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Farewell, Bill Crider
Bill Crider, World Fantasy Convention 2017
I woke up this morning to the news that Bill Crider passed away yesterday. He was a true gentlemen in the writing community. Although most of his work was in the mystery and crime genres with a few forays into westerns, he wrote some short fiction that contained fantastic elements, such as his Sidewise Award winning story “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore”. James Reasoner told me after the story won the award that Bill had written it at the last minute as a replacement for someone who had to drop out of the project. I considered it an honor to be included in that anthology with him.
One story of Bill’s I read years ago in an anthology (the name of both the story and the anthology escape me) concerned a town in the old west that was having troubles with a werewolf. And the only person in the area with silver bullets was a masked man and his faithful Indian companion…
Bill had been fighting cancer since about July of 2016. Bill had lost his wife Judy to cancer a few years prior to that. They have been reunited.
It was his announcement of the diagnosis that made me decide to attend Armadillocon that year. I hadn’t seen many of my friends since moving to the Llano Flatto part of the state. It was the first time in over half a decade I had seen some of those folks, and it made me realize how much I missed them. Continue reading
Question About Scrivener
So tonight I was fiddling around with Scrivener trying to figure out how to get it to automatically do a couple of formatting things. I’d had to do them manually before, but I’ve got some stories I want to submit over the next few days. I wanted to know what I was misunderstanding.
I solved the problems I was trying to figure out, but then I noticed something odd. The word count on Scrivener was 18.1k. When I compiled it into an RTF docuement, it was 12.8k. That’s a pretty big difference. I compared the words in the opening section, and the RTF count was two words less than the Scrivener count.
Anyone have any idea what’s going on here? I’m inclined to trust the Scrivener count because when each section’s word count when tallied adds up to the total. And the words in each section are only the words of the story.
I want to send this out, but not with such a discrepancy in the word counts.
Frank Frazetta at 90
Frank Frazetta would have turned 90 today (February 9) if he were still alive.
It’s hard to know what to write for this post. Frazetta’s stature in the fields of fantasy art and comics cannot be overstated. His work has graced the covers of some of the most fundamental titles in the canon. (I’ll probably get hate mail for even suggesting there’s such a thing as a canon.)
It was Frazetta’s covers to the Lancer (later the Ace) paperback reprints of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories that helped to put that character on the map.
And then there were the Burrough’s covers. And Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane. And…You get the idea.
Frazetta casts a long shadow, and that’s a good thing. He brought a vitality to fantasy art that had been lacking. I was fortunate to see some of his originals on exhibit a couple of years ago.
It’s been less than a decade since we lost him. He’s still missed. Raise a glass tonight in his honor.
Kuttner’s Death, Moore’s Silence
Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
Deuce Richardson pointed out to me in an email that today is the 60th anniversary of Henry Kuttner’s death. Since I don’t think I’ll be able to finish what I had intended to review today, this is a good topic to talk about. (Thanks, Deuce.)
I’ve done a few posts on the anniversary of a person’s death before, but I prefer to acknowledge birthdays. However, a 60th anniversary is a milestone. So if you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share a few somewhat random thoughts.
Kuttner had been teaching a course on writing at USC when he died, and Moore took over. I’m not sure how long she continued teaching, if it was only to finish out the semester or if she taught beyond that semester.
She remarried in 1963. Her husband Thomas Reggie didn’t want her writing anymore. At least that’s the legend, and I’m inclined to believe it. C. L. Moore’s voice fell silent. She never wrote fiction again.
Her husband supposedly (according to Wikipedia) asked the Science Fiction Writers of America not to honor her with a Grand Master Award because by that time Catherine was suffering from Alzheimer’s by then. Her husband thought the ceremony would be too stressful and confusing.
Let that sink in for a moment. This had to have been sometime in the early to mid-1980s. Moore died in 1987.* Andre Norton was the Grand Master for 1984. There wouldn’t be another woman to receive the honor until Ursula K. LeGuin in 2003, nearly 20 years later. I don’t know why Moore couldn’t have been presented with the award and it simply be announced that she was unable to attend for unspecified health reasons. Essentially, her husband denied her recognition that was well deserved.** Continue reading
January Writing Report
So I set out to be more productive writing this year. That wasn’t a particularly high bar, given that I hardly wrote anything the second half of last year. This year I set some boundaries in place. So far they’ve held, but it’s been dicey a few times.
Here’s how I did. I managed to write every single day of January. The highest word count was on the first, with 2764 words that day. The lowest was 519. I managed to write a total of 37,152 words, including tonight’s count, for a daily average of 1198. I’m not sure how sustainable that is.
What did I write? I finished three items that had been mouldering on my hard drive. One novellette and two short stories. I added a little to a fourth. I also completed two short stories from scratch. This past Sunday, I didn’t compose any fiction, but the review of C. L. Moore’s “There Shall Be Darkness” will become a chapter in a book I’m planning, so I counted it.
Right now I’m working on a novella. I’m not quite sure where some parts of it are going, but trust me, it’s going to be awesome. It’s got lost cities, sorcerer-kings, time travel, cursed princes, talking apes, and it’s sword and sorcery.
