With Cath Laura’s new romantic cosmic horror novel Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the good people at Aconynte Books are kicking off a new series, one connected to Chaosium’s table-top role-playing game Call Of Cthulhu.
In the following email interview, Lauria discusses what inspired and influenced this story, as well as how it connects to the game.
For people who’ve never played the game, what is Call Of Cthulhu?
Call Of Cthulhu is a role-playing game based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s got settings in a lot of different time periods, and players get to be investigators looking into eldritch mysteries and fighting against, well, those same mysteries, but probably with more teeth.
And just to be clear, even though they’re both inspired by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, the games Call Of Cthulhu and Arkham Horror are not connected, right?
They’re not connected anymore, though I believe that originally Arkham Horror was intended as a spin-off of Call Of Cthulhu. It was the board game version at first, if I remember right. But then it went out of print, got revisited a decade later, and morphed into its own thing.
So then what is Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices about and when and where is it set both in relation to reality and the game?
Secrets & Sacrifices is set in one of Chaosium’s new time periods for playing: the Regency era. When I first heard they’d decided to do that I thought it would be a fantastic blend, because so much of the literature from the Regency era points at very controlled manners, a penchant for hiding things, and a sense of societal rigidity that would be fun to shake up with some terrifying eldritch beings.
My story is set not long after the events in the Regency Cthulhu sourcebook, in the same town and using many of the same locations and minor characters.
Where did you get the idea for Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices?
I feel like I got so lucky with this. The editor knew I write romance, and pitched this to me as “Pride And Prejudice meets Call Of Cthulhu,” which basically meant I had to write it. I’ve read a lot of Regency-era books — not all romance, but I’ll be honest, most of them were — and it’s such an interesting time period with the war with France going on in the background. I was asked to keep the scope of the novel close to the sourcebook to make it more accessible for players, and so I plotted out a tale of mystery and murder within the town and made it happen. It was ridiculously fun for me.
As with all things Lovecraft, Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices sounds like it’s a cosmic horror story. But what you just said, plus the way the cover looks, makes me think it’s a historical romance novel. How do you describe Sacrifices, genre-wise?
I really tried to strike a balance between romance, horror, and adventure with this book. It explores characters delving into the darkness inherent in beings that they can’t truly understand or control, and it’s got plenty of the adventure inherent in a woman coming to town to investigate the murder of her father, but the heart that carried the book along is the romance.
That said, it’s a Regency romance, so there’s nothing spicy about it. No need to cover any eyes.
So, aside from the game, and Lovecraft’s writings, what other things — literary and not — do you think had the biggest influence on Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices?
Well, the name is literally a play on some of Jane Austen’s better-known works, so I’d be lying if I said a lot of the tone wasn’t directly influenced by books like Pride And Prejudice or, my personal favorite, Persuasion. I’m also a huge fan of the Horatio Hornblower series, so there are nods to that as well. If I get to do a sequel, look for a lot more of that.
Now, Secrets & Sacrifices is the first in a series of novels based on Call Of Cthulhu. The second, Jonathan L. Howard’s Call Of Cthulhu: Shadow On The Glass, will be out July 2nd. Are there any other connections between your novels? Or is it like how your novel Zombicide: Invader: Terror World was, as you put it in the interview we did about World, “adjacent” to Tim Waggoner’s Zombicide: Invader: Planet Havoc, and only connected by the game?
I wish these books were a bit more entwined with each other, honestly, but Shadow On The Glass is a different era, so the author and I didn’t get to collude and put Easter eggs into each other’s books or anything. Which is a shame. Maybe next time.
Hollywood has made some Lovecraft stories into movies, and they love making romantic movies. Do you think Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices could work as a movie?
I think it would be a fun movie, and Hollywood has done a decent job with Austen’s work too, which is probably how they’d structure a book like this.
But personally, I think it would be even better as a miniseries. Something longer would really give the director a chance to draw out the mystery and the horror of it, and I love a good prolonged romance, too. Pining, pining for everyone.
And if someone wanted to make that miniseries, who would you want them to cast as Cassie, her fiancé, and the other main characters?
I will be honest here: I’m terrible at fancasting. Seriously, I let my beta readers fancast my own books because I’m just crap at keeping up with who’s who when it comes to acting. I’m just more of a reader. I almost never watch movies or shows, and with a kiddo around I’m more likely to be tuned in to Bluey than watching something for adults.
That said, I know it’s cliché at this point, but Jenna Ortega [Wednesday] is a pro at handling spooky.
So, is there anything else you think people need to know about Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices?
The book is so fun if you play the game, because you’ll be able to pinpoint the spots where lore seeps in and see characters you recognize from the campaigns in the sourcebook on the page. It’s also just, I think, a really satisfying romance. Like, happily ever after and everything. So romance readers, no, I will not do you dirty and kill off one of the leads, I would never, you can be satisfied that they both survive. It’s just everyone else’s survival you can’t take for granted.
Finally, if someone enjoys Call Of Cthulhu: Secrets & Sacrifices, what Lovecraft-influenced novel would you suggest they check out next?
Please check out Shadows On The Glass. I’m really excited about that one. It’s Gaslamp era, so expect to feel like you’ve been plunged into the world of Sherlock Holmes.
Also, Bretty J. Talley’s That Which Should Not Be will give you a very classic Lovecraftian feel, too.
