The Obligatory "Promote Your Book" Post

Marian Allen

In order to work off-world, you have to have your connection to the 'net severed. But what if you still hear voices in your head? In an alternate history, three young friends and their mechanical dog rent an airship for a jolly holiday. Then sky pirates happen. These stories and poems, most collected from various venues and one brand new, imagine alternate Earth, future Earth, Earthlings in space and on other planets, and people of other planets. Science fiction. It's not just ray-guns anymore.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B012HN603I

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

Terry Smiles



 

 “[A] blend of fantasy and political thriller … an adventurous twist of genre, much recommended.” ~Midwest Book Review

The Rothston Institute is home to a special class of adepts who can control the decisions of anyone in the world. But college student Kinzie Nicolosi is just discovering her own dangerous powers — and her role in the battle for humanity’s future.

The final installment of The Rothston Series to be released Feburary 29, 2016.

======================== 

Ralph L. Angelo, Jr.



1937, the world on the brink of war. But in the city of Riverburgh, NY forty miles north of Manhattan there was a different kind of war brewing; it was a war of survival for the common man. A war against the gangsters and thugs who ruled the streets and against the corrupt politicians who turned a blind eye to the evil that ran rampant in Riverburgh.
In a city where everyone had given up hope and cried to the heavens for a savior, a savior had arrived. But was he heaven sent or a monster from hell?

http://tinyurl.com/TheGrimSpectre

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

Perry Constantine



The Spear of Destiny, believed to have pierced the body of Christ, is said to be an artifact of incredible power that will render the user unstoppable. And now the Thule Society, an occult order from the days of Nazi Germany, is after this weapon. Only Elisa Hill and her allies stand between this Nazi death cult and their genocidal plot! But when faced with ancient, forbidden magicks, does even the famed myth hunter have a prayer of success?

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015S6OIFI?tag=percivconsta-20

 

Infernum. A shadowy, globe-spanning network of operatives run by the mysterious power broker known as Dante. They hold allegiance to no one, existing as rogues on the fringes of society. In this three-book series, meet some of Infernum’s top agents: Angela Lockhart, a spy on a mission of vengeance; Carl Flint, a retired assassin looking for peace; and Dalton Moore, a professional thief drawn into a dangerous game!

Contains The Following Books

Book 1: Love & Bullets
Book 2: Outlaw Blues
Book 3: Gentleman Rogue

99¢ COUNTDOWN DEAL BEGINNING JANUARY 30TH

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B017YI55K0?tag=percivconsta-20

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

Bill Craig



When Vern Brisbane is murdered after docking his shrimp boat, the Key West Police think it was a random killing. But Brisbane’s daughter Lilly disagrees. She hires Rick Marlow to look into the shrimper’s death and what he finds is a smuggling operation that is using shrimp boats to smuggle in both drugs and people. Not knowing who he can trust, Marlow must navigate the Dark Waters to get the man behind it all.

http://www.amazon.com/Marlow-Dark-Waters-West-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B019S5X2XE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1451150400&sr=8-2&keywords=marlow+dark+waters
========================

Mark Bousquet



In the tradition of NBC’s THE BLACKLIST and BLINDSPOT, Space Buggy Press is proud to present AMERICAN HERCULES, a modern re-imagining of the strongman’s classic Labors!

Decorated war hero Nathan Hercules awakes to find blood on his body, a knife in his hands, his wife and children dead at his feet, and no memory of committing the crime.

