AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION PRESENTS THE MOON MAN VOL. 3

During the days of the Great Depression, the suffering endured by the people of Great City seemed to rain only upon the downtrodden. The elite rick continued to live the high life while their fellow citizens scrambled to get food to eat and a roof over their heads. Police Detective Sgt. Thatcher considered this injustice and decided to become a modern day Robin Hood, stealing from the rich to give to the poor. 

Thus he donned a fish-bowl like one way dome of argus glass and became the notorious Moon Man, one of pulpdom’s most unique heroes. Here, in this new volume, the Moon Man, and his sidekick Ned, take on a madman treasure hunter, aviators duped in committing crimes and a crooked lawyer. Three brand new tales of action and adventure by David Noe, Jeremy Lamastus and Kevin Findley continuing the saga of the weirdest avenger of them all; the Moon Man.

Artist Ted Hammond provides the cover and Jeff Dobberpuhl the black and white interior illustrations, book design by Rob Davis.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!

Available now from Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle.

Series Work and Genre Hopping

Knowing so many writers the way I do (both in person and through your work), I know that some favor series work and like to go back and revisit the same character(s) over and over again or the same genre repeatedly. Others tend to leap all over the place, from one new character/world to another and bouncing between genres with the kind of abandon that can risk whiplash. Let's talk about that, shall we?

Do you have a preference between writing a series or writing unconnected stories, particularly those involving different genres? Which genres have you told stories within?

Scott Roche: I write in multiple genres. I've written sci-fi, lit fiction, horror, fantasy, urban fantasy, gaslamp fantasy, superhero stories, romance.

Lucy Blue: I really hope that the stranglehold of the series is finally coming to an end. 'Cause I hate them. As a writer and as a reader. But publishers, be they mainstream or indie or the algorithm of the 'Zon, just adore them for all the same reasons Hollywood does--once you've sold that can of beans, you know how to sell that can of beans, even if the cook changes the recipe a bit with every shipment. 

Amelia Sides: I prefer writing stand-alones in a similar world or a series of characters then series, but series seem to be what publishers want.

Paul Landri: Everything I've done so far has been a series. Crimson Howl is superhero pulp fiction and lends itself well to the serial format. My Simon and Kirby project is, of course, a serial since it's based on their comic books. I tend to stay with one particular genre until it's finished until I move on to my next project which will likely be horror with a historical bent (Al Capone vs. vampires? Samurai vs. zombies? Oh hell yeah!)

Matthew Barron: I tend to get bored doing things that are too similar, so I might revisit characters and worlds but I like to explore other things in between. I've written urban fantasy, horror, high fantasy, science fiction, short stories, plays, books, and graphic novels.

Sean Taylor: I much prefer to write non-series work, especially series work in the "epic" category. I have less vile for a recurring character in a series, a la James Bond or Ms. Fisher in standalone stories than I do for a multi-part series that needs several volumes to tell its tale. Not everything has to be the freakin' Lord of the Rings, even in fantasy. I do however like to go back and revisit certain characters, but only when I have a new story to tell for them, such as with Rick Ruby or with some of my superhero folks from the iHero/Cyber Age Adventures days. 

Rachel Burda Taylor: I like series, but I go back and forth between a series that follows a single character/couple and a series based in the same world and loosely following a world-problem but with a different Protag/LI and stand-alone plot for each book.

Aaron Rosenberg: I do bounce between genres, but I also write both standalone novels (and short stories) and series. There are times when, even if I love a character, I know their story is done—DuckBob is one of those, I revisit him in short stories occasionally but the novel arc was four books and finished. Other characters and their stories are a one-and-done, not because I don’t like them as much but because the story is told and it’s time to move on. I couldn’t write just one character, series, or even genre ad infinitum but there are plenty of characters and stories that I feel warrant more than one book, and I do revisit my favorite genres a lot.

As far as the genres themselves, I’ve written: urban fantasy, epic fantasy, dark fantasy, near SF, far-flung SF, space opera, superheroes, action-adventure, spy thriller, mystery, Western, romance, cozy, humor, and probably a few I’m forgetting. 

Ef Deal: When I create a cosmos, the characters lead full lives, so once one conflict is resolved, there’s no reason to assume there won’t be another one. When I wrote my first novel, it ended by setting up both political and ecclesiastical conflicts that my MC didn’t think would involve her, but I realized would absolutely have to involve her, so I began writing more stories. They are all standalone, but they are also sequential. I have planned nine novels in that series so far.

My current work is a steampunk series and again it evolved into a series because the characters were all involved with external affairs that created more conflicts. They have histories and futures. I have to tell their stories.

Brian K Morris: As a reader, I've loved series books (Doc Savage, The Shadow, Mack Bolan, Remo Williams, Captain Hawklin, Abraham Snow, Code Name Intrepid, etc.). As a writer, however, I've only recently begun work on a series, simply because certain mechanics of recurring characters (exposition-wise, mostly) intimidated me until recently.

Ron Thomas: Series for novels. One offs (that might be revisited) for short stories. Genres: action/adventure, sword & sorcery, science fiction.

Julie Cochrane: I like series fiction. It's what I like to read and what I like to write.

That said, some jumping around is, for me, necessary because at some point I can't continue to write a series while trying to sell the first book in it. There's just too much risk for me. So that has me, now, reaching out to do something different so I can keep writing while querying agents.

Also, there is the realistic possibility that trad publishing may look at my current work and say, "Meh."

I need a plan B, and that turns out to be something very different.

I've written military SF of the cloak and dagger variety and now I'm really feeling it for urban fantasy.

John French: Over the many years I have been writing I have created several series characters, many if whom have found their way into their own collections, which is another advantage. When I'm behind a vendor's table, I find that people like to buy books about the same character, and if I have more than one book about that character, they sometimes buy more than one or buy another when they come back. 

Bobby Nash: I do both. Series are fun because you get to revisit the characters again and again. Readers also enjoy series so they can keep up with characters they love (or hate). There is something fun about a stand-alone though. Even my series book wrap up the main plot in each book. I play in most genres. It’s fun.

Susan H. Roddey: I love the idea of a series, but it never seems to work out well for me in execution. I tend to get bored a little too easily. Most everything I write starts out standalone, but eventually evolves into something that could have additional books. The problem is, it puts too much stress on my ADHD squirrel brain and I end up falling off with everything. 

