Today (april 14) is the birthday of two writers, one whose work I really like (Jack McDevitt) and the other I’ve never been a fan of (James Branch Cabell). I’ll start with the latter, since he was born first. 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.)
William Morris
William Morris (1834-1896) was born today, March 24. Morris was active in a number of creative endeavors throughout his life, but the one that concerns us here is his writing.
Morris has a reputation today, when he’s remembered at all, of being difficult to read. And while there is some justification for that, I think it’s largely undeserved. I’ve read one of his novels, The Wood Beyond the World, which I reviewed some years ago at Black Gate, when I was reading through the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series. It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected it to be. There’s a cadence to Morris’s work. Once I got into that rhythm, it was fairly easy going. Continue reading
Lin Carter was born on June 9, 1930. He passed away in 1988. I’m not going to review any of his fiction for this birthday post. It’s been one of those days. I’m going to try to read something by Keith Laumer for Futures Past and Present.
Lin Carter
Today I want to discuss what was arguably his greatest contribution to the field of fantasy. No, I’m not talking about his involvement with L. Sprague de Camp and the Conan revival of the 1960s. I mean, of course, the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series.
BENE NOTE: If you want to do a web search, type “Ballantine Fantasy” in your search engine. Don’t say “Ballantine Adult Fantasy” unless you want to set off all kinds of bells and whistles. Especially at work. Continue reading
This Christmas ghosts post is going to be a little different. I’ve been traveling most of the day and don’t feel like writing much. Fortunately, I don’t have to.
Sue Granquist, AKA Goth Chick at Black Gate, has done the heavy lifting for me. You need to read her post. It contains a link to a PDF of this story. Ms. Granquist has written a powerful and moving account of what this story means to her. I can’t top it. I read this story back in high school when I read Bradbury’s collection Long After Midnight. In the years since, I had forgotten the story entirely. It simply didn’t have a huge impact on me when I was fourteen (give or take a year). Now that my impending geezerdom is on the horizon, I can relate to it much better. Fortunately not yet as much as I probably will some day.
Go read it. You can thank me later.
Unlike the previous post, this one is legit.
My essay on why “Beyond the Black River” is the best Conan story went live at Black Gate earlier today. And just for the record, “J.” is not my middle initial.
Robert E. Howard was born on January 22, 1906. I’ve been reading through the Conan stories for the series at Black Gate. (The latest post is here.)
I realize a lot of people have favorite Howard characters other than Conan. Conan was the first Howard I read. Call it imprinting, but Conan is still my mental template for what a sword and sorcery character is like. I see more and more things each time I reread one of those stories.
I’m also not into the pastiches very much. I’m open to reading some, especially some of the ones that will be published this year in the new comics, but to my mind they will never be canonical. No offense intended to anyone writing them. I feel the same way about the James Bond books. Continue reading
I mentioned a little while back that I was participating in a series of posts at Black Gate on which Conan story is the best. Bob Byrne, who is heading up this project, announced the launch date (Monday, January 7). Bob also posted a list of the authors who are contributing to the series. I’ll not reproduce it here because I don’t want to steal his thunder. I’ll just say that I’m honored and humbled to be allowed to participate with this group of writers.
I’d also like to think Bob for this opportunity.
I’m not a huge Simon and Grafunkle fan, but I couldn’t help but steal the title of this post from “I am a Rock”. Here are my reading/writing/blogging plans for the last month of the year.
Leigh Brackett
The big thing is that Leigh Brackett’s birthday is next Monday, December 7. It’s her centennial, and I’ll be focusing a lot on her work this month. I’m not the only one. Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward will be discussing “The Moon the Vanished”, one of her novellas set on a swampy Venus next Monday on Howard’s blog. Click here for details and join the discussion. I’m not going to be discussing that particular story here, but I will take some detailed looks at some others. I’m probably going to start with “Lorelei of the Red Mist”, which she began and Ray Bradbury finished when Howard Hawks offered her a job writing the screenplay to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep with William Faulkner. You can get electronic copies of both stories in Swamps of Venus from Baen ($4), or get the Solar System bundle for $20. Continue reading
I’ve got a new BAF post up at Black Gate.
This one is on The Young Magicians, the second anthology of the series that Lin Carter edited. It’s a companion to Dragons, Elves, and Heroes. This one starts at William Morris and continues up to what was then the present day (1969). Included are selections by Lovecraft, Smith, Howard, Kuttner, Merritt. and de Camp, as well as Lin Carter himself.