June 21, 2026

 Greetings Everyone!

Check out my second  book: Aliens, Robots & Virtual Reality Idols in the Science Fiction of H. P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov and William Gibson.   You can get it in book stores, and on Amazon and other online sites throughout the US and the world.  I hope all of you will pick up a copy!

Carl H. Sederholm, Professor of Interdisciplinary Humanities at Brigham Young University, writes this about my book: 

“[It] offers a welcome commentary on what it means to encounter the Other under the most extreme possibilities.  It also provides an insightful—and sometimes even chilling—analysis of several works by H. P. Lovecraft, Isaac Asimov, and William Gibson to suggest how each author imagines the human, the alien and the universe.  The result is an insightful and interesting read that offers a new perspective on each author while also focusing on what it means to be human in an increasingly strange world.”

Perhaps, you might feel a chill or two run up and down your spine when you read it! 

https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Reality-Science-Fiction-Lovecraft/dp/178904510X

JLS

June 20, 2026

 Greetings Everyone!

Check out my first book: H. P. Lovecraft & the Black Magickal Tradition! You can get it in book stores, and at various online sites throughout the US and the world, including Amazon and Red Wheel /Weiser LLC.  I hope all of you will pick up a copy!

Nick Mamatas, well-known sf writer and author of such classics as Move Under Ground and Love Is the Law, writes this about my book:

“They say truth is stranger than fiction, but is truth stranger than Lovecraftian fiction?  John L. Steadman’s in-depth look at Lovecraft and the occult proves that it is!  A fascinating mix of literary criticism, subaltern history, and occult minutiae, even for non-occultists like myself.”

Is truth stranger than Lovecraftian fiction?  Decide for yourself after you read it!

https://www.amazon.com/Lovecraft-Black-Magickal-Tradition-Influence/dp/157863587X

JLS

June 13, 2026

Greetings Everyone!

I hope that all of you will pick up a copy of my recent book,  Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales!

Lovecraft lost his privileged lifestyle in his teen years, when he and his mother were forced to move out of their  Providence Rhode Island mansion and live instead in rented rooms located just blocks from their former house. 

This was the most traumatic event in Lovecraft’s life and his racial hatred against non-whites intensified, for he could see that he and his mother weren’t as privileged or superior to these so-called inferior races as he had believed.

This event, also, triggered a pattern of loss and failure that characterized Lovecraft’s life from that moment onwards: whenever he faced a crisis, he would freeze up and be unable to act—thus, whatever he was trying to accomplish usually ended up in failure. 

The pattern of loss and failure is evident not only in the various personal crises that Lovecraft found himself having to face in his adult life, but we see this same pattern of behavior reflected in the lives and careers of the fictional protagonists in his major works.

You can read all about Lovecraft’s personal traumas and the psychological problems that plagued him in my book! 

All of these traumas and problems laid the foundation for most of his greatest tales especially “The Rats in the Walls,” The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, “The Shadow Over Innsmouth” and “The Dreams in the Witch-House”.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107690/

JLS  

June 12, 2026

 Greetings Everyone!

My new book, Horror as Racism in H. P. Lovecraft: White Fragility in the Weird Tales, was recently published by Bloomsbury!  I hope that all of you will pick up a copy!

In a previous posting, I have described Lovecraft’s first racist narrative: the miscegenation narrative.  In his later fiction, Lovecraft develops a second racist narrative—the slave master/slave narrative, which is drawn from Lovecraft’s knowledge of the Atlantic slave trade in colonial times. 

Lovecraft  uses this narrative to  promote the practice of slavery.  He holds up the alien astronaut civilizations, the Mi-Go, the Elder Things and the Great Race, all of whom enslaved weaker races, as ideal civilizations — the highest, most advanced civilizations in the cosmos, in fact.  Since these civilizations kept slaves, or so the argument goes, the Anglo Saxon race should feel no compunctions about doing likewise.  

Check out my book for analysis of how Lovecraft uses his slave master/slave narrative in his great, science fiction masterpieces: “The Whisperer in Darkness,” “The Shadow Out of Time,” and  At the Mountains of Madness!

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/horror-as-racism-in-h-p-lovecraft-9798765107706/

JLS