Tamara Lowery: I personally prefer writing a series. I love spending prolonged time with characters I've created, getting to know them and making their lives difficult. Of course, I've had immense fun writing the few short stories I have. I do have a couple of stand-alone longer works I wish I had time to get to. There's just not enough time to dedicate to everything.

The two series I do have published and in process are both action/adventure, but one is semi-historical dark fantasy that I intend to take more towards grimdark as it progresses. The other is steampunk episodic fiction. I have an epic fantasy stand-alone awaiting my attention as well as a dystopian slightly political stand-alone in the wings.

What are the advantages (both marketing and as a writer) of doing a series?

Lucy Blue: Every book I've ever published with a NYC press has been part of a trilogy, and most of the indie ones I have, too, but not because I wanted to. Right now I have an ongoing cozy romantic historical mystery series, The Stella Hart Mysteries, and the first book in a new medieval romantasy series, The Dragon's Wife, is coming out on January 15. And I love all of those books and loved the experience of writing all of those books. And the Stella books have been some of my most successful. But my southern gothic horror book, The Devil Makes Three (which has also done pretty well) is very much a standalone, and I loved writing it that way.

Tamara Lowery: The advantages of series from both marketing and as a writer is a chance to more fully develop characters, events, and settings. From a marketing standpoint, it lets readers know that there will be more story, a chance at prolonging their escape to another world.

Ron Thomas: I hope that book 1 makes book 2 more sale-able and so on. (I have a nine-book deal, so I need to keep growing readership.)

Susan H. Roddey: In this market, a series is definitely advantageous if you get it in front of the right audience. Read-through seems to be the biggest draw, especially with Booktok being as insanely useful as it is. The primary DISADVANTAGE of a series is that there are a lot of readers who won't even start it until it's completed, which messes with sales algorithms and frustrates writers. It's part of why I prefer standalones -- both as a reader and a writer.

Rachel Burda Taylor: Advantages of series are that they are easy to get reader follow through from one book to the next, since the readers get hooked. As a writer, I really enjoy exploring my worlds (even the contemporary ones) and it's impossible to thoroughly do that in one book. I also like the feel of a bigger plot that moves from one book to another. World-building, if complex, is also just really time-consuming so a series cuts that down.

John French: I prefer writing about series characters, even when writing short stories. It saves my from having to create new characters and settings, which is one of the advantages of having series characters. 

Matthew Barron: Readers who like a series tend to come back for each new installment, so it might be easier to grow an audience that way.

Bobby Nash: Readers love following series, especially if they love the characters. When asking someone about their favorite series (book, comic, TV, or movie), it’s rarely the plot they talk about, but the characters. “I love the Bosch books” for example. Marketing a series can cover multiple books at once.

Brian K Morris: Marketing a series seems to be easier because it's mostly preaching to the choir. You would have a built-in base of readers and from there, you can attempt to grow it. As a writer, I find I don't have to pack EVERYTHING I want to say with a character because there will be other opportunities to make those points down the road.

Aaron Rosenberg: It’s a LOT easier to build a brand if you’re writing in a single genre, and even easier if you’re writing a single series. That way, anyone who finds and likes your work knows exactly what they’re getting when they pick up the next book.

Sean Taylor: The biggest advantage I can see is the marketability. Fans want to follow the next book, because fans really dig series. And as long as fans drive sales, publishers will dig series too. To me, though the whole enterprise leads to weakened storytelling brought on by the increased need to keep going. It's like when you get a surplus or supply issue of a comic book that just isn't as good simply because a new story had to come out because the calendar date changed. 

Paul Landri: I don't have a very big following yet but I know people are looking forward to Crimson Howl 2 and 3 so I guess my particular audience likes serial-type stories. It's definitely easier to market because it's pre-established and known (even in a limited capacity)

Scott Roche: Your fans know what to expect. It's easier to market. People love series.

What are the advantages of hopping from one new, unrelated work/genre to another?

Rachel Burda Taylor: There is something fun about learning something entirely new, especially in terms of genre/world. Creatively, it gets my brain going.

Susan H. Roddey: I'm happy with a one-and-done story. I also despise a cliffhanger, which is how so many contemporary series force read-through.

Ron Thomas: Doing something in between is a mental palate cleanser. I am working on a military aviation short story between action novels. Lets me come back fresher.

Tamara Lowery: The advantage of hopping from one unrelated project to the next is the chance to reach a wider audience and to keep from getting in a writing rut or just getting lazy.

Aaron Rosenberg: For me, it’s the chance to write something different than what I’ve just finished, and also to explore something completely new. I’ve done darker (for me) books and though they were fun, I wouldn’t want to always write dark. But I feel the same way about over-the-top comedy—the DuckBob books were a blast to do, and I do like to do the occasional short story in that idiom, but I couldn’t do that kind of wackiness all the time. Switching things up lets me experiment, which I feel helps me grow as a writer. And sure, people who like my SF comedies might not care for my dark occult thrillers. On the other hand, someone might try a genre that’s new to them because they liked my work in a more familiar genre, and that’s just awesome.

Brian K Morris: For me, genre-hopping helps keep me fresh. I don't enjoy reading two similar books in a row unless it's research. But that's a me issue.

Paul Landri: It allows a break from the genre you are working in. Horror will be refreshing to me since I've been consumed with superheroes.

Bobby Nash: It keeps me from getting bored. As a reader, I read multiple genres because I like multiple genres. As a writer, I write multiple genres because I like multiple genres.

Scott Roche: I'll let you know when I find out. But seriously, for me the benefit is purely personal. I enjoy writing in different genres and I have series in different genres.

Sean Taylor: For me, it's the joy of creating what I want to create. On top of that, I get to pretend I'm a classic writer like Wells, Bradbury, or Vonnegut, who rarely even revisited characters, much less wrote a series. 

Matthew Barron: The pros are that it keeps me interested, and if a reader comes to my table there is a lot of variety. The con is a big one though. Branding and marketing are harder, and a reader who likes one of my books might come back to my table or website and not find anything similar.

For new authors, do you recommend one over the other? Why?

