Why Do You Write... Pulp?

Just one question this week, folks. And it's for the pulpsters.

Why do you write pulp?

Bill Craig: I write Pulp because it is FUN!  I enjoy writing the kind of rip-roaring adventures that I loved reading as a kid.  Many of those books and series aren't around any more and I feel the younger generation is missing out, so I write to give them a chance to experience that same since of  wonder I did as a young reader!

Greg Glick: Because the pulp world is more exciting, wondrous and just plain cooler than the one we've got.

Nancy Hansen: I write pulp because I've always been kind of a maverick, and I like the gritty sound of the word—pulp. I tell people what I write with pride, because the way we do things here in the New Pulp world, without all the big budgets and fancy high rise offices, tends to amaze most of them. There's something sort of clandestinely idealistic and awe inspiring in that—it's like being part of an elite sleeper cell of underground commando wordsmiths. I find I really prefer the quicker pacing and high action and heroics of pulp stories, and yet I still get to tell the kinds of tales I've always loved to read. I've always tried to write stories that I feel good about, and I figured I'm not the only one that enjoys those sorts of yarns. In the New Pulp world, I can get my work into the hands of readers much faster than trying to jump through all the mainstream hoops. It just works well for me.

Lee Houston Jr.: In all honesty, the action, the adventure, the mystery, the intrigue. Good versus evil. Right triumphant over wrong. Pulp has it all, regardless of what genres or labels you care to use in any attempt to define it further. What more can one ask from great literature?

Van Allen Plexico: I write pulp because I already had my own style of writing science fiction, fantasy, and superhero prose adventure, which didn't seem to match up with the style favored by contemporary mainstream editors and publishers.  But I liked it and so did my readers, and I wasn't going to change.  One day I discovered that my style already existed and was called pulp. So I didn't choose pulp -- pulp chose me! 

Bobby Nash: I didn't set out to write pulp specifically. I write the type of stories that I like to read. Turns out that those types of stories with action, adventure, and snappy dialogue were called pulp. Pulp isn't a genre, it's an attitude. And I guess I have it.

Ron Fortier: There was never a purposeful intention.  I write what I like to read, action and adventure.  Guess those are synonymous with pulp.

Robert Kennedy: I have a lifelong love of action filled adventure stories. Sure I like some genre more that others, but a good story is a good story. I write what some call pulp, or New Pulp, because that's where the action and excitement are. For the writer. And hopefully the reader.

Jim Beard: It was my dad that really instilled in me my love for pulp -- he was a big fan of The Shadow, Green Hornet, Lone Ranger, the Phantom...though he seemed to not know about Doc Savage. I glommed onto Doc by way of Will Murray and the character swiftly rose to the top of my Pulp hierarchy of favorites. I thank goodness my dad sat me down to watch and to listen so much of what I love today. Without him I wouldn't be the pulp/comic book/television/films nutjob I am today.

Ed Erdelac: I was having pulp daydreams when I was six years old, flipping through comic books and imagining what the word balloons said. I would watch ads for movies on TV and make up the entire story at home with GI Joe figures, stoking the fire with George Pal sci fi movies, The Lone Ranger, The Cisco Kid, and Errol Flynn swashbucklers every Sunday. I came to pulp through movies and comics, specifically Conan The Barbarian and the 80's revival of The Shadow that Howard Chaykin did for DC. You write what you know, I guess. I LOVE that writing can become a learning experience as well. I read all about dhows and early Muslim world politics for my Sinbad story, and I can't even list the things I've learned researching my other work. Maybe I should amend that comment to say 'write what you know you love.'

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#145) -- Believable Villains

Do you find writing believable villains more simple or 

more difficult than writing believable heroes? Why?

Neither actually.

I find writing any character hard... at least until I "get" him or her. After that, it's pretty smooth sailing.

As far as making them believable, as long as they have drives and foibles and issues and quirks, people are people, villain or hero.

Reminder -- Don't Miss the PULP ARK Convention this weekend!

If you heading out to Pulp Ark this weekend, don't forget to drop in on some of the fun and informative panels I'll be taking part in (and the marketing yourself and your work seminar I'll be leading).

