Mythos!
11 months ago
– Sat, May 17, 2025 at 09:24:46 AM
This update is a little late in coming - the day job needed some attention.
We hit the Mythos stretch goal!!! Thanks to everyone who has backed the Kickstarter so far. I'm so excited to have the chance not only to make Crowley, but also to re-visit the adventures of Lairre and Parker once again.
I'm putting together some Mythos add-ons right now, and we're finalising designs for the T-shirts, which should also be up on the Kickstarter site in the next few days.
I've said it elsewhere, but it's worth repeating here for anyone who hasn't had the chance to pledge yet - neither Crowley nor Mythos will be available for free anywhere. The minimum pledge of £17 will get you exclusive RSS access (ie you can listen via your podcast app) to both Crowley and Mythos. Beyond that, there are higher-quality downloads and CDs etc, but that minimum pledge allows you to listen to the shows for as long as they are around. And that is the least we will charge for access - Kickstarter backers will get access to these shows cheaper than anyone else but that offer ends when the campaign finishes in 13 days. So if you're still on the fence about whether or not to pledge, please bear that in mind.
Our next stretch goal gets us to THE DEPARTMENT...
A feature-length "movie for your ears", featuring a new Department of Works adventure. Characters you know and love will return and there will be some new faces.
"The Department" is a longform, self-contained audio story about the people at the Department of Works who have to clean up the messes left by the likes of Lairre and Parker. But what if, during the course of fixing what was broken and covering up all that has happened, they discover something far deeper and more sinister going on in the shadows?
THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR and THE PARALLAX VIEW collide with SLOW HORSES in a story rich with mystery, cosmic horror, vengeful folklore and a seemingly insurmountable problem connecting to the printer.
Keep an eye out for the Mythos add-ons and T-shirts, and once again, thanks so much for all your support.
Julian
New Mythos Ad-Ons and Rewards...
11 months ago
– Mon, May 05, 2025 at 04:44:56 AM
With 26 days to go, we need to talk about Mythos...
The first Mythos adventure was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in April, 2017. A year earlier, my radio play "Fugue State" had introduced the character of Johnson (Tim McInnerny) and made reference to a "Department" that he headed up that investigated unusual, esoteric events. The particular event under investigation in "Fugue State" was a mysterious radio signal coming from an English village called Pleasant Green... The story was kind of a meta exploration of the idea of time and the nature of reality and blah blah blah. "Fugue State" got a lot of attention and a few awards, so the BBC asked me what I wanted to do next...
"Mythos" was officially conceived as a standalone radio play, but I always hoped to turn it into a series. The first episode introduced Mary Lairre (Nicola Walker) the ghost of a dead nun, given physical form by a complicated series of Enochian wards. Mary is an agent at the Department of Works, a shadowy government organisation whose job it is to prevent "Albion Events"; fragments of England's past that are awaking and attempting to attack the present.
The tone of Mythos was new; I was trying to imagine Douglas Adams writing folk horror (although this was never going to be as good as it would be if Adams had written it).
The first episode partnered Mary Lairre with a podcaster called Hicks (Jonathan Bailey). But when the BBC asked for two more episodes, I couldn't figure a way for Hicks's skillset to continue to contribute. And so I killed Hicks off at the start of "Mythos: Glamis" (he went on to become Matthew Heawood in the Lovecraft Investigations) and introduced a chaos witch called Parker (Phoebe Fox).
"Mythos: Glamis" dealt with the hidden room in Glamis Castle and the legend of the Beast of Glamis. There was time travel, quantum physics, the mystical land of Avalon, a meta-plot about fictional worlds, and a monster-hunter called Libby Ward (Jana Carpenter).
Parker and Lairre worked brilliantly together and the dynamic established in that adventure gave me the confidence to head into...
"Mythos: Albion". This is the adventure where the show really finds its feet. Parker has gone from channelling an elemental fire personality in "Glamis", to a woo-woo Earth element at the opening of "Albion", where she and Lairre take on Robin Hood and his Merry Men. She then sloughs off the Earth personality for the main storyline and adopts a Secret Agent character, inspired by Modesty Blaise.
By the time Parker appears again in the second season of the Lovecraft Investigations, she has ditched the secret agent thing, and has become a little more conspiratorial and mysterious. But the Modesty Blaise element resurfaces again in the character of Clara Page, also played by Phoebe, in the Aldrich Kemp stories.
For her part, Mary Lairre may or may not have become/possessed Eleanor Peck for the duration of The Lovecraft Investigations thus far. Certainly, she is alluded to by Parker at the end of The Shadow Over Innsmouth and then appears to do battle with neo-Nazis at the climax of The Haunter of the Dark.
At the end of "Mythos: Albion", though, having gone back in time to save the day by assassinating Geoffrey of Monmouth, Lairre and Parker are instructed to head to Midwich, which has apparently "gone offline". And that is where we left them...
I had three more adventures storylined and ready to go (and many more ideas beyond that). Alas, the BBC felt that the show had run its course. But now, thanks to the miracle of Kickstarter, we are very close to being able to take that next journey with Lairre and Parker...
New Mythos add-ons and rewards...
We've hit the target for "Lovecraft Investigations: Crowley" and are now heading towards our stretch goal: at £100,000 we will get to make a brand new Mythos episode. Nicola Walker and Phoebe Fox will reprise Lairre and Parker, and the original production team will be back on the project.
