Random Ruminations

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I haven’t posted much in the way of updates in while. There’s not a lot going on (that I want to talk about) that can make a full post, so this will be a few items that have been going on.

I participated in NaNoWriMo this year.  My goal was to write 50k words of short fiction.  I hit that with a day to go. Now I just need to finish the stories that are still incomplete.  What I thought would be short stories have turned into novelettes and novellas.  I have two science fiction, one crime, and one (very) dark fantasy to wrap up.  I’ll probably finish the fantasy since I have most of the remaining chapters fleshed out in my head and the last chapter written.

As I announced the other day, I’m going to try to post a review of a ghost story every day until Christmas. I’m also going to post other things here, so there may be days with more than one post.  I’m also going to try to post some things at Futures Past and Present relating to the 90th anniversary of Astounding/Analog.  In addition, January is Vintage Science Fiction month, so I want to try to do some posts about that.  At least until the spring semester gets rolling.

I’ve been trying to work through some courses on time management, entrepreneurship, and professional development.  Those stalled out do to Real Life commitments. I’m hoping to get back on track over the holidays.

And finally, a chance to gloat. I attended a conference in Houston just before Thanksgiving.  It was cheaper for the university to rent a car than buy me a plane ticket. This is the rental car they gave me at the airport. It only had 4 miles on it when I drove it out of the parking lot.  It had a lot more than that when I returned.  In some ways, this was the best part of the trip.

Christmas Ghosts: “The Veiled Portrait” by James Grant

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“The Veiled Portrait”
James Grant
Available in The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume 2
Paper $16.99
Ebook $7.99

Today’s selection is a nice little tale that isn’t set at Christmas but is still chilling.

The story is set a year after the Indian mutiny of 1857. Narrated by an unnamed soldier recovering from wounds, it concerns an act of betrayal by a fellow soldier. Continue reading →

Have You Heard About the Rogue Blades Foundation?

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So Jason M. Waltz, publisher of Rogue Blades Entertainment, apparently has too much time on his hands, because he’s also founded the Rogue Blades Foundation. (I’m kidding, Jason.)  I know this isn’t exactly breaking news, as it was announced roughly a month ago, give or take a few weeks. I’ve been busy with the end of semester stuff, you know, exams and the like.

So in case any of you have been living under a rock not been paying attention for the last month, or like me not on Faceplant, here’s the skinny. The Rogue Blades Foundation, which is a different entity than Rogue Blades Entertainment, is about heroes. Here’s the Mission Statement:

RBF, in proactive partnership with authors, artists, and other creators, and in cooperation with other originators and proponents of heroic examination, commits to pursue, publish, promote, and perpetuate high quality heroic literature through a mix of popular, scholarly, and literary works. RBF will pursue the return of true heroism to be shared across the globe with today’s readers and tomorrow’s leaders.

That’s something I can get behind.  We need a return to heroic values these days, and I fully support the Rogue Blades Foundation in this endeavor. In fact, I’ve put my money where my mouth is and have made a donation.  There are a number of donation levels, and there are memberships as well. I’ll be buying a membership in January when my cash flow returns to something resembling normal.

The Foundation has announced it first two publications, Robert E. Howard Changed My Life, a nonfiction collection of essays about the impact REH has had on people, and The Lost Empire of Sol. You can see the cover at the top of this page. The collection of sword and planet stories has been moved between the back and front burners for a number of years but is finally going to see print now that RBF has taken the reigns. If this is the book I think it is, I have read a couple of the stories in them that were published individually some years back. I can’t wait for this one.

All of this is not to say Rogue Blades Entertainment is being mothballed. Quite the contrary.  There’s a weird western anthology coming up that’s going to be awesome. I know, because I’ve read an ARC. My review will be posted when the publication date is formally announced. There are also three other anthologies I’m excited about because I’ve got stories in them.  Details to follow when I’m free to give them.

So as you can see, there are some exciting things happening at Rogue Blades. Here’s your chance to get involved now.  You don’t want to be left behind.