FRIDAY, APRIL 20TH

3 PM-4PM
PANEL-WHAT IS NEW PULP?
Tommy Hancock, Wayne Reinagel, Art Sippo, Rich Steeves, Sean Taylor

SATURDAY, APRIL 21ST

9-10 AM
PANEL-HORROR DISSECTED- What Makes a Scary Story?
Eric Beebe, Rich Steeves, Allan Gilbreath, John Hartness, Sean Taylor

10-11 AM
 PANEL- ONCE UPON A PULP-Fairy Tales and Legends In Literature
Jennifer Mulvihill, Robert Krog, H. David Blalock, Brad Carter, Sean Taylor

SUNDAY, APRIL 22nd

PANEL- GUMSHOES AND FLATFEET-Private Eyes, Cops, and More
Ashley Mangin,  Lee Houston, Jr., Stephen Jared, Sean Taylor, Tommy Hancock

2-3 PM
CLASSROOM-SELLING YOURSELF-Marketing Your Work
Sean Taylor

For more info: http://pulpark.blogspot.com/ or http://www.prosepulp.com/#!pulp-ark

James Palmer and the Love for the Stories

I met James Palmer in the pages of the wonderful Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars available from White Rocket Books. I was so intrigued by his story that I had to get to know him better.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I have two short stories that were recently published. My story "The Hand of Yogul" is the cover story in the most recent issue of Pro Se Presents, and I have a story called "Indestinguishable from Magic" in Van Allen Plexico's anthology Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars.

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

What makes a hero heroic, and how to be heroic in the face of incredible odds. I also want my work to remind readers that we are much more powerful than we give ourselves credit for.

What would be your dream project?

I would love to write a far-reaching SF novel. As far as franchise characters, I would love to write The Spider or a Cthulhu Mythos story. I'd also like to write a comic one of these days, just to see if I can do it. Despite growing up reading and collecting comics, writing them was never really something I wanted to try my hand at until recently.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?

I think every writer looks back on some of their past work and cringes. It's just part of the process. Everything you write makes you a little better, so it gets hard to look back at the old stuff without seeing something you wish you had done better. But if I could pick one story in particular, it would be the first Lao Fang story I wrote for Pro Se Presents (then Fantasy and Fear). I friend read it and suggested that the hero should get the girl, so if I could do it over again I would make that happen for the protagonist.

What inspires you to write?

Reading something really well-written and exciting always makes me want to run off and go write and create something that makes someone else feel the way that book or story made me feel.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

I've learned so much from so many writers, and it depends on what type of writing I'm doing. For my pulp stuff, it's definitely Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. I love the big ideas and world building of Cory Doctorow and Charles Stross. I love the characters and themes of Robert J. Sawyer. Other writers I admire include Ray Bradbury, Harlan Ellison, and Dan Simmons. All of them have built complete worlds in my head, and I try to do that with each and every story I write.

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

I think it's definitely a little of both. Writing is an art and a craft. The art can't be taught, the craft part can. With writing there are some skills you are good at and others you are not, but you can work on the stuff you're not good at by practicing, reading books, going to workshops and getting critiques.

But there are still elements of art, those parts of writing that are like painting or music. Music is a great example. A prevalent music gene seems to run in my family. I didn't get it, but it's there. I took guitar lessons for a while, and can play parts of a few songs if they're very, very simple. My brother, on the other hand, can play anything that makes noise, and does so seemingly without much effort at all. I could practice all day every day for years and never be a third as good as he is. I think it's that way with writing to a certain extent. There are people who just know how to make the words and stories flow, like Howard or King or Simmons. Fortunately, one doesn't have to be Howard, King or Simmons to get published, but you do have to work on the stuff people tell you needs work.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

I am in the beginning stages of a novel pitting two classic monsters against each other that have never appeared together before. I've just started writing it, but I can promise it will have a heroic mad scientist, a beautiful female spy, science, magic and Nazis. Lots of Nazis. I'm also working on a series of stories featuring a character I created called Sam Eldritch: Occult Investigator for Hire, about a former cop in 1930s Chicago who is trying to track down the Chinese demon that killed his partner and gave him a knack for seeing the strange and secret things that lie just beyond the normal world we know.  I hope to have at least one of these out by the middle of the year. I'm also going to write a story for Pulp Obscura for a possible December 2012 publication. I'm working on a couple of things for Airship 27 too. Then there's all the SF and steampunk stuff I want to do. I always have a lot of irons in the fire.

For more information about James and his writing, visit his blog at http://jamespalmerbooks.com/books/blog/.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#144) -- Pulp Legacy

Do you see the masked hero as a timeless tradition only for pulps, or did it evolve?

Pure pulpy goodness. Yep.

While the masked vigilante is a pulp tradition, and a timeless one at that, he (and she) did evolve as did the publishing world. Pulp may have been the starting point, but it wasn't the ending point.

And I'll prove it to you in two ways, in two separate directions: writing style and writing topics.

The style argument is easy. Look at any bestselling mainstream work nowadays, and you'll see the legacy of pulp all over it. Fast action? Check. Lots of dialog? Check. The style of pulp was such a hit with readers that it moved right out of pulp into the big publishing houses just as soon as people had money to spend on blockbuster books again and didn't have to just buy cheap editions. But the time spent reading the pulps during the Depression changed the type of storytelling people expected. In effect pulp trumped lit and still does today if you look at it as a matter of pure style.

(Sure, there are a minority of bestsellers that have a "high" writing style and become cultural phenomenons, but the straightforward bestsellers far outnumber them.)

More pulp-influence goodness.

Now for the topic argument. As the popular pulp characters left the page and went to the radio, the subject matter of the books themselves changed. 1930s masked vigilantes either became superheroes and went into comic books (by and large) or they lost their masks and became detectives. Inspired by the success of Philip Marlowe, the pulp detective took center stage away from the masked hero. Then the detective himself became (if not a fatality himself, at least a) victim to the noir everyman who suddenly found himself thrust into unforgiving situations that would, in many cases, make even the pulp gumshoe blush with moral embarrassment and indignation. Spurred on by the violence and sex of noir, the sixties became a time of cheap spy novels, giving birth to James Bond and the works of Le Carre. After that, the shift moved toward mystery and thriller series, even to today with the Bourne books and Sue Grafton's "Blank is for Blank" novels. And that continues with supernaturally influenced series like the Rachel Morgan books by Kim Harrison and Jim Butcher's outrageously successful Dresden Files.

But at their heart, all these things were still and are still pulp. Deftly written, action-focused stories for the average reader to enjoy, pure escapist fiction.

Of course, there are trends within sci-fi, horror, and fantasy that were going on at the same time -- also rooted in pulp, and not all the lines of changing trends were as clearly defined as I've made them sound in this article. But those are discussions for another day.

Bobby Nash and I talk Rick Ruby and The Ruby Files at Hunting Monsters

In March, Airship 27 launched its 45th title (the 4th of 2012) about a 1930’s pulp detective named Rick Ruby. Co-created and written by Bobby Nash and Sean Taylor, The Ruby Files also sports tales from writers Andrew Salmon and William Patrick Maynard. Interior art by Rob Moran. Cover art by Mark Wheatley.

Sean and Bobby answered a few questions to help you get to know Rick Ruby...

Continue reading: http://joshuamreynolds.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/who-is-rick-ruby.html

James M. Cain -- "Narratively, I do not exist..."

"The only way I can keep on the track at all is to pretend to be somebody else – to put it in dialect and thus get it told. If I try to do it in my own language I find that I have none. A style that seems to be personal enough for ordinary gassing refuses to get going for an imaginary narrative. So long as I merely report what people might have said under certain circumstances, I am all right; but the moment I have to step in myself, and try to create the impression that what happened to those people really matters, then I am sunk. I flounder about, not knowing whether I should skip to the scene at the church or pile in a little more of the talk at the post office. The reason is... I don't care what happened. It doesn't matter to me. Narratively, I do not exist, I have no impulse to hold an audience."

--James M. Cain, quoted in The Baby In the Icebox and Other Short Fiction, ed. Roy Hoopes.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#143) -- Why Pulp Heroes

As a writer, what is it about pulp heroes that drives you to write them?

If you ask the average pulp writer, you'll get an answer like this most likely: "I love to write pulp heroes because they're the clear-cut good guys who face the clear-cut bad guys and they have all this straight-up action without all the self-doubt and meandering introspection and flowery narrative."

My answer is slightly different. I do agree about the adventures of pulp heroes not being bogged down in flowery narrative and meandering introspection, but I don't mind a little self-doubt and shades of gray in my heroes from time to time.

