RIP, Christopher Priest (1943-2024)

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Christophoer Priest passed away from cancer on February 2. While not prolific, he produced several works that received widespread recognition. Of these, the best known was The Prestige. This was a story about Victorian-era stage magic where one of the illusions is more than it seems. It was made into a film starring Christian Bale and Michael Caine. While the film is good, the book is even better. Yes, I know that’s a cliche, but the movie left out an entire plot line that takes place in the present world. The big surprise at the end fo the film wasn’t the big surprise in the book but rather the penultimate surprise. If you have only seen the movie, check out the book.

The other item of note that Priest wrote was something  I referenced in the Dangerous Visions post a few days ago. Priest wrote the book The Book on the Edge of Forever. This is a history of Harlan Ellison and Last Dangerous Visions. It’s fascinating reading. As you can probably imagine, Harlan doesn’t come off looking too well.

I picked up my copy at Aggiecon a number of years ago, when Harlan was GoH. The vendor who sold it to me said, “Don’t let Harlan see it.”

Good advice.

Priest produced a solid, if not extensive, body of work. He should not be forgotten.

Two by Hautala

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Today, February 3, is the birthday of Rick Hautala (1949-2013). I actually had some time today while sitting in the Husband Holding Area while my wife did some shopping, so I read a couple of his stories. Both of these stories can be found in Glimpses: The Best Short Stories of Rick Hautala.

I’ve read some of Hautala’s work before, but that was years ago. It was good to be reminded of why I like his stuff.  Feel free to consider this post to be another in the informal series I’ve been doing of writers whose work shouldn’t be forgotten.

Before I get to the stories, let me say that Glimpses is a great  collection. I’ve only read a little of it, and the stories I chose are in the middle of the book, but if you want to sample Hautala’s work, especially at shorter lengths, then this is a great place to start. Continue reading →

Writing Update, January 2024

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Just a quick update on the 2024 Words per Day in 2024. I hit the target and averaged 2031 words per day in January.

So far, that’s a win for the year. I didn’t write anything yesterday because I was on the road, so I’m starting February behind. I’ll catch up.

Writing included blog posts, an article for REHUPA, which I’ll reprint here in a few weeks, and or course, fiction. I’m working on what started out as a short story but is heading into novella territory. I’ve got some otyher fiction I need to finish, as well.

So that’s  how things stand with the writng at the moment.

Onward to February.

RIP, Brian Lumley (1937-2024)

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I’m starting to see reports that Brian Lumley has died. There’s nothing on the Locus or Blackgate websites yet, but Twitter/X, the ISFDB and other sources are confirming the news.

Lumley has written Lovecraftiain horror in both long and short forms. He was also the author of  the Necroscope series.

I’ve not read much of his work, just a few short stories, although I’ve picked up several of his non-Necrsoscope titles, including Titus Crow. I’ve liked what little I’ve read by him. I just haven’t gotten a lot of his work.

I’ll raise a glass tonight in  his memory and read something of his.

From Dangerous Visions to Safe Spaces

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Let’s take a trip back in time, shall we?

Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, the digests magazines, successors to the pulps, might have had racy covers (although not generally as racy as the pulps), but their content was pretty tame.

Along comes a young man named Harlan Ellison. Ellison was something of a troublemaker. I’m not trying to be disparaging by thay statement. He himself said as much on numverous occasions.

Ellison, along with some other writers, Silverberg comes to mind, felt that there were too many taboos in science fiction. This was before fantasy became the publishing juggernaut it is today. So in 1967, Ellison edited an anthology entitled Dangerous Visions. In it, Ellison published stories that were supposed to break the taboos of the day. Dangerous stories. Visionary stories.

Hence the title. Continue reading →

Neither Beg Nor Yield Up For Sale

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I mentioned the Kickstarter for Neither Beg Nor Yield  a while back. If you missed it, here’s your chance to own a copy of the book. It goes on sale today. This is the ebook.

In his State of RBE post earlier today, Jason M. Waltz said there have been delays at the printer, so we’re going to have to wait a while on the hardcovers. Hopefully, those books will be ready next month.

I’ve been looking forward to this anthology for a while now. Most of my reading over the last couple of years has been mysteries and thrillers. It will be good to get back to some old fashioned sword and sorcery.

If you didn’t pledge the Kickstarter, now is your chance to get some brand new S&S by some name authors, both established and up and coming.

C. L. Moore, Pioneer of Fantasy and Science Fiction

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Catherine Lucille (C. L.) Moore (1911-1987) was born in Indianapolis on this date, January 24. She is the third of three major fantasy writers whose birthdays are every other day in January. The first was A. Merritt, and the second was Robert E. Howard.  She is someone whose work should not be forgotten. If you haven’t read her work, or if it’s been a while, do yourself a favor and do so.

Like Howard, I’ve written about Moore so many times over the years that it’s becoming a challenge to come up with something  new. Work and some travel have kept me from doing much reading for the last week, so there won’t be a review of any particular story.  Forgive me if I rehash things from older posts. Continue reading →

Robert E. Howard, Second of Three

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Born Januarry 22, 1906, Robert E. Howard is the second of three birthdays that fall every other day here in late Janaury. The first is A. Merritt, whom I wrote about two days ago.

I’ve been writing about Howard and doing birthday posts for him for years, so I’m not sure what else I could say. I’d better think of something, though, because I have a REHUPA article due by the end of the month, and it needs to be four pages.

I’ve got time. (Famous Last Words.)

So, today I want to talk about Howard’s work ethic as a writer. Writing practices have been on my mind lately, so I thought I would examine a few of Howard’s. Continue reading →

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.