Category: Guest blogging

New Article: John Gunnison and the Home for Adventure

lucina

My newest PulpFest Profile is live today. This time, I’ve interviewed John Gunnison of Adventure House. Adventure House is my first shopping stop at every pulp convention. There’s always something wonderful to see, and even books that I can afford to purchase! His reprints are of special interest to me, I keep a bunch on hand for research purposes. I’m excited to find out more about Adventure House and I’ll bet you are, too! Read the article here.

New Article — “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”

lucina
Brother Can you Spare a Dime meme

I’ve subtitled this article “How The Great Depression Influenced the Pulps” because I believe that when society is truly down there are still bright sparks who transcend what’s happening around them and create anyway. There seems a parallel in today’s society. Those who can still create after two and a half Covid years, a war, and (in the U.S.) madly rising costs of food and fuel, as well as other shortages…well, then you’re doing okay. I had the idea for this article quite a few months ago, noting that the…

New Article — “Cleve Cartmill, The Devil’s in the Details”

lucina
Cartmill article meme

Have you ever heard of pulp writer, Cleve Cartmill (1908 – 1964)? If you have it’s probably because of his 1944 story, “Deadline” published in ASTOUNDING. That’s the one that had the FBI knocking on John W. Campbell’s office door. For real! Anyway, Cartmill also wrote pulp fantasy and I picked out three of those to review over at Black Gate. The article includes a brand new illustration by yours truly! Why did I do it? Honestly, the original art for one of the stories was quite hum drum and…

New Article – “The Harp and The Blade: A Bard’s Adventures in Old France”

lucina
Harp and Blade meme

I’ve a new article in the online magazine, Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature. Ironically, the book I’m reviewing is not a fantasy story, even though it was marketed as one for several decades. In fact, it’s an adventure story, originally serialized in Argosy magazine in 1940. The review is meaty, more in depth than I usually go. This time I felt it was well worth my time to dig deeply as it’s an interesting tale and highly enjoyable. You can still find The Harp and the Blade in print…

New article — “Pulp History — The Thrills of 1931”

lucina
The Thrills of 1931 ad

I didn’t know too much about Ned L. Pines before writing this article. Of course, I was familiar with the Thrilling  group of pulp magazines (I’m very fond of Thrilling Wonder Stories), and some of his other titles, Captain Future, for example. What I discovered was an ambitious and competent publisher who made a big mark on the Depression-era pulp magazine industry. This month we celebrate the 90th anniversaries of his first three magazines — Thrilling Detective, Thrilling Love, and Thrilling Adventures. FIND OUT MORE about Ned L. Pines at…

New Article — “Allen Steele — Captain Future and Beyond”

lucina
Allen Steele interview meme

One of the best parts of being a journalist is that you get to talk to interesting people. Allen Steele and I have a few things in common. We’re about the same age, have a long history writing for, or about, science fiction, and we both have a thing for Edmond Hamilton’s character, Captain Future. (And yes, I know, other people wrote Cap. Future besides Hamilton, but his stories were the best…no one wrote Curt Newton and the Futuremen like he did.) Contemporary author, Allen Steele, has written several new…

New Article — “Galloway Gallegher — Kuttner’s Sauced Scientist”

lucina
Robots Have No Tails_1952_2008

It was my birthday at the beginning of the month and along with the festivities came a molasses-like slow-down in my blogging plans. Thus this post is a couple of week’s late. How about we all just pretend that it isn’t late at all? Sound good? Okay, then let’s get to it. My newest article for Black Gate involves a popular Henry Kuttner character — Galloway Gallegher. Gallegher’s shtick/curse is that he’s a genius inventor only when stinking drunk. His attempts to detangle the activities of his sozzled alter-ego are…

New article — “A Hero Named Mayhem”

lucina
Johnny Mayhem meme

My newest article, “A Hero Named Mayhem,” has just gone live over at the online magazine, Black Gate. It’s a fun one, reviewing a long-forgotten science fiction series published in AMAZING STORIES back in the 1950’s. The eleven “Johnny Mayhem” stories were extremely popular with readers, had many die-hard fans, and remain fun to read today! Here’s how my article begins: “Johnny Mayhem, man of a thousand faces, leaping from body to body, putting right things that had once went…no wait! That’s the television show, Quantum Leap, which ran from…

New Black Gate article and a surprise pick-up!

lucina
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen_1984_cover by Michael Whelan_Ace Science Fiction Books

There’s no doubt that H. Beam Piper’s “Paratime” stories are some of my favorites. I like stories about time and multi-dimensional travel  and his are some of the best. My second article for the online magazine “Black Gate” is now live. You can read, “Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen: Piper’s Connecticut Yankee Tale” right here. As an added bit of excitement for the article’s release it was immediately picked up by a science fiction news aggregator — File 770, Mike Glyer’s News of SF Fandom and has a nice mention in…

Happy Birthday to Murray Leinster (and a new article)

lucina

Today is Murray Leinster’s birthday. He is, without a doubt, one of my very favorite science fiction writers. Leinster started publishing before 1920 and was was still publishing sci-fi teleplays and novels into the late 1960’s for TV shows such as “Time Tunnel.” (And since he pioneered (YES, pioneered!) the entire subgenre of multiple reality sci-fi stories, working on “Time Tunnel” is entirely appropriate.) My new article — “PulpFest Historical- 125 Years of Murray Leinster” is live now at the PulpFest blog so head over there and check it out!…