It's precisely those opportunities and luxuries that the original writers didn't have with them that makes me love to write them. That's why I love new pulp. Because it takes the ideas of classic pulp and allows us to see them and write them through modern eyes and modern techniques.

I think the idea of dealing head-on with the racism and sexism of the 1930s makes for a great pulp story, especially for a character who has never had to accept its existence until now (with the benefit of a modern writer). I think writing a typical "good guy" into a situation where he has to choose between two "bad" options to win the day (and then deal with the repercussions of his choice) makes another awesome story idea. I think that creating new heroes in that setting with more visible feet of clay and shades of gray (hey that's a cool title for a pulp book, isn't it, FEET OF CLAY AND SHADES OF GRAY) to inhabit the dark and dingy world of the true 1930s is a great deal of fun.

And that's what I like about writing pulp characters -- not the legacy but the opportunity to explore that legacy with fresh, modern eyes.

James R. Tuck -- The Man Behind the Deacon

You don't want to meet James Tuck in a dark alley. Sure, he may be mostly harmless (to quote Douglas Adams), but he looks like he'd mug you and then write you into his latest novel as a soon-to-be corpse.

Okay, maybe that second part is correct. But what a way to go.

I met James this year at Connooga and was impressed by not only his work and work ethic, but the way he approached his stories and I just had to get some time with him to pick his brain a bit.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

It's about an Occult Bounty Hunter named Deacon Chalk. Five years ago, Deacon hunted down the thing that killed his family.  All he wants in the world is to go and be with his family. The only problem is that he is Catholic. If he kills himself it's a mortal sin, do not pass go, do not collect $200. So now he hunts down monsters, throwing himself at them, hoping and praying that one day one of them will be monster enough to take him out and send him on his way.

The first book BLOOD AND BULLETS is the night that a vampire sets him up to be killed using a wannabe vampire hunter as bait. It's a violent, bloody night as Deacon has to find out who set him up and stop whatever plans they have. The book is full of vampires, undead strippers, cursed immortals, Were-spiders, and a ton of ass-kicking.


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

Loss of family is huge. What it takes to drive a man into doing something completely insane like hunting monsters. Plus missing eyes. Lots of folks lose eyes in my work. It's a weird thing that I haven't figured out why I keep going to it.

Oh and priests. Priests keep showing up. And if it's not a priest then it's a backwoods preacher who deals guns or something like that.

What would be your dream project?

I want to write comic books. Specifically DC Comics. Specifically a Batman family title. Give me the Huntress and let me make her what she is supposed to be. Especially if you let me take the Huntress into the Vertigo line... hells yeah. I would also like to do a 70's throwback Power Man and Iron Fist. Back in the "Sweet Christmas!" days. Other than that I have my dream project. The Deacon Chalk books are exactly what I want to write. They are the unvarnished example of what I love in Urban Fantasy.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?

I am really happy with my work. It's all been pretty magical so far. You always grow, always moving forward so you look back and wish you had written this sentence different or used that word instead of the one you used, but overall, I am good to go.

What inspires you to write?

Deadlines. LOL. I am under a heavy deadline for book 3 and novella 3 in the Deaconverse so I am furiously writing everyday to make it. Hell, I don't really have time to do this interview.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

I am a huge Robert E. Howard fan. I don't think I anywhere near the poetic writer he was, but as for the violence it is right up there. My books have a pretty high bodycount.

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

It's a mixture of both. It's like cooking. Anyone can read a recipe, follow it, and make a serviceable meal, but give that recipe to a chef, let him add the style he has to it and you will have a gourmet meal on your hands.....well, not on your hands. You should use a fork. Didn't your momma teach you any manners?

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

Book two of the Deacon Chalk series hits August 7th. It's called BLOOD AND SILVER and it'll be available everywhere. There will also be another e-novella release called SPIDER'S LULLABY that will be available from all fine e-tailers June 26th.

Other than those, just keep watch on my website www.jamesrtuck.com ; and my social media for updates.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#142) -- Pulp Heroes

Where did your interest (as a reader) in the heroes of pulp originate?

To answer that, I really have to answer two questions because I liked pulp and pulp styled tales long before I knew what pulp actually was.