Six years later, the lawyer who put him away comes to Nathan with an offer to help him track down the truth. All Landon Eurystheus wants in return is Nathan’s help in finding the one man in the world Nathan cares least about: Washington Zeus, the world’s richest missing person and Hercules’ biological father.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Hercules-Nemea-Crime-Serial-ebook/dp/B017MRUOBI

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

Lucy Blue



“When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains,however improbable, must be the truth.” In An Improbable Truth: The Paranormal Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, 14 authors of horror and mystery have come together to create a unique anthology that sets Holmes on some of his most terrifying adventures. A pair of sisters willing to sacrifice young girls to an ancient demon for a taste of success, a sinister device that can manipulate time itself, and a madman that can raise corpses from the dead are just a few among the grisly tales that can be found within these pages. Curl up with a warm cuppa and leave all the lights on. This is not your grandfather’s Sherlock Holmes.

http://www.amazon.com/Improbable-Truth-Paranormal-Adventures-Sherlock/dp/0984004262/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454702036&sr=8-1&keywords=paranormal+adventures+of+sherlock

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

Stephanie Osborn



"I have always loved Sherlock Holmes stories. As a teen, I read The Hound of the Baskervilles and was immediately hooked. As an adult, I continue to read or watch stories featuring Holmes, whether from the eyes of Mary Russell (Laurie R. King) or those of the modern day Sherlock in Stephanie Osborn’s The Displaced Detective series. To date, I have been particularly enamored with the contemporary BBC series featuring Sherlock Holmes, and anticipate each new episode’s release.But now I have a new favorite --The Gentleman Aegis series, starting with book 1: Sherlock Holmes and the Mummy’s Curse...It’s almost like going full circle, because this book is written in a style unique to the Victorian era, not unlike that first Sherlock book I read as a youth. Aside from a riveting good tale, replete with a wonderful mystery steeped in ancient cultures and vibrant personalities, this book stands out from the usual offerings in contemporary fiction...Bravo, Ms. Osborn, and thank you for a beautifully rendered book." ~Aaron Paul Lazar, Murder By 4

http://www.amazon.com/Sherlock-Holmes-Mummys-Curse-Gentleman/dp/1518883125/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454702078&sr=8-1&keywords=Sherlock+holmes+mummy%27s+curse

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

Mark Halegua



Well, I have a story in the new Super Swingin Heroes 1968. Mine't titled "Automaton Investigations, Inc."

http://www.amazon.com/Super-Swingin-Hero-1968-Special-ebook/dp/B019M54B8A/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1454702119&sr=8-2-fkmr2&keywords=super+swinging+1968

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

James Bojaciuk



You can tell a lot about a dragon by their hoard. Not the shiny one, the other one. The one where they keep their favorite things. The Dragon Lord himself has a library. A library that devours halls and caves, filling them with every kind of book and codex and scroll. These are the stories that fill his favorite shelf.

http://www.amazon.com/Dragon-Lords-Library-1/dp/0692618988/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1454702149&sr=1-1&keywords=from+the+dragon+lord%27s+library

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

Tamara Lowery



Viktor Brandewyne finds himself tasked with finding the most flighty of the Sisters of Power. He tracks her from New England to the ends of the earth. She sets him the task of retrieving three things as the price for a portion of her magic: a dragon’s egg, a dodo’s egg, and a drop of blood from the Daughter of the Dragon, one of the few beings capable of killing him.

http://www.amazon.com/Hells-Dodo-Waves-Darkness-Book-ebook/dp/B0196ZQO90/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1454702220&sr=8-1&keywords=hell%27s+dodo

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

Michael Woods

I didn't write this but I did edit and format the tale.



Fool's Gold
By S.E. Lehenbauer

Can you hear it?

Regina Sol is just trying to escape her dark memories and make a new life aboard the spacecraft Tzigane. When a strange illness infects the entire crew, Regina finds herself quarantined with the reclusive captain, Imrah: an alien woman searching for a god-like beast from her home world.

