[Link] Why I Write: Let Me See About Getting the Words Right

by Gary Phillips

I write because I can’t draw. Growing up in South Central back in the day, me and the fellas read and traded Marvel comics. You might sneak in a DC book now and then—say, an issue of Green Lantern rendered in the fluid style of Gil Kane. But certainly not a goofy Batman book. This was before writer Denny O’Neil and artist Neal Adams brought back the hardcore Batman, the template for The Dark Knight.

Marvel, however, was different. Beneath Spider-Man’s mask, the teenage angst was plain on Peter Parker’s face. The Hulk’s internal struggle was unending, involving both his horror at reverting to “puny” Bruce Banner and Banner’s own at becoming the man-monster. In the pages of Fantastic Four, meanwhile, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby introduced the Black Panther and the scientifically advanced kingdom of  Wakanda. Mesmerized by those monthly adventures, made vivid by the art of Kirby and Steve Ditko, my younger self desperately wanted to write and draw my own comic books.

Harrowing real-life occurrences also captivated me. In my neighborhood barbershop, as well as other barber shops and beauty parlors in the hood, various kinds of stories were told by patrons and haircutters. Often, they involved brothers who had run afoul of the cops out of 77th Division, which patrolled our area. The comics and the community: this would be the transmutable clay out of which I’d later mold my novels.

The desire to tell stories led me to reach out as a teenager. Before the internet, like-minded youngsters would get together to produce comics with their own characters. Maybe a hundred copies would be reproduced on a desktop Gestetner duplicator. Or, if enough money was raised, offset printed. Trying to get my work into those fanzines, I stumbled across mystery and crime mass-market paperbacks, as well as science fiction, all of it available on the spinner racks at the Thrifty drugstore. Dashiell Hammett, Chester Himes, Andre Norton, and those Bantam reprints of 1930s Doc Savage pulps with eye-catching covers by James Bama.

A few more years would go by before it finally sank in that drawing comics wasn’t going to be my vocation. Yet even as I picked up a slew of rejections for my art, a few of the letters I got back did note that the writing wasn’t bad. Well, OK, then, let me see about getting the words right. This period dovetailed with my burgeoning community activism, which focused on the matter of questionable policing in my own and other Black and Brown neighborhoods.

Protesting police abuses led me to the anti-apartheid movement, which in turn fueled my participation in direct actions against the contra war, financed by the Reagan administration. From there, I went on, among other endeavors, to become a labor organizer and the outreach director for a community foundation. I found myself reflecting on these undertakings in nonfiction pieces for newsletters. Somewhere along the line, I started writing weekly op-eds for a community newspaper and a progressive media service. This discipline of writing on deadline proved useful to me when it came time to tackle writing a novel.

To write a book at first felt daunting. But looking back, it was an organic development.

Read the full article: https://www.altaonline.com/california-book-club/a61958649/why-i-write-gary-phillips/

Mythside Publishing is Looking for Storytellers!

Calling all #authors, #writers, and #storytellers!

Mythside Publishing is accepting story submissions for 7 upcoming pulp digests. Earn 7 cents per word crafting the next thrilling adventure! 

We are accepting stories in the following genres:

• Hardboiled Detective Capers
• Sword and Sorcery Adventures
• Femme Fatale Thrillers
• Shocking Science Fiction
• Fantastic Fantasy
• Weird Wild Westerns

SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:

• Under 10,000 words.
• Original works.
• Submit as a PDF. Must include a title page including the name/pen name to be published under, the genre, and word count.

Email submissions to submissions@mythside.com. 

Make the subject line of the email the genre of the story and the word count.

Mythside publishing -- Return of the Pulp.

The Cover Story: Crime Fiction Now and Then and Now Again

Let's talk crime novel covers. My, how they've changed over the years. Don't believe me? Let's go back to the (almost) beginning (we'll skip over Sherlock Holmes who-dun-its for this article). The that, we need to visit the pulp mags. 

The Pulp Era

The covers of the classic pulp era stand alone as works of "cheap," "vulgar," and "violent" art -- just to mention some of the adjectives thrown at them. But works of art they remain. They knew how to attract a reader with scenes of danger and drama (and more than a little sexual titillation, of course). 

In fact, because of the patriarchal views (some might say misogynistic) of the time, it was hard to find covers that didn't have some helpless woman in various states of either torture or undress. However, even when they didn't have such covers, the images were always high points of action (maybe or maybe not related to one of the stories between the covers) or danger or violence. 

Suspense was the key question when you saw one of these covers. Will the hero save the day? Will the beautiful dame get shishkabobbed? 

These covers screamed and begged you to drop a few cents and find out. And they did it very, very well. 

The Contemporary Summer Bestseller 

Things have changed between then and now. Book covers, even thriller and crime novel covers, are more about mood and tone than telling a story it seems. That's not a judgment, just an acknowledgment. On the plus side, we're no longer inundated with helpless women and burly men saving the day or gore-adjacent covers or some of the darker pulp mags, but I'm not sure the covers to many contemporary mysteries are doing the job they're supposed to (at least supposed to in my opinion). 