To answer the first, my interest in the pulp archetypes and pulp style began in my love for comics. Sure, I read mainstream superhero books like Legion of Super-Heroes and Avengers, but I also fell in love with the horror and sci-fi anthologies that tried to make readers think they were more lurid than they actually were. And these tales were really throwbacks to an earlier era, quick-hit, down and dirty stories of demons, murderers, creatures emerging from paintings to kill unsuspecting art lovers, and even battles against the unlucky number 13. Not only that, but even the mainstream books I read at the time had that old sci-fi edge of pulp tales -- in particular, the Legion of Super-Heroes and the Metal Men.

Now, as for my interest in the real, honest-to-God pulps, that came after (yes, after) I had to write my first official new pulp story -- which was "Dance with the Devil" for Lance Star: Sky Ranger Vol. 2. You see, I'm a sucker for research, so to honestly write a pulp voice, I downloaded more than a hundred public domain pulp tales from manybooks.net (a treasure trove, if ever I've found one) to get it right. Only, I discovered that this was the kind of stuff I'd been enjoying already, both in comic book action and in prose -- only I hadn't realized the pulp style had been so far-reaching. Two in particular, Edgar Rice Burroughs' A Princess of Mars and H. Rider Haggard's She, were my connecting points between prose and pulp action.

From there, the ball kept rolling downhill, picking up momentum and more mass, introducing me to more new pulp writing and reading opportunities.

[Link] Table Talk -- What's It Worth?

It's time for another round of Table Talk, where we invite you, the reader, behind the table to listen in on what New Pulp authors Barry Reese, Bobby Nash and Mike Bullock discuss when they think no one is listening. Shhhh! Don't let them know you're here.

Question: Since most new pulp writing jobs pay very little, if they pay at all, how do you decide what jobs to take and what ones to turn down?

Continue reading: http://www.newpulpfiction.com/2012/04/table-talk-whats-it-worth.html

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#141) -- Writing Villains

As a writer, how do you approach your villains differently than when writing your heroes?

Honestly, I try not to write them differently at all. They both need to have drives and goals and hurdles to overcome to accomplish those goals.

The main difference is that I get to walk on the dark side when I write the villains, so their actions can be vile or sick or antisocial.

Perhaps one of my favorite villains that I've written is the husband of the heroine Ambient Sky (in the story "The Other, As Just As Fair" in Show Me a Hero). He isn't really evil, but his drive to protect his children becomes the very thing that puts them at risk (and ruins her life) when he outs his own wife as a superhero in order to win custody in their divorce settlement.

Chuck Miller's One Hundred Legs of Death

I'm not upset that I tied for best new writer this year with Chuck Miller. I'm really not. (Me thinks the lady doth protest too much, I know.)

The simple fact is that neither or us are really "new" writers. We've both been at it for years, and we both deserve the award. Chuck's Black Centipede series is an amazing bit of pulp styled prose that takes itself both seriously and not too seriously at the same time.

So if I had to get stuck in a tie, I couldn't think of better company.

And now it's time for you to meet him too.

Tell us a bit about your latest work.

I just finished the second Black Centipede novel, Blood of the Centipede. It picks up shortly after the first one left off. The Black Centipede is now a national hero, thanks to the machinations of William Randolph Hearst. But our hero still has some impulse control problems, and he comes perilously close to getting into hot water again over his very public use of violence against a criminal. His friend on the City of Zenith Police Department, Stan Bartowski, suggests that the Centipede might want to get out of town for a while until the whole thing blows over. As it happens, Hearst is financing a Black Centipede movie -- a quickie production to cash in on the hero's popularity -- so he travels to Hollywood to act as a consultant on the film. Things turn weird very quickly, and the Centipede soon finds himself at odds with a bizarre triumvirate of villains: Jack the Ripper, the White Centipede, and the Black Centipede Eater. The story answers a few questions about the Centipede's macabre origin, but raises even more troubling ones. The real-life guest stars include Amelia Earhart (with whom the Centipede forms a sort of partnership), Aleister Crowley, Bela Lugosi and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

