Author Archives: Keith West

The Women Other Women Don’t See

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Trigger Warning:  Humor, Snark, Truth, Thoughts That Might Be Different Than Yours.

In case you’re wondering, yes, the title of this post is a riff on the James Tiptree, Jr., story “The Women Men Don’t See”.  And yes, there is a book review buried in here.  I’ll provide the pertinent information about the book later.  First, though, some context.group of men

I’ve heard for years that there were virtually no women writers in science fiction and fantasy before [insert date du jour here] because they were discriminated against by all the men in the field and had to use masculine pseudonyms or initials if they wanted to write sf/f.  The actual date when this began to change is something of a moving target and depends loosely on the age of the person making the statement.

This belief is pretty widely held in the field, to the point that it’s almost holy writ.  And while men have spread this myth, women tend to be the loudest in voicing it. Continue reading →

Memorial Day Weekend

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I hope everyone has a happy Memorial Day weekend.  Be safe if you’re traveling.   For those of you who don’t live in the US, this is the official start of summer, at least in Texas.  I don’t know about states in the northern part of the country.  The public schools still have a week to go, but it’s mostly final exams and graduations.

Summer classes for me will start on June 1.  I’m not teaching the first summer term, but I will the second.  I’ll still be making sure the labs run smoothly no matter what.

I’m hoping to get caught up on a few titles I’ve started and never finished.  I’m hoping I can get more reading done than I have been lately.  I’m also hoping to get back on track writing fiction on a regular basis.  I’ve got one story I need to finish by the end of the week.

I’ve mentioned a few times that I’ve got a major post I’ve been working on.  I managed to finish it today.  It will go live Tuesday with a followup on Wednesday.  After that, I’ll review the latest issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.

That’s about all I’ve got for an update.  For those of you who are celebrating, have a safe and happy Memorial Day.

Finally I would like to thank all members of the military for their service.

“Arimetta” by Manley Wade Wellman

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kadath_1981071_v1_n4“Arimetta” was originally published in Kadath #4 in July of 1981, something that isn’t listed in the ISFDB.  It was reprinted once in Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances, The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Volume 4 (Night Shade, 2003).  The latter is where I read it.  It’s the type of story set in the mountains that Wellman became known for.

This is a fairly short tale, one that’s loosely connected to the John the Balladeer stories.  Earl Wood is wandering the mountains and ends up literally singing for his supper in the cabin Big Don Imbry shares with his wife and daughter.  John taught Earl how to play the guitar, which makes him immediately welcome.

One of the songs Earl plays is “Wildwood Flower”, which he learned in Arkansas.  The song is an actual folksong, not a fictional one.   (Here’s Johnny Cash singing it.)  Welllman changes the name of one of the flowers mentioned from “aronauts” to “arimetta”.  That line has been changed in all the recordings I can find of it online to “the pale and the leader and eyes look like blue”.

“Arimetta”, from what I’ve been able to determine from my Google-Fu, is a woman’s name from that region of the country that’s no longer common and doesn’t appear to ever have been. Continue reading →

“The Golgotha Dancers” by Manly Wade Wellman

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Golgotha Dancers“The Golgotha Dancers”
Manly Wade Wellman
ebook $0.99

This story was originally published in the October 1937 issue of Weird Tales.  It’s now available as a short story in electronic format.

This is an early Wellman, so it doesn’t have the strong sense of place as his later work set in the Southern mountains, such as the John the Balladeer stories.  Still, it’s a solid piece of fiction in its own right, even if it isn’t Wellman’s best work.

Just so you know, below the CONTINUE READING line, there will be spoilers. Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Manly Wade Wellman

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Manly Wade WellmanManly Wade Wellman was born on this day in 1903.  He’s best known for his stories of John the Balladeer, a minstrel who wandered the southern mountains with his silver stringed guitar.  Other series characters include the occult detective John Thunstone and Hok,

I don’t recall when I first became aware of Wellman, but it had to be in junior high or early high school.  Quite possibly a John The Balladeer story in an anthology.  We moved in the middle of my sophomore year, and the small town we moved to had a little second hand book shop.  Among the treasures I found there (Green Lantern #1) was an almost complete run of F&SF from the mid 70s to the early 80s.  Of course I bought them all.

These issues had a number of short stories by Wellman, many of them stand-alones.  I devoured them over that summer between my sophomore and junior years.  Wellman’s incorporation of Southern and mountain folklore was unlike anything I’d read.  I’ve kept my eye out for his work ever since.   Later, when Nightshade published its five volume collection of Wellman’s work, I bought those.

So tonight, after everyone goes to bed, I’ll raise a glass in Wellman’s memory and read some of his work.

