Category Archives: Uncategorized

Starting a Newsletter?

8 Replies

I’ve got a question for you. Actually, more than one. I’m going to start a newsletter at some point soon. The first thing I need to decide is what service to use. I’ve heard bad and good things about MailChimp. I know there are alternatives, and I have a vague memory of hearing negative things about them.

Do any of you have any suggestions?

Second question(s): What would you like to see in a newsletter you subscribed to? What would you not like to see? What make you not read a newsletter?

What are your ideas on frequency? Length? Content, meaning what should be included that wouldn’t be posted here on the blog?

What Series Were Popular When You Were Young That Are Forgotten Now?

12 Replies

Maybe it’s middle-aged nostalgia, but over the last few months, I’ve been thinking in general about series that  were poppular when I was in junior high, high school, and college. I’m talking about ones that everyone was reading or that were ubiquitous. You found them everywhere, they seemed to stay in print, and the authors and the series were well-known. Continue reading →

Five Major Print Digests Sold

3 Replies

All five of the major print digest magazines have been sold, according to Amazing Stories. Amaziing Stories is only reporting on Asimov’s, Analog, and F&SF, but the sale also appears to include Hitchcock’s and Ellery Queen.

To quote Amazing Stories:

There’s been a change on the websites for Asimov’s Science Fiction, Analog Science Fiction, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine.  The bottom of the page used to list “© 2024 PENNY PUBLICATIONS, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.”.

That same line now reads,  “© 2025 1 PARAGRAPH, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED”.

This same change can be seen on the webpages for the two mystery magazines.

I’ll post further details when I learn them.

 

Galaxy Science Fiction Is Back

4 Replies

This was announced a couple of days ago, but I missed it.

Starship Sloane Publishing is reviving Galaxy Science Fiction.

A bit of history. Back in the 1940s, the top science fiction magazine was Astounding Science Fiction, edited by John W. Campbell, Jr., although arguments can be made that Thrilling Wonder Stories and perhaps Startling Stories were more entertaining. Planet Stories was still being published, but other than an occasional story by Leigh Brackett, it wasn’t publishing many stories of note. Amazing Stories was stumbling along, the Shaver Mystery not yet upon us.

All that changed at the end of the decade when two new magazines came on the scene. One was The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which appears to have ceased publication.

The other was Galaxy Science Fiction. Edited by Horce L. Gold, it was as different from Astounding as it was possible to be. Whereas Campbell focused on the science, wanting reigid adherence to known scientific principles as much as possible, Gold stressed soicology over physics, psychology over engineering.

Many of the classic stories by Fredril Pohl and C. M. Kornbluth were published there, as were stories by Robert Sheckley and Phillip K. Dick.

The first issue is free as a PDF download.

Starship Sloane Publishing also relaunched Worlds of If last year.

What Do You Mean, This is a Commercial Site?

3 Replies

So all of a sudden, I can’t see traffic stats unless I upgrade to a paid subscription. Jetpack has decided this is a commercial site for some reason.

Also, Akismet, the spam blocker, thinks the same thing. At least with them, I have a way to appeal. I’m in the process of doing so.

Sounds like an extortion racket to me.

I have been planning something that will probably involve migrating to another platform later this year or early next year. Certain other ducks have to be in a row first. I may have to accelerate my plans.

Stay tuned.

Remembering Carolynn Catherine O’Shea

5 Replies

Carolynn Catherine O’Shea

One of the themes of the blog this year has been bringing attention to writers who have faded into obscurity and whose work has been forgotten. No other writer fits this description more than Carolynn Catherine O’Shea. Even many of the most knowledgeable pulp scholars know little about her. When I asked Mark Finn for information while researching this article, he told me he had never heard of her. That was when I knew I had my work cut out for me.

Lynn, as she preferred to be called, knew (and in some cases worked with) many of the major writers of the pulp era, and was an accomplished author herself. This was before she became a screenwriter in Hollywood. Blacklisted in the early 1950s, she turned to writng crime novels under a variety of male psuedonyms. Later in her life, she took bit parts in movies and television shows before withdrawing completely.

Unfortunately, hard facts about her life and writing are scarce and are mixed with a great deal of conjecture. I’ll try to separate the reality from the myths in this post. I’ll start with the facts I’ve been able to verify and then deal with the conjecture. I’ll list all my sources at the end of the post. Continue reading →

Writing Update, January 2024

Leave a reply

Just a quick update on the 2024 Words per Day in 2024. I hit the target and averaged 2031 words per day in January.

So far, that’s a win for the year. I didn’t write anything yesterday because I was on the road, so I’m starting February behind. I’ll catch up.

Writing included blog posts, an article for REHUPA, which I’ll reprint here in a few weeks, and or course, fiction. I’m working on what started out as a short story but is heading into novella territory. I’ve got some otyher fiction I need to finish, as well.

So that’s  how things stand with the writng at the moment.

Onward to February.

RIP, Tom Purdom

Leave a reply

Tom Purdom (1936-2024) has died. He passed away on January 14.

Purdom began writing science fiction in the late 1950s. He took a break from writing in the early 1970s and then returned in the 1990s. His most recent publication was “Exit Contract” in the May 2023 issue of Asimov’s.

Purdom’s name was one of the ones suggested when I asked what writers needed more exposure. I’ve always enjoyed his short fiction, and I intend to read some of it over the next few months. I’ll report on it here.