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

I would say it would be the grey areas between good and evil, and perception vs. reality. The Centipede is kind of a morally ambiguous character. His motivations are strange and unclear. He has very little regard for the law. Generally speaking, he is on friendlier term with the criminals he knows than he is with people in law enforcement. It seems to me that anybody who has the nerve to put on a mask and take the law into his own hands must somehow see himself as above-- or at least apart from-- the rest of humanity. And I believe a lot of people in the real world who have managed to amass great power-- financial, political, etc.-- feel the same way. William Randolph Hearst was one of those, and that's why I made him a pivotal character in the Black Centipede saga. Hearst and the Centipede despise one another, but they're also dependent on each other. When the Centipede was just starting out he wound up in some very hot water with the law. Hearst stepped in and offered his services in rehabilitation our hero's public image. Hearst took some very radical, dangerous and unethical steps to achieve this, and turned the Centipede into a national hero virtually overnight. So the dynamic that emerges is that the Centipede sells a lot of papers and magazines for Hearst, and Hearst keeps the masked man's public image as shiny as possible. Of course, the two of them are a lot more alike than either would ever admit. Hearst also publishes a monthly Black Centipede pulp adventure magazine, which features highly sanitized accounts of his adventures. Perception is one thing, reality is something else.  But the Centipede will go through a sort of moral evolution as the series progresses. We see the beginnings of that in the second book. Amelia Earhart begins to serve as a sort of moral compass.

What would be your dream project?

There is one idea I have had in my head for quite some time. It involved copyrighted characters, but I think it would be doable. One of these days I'm going to make a pitch. I've actually written a couple of chapters. One of my favorite small-screen heroes meets one of my favorite big-screen antiheroes. My rather unimaginative working title is "Carl Kolchak Meets Blacula." Of course, Moonstone has the Kolchak franchise. I don't know who owns Blacula, but I would think they'd be open to such a project.

If you have any former project to do over to make it better, which one would it be, and what would you do?

A couple years ago, I wrote a novella called The Optimist.  It was never published, but it was the genesis of everything I'm doing now with the Black Centipede and other related characters. The Optimist  was a vaguely Watchmen-like post-glory-days superhero saga. 

The protagonist is a grown-up former superhero kid sidekick named Jack Christian, who has had a pretty rough life since his superhero mentor was killed 12 years prior to the events in the story. Frankly, it wasn't very good, and was never published. I scrapped the whole thing and started doing stories about some of the more interesting supporting characters, the Black Centipede, Doctor Unknown Junior, Vionna Valis and Mary Jane Kelly. But I do think the basic premise was good, and one of these days I might drag it back out and revamp it.

What inspires you to write?

I used to sit around and imagine things I'd like to read that nobody was writing. Eventually, I got to the point where I had enough nerve to start writing them myself. I am a big fan of pulp, both old and new, but there are things I have never seen done, and I'd like to see how they would work. So I'm taking a more or less traditional masked hero setup, and pushing it as far as I dare to. I enjoy the process, and sometimes find myself in brand-new territory I had never before imagined.

What writers have influenced your style and technique?

There are quite a few of those, and I have taken at least a little something from each of them. But in terms of style and technique, the ones I learned the most from are Flannery O'Connor, Hunter S. Thompson, Rex Stout, Carson McCullers and William S. Burroughs. In terms of content and approach, Philip Jose Farmer is at the top of the list.

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

Well, it has to be an art. If it were a science, I wouldn't be capable of doing it. Really, it can't be quantified. I have always found it indistinguishable from magic.

Any other upcoming projects you would like to plug?

I have a few things coming up. I'm doing several stories for the Pulp Obscura line. The first one is an Armless O'Neil story, which I just finished. You've got one in that collection, too, which I'm looking forward to reading. The next one of those I'm working on is the Griffon. I also have something coming out from Pacific Noir Press, the first in what might become a series, The Bay Phantom Chronicles.

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

To learn more about Chuck's work, visit http://theblackcentipede.blogspot.com/.

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#140) -- Memorable Villains

Think about your favorite villains from the written word. What makes them memorable?

The Astronomer from The Wild Cards series. Why is he memorable? Because he freakin' tore out a teenage kid's heart in public. Granted the kid could turn into a dinosaur, but still. It was a kid, and it was right there in public where everyone could see, including his parents and friends.

Why else? Because he wanted to bring some ancient evil to earth via Aztec rituals.

Primarily though it was the way he was written. He wasn't just pyscho. He was a psycho who really believed in what he was doing. Not for any altruistic motives, like Magneto, but out of a blind devotion to a religious order, albeit a devout one. He was one of the best kinds of villains, the one who is doing the right thing -- in his own mind anyway.