Lucy Blue: As for new authors, my advice on this is the same as my advice on everything else--nobody knows what's going to work in the marketplace ten minutes from now, much less two years from now or longer when you finish your book and get it published. Write the best book you can write right here and now, the one that makes your soul sing, and if it features a character or a setting or a trope that will bear repeating in a series later, awesome, but if it doesn't, that's fine, too. Wait until you have a bestseller and a publisher clamoring for a sequel to worry about it. Writing to the market has never been a good idea for novelists, but right now, it's a TERRIBLE idea.

John French: To the new authors, I would recommend creating characters you can use more than once and, as a genre hopper myself, don't limit yourself to only one genre.

Bobby Nash: Do what works best for you.

Scott Roche: No. You need to write what you enjoy. You do you.

Rachel Burda Taylor: For new authors, I'd recommend writing a stand-alone and making sure they enjoy the process and actually finish the book before worrying about more. They can always turn a stand-alone into a series. When I see new writers talking about their 12-book series, I always wince a bit. Overcommitting is a great way to really sink yourself (for me anyway.)

Susan H. Roddey: As for a recommendation on what to write -- whatever you think you have the stamina to finish. Don't be an ambitious knucklehead like me and fizzle out mid-series, because that never seems to end well.

Sean Taylor: Write what you love. If you love a character and want to tell an epic story, do it. Just know it's not for me. If you want to hop around to different MCs and different genres like a pinball, go for it. I'll probably dig at least half of it. But the important this is to write what you want to write and create the kind of stories you'd like to see more of in the world. 

Ef Deal: As for new writers, I think having a series can be an advantage to be able to offer a future to publishers.

Ron Thomas: When I was new, I wrote whatever I could for whoever would take it (academic, trade journals, non-fiction magazines, pro wrestling mags … which are “creative non-fiction” on pulp paper). However, the book series was always in planning and “under construction” in the background. I felt I needed plenty of clips to be taken seriously to pitch something book-length and beyond.

Paul Landri: I don't recommend any author doing something they don't like or won't enjoy. Writing is done for yourself first an the audience second so wrote how you want and let the chips fall where they may.

Brian K Morris: I have no preference. Write what you want to read, pure and simple. Write to chase a trend and you'll find the trend changed by the time you publish. Write your best book for you, then market to find like-minded readers.

Aaron Rosenberg: I think it really depends upon the author. If you feel in your heart and soul that you are an epic fantasy writer, focus on that to start. You can experiment and try a hard SF short story once you’re established, but first make your bones on the area you already know you love. On the other hand, if you’re not sure which genre appeals to you the most, or you have several you love, then absolutely try them all. Flexibility can be a gift—some of my work has come about when someone asked me to write something and I said, “You know, I’ve never done one of those before. Sure, let’s give it a go.”

Tamara Lowery: I recommend new writers tackle whatever they feel most comfortable with, regardless if it is a series or various stand-alones. I also think they should experiment with both long form and short form. These are very different styles requiring different skill sets. Both can help make for better writing with practice.

Movie Reviews for Writers: A Complete Unknown

There is Bob Dylan, and there is the legend or the mythology of Bob Dylan. Timothee Chalamet perfectly captures the mythology of Dylan in this awesome flick. Yes, A Complete Unknown is a biopic, but it's not really even trying to be historically accurate. Instead, and this is intentional since Dylan himself was involved in the making of the movie, this is a biography of the fictional version of Bob Dylan, the artiste, the troubadour who refused to be boxed in by the very industry he longed to become a part of. 

And to be fair, is that not the very essence of what it means to be a writer, an artist, a creator?

That said, since Dylan is far more a writer (poet, if you insist on precision) than a musician (even garnering the Nobel Prize in Literature for his poetry), it's fitting we cover what this drama has to say about our own writing. 

So, what can we learn about being a writer from this mythologizing of Saint Bob?

One caveat first -- because of the nature of Bob Dylan and the way he and his fans like to present his story, it is highly possible that some of this could be seen as a bit pretentious. But please suffer through it. Because it's not about the pretentiousness itself. It's about the truth behind the pretentiousness. 

"Kind of an Asshole"

Early in the film, Dylan and Joan Baez are hanging out after a night together, and they begin to discuss music (of course). That conversation quickly moves from when they learned to play guitar to the notion of songwriting, as Baez rummages through some of Dylan's notes scattered about his apartment. 

JOAN: I write too. But I’m not sure there’s a way to learn that.

BOB: Too hard.

JOAN: Excuse me.

BOB: You try too hard. To write.

JOAN: ...Really.

BOB: If you’re askin’.

JOAN: I wasn’t.

BOB: Sunsets and seagulls. Your songs are like an oil painting at the dentist’s office.

JOAN: You’re kind of an asshole, Bob.

I am regularly asked by fellow writers if I'd be willing to take a look at their stories for one of two reasons -- (1) to give them my overall opinion of their writing or (2) an edit of the work. I always, always, always follow that up with two questions of my own.

1. Do you really want my honest opinion or edit, because I'm striving to see you be your best as a writer?
2. What's your budget?

Disregarding the second question for the sake of this review, the first is worth looking at. Many folks only want you to validate that their view of themselves and their abilities is echoed by your view too. Even Joan Baez felt that twinge of stung pride by the honest critique by a master of the art form. (Granted, it's an unsolicited opinion, so there's that.) But supposing she had asked, his response and opinion would have been the same. And sometimes that means that friends who also write might be offended if you don't embrace their brilliance. 

"Fulfilling a Myth"

Remember that first sentence I wrote way up there? Well, it's not only true for Dylan. It's true for you too. I mean, have you read your own bio for convention copy and back cover author info? Dylan expresses this via a series of letters exchanged with another mythological performer, the man in black, Johnny Cash. 

Dear Johnny, thanks for that letter. Let me start by not beginning. Let me start not by startin'. By continuing. This whole thing has gotten hard. I am now famous. Like you. Famous by the rules of public famiousity. It snuck up on me. And pulverized me. It is hard for me to walk down the streets I did before, cause now I don’t know who is watching. Who is waiting. Wanting. I don’t mind giving an autograph, but my mind tells me it is not honest. I am fulfilling a myth. A lie. 

Remember this: You can talk all you want about the myth, but the true you will be the one that readers can learn about only by reading your work. Just like fully understanding Bob Dylan, you must take in the sum total of his decades of writing and not just pigeonhole him into any single era, you too will be seen truly over your full body of work. 

