Ambler's Inspiration

"Ambler's Inspiration" is a Cthulhu Mythos-connected short story by Brian Lumley that first appeared in his collection The Caller of The Black (Arkham House, 1971). It mentions Oakdeene Sanitarium, which appears repeatedly in Lumley's Mythos tales, and compares its central character, a writer of weird fiction, to H. P. Lovecraft.
== Synopsis ==
A horror writer visits a fellow author and finds that the question "Where do you get your ideas?" has a horrific answer....
== Characters ==
* Mr. James: The story's narrator, a horror fiction writer and member of the London Mystery Writers Society. Author of Four Faces of Fear and Bentley’s Barrier.
* Biron Ambler: A horror writer who caused a sensation with stories like In the Yellow Moss, The Burning Man, and Edges of Mist. At the time of his death he was working on a story called The Darker Dark; when he died, the magazine Grotesque published a special memorial issue. He called himself a “haunter of the dark”; his father, whom he lived with on the outskirts of Durham City, said he was the "pasty, listless type and very highly strung." Physically, he "was a small man...mousey-haired, bespectacled, pale and nervous."
* Professor Ernest Ambler: A scientist engaged in electroencephalography, or the study of brain-waves; his research involved preserving animal brains in vats of soup-like "feeder-fluid." He was "a small, bald-headed man," physically the "very duplicate of the 'mad scientist'” with his "white smock...thick-lensed spectacles and...ruby-red lips."
* William Barnstable: the "one-time Governor of Oakdeene Sanatorium," and "a very good friend of Professor Ambler’s." He once aided the professor's experiments by sending him the brain of "one of the more violent inmates of Oakdeene."
== Publication History ==
The Caller of The Black, which was reissued in 2019 by Crossroad Press, is the only English-language text that features "Ambler's Inspiration." It was translated into French in 1989 as " L'inspiration d'Ambler."Internet Speculative Fiction Database, "Title: Ambler's Inspiration."
== References ==
Category:Expanded Mythos Works
Category:Brian Lumley works