Monthly Archives: January 2018

January Writing Report

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So I set out to be more productive writing this year. That wasn’t a particularly high bar, given that I hardly wrote anything the second half of last year. This year I set some boundaries in place. So far they’ve held, but it’s been dicey  a few times.

Here’s how I did. I managed to write every single day of January. The highest word count was on the first, with 2764 words that day. The lowest was 519. I managed to write a total of 37,152 words, including tonight’s count, for a daily average of 1198.  I’m not sure how sustainable that is.

What did I write? I finished three items that had been mouldering on my hard drive. One novellette and two short stories. I added a little to a fourth.  I also completed two short stories from scratch. This past Sunday, I didn’t compose any fiction, but the review of C. L. Moore’s “There Shall Be Darkness” will become a chapter in a book I’m planning, so I counted it.

Right now I’m working on a novella. I’m not quite sure where some parts of it are going, but trust me, it’s going to be awesome. It’s got lost cities, sorcerer-kings, time travel, cursed princes, talking apes, and it’s sword and sorcery.

I’ve been thinking the last few days about what I can accomplish if I can keep this pace up. I’m not writing at pulp speed yet, but I accomplished more than I thought I would when I started 31 days ago.  I think for the rest of the year, I’m going to concentrate on novels and novellas that I’ll publish myself. I’ll still try to write short stories in between for fun and to submit to selected markets.

I’ve got two short cross-genre novels, one science fiction and one fantasy, and both mystery that are finished and just need to be cleaned up.  Also on the burner are a deep space disaster novel, a hard science-sword and planet blend, a noir novel, a dark fantasy-love story mashup, and a far future science fantasy. All but the noir novel have been started.  There are various other projects on the back burner that might get moved up if Yorricka the Muse decides to be kind.

If I can maintain this pace, even for part of the year, I should be able to get some of those out the door.

An Observation of Lloyd Alexander’s Birthday

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Lloyd Alexander was born on this date, January 30, in 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the author of a number of books, mostly for younger readers.  He is best known for The Prydain Chronicles.  The final volume, The High King, won the Newberry Medal in 1969. The Newberry is given for outstanding works of children’s literature.

I read part of The High King when I was a kid, but I didn’t know at the time that the book was the final book in a series.  We’d just moved to Fort Worth, and I was reading through the Newberry winners at the public library. Since The High King had a Newberry sticker on it, I picked it up. I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on in the book and never finished.

A number of years ago, the SFBC published an omnibus edition of The Prydain Chronicles. I bought a copy, but I never got around to reading it.  Has anyone read it, and if so, what did you think of it?

Update: Fletcher Vredenburgh has posted cover art for three different editions of The Prydain Chronicles. Check it out.

The Love Child of Chandler and Lovecraft

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Casefile Arkham: Nightmare on the Canvas
Writer: Josh Finney; Art: Patrick McEvoy; Editor: Kat Rocha
01PUblishing
Paper $14.99; Ebook $7.99

I’d like to thank Patrick McEvoy and Kat Rocha for the review copy.  If you like Raymond Chandler, or just classic PI stories in general, and are into all things Lovecraft, then this is a graphic novel for you.

The team of Finney, McEvoy, and Rocha have launched a series (yes, it’s a series; more on that later) that lovingly blends the best elements of both.

Set in Lovecraft’s fictional town of Arkham in 1946, the story follows former marine Hank Flynn as he tries to establish his life as a civilian in his home town. He’s working as a private investigator. When he’s hired by a beautiful and wealthy widow to find a missing painter, his life takes a turn for the eldritch. The painter’s name? Richard Pickman. Continue reading →

C. L. Moore Channels Brackett and Howard

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“There Shall Be Darkness”
Miracle in Three Dimensions
Isle Press
Trade Paper, $16.95
Original publication, Astounding, February 1942

I meant to have this review posted a few days ago, but Real Life got in the way. (I am legally prohibited from discussing the situation; its a personnel matter.) I just finished reading the story a little while ago.

It’s definitely a blend of Brackett setting and Howardian themes. James Douglas, AKA Jamie, is the commander of the Earth forces on the planet Venus. There’s some indication this may taken place in the future of the Northwest Smith series. In the first scene, Jamie comes in and asks for segir whiskey, the preferred drink of Northwest Smith. If it is the same future, it’s much later along the timeline.

You can’t blame him for wanting a drink. He’s in a bad situation. He’s just received his orders to evacuate Venus. The Empire of Earth is falling. Barbarians, the less developed races in the solar system in this instance, have conquered Mars and are in the process of invading Earth. There are overtones of ancient Rome in this setup. Jamie’s Venusian lover, Quanna, begs him to take her to Earth. He refuses, so she takes matters into her own hands.

