RIP, Howard Andrew Jones

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Sean CW Korsgaard is reporting that Howard Andrew Jones has passed away. Howard announced he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer late last summer. Sean also posted the image below which I am shamelessly stealing because it captiures perfectly how I feel.

I met Howard a couple of times over the years. The first time was at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006 in Austin. This was jsut before the first of the Harold Lamb anthologies he edited for Bison Books was published. He had an advanced copy that he held onto. He  didn’t let it get away from. I know bacuase I tried to talk him out of it.

It was because of this meeting that I got interested in Harold Lamb and eventually collected the entire set Howard edited.

So, thank you, Howard, for that.

More recently, we met again at Robert E. Howard Days last year. He told me life was great. He was writing and living on his farm and things couldn’t be better. I was really happy for him and told him so.

How quickly things can change.

Howard cared deeply about sword and sorcery and was a constant promoter of it. He was the inaugural editor for Tales of the Magician’s Skull. When I asked him how I could get on his list of contributors (the magazine didn’t take open submissions), he told me ownership had changed, and he was no longer the editor. I told him that sucked.

Howard was very outgoing, friendly, easy to talk to, genuinely interested in the people he spoke with.

His most recent fantasy series is the Nanuvar series. The third book came out last fall from Baen. I’ve not had a chance to read more than one or two of the Hanuvar short stories. They were great.

Howard was a talented writer who was just hitting his stride. The Hanuvar series was projected to be five books. I don’t know if Howard completed the fourth or had even started it.

The world lost a fantastic writer.

But more than that, we’ve lost an excellent human being.

My thoughts and prayers are with Howard’s famiily and friends tonight, and I’ll raise a glass shortly to his memory. I especially want to extend my condolences to John C. Hocking, who attended Robert E. Howard Days with Howard Andrew Jones this past year. Their friendship goes back years. John, I’m extremely sorry for your loss.

George Alec Effinger and Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson

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May 10, today as I’m writing this, is the birthday of George Alec Effinger (1947-2002). George was a regular at Armadillcon for a number of years back in the nineties. He was very easy to approach and talk to.

He has faded into obscurity these days. He wrote a handful of stand-alone novels, but one (Nightmare Blue) in collaboration with Gardner Dozois and one (The Red Tape War) in collaboration with Mike Resnick and Jack Chalker.

He was working a cyberpunk series featuring a character named Maurid Audran, who lived in an Arab ghetto called the Budayeen. He didn’t live to finish the series, but the three novels (start with When Gravity Fails) and the collection from Golden Gryphon press are worth seeking out.

But I want to highlight a series of short stories and novelettes Effinger wrote through the eighties and nineties. They were collected in Maureen Birnbaum, Barbarian Swordsperson in 1993. another three stories were written later and not included in this volume. These were a series of tongue-in-cheek tales that palyed with the tropes of classic pulp adventure. Continue reading →

Algis Budrys

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Today, January 9, is the birthday of Algis Budrys (1931-2008). Budrys did most of  his writing in the 1950s and first half of the sixities. He wrote seven novels plus a composite novell, Michaelmas.

Budrys was intrumental in setablishing teh Writers of the Future Program and was a guidng figure there until his death. He was a regular attendee at Constoga for the last few years of his life. I met him several times at those conventions. At the time, he was working  as an agent.

Budrys wrote a substantial body of short fiction. Sadly, much of it was never collected, and most of what was is long out of print. He was a well-known writer in the late fifities and early sixties. His novels Who? and Rogue Moon were finalists for the Hugo Award in 1959 and 1961, respectively.

He is long overdue for a retrospective collection, but it probably isn’t going to happen. Not enough people know his work, and the financial return on such a project would probably make the project a money loser.

Ramsey Campbell

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I don’t normally do birthday posts for writers who are still living, but I do make the occasional exception. Ramsey Campbell (b. 1946) is eighty years old today (January 4).

Happy birthday, sir!

He began writing at an early age and was published while still in his teens. He’s been going for over six decades and shows no signs of stopping.

Ramsey is his middle name. His first name is John, but back in the 1960s, there was already a John Campell. I think going witht he middle name worked out well for him, don’t you?

He writes at all lenghts, from short stories to novels. He’s British, so not all of his work is available in the US, but some is.

So, Happy Birthday, Mr. Campbell. May you continue to write for many more years to come.

