July 3 brings us more than one birthday to celebrate, so we’ll start with July 2, because I didn’t make it to the computer yesterday. Then we’ll move on to the ones from today. Continue reading
A Celebration of Birthdays
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Tag Archives: Hannes Bok
Bradbury Birthday Bonus Blog
In addition to looking at Bradbury’s short stories “The Illustrated Woman” and “The Illustrated Man” in the previous post, I wanted to look at a pair of stories that might not be familiar to many of you. Those stories are “The Pendulum” and “Pendulum”. The former was written by Bradbury alone; the latter in collaboration with Henry Hasse. These could be a bit of a challenge to track down, although “Pendulum” is currently in print in The Collected Stories of Ray Bradbury. Continue reading
We Need a Cold Wind in July
Unfortunately the only wind we have around here is hot. Which is too bad, because I am getting tired of the triple digit days. They’re killing my garden.
So if I can’t have the real thing, at least I can have a substitute. Today, July 2, marks the birth of Hannes Bok (1914-1964) and Craig Shaw Gardner (b. 1949). I’m going to hold off looking at Bok because I hope to take a closer look at some of his novels at a later date.
Craig Shaw Gardner
Craig Shaw Gardner is still alive, AFAIK, but he his productivity has dropped off in recent years. He doesn’t have an active website. The one I found listed for him in multiple places isn’t him. Gardner is best known for writing humorous fantasy novels in the 1980s. His short fiction, however, tends to be horror.
A Cold Wind in July was originally published as part of the Necon Classic Horror series; it was number 16. It is currently available in ebook for $3.99. Continue reading
Zelazny and Donaldson
There are a number of birthdays today of writer’s whose names I recognize, but I’m gong to focus on what, in my mind, are the two most prominent, Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) and Stephen R. Donaldson (b. 1947). Continue reading
Two (Count ’em, Two) New BAF Posts at Black Gate
I’ve not posted here much in the last few weeks, but I’ve still been busy. I’ve had two Ballantine Adult Fantasy posts over at Black Gate. The first, which went live a few weeks ago, was over Hannes Bok’s The Sorcerer’s Ship. The one that went live today was over Deryni Rising by Katherine Kurtz.
I’ve also posted some reviews at Amazing Stories. This week it was the poetry collection They Say the Sirens Left the Seas by James Hutchings. Before that it was Lee Martindale’s collected fiction, Bard’s Road. And at the beginning of July, I reviewed the final volume in Joshua P. Simon’s Blood and Tears Trilogy.
I’ll be posting more here and at my other blogs over the next few weeks. Stay tuned.
Blogging Northwest Smith: Nymph of Darkness
“Nymph of Darkkness”
C. L. Moore
For years, “Nymph of Darkness” was one of the rarest Northwest Smith stories. The reason was because C. L. Moore refused to give permission for the story, first published in 1935, to be reprinted. It wasn’t until the 1981 Worldcon that she relented. The first book reprinting occurred the following year in Gosh! Wow! Sense of Wonder, edited by Forrest J. Ackerman.
Ackerman, it turns out co-wrote the story with Moore, although she retained 75% of the rights, meaning it wouldn’t be reprinted without her permission. A technicality in the copyright for the story actually allowed it to be reprinted once against her wishes.
“Nymph of Darkness” first appeared in Fantasy Magazine in April 1935 and was later reprinted in Weird Tales in the December 1939 issue. It wasn’t included when most of the other stories were published in the 1950s by Gnome Press.
I’m not sure why Moore didn’t allow for its reprinting. The story, in my mind at least, is a good story. It’s not as long as most of the others, but still, it’s solid. Continue reading