Nothing will stop Imrah from chasing her fairy tale. Heedless of the sick crew and the asteroid field that could tear the ship to bits, Imrah’s pride could doom them all. With her new family’s life on the line, can Regina stop the hunt for fool’s gold before it’s too late?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B015VGTZ8U

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

B. Chris Bell



Save a few bucks for TALES OF THE BAGMAN VOL. 3, THE BUTCHER BACK O' THE YARDS! (Soon to be released) “Be there, or miss out on the invention of the greatest new American pulp imagination at work in decades!!!!” --Keith Allan Deutsch, Publisher Black Mask Magazine

http://www.amazon.com/Tales-Bagman-Three-B-C-Bell/dp/0692636307/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1454702250&sr=8-3&keywords=tales+of+the+bagman

Fictional World Building in Action/Adventure Stories

When it comes to thriller and adventure fiction, such as pulps, having a cohesive, and "built" world is just as important as in a classical high fantasy novel, but obviously, the building of that world in the context of the story is going to be different. But how different? Let's go to some of today's most prolific and best pulp writers to find out.

How important is world building to an adventure story? If character is king for serial pulp fiction, then why even bother with a realized world?

Bill Craig: Setting aka world building can be very important.  Sabre and the River of Doom takes place high up the Amazon on the Rio Negro and it's headwaters.   A great deal of this area is still unexplored today.  And when the story was set back in 1935 it was even less explored, so I had to create a jungle and river with dangers that would be believable and still fantastic enough to excite the imagination.  Same thing with Freetrader Orion: Asteroid Raiders.  Space presents it's own special challenges.  I had to create the refinery Delta One where a good deal of the action takes place, and also the the station on Pluto where they escaped to before heading out to the Galactic Rim.

I.A. Watson: A king has to have a kingdom. A character has to have a context. The story needs a stage to play out on.

It's not always necessary to have a detailed fictional world. "30's Chicago" is a well established mythical location now, just as conveniently pre-populated with seedy waterfront bars and swell casinos as "the Wild West" has saloons, abandoned mines, and easy-to-rob bank vaults or "Victorian England" has Chinese laundries, hansom cabs, and pea-souper fogs. Sometimes those broad canvasses suffice.

However, a more unique world background is often required. It's an important element in historical, fantasy, and SF stories, because otherwise readers don't know what the rules are. if the hero doesn't have access to gunpowder then it needs to be established. If a warp-gate takes citizens to Sigma-Beta System in 2.1 nanoseconds and that's relevant to the narrative it needs to be made clear. It's especially important that the limitations of magic are defined, because otherwise the reader is left wondering why the wizard doesn't just defeat the dragon with a snap of his fingers.

The elements come together in writing: protagonist, other major characters, events they experience, setting, and minor players. Sometimes the background can almost be a character itself, offering as distinctive a flavour to a scene as the drunken Scots sidekick, the fussy interfering robot butler, or the blowsy whore with the heart of gold. The eternal storms rattling the haunted castle of Ravensgaard, the claustrophobic green gloom of the crippled submarine, the rioters beyond the gates demanding the head of the king, can permeate a whole story to make it powerful and unforgettable.

Or they can be a distraction. The author might be fascinated in the history of the unicorn riders and their 200 year migration across the Tansy Plains to Everholme, but unless it contributes to the plot or character develoment then its probably best left to an appendix.

One important reason for a well defined "world", especially for a series where different aspects of that world may be relevant in different stories, is to support suspension of disbelief. Readers are quick to spot anomalies and contradictions, or "facts" about back story that don't make sense. Once that's what the reader notices then suspension of disbelief is broken, and its hard to win it back. Conversely, when a reader nods as another aspect of the fictional world clicks into place and it all fits well, that reader becomes more invested in the back story and that much happier to see the characters interact with it. So done right, world-building prevents critical-reader dissociation and builds up serial-reader loyalty.

Mark Halegua: In my case all my characters, so far, exist in the pre-war 1930s in the US. Under those cases I don't have to build a world, it already "exists" or did exist, so I just have to fit my characters to that and try not to let current politics, economics, science, etc., get involved.

Obviously an infodump wouldn't fly in the tight, sparse world of pulp fiction. So just how do you build that world to your readers and still keep the tone of straightforward action writing?

Mark Halegua: I just keep to the world as it existed in the 30s.

I.A. Watson: There are all kinds of tricks.