Dark Screams 3: The Screaming Continues

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Dark Screams 3Dark Screams 3
Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar, ed.
Hydra
ebook only, $2.99

The screaming in this case being more screams of enthusiasm. It’s starting to look like editors Freeman and Chizmar have a solid anthology series on their hands. I’d like to thank Mr. Freeman for putting me on the list to receive review copies.

Dark Screams Volume 3 hit digital shelves a week ago, but with final exams to grade and other end of the semester tasks, I only finished it this evening. It’s another solid installment in this series. Here’s what you get. Continue reading →

Cover Reveal for James A. Moore’s City of Wonders

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So here it is.  The cover for the forthcoming third volume in James A. Moore’s epic fantasy series that began with Seven Forges.  The artist is Alejandro Colucci, who did the first two covers.  Mr. Colucci was nominated for a Gemmell Award for his cover of The Blasted Lands.  Well deserved, I say.  I also think he’s outdone himself with this one.

CityOfWonders-300dpi

I’d like to thank Penny Reeve of Angry Robot Books for providing me a copy of the cover and inviting me to participate in the cover reveal.   I’d also like to thank her for providing 5 copies of the first two books (that’s 5 copies of both Seven Forges and The Blasted Lands) as a giveaway.  To get in on the goodness of this series, email me at the email address at the top of the page (keith [at] adventuresfantastic [dot] com) and tell me which book you want, Seven Forges or The Blasted Lands, and why.  (Sorry, only one title per person.)  I’ll forward the email to Angry Robot, and they’ll contact you about where to send the book.  That will be faster than Angry Robot sending me the books to mail to you.  This is, of course, first come, first served.

Here’s the cover copy:

Old Canhoon, the City of Wonders, is having a population explosion as refugees from Tyrne and Roathes alike try to escape the Sa’ba Taalor. All along the border between the Blasted Lands and the Fellein Empire armies clash and the most powerful empire in the world is pushed back toward the old Capital. From the far east the Pilgrim gathers an army of the faithful, heading for Old Canhoon.

In Old Canhoon itself the imperial family struggles against enemies old and new as the spies of their enemies begin removing threats to the gods of the Seven Forges and prepare the way for the invading armies of the Seven Kings. In the distant Taalor valley Andover Lashk continues his quest and must make a final decision, while at the Mounds, something inhuman is awakened and set free.

War is Here. Blood will flow and bodies will burn.

City of Wonders goes on sale in November.  Remember in yesterday’s post how I said I hated waiting.  That’s especially true here.

Hello? Is Anybody Still Out There?

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*peers out into the darkness*

Hello?

Did they all go home?

Look, I realize it’s been two and a half weeks since I last posted something.  I apologize for that.  I’m not usually this quiet.  I have been working on a couple of things, but they’re not quite ready to go yet.  It’s a long post, part rant and part review followed by a related review.  I need to reread some stuff, which will have to wait until after finals.

I’ve got one more to give.  (I gave one tonight; yes, some administrator who doesn’t have to be there scheduled exams for Saturday.)  Grades for graduating seniors have to be in by noon Wednesday.  It’s more of a headache to do those separately, so I’ll should be done with the semester (except for dealing with unhappy students) about then.

20150509_213907If I weren’t dealing with the worst sinus infection I’ve had in a long time, I would have had at least one post up in the last few days.  I hope to get it done tomorrow.  Then blogging, fiction writing, and reading should pick up quite a bit.  Especially since my son won’t be going to anymore out of town dive meets on weekends since that’s all over for the year, which means I won’t be spending so much time in a car.

Oh, and one other thing.  This little item you see on the right arrived in the mail today.  I’m looking forward to diving right in.  This looks like it’s going to be one of the top fantasy anthologies of the year.

Gemmell vs. Gernsback, Round II

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Once again, it’s that time of the year.  Award season.

And there’s one award that stands out above all the others.

It’s voted on by the fans.  And not just fans in the US, either.  Fans from all over the world can vote on it, making it an international award.

All fans are welcome.

The award comes with a gorgeous trophy.

It seeks to recognize the best writing and artistry in the field. Continue reading →

An Evening with Peter S. Beagle and The Last Unicorn

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20150415_185732If you’ve not read any of the works of Peter S. Beagle, what are you doing wasting your time reading this?  Go get some.  Trust me, you’ll be glad you did.

If you have, then you’ll understand what a pleasure it was to visit with him and watch a screening of The Last Unicorn a couple of nights ago.  That’s him in front of the screen taking questions from the audience.  The Last Unicorn is the novel that made his reputation, but he’s written other works, especially short fiction in the last 20 years, that are all fantastic.

The Last Unicorn was published by Ballantine Books in 1968.  It wasn’t part of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, but it’s generally considered a precursor of the series, and later editions have the unicorn head colophon. Continue reading →