Tag: pulp story

Lybblas in the Spotlight: “The World is Mine”

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Lybblas 2 meme

In my second post about pulp-era aliens we take a gander at one of Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore’s Gallegher tales, “The World is Mine.” The five Gallegher stories are about a brilliant inventor who’s only brilliant when he’s drunk as a skunk. He invents “by ear,” solely from the subconscious. In this story he invents a time machine and shuttles in some Martians. These Lybblas are very cute and not at all as we usually think about Martians, then or now. The lexicon of aliens was much greater back…

The Road to Neotopia

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Incorruptible print books

Many science fiction writers are interested in “future histories.” Perhaps it’s a desire to control future events. Or a wish to explore another sort of time travel. Possibly, it’s nothing more than a desire to control something during uncertain times. For me, it’s about Neotopia. I have written about this before. It is my belief that we can make a good future based on human-centered values rather than idealized, elite, or globalized agendas. It seems a common opinion that the world has fallen (or is falling) into dystopian times. Naturally,…

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

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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 — “Galloway Gallegher — Kuttner’s Sauced Scientist”

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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…

“The Jovian Jest” by Lilith Lorraine

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The Jovian Jest_Lorraine

Last night, I stumbled upon a podcast highlighting readings of pulp science fiction stories by female authors. Curious, I listened to the first one and was horrified by the poor quality of the reading. I knew the story and although it isn’t my favorite of the author’s works, it certainly deserved better treatment than that. I thought I could perhaps do a bit better and took out my microphone. I made a few stumbles along the way but I think my reading is really okay. This morning I added an…

The Cosmos Contest – I won the Grand Prize!!

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Comos Original Chapt 17

I WON!! This is big…VERY BIG!! I just won the 2020 Cosmos Prize for my pulp story, “Battle at Neptune.”  This is a big win for me as it was judged as a pulp science fiction story by people who really know what they’re reading. From the judges: Grand Prize: Battle at Neptune, by Sara Light-Waller In which a desperate last stand buys time for a united Solar System to invent a new and devastating dimensional weapon to defeat the invader Ay-Artz. Includes original illustrations! We chose the winning entries…