February Writing Update

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I’m doing a challenge to write 2024 words per day (on average) in 2024. I ended January a little bit ahead, but I finished February about four and a half days behind, with just over fifty thousand words written. This puts me behind for the year.

But there are still ten months left in the year, so I have plenty of time to catch up. As of yesterday, I was over a day ahead for the month of March.

Most of what I wrote were blog posts or the current work in progress, which is dark fantasy. I started it intending it to be a short story, but I soon realized it would be something longer, probably a novel. It turned out I was right on that point. It will be a novel. I was thinking it would come in somewhere between fifty thousand and sixty thousand words. I passed sixty-two thousand words last night. I have at least three major scenes left to write, so at this point, I’m expecting it to come in at over seventy thousand words.

Other than blog posts,  I’m going to keep plugging away at this one until it’s done.

Machen: What to Read First?

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Arthur Machen (1863-1947) was born on this day, March 3. He is widely regarded as one of the most significant authors of weird fiction from the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. The name Machen is actually a penname. His real name was Arthur Llewellyn Jones.

He was influential on Robert E. Howad, Frank Belknanp Long, Stephen King, and Karl Edward Wagner. H. P. Lovecraft, in his essay “supernatural Horror in Literature”, considered him to be one of four “modern masters” of supernatural horror. (The others were M. R. James, Lord Dunsay, and Algernon Blackwood.)

While I have a limited knowledge of his work because I’ve read about it, I’ve never actually read any of it. (Don’t judge me. There is only so much time in a day.) I’ve been intending to correct that for some time.

So, question for this post, where should I start? I’m leaning towards The Great God Pan, but I’m open to other suggestions. I’ve had some things going on that have made reading on a consistent basis a challenge lately, and I don’t think that will change for a while. (It’s dayjobbery and trying to get a house ready to sell. Nothing bad such as health issues or anything like that.) I’d prefer shorter works to novels.

What are your thoughts?

The Ubiquity of Greenberg

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Today, March 1, marks the birthday of one of the more prolific, probably the most prolific, anthologist who ever compiled a table of contents. I’m talking about Martin H. Greenberg (1941-2011).

There was a time when bookstore shelves were covered with anthologies in which Greenberg was the editor. Not all of them were science fiction, fantasy, or horror, either.

There mystery and crime anthologies, western anthologies, and other types as well. Even anthologies about cats. Continue reading →

Leap Day

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Today is February 29. Leap day, in other words. Something that occurs once every four years, like presidential elections in the US only without two years of television ads leading up to it and two years of politicians trying to position themselves for the next one once it’s over.

Also a lot more fun.

So today, I thought I would look at birthdays that only occur once every four years. Continue reading →

RIP, Brian Stableford

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Crap. I hate to write this, but I’m going to as much as it pains me to do so. Brian Stableford (1948-2024) has died. Locus is reporting that he passed away on February 24, after a long illness. He is survived by his children, son Leo and daughter Kathy.

In an earlier post this year, I asked what wrtiers you thought have been unjustly neglected and should have their work brought to public attentions. Brian Stableford was one of the names mentioned.  I heartily agreed. Continue reading →

Sturgeon

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Today, February 26, is the birthday of Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985).

Sturgeon was one of the most highly regarded writers of his day, especially his short fiction. I read “Thunder and Roses” today when I had a few minutes free from work and traveling.

“Thunder and Roses” is a postapocalyptic story in which the United States was attacked by unnamed enemies from both the east and the west.

Instead of retaliating, the government chose to not respond. Continue reading →

Wondering About Edgar Pangborn

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Today’s birthday post (February 25) features Edgar Pangborn (1909-1976). Pangborn isn’t well remembered today, This is due in part because he didn’t leave a large body of work behind when he died. He wrote several novels, not all of them genre,  and a smattering of short fiction. I’ve seen Pangborn compared favorably to Theodore Sturgeon.

The novel he is best remembered for is Davy, a postapapolyptic tale of a young boy. I haven’t read it yet, but I do have a copy of the Ballantine (later Del Rey) edition with the Boris Vallejo cover that has an image of Davy and two nude young women about to have sex in the background.  This book is part of a series. The rest of the series is comprised of short stories. Some of these are collected in Still i Persist in Wondering, which is where I got the title of this post.

Another novel is A Mirror for Observers, which I read in college. Unfortunately, I had an outpatient procedure before I finished it, and when I went to finish it, not much of it stuck with me. I enjoyed the book, at least until I had to put it down, and I enjoyed the rest of it. I just wasn’t really recovered enough to jump back into it. I’ll give it another try one of these days.

The third novel, Pangborn’s first, actually, is West of the Sun. It’s about a group of colonisits on a planet that turns out to have hidden dangers. This novel is iinclulded in The Edgar Pangborn Megapack, along with three pieces of shosrt fiction and two other novels that are nongenre.

Pangborn wrote enough short stories to fill a hefty collection. Maybe NESFA could put one together. It would be a good fit for their line.

Derleth

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Yesterday, February 24, was the birthday of Augusts Derleth (1909-1971). I was on the road all day, mostly with work, and didn’t have a chance to post anything.

Entire books could be written about Derleth, and have been. I’m not going to try to get that detailed,  I’ll let other writers talk about Derleth and Lovecraft and whether Derleth harmed or helped Lovecraft with his “posthumous collaborations”.

Derleth wrote more than just Lovecraftian fiction. He wrote a number of novels and stories set in his native Wisconsin at a location named Sac Prairie. He also wrote a number of Solar Pons stories. Those works are outside the scope of this blog.

What some people forget, and many don’t know, is that Derleth also wrote a number of fantasy and horror stories that aren’t Lovecraftian. He also wrote poetry, but I’m not familiar with any of his poetic works. Continue reading →

Lupoff and the Voorish Sign

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Richard A. Lupoff Source: Open Library

I was going to write this post for RIchard A. Lupoff’s (1935-2020) birthay (February 21), which was yesterday, but I didn’t have time to read anything by him. Then I saw the news about Steve Miller and wrote that post. Which I didn’t hit Publish on until earlier today because it was late, and I was tired.

Lupoff isn’t as well-known as he probably shoulde be because he didn’t confine himself to one genre but wrote horror, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery. He also tended to write at shorter lengths rather than novels. He is probably best remembered for the novel Lovecraft’s Book, which mixes fiction with fact and features several real-life pulp writers. He was also known as a writer who could provide a short story for an anthology or magazine on short notice. He should be considered another writer whose work deserves to be remembered.

Lupoff wrote a number of Lovecraftian stories. I’m going to look at one of them today. Continue reading →