Today, August 28 is the birthday of four creators of the fantastic. Today has been pretty full. Well, the whole week has, actually. I’ve not had a chance to read anything by any of these folks, so this will just be an informational post, similar to the one I did last year. Continue reading
In addition to looking at Bradbury’s short stories “The Illustrated Woman” and “The Illustrated Man” in the previous post, I wanted to look at a pair of stories that might not be familiar to many of you. Those stories are “The Pendulum” and “Pendulum”. The former was written by Bradbury alone; the latter in collaboration with Henry Hasse. These could be a bit of a challenge to track down, although “Pendulum” is currently in print in The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury. Continue reading
Yes, the title of this post says “woman”, not “man.” No, that’s not a typo. Most people who read this blog are familiar with The Illustrated Man, a short story collection in which the framing device is a tattooed man whose tattoos show the stories. That’s not what this post is about. Bradbury also wrote a short story titled “The Illustrated Man” which probably served as the inspiration for the framing device in the collection of the same name.
Patience, please. We’ll get there. Just not yet. Continue reading
Yeah, I know. Lovecraft’s birthday (August 20) was yesterday. For reasons that are not entirely clear, I missed it.
I’ve not read much Lovecraft in recent years. I’m not sure I’ll be able to work any in this evening, but I’ll give it a try. I’m not sure if I want to reread something or try a story I haven’t read yet.
Regardless of what you think about him as a person, there’s no getting around Lovecraft’s influence on the genre. He’ll always have a spot on my reading list.
I’ve gotten word that three anthologies I have stories in won’t be available much longer. If you want them, you should act now. All of them are available in print and electronic editions. The anthologies are:
WEIRD MENACE – This is a two volume set of weird menace stories in the vein of what were known as weird menace pulps. One volume contains stories with contemporary settings and the other contains stories set during the pulp era. I’m only in the pulp era one, but all the stories are fun. You know you need both volumes. If you’re not sure what weird menace is, think Scooby Doo without the kids and the dog but with a lot more titillation. Volume 1 Volume 2
TALES FROM THE OTHERVERSE – This is an alternate history collection. Some stories are serious. Others are just gonzo fun. James Reasoner’s story was runner up for the Sidewise Award, and Bill Crider’s story won.
ROCKET’S RED GLARE – This is a science fiction anthology that presents positive views of the future. Three of the stories in this volume were selected for one of the Year’s Best anthologies for the year it was published, which was the source with the most selections that year.
I’m proud and honored to have been published in these anthologies alongside some amazing writers. The anthologies won’t be available for long, so if you don’t have them and think you might like them, click the links. They won’t last long. Once they’re gone, they’re gone.
I’m up to my armpits in other projects today, so I probably won’t get around to reading anything by today’s featured authors, but I did want to give a shout-out to two of the greatest and one artist who deserves better recognition. So in order of their birth, here are… Continue reading