To help us get to that £100,000 within the next few days, and to therefore get us on the way to the last stretch goal, some new goodies are going to be added to the Kickstarter at 1PM TODAY:
-
High-Res Digital Downloads of all three Mythos episodes so far (these sound great!)
- A 3-CD box set of the original Mythos Episodes, with a 12-page booklet containing BTS photographs, new artwork and liner notes.
- A limited edition run of that CD box set, signed by me, Nicola Walker and Phoebe Fox.
- The digital "Banishment Box" - similar to the Crowley Beast Box, this will contain:
- The Hi-Res downloads of the three episodes (so don't buy those separately if you're intending to get the box)
- Behind the Scenes photographs and documentation
- A PDF script book of all three scripts, with an introduction and supplemental materials.
- The never-before-seen TV pilot script for Mythos, which reimagines Parker's origins and gives an alternate version of Lairre and Parker's first meeting.
- Exclusive Mythos desktop and phone wallpaper.
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IN ADDITION, should we reach the stretch goal, the box will remain open and will be filled with more photos, videos, recordings, scripts, notes and paraphernalia related to the NEW episode. As with the Beast Box; if we make it and it can be digitised, it's going in the Banishment box.
Some MYTHOS T-Shirts featuring quotes from the show will also be available within the next week or so.
When we hit the £100,000 stretch goal, "Fugue State", "Mythos", "Mythos: Glamis", and "Mythos: Albion" will be added to the private RSS feed that we're setting up for existing pledgers to be able to receive Crowley. These stories have been hard to come by outside of my Soundcloud, but they will now be accessible via your podcast app of choice.
The nature of Kickstarter is such that we can't offer rewards based on hitting a stretch goal - you would be billed for pledges whether we hit it or not (because we've already hit the main target). So Mythos-specific tiers and rewards (including a **physical "Banishment Box" of Mythos merch and swag**) will appear when we pass £100,000, and will help propel us towards a brand-new feature-length Pleasant Green audio adventure at £150,000.
Also, as of today, anyone who pledges, or has already pledged, on the Tillinghast or Cabal tiers will see their Associate/Executive producer privileges (livestream of recording/meet the writers/set visit) EXTENDED to include the new "Mythos" and "The Department", in the event that we hit those stretch goals.
This has been a LONG update. We're nearly done, just one more thing:
An Ecological Pledge
This pledge is mine, not yours. It would be incredibly easy to generate loads of plastic crap as part of these Kickstarter rewards, and to fly said crap all over the world at the expense of the environment that we're all trying to preserve. I'm therefore determined that, where possible, everything we make will be designed, created and packaged in as sustainable a way as possible. Obviously some items, like CDs, cannot be produced without some cost to the environment. But where we can do it, we will, and where we can move manufacture to local areas to avoid unnecessary flights, we will do that too.
And that wraps us up. The new Mythos stuff will appear on the Kickstarter site in just a few minutes. Please share the Kickstarter link far and wide. Let's get to that stretch goal!!
Julian.
We did it!
11 months ago
– Fri, May 02, 2025 at 11:01:06 AM
Sorry, this is a little later in the day than I would have liked, but it's been a little hectic around Pleasant Green Towers today.
We hit our target inside 24 hours and Lovecraft Investigations: Crowley is now happening!!! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH! Now I have a pile of books to get stuck into so we can start the writing process...
Jana, Barney and Nicola are all thrilled that we are going to make this, and we can't wait to get going. (Jana especially, as she is the only person with the academic credentials to get her hands on Crowley's letters and notebooks at the Warburg Institute - Kennedy Fisher is going to be doing her own research!)
The fundraising focus now is the stretch goals. I have an AWESOME idea for a brand new Mythos episode (see here), and I spoke to Nicola Walker and Phoebe Fox earlier who are both super-excited to reprise Lairre and Parker if we can get there.
Everyone who has pledged so far has been amazing, but now we need to get the word out a little wider. Now we need numbers; so anything you can do to spread the word about what we're doing here, on Facebook Groups, on Reddit, on Instagram, and whatever else you kids use, is going to make a world of difference.
As we move through this campaign, I'm going to do my utmost to keep it interesting. Today, three people who pledged on the Cultist tier got a whole bunch of extra free stuff, and the person whose pledge pushed us over the target got a free upgrade to the Tillinghast Tier.
I want to figure out more ways of making this fun and keeping the momentum going so that we can make MYTHOS and THE DEPARTMENT.
As many of you know, this is my first Kickstarter. It has been an amazing experience so far, and I want to do it again and again. But I'm also a noob, so if anyone is experienced, either as a creator or a backer, I want to hear from you - How do we spice things up? What other rewards can we offer? What's missing? What can we do better? What would we get more people flooding in?
If we can make a splash here, and introduce more people into the world of Pleasant Green, then it doesn't need to stop at Crowley, Mythos and The Department. In success, this is how we do the Lovecraft Investigations box set, Lovecraft Investigations Season 5... And 6... And 7... We can do this together.
Anyway, that's enough from my fevered brain. Thank you all, once again. Each and every one of you has been amazing and I am hugely grateful.
I hope you all have a delightful weekend.
Julian