As I look at the covers below, I'm not sure I can tell you what the story is actually about. Or, honestly, I don't think I would recognize the book as a mystery/crime book if it weren't shelved in that section of the bookstore. 

Modern covers, while great examples of color, texture, and typographic art, don't feel as immediate to me. I don't get a sense of why I need to open the book oftentimes. I don't feel pressured to ask the questions that make me want to see what happens. 

A quick glance below says these books could just as easily be literary bestsellers or romantic dramas as they could be any other genre of fiction. (On a related but different note, not even the titles convince me they're thrillers, but that's an article for another day.)

 

Original Novels and the Hard-Boiled Pastiches

Let's step back a few decades now, shall we? Inspired by the pulp mags, novels of the '30s and '40s through the '60s and '70s tried to recapture the awesome of the pulp aesthetic without the awful of the pulp aesthetic. Violence was back. Sex was back. And danger was once again front and center. 

Now, the violence and sex tended to be far more subdued, maybe even subtle, as it the semi-open door (still locked) or the look of fear for The Glass Key, but it was there. And it while it also conveyed mood, it didn't shy away from actually teasing the story. There was no way you didn't know what kind of novel you were buying based on the covers on the paperback racks (or most of the hardcovers over earlier years). 

The genre grew up and became procedurals in addition to private eyes. Big thrillers replaced small-scale-one-man-against-the-bad-guys of Key Largo. And the covers grew with them, distancing themselves from the "thing of the past" ideals and values of yesteryear (as you move into the '70s particularly), but the hints were there to see what you were getting into. There was no confusing even the semi-vagueness of these spinner rack covers with a copy of a literary classic or a contemporary lit hit. 

Hard Case Crime 

Hands down, my favorite publisher nowadays is the retro-pulp, hard-boiled, noirish, crime story, private dick publisher Hard Case Crime. The stories are often reminiscent of early crime novels but updated for the present or written with modern sensibilities (sometimes not). And their cover game is top-notch. They do the best job I've seen of capturing the story sensibilities of the early pulp-inspired novels of the '30s and '40s and even tease it a bit with the voyeurism of the original pulp covers before Werthem's Seduction of the Innocent shut down the fun machine. 

To be fair, a lot of these covers do play up the big strong man trope and you see a lot of sexy women on the covers, but they are rarely women in peril. More often than not, they're holding either the gun or all the cards. 

But the thing that really draws me to Hard Case Crime is how I can usually tell exactly what I need to know about the book before I buy it. I can see it in a catalog or on a shell, and bam, I know the kind of story I'm about to spend good money on. To me, that's the main job of a cover. 

And That Leaves Us...

A cavaet: There's always an exception for every rule, and for every cover I've shown here, there a several that make an equal and opposite statement to prove me wrong. You can find vague, artsy '60s paperback covers or even pulpy cover versions of classic literature. You can find gripping, story-driven contemporary covers for thrillers that don't hide the genre in colorful photographic dreamscapes. But for this article, I'm addressing the generality, so don't feel the need to play the "what about" card. I'm not taking the bait. 

Let me reiterate, these are just my opinions about covers for mystery thrillers. Your mileage may vary. You may prefer pretty covers that tease the eye like an impressionist painting or a soft-palette photo of a beautiful tree. If that works for you, fine. You do you, boo. 

Personally, I'd like to see crime fiction return to the style of the paperback racks before the sort of homogenous look took over publishing. I like the covers that tell the story to sell the story. Now, that doesn't mean I want to see a return to the ideals and patronizing and patriarchal values of the '30s and the '40s those old covers may have reflected, just that storytelling style. 

But, as they say, if wishes were horses... 

The Watson Report: THE PULP AVENGER’S CHRISTMAS

by I.A. Watson

 

’Twas the night before Christmas and down in the gutters

The vermin were stirring with curses and mutters.

Mister Big puffed on his big fat cigar

And stared at his henchman beside the wrecked car.

 

“What do you mean that the loot isn’t there?

How can it be missing?” he said with a glare.

“And where are the guys that we sent out as guard?

And who wrecked the auto? And who left that card?”

 

For all that was left of the briefcase of loot

Was a silhouette logo, some man in a suit

With a mask and a gun, on a card on the dash.

No sign of the gunsels, no sign of the cash.

 

“I want all the boys out patrolling the street.

Beat up all the stoolies and turn on the heat.

I want that case found and my money returned!”

Mr Big wasn’t about to get burned.

 

But as all the goons made to shake down the bars

A smoke grenade rolled out right under the cars

And a horrible laugh pierced the still Christmas night

And the thugs and enforcers looked round them with fright.

 

“Oh felons! Oh killers! Oh infamous crushers!

Oh murderous cutthroats and drug-dealing pushers!

Oh sinners! Oh cowards! O criminal scum -

Your dark days are numbered, your reign here is done!”

 

Then out from the alley through shadow and fume

Came a fast-moving figure of terror and doom

With two pistols blazing and fire-filled eyes

As he cut through the villains and made for the prize.

 

“Protect me, you idiots!” the overboss cried.

His thugs screamed and scattered as more of them died.

And the gentleman champion advanced on his prey;

Their crime-spree was over and now they must pay.

 

Mr Big fumbled a gun from his coat.

Before he could fire, strong hands clutched his throat.

“You thought you could kill me,” the gentleman said.

“But nothing can stop me at all now I’m dead!”

 

Police sirens roared through the slush-slickened street

To the site where the gangsters had met their defeat

And some men lay dying and some lay there dead

And Mr Big gibbered, his sanity fled.

 

And they heard a voice call, as the snow blurred their sight:

“There is justice for all… and to all a good night!”

 

Best wishes

 IW

[Link] The Five Pillars Of Pulp Revival

by Misha Burnett

Opening Note One: There is some difference in meaning between the terms “Pulp Revolution” and “Pulp Revival”. The Revolution, I feel, is concerned with the publishing and distribution of literary works, ways to enhance discoverability and inform readers of the literary movement. Revival, on the other hand, is more concerned with the aspects of the movement itself. The first term is strategic, the second artistic. Being a literary theorist, my work generally concerns the latter term. Also, from a purely emotional standpoint, I prefer the image of people gathering under a tent to sing songs and praise the Lord to the more utilitarian image of crowds rolling a guillotine through the streets.

Opening Note Two: This article should not be taken as either authoritative or definitive. Pulp Revival is, itself, a work in progress, and any analysis of its characteristics is, of essence, incomplete and fluid. Perhaps a few decades hence someone will be able to stand back and get the entire picture so as to be able to codify the movement. At the moment, however, I am in the midst of it and jotting down my observations from, as it were, the trenches.

Opening Note Three: I have deliberately avoided any references to genre in what follows. This is because I don’t think it is significant to the Pulp Aesthetic. The guidelines can apply to Detective Fiction and Westerns just as readily as to Science Fiction or Fantasy. The Pulp era made no such hard distinctions, while some magazines specialized in a particular form of genre fiction, most were open to anything thrilling and exciting. Pirates rubbed elbows with cowboys and spacemen and barbarians from the bygone past in the pages of adventure magazines.

These having been said, this is what I see as the signature characteristics of Pulp Revival.

Read the full article: https://mishaburnett.wordpress.com/2016/10/05/the-five-pillars-of-pulp-revival/

The Unvarnished Gary Phillips: A Mondo Pulp Collection

C'mon. You know you want this one.

A Veritable Cornucopia of Submissions Opportunities from Pro Se Productions!

Note: For more information on these announcements, email editorinchief@prose-press.com.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING LESTER DENT’S FIRST SERIES CHARACTER!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CURT FLAGG” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with the heirs of the Estate of Norma Dent, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for an anthology featuring the first series character created by Lester Dent, THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CURT FLAGG!

Debuting in Dell’s SCOTLAND YARD INTERNATIONAL DETECTIVE STORIES in March 1931, Curt Flagg was a violent, two fisted Private Detective very much cast in the hard boiled mold. Over four stories, Dent, never once actually being bylined with his actual name, developed Flagg from a fight first detect later gumshoe into someone who bore more than a passing resemblance to later characters created by Dent, including Doc Savage. Rising through the ranks to eventually be a partner in an agency, Curt Flagg is undoubtedly the character Dent cut his series teeth on.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six open slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CURT FLAGG should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of the character’s four published stories. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image accompanying this press release is from the May 1931 cover of SCOTLAND YARD, the second issue Curt Flagg appeared in.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING POTENTIAL INSPIRATION FOR PERRY MASON!  “THE NEW CASES OF GILLIAN HAZELTINE” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with Steeger Properties LLC for anthologies and novels featuring some of Steeger’s characters, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW CASES OF GILLIAN HAZELTINE, an anthology featuring a series character from ARGOSY Magazine.

Thought by many to be Erle Stanley Gardner’s model for his hugely successful Perry Mason series, Gillian Hazeltine, created by George F. Worts, debuted in 1926, seven years before Mason, and would appear in almost thirty stories, the majority of them in Argosy. Known as ‘The Silver Fox’, Hazeltine utilized his encyclopedic knowledge of the law as well as well played court theatrics, to defend his clients to the best of his ability, proving he was willing to use legal smoke and mirrors to prove his clients innocent. Hazeltine’s cases, though never simple, read like true pulp stories with well timed, almost breakneck pacing and wild mysteries with twists and turns throughout.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW CASES OF GILLIAN HAZELTINE should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of two of the published stories. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image with this release is the cover of the October 1927 issue of ARGOSY featuring Hazeltine on the cover. 

Following the anthology being filled with accepted proposals, there will be a call for a full length GILLIAN HAZELTINE novel as well.

Other calls for Steeger Properties LLC characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING SCIENCE/OCCULT SUPER VILLAIN!  “THE NEW DANGERS OF DOCTOR DEATH’ OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with Steeger Properties LLC for anthologies and novels featuring some of Steeger’s characters, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW DANGERS OF DOCTOR DEATH, an anthology featuring author Harold Ward’s odd and unique super villain.