But don't forget that your readers also have the ability and sometimes intention to mythologize you. They can, based on your words, turn you from saint to devil and back again many times. For example, speaking of Dylan and how he is a major draw for the folk festivals, Harold Leventhal states, "He’s our Elvis" -- not that Dylan ever wanted to be anyone's Elvis, just his own Bob Dylan. 

Likewise, the comparisons will come for you, and while embracing them for marketing purposes can be helpful, they can also become a box in which to trap you as a creator. Become the "indie George R.R. Martin" and see how much love you get when you want to stretch your crime-writing muscles. Become known for your cozy mysteries and count on one hand the fans that follow you to your new vampire romance series.

"Where the Songs Come From"

If you've ever watched or listened to interviews with Dylan, you'll learn quickly that he and I are very different in regard to talking (or writing) about where the ideas and the words come from. I have a whole blog about that process. Dylan shrugged off such questions with vague or nonsensical responses. 

He enjoyed the act of creating but not the discussion about that act. The truth was the act itself to him. 

Not only that, he saved some of his harshest comments for those who liked to ask him about that process under the guise of jealousy or copying, as he tells Sylvie (so named in the movie although in reality her name was Suze):

..Everyone asks where the songs come from, Sylvie. But if you watch their faces, they’re not asking where the songs come from. They’re asking why the songs didn’t come to them.

Ironically, he had little place for aping another's style, even though he himself had begun as a sort of homage to Woody Guthrie. 

"Good for Somebody"

Art outs itself. Even though companies spend fortunes on marketing, art often manages to find the audience it needs. And that's a good lesson for us. It may not be a huge audience. It may not be a profitable audience that lets you live only to write, but it is an audience nonetheless. 

You may have heard the idea of writing the story only you can tell. Or writing the stories you want to see out in the world. This is the flip side of that same idea. 

Dylan agrees, as he tells the crowd before beginning a new song (an audience that sadly wants to hear another of the old songs): "Here’s a new one. Hope you think it’s good. It’s gotta be good for somebody."

And he's right. Write that story. It's gotta be good for somebody. 

"They Change Keys"

Perhaps the biggest irony between the written work of Bob Dylan and the written or spoken words of Bob Dylan is this -- he changed the world, not just the world of music, but the world of well, the world, and yet he consistently either denied or downplayed any role he might have had in those changes. Nowhere is this seen better in the film than when he attends a party and overhears folks talking about him and his music. 

PARTY GUEST 1: Read Herbert Marcuse. No song can change the world. It’s too fucked up.

PARTY GUEST 2: (looks at Bob) That’d be news to him.

PARTY GUEST 3: Hey! Bob, can songs really change things?!

BOB: They change keys.

Now, he knew his songs changed a lot more than mere keys. He knew they were changing the world. But in spite of his own acceptance of his pretension when it came to songwriting and musical poetry, he refused to accept any pretension when it came to be a driving, dominant, cultural force. 

Yet it's impossible to look back on his work and not see how much impact his poetry has had on the world. Whether it's his protest songs of the '60s, his religious upheaval in the '70s, his seeming abandonment of both in his more rock and pop '80s, or his focus on more traditional sounds in the '90s and beyond, his music has been a driving force in all of it. 

So, yeah, sure, songs changed keys, at least on the music side, but the words he wrote, they changed the world. 

"Track Some Mud on the Carpet"

My biggest takeaway from A Complete Unknown, even with all the stuff I wrote above this, is that writers will always be wanted for what they have written, not what they want to write. 

What do I mean? 

Write a successful series, and the next book your publisher wants is More of the Same Vol. 2. Write a great romance novel and the audience who loves you wants another one that gives them all the same warm fuzzies. It matters not that you feel the urge to write a hard military Science Fiction thriller or a Literary Fantasy. 

All artists learn the lesson. It's easy to get put in a box and labeled. 

While performing at the Newport Folk Festival with Joan Baez, the audience requests "Blowing in the Wind" and other popular songs they've heard a million times before. Bob wants to play something new. 

BOB (CONT’D): No, no, no. Don’t do that. They all have that on records at home.

JOAN: (to crowd) You want to hear “Blowin’ in the Wind”, right? That’s why they came here, Bob.

In a similar vein, while being talked down to by Pete Seeger (who wants him to continue in the folk hero box they've put him in), he argues that as an artist, he can't be limited to what other people want from him. 

...More in this world to sing about than justice, Pete. And there’s more than one way to play a song. (then to Albert) they just want me singing the same songs, Albert. For the rest of my fucking life.

It's a constant thorn in his side throughout his career. His folk comrades wanted to box him into protest songs with "pure" instruments. His religious comrades wanted to box him in with Bible messages only. And so on. 

Sometimes his "biggest fans" opposed him with vehemence, as when Alan Lomax derides Dylan (to Pete Seegerz) for wanting to bring electric music to the Folk Festival.

ALAN LOMAX: No, Pete. We can’t. Fuck the Butterfingers. And fuck Dylan if he thinks he’s gonna play electric on our stage. And don’t bring up ticket sales, Harold. I don’t give a shit. Rock and roll is a cash-powered alien invasion crushing all authentic human possibility.

Meanwhile, what he wanted to do was write what was inside him. It was Johnny Cash who was able to put this into words for him. 

JOHNNY CASH (V.O. via letter): I’ll see you in Newport come Spring. Till then, track mud on somebody’s carpet.

JOHNNY CASH (after the electric show) Make some noise, B-D. Track some mud on the carpet.

I think that's maybe the most important lesson we writers can learn from this film -- track some mud on the carpet of the expectations that markets, publishers, and fans have of you. 

But we're not done yet. There's still one last message this amazing film has for us as writers.

"You Brought a Shovel"

While trying to talk Dylan out of performing with an electric rock band, Pete Seeger tells him a story about folk music, about how Pete and his cronies were trying to achieve a balance between pop music and folk music and how they kept trying to fill up the folk side of the scale with teaspoons of sand. Then he says the following:

PETE: Then you came along, Bobby.. and you brought a shovel. We just had teaspoons. But you brought a shovel. And now, thanks to you, we’re almost there. You’re the closing act, Bobby, and if you could just use that shovel the right way--

BOB: The right way... 