2024 Writing Update

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Back in January I started a challenge to write an average of 2024 words a day in 2024. On September 1, I was one day behind where I needed to be for the year.

But then I got full-time employment back in academia while still working at the post office. Mondays and Tuesdays were long days with little time to write unless I had down time while at the post office. Some days I did, and some days I didn’t.

I didn’t meet the goal, which would have been 738,760 words by December 31. I ended the year with a total of  678,104 words, which is an avderage of 1853 words per day.

That’s called failing to success. It’s a win. I got a lot more written this year than I ever have or would have if I hadn’t done this challenge.

I haven’t calculated how many stories/novellettes/novellas/novels that is. I’ll do that over the weekend. I have to get my spreadsheets organized. I’ll report here if anyone is interested.

I’m not going to do the 2025 words per day in 2025. I am going to do  a challenge and set some writing goals. But given how the last few months have gone, I need to restore balance to the Force.  Or at least my life.

I’m hoping there will be some times in the coming year when I can ramp up my word count. We’ll see.

I need to submit or publish some of these stories. Some are  under submission. I also would like to be able to read more. I’ve not read much unless it was for a writing workship. And I will be doing more of those.

I will say that I had a great deal of fun. I took some workshops on genres I don’t normally read and haven’t written in.  And that’s the key to getting so many words written.

Have fun.

I intend to continue having fun in the next year.

Tolkien on Audio

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Today, as I write this, it’s January 3, which means it’s the birthday of J. R. R. Tolkien (1892-1973). I  doubt I could say anything I haven’t said before. I’ve not read any Tolkien in a while, so that well has run a little dry.

But The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion are available in audiobook format. Given that I’m going to be spending a great deal of time in the car over the next few months, listening to them on audiobook would be a good way to pass the time. I’ve already downloaded The Silmarillion.

I’ve read The Lord of the Rings more than once. I’ve not read The Silmarillion yet.

I do think Tolkien is one of the greatest writers the English language has produced. He was from an earlier time, when pacing in stories was different. It was slower, and if the author did his or her job, more immersive than a lot of what is published today.

And there are times I want/need that kind of book.

I’m in the mood for the grand sweep of history, so I’m looking forwards to listening to The Simarillion, starting next week.  And shortly, I’ll be raising a glass in professor Tolkien’s memory.

Happy New Year, Plus Quinn and Manning

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Happy New Year, everyone.

It’s evening as I write this, and if you’ve watched the news today, you know it hasn’t started off well.

But I want to keep things positive and upbeat. So, I’ll wish each of you a Happy New Year.

I’ll give an end fo the year wrap-up on my writing progress tomorrow or the next day, plus lay out some goals for the year.

But since there are some birthdays today, I’ll look at a couple. Continue reading →

Obituaries: Barry N. Malzberg and George Zebrowski

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I’ve been busy, on the road, and generally distracted lately, so I missed hearing about a couple of deaths in the science fiction and fantasy community.

Barry N. Mazlberg (1939-2024) passed away on December 19 in Saddle River, New Jersey. He was an author, editior, and critic. His essays, collected Breakfast in the Ruins and The Bend in the Road are worth seeking out. Stark House Press has published a couple of collections of his science fiction as well as a series of his mystery novels.

I met Malzberg once back in the 00’s at a ConDFW. I don’t recall which year. He was a pleasant speaker and an approachable guest.

For years Malzberg cowrote a column with Mike Resnick for the SFWA Bulletin until they committed the unforgiveable crime of referring to Bea Mehaffey (an editor from the fifites) as a lady editor and said she was attractive. (She was.) Or something along those lines.

I’ve never really gotten into his science fiction, and I’m not sure why. I think I may not ahve been ready for it when I was younger.

I’ve got the book on the left, and I’ll dip into it later tonight.

The other loss was George Zebrowski (1945-2024), who died on December 20th. It’s December 27 as I’m writing this. His birthday is December 28. Zebrowski wrote space oriented fiction that, from what I understand, tended towards hard science fiction.

I’ve got some of his books but haven’t gotten to them yet. I have read  soem of his short fiction, althoug it’s been so long that I don’t recall much other than I enjoyed it enough to want to read more of his work.

He was married to science fiction author Pamela Sargent.

We at Adventures Fantastic would like to express our condolences to Barry Malzberg’s and George Zebrowski’s faimly and friends.