Writing Update for August and a Reprint Sale

Yeah, I know, it’s the middle of September. I’m a little late getting this up. I’m now a full time university faculty member, plus I still have my two part-time gigs, at least for a while.

I ended August with a total word count of 67,138 words, which comes out to an average of 2166 words per day. That was my best month so far this year.

I started off a bit ahead for September, since the first two days were a holiday weekend, but I’m a day behind now. That’s because I only hit a little over a thousand words per day this past week. Labs started was one of the main reasons. I have lab until eight or nine two nights a week, which means those days the word count probably won’t be but about a thousand or so.

We’ll see how the month ends. I’m going to have to fit in at least two thousand words somewhere else in the week.

The other news is that my story “When the Cows Come Home”, which appeared in Pulphouse a few months ago, has been reprinted. It’s available in An Afterlife of Really Creepy Stories edited by Dean Wesley Smith. It’s available at the Pulphouse Store. Just click the link.

Remembering Charles L. Grant

Today, September 12, is the birthday of Charles L. Grant (1942-2006). He passed away on September 15, just three days after sixty-fourth birthday.

I never got the chance to meet him, but he is to my mind one of the central figures of the second half of the Twentieth Century.

Grant left a legacy to the fields of dark fantasy and suspense in two ways. With his writing and with his editing.

Let’s take a look at both, shall we? Continue reading

I’m in an Autumn Frame of Mind

I don’t know what the temperatures have been like where you are, but around here (west central Texas), It’s been hot. You know it’s been hot when the highs are in the low to mid nineties and it feels cool. Most of the last month has seen temperatures aourn one hundred four to one hundred six, with some days hitting one ten or more.

What has that to do with autumn? Continue reading

Thoughts on Jack Vance

Today, as I’m writiing this, is August 28. There are several notable birthdays today. Joseph Shridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) wrote some excellent ghost stories. Then there’s comic great Jack Kirby (1917-1994). Science fiction author Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019).

The the one I want to focus on is Jack Vance (1916-2013).

Vance was a master of both science fiction and fantasy, and much of his work was a blend of both. He also wrote a few mysteries, which Subterranean Press collected in an omnibus about a decade or so back.

Vance’s crowning achievement was The Dying Earth, a sequence of stories set in the far future, where the sun had become a red giant. The physical laws of the universe have changed, and magic works. Continue reading

Anthology Submissions Update

Back in the last part of June and into July, I submitted six stories to six anthologies. These were themed anthologies, and to be eligible to submit, you  had to sign up for some writing workshops that focused on these anthologies.

I have gotten responses from the editors of four of them. I haven’t heard from the editors of the toher two yet. One of the anthologies was coedited, and the other was edited solely by one of the coeditors. In other words, that editor was involved in two anthologies.

I also know that editor was been slammed with some things that are taking up most of said editor’s time. This editor is also a writer who is posting daily to a closed group how they are doing in a challenge. The other writers taking part in the challenge, which is can you write as many or more words than this writer in a given period of time, are the ones getting the updates.

So far, I’ve gotten rejections from the editors.

However, I’ve also gotten positive feedback on what I submitted as well as some information ofn what didn’t work for some of the editors. That’s a win, as far as I’m concerned.

I’m not sure where I’m going to send the stories I’ve gotten back. I might put them in a collection myself. We’ll see.

The Versatility of Ray Bradbury

There were a lot of birthdays yesterday, but I was up late getting things ready for the first day of class today and wasn’t able to get a post up. Fortunately, I don’t have to do that tonight.

And that’s a good thing because today, August 22, is the birthday of Ray Bradbury (1920-2012).

I had seen some of Bradbury’s paperbacks in the children’s section of  the public library in Wichita Falls when I was in fourth grade. They were the editions with a sktech of Bradbury in front of a horzontal illustration of something in the book. They were on a spinner rack  with some Twilight Zone collections, James Blish’s Star Trek novelizations, and other books. I remember that was the rack I found Planet of the Apes on.

But I digress. Continue reading

The Enduring Legacy of H. P. Lovecraft

Today is August 20 as I write this. It’s H. P. Lovecraft’s birthday. It’s also my mother-in-law’s, but I’m sure that’s just coincidence.

Lovecraft (1890-1937) is a legendary figure in the horror and weird fiction fields. I doubt he needs much  introduction here.

It took me a while to warm up to Lovecraft. His brand of fiction didn’t appeal to me when I was a teenager.

Before you pick up stones to stone me, know that he is now one of my favorites. I’ve not read all of his works, but I’ve read quite a few. And the more I read, the more impressed I am with the fictional universe he created. Continue reading

Galaxy Science Fiction Is Back

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.