But Dylan isn't deterred. He goes out and rocks an electric set that changes music forever. 

Afterward, he gives this message to his old friend Pete: "The only reason I have a shovel, Pete, is because I picked it up. It was just lying there and I picked it up."

You're a writer. If there's something you want to write, do it. The shovel is just lying there. Pick it up.

Nominations for the Pulp Factory Awards are now open! Please read the below for categories and instructions on how to nominate!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NOMINATIONS FOR PULP FACTORY AWARDS NOW OPEN UNTIL 2/9

Lombard, Illinois – January 4, 2025

Every year, fans gather at the Westin Hotel near Yorktown Mall in metro Chicago to celebrate the best in classic and New Pulp literature. As part of those celebrations, nominations for the Pulp Factory Awards are open. The 2025 awards will cover works published during the calendar year 2024.

The nomination process will be as follows:

● Members of the Pulp Factory Facebook group have through Sunday, February 9 to submit their initial nominations for the Pulp Factory Awards. Any work published in print in 2024 can be considered for nomination. (Digital-only books are excluded.) Reprints are not eligible for individual awards such as Best Short Story but may be included in collections if those collections feature stories published for the first time in 2024.

● Nominations (by members of the Pulp Factory only) should be e-mailed directly to PulpAwards@gmail.com, with choices in any or all of the following categories. (You may nominate as many works in each category as you wish.)

o BEST PULP NOVEL

▪ Any novel published in 2024 in print format

o BEST PULP COVER

▪ Best cover produced for a pulp novel or anthology. Any final artistic product produced by AI app/server/machine will not qualify for any PF awards.

o BEST PULP SHORT STORY

▪ Best short story published in 2024 in print format

o BEST PULP INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

▪ Best interior illustrations for a novel or anthology, produced by a single artist for the book. Single illustrations or books with illustrations by multiple artists are not eligible for the awards. Any final artistic product produced by AI app/server/machine will not qualify for any PF awards.

o BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY OR COLLECTION

▪ Any anthology or collection featuring multiple stories by a single author (a collection) or stories by a variety of authors (a normal anthology). The book must have been printed in 2024 and must have contained at least one new story. In the case of a new story plus reprints, the book is eligible for Best Pulp Anthology but only the new story is eligible for the Best Pulp Short Story category.

● Members are encouraged to discuss their choices on the Pulp Factory Facebook group but note that your nominations must be e-mailed directly to PulpAwards@gmail.com to be included.

● After February 9, the committee will tally and craft a final ballot for voting (deadline to be scheduled), and that ballot will be submitted for fans to vote electronically for the awards. Awards will be handed out to winners during the Windy City Pulp and Paper Convention on Friday, April 4, 2025.

Questions and nominations should be directed to PulpAwards@gmail.com. This will ensure a more prompt response than reaching out to individual committee members.

Thank you for your interest, and looking forward to your nominations!

Motivational Monday: History Is Written...

Sunday Funnies: Two Easy Steps

[Link] What Is the Difference Between “Story” and “Plot”?

by David Young

We often say we should start at “the beginning,” which, in the words of Julie Andrews, is a very good place to start. However, it’s not necessarily true that the same kind of beginning works for every story. In fact, that remains dependent on a few factors, including where your story truly begins chronologically, as well as how your plot is structured.

Did You Just Say “Story” and “Plot” Separately?

Yes, indeed. While some consultants may call your story a “plot,” or an editor may mistake the plot for a “story,” they are distinct parts of the writing process that complement each other—hence the common misconception about their natures.

So, what are they, and why are they different? What purpose does each one serve, exactly? We can start by substituting other terms for each. Let’s learn some Russian!

In the Russian novelist boom of the 20th century came an interesting comparison between two concepts: syuzhet and fabula. Narratologists seeking to break storytelling down into clear parts defined fabula with the same meaning in Russian as it has in Latin: “story.”

Meanwhile, syuzhet was given a more nuanced meaning. The actual word roughly translates to the English word “subject,” as in the subject of an art piece or the subject of a sentence—the main focus. When thinking about syuzhet, think of that focus. You’ll begin to see why in a second.

So, What Is Fabula?

Other than simply saying the word “story” again, let’s define fabula in more concrete terms.

Scholars of Russian formalism saw it as the chronology of events as they occur—not the order in which they’re told. Greek tragedies acknowledged horrible battles before, after, and during the main scenes shown to the audience; but these were sometimes told out of order. Similarly, Inception (2010) acknowledges that there were events that led to the first heist we see at the beginning of the movie.

Whether it happens in front of the audience or not, there is an actual timeline of events that is unaffected by the way the story is told. Renfield is affected by Dracula well before Jonathan Harker heads out to the Count’s dark fortress—but we don’t see that happen. Regardless of which scene told Renfield’s part, his story is concretely part of the equation. It’s an inherent truth of the narrative.

Consider that a fable is a story with a purpose, with a message behind it; since “fable” comes from the Latin term fabula, just like the Russian word. So, when remembering fabula, think of the immovable timeline behind the narrative—the truth is the storyline.

OK… Then What Is Syuzhet?

On the other hand, syuzhet acts as the focus of the storytelling. If fabula is the truth behind a narrative, then syuzhet is the message in front of a narrative.

After all, by organizing events from a story in certain ways, you can mislead the audience or confuse the message, making a story tell a different truth. That is the power of the syuzhet, or the “subject,” of the story. That is what we call “plot,” and it’s how a movie like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) can surprise and delight an audience, despite the twist of the movie coming at the “beginning” of the timeline.

Because of how the story events are organized, you can give the audience a completely different experience from the original story—one that reveals more of the timeline and that narrative truth, making it clear what the story’s “subject” (its focus) should be. If the focus is on discovering lost memories, showing all those memories at the beginning would undermine the story.

This is why syuzhet and fabula must always work together: To have a narrative, you must have both story and plot complement each other.

Read the full article: https://thescriptlab.com/blogs/42366-what-is-the-difference-between-story-and-plot/

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION PRESENTS DAN FOWLER G-MAN VOL. 4

Classic pulp G-Man, Dan Fowler returns in two brand-new action- packed adventures.

When a Denver armored money car disappears into thin air, Fowler and a local agent find themselves looking to the skies for answers. Then Dan and his colleagues find themselves on the hunt for a demented serial killer who proves clever enough to stay one step ahead of them with each new kill. 

