Happy Birthday, Professor Tolkien

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J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973) was born on this day, January 3.

It has become fashionable to bash on Tolkien for not being sufficiently woke or for taking up too much shelf space in bookstores. One marketing technique is now to make controversial statements about his and his work if you have a book coming out. Such tactics and complaints are the habits of lesser writers.

Tolkien was the greatest fantasy author of the 20th Century. This is a hill I am prepared to die on. (Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. P. Lovecraft aren’t far behind.)

Most people are familiar with The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. His other writings, not so much. Sadly, I have to include myself in that group. I’ve not read enough of his other work, although I’ve read bits and pieces. That’s something I intend to correct over the coming year.

I’m open to suggestions as to what some of you who are better read would recommend as a starting point.

Beaumont’s “Free Dirt”

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Charles Beaumont

Today, January 2, is the birthday of Charles Beaumont (1929-1967). If there was an episode of the original Twilight Zone that stuck in your head when you say it, chances are good Beaumont wrote it.

Mentored by Ray Bradbury, Beaumont would have been a major writer if he had lived. He died from early onset Alzheimer’s or something very much like it. Beaumont, like Bradbury, was primarily a short story writer, although he wrote a number of movie scripts. Continue reading →

Seabury Quinn

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Seabury Quinn

Seabury Quinn was born on New Year’s Day, 1889. He died Christmas Eve, 1969. At one time he was the most popular author publishing in Weird Tales. These days, his fame pales in comparison to that of HPL, REH, and CAS.Some people really like his work, while others (looks at Rusty Burke) consider him to be a hack. I’ve not read enough of his work to have an opinion (yet).

The stories about his occult detective, Jules de Grandin, were recently published in an affordable five volume edition. Quinn wrote more than just de Grandin stories, though. I’m going to try to read some of them this year as well as start working my way through the de Grandin stories.

2020 Turns 21 and Can Legally Drink

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No, the title of this post isn’t original with me, but it’s too good not to steal. I’m not expecting things to magically improve just because the year on the calendar has changed. Call me pessimistic, but I expect this year to be a lot like the last one . I hope I’m wrong. We’ll see.

As I stated yesterday, my plans for the Asimov and Bradbury centennials and the 90th anniversary of Astounding didn’t work out the way I had intended. I’m not planning on trying to restart them this year, although I will try to put more Bradbury and Asimov in the rotation throughout the year. Continue reading →

A Christmas Conundrum with Carnacki

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Carnacki’s Christmas Conundrum
William Jeffrey Rankin
ebook $0.99

If you like William Hope Hodgson’s Carnacki the Ghost Finder, then is will be an electronic stocking stuffer you’ll enjoy. William Jeffrey Rankin was written a tale in which Carnacki awakens in a room beneath the London streets. A note tell shim he’s been placed there by someone who was inconvenienced by Carnacki in a previous case.

Carnacki had met some friends for dinner and a drink on Christmas Eve and on his way out of the restaurant was invited to join a group of men. One of them slips him a Mickey.

Carnacki is trapped beneath the streets of London with apparent way to get out. He’s in a series of chambers with no exits. Although there are these large mirrors…

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. There were some decidedly weird moments. Rankin gets Carnacki out of his trouble, of course, bu he leaves enough loose ends that I want to know what happens next.

Like I said, if you’re a Carnacki fan, this will make a nice gift for yourself. Carnacki’s Christmas Conundrum was just published yesterday, so it’s a gift to yourself you most likely haven’t read yet.

Christmas Stories III

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This is the last set of stories I wrote for the Christmas contest. (You can read most of the others here and here. I’m not going to post the slice of life or satire stories. They are the weakest.)

I bent the rules a little here. The stories were supposed to be a maximum of 500 words, but there was no prohibition in the rules against sequels. So the following four are linked. The viewpoint character changes from one story to the next. I’ve posted the original stories, not the ones I submitted for the contest, meaning not all of them will be under 500 words.

I was participating NaNoWriMo when I wrote these and used them for my word count. I was writing short fiction, not a novel. I used these stories as personal challenges and tried writing things I wouldn’t normally write, just to stretch myself. For example, the first three of these stories are what is considered sweet romance. (This is not a genre I typically read, much less write.) You can read the first three without reading the fourth, although the observant reader may pick up on a slight discrepancy between the first and second parts.

The fourth story resolves the discrepancy, changes the reader’s understanding of what is going on, and makes the whole thing dark fantasy. Continue reading →

Christmas Stories

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The local writer’s group had a Christmas story contest recently. There was a five hundred word limit and no restrictions on how many times you could enter. I entered a dozen stories. One of my won 2nd place. I’m including it and another entry below. I’m including the original version of the winning story. It’s a little longer than 500 words, but I like it better than the shorter one I submitted. One of the judges said it made her cry. (Mission accomplished!)

The second story here is just a bad joke. I’m including it because it is still 2020, and you haven’t suffered enough yet. Continue reading →