an ongoing series of stories or Alderac Entertainment Group's Doomtown Card Game. I have collected this and many other Doomtown stories, primarily those connected with the eldrichly inbred, degenerately evil Whateley clan in the Whateley Family Bible.		 
Beyond the Mountains of Madness 1999:
Beyond the Mountains of Madness, (ISBN 1-56882-138-7) The Origins award winner for best roleplaying adventure of 1999, included my 12,000 word completion of Edgar Allen Poe's Narrative of A, Gordon Pym, linking it to HP Lovecraft's novella At the Mountains of Madness. In addition, I supplied articles on the history of Antarctic exploration, Antarctic flora and fauna, and created more than fifty characters for both the Starkweather-Moore and Lexington Expeditions.		 
The Unspeakable Oath #13 1995:
"The Gentle Art of Slaughtering Investigators" in The Unspeakable Oath #13.

“As for the unsavory Mister Goodrich, his commentary on how the Keeper should serve as the channel for the uncaring universe is among my favorite pieces that we've published in TUO.” —John Tynes		 
Quanta December 1992:
“Green”, my very first e-publication, appeared in the Quanta, the Electronic Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy. 		 


Irons in the Fire

Tales Out of Miskatonic University, edited by William Jones The joke about graduate students having to take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience is both old and common. Fabien Jungmayer is a graduate student at Miskatonic University, working for a professor who has brought unorthodox ideas back from the Greenland ice. Tales out of Miskatonic University, containing “Dreams of Raw Flesh” is edited by William Jones and includes stories by Charles Gramlich, Lon Prater and Stephen Mark Rainey.  
R'lyeh Rising, edited by William Jones Chaosium's R'Lyeh Rising will include my story “The Thing Under the Microscope.” Dr. David Weinberg is Arkham's new medical examiner. On his first night at work, he encounters a babbling homeless man, the Chalk Fairy, and gets a brief glimpse of Arkham's real face.  
Cthulhu's Dark Cults, edited by David Conyers Being a worker was difficult in the 1920's, even if your boss wasn’t part of an evil cult. “Captains of Industry” has been sold to Chaosium's Cthulhu's Dark Cults, due out in the summer of 2009. The anthology also features stories by Dave Conyers, John Sunseri, William Jones and Cody Goodfellow.  
For most people, there is a gap between what they do, and what they are. Dr. Frances Norbert is a professional monster hunter, and this isn't a problem for him. "Dreams" has been accepted into the SHOGGOTHS! anthology, which is sure to please any fan of blasphemously protoplasmic, yet faintly self-luminous engines of destruction. 

Updated on September 15, 2009