Writer Fred Adams Jr. delivers the action nonstop with Gangland’s number one nemesis hot on their trails. Twin tales illustrated by artist Sam Salas and wrapped up with a colorful cover by Michael Youngblood.

AIRSHIP 27 PRODUCTION – PULP FICTION FOR A NEW GENERATION!!

Available now from Amazon in paperback and soon on Kindle.

Happy New Year!

Motivational Monday: Start

Sunday Funnies: Plot Holes

[Link] 5 Plot Hacks That Just Might Save Your Novel

by Susan DeFreitas

Plot issues are the number one reason people come to me—and people like me—for help with their creative work.

And I’ve shared that, most of the time, these issues really aren’t problems with plot at all. They’re problems with character arc.

That said, sometimes the problem really is the plot. Which is to say, sometimes the problem with a novel really is what happens in the story, the order in which it happens, and the way that it happens.

And for real problems of this nature, there are real solutions. Solutions that I have seen writers apply in revision that produce changes that feel nothing short of magical.

Struggling with the plot of your current work-in-progress? Maybe one of these tried-and-true solutions will do the trick for you.

1. Shorten the time frame

Some novels really just have to be big, sprawling epics that take place over a long period of time—perhaps even over generations. But most stories? Don’t.

If you have a novel that feels slow in places, a novel that chronicles a long period of time in the protagonist’s life, or a novel that chronicles a whole historical period, my best advice to you would be: See if there’s a way you can tighten the time frame overall.

Because when you tighten up the time frame, oftentimes those slow sections just somehow magically disappear. When events occur close together in time, you get a stronger sense of cause and effect even if one event isn’t leading directly to the next. For instance, maybe your protagonist is still angry from her conversation with the antagonist the day before when he talks to his love interest later that day. If a week passed between these interactions, it wouldn’t feel like there was any connection between them.

But when you tighten up the time frame, that second interaction might feel like it’s invested with a whole lot more tension, because of the residual emotional effects of the first one.

For a novel that chronicles a long period of time in the protagonist’s life, you’re almost guaranteed to strengthen the sense of storytelling if you focus in on a shorter time frame—say, a turning point time in the protagonist’s life, which will still allow us to imaginatively fill in what happens in that longer span of time without having to plow through hundreds of pages of it.

Read the full article: https://janefriedman.com/5-plot-hacks-that-just-might-save-your-novel/

eSpec Books Assembles the Steampunk Monsters!

Monstrous Is a Matter of Perspective…

Classic tales throughout time pit humanity against creatures of the night, beyond mortal understanding. But what—or who—makes a monster? Folklore has its tale to tell, but might there be a different view? We present fourteen tales inspired by the masters of the macabre, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, paying tribute to their vision of gothic horror.

In conjunction with the Tell-Tale Steampunk Festival, An Assembly of Monsters brings you stories by:

James Chambers * Michelle D. Sonnier * Keith R.A. DeCandido * Jessica Lucci * Aaron Rosenberg * Dana Fraedrich * Doc Coleman * Danielle Ackley-McPhail * Ef Deal * John L. French * Christine Norris * Rachel Brune * David Lee Summers * Hildy Silverman * 

https://especbooks.square.site/product/an-assembly-of-monsters/155

Heri za Kwanzaa!

 May your meditations and re-assessments help
you become the person you want and need to be!

Happy Boxing Day!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Hanukkah!

 

Free Holiday Short Story -- "Nor Doth He Sleep"

 

Nor Doth He Sleep
By Sean Taylor
An iHero Entertainment Holiday Story

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:
"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,
With peace on earth, good will to men."
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

As the knife bit into the girl’s back, it pierced to the hilt, and a wet, red stream poured from the incision. Red and green lights from the street decorations blinked into the alley, flicking the scene from gray dirt and faded concrete to colorized extravagance and back to gray again The man watching impotently from a few feet away jerked against the two grunts holding his arms, but he couldn’t pull away. His fiancé lay on the ground, face pressed against the pavement, sputtering and coughing through her tears. On her back sat a third thug, a slug of a man in a denim jacket, his wrists all but rolling fat skin back to cover the cuffs as he played with the knife, wiggling it without removing it from the meat a few inches above the girl’s waist.

“Let her go!” he yelled, but in response all he got was a punch in his gut.

The two guys holding him laughed when he gasped to regain his breath.

“Let her go, damn it!”

Another gut punch.

“Or what? You’ll cry?” asked the tallest of the thugs, a white guy with green hair whipped about like a pretty boy in one of those Japanese comic books.

“Or cough up blood?” said the other thug, a squat muscle-head with fat arms stuck to his otherwise fit torso. “Or puke on us?”

Pretty Boy glared at Fat Arms, and he shut up.

“C- Carlos…” the girl stuttered.

“Hang on, Cynthia,” the man said.

All the while, I lay in the corner of the alley, hoping to God they all just go the hell away.

I had done the hero thing before, even worn a fancy-ass costume, well, fancy for my standards. Pretty sure it wouldn’t have even registered on the scale of guys like Pulsar and The Minuteman or chicks like Living Doll or Fishnet Angel.

Hell, I’d even worked with Doll and Angel since we all lived in the same damn city.

And just like the rest of them, I even had a “secret origin,” just like in the comic books. On the way to throw myself from the top of a worn-out building because of a sucky life and broken heart, I got stopped by some crazy woman who touched my arm and then told me the day I was going to die—four days before my 42 birthday. Only, she promised I’d die as a hero, a hero killed by another hero, one of the so called brightest and best of heroes.

And she’d been right… at first. Nothing killed me. Bullets? Sure, I took ‘em and they hurt like hell, but I got better. Take a punch in the face from a super villain who could derail a train? Lost some teeth and a lot of blood, but I healed eventually. Follow a suicide off a roof to cushion his fall at the bottom? Why not? Same shit, different day, as the saying goes.

That was me. The Grandstander, a.k.a., the “I got hurt but I got better” man. Even had my own goddamn room kept ready at the hospital.

Only last June, I turned 43 here in an alley in Cristol City, lost among the forgotten riff raff huddled beneath old newspapers and other trash in the shadows of the alleyway dumpsters. Very much alive. And very much aware that playing the hero could get me killed. Killed very dead.

