Secret Identity Card
So now I have joined the G.G Joe force! Check out my action card, and the rest of the team.
How Captain Kirk Led Me to Historical Fiction
It was Star Trek that got me interested in historical fiction. Not because I’d been watching the crew interact with historical figures on the holodeck—the Next Generation didn’t exist when I was a kid. And it wasn’t because Kirk and Spock once met a simulacrum of Abraham Lincoln. It was because, Star Trek nerd that I was, I’d read that Star Trek’s creator Gene Roddenberry had modeled Captain Kirk after some guy named Horatio Hornblower. I didn’t think I’d like history stories, but I sure liked Star Trek, so I decided to take a chance. Once I rode my bicycle to the library and saw how many books about Hornblower there were, I figured I’d be enjoying a whole lot of sailing age Star Trek fiction for a long time to come.
Collecting Brackett
I’ve read an awful lot of the work of Leigh Brackett, and much of it multiple times. I thought I’d share a photo of some of my favorite of her books.
On the top there is a great short novel, one of my very favorites by her. It’s actually included in the Sea-Kings volume immediately beneath it, but the version in that collection had so many typos I went out and re-purchased another version of the paperback I sent away to Joe McCullough, because when I’m re-reading one of my favorite stories I don’t want to be distracted by errors.
I mentioned the excellence of the compilation beneath it just last week (except for typos). The titular “Best-of” book was compiled by Brackett’s husband and is another one-stop shopping for a sample of Brackett’s best, although neither it nor Sea-Kings has ALL of her best.
Tales From the Magician’s Skull Issue 2
In case you hadn’t heard, issue 1 is heading out to subscribers now. And, as I mentioned, issue 2 is already headed to layout. I wanted to give you a sneak peek at the contents!
There are other plans afoot, but this is probably enough excitement for today. I’ll share some other information later in the week.
Sea-Kings of Mars
One of the finest anthologies I happen to own is Sea-Kings of Mars, which collects most of Leigh Brackett’s best short work. Not ALL, but it’s a great sampling. I’d only replace one or two of the weaker ones with other favorites of my own. If you happen to see a copy, grab one, because it’s out of print and prices seem to be climbing.
If you don’t prefer to have a book, you can get an e-copy of Leigh Brackett’s stuff from BAEN’s online site for ridiculously cheap prices.They also have a collection titled Sea-Kings of Mars, but it’s not the same collection. It’s still good, though.
Ambush!
When I was first getting into solitaire boardgames a few years ago I kept hearing that one of the best of them all was Ambush! from Victory Games, so I dutifully tracked it down, set it up on the table, and after playing one mission decided it wasn’t for me.
Boy, did I miss the ball on that one. I think the reason I didn’t appreciate it was because I hadn’t ever been exposed to heavier boardgames, and I didn’t give myself a chance to get used to the play. Now that I’ve been getting into more and more detailed tactical games, I got to questioning my earlier judgment that Ambush! had been fiddly and tedious. Chris Hocking, whose taste I agree with upwards of 95% of the time, kept telling me it was a great game and how he couldn’t believe I hadn’t liked it.
I found myself in the middle of a shelf purge of games I wouldn’t be playing anymore, and with that gaming cash in the ‘ol e-wallet chanced to mention to a gamer I sold one of the games to that I wanted to track down Ambush! again. He had the game and most of its expansions and happily sold them to me. They’re just in fantastic shape (thanks, Glen!). You see, Ambush! has been out of print since some time in the ’80s and it’s unlikely it will ever be reprinted, so the used market is the only place to acquire it.
Secret Project
Last year I mentioned I was working on two secret projects. One of them turned out to be Tales From the Magician’s Skull, but I haven’t revealed project two… until now.
I was the lead writer on Lock ‘n Load Tactical’s Heroes of Normandy: The Untold Stories, Volume 1. I wrote three of the tales in the collection and edited the others, along with some serious help from technical editor Hans Korting. It’s not QUITE available for release yet, but you can listen to an audio of the first few minutes of the first tale in the collection, “The Stovepipe Bluff,” written by yours truly, by going here.
The stories in the collection are all fiction, though they’re based around actual events in WWII, and they feature characters depicted upon counters in the Lock ‘n Load Tactical game series.
I’ll have further updates as the book gets closer to release. Here’s a link to the future ordering page…
The Skull Lives
I have the proof — observe, a copy of the issue, back from the printers. Addresses and envelopes and all that good stuff are being printed up and issues should be going out in the next few weeks.
Also, issue 2 has already headed to layout, and we’re now finalizing ads. How’s THAT for some sword-and-sorcery service?
Feast your eyes upon a random page flip, to the right. Oh, look at that. It’s a story by Bill Ward!
This is just the first step. Soon there will be multiple issues of the skull available for enjoyment.
If you missed the Kickstarter, it’s not too late to pre-order an issue.
Durandal
It was a late night last night, getting my revision ready for final turnover. Or, at least, hopefully final turnover. The morning that followed was delightful and promising but should remain mysterious for now.
So since I have nothing new to say, here’s one of Lamb’s very best stories, Durandal, as published by Doubleday back in 1931. That’s my personal copy. I very seldom see copies with dust jackets.
Durandal was originally published as three separate novellas, two of which were reprinted by Donald M. Grant Co. in the 1980s. They were planning to finally reprint the third, and I actually supplied them with its text, but nothing ever happened.
I intend to try, before the end of the month, a final time to get the complete collection printed by Bison Books/University of Nebraska Press. It’s criminal that this historical swashbuckler remains out of print. The problem is that Bison seems to have moved away from it’s historical prints. I’m going to give it my best shot, though. Keep your fingers crossed. And have a great weekend!
Paul Pine
Word has arrived via camel caravan that the complete collection of Howard Browne’s stories featuring hardboiled detective Paul Pine are going to be in print, soonish, from Haffner Press.
I actually pre-ordered this collection several years back, because Browne’s writing is sublime. He sounds a heckuva lot like Chandler, and as a bonus his novel plots don’t wander as much as Chandler’s do. The fourth and final Paul Pine novel, The Taste of Ashes, is a masterpiece that stacks up well against Chandler’s finest.
In other words, I’m really looking forward to the volume, especially because it contains one of the novels I’ve never been able to find, as well as some fragments.
The art chosen for the cover is certainly evocative and professional, but it looks a little more like it’s from a lighthearted ’80s TV series than the rather somber adventures Paul Pine experiences. Perhaps that cover will help attract new readers, though, and they’ll stay for the prose.