on writing - advice on short stories of all genres

Skill alone cannot teach or produce a great short story, which
condenses the obsession of the creature; it is a hallucinatory presence
manifest from the first sentence to fascinate the reader, to make him
lose contact with the dull reality that surrounds him, submerging him
in another that is more intense and compelling.

I think it is vanity to want to put into a story anything but the story
itself.

For me the thing that signals a great story is what we might call its
autonomy, the fact that it detaches itself from its author like a soap
bubble blown from a clay pipe.
- Julio Cortázar, Around the Day in Eighty Worlds

The one test of the really weird (story) is simply this--whether or
not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of
contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed
listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of
outside shapes and entities on the known universe's utmost rim.
- H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

By Hengki Koentjoro

on reading - h.p. lovecraft

All attempts at gaining literary polish must begin with judicious reading, and
the learner must never cease to hold this phase uppermost. In many cases, the
usage of good authors will be found a more effective guide than any amount of
precept. A page of Addison or of Irving will teach more of style than a whole
manual of rules, whilst a story of Poe’s will impress upon the mind a more
vivid notion of powerful and correct description and narration than will ten dry
chapters of a bulky textbook.

Let every student read unceasingly the best writers.

- H.P. Lovecraft

By Dean Cornwell

resources - h.p. lovecraft short stories collection

Here you can find a collection of Lovecraft stories... in case you're the
darker kind of storyteller.  Enjoy.

By Mark Draws

the well written - h.p. lovecraft

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest
and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.

-H.P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature