Henry S. Whitehead

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Today (March 5) marks the birth of Henry S. Whitehead.  He was born in 1882 and passed away in November of 1932.  Whitehead was a contributor of Weird Tales and a correspondent of H.P. Lovecraft.  The year before Whitehead died, Lovecraft visited him at his Florida home and quite liked him.  Had he not died so young, Whitehead would have been a major author of the weird and fantastic.  I consider him to be so, and I’m sure I’m not alone in that.

Whitehead served for a time as the Archdeacon for the Episcopal Church in the Virgin Islands.  This posting would become a major influence on his fiction, as most of it dealt with voodoo and other fantastic aspects of Caribbean life.

Whitehead wrote no novels, but his short fiction is worth seeking out.  I reviewed “Seven Turns in a Hangman’s Rope” a few years ago.  Fortunately, his work is available in electronic format.  If I get a chance, I’ll try to read something else by him.

Quick Update

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Here’s a quick update on what’s been going on in my neck of the woods.

My wife had her first week of radiation this week.  It went well.  Hopefully, the next five weeks will go as smoothly.

The second week of March is going to be something of a challenge.  The sewer line under the house is cast iron and has corroded away in places.  We’re getting a new line installed, which means breaking through the slab.  The fun never stops at Casa Keith.  My brother-in-law is loaning us his camper, so we’ll be living in it that week.  Fortunately we’re on Spring Break that week, so school won’t be an issue.  My wife’s radiation treatments are in the middle of the day, so they will continue without interruption.

Things are settling into a routine.  I’m hoping to get back to writing fiction on a semi-regular basis this week.  I got two rejections, one yesterday and the other this morning.  Yesterday was from a small press publication.  The editor liked the story but liked others better and encouraged me to submit the next time they are open for submissions.  This morning was from a major publication in a different genre than I usually write.  The rejection letter was from the editor, not a form rejection.  She liked the story but didn’t think it would be a good fit for that particular magazine.  However, she did ask me to submit again.  I must be doing something right.

Blogging has slowed down, and that probably won’t change a lot for the next month or so.  I want to spend what little free time I can wrench from my schedule to devote to reading and fiction writing.  I’ll post a review from time to time, but it will be of something I’ve been reading for pleasure, not anything by request.  The only exceptions will be stuff I had previously committed to review that I haven’t yet.

Meditations on the Vagaries of Time

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One of the things I try to do on a daily basis is check the Internet Speculative Fiction Data Base to see what birthdays are today.  Most of the names I don’t recognize, and many of the ones I do elicit a “Why the heck are they listed here?” response.  I mean, Toni Morrison?  C’mon, gimme a break.

Eric Frank Russell with Bea Mahaffey

But I also see a lot of names I recognize that most people probably wouldn’t.  I grew reading a lot of the older stuff from the 30s and 40s.  Reprint anthologies were abundant.  DAW’s Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF series was being published in those days, Those, the Del Rey Best of series, and the Robert Silverberg edited anthologies in the school library were where I first became aware of a number of writers such as Ross Rocklynne, Margaret St. Clair, Chan Davis, Harry Bates, Charles L. Harness, Cleve Cartmill, Rog Phillips, Judith Merrill, Malcolm Jameson, Tom Godwin, Miriam Allen de Ford, Eric Frank Russell, and others. Continue reading →

Richard Matheson’s Birthday

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There are a number of familiar (at least to me) authors who are having a birthday today.  The one I want to focus on is Richard Matheson (b. February 20, 1926).  I’ve written birthday posts on Matheson before, and I really haven’t had time to come up with something new to say this year.

So here’s the approach I’m going to take.  Early in his career Matheson was a prolific author of short stories.  Some of his better known tales were adapted for the original Twilight Zone.  Those episodes, and others which Matheson scripted, are among the best the show aired.

Matheson’s stories were a favorite of mine growing up,  I intend to read some this evening.  What stories should I read?  Let me know if you have a personal favorite.

For Valentine’s Day, I Got My Wife a Heart X-ray

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Am I romantic, or what?

Today was a another round of tests, followed by a visit to the radiology oncologist.  The chest x-ray and the liver ultrasound are standard.  As I understand things (insert grain of salt here), these tests check to make sure the breast cancer hasn’t spread and to make sure the patient is up for the radiation treatment.  One of the first places breast cancer metastasizes is in the liver.  I didn’t know this.

The results of the morning’s tests are positive.  Positive in this case is a good thing.  It’s not always in some of these cancer tests/screenings/exams.  Sometimes negative is what you want.

The radiologist went through everything with us, explaining how cancers are classified.  And not just Stage 0, Stage 1, etc., but the more detailed classifications.  I think I understood most of it.  I told him I’m going to use him as an example in class.  I have a lot of premed students,.  My exams contain a lot of explain-your-reasoning type questions.  I’ve been telling them they need to learn to write clearly and accurately because if they become doctors, they will have explain to a patient, the patient’s parents, or the patient’s children what the problem is and how it will (and won’t) be treated.  Today I saw an example of a doctor who was able to do that effectively.

Kathy is going to undergo six weeks of radiation therapy, five days a week.  Then she’s done.  The only thing standing in the way is getting the insurance taken care of.  That should be done in about a week.

The only negative is that she can’t leave during Spring Break next month.  I was planning on shipping the family (including the dogs) out for the week to visit family while we have the sewer line under the house replaced. My plan was to crash with a friend and not have to pay for a hotel.  That’s not an option anymore.  Of course since insurance isn’t going to cover any of the cost, a hotel is the least of the expenses.  I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it.

Frank Frazetta’s Birthday

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Today, February 9, marks the 91st anniversary of Frank Frazetta’s birth.  Frazetta was born in 1928 and needs no introduction here.  Rather than write a detailed tribute, I’m going to post some of his covers and let the artist’s work speak for itself.  I’d post the reproductions of the paintings themselves, but I don’t know if fair use would cover that.  I don’t want to violate copyright.  In the comments, let us know what some of your favorite Frazetta works are. Continue reading →

Overdue Cancer Update

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This should have been posted a week ago.  Like when we went to the latest doctor in the process. Apologies for letting the day job get in the way.

The news is good.  It’s also short.  All the markers they look at in determining future treatment are what they want them to be.  The things that should be positive are positive, and the things that should be negative are negative.  To put it another way, we are looking at a best case scenario.

The treatment will be radiation and an estrogen blocker.  They started Kathy on the estrogen blocker that day and gave her something for hot flashes.  The last bit is disappointing.  I was enjoying the hot flashes.  For once we were in agreement on where to set the thermostat.

Kathy will have to have a chest x-ray and a liver sonogram in a week.  This is routine to make sure her organs are strong enough for the radiation treatment.  We aren’t expecting any bad news.  The radiation will be scheduled once the results are in.

That’s all the news we have now.

Blogging Northwest Smith: Yvala

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Catherine Lucille Moore was born on January 24, 1911, in Indianapolis, Indiana.  I’ve written multiple birthday tributes to her.  As I said for Robert E. Howard’s birthday two days, ago, I’m eulogized out.  So today in honor of her birthday, I’ll be revising a series I let go dormant, that of the Northwest Smith stories.  There will be spoilers below the fold. Continue reading →

Musings on Robert E. Howard

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Robert E. Howard was born on January 22, 1906.  I’ve been reading through the Conan stories for the series at Black Gate. (The latest post is here.)

I realize a lot of people have favorite Howard characters other than Conan.  Conan was the first Howard I read.  Call it imprinting, but Conan is still my mental template for what a sword and sorcery character is like.  I see more and more things each time I reread one of those stories.

I’m also not into the pastiches very much.  I’m open to reading some, especially some of the ones that will be published this year in the new comics, but to my mind they will never be canonical.  No offense intended to anyone writing them.  I feel the same way about the James Bond books. Continue reading →

Merritt and Fritch

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Two birthdays I want to draw attention to today (January 20).

Abraham Merritt

The first is A. Merritt (b. 1884).  His name should be familiar to most anyone who swings by this blog.  Merritt was one of the most influential fantasy authors of the first half of the 20th Century.  At one point there was even a fantasy magazine named after him.  Merritt was first assistant editor and then editor at The American Weekly.  Writing was only a side job for him.

I’m going to read some of his work this year.  I”ll probably start by rereading The Dwellers in the Mirage. Merritt wrote very little short fiction, but I’m going to read some of that as well.

William F. Nolan (l.) and Charles E. Fritch (r.) at Expo 67

The other author only wrote short stories in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror fields.  A member of the  so-called California School, Charles E. Fritch (b. 1927) wrote short stories on a fairly consistent basis until the early 1970s, after which his output slowed to a trickle until his death in 2012.  Several of his later works appeared in Whispers.  In the early to mid 1960s he was editor of the magazine Gamma.  He was also editor of Mike Shayne’s Mystery Magazine from1979 until 1985.

I may have read one or two of his stories when I was a teenager, but if so, I don’t recall them.  I do know his name pops up in the tables of contents of horror and dark fantasy anthologies from the seventies and eighties.  His work is also showing up in some of these anthologies that sell on Amazon for a buck or two.  I have a few of those and will read the stories in the ones I have.

If anyone has read any of his work, please let me know.