I’ve been thinking the last few days about what I can accomplish if I can keep this pace up. I’m not writing at pulp speed yet, but I accomplished more than I thought I would when I started 31 days ago. I think for the rest of the year, I’m going to concentrate on novels and novellas that I’ll publish myself. I’ll still try to write short stories in between for fun and to submit to selected markets.
I’ve got two short cross-genre novels, one science fiction and one fantasy, and both mystery that are finished and just need to be cleaned up. Also on the burner are a deep space disaster novel, a hard science-sword and planet blend, a noir novel, a dark fantasy-love story mashup, and a far future science fantasy. All but the noir novel have been started. There are various other projects on the back burner that might get moved up if Yorricka the Muse decides to be kind.
If I can maintain this pace, even for part of the year, I should be able to get some of those out the door.
An Observation of Lloyd Alexander’s Birthday
Lloyd Alexander was born on this date, January 30, in 1924 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He was the author of a number of books, mostly for younger readers. He is best known for The Prydain Chronicles. The final volume, The High King, won the Newberry Medal in 1969. The Newberry is given for outstanding works of children’s literature.
I read part of The High King when I was a kid, but I didn’t know at the time that the book was the final book in a series. We’d just moved to Fort Worth, and I was reading through the Newberry winners at the public library. Since The High King had a Newberry sticker on it, I picked it up. I didn’t understand a lot of what was going on in the book and never finished.
A number of years ago, the SFBC published an omnibus edition of The Prydain Chronicles. I bought a copy, but I never got around to reading it. Has anyone read it, and if so, what did you think of it?
Update: Fletcher Vredenburgh has posted cover art for three different editions of The Prydain Chronicles. Check it out.
The Love Child of Chandler and Lovecraft
Casefile Arkham: Nightmare on the Canvas
Writer: Josh Finney; Art: Patrick McEvoy; Editor: Kat Rocha
01PUblishing
Paper $14.99; Ebook $7.99
I’d like to thank Patrick McEvoy and Kat Rocha for the review copy. If you like Raymond Chandler, or just classic PI stories in general, and are into all things Lovecraft, then this is a graphic novel for you.
The team of Finney, McEvoy, and Rocha have launched a series (yes, it’s a series; more on that later) that lovingly blends the best elements of both.
Set in Lovecraft’s fictional town of Arkham in 1946, the story follows former marine Hank Flynn as he tries to establish his life as a civilian in his home town. He’s working as a private investigator. When he’s hired by a beautiful and wealthy widow to find a missing painter, his life takes a turn for the eldritch. The painter’s name? Richard Pickman. Continue reading
C. L. Moore Channels Brackett and Howard
“There Shall Be Darkness”
Miracle in Three Dimensions
Isle Press
Trade Paper, $16.95
Original publication, Astounding, February 1942
I meant to have this review posted a few days ago, but Real Life got in the way. (I am legally prohibited from discussing the situation; its a personnel matter.) I just finished reading the story a little while ago.
It’s definitely a blend of Brackett setting and Howardian themes. James Douglas, AKA Jamie, is the commander of the Earth forces on the planet Venus. There’s some indication this may taken place in the future of the Northwest Smith series. In the first scene, Jamie comes in and asks for segir whiskey, the preferred drink of Northwest Smith. If it is the same future, it’s much later along the timeline.
You can’t blame him for wanting a drink. He’s in a bad situation. He’s just received his orders to evacuate Venus. The Empire of Earth is falling. Barbarians, the less developed races in the solar system in this instance, have conquered Mars and are in the process of invading Earth. There are overtones of ancient Rome in this setup. Jamie’s Venusian lover, Quanna, begs him to take her to Earth. He refuses, so she takes matters into her own hands.
Jamie is dealing with an outlaw chieftain, Vastari, who is the only person who can unite the squabbling Venusian tribes into a single unit. Vastari sees himself as a freedom fighter, a soldier struggling to throw off the yoke of tyranny. He’s also Quanna’s brother. Jamie thinks she’s a loyal lover. Vastari thinks she’s a loyal spy. Quanna is only loyal to herself. Continue reading
Rereading C. L. Moore
Catherine Lucille (C. L.) Moore was born today (January 24) in 1911. These days she’s remembered for one of three things. Creator of Northwest Smith. Creator of Jirel of Joiry. Wife and writing partner of Henry Kuttner and coauthor of some of the greatest science fiction and fantasy classics of the 1940s.
All of which are achievements which should be acknowledged. Moore was one of the best stylists of her era and a true trailblazer. But she also wrote quite a bit of fiction that was her solo work that wasn’t Northwest Smith or Jirel but in many cases was just as good.
Much of this short fiction is collected in Judgment Night or The Best of C. L. Moore. I’m going to be dipping back into those volumes as it’s been years and in some cases decades since I read some of those stories. Outside of a small circle of pulp fans, she’s not that well known, and I aim to change that as much as I can.
But first I’m going to read some C. L. Moore that I’ve not read at all. Ten years ago a collection entitled Miracle in Three Dimensions was published. I’ll talk further about this book in future posts. The thing about the book that makes it stand out is it contains five stories that have never appeared in one of Moore’s collections (although three of them have been anthologized), one of which has never been published before its appearance in this book if the ISFDB is correct. Continue reading