Category Archives: birthday

Gothic Bloch

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Today, April 5, is the birthday of Robert Bloch (1917-1994). Bloch was one of the best writers of horror, suspense, crime, fantasy, and science fiction of the 20th Century. Sadly, his excellent body of work will probably always be overshadowed by his most famous novel, and the basis of the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name, Psycho. And if you’re only  familiar with Psycho from the movie, there are some differences between the film and the book.

Bloch took the story of real-life killer Ed Gein and turned it into the source of many people’s nightmares, and in the process made taking a shower an act of courage.

For today’s post I’m going to look at his fictionalization of another famous murderer, H. H. Holmes, who killed many people (the exact number is open to question) during the Columbian Exhibition in Chicago in 1893. Like he did with Gein, Bloch fictionalized the events and changed the name of the character. Continue reading →

Two By Weinbaum

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Today, April 4, is the birthday of Stanley G. Weinbaum (1902-1935). Weinbaum had a very short career, only about 18 months or so, but he had a major impact on the science fiction field. He wrote about aliens that were truly alien, and his solar system was imaginative and full of whimsy.

Yes. I know. This is a fantasy blog.

But the two stories I want to look at today are a good fit for this blog because the first one reads like a fantasy for the most part and the second is very much a horror story. Continue reading →

When the Wind is From the South

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Dennis Etchison

Today, March 30, is the birthday of Dennis Etchison (1943-2019). Etchison was primarily a short fiction writer, but today’s story, “A Wind From the South”, was Chapter 2 in Etchison’s novel California Gothic. I liked it enough to want to read the novel.

A woman named Evie who lives in a California suburb is about to get in the shower when the doorbell rings. Her husband is out, and her son is visiting a friend, so she foolishly answers the door.

A young woman is standing there asking how to get to – no, not Sesame Street – the local elementary school. Evie invites her visitor in, her second mistake. The young woman begins to describe the life she hopes to have in the neighborhood. A life that sounds frighteningly like Evie’s.

I’ll refrain from saying any more about the story. Which may not be fair, since it isn’t currently in print. I read it in The Death Artist.

It tired some of Etchison’s work years ago. It didn’t seem to be my cup of tea at the time. But given the high regard in which he’s held by a number of authors who work and opinions I respect, even if I don’t always agree with, I’m going to give him another try.

 

Ruminations on William Morris

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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 →

Remembering Novalyne Price Ellis

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Today, March 9, marks the birthday of Novalyne Price Ellis (1908-1999). She is remembered today for her memoir One Who Walked Alone. It was based on the diaries she kept while she dated Robert E. Howard during the final two years of his life.

One Who Walked Alone provides the best account of what Howard was like. She wrote the book, which was published by Donald M. Grant in 1986, in order to counter some of the things said in L. Sprague de Camp’s biography of Howard, Dark Valley Destiny.

If you are interested in Robert E. Howard, and really, who around this blog isn’t, then you should really read One Who Walked Alone.

Revisiting William F. Nolan

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Today, March 6, is the birthday of William F. Nolan (b. 1928), best known as the coauthor of Logan’s Run and two sequels.

Nolan is primarily a short story writer, and when I picked up the volume shown on the right last week at the Friends of the Library sale, I thought it would be time to revisit some of his works. It’s been a few years since I ready much by him. That’s a photo of the actual book I bought. It was the library’s copy that was taken out of circulation. You can see the edge of the sticker that says “Fiction” on it down on the lower left.

But I digress.

This isn’t going to be a review. I’ve not had much chance to read the book. I’m probably going dip into it from time to time rather than try to read it straight through. But I did want to acknowledge Nolan’s birthday. He’ s 93, and that in itself is an accomplishment.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

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Theodore Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss, was born on this day, March 2 in 1904. He passed away in 1991. He wrote and illustrated many of my favorite and my son’s favorite books from early childhood.

Yes, I know he’s being canceled. Or at least some of his books are. Some people have decided that they have racist content.

Really? Dr. Seuss?

Whatever.

I don’t really care they claim about his books. I’m getting really tired of people saying I shouldn’t have access to reading material (or movies, or…) because they don’t approve of it or it isn’t woke enough. And don’t get me started on the recent attempt to get Baen Books deplatformed.

I don’t need someone to tell me what I can’t read. Or what I should read. I’ll read whatever I please, and it’s no one’s business what I read. If someone objects to it, that’s only going to make me read more of it. *Looks at shelves containing Kipling, Haggard, Howard, Lovecraft, and Uncle Remus.* That includes Dr. Seuss. What I’m going to read even less of than I already do is what’s coming out of the major publishers or anything promoted because it’s woke.

If that last paragraph offends you, go screw yourself.

A Visit to the “Shottle Bop” with Theodore Sturgeon

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Today is February 26, which means it’s the birthday of Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985). I read a great deal of Sturgeon in my teens and early twenties, and over the last few years, I’ve been revisiting some old favorites. “Shottle Bop” is one of those. It’s probably among the top two or three of my favorite stories by him, if not my favorite.

“Shottle Bop” was first published in the February 1942 issue of Unknown. I read it for the first time in Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories Volume 3, 1941. It’s one of Sturgeon’s most reprinted stories and is currently available electronically in Microcosmic God: Volume II of the Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Continue reading →

Margaret St. Clair and Her Causes

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“The Causes”
Margaret St. Clair
First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1952
Currently available in The Hole in the Moon and Other Tales

Margaret St. Clair (1911-1995) was born on this date, February 17. Although she wrote eight novels, she is best remembered for her short stories, both under her own name and the pseudonym Idris Seabright. “The Causes” was one of the Seabright stories, most of which were published in F&SF.

Bar stories and the closely related club stories, which are often some type of tall tale, have a long history in the science fiction and fantasy fields. “The Causes” falls into this subgenre. It’s a fun and clever little story. Continue reading →