Dialogue, especially jokey dialogue, is one way. If the characters pause and make fun of how the zoom-tube tunnel slugs always run late we learn something of the cast who are speaking, something about the world they live in, and we even feel a point of resonance with that strange world of theirs. We might not have had problems with zoom-tube slugs but we've all queued for late buses.

A mission briefing can sometimes do it. The Major stands in front of the agents, points his stick to the screen, and taps the image of the villain's island lair. 

 "Now pay attention, men. Here is Isla del Evil, thirty-seven miles southeast of the coast of Haiti. Seven square miles of minefielded hell, ever since Lord Sinistre came to power there seven years ago in the Flower Parade Coup..."

An odd line slipped in amongst the action, or a stray thought from the point of view character, can go a long way:

Slab checked his wristwatch. It was one of the old-fashioned clockwork kind, of course, without any energy source that the Delphotrons could detect with their worldwide scanner satellite grid. 8.57. "Almost time for the Slug-Lords' nightly holocaust," Slab thought.

Even the authorial voice can be used, if sparingly, by way of introduction: 

It was almost five years since the old king had died. In that time Prince Alain had trained daily in the Swordmasters' Hall, alongside nobles from Dy Aquitaine, Sleecross, Ververet, and even Far Elysia. He'd learned much about the politics and personalities across the Grand Continent, from the deep divide to the troubled fire hills. Learned Senden had taught him well the history behind the Faith Wars that had led to Alain's father being assassinated by the Scarlet Sect. Now, nearing his twentieth birthday, the young heir knew it was time for him to raise his banner in rebellion and reclaim what was rightfully his.

But this is best grounded with some intimate moment related to some less lofty concerns, so should be followed straight away by:  

Selani watched the prince mop the sweat from his armpits with his discarded combat tunic. "How goes the mighty revolution today, oh glorious leader?" she mocked, wrinkling her nose at his odour.

Bill Craig: Character observation can prevent the big info dump, and dialog can also pace things as the characters discuss what they observe.

How much do character and world interrelate in pulps? In other words, how important is the world of the Spider (for example) to his character? Would it change him to have him located elsewhere? Or, would Batman be a different person outside of Gotham?

Bill Craig: The Spider is a force to be reckoned with in whatever local he is in, much like The Shadow or Doc Savage.  The Batman has traveled outside Gotham many times as well.  The key as far as setting in pulp fiction is not so much the local, but the character and how they interact with their environment is what makes the action flow.

I.A. Watson: Sometimes its about origin. A character becomes so well suited to his background that without it he seems incomplete. Gotham is a good example of an environment matched with its hero. Superman in Gotham wouldn't have the same synchronicity; both character and setting would be vitiated. The Spider, less tied to one fictive location, requires only some urban setting to work best, and is allowed excursions into spy-filled mansion houses and smuggler-haunted sea caves.

Its not just physical location, though. Its also type of story, style of events that make the character and background mesh. Philip Marlowe solving a genteel cake theft at a  an English vicarage tea party might make an amusing novelty, but it wouldn't command the reader's emotions and attention in the way his regular cases might. A Batman story where real-world physics suddenly applied to his tangled cape and physical feats would be jarring and incongruous.

Some characters are products of their environment and others have their environment tailored to suit the needs of their personality or adventures. All those tough tecs and honest cops pounding the mean streets belong to the former group. Those alien worlds ruled by merciless tyrants and the magical schools tutoring callow but talented apprentices belong to the latter. This is only natural -- backstories are, as the word implies, part of the story, the backing for the events that are going to happen and for the motivation of the characters who will interact with those events.

Mark Halegua: Since all my characters are basically new, I need to build them up story by story. As to the world of other characters, while, for example, the Spider was bases in NC, he had adventures outside ot that, as did Batman outside of Gotham. In Batman's case Gotham was a major factor in his development (the recnt character, not the Golden Age/Silver Age one). The Spider would have developed anywhere.

