Author Archives: Keith West

Quick Writng Update: Three Out of Four Ain’t Bad

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So for the last eight days, I’ve had four short story deadlines. I made three out of four, including the last about half an hour ago.

The first was for a mystery sf workshop. So were the next two, although the setting had to be the same in both and different from the first. These were for a study along I was doing since I couldn’t attend the in-person session. I’d had some lead time on the first one since it had to be written before the workshop started. The other two I got during the workshop and had only two days on each one to finish. I didn’t  make the second one because I was driviing the day the prompt was given and spent half of the second day dealing with insurance and roofers. By the time I got to it, the day was nearly over, and I was falling asleep over the keyboard.

I also think this story would have ended up too long for the length requirement. I’ll finish it since I like the setup, and I got good feedback on the setting in the first story of this pair.

The fourth story is for a holiday project that will be published at the end of the year. I would love to be published in this project and the anthology that goes with it. We’ll have to see. I got started on it yesterday, and today I scrapped what I’d done. I’ll still go back and finish the story, but the fantasy element, which is one of the things the editor will be looking at, was weak. The story I wrote this afternoon is, I think, a much better fit for the project.

On the 2024 words per day in 2024, I’m about a day behind, alhtough I’ve made a lot of progress catching up today. There have been, and will continue to be, some days when I won’t be able to get much writing done due to having to be on the road. Some of those days I won’t get much notice on since they are job-related, and the nature of the travel is such that it happens when it happens.

Now, back to the keyboard.

Abraham Merritt, First of Three

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Abraham Merritt (1884-1943) was born today, January 20. His birthday is the first  of three giants of the fantasy field who birthdays fall every other day. The next two are Robert E. Howard and C. L. Moore. Posts on their birthdays to follow over the next couple of days.

There’s been something of a theme running through this year’s posts, and that is authors who have either never really received the recognition they deserve and are still writing, or they were once major figures who have been forgotten or nearly so. Continue reading →

Coming to Poe by Way of Bradbury

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Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) was born on this date, January 19. He was one of the greatest writers of the strange and macabre. Depending on how you split hairs when defining your terms, he has been credited with creating the detective story and science fiction. And while some might say that’s a stretch, there’s no denying that he was an early practitioner of those genres as well as a writer of some truly gothic tales. H. P. Lovecraft, himself no slouch in the weird fiction department, was greatly influenced by him.

I don’t recall when I first became aware of Poe. I have vague memories of someone talking about “The Pit and the Pendulum” when I was very young, like about five or so.

I was certainly aware of him and his work when I first read The Martian Chronicles. This would have been in fifth grade, I believe. You might be wondering what The Martian Chronicles has to do with Poe. So let me explain. Continue reading →

Remembering Howard Waldrop

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Howard Waldrop reading at Armadillocon 2016

It is with great sadness that I write these words. Locus Online is reporting that Howard Waldrop died today, January 15, 2024. The ISFDB has his date of death listed as the 14th. Either way, a legend has passed. Howard was one of my favorite people in science fiction and fantasy. He had a unique voice, both in writing and in speaking, and he will be sorely missed.

Howard Waldrop was born in Houston, Mississippi on September 15, 1946. He lived most of his life in Texas, although he did live int he Pacific Northwest for a few years before returning to Austin. He was an avid fisherman, and that showed in a few of his stoires. Continue reading →

RIP, Tom Purdom

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Tom Purdom (1936-2024) has died. He passed away on January 14.

Purdom began writing science fiction in the late 1950s. He took a break from writing in the early 1970s and then returned in the 1990s. His most recent publication was “Exit Contract” in the May 2023 issue of Asimov’s.

Purdom’s name was one of the ones suggested when I asked what writers needed more exposure. I’ve always enjoyed his short fiction, and I intend to read some of it over the next few months. I’ll report on it here.

Kenneth Bulmer (AKA Alan Burt Akers)

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Kenneth Bulmer (1921-2005) was born on this day, January 14. A prolific science fiction adventure author, you probably know him better as Alan Burt Akers, author of the long-running Dray Prescott series of sword and planet adventures.

These are basically Burroughs pastiches in which the hero, Dray Prescott, is tranported to a planet orbiting the star Antares in the constellation Scorpio, where he falls in love with a princess, gets separated from her, and tries to return to her. There are fifty-two novels in the series, which is divided up into cycles. Continue reading →

Clark Ashton Smith and the Ballantines

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Today, as I’m writing this, it’s January 13. Or to put it another way, it’s the birthday of Clark Ashton Smith (1893-1961). I’ve been on the road since  I got off work  this morning, and only got home about forty-five minutes ago, which is why I’m posting this so late. Most of you probably won’t see it until tomorrow.

I say all that to say that I’ve not had a chance to read anything by Smith today, so I’m going to do something different. I’m going to take a brief look at the four CAS collections Lin Carter put together for the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. That’s the Ballantine I reference in the title of the post. I’m not going to put “Adult Fantasy” in the title.

As an aside, do you have any idea what comes up if youtype “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” into a search engine? Hint: Don’t try this at work.

Continue reading →

Jack London

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Today, January 12, is Jack London’s birthday. London (1876-1916) was one of Robert E. Howard’s favorite authors.

I confess, I haven’t read much London. I’m slightly familiar with White Fang and The Call of the Wild because they are so well known.

Of course, decades years ago, I read “To Build a Fire” in one of my high school English classes. I don’t recall which one, nor do I remember much about the story. From what I’ve seen, it’s the obligatory Jack London story to include in high school literature books.

I have read a couple of other Londond stories.

“A Relic of the Pliocene” concerns an encounter with a mammoth. It’s a good adventure story. It’s been quite a while since I read it. I’ll have to give it a reread.

The other story, which I read as a kid and have reread at least once, is “Moon Face”. The details of this one have stuck with me better, maybe because I read it while I was young and the story imprinted itself on my  memory.

One man hates another man. The hated man loves to fish using dynamite. So the man who hates him gets a dog, trains the dog to fetch sticks, then gives the dog to the man he hates. You can probably figure out the rest.

London isn’t a writer you hear a lot about these days. I think that’s a shame, but then I can say the same about a number of writers who have passed from the scene.

I can certainly see how Jack London’s works would have resonated with Robert E. Howard. London’s themes, as I understand them, deal  with man’s survival in a wilderness environment. I have been wantiing to read London, more than the little I have.

So, those of you out there who have read London, what do you reccommend? Where should I start? I’m open to suggestions of short stories or novels.

 

Jerome Bixby

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Jerome Bixby was born on January 11, 1923. He passed away on April 28, 1998.

Bixby was a short story writer who did most of his work in the 1950s and 1960s. He is best remembered for his short story “It’s a Good Life”, which was filmed as an episode on the original Twilight Zone and starred Billy Mumy.

If Bixby wrote any novels, the ISFDB doesn’t list them.

Four collections of Bixby’s work were published, two in his lifetime, one in 2011, and the final one in 2014. A number of his stories haven’t been collected.

Bixby went on to become a screenwriter and wrote four episodes of the original Star Trek: “Mirror, Mirror”, “The Day of the Dove”,  “Requim for Methusaleh”, and “By Any Other Name”. He also wrote westerns.

In addition to being a writer, Bixby also edited a few pulps before they died. He was editor of Planet Stories (1950=1951)  and Jungle Stories (1949-1951).