First appearing in his own self-titled magazine from Dell Publications in February 1935.  Doctor Death, created by Harold Ward under the pen name ‘Zorro’, was Dr. Rance Mandarin.  Convinced that the Earth needed to be cleansed of humanity, Mandarin used his extensive knowledge of both science and the occult to create potentially humanity ending devices and creatures. Facing off with his arch nemesis, Jimmy Holm, who was supported by the powerful group known as The Twelve, Doctor Death featured in all three issues of his own magazine and appeared in two more stories, both of the latter remaining unpublished until the 1980s.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW DANGERS OF DOCTOR DEATH should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of three of the five Doctor Death stories. 

Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image with this release is the cover of the February 1935 issue of Doctor Death, the character’s debut.  

A full length DOCTOR DEATH novel has been previously commissioned by Pro Se Productions and is currently in development.

Other calls for Steeger Properties LLC characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING LESTER DENT’S NEARLY SUPERHUMAN MOUNTIE!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE SILVER CORPORAL” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with the heirs of the Estate of Norma Dent, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for an anthology featuring a Lester Dent character from a popular genre in Pulp-THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE SILVER CORPORAL!

The Silver Corporal debuted in WESTERN TRAILS Magazine in 1933. Created by Dent, this diminutive silver haired Mountie appeared in a second story written by Dent that appeared, not in a Pulp, but in a collection of Mountie stories published in 1998.  While clearly a member of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police, the Corporal was actually a transplant from Wyoming who had superhuman strength, struck terror into the hearts of Canada’s worst villains, and even blended into the snowy landscape through disguise, armed with unique weapons. 

The image with this release is the cover of the May 1933 issue of WESTERN TRAILS, the first and only Pulp appearance of The Silver Corporal.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the four open slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE SILVER CORPORAL should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of the character’s only two stories. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

Other calls for anthologies featuring Lester Dent characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING BLACK MASK’S PENNY PINCHING PRIVATE EYE!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF REX SACKLER’ OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with Steeger Properties LLC for anthologies and novels featuring some of Steeger’s characters, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF REX SACKLER, an anthology featuring a series character from Black Mask Magazine.

Appearing in Black Mask Magazine from in various stories from 1940 through 1950, Rex Sackler, created and written by D. L. Champion, was a rather unique character in the Private Eye field.  Notoriously known as ‘the parsimonious prince of penny pinchers,’ Sackler was such a cheapskate that he was not beyond holding off solving cases until he was sure the client’s check cleared. In a series of tales narrated by a beleaguered assistant who Sackler constantly tried to cheat out of his wages, this definitely odd take on the Private Eye proves popular with Pulp fans today and makes for interesting, even humorous stories.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF REX SACKLER should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of the character's first four stories. 

Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image with this release is the cover of the October 1940 issue of Black Mask, the second Black Mask appearance of Rex Sackler.

Following the anthology being filled with accepted proposals, there will be a call for a full length REX SACKLER novel as well.

Other calls for Steeger Properties LLC characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING DIME DETECTIVE’S ORIGINAL OCCULT SLEUTH!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HORATIO HUMBERTON” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with Steeger Properties LLC for anthologies and novels featuring some of Steeger’s characters, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HORATIO HUMBERTON, an anthology featuring a series character from Popular Publications’ Dime Detective Magazine.

Appearing in Dime Detective from 1932 through 1937, Horatio Humberton, created and written by J. Paul Suter, actually worked two jobs.  While a mortician during regular hours, Humberton pursued crimes, many of them with a supernatural bent, in his off time. One of the most original characters featured in Pulps, Humberton set the standard for occult investigators to follow, the stories a solid mix of paranormal danger, pulp excitement, and even quirky humor thrown in.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF HORATIO HUMBERTON should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of three of the character’s stories. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image with this release is the cover of the July 1932 issue of Dime Detective Magazine, the first appearance of Horatio Humberton.

Following the anthology being filled with accepted proposals, there will be a call for a full length HORATIO HUMBERTON novel as well.

Other calls for Steeger Properties LLC characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING BLACK MASK MEMPHIS BASED DETECTIVE!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF LUTHER MCGAVOCK” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with Steeger Properties LLC for anthologies and novels featuring some of Steeger’s characters, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF LUTHER MCGAVOCK, an anthology featuring a series character from Black Mask Magazine.

Appearing in Black Mask Magazine from 1942 to 1948, Luther McGavock, created and written by Merle Constiner, worked for a Private Investigator Agency out of Memphis, Tennessee, after working for almost every other agency in the South. Not a white hat type hero, McGavock walked the line of hardboiled Private Eye and Noirish protagonist, sometimes easier not to like than the criminals he came up against. The McGavock stories were not what many considered typical mystery fare. Constiner presented detailed descriptions of the South, both the small towns and growing cities as well as the rather unique characters that peopled his version of the area. McGavock’s cases leaned into blood and violence, dark humor, betrayal, and double-crossing, sometimes even by McGavock himself, and often depended on little known facts of all sorts for resolution.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF LUTHER MCGAVOCK should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of the character's first four stories. 

Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image with this release is the cover of the January 1943 issue of Black Mask, the third appearance of Luther McGavock.

Following the anthology being filled with accepted proposals, there will be a call for a full length LUTHER MCGAVOCK novel as well.

