Pure Pulpy Plot Power

Cover of Weird Tales (October 1936).

I don't always have time to read but I want to encounter a wide range of literature. Enter podcasts, and if you're interested in classic pulp fiction, you'll love Protecting Project Pulp, which each week serves up a pulp classic in the sci-fi, adventure, or fantasy genres. It's good stuff and you can forget all about the dishwasher or those potatos you're peeling while you trek through the frozen north or wander the dark side of Venus.

As I burned through the archives, I came across a couple stories that warrant comparison: “The Tree of Life” by C. L. Moore and “Raiders of the Spaceways” by Henry Kuttner. Both stories were published in Weird Tales: Moore's in October 1936 and Kuttner's in July 1937. What's fascinating about these stories, especially if you listen to them back-to-back, is that they're essentially the same story.

"The Tree of Life" concerns an adventurer on Mars who is lured into an alternate dimension controlled by a "being" named Thag whose physical representation is a tree that consumes other creatures. Thag doesn't hunt it's prey. It calls its victims and draws them to it. When Thag calls, you must answer.

“Raiders of the Spaceways” takes place on Venus and tells the story of a man and woman captured by a space pirate who escape only to confront an even worse foe, an amoeba-like being that remains stationary and calls all living things that can move to it through some sort of telepathic suggestion. Eventually the hapless victims leap into the amoeba which consumes them.

The details and feel of these stories are radically different. "The Tree of Life," for instance, incorporates fantasy elements while “Raiders of the Spaceways” is pure science fiction. But these stories were published in the same magazine less than a year apart. There's something inherently powerful about the plots of these stories, in particular the concept of something nefarious that draws you to it despite your efforts to avoid it. You know it's deadly. You know it will destroy you, but you can't resist it. Does this remind you of any counterparts from everyday life? From a religious perspective, this sounds a lot like sin. On a more down to earth level, it sounds like drug addiction.

These two stories are entertaining for their elements of adventure, the strange places that they describe, and the clever ways the protagonists discover to foil the "monster." Entertainment value doesn't make them classics, though. It's the power behind that plot, the connection to a struggle that everyone faces at some level. The heroes are fighting our struggle and we desperately want them to win.

Cover Attribution: James Allen St. John [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons.

Story of the Week: The Forgotten

“… tick … tick … tick …” Hear it? That's the sound of your life ticking away. A timepiece, but not just any timepiece, plays a central role in “The Forgotten,” Derrick Eaves' story of death and burial on the frontier in eighteenth-century Canada.

Sarah's brother-in-law James arrives at her cabin one day to say that her sister Catharine has died and to ask for help with the preparations. James can dig the hole and fashion the coffin, but he can't bring himself to prepare the body. That task falls to Sarah, who lovingly dresses her sister in her wedding dress and brushes the corpse's hair until it's perfect. Catharine's few possessions that had made the trip from England to upper Canada are stored in a trunk. Underneath the wedding dress is a curious clock.

Sarah looked back down at the clock. It was made of solid cherry and had six oval faces encased in glass, each with a single spidery hand. One was clearly a second hand that ran backward. Sarah watched the hand in the next oval and noticed a very slow but clear movement–the minute hand. She wasn’t sure if the other four faces worked, as they appeared stuck in the twelve o’clock position. It must be broken, Sarah thought.

James and Sarah talk about Catharine's illness, the stillborn children, and Catharine's obsession with a fortuneteller. The burial is anticlimatic. James doesn't see the need for a prayer. He doesn't suspect God can hear them out in the wilderness. James tells Sarah that she can take what she likes of Catharine's possessions. Sarah's attention returns to the clock, which is still ticking.

Eaves evokes a subtle kind of horror with this quiet narrative that builds to a shocking climax. Do you really want to know how much time you have left? Would it make a good difference? If you like Edgar Allan Poe's stories of prematural burial, you'll love “The Forgotten.”

Photo Attribution: By Museumsfoto (Deutsches Uhrenmuseum) [CC-BY-3.0-de (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/de/deed.en)], via Wikimedia Commons.

2012: The Best of Times, The Worst of Times

I debated a long time on doing this post. Does anyone really care? But don't I need to give 2012 some closure? If I don't write this soon, the issue will be moot.

Let's start with the "worst" stuff so I can end on a good note. I suffered through a lot of rejection letters this year. I suffered through one long dry spell that lasted from April to December. That left me very depressed about the whole business of writing and publishing. I didn't finish writing a novel this year. I didn't make a professional sale. And I didn't write as many stories as I wanted to.

On the bright side, I made a triple figure sale. I created and published three Kindle books (one of my goals for 2012). I and three other writers started the SpecFic Collective. I sold a long story in December that I never thought I would be able to sell because it's too long. I made new friends and joined the W1S1 admin team. Not such a bad year. More of a mixed bag. I'm already feeling better. Bring on 2013.

Christmas Freebies

The SpecFic Collective boys are at it again, bringing you a selection of free eBooks just in time for Christmas to stock that shiny new Kindle (or your old one or your cloud reader, we're not picky.) Choose from the following, or better yet, download all of them. They're free for a limited time.


James is home alone, having once again turned down an invitation from his family to share in an evening out. He's about to come face to face with a thief of a distinctly unnatural kind. Soul Thief is free December 25 through 29.




A Sci Fi cyberpunk novella set on an Earth slowly going to hell. The Zombies of Death is the second of five science fiction stories following the adventures of Simms, genetic detective and all-round nice guy. Free December 25 through 29.




1 Dozen collects 12 flash-sized tales in the slipstream, horror, and science fiction genres. Eleven thousand words of weird, creepy goodness. Free from December 25 through 28.

Acceptance

After a long dry spell--haven't had an acceptance since April--I finally received some good news from a publisher in my email box. MuseItUp Publishing has accepted my long (11,000+ words) short story "Highway 24." I wrote this story a couple years ago and put it aside as it was too long to submit anywhere. I took it out in November and spent a couple weeks rewriting it to make MuseItUp's fall deadline. Just made it, if you use Pacific Time. "Highway 24" is a ghost story about an accident on a lonely highway that brings a young travelling salesman face-to-face with a dark secret from his father’s past. The tentative release date is June.

Word of the Week: Tawdry

What do you picture when you hear the word tawdry? You probably think of something cheap or gaudy: maybe some loud shirt that people wore to discos in the '70s; maybe a woman's bright yellow silk necktie with purple and green stripes; or an Anglo-Saxon abbess with a throat tumor. If you knew about the last one, pat yourself on the back.

In modern English, tawdry is an adjective for gaudy items which are cheap in appearance or quality. This usage has been around since the late seventeenth century. In the early seventeenth century, tawdry was used as a noun for a woman's silk necktie. The noun is a shortened form of tawdry lace, a term from the mid-sixteenth century, which is an altered form of Saint Audrey's lace.

Saint Audrey (circa 636-679)—also known as Æthelthryth, Etheldreda, or Awdrey—was an East Anglian princess who became a Northumbrian queen and later founded a double monastery in 673 at Ely in present-day Cambridgeshire. She served as the Abbess of Ely until her death. Her personal life was colorful and complicated. She convinced her first husband, Tondberct of the South Gyrwe, to honor her vow of perpetual virginity. Her second husband, Ecgfrith of Northumbria, initially agreed to honor her vow but later changed his mind. Audrey refused his advances and fled from York to Ely. Legend says that a miraculous, rising tide aided her escape. Audrey died of a tumor on her neck. Tradition says that she considered the tumor divine retribution for her youthful fondness for necklaces. Saint Audrey's Fair was held in Ely on her feast day, June 23, throughout the Middle Ages. Neckties and ribbons of shoddy quality were sold at the fair.

Interview and Free Stuff

Stop by the Rambles of the Literary Equine blog to read an interview with me. I talk about fairy tales, what scares writers, and where my ideas come from.

And here's the free stuff. Two titles from the SpecFic Authors Collective are still free. My story "The Crooked House of Coins" is free through today.

In a small Midwestern town at the end of a lane stands a crooked house, where deaths and secrets entwine. Two cousins, heirs to the family legacy, search for a treasure secreted in the old dwelling's walls, driven by gold lust and tantalizing clues. The Crooked House is a grudging giver, and some secrets are best left alone.

Milo Fowler's collection Alienated is free through Thursday.

Alienated collects five dark SF short stories:

"Insight" - A sculptor is able to see beyond our reality, but can she control her insatiable desires?

"In His Eyes" - On a farm in the distant future, an unwelcome visitor appears in the middle of a thunderstorm.

"Reverie" - Speech is the first sign of rebellion in a hive of highly evolved telepaths.

"Mo's" - The only racism that exists in this alternate history is between Humans and Greys.

"Doppelgänger Mine" - A man is stalked by his horrifying double. In the end, only one of them can survive.

Grab 'em while you can.