No longer a hero. Just another man who had finally grown up and realized his own mortality.

So I quit. No going away parties or citywide celebrations of my time behind the mask. Just there one day and gone the next. The papers had run stories for months speculating about what had happened. Eventually they gave up guessing and just didn’t care anymore. No more “What Happened to the Grandstander?” I stayed hidden. Lost. Forgotten. Sleeping away the terror of death. Just the way I wanted it.

If only these punks would shut up and get the hell out of my alley.

Cynthia started screaming, and that set off Carlos, and the guys holding him tossed him back against the wall and wailed punch after punch into his gut and chest. He shut up fast, but they didn’t stop. After about a minute, when they finally figured he had enough, he dropped to his knees between them, struggling to breathe through what had to be several broken ribs.

I recognized the struggle. I’d been there more times than I could remember.

The slug on Cynthia’s back pulled the knife out and slammed it down again, this time into the muscle of her shoulder. Not as much blood, but a lot more noise from the girl. He jerked her head back, exposing the dirty skin of her neck to the night air, and I thought for a moment that he would slash her lithe little throat. Instead, he covered her mouth with his hand, leaving the knife in her shoulder.

“Zip it, baby, and all I’ll take is all your money, cards and the gadgets and shit you bought for Christmas presents.” He laughed. “Needed a new phone anyway. Saw you leaving Radio Shack when we followed you. Hope for your sake you got one of those.”

“Let… Let her go,” Carlos sputtered.

He was rewarded for the effort with a boot in jaw. A bone cracked. Loud.

“If not, maybe you could give me a little something else for Christmas, baby,” the slug said, grinding against her back.

A car drove by the mouth of the alley, and everything stopped just long enough to make out the music rumbling from a passing car. It was Springsteen reminding the city who was coming to town and making sure Clarence had been “real good” this year.

I laughed.

And immediately realized it had been a really, really bad idea.

Five pairs of eyes suddenly turned to look at me. Two pairs begging for help. The other three pairs biding their time to figure out if I was a threat or a witness or simply the same silent alley decoration they normally encountered.

For about a second, I wondered the same thing myself.

The slug ripped the blade from Cynthia’s back and stood up, pushing his blobbish weight to one knee to hold it steady while he pushed up with the other one. He wobbled a bit, but righted himself more easily that I had expected.

“Fuckin’ A,” he said. “Looks like we got some extra trash in this here alley.” He walked toward me.

I pulled my knees toward my chin and started to sing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. I kept singing while he walked all the way to me and crouched in my face. His breath reeked of onions and garlic. I didn’t make eye contact. He just stared, not saying anything, and I kept singing, going over the part where all the reindeer loved him a second time just to take up more time.

“Keep singing, Rudolph,” he said. “And remember you didn’t hear shit.” He flicked the knife at my wrinkled t-shirt collar. “And that way you can live long enough to booze it up again tomorrow.”

I felt the crotch of my pants grow warm and wet.

The slug laughed. “He pissed himself. The bum pissed himself.”

I stopped singing. “I did,” I said. “But not for the reason you think. It’s not you I’m afraid of.”

“A big man all the sudden, huh?” The slug cocked his arm at the elbow, knife in ready position. I grinned so wide he couldn’t miss it. He never should have pulled it away from my neck.

The butt of my palm collided with his chin and something cracked. Before he had fallen backwards all the way to land on his ass, I already saw blood draining from the corners of his eyes. I grabbed his hoodie to keep him steady and pulled him to me as I stood up. At six and a quarter in my shoes, I towered over him. My knee, which would have hit him in the stomach had he been a taller man, instead connected with his already busted jaw, and he went limp against me. I grabbed his shoulders and guided his face past the wet spot on the front of my jeans as he melted into the ground.

By this time, Pretty Boy and Fat Arms had let Carlos go and were running toward me. Pretty Boy held a clip-loaded pistol and was raising it at me. Fat Arms swung a military blade from sling on his thigh.

“Get her the hell out of here!” I yelled to Carlos, and as I hit the last word, Fat Arms was slinging his blade toward my gut. I weaved and dodged, but being a hidden and forgotten drunk had played hell with my reactions, and even though I missed the worst of the cut, the blade did manage to rip through my side and take a few inches of skin with it.

Red blood mixed with the coffee stains and dirt on my shirt, and I knew I’d most likely end up with an infection. Stupid.

“Shit!” I yelled and brought my elbow down on the back of Fat Arms’ head. “That really hurts, you dumbass.”

“Shoot him!” Fat Arms shouted, and sure enough, Pretty Boy aimed his gun at my face and pulled the trigger. But it misfired, and I didn’t waste any time running for the son of a bitch and took him to the ground with a dive that landed me on top of him. Taking what little opportunity I had I bit into his shoulder with the best grip my teeth could muster and ripped away what I could of his skin and muscle there.

Okay, it wasn’t what the Minuteman would have done, but we couldn’t all be the fucking Minuteman, could we?

He screamed, and when I covered my ears, something hit me in the back of my head, sending me onto the concrete. When the stars stopped twinkling and the lights came back on the slug had his fat foot crunched on my left shoulder, and Pretty Boy had his black boot on my right one.

“You’re the bravest fuckin’ hobo I’ve ever seen, but you cost me a few hundred tonight…” The slug looked at Pretty Boy and grinned. “…and possibly and hot piece of ass.”

“I don’t think you’re her type,” I said.

“Can I cut him up, Will?” Fat Arms asked from somewhere off to the right beyond my line of vision.

“Fuck that,” said Will the slug. “This asswipe is gonna eat a bullet.”

“Hope you brought ketchup,” I said.

“Listen, Rudolph,” Will said, still wiping blood from the corners of his eyes. “All you hadda do was keep your trap shut, but no, you had to play the hero and so now we—”

“Play the hero.” I laughed.

“What?”

Both feet pushed harder on my shoulders and I could feel the rocks on the concrete dig into my back, no doubt making a lovely painful pattern of indentions across my skin.

“You said play the hero.”

“Yeah. So?”

“I did that before.”

“And it’ll be the last thing you ever did, Rudolph.”