Other calls for Steeger Properties LLC characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING LESTER DENT’S FIRST AND LARGELY UNPUBLISHED WESTERN HERO!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE COWL” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS!

With a licensing agreement with the heirs of the Estate of Norma Dent, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for an anthology featuring a character created by Lester Dent that remained unpublished in the classic era of the pulps-THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE COWL!

One of Lester Dent’s more unusual creations, The Cowl is also a character that was rejected by two Pulp magazines in 1930-31. The single story, a rather uniquely styled tale titled “The Cowled Nemesis”, would not see print until much later in the Spring 2007 issue of Ed Hulse’s BLOOD ‘N’ THUNDER magazine. The Cowl was in reality “Magic” Mason, a man of multiple skills on the hunt for his father’s killers. Mason was nearly as much masked hero with a bit of ‘super’ thrown in as he was saddle born cowboy. Clearly a western, the tale is set in a West similar to that depicted in many early Westerns: the Wild West still rarin’ and ridin’ in possibly isolated parts of the country while cars and other signs of progress moved forward.

The photo with this release is of The Cowl's creator, Lester Dent.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the four open slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE COWL should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of the story/article previously mentioned. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

Other calls for anthologies featuring Lester Dent characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING PULP’S ‘KING OF DETECTIVES’!  “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SATAN” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS

With a licensing agreement with Steeger Properties LLC for anthologies and novels featuring some of Steeger’s characters, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SATAN, an anthology featuring a series character from Popular Publications.

In a move that was rare, if not unique in Pulps, Captain Satan became the lead of his own self-titled magazine in March 1938 when Popular changed the name of its recently debuted STRANGE DETECTIVE MYSTERIES magazine. Satan, in reality mysterious and wealthy playboy Cary Adair, would only lead the magazine for five issues and not appear again. As Captain Satan, Adair led a large force of variously skilled men who in many ways literally waged a war on specific crimes by using criminal tactics. Whether or not he took a third to pay his crew or performed as a Robin Hood of some sort, it was clear Captain Satan was on the side of the angels.

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN SATAN should contact submissions@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology, which consists of all five originally published stories. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. This is a work for hire arrangement. The anthology will not be considered filled until six stories have been accepted.  

The image with this release is the cover of the July 1938 issue of CAPTAIN SATAN. 

Following the anthology being filled with accepted proposals, there will be a call for a full length CAPTAIN SATAN novel as well.

Other calls for Steeger Properties LLC characters will be forthcoming from Pro Se Productions.

------------------------------------------

For more information on these announcements, email editorinchief@prose-press.com.

To learn more about Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com. Like Pro Se on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProSeProductions

[Link] 50 Pulp Cover Treatments of Classic Works of Literature

Guns, Broads, Beefcake, Literariness

by Emily Temple

Last month at CrimeReads, Rebecca Romney looked at a few classic detective novels that had, at one time or another, gotten makeovers as sexy pulps—because as we all know, the easiest way to sell something is to make it look salacious (whether it actually is or not). But it isn’t only great detective novels that have gotten the pulp treatment. Classic works of literary fiction have existed as pulps from the very beginning of pulp—the new paperback publishers of the 1940s and 50s printed them right along with classic crime and some genuinely lowbrow (and sometimes quite lurid) new novels, often commissioning the very same artists to design their covers. Below, I dug up a few of these pulpified classics (not including the Pulp! The Classics imprint)—many of which I found through the excellent resource Pulp Covers. Some are true pulp covers—with overtly sexy women and tantalizing movie-esque taglines—while others are just amusingly lowbrow mass market treatments of highbrow novels. Either way, they’re even better than you’d expect.

Read the full article and see the pretty pictures: https://lithub.com/50-pulp-cover-treatments-of-classic-works-of-literature

Tease! Tease! (Moonstone Double Shot)

I'm so excited about this new book from Moonstone Books. I love to write the adventures of Golden Amazon, and she really shines when she gets to play off other pulp heroes with differing modus operandis. And boy, do Secret Agent X and Phantom Detective have different ways of seeing the job of a hero than Golden Amazon. So much fun to write!

 

Want more than just this tease?

The Pulp Factory Awards 2022

Voting is now open for this year’s Pulp Factory Awards and is open to the public, so get on over there and vote for your favorites. Categories include Best Pulp Novel, Best Pulp Short Story, Best Anthology/Collection, Best Pulp Cover, and Best Pulp Interior illustrations. Voting closes March 28, 2022 so get your votes in soon. Winners will be announced at this year’s Windy City Pulp & Paper Con in Chicago in May. 