My characters, so far Red Badge, Santa Claus, and Kirk Kinnison are in a midwestern city (RB) and an as yet unnamed East coast city. RB was definitely shaped by his locale. Kirk has travelled the world but is currently based in NYC.

Bullets vs. Bonding -- Balancing action and characterization in pulp fiction

Bullets?

Or bonding?

 Anyone who is a fan of the genre knows how much pulp is defined by the action-oriented plots. That's a given. We get it, and we've beat that dead horse so hard it already got back up for a few hard-boiled western sequel novels.

But...

Is there room for the characterization that is so often maligned in this fast-paced genre?

And if not, what separates the Angel Dares (from Christa Faust's Money Shot and Choke Hold) from the Lance Stars (from Bobby Nash's Lance Star: Sky Ranger anthologies) from the Rook (from Barry Reese's series). Without character development, wouldn't all these two-fisted, bullet-evading heroes and heroines just be generic replicas of other archetypes?

Well, to go straight to the horses' mouths, I asked several of New Pulp's leading creators.

Why is (or isn't) characterization important in pulp fiction?

Bill Craig: Characterization is very important in Pulp. You need characters that the reader can either A. Identify with, or B. care about.  With Hardluck Hannigan, he is an easy character for people to do both with, because who hasn't had runs of exceptionally bad luck?  And as a result they can relate, but people also get concerned for him and his merry band and the relationships between them.

Mark Halegua: Characterization is important in a pulp story, but action and fast pace are more important. 

Ian Watson: If I'm honest I don't usually set out to write pulp fiction, unless that's the brief (as when I'm asked to write an existing character in the style of their original stories). Making it "pulp" comes way down the list of my priorities, after enjoying writing it, telling a good story, engaging readers, doing something original, using language properly etc. If the end product meets somebody's definition of pulp thereafter then so be it. Fortunately my natural style tends to favour the characteristics defined nowadays as pulp fiction.

Writing good and proper characterisation comes way above writing something to fit the pulp definition in my book(s).

But I'd argue that pulp is mostly about dragging a visceral, emotional investment and response from readers. It's page-turning, edge-of-your seat stuff designed to get you to buy the next installment. It's written to make you laugh, cry, shiver, cheer, boo, whatever. If it's grabbing you and dragging you along at 1000 mph and making your pulse increase then it's probably pulp. To that end we use all kinds of plot devices and literary techniques, from innocent-in-peril and blackhearted-villain-must-not-triumph through to compressed language narratives and rollercoaster shock plotting. And we use characterisation.

Characterisation, as others have argued, makes the reader care about the situation. We care for the innocent in peril. We despise the blackhearted villain who must not triumph, even when we see nuanced motivation from his tragic flaws and shattered past. It's a principal tool for grabbing reader attention, for twisting the heartstings, ramping up the tension, magnifying the fun. And never underestimate the value of banter in making a pulp story zing along.

Like many of Marvel's early characters, Dr Doom would be a fine pulp villain. What puts him on the cusp between the traditional pulp science-baddie with a death ray and a new pulp enemy with a twisted past informing his villainy are his love for his kingdom, Latveria, his torment over his mother's soul, his sense of honour and obligation that makes his word his bond even to his adversaries, and his grandiose sensibilities. That's a vein of characterisation that magnifies his pulpiness, not diminishes it. 

Nancy Hansen: I don't think I've ever written an appealing story that had main characters I didn't invest some effort into creating. It doesn't matter what I'm writing, the important people in the story have to resonate with me in some way. Even the villainous types have to be strongly delineated and have motives I can understand. Good characterization makes the story unforgettable, as we tend to live vicariously through their adventures.

How much character development is too much in pulp fiction?

Bill Craig: When the character does so much soul-searching or philosophizing that it bogs down the plot, that is too much.  Sure, Hannigan worries about his actions, but it is because he knows that as a leader, what he does can affect the group for better or worse. Perhaps I should say he realizes that there will be consequences.  That was a lesson he learned early and fast in his career.