Jamie is dealing with an outlaw chieftain, Vastari, who is the only person who can unite the squabbling Venusian tribes into a single unit. Vastari sees himself as a freedom fighter, a soldier struggling to throw off the yoke of tyranny. He’s also Quanna’s brother. Jamie thinks she’s a loyal lover. Vastari thinks she’s a loyal spy. Quanna is only loyal to herself. Continue reading →

Rereading C. L. Moore

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Catherine Lucille (C. L.) Moore was born today (January 24) in 1911. These days she’s remembered for one of three things. Creator of Northwest Smith. Creator of Jirel of Joiry. Wife and writing partner of Henry Kuttner and coauthor of some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy classics of the 1940s.

All of which are achievements which should be acknowledged. Moore was one of the best stylists of her era and a true trailblazer.  But she also wrote quite a bit of fiction that was her solo work that wasn’t Northwest Smith or Jirel but in many cases was just as good.

Much of this short fiction is collected in Judgment Night or The Best of C. L. Moore. I’m going to be dipping back into those volumes as it’s been years and in some cases decades since I read some of those stories. Outside of a small circle of pulp fans, she’s not that well known, and I aim to change that as much as I can.

But first I’m going to read some C. L. Moore that I’ve not read at all. Ten years ago a collection entitled Miracle in Three Dimensions was published.  I’ll talk further about this book in future posts. The thing about the book that makes it stand out is it contains five stories that have never appeared in one of Moore’s collections (although three of them have been anthologized), one of which has never been published before its appearance in this book if the ISFDB is correct. Continue reading →

Robert E. Howard’s Birthday, 2018

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As far as I know, there aren’t any Howard Anniversaries this year. If there are, they’ve slipped my mind. I usually read something by an author whose birthday I’m posting about. The problem is all the Howard stories I want to read or reread are too long given the time available. I’d still be reading them on C. L. Moore’s birthday (two days after Howard’s).

Instead, I’m going to do something a little different.

Howard was born on January 22, 1906. One hundred twelve years ago. The world has changed a lot since then. Continue reading →

Poe’s Birthday

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Edgar Allan Poe was born on this date (January 19) in 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts.

I doubt anyone reading this blog intentionally, as opposed to stumbling across it, needs an explanation of who he was and the influence he still has. He casts one of the longest shadows over the field of dark literature.

I’ll read something by him in a little while.  I haven’t decided what yet. But I thought I would ask, what’s your favorite story by Edgar Allan Poe? Or poem for that matter?

Cross Genre-ing

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I got into a conversation on Twitter this morning with PC Bushi that grew to include several other individuals. Mr. Bushi initiated things by saying Leigh Brackett’s short story “The Woamn From Altair” demonstrated her range as a writer because it was a well-written story that wasn’t an adventure story.  I agreed. (If you’re interested, my review from a couple of years ago is here.)

Early in the course of the conversation, he linked to a post he had written about Jack Vance and Andre Norton, discussing their versatility as writers.  He says some good stuff, and you should check it out.

The conversation moved onto to all the genres Brackett wrote in.  In addition to space opera and science fiction, she also wrote detective stories (which is what got her the job writing for Howard Hawks on The Big Sleep) and westerns. This discussion got me to thinking… Continue reading →

Clark Ashton Smith at 125

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Clark Ashton Smith was born on January 13 in 1893. He was one of the greatest fantasists of the Weird Tales era on indeed any era. Writing contemporaneously with Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, Smith was considered one of the big three of what many consider to be the golden age of Weird Tales.

Unfortunately, he has not fared as well as those two in the years since he died.  (Smith died in 1961, but he had stopped writing fiction years before.)  He is still revered among fans of weird fiction, but he is not as well known among the general public. This is highly unfortunate.

There are probably several reasons contributing to this relative obscurity compared to his two contemporaries named above.  For one thing, he never had any series characters, such as Howard did, with Conan being the most well known. Much of Lovecraft’s work was set in what has become known as the Cthulhu Mythos, uniting a variety of stories against a common background with common elements.  Smith wrote multiple tales set in a number of story cycles, but for the most part these works shared a setting with no recurring characters and no mythos to link them.

Smith’s style is probably the biggest obstacle a modern reader needs to overcome. He started out as a poet, and with its lush prose, his work reflects that. Smith knew his way around a dictionary and wasn’t afraid to use it. While this might be off-putting and not in line with contemporary trends, I personally find it a good thing. While reading Smith might involve some mental work, and not something to be attempted at bedtime if you’re tired, I have always found reading Smith to be rewarding. Continue reading →

Quick Writing Question

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Serious question.  I’ve been tracking my daily word count for the last week. I’ve keeping a cumulative track in a spreadsheet as well as a daily count on a calendar.  It’s new words, so I just add that day’s count to the total every day.

I’m almost  done with the current WIP. I think the next thing will be a revision and expansion of something I didn’t get right the first time but think I know how to fix.

My question is how do I do word count when I’ll be editing and deleting as well as writing. Some scenes will be modified, cut, expanded, that sort of thing. Is there an easy way to keep track of what you’ve done that day?