BEST PULP NOVEL

• Captain Hawklin and the Invisible Enemy - Charles F. Millhouse - Stormgate
• Fangs of the Sea - Fred Adams Jr. - Airship 27
• The Great Chicago Fire Conspiracy - George Tackes - Airship 27

BEST PULP SHORT STORY

• Saturn’s Child – Mark Allen Vann – Saturn’s Child And Other Tales – Xepico Press
• Snow Shorts: Snow Ambition - Brian K. Morris - BEN Books
• Strigoi - Jonathan W. Sweet - Ghosts of the Jackal - Brick Pickle Pulp

BEST PULP ANTHOLOGY

• Blood on the Blade - Flinch Books
• Mystery Men (& Women) Vol. 7 - Airship 27
• Occupied Pulp - Flinch Books
• Pulp Reality #2 - Stormgate Press
• Pulp Reality #3 - Stormgate Press

BEST PULP INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS

• Chris Nye - RUNEMASTER – Shield Maiden’s Blade – Airship 27
• Ed Catto - THE MUSKETEERS – New Adventures – Airship 27
• Gary Kato - PULP MYTHOLOGY Vol 2 – Airship 27
• Guy Davis - THE SILVER PENTACLE – Airship 27
• Rob Davis - C.O.JONES – Hometown U.S.A. – Airship 27
• Stephen Burks - PULP REALITY #3 - Stormgate Press

BEST PULP COVER (larger images below)

• Clayton Murwin - PULP REALITY # 2 – Stormgate Press
• Adam Shaw - FANGS OF THE SEA – Airship 27
• Adam Shaw - JEZEBEL JOHNSTON 7 – Mastiff - Airship 27
• Douglas Klauba - SATURN’S CHILD And Other Tales – Xepico Press
• Rob Davis - JEZEBEL JOHNSTON Vol 8 REVELATION – Airship 27

Vote here.

Jason Waltman: A Man with a Plan

Jason Waltman was a visionary man. Sadly, he didn't live long enough to see those visions become realities. He was a fan of pulp, though, first and foremost. And he was perhaps the greatest cheerleader of my work I will perhaps ever know. 

He passed away on November 19 last year, not long after yet another glowing post on Facebook telling me, Bobby Nash, and Barry Reese how much he loved our work and supported us. And then he was gone. 

He had sent me these interview responses and I kept pushing them off because I had two series of interviews running back to back, and then Christmas came and knocked me off my schedule. 

But here it is, Jason. Late, but here. 

Jason Waltman was my friend, and I think you need to meet him. 

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

My latest work has been a labor of love for the last 15 years. The book is called The World of Crastic.  A role-playing game for the world oldest role-playing game Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 ruleset . The game is set on the world of Crastic. It's Victorian steampunk with mecha and magic. Players go against a warring nation trying to take over the world with an Emperor who acts like the Antichrist.

What happened in your life that prompted you to become a writer?

I want to be like the people I admire: Gary Gygax, Dave Arneson, Steve Jackson, Mark Tein Hagen. They sparked my imagination and creativity or role-playing game writing 

What inspires you to write?

My love for fantasy and science fiction. My recent pulp-related work on Facebook is to just sharpen my skills at writing.

What are the themes and subjects you tend to revisit in your work?

This book focuses on the grand war and its effect on the world around the players. And it has love stories among the non-players character the story centers around. My other future book will deal with more contemporary themes like Christian horror.

What would be your dream project?

A book featuring The Shadow and The Domino Lady -- a Shadow over the City of Angels.

Where would you rank writing on the "Is it an art or it is a science continuum?" Why?

I wouldn’t compare myself to the great masters of the role-playing game before me.

What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

Sometimes I get stuck with an idea that limits my world vision and I might need help to visualize the sight and sound of the role-playing world I have in mind.

How do your writer friends help you become a better writer? Or do they not?

My favorite writers have challenged and encouraged me to keep on writing. I would personally thank people like Bobby Nash, Barry Reese, and you, Sean. They have been my secret cheerleaders and supporters. They very much supported me asking them questions about writing. 

What does literary success look like to you?

Success is from looking at people sitting around a table and enjoying the adventures I create. And being able to hire freelance writers and artists. 

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

My next role-playing game world book will be called Guardian the Watch. It will deal with the end time of the Bible and people who are called to fight back the demon-possessed humans.

SUBMISSIONS CALL FOR ANTHOLOGY FEATURING LESTER DENT’S AVIATOR SPY! “THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK BAT” OPEN FOR PROPOSALS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

With a licensing agreement with the Heirs of Norma Dent for anthologies of all new stories of characters created by Lester Dent, Pro Se Productions proudly announces that submissions are being accepted for THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK BAT.

“Yes,” explains Tommy Hancock, “there is a third Black Bat from the Pulps, and this one is not only an aviator involved in espionage, but he happened to be created by Lester Dent! Although he’s known for being the genius behind Doc Savage, as well as other known characters, this one came as a surprise even to me.  Although not immediately considered a writer of aviation pulp, Dent’s early career is peppered with the publication of such tales in various pulp magazines. The Black Bat starred in just one of those stories, but even in that brief tale, Dent introduced a mysterious character whose face was unknown to anyone that took his spying and fighting to the airways! This is such a fun character for writers to get an opportunity to be a part of. Dent packed a lot of style and details on this aviator hero into one tale while also leaving a lot of room for writers to explore while respecting the original work.”

Writers interested in proposing for one of the six slots available in THE NEW ADVENTURES OF THE BLACK BAT should contact Hancock at editorinchief@prose-press.com to request the bible for the anthology. Proposals must be 1-3 paragraphs long and must include the entire plot of the story, these are not elevator pitches or back cover blurbs. The stories should be approximately 10,000 words and payment will be on a royalty basis. 

