Is it coincidence? Is it Fate? Is it my mermaid icon? Is it some nameless, hideous, wholly alien Being from beyond the stars, the mere contemplation of which drives the thinker into the squamous depths of madness?

Is it just that I got lost last summer in Providence, Rhode Island, home of H. P. Lovecraft? Or have the Great Old Ones noticed I play Arkham Horror?

Today we have multiple announcements that suggest the Elder Gods may be coming back, or at least getting more sex than they used to. Maybe it’s all the Viagra in the water.

1. Download a free ebook of all Lovecraft’s original stories. The blog post is fascinating, too. Not actually sex, although the name “Love” “Craft” has a certain resonance.

2. My good friend Molly Mounds at Scary Sextoy Friday features a matching butt-plug and ball-gag set so terrifying that I may never recover my reason. Yes, they’re shaped like offspring of the Elder Gods. Tentacles and all.

3. The estimable Cecilia Tan issued a call for submissions for an anthology titled Whispers in Darkness: Lovecraftian Erotica. I am so tempted by this; it’s a challenge to write something both Lovecraftian and consensually erotic, but I bet the stories that get in will be very hot indeed. (This is Circlet Press, after all. Their publications are always good.)

Mistress Lorelei is not an aficionado of tentacle porn, although she holds its originator in very high regard: Hokusai, the great Japanese artist whose iconic work may be The Great Wave. Certainly The Dream of the Fisherman’s Wife is a fascinating image. But my sexual taste is, shall we say, fairly specialized, and the squid I like in bed with me is the kind that’s a small, stingy, rubbery flogger, ideal for use on nipples and balls.

As for the squid-like butt-plug and ball-gag set, that kink is OK. I’m sure the makers and users don’t grudge me my fish hooks, even if none of them actually want a barbed hook to pierce their glans. A siren has to have her fun, after all.