“You’re missing the point,” said, keeping them talking instead of letting them think long enough to realize that they should just pull the trigger already. “I used to play the hero. I played the costume. I played the mask. I even played the name. You see, I was only playing at it then because I didn’t think it would really hurt me, not permanently anyway.”

“He’s nuts, Will,” Fat Arms said. “Let me cut him up. Maybe take one of his nuts. That’ll shut him up.”

“But I’m not playing now.” My smiled went flat. “And my name’s not Rudolph.”


* * *


Carlos was still going on about the fight while paramedics loaded his fiancé into the ambulance. He stood behind the doors as Cynthia’s unconscious body was lifted, gurney and all, and rolled in the open doorway. The light from the fire truck and three squad cars gave him a funky purple glow as the 40-something cop took down his statement.

No doubt using lots of capital letters and exclamation points, if he was really getting it just like Carlos was saying it.

“…like a bat outta hell, I tell you. One minute he’s down on the ground with a gun pointing at his face…”

Me, I was waiting my turn on a second gurney, wondering if I’d ever walk again after Pretty Boy has managed to squeeze off two shots through my left thigh. And I was wondering too just how damn long it took a blonde paramedic with thick full lips to find the damn morphine in the back of the ambulance so I could stop hurting long enough to think about how much I wanted to flatten those lips of hers against my own.

In the old days I wouldn’t have let a second thought pass without just leaning up and planting one on her. But in the old days I didn’t smell like booze and the trash I’d been sleeping in. In the old days there had been a nice line of abs that flowed in one smooth line from my chest across my stomach. In the old days, there had been a trendy coarse stubble on my face and not a mangy tangle of knots that hadn’t been shaved or much less brushed in months.

So I lay there.

“…and the next minute, he’s up on his feet and has the fat one up against the wall. Then there’s all this punching and blood, and I’m still dragging Cynthia out of the alley.”

“Yes, sir.” The cop nodded and kept writing.

“Then there are these two gunshots, and I watch him, I mean fucking watch him get shot in the leg twice, but he doesn’t go down. He just keeps on walking toward the dude with the gun, and he takes it from him and just head butts him in the face, and the guy goes down. One head butt and he hits the ground.”

“Uh-huh.”

I heard the music from the front of a nearby squad car as I waited. Sounded like Judy Garland singing “O Holy Night,” but not quite Judy Garland singing “O Holy Night” at the same time, you know.

“And the last guy?” the cop asked.

“Hell, he couldn’t get out of the alley fast enough, but even with a shot-up leg, this dude runs, takes off  and runs like fuckin’ Jessie Owens or something and tackles the guy and takes the knife away from him.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It was like he’s some kind of, I don’t know, super hero or something.”

Vigilante, I wanted to correct him. Ain’t got no powers, so I can’t be a super hero. Just an idiot in a mask.  A vigilante. But I kept my trap shut. Mostly because I was afraid of what I’d say if the damn paramedic didn’t get the morphine in me soon.

Judy Garland stopped singing, and Louis Armstrong jumped in to take her place. “Zat you, Santa Claus?” he asked. I laughed.

Hell no, I thought. Not Santa Claus, not the Grandstander. Hell, I was barely Larry Moore anymore.

The paramedic returned with a smile and a syringe. I smiled back, mostly with my eyes, because my mouth wouln’t cooperate, and like her eyes lit up they figured out something she’d been wondering about for a while. “Oh my God,” she said. “It’s you.”

“Nah,” I said. “I haven’t been me for a long time.”

“You’re the—”

I shook my head.

Trumpet solo. Drums. Almost a celebration. A big noise anyway.

“You can’t hide it. I know it’s you.”

“Sure, kid. Merry Christmas.” I forced a grin. “So should I kiss you or just bleed to death?”

“What?” she asked with her thick lips.

“Do you think he used to be some kinda superhero?” I heard Carlos ask the cop.

“Don’t know,” the cop answered.

“Don’t tell ‘em,” I whispered to the paramedic as she stuck me with the needle. “Let ‘em guess.”

I decided to kiss her later. If she was lucky.

© Sean Taylor

==========================

Author's Note: This story, along with three other iHero holiday stories, is available in the collection Sin and Error Pining, available in both ebook and print "chapbook". 

The Blockhead's Awesome Tree

A Holiday Message from Me to You!

 

No bah. No humbug. X's allowed!

You know, it's okay to tell me happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas, even if you're a fellow member of my faith. I'm not going to get in your face about how you're not "keeping Christ in Christmas."

I don't care if you use Xmas either, because I understand the history of the X (and that it precedes both Malcolm and Stan Lee).

I understand that Constantine and his ilk thoroughly mixed the birth of Christ with pagan celebrations to obtain political ends. And if people still continue that today, they're not "not keeping Christ in Christmas" -- they're just continuing the blending that Constantine started all those years ago.

I get that.

If my understanding of the holiday season is about the work of Christ incarnating into humanity in order to be a perfect substitutionary sacrifice on humanity's behalf, then nothing you say or refuse to say can change one jot or tittle from that. No dollar sign can attach to it. And you can't wrap it or stuff it on a tree.

I can celebrate Christmas as I understand it without offending you or getting in your face, because the season is not some church-ordained mass evangelism event. Nothing about the season changes how I interact with you on behalf of my faith and what I perceive as your need for salvation from original sin -- I still have the same mandate to treat everyone, believer and nonbeliever alike, with the same grace, love, forgiveness and understanding that I do every other day.

Just because the word "Christ" is in "Christmas," it does not, nor should it ever, give me carte blanche to hassle you about becoming like me. (I would love for others to find what I've found, but it's not my job to be God's used car salesman or God's Internet spammer.)

I even enjoy the game of Santa Claus and dig the idea of adding a little drummer boy to our legend version of the nativity (as opposed to the real one that smelled like animal crap and was filled with a crying -- not silent -- baby, and didn't have any -- much less three -- wise men drop by until almost two years later).

All this to say, I hope that you have a wonderful time getting together with your friends and family. I hope you take advantage of this time to share some of your wealth with those less fortunate (trust me, in comparison to the rest of the globe, you ARE bone-idle rich). I hope you experience the love of those around you and share that love with everyone you encounter.

And I hope that, somewhere, in the busy-ness of this season, you find a few moments of peace on earth to contemplate the true and higher peace the angels spoke (not sang) about when they said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased."

Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! Peace on earth!