For more information on this announcement, email editorinchief@prose-press.com.

To learn more about Pro Se Productions, go to www.prose-press.com. Like Pro Se on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ProSeProductions.

Pulpsters on Pulp: From Dragon*Con TV 2021

 

Blog Re-Run: Femme Fatales—An Obsession Dissected

 Here's the original blast from the past... The very first article that ran on this blog. Enjoy!

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

 Like the hard-boiled hero, the femme fatale dates to classic myth. An example is Circe, who turned Odysseus' men into swine in Book X of The Odyssey and the Sirens, whose beauty and alluring song attracted his sailors in Book XII. … In the Middle Ages, Christianity refashioned this archetype as a devil, called the succubus. -- Characteristics of Hard-Boiled Fiction: The Femme Fatale (http://www.detnovel.com/FemmeFatale.html)

If you read my writing at all, you know I’m obsessed with writing femme fatales into my stories. In defense, giving the hero an equal and opposite makes for strong storytelling, but surely I could just give him a straight up villain for that role, right? Yes and no.

While a villain needs to be a fully realized character just as much as the hero, the femme fatales (at least to me) are something different, something special, the proverbial monkey wrench (though drenched in curves and slinky sex appeal) thrown into the machine. It’s her role to play Jiminy Cricket in a way, but more for the dark side, but not completely dark, but dark enough to fight dirty and to throw society’s conventions to the wind. She’s the little voice trying to seduce the hero to true independence from being pure good. She’s the test, at least in my mind, that reminds the hero that he (or she) has feet of clay and to never take that for granted.

A Few of My Favorite Femmes

Femme fatales abound in classic films, of course, and many of my favorite actresses played them at one point or another in their careers, such as Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Veronica Lake, Lizabeth Scott, Lauren Bacall, Gene Tierney, and Ann Savage, and some, such as Barbara Stanwyck all but made playing them their bread and butter roles.

But many of my favorites exist outside of classic noir films. In comics, particularly, Catwoman has to be the ultimate femme fatale, the temptation for Batman to dirty his cowl and cape by letting her go and subsequently trying to tame her time and time again. In many ways, Poison Ivy serves that role to, but with a darker shade of fatale than Selina. Many of today’s comic book heroes got their start that way, from Scarlet Witch to Black Widow.

In Christa Faust’s Money Shot, Angel Dare is in effect both the hero and the femme fatale as the same time.  Even classic fantasy has its share, including the women who oppose and test and support Thomas Covenant in his adventures written by Stephen Donaldson.

While she was most certainly on the side of right and good, even Emma Peel was clearly built (pun intended) on the model of the classic femme fatale, as if dressing up the heroine from the bad girl’s closet would engender the show to a greater demographic—which it did. Even Doctor Who got into the act with the addition of River Song, who is clearly the Doctor’s equal, and clearly less concerned about society’s moral impositions than the stodgy Doc. If anything, she’s a modern creation, the femme fatale with the heart of gold (somewhere underneath all the shooting and jail-breaking.

And modern films and TV are full of them too, including the Indiana Jones series, Decker’s obsession with Rachael in Blade Runner, Angel’s Drusilla, Darla, and later Illyria, and one of my favorites, Captain Mal’s “wife” of multiple names played by gorgeous Christina Hendrix.

What’s Fates Got To Do With It?

 No. That’s not a typo. It’s not fate, like destiny, but fates, like the three Greek mythic women. Just look at Hammetts’s The Maltese Falcon:

“There Sam Spade is attracted to three women, a motif that echoes the ancient Greek Fates, who tell men the future. He is involved in an adulterous affair with his partner's wife, Iva Archer. His secretary, Effie Perrine, is a tom-boyish, competent girl-next-door who would make the perfect spouse. Brigid O'Shaughnessy, the femme fatale, seems to promise sensuality and wealth, but Spade sees through her – and uses her when she thinks she is using him. The novel's end leaves Spade alienated from Effie, who is, ironically, mad that he rejected the "romance" of Brigid, while Iva knocks at the door. It is a grim morality play about making your bed and lying in it.” (http://www.detnovel.com/FemmeFatale.html)

I had forgotten about this at the time, but realize now it’s the same thing Bobby Nash and I did when we put together the story bible for The Ruby Files for publisher Airship 27. Our own 1930’s private gumshoe has his own trio of beauties to contend with—his good girl secretary who wants to save his soul, his bad girl interracial lover, and the socialite who wants to tie him down to marriage—not to mention the femmes he meets from story to story. I’m sure one smarter than I am could make an id, ego, and superego reference to those three female archetypes as well.

