The monsters have always been here. Sometimes hidden. Sometimes obfuscated by a polite or respectable veneer. Sometimes standing in light of day or shadow of night. But always there. Always seeking to take what is not theirs; to damage the mind, body, or soul.
It used to be that monster hunting was an adult’s responsibility; they were to protect the young, the old, the sick, the infirm—the most vulnerable among us. The most likely to be attacked; to be killed or worse. The adults failed.
Today’s teenagers are fierce and savvy. In this modern era, they speak up and fight for what they believe is right. They have tools at their disposal—knowledge, weapons, experience—like none of the previous generations. They have not yet been chained by familial duty or jaded by exquisite heartbreak. Even if they’ve experienced both, they still have the energy of youth to buoy their step.
In truth, there is no greater zealot than a teenager who believes; who has seen the light or the darkness and knows what goes bump in the night. It is these teenagers who will save or destroy us.
H.P. Lovecraft created a marvelous Mythos. The creator himself was “problematic” at best; racist, bigoted, and misogynistic in reality. Because of this, the Lovecraft universe was rife with such problems in the early days. His lush prose was marred by hateful speech. It turned many readers away.
Lovecraft did do one thing right. He opened his universe to other authors to make of it as they will. It is a decision that gave the world another chance to tell Mythos stories without the same problematic attitude. To use the Old Ones and Elder Gods as metaphor for more earthly problems that many of us face every day.
In A Secret Guide to Fighting Elder Gods, thirteen authors bring the Mythos stories into the new millennium with a youthful perspective. Magic, mayhem, and murder no longer reigns just in dusty books in decrepit libraries. Monsters can be called by more than incomprehensible rituals in candlelit basements. Today, madness is hidden within the internet and lives on the football field. It breeds in the backyard parties and ambushes its victims outside the club. It finds the cracks in the mirror and it does whatever it can to break through—often with complicit adult help.
Teenagers, from every walk of life, use whatever they can to defend our world. Sometimes they win. Sometimes they lose. Sometimes…they give into the temptation of power.
—Jennifer Brozek