Dark Screams 6
Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar, ed.
Hydra
ebook $3.99
The Dark Screams series of ebook anthologies is back, and that’s something to scream about, joyfully of course.
This one has half a dozen selections, unlike its predecessors, which had only five.
Here’s what you get: Continue reading
The shortlist for the David Gemmell Awards for Fantasy have been announced and voting is open. Voters have until midnight (GMT) on Friday 2nd June to vote at the website listed above.
The finalists are:
RAVENHEART AWARD (Best cover art)
Alessandro Baldaserroni for Black Rift by Josh Reynolds (Black Library)
Jason Chan for Wheel of Osheim by Mark Lawrence (Harper Voyager)
Sam Green for The Bands of Mourning by Brandon Sanderson (Gollancz)
Kerby Rosannes for Nevernight by Jay Kristoff (Harper Voyager)
Paul Young for Wrath by John Gwynne (Tor)
MORNINGSTAR AWARD (Best debut)
Mark de Jager, Infernal (Del Rey UK)
Christopher Husberg, Duskfall (Titan)
Megan E O’Keefe, Steal The Sky (Angry Robot)
Adrian Selby, Snakewood (Orbit)
Jon Skovron, Hope and Red (Orbit)
LEGEND AWARD (Best novel)
John Gwynne, Wrath (Tor)
Jay Kristoff, Nevernight (Harper Voyager)
Mark Lawrence, The Wheel of Osheim (Harper Voyager)
Brandon Sanderson,The Bands of Mourning (Gollancz)
Gav Thorpe, Warbeast (Black Library)
There’s a Kickstarter launching soon for a new publication entitled StoryHack Action and Adventure. It’s just what the name implies. Action and adventure stories from multiple genres, all with a pulp sensibility. Bryce A. Beattie is the editor/publisher. He has put together an Issue 0 prior to the Kickstarter launching.
Here is the lineup, in alphabetical order, by first name:
You might recognize some of those names. *waves at David* Yes, that’s me, the fifth one down. I’m thrilled to be included in this anthology and am looking forward to reading the rest of the stories. You can be sure I’ll let you know more as launch date for the Kickstarter becomes available.
…because I suspect it might be an improvement.
Things have been pretty hit or miss here at the blog lately. I managed in the last week to get birthday posts up for Stanley G. Weinbaum, Robert Bloch, and Henry Kuttner, along with a post on a collaboration between Bloch and Kuttner. Looking back, I’m not sure how I did it.
Things at work have gotten pretty hairy. My title is Undergraduate Teaching Lab Director, which means I’m in charge of the graduate teaching assistants, come up with lab homework, handle student issues, and such. My regular job assignment includes teaching one course. I’m also teaching an additional course as an overload (for which I’m compensated.)
We’ve had a person who sets up and takes down the equipment each week, maintains it, and orders more when we need to buy things. This is a full time position. That person recently retired. Being a state university, we’re subject to the governor’s hiring freeze that was issued earlier this year. What that means is that I’m picking up most of the slack. There are a few folks who are helping out, which I greatly appreciate, but for the bulk of the work is on me.
I don’t really mind helping out in the short term. The hiring freeze extends through August, so I’ve got these responsibilities over the summer. I’ve been told to expect this to be part of my job going into the fall. My attitude on that isn’t so positive, but I’ll deal with that at the proper time.
The result is that I’ve fallen behind on blogging commitments. I promised a review of the latest HFQ and a survey of the works of Nictzin Dyalhis (this is for a paying market). Those were promised for Spring Break. That was three weeks ago for those of you who are keeping score. I also haven’t forgotten to finish the series on Kuttner’s Baldy stories. I just haven’t gotten to them yet. I also need to write reviews of a mystery novel and A. Merritt’s Dwellers in the Mirage.
I’ve managed to get a little fiction writing done. Not much, but a little. Hitting a routine before summer classes start might be a bit of a trick because we’ve got four and a half weeks before finals, and each of those weeks has its own unique schedule differences. I’m not dead yet, although at the end of a few days lately I’ve felt like it. Most days I’m too tired to write much of anything. I’m going to try to get some more stories into slush piles. I was going to try and put together a collection of short stories (horror and dark fantasy), but I’ve still got two to finish and a third to start. I may try to hit slush piles with some of them instead.
One of the consequences of these extra opportunities responsibilities is a need to manage my time better. I’ve started cutting back on Twitter and social media. That will continue. I’ll be keeping a lower profile, trying to honor my blogging/reviewing commitments, and maintain some level or fiction productivity. Things may be feast or famine for a bit, but that’s better than nothing.
“The Grab Bag”
Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner
Originally appeared in Weird Tales, Spring 1991
Robert Bloch and Henry Kuttner were friends, and they collaborated on a handful of stories before Kuttner’s death. Since the two previous posts dealt with their birthdays, I thought I would talk about one of those collaborations as sort of a birthday bonus.
I know nothing about the provenance of “The Grab Bag”. Bloch is attributed as the first author. I speculate on the authorship at the end of this post. For now is a synopsis. I’m going to avoid spoilers since this is a horror story, and I don’t want to give away the ending. Continue reading
“When the Bough Breaks”
as by Lewis Padgett
originally published in Astounding Science Fiction November 1944
Henry Kuttner was born on April 7, 1915. Anyone who has read much of this blog knows that Kuttner is probably my favorite author, at least on days ending in “y”. After his marriage to C. L. Moore, everything he and Moore wrote was a collaboration to one degree or another.
Both authors were masters of fantasy, science fiction, and and everything in between, including horror. Much of their best work was published in Astounding in the mid-1940s. Almost all of these stories have been collected in at least one of Kuttner’s collections, either in his lifetime or in the years since. There are a few that haven’t, which I’ll address at another time. Continue reading
Robert Bloch was born on April 5, 1917 in Chicago. Today marks the centennial of his birth. He died of cancer in 1994.
Bloch wrote in multiple genres, including horror, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery, often more than one in a single story. Bloch sold much of his early work to Weird Tales and contributed to the Mythos. He also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood. His best known novel, Psycho, was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock into the classic film of the same name.
Sadly, this one novel has at time overshadowed his short fiction. To my mind, that was the area in which he excelled. Bloch was one of the best, often mixing humor with horror, and he should be remembered. Sadly, like many authors who have passed on, he is in danger of being forgotten by the younger generations. In spite of that, he still casts a long shadow over the field of fantastic fiction today.
I intend to honor his memory by reading something of his.
Stanley G. Weinbaum was born on this date, April 4, in the year 1902. He had a brief career as a science fiction writer in the mid-1930s before dying of lung cancer. While he is to a large degree forgotten today, he still casts a long shadow over the field.
His first story was “A Martian Odyssey”, in which he introduced aliens that were truly alien and not simply bug eyed monsters. We’ll take a look at that story in more depth at a later date.
For now, suffice to say that the impact of that tale was significant. Weinbaum followed it up with a sequel and then went on to write about a solar system populated with interesting and unique aliens. Weinbaum had a unique voice. I think in part that was because the tropes of the field hadn’t solidified, some would say ossified, into the more rigid standards they are now. Continue reading