 

Christmas Ghosts: “The Governess’s Story” by Amyas Northcote

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“The Governess’s Story”
Amyas Northcote
available in Winter Ghosts: Classic Ghost Stories for Christmas
ebook only $0.99

There’s an old English tradition of sitting around the fire on December evenings, especially on Christmas Eve, and telling ghost stories. I’m not sure when or how this tradition got started, but I like it.  The practice never caught on here in the States, which makes me think it started in the late 1700s or early 1800s. I’ve always associated telling ghost stories at Christmas with the Victorians, probably because Charles Dickens had some success with them.

But I digress.  I’m going to attempt something here, and that’s to post a review of a ghost story set at Christmas every day until Christmas.  (I’m writing this on the 17th.)  We’ll see how it goes.  I’ll be drawing from a number of different books and will try not to review stories from the same book two days in a row.  I will also try to avoid spoilers as much as I can. Continue reading →

Spider John is Back in A Bottle of Rum

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A Bottle of Rum
Steve Goble
Seventh Street
Paper $15.95
ebook $9.99

I became a fan of Steve Goble’s Spider John mysteries from the first book. The idea of a pirate solving mysteries is one of the freshest I’ve come across in a long time. The current installment in the series is no exception.

Before I get to the review, I would like to thank Samantha Lien from Seventh Street Books for providing me with a PDF review copy. I have been spending so much time staring at a screen the last couple of months that I went ahead and bought a print copy to save strain on my eyes.  It was money well spent. Continue reading →

Pierre Louys’s Birthday

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Pierre Louys (no, I don’t know how to get WordPress to put the oomlaut or whatever its called over the “y”) was born on this date, December 10, 1870.

The reason he is remembered much today is that Robert E. Howard gave his girlfriend Novalyne Price a copy of his collected works for Christmas in 1934.  Much of the book (I have a copy but haven’t read it) is erotic in nature.  Novalyne called it pornography. Howard strongly disagreed.

So just for giggles I thought I would do a birthday post on ol’ Pierre.

Margaret Brundage’s Birthday, 2019

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Margaret Brundage was born on December 9, 1900. She passed away in 1976. She is best remembered as a cover artist for Weird Tales. Some of her most famous works appeared in the 1030s. Since I’m swamped with grading final exams, I’m going to let her art speak for itself.  You’ll find the art below the fold. Keep in mind, some of these may not be safe for your work. Continue reading →

“Mars Minus Bisha” and Leigh Brackett

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“Mars Minus Bisha”
Originally published in Planet Stories, January 1954

Today, December 7, marks the birth of Leigh Brackett (1915-1978). As has become customary in these here parts, we observed that day by reading one of her works. This year it’s the story “Mars Minus Bisha”.

The was collected in the long out of print book The Coming of the Terrans. It’s set in the year 2016. Fraser is a doctor doing research on viruses outside a remote Martian village. He lives in a Quonset hut juts past the edge of town. He’s not exactly welcome there. Continue reading →

Cornell Woolrich and “Tired Old Man”

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Cornell Woolrich

Cornell George Hopley-Woolrich was born on this date (December 3) in 1903. He passed away in 1968. He wrote most of his novels and stories under the name Cornell Woolrich, but a few, such as my favorite, Phantom Lady, were published under the by-line of William Irish. A number of his works were adapted for film and television, often under other titles. The most famous of these was the Alfred Hitchcock film, Rear Window.

So why am I doing this birthday post here rather than at Gumshoes, Gats, and Gams? Well aside from the fact that that blog is currently dormant, Woolrich did write a few stories involving the fantastic.

But I want to do something a little different. Harlan Ellison has a story entitled “Tired Old Man“, which he says is based on something that happened to him. Ellison had gone to a party and got to talking to an older gentlemen there. Ellison didn’t get his name. Later when he described the man to his host and some other friends, they all insisted that the person Ellison had been talking to was Cornell Woolrich. Only none of them saw him there.

Ellison explains all this in his introduction to the collection No Doors, No Windows, which is where the story was first published.  “Tired Old Man” is worth a read. Ellison adds some fantastic elements and a surprising amount of emotional depth to what is a brief story. I first read it years ago, and it’s stuck with me ever since.

I checked this morning to see what is available by Woolrich in ebook form. I’d bought the Centipede Press editions when they came out a few years ago, but I wanted something a little more portable.

There’s a lot that’s been published in recent years. I bought five short story collections. Here’s one of them, An Obsession with Death and Dying. And if you want a novel, start with Phantom Lady or Night Has a Thousand Eyes.