“Of the three types of noir women, the femme fatale represents the most direct attack on traditional womanhood and the nuclear family. She refuses to play the role of devoted wife and loving mother that mainstream society prescribes for women. She finds marriage to be confining, loveless, sexless, and dull, and she uses all of her cunning and sexual attractiveness to gain her independence. … She remains fiercely independent even when faced with her own destruction. And in spite of her inevitable death, she leaves behind the image of a strong, exciting, and unrepentant woman who defies the control of men and rejects the institution of the family.” (www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/noir/np05ff.html)

“Critics tend to classify the women of film noir into two categories identified by Janey Place: the "rejuvenating redeemer" or "good" woman and the "spider woman" or femme fatale. But noir films also feature a third type of female character, the "marrying type" — a woman who poses a threat to the hero by pressuring him to marry her and "settle down" into his traditional role as breadwinner, husband, and father.” (www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/noir/np05ff.html­)

I really like that term “spider woman” and not because it makes me think of a certain friendly neighborhood wall-crawler. To me it really defines the type of woman I’m addressing here—she spins a web and you will get caught in it if you get to close. And chances are, she will eat you up, whether literally or symbolically, before the tale has come to an end. 

Or as Marlene Dietrich sang in The Blue Angel in the song "Fallling in Love Again":

"Men cluster to me like moths around a flame
And if their wings burn, I know I'm not to blame"

She does her thing because it’s her thing to do. No one can tell her differently and no man can tame her.

In the majority of noir films, however, the femme fatale remains committed to her independence, seldom allowing herself to be converted by the hero or captured by the police. She refuses to be defined by the male hero or submit her sexuality to the male-dominated institution of the family; instead, she defines herself and resists all efforts by the hero to "put her in her place." (www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/noir/np05ff.html)

And just now, as I’m typing this post, it hits me that I’ve subconsciously done the same thing in my story “City of Relics” for the Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars sci-fi anthology for White Rocket Books. The bad girl, the one who falls in love and could settle down (if the difference in species would allow for it), and the companion good girl, all together again in a pulp space adventure. The fates reunited on Mars for another book tour, so to speak.

So you see how these archetypes just work their way into you as a writer and become sort of second nature. Good stories are good stories, and so many of them have their basis way back in the myths and legends of the ancient world, even for something as future-seeking as Martian sci-fi or as tied to the early 20^th Century American life as gritty pulp noir.

All well and good, of course, but the one who interests me is the bad girl with the heart of gold. She may ultimately fight on the side of right and good, but doesn’t mind getting her hands dirty or playing a game of “seduce the hero” while fighting the good fight.

Thank You, Barbara Stanwyck!

But really, you may say, all this is just a way to cover up the fact that you want to write sexy, violent women without people thinking you’re some kind of delinquent pervert.

Well, one thing I’ve learned is that people will think what they damn well please, and I try my best not to care what they think.

When I was writing the Gene Simmons Dominatrix comic book for IDW Publishing (of which I was thrilled to find Broken Frontiers called in a review “the pulpiest pulp on the stands”) I wrote a few pages of dialog between Dominique and her handler/client Doug that I think sums up my fascination with the femme fatale role and why I write them so frequently into everything from sci-fi to super-heroes to fantasy to action stories.

While Dom is threatening to throw Doug out of her house painfully, he blurts out the simple words, “Barbara Stanwyck.”

Dom replies: “What?”

Doug: “Barbara Stanwyck. She got me into this.”

Dom: "The woman from The Big Valley got you interested in conspiracies?"

Doug: "Doesn’t anyone under forty watch classic films anymore? Lady of Burlesque? Martha Ivers? Double Indemnity? Ringing any bells here? I watched her movies when I was a kid. I guess I sort of fell in love with strong women because of that."

Dom: "Fine, but don’t try to turn this into some kind of bad movie moment."

I was trying to explain Doug’s nature to readers at the time, but the more I go back and read the Dominatrix trade paperback, I find that I was inadvertently writing myself into the story at that point. It was Barbara Stanwyck who defined the role of the femme fatale for me, and I’ve been writing her into so much of what I create without even realizing it.

Even in her more dramatic (Meet John Doe) and comedic (The Lady Eve) roles, her characters were tough as nails and played by their own rules.

My Own Twist

I’ll admit it. I hated the movie Pretty Woman. I just can’t buy into the hooker with a heart of gold theme. Maybe it’s my fascination with noir. Everything should be dirty, tainted of original (and some new and unique) sin.

In spite of that, I do however love to write the femme fatale with the heart of gold—or at least with a heart of something slightly less valuable than gold. For me, the pinnacle of my fatale creations is Monique San Diablo (also called the “Saint Devil”), whom I created for my story “A Dance with the Devil” in Lance Star: Sky Ranger Volume 3. She plays both sides of the fence, freely admits to being a thief when it suits her, and a British agent when her special skills are needed On top of that, she’s more than willing to sully poor Lance’s reputation with his good girl Betty—if she can convince him to take her for a ride. She’ll do what it takes, but she’ll also do what she wants, all the while saving the day—when she feels like it.  

And there you have it.

Hi. My name is Sean, and I’m obsessed with writing femme fatales. But I didn’t spill my guts so I could quit like some 12-step program because… What’s that saying? … Oh yeah, 12-step programs are for quitters, and well, me and my femme fatales, we’re in it for the long haul.

So pipe down and back off, before they fill you full of lead, you big galoot.

_________________________________________________________________________________

And in case this post has gotten you interested, here’s a list of “The Greatest Femme Fatales in Noir Film”: http://www.filmsite.org/femmesfatales.html