Today, December 7, is the birthday of Leigh Brackett (1915-1978). I’ve read a couple of her stories, but I’m not up for a post tonight. I’ve spent the evening finishing grading final exams and responding to student inquiries as to why their lab grade isn’t an A. (“You have multiple zeroes. Try attending all the labs next time. “)
I’ll post something of substance sometime in the next few days. But I didn’t want this day to pass without mentioning it.
I’ve wished for a long time that someone would publish some electronic collections by Robert Bloch. Or print collections that don’t just reprint the same handful of stories that are in most of the available collections.
My prayers have been answered. Sort of. The two stories I’m going to look at today come from a recently published collection entitled The Best of Robert Bloch, Vol. 3. There’s a volume 1, but as far as I’ve been able to find, there isn’t a volume 2. This is a different book than the single volume of the same title that was published by Del Rey back in the 1970s.
(I’m not sure just how legitimate this book is. It and the first volume were published in October of this year, volume 3 just over a month ago as I write this. I’m not sure if Bloch’s estate authorized these books or receive any proceeds from the sale. The photo on Robert Bloch’s Amazon author page is someone else.) Continue reading
These Black Friday posts are starting to become an annual tradition. This year I’m going to look at two stories by two different Howards. Robert E. Howard and Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Continue reading
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. One of the things I’m thankful for today is Poul Anderson (1926-2001). It being his birthday (November 25), and all.
For today’s post, a few days ago I had decided to review Anderson’s “Son of the Sword”. It’s a straight historical adventure set in Egypt. Anderson did from time to time write historical adventure without any fantastic elements. This is one of those stories.
I didn’t do my due diligence on this one. “Son of the Sword” was originally published in 1951 in Adventure Magazine. The only reprinting was in A Light in the Void, back in 1991. It was this book where I read it. The copyright page in the book didn’t give any further detail than what I stated above, and the ISFDB on lists A Light in the Void under the story’s publication history. If I had realized that, I would have found a different story to feature today. Continue reading
Abraham Stoker (1847-1912), better known as Bram, was born on this date, November 8. Of course, you’ve all heard of him. He wrote this little book about a vampire. No, not Varney. Dracula.
Anyway, even if he had never written anything else, (he did write other stuff, you know) he would be remembered for that one novel.
So happy birthday, Bram.
It being that time of year when night starts coming earlier and earlier, ghoulies and ghosties start showing up in the stores, and Texas finally starts to receive cooler temperatures, I thought it would be fun to look at some of Robert E. Howard’s favorite supernatural and horror tales that he was told or learned about. Not horror fiction, but the “real” ghost tales and weird stuff that folks tell around a campfire. The old “a friend of a friend heard this” stuff. Of course, during Howard’s life, Halloween had not yet begun to develop its modern traditions of kids dressing up and going door to door begging for treats, or adults having parties. He never really wrote or told something as a “Halloween” story as it was just a day of the week to him. However, as most Howard fans know, he did write of “things that go bump in the night” in his correspondence with H.P. Lovecraft, trading tales and legends with each other in an unofficial “can-you-top-this” way. Most of us know that Howard’s “Pigeons From Hell” and “Black Canaan” yarns came from spooky stories he had been told as a child from relatives and family friends, but there are several other tales he talks about with Lovecraft that you may not know of, and which fit in perfectly in getting you ready for Halloween. Continue reading
I’ve been swamped with work. Plus I’m trying to get some actual fiction writing done. So I’ve not been reading much other than short fiction, much of that related to writing. I hope to post a Christmas ghost story or two this year and have been reading some to get in the right frame of mind.
Things should settle down a bit soon.
Science Fiction author Lou Antonelli passed away on October 6 of pneumonia. He is survived by his wife Patricia, his mother, and a brother and sister. Born in Massachusetts, Lou loved Texas and considered himself to be a Texan.
Lou was mainly a short fiction writer, although he also published on novel (Another Girl, Another Planet) and a memoir/short fiction collection/writing advice (Letters From Gardner: A Writer’s Odyssey). Lou’s short fiction has been collected in Fantastic Texas, Texas and Other Planets, The Clock Struck None, and In the Shadow of the Cross.
Lou was a journalist all his life. In recent years his fiction output slowed when he and his wife bought The Clarksville Times, the local newspaper in Clarksville, Texas. The paper had been declining before the Antonellis bought it. They successfully turned it around. (Some sources are saying Lou was from Clarksville, Arkansas, but that’s not correct.)
I’ve known Lou for about 15 years. I met him through his wife, Patricia, who was a student in one of my classes when I was at a university in the northeast part of the state. Lou and I had attended the same science fiction convention a few months prior to my meeting Patricia, but our paths hadn’t crossed.
Over the years, Lou and I shared cars to and from, and rooms at, conventions. He was a good traveling companion and roommate. More importantly he was a good friend. After I moved to West Texas, we didn’t see each other much, just at a convention once in a while. From time to time, we’d talk on the phone. I was unaware he’d been ill until I saw a notice of his death online. He’d been on my mind the last few days, and I’d been thinking of giving him a call. It had been a while since I’d spoken to him.
Now I can’t.
My prayers are with Patricia and the rest of Lou’s family.
Rest well, my friend.
Pete Miller shivered as he crossed the parking lot to the north entrance of Hub City High School. Clouds scudded across the first quarter moon, throwing shadows over the tarmac and making the bell tower appear as though it were pulsing with a spectral light.He could see how rumors of the building being haunted could get started.
He reached the door, inserted his key in the lock, and turned it. The door opened without a sound.
“Who’s there?” Continue reading
It’s been one of those weeks, so I missed this when it was posted on Tuesday over at Black Gate, but James McGlothlin will be reading through The Year’s Best Horror Stories, the series of annual anthologies published by DAW books from 1972-1994. They were successively edited by Richard Davis, Gerald W. Page, and Karl Edward Wagner. The series ended with Wagner’s death.
I met James McGlothlin at Howard Days a few years ago. He’s very knowledgeable about the fields of the fantastic and always has something interesting to say.
James recently finished up a series at Black Gate looking at Del Rey’s Best of series, one of my personal favorites. He did an outstanding job with those posts, even if he didn’t much like Eric Frank Russell, another one of my personal favorites. *sticks tongue out at James*.
The post linked to above is an introduction, so if you want to read along with him, there’s still plenty of time. Provided, of course, you either already have the first volume or can find a copy of it (that you can afford).
Here’s the picture James posted to <s>make your mouth water</s> encourage you to read along. (No, these aren’t my copies. I wish. I don’t this many although I’ve got over half of them.)