Last Chance School for Girls Teaser Art

Pardon me for interrupting your day, but I have to share something amazing with you. My friend Geoffrey Gwin and I are working on a comic book mini-series for Arcana called Last Chance School for Girls. He sent some teaser artwork today and just had to post it so you could drool along with me.

Here's the awesomeness that is the talent of Geoffrey Gwin...

Clockwise from top: Stardust Melody, Karma Kitten,
Spora, Working Girl, L-Tech, Doe

From L-R: Doe, Stardust Melody, Karma Kitten, Working Girl

My Pulp Ark Schedule for Panels and Seminars

The Pulpstress and Domino Lady at Pulp Ark 2011.

FRIDAY, APRIL 20TH

3 PM-4PM
PANEL-WHAT IS NEW PULP?
Tommy Hancock, Wayne Reinagel, Art Sippo, Rich Steeves, Sean Taylor

SATURDAY, APRIL 21ST

9-10 AM
PANEL-HORROR DISSECTED- What Makes a Scary Story?
Eric Beebe, Rich Steeves, Allan Gilbreath, John Hartness, Sean Taylor

10-11 AM
 PANEL- ONCE UPON A PULP-Fairy Tales and Legends In Literature
Jennifer Mulvihill, Robert Krog, H. David Blalock, Brad Carter, Sean Taylor

SUNDAY, APRIL 22nd

PANEL- GUMSHOES AND FLATFEET-Private Eyes, Cops, and More
Ashley Mangin,  Lee Houston, Jr., Stephen Jared, Sean Taylor, Tommy Hancock

2-3 PM
CLASSROOM-SELLING YOURSELF-Marketing Your Work
Sean Taylor

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#139) - Blending Genres in Pulp

Do you prefer to keep a genre pure when you write? What about blending genres in pulp stories? 

Oh no. I like to put all my genres and ideas in a story blender and hit the pulp button.

Romantic awakenings of snake women on Mars? Did that in Blackthorn: Thunder on Mars.

Zombie horror stories that examine the marriage commitment? Did that twice already, once in Zombiesque and once in Pro Se Presents #1.

Fairy tales with inter-dimensional war and demons from the vast beyond? Check. Already done that too, in the pages of Classics Mutilated.

Super hero adventures mixed with fable and mythology? Not a problem. Check out Fishnet Angel in Show Me a Hero.

About the only time I stay pure is when I'm writing a straight up hard-boiled detective story.

Rick Ruby Gets Pulped!

Cover Art: Mark Wheatley

PULPED! The Official New Pulp Podcast presents: THE RUBY FILES GETS PULPED!

Host Tommy Hancock brings on a whole herd of Pulp Cats to talk about Airship 27 Productions' latest original anthology - THE RUBY FILES! Listen as Ron Fortier, Rob Davis, Bobby Nash, Sean Taylor, William Patrick Maynard, Mark Wheatley, and Andrew Salmon discuss noir, hard boiledness, gumshoes, dames, and more! Learn about the creation, writing, and art behind this brand new chapter in the history of Private Eye Pulp!

You can listen to THE RUBY FILES GETS PULPED! now at http://pulped.libsyn.com/webpage/pulped-the-official-new-pulp-podcast-the-ruby-files-gets-pulped-

Pulp with Pictures

The illustrated pulp magazine was a mainstay and the standard for its time. There's little doubt about that. But what about the pulp reprint books and the new pulp volumes that are coming out and growing in popularity... Do they also benefit from the old-fashioned pulp experience of being illustrated stories? Or has that day passed, and with the reigning standard being that of the purely textual novel, are pictures no longer needed for stories for adult readers?

Well, you know us here at Bad Girls, Good Guys, and Two-Fisted Action... when we have a question or two burning in our craniums, we scope out the usual suspects and ask 'em. 

Which do you prefer as a reader -- illustrated pulp stories or those without illustrations?

Art by The Savage Scribe

John F. Allen: As a reader, I find myself drawn to pulp stories without illustrations. This is not to say that I don’t like illustrated pulp stories however, I think that when I’m reading a pulp story I want to let my own imagination guide me in determining the way the characters look, the way the scenes look and the overall feel of the story. I feel that there are some advantages to having illustrations accompany a pulp novel or collection.

Bill Cunningham: Sometimes the illustrations add to the story, but often I find they conflict with my own mental image of the characters. On the other hand not having illustration leaves room for more story...

M.D. Jackson: For me the illustrations are part of the magic of the whole pulp experience. When I collect old original pulp magazines they have to be illustrated. It doesn't even matter if the illustration is any good, just being illustrated is part of its charm. I love the whole experience of the old pulp magazines and the illustrations are, for me about 50 percent of the equation.

Lee Houston, Jr.: In all honesty, I think it depends upon the genre. I can see having art in almost everything except science-fiction. That would the one genre where I would prefer to have the images left to my imagination.

Ed Erdelac: This may go back to when I was a kid and couldn't read. I would conjure stories around the illustrations. I really enjoy the plates in the old pulps - even the later collections with Frazetta art. They're a surprise to look forward to as you read along.

What are the advantages of having illustrations in a pulp novel or collection?

Art Basil Wolverton

John F. Allen: One of the advantages is to give the reader a fantastic piece of artwork to go along with the story, capture a scene from the story and impart it into the reader’s mind. Another advantage is that it allows for the reader to get a glimpse into the intent of the author as captured by the illustrator. That is provided that the illustrator has indeed captured the vision of the writer.

M.D. Jackson: As an illustrator myself I am naturally biased in that direction. Illustrating is what I do, it's how I ply my trade and when I was publishing Dark Worlds Magazine illustrations were a key part of the whole package. Having illustrations, particularly ones done in the traditional "pulp" style helped to identify us with the pulp magazines. One look at a printed edition ad there was no doubt about what you were going to get.

Lee Houston, Jr.: You certainly have an idea of what is going on and what the characters look like. This definitely works best for me in swashbuckling tales and mysteries, so you can keep better track of the suspects and situations and ponder along with the detective on duty to figure out just who did what and how, let alone why.

Ed Erdelac: I still like the illustrated versions, especially the reprints of The Shadow complete with ads. It recreates the whole experience, I think.


What are the advantages of not having art inside the pulp novel or collection?

Art by Virbil Finlay

John F. Allen: I do think that there are also some advantages to omitting illustrations in pulp fiction pieces as well. One advantage is that without illustrations, the reader is allowed to rely solely on their own imaginations to make interpretations on the look and feel of characters, setting, and scene as laid out by the author. It also gives the reader an impartiality to an illustration that they might find distracting or just plain ugly. Lastly, it would avoid there being any kind of disconnection between the author’s vision and/or intent and the illustration as interpreted by the illustrator.

M.D. Jackson: The main disadvantage was reproducing that experience in electronic editions. Formatting an illustrated publication for Kindle or other e-reader add s an extra level of pain and suffering to what is already a major annoyance. Some of our electronic editions had to eliminate the illustrations completely. While it is true that if a story is good it should be able to stand on its own, when I am craving the pulp experience, I want the story to be enhanced by those illustrations.

Lee Houston, Jr.: Sometimes the artist interpretations don't match your imagination, which is why I prefer fewer in science fiction. But with all that said, if illustrations originally accompanied a tale, I prefer to have them reprinted with the story to get the full feel of both the tale and the period it was originally produced in. The difference is noticeable when comparing such things like the Shadow paperback reprints of the 1970s to the Nostalgia Ventures' reprints of today.

Ed Erdelac: Well, when you read you picture the characters and situations in your mind. You take the words the author uses as a jumping off point, extrapolating their appearance from your own unique experiences and perspectives. That's why the movie is almost never as good as the book to most people. A filmmaker can never make the movie that's in everyone's mind's eye. So when you include illustrations in a book there's a chance of not gelling with the reader's concept of your story. Less than stellar art can be a turn off too.

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For more information: John F. Allen | Ed Erdelac | Lee Houston, Jr. | M.D. Jackson | Bill Cunningham

The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#138) -- The Metal Men

If you could write any franchise character which one would you write and why?

(Guest column by Stephen Card)

It's not one character, but one group of characters. 

And it is... The Metal Men! 

Because it's the perfect combination of fun, science, and fun. Or did I mention fun already? And it's got a super sexy female robot with the hots for her creator. What's not to love?