Mark Halegua: Characterization tends to slow the pace of stories, so it's done at a superficial level.  Good guy vs bad guy.  A few mentions here and there about why they are good and bad and then the action takes hold. 

Ian Watson: Amongst the literary shifts that have happened in the last five hundred years, and even in the century since the start of pulp's golden age, is the expectation of readers to understand why characters behave as they do. In retelling some of King Arthur's stories for modern readers I've had to fill in the gaps that Sir Thomas Malory and his contemporaries didn't feel the need to address, the whys to go along with the what various characters do. These days "he did it because he was bad" or "she fell into his arms because he'd rescued her" don't always cut it. Our audience expects a little more motivation - and that comes from characterisation.

 Like many other elements of pulp, characterisation can be abbreviated, stylised, and codified. It can be "off the shelf" stereotype motivations for the whore with the heart of gold who a man done wrong or a world-weary wanderer blowing into town with a dark past and a holster-ful of trouble, but its still a fundamental part of the writing genre. Like other elements of the pulp toolkit it can be minimised or excluded, but for most of us in most of our stories, anything from a dash to a huge helping of characterisation forms a valuable ingredient of what we serve up.

Nancy Hansen: When it gets to be too much is when the story gets lost in the details. In pulp, you need a plot that moves quickly. Things need to happen, it has to be exciting, and adventurous. If you slow that rapid-fire action down too far because a character is having a navel-examining moment of introspection that lasts through six paragraphs, you killed the story and ultimately the reader's interest.

Contributors:

Bill Craig, author of The Jack Riley Adventures: Valley of Death, Mayan Gold, Dead Run, Pirate's Blood, The Child Stealers, and The Mummy's Tomb; as well as numerous other stories. (See link on the right under Heavy Hitters.)

Mark Halegua, creator and writer of the Red Badge in Mystery Men (and Women).  

Ian Watson, author of numerous novels of SF, Fantasy, and Horror followed, and 9 story collections. His stories have been finalists for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and widely anthologised.

Nancy Hansen, staff writer and editor at Pro Se Productions.

Bullets vs. Bonding -- Balancing action and characterization in pulp fiction

Bullets?

Or bonding?

 Anyone who is a fan of the genre knows how much pulp is defined by the action-oriented plots. That's a given. We get it, and we've beat that dead horse so hard it already got back up for a few hard-boiled western sequel novels.

But...

Is there room for the characterization that is so often maligned in this fast-paced genre?

And if not, what separates the Angel Dares (from Christa Faust's Money Shot and Choke Hold) from the Lance Stars (from Bobby Nash's Lance Star: Sky Ranger anthologies) from the Rook (from Barry Reese's series). Without character development, wouldn't all these two-fisted, bullet-evading heroes and heroines just be generic replicas of other archetypes?

Well, to go straight to the horses' mouths, I asked several of New Pulp's leading creators.

Why is (or isn't) characterization important in pulp fiction?

Bill Craig: Characterization is very important in Pulp. You need characters that the reader can either A. Identify with, or B. care about.  With Hardluck Hannigan, he is an easy character for people to do both with, because who hasn't had runs of exceptionally bad luck?  And as a result they can relate, but people also get concerned for him and his merry band and the relationships between them.

Mark Halegua: Characterization is important in a pulp story, but action and fast pace are more important. 

Ian Watson: If I'm honest I don't usually set out to write pulp fiction, unless that's the brief (as when I'm asked to write an existing character in the style of their original stories). Making it "pulp" comes way down the list of my priorities, after enjoying writing it, telling a good story, engaging readers, doing something original, using language properly etc. If the end product meets somebody's definition of pulp thereafter then so be it. Fortunately my natural style tends to favour the characteristics defined nowadays as pulp fiction.

Writing good and proper characterisation comes way above writing something to fit the pulp definition in my book(s).

But I'd argue that pulp is mostly about dragging a visceral, emotional investment and response from readers. It's page-turning, edge-of-your seat stuff designed to get you to buy the next installment. It's written to make you laugh, cry, shiver, cheer, boo, whatever. If it's grabbing you and dragging you along at 1000 mph and making your pulse increase then it's probably pulp. To that end we use all kinds of plot devices and literary techniques, from innocent-in-peril and blackhearted-villain-must-not-triumph through to compressed language narratives and rollercoaster shock plotting. And we use characterisation.

Characterisation, as others have argued, makes the reader care about the situation. We care for the innocent in peril. We despise the blackhearted villain who must not triumph, even when we see nuanced motivation from his tragic flaws and shattered past. It's a principal tool for grabbing reader attention, for twisting the heartstings, ramping up the tension, magnifying the fun. And never underestimate the value of banter in making a pulp story zing along.

Like many of Marvel's early characters, Dr Doom would be a fine pulp villain. What puts him on the cusp between the traditional pulp science-baddie with a death ray and a new pulp enemy with a twisted past informing his villainy are his love for his kingdom, Latveria, his torment over his mother's soul, his sense of honour and obligation that makes his word his bond even to his adversaries, and his grandiose sensibilities. That's a vein of characterisation that magnifies his pulpiness, not diminishes it. 

Nancy Hansen: I don't think I've ever written an appealing story that had main characters I didn't invest some effort into creating. It doesn't matter what I'm writing, the important people in the story have to resonate with me in some way. Even the villainous types have to be strongly delineated and have motives I can understand. Good characterization makes the story unforgettable, as we tend to live vicariously through their adventures.

How much character development is too much in pulp fiction?

Bill Craig: When the character does so much soul-searching or philosophizing that it bogs down the plot, that is too much.  Sure, Hannigan worries about his actions, but it is because he knows that as a leader, what he does can affect the group for better or worse. Perhaps I should say he realizes that there will be consequences.  That was a lesson he learned early and fast in his career.

Mark Halegua: Characterization tends to slow the pace of stories, so it's done at a superficial level.  Good guy vs bad guy.  A few mentions here and there about why they are good and bad and then the action takes hold. 

Ian Watson: Amongst the literary shifts that have happened in the last five hundred years, and even in the century since the start of pulp's golden age, is the expectation of readers to understand why characters behave as they do. In retelling some of King Arthur's stories for modern readers I've had to fill in the gaps that Sir Thomas Malory and his contemporaries didn't feel the need to address, the whys to go along with the what various characters do. These days "he did it because he was bad" or "she fell into his arms because he'd rescued her" don't always cut it. Our audience expects a little more motivation - and that comes from characterisation.

 Like many other elements of pulp, characterisation can be abbreviated, stylised, and codified. It can be "off the shelf" stereotype motivations for the whore with the heart of gold who a man done wrong or a world-weary wanderer blowing into town with a dark past and a holster-ful of trouble, but its still a fundamental part of the writing genre. Like other elements of the pulp toolkit it can be minimised or excluded, but for most of us in most of our stories, anything from a dash to a huge helping of characterisation forms a valuable ingredient of what we serve up.

Nancy Hansen: When it gets to be too much is when the story gets lost in the details. In pulp, you need a plot that moves quickly. Things need to happen, it has to be exciting, and adventurous. If you slow that rapid-fire action down too far because a character is having a navel-examining moment of introspection that lasts through six paragraphs, you killed the story and ultimately the reader's interest.

Contributors:

Bill Craig, author of The Jack Riley Adventures: Valley of Death, Mayan Gold, Dead Run, Pirate's Blood, The Child Stealers, and The Mummy's Tomb; as well as numerous other stories. (See link on the right under Heavy Hitters.)

Mark Halegua, creator and writer of the Red Badge in Mystery Men (and Women).  

Ian Watson, author of numerous novels of SF, Fantasy, and Horror followed, and 9 story collections. His stories have been finalists for the Hugo and Nebula Awards, and widely anthologised.

Nancy Hansen, staff writer and editor at Pro Se Productions.