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More Greats of Speculative Fiction 

5/27/2016

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First, I'm going to toss in a bit of amusing trivia that dates back to the 40's.  When Robert Heinlein was writing short stories for Astounding Science Fiction and its editor John W. Campbell, many of his stories fit into a general future matrix which came to be called the history of the future; the stories that fit into this matrix are called "The Future History Stories."
For whatever editorial reason, Campbell wanted any of Heinlein's stories that did not fit into this matrix to appear under an author's name other than Heinlein's.  An author, if he wishes to continue being a paid author, always listens to his editor. So Heinlein supplied some other names for his other stories.
At one time Astounding took a readers' poll to see who their favorite Astounding authors were. The poll showed that Heinlein was the favorite, number two was Anson McDonald, and number three was Lyle Monroe.  Both of those were pen names used by Heinlein! 
Another bit of trivia: Heinlein's first published story was in the August, 1939 edition of Astounding.  He was about thirty-two. In the very same issue was the first published story by Isaac Asimov, at that time a student at Columbia University and sixteen years old.  The two worked together in The Navy Yard during WWII along with another author named L. Sprague De Camp, whom I'll mention a little later.

Okay, enough of that trivia.  Another author of speculative fiction that ranks at or near the top is Ray Bradbury.  Bradbury did not write the "hard" science fiction that the Big Three did—he often wrote stories that were hybrids of science fiction and fantasy.  He also specialized in short stories much more than the others.  Two novels, though, had movies made from them, the most well-known is Fahrenheit 451.  One of best short stories, "All Summer in a Day," appeared in literature textbooks for junior high/high school.  If you read his bio on Wikipedia you'll see that he was influenced by Heinlein and other excellent s.f. authors, but went his own way. If a teenager of either gender was to ask me what I would recommend for speculative fiction that was not "hard" science fiction, I would recommend Bradbury. 
 
Fantasy fiction has several sub-genres, and one of the most successful is what has been called Sword and Sorcery. The man credited for creating this wonderfully entertaining genre is Robert E. Howard.  He wrote primarily for the pulp magazine Weird Tales and it is there that the world first discovered Conan the Cimmerian and the Hyborian Age.
I've read that Howard claimed that as he wrote the Conan stories it felt as though some entity was there with him, looking over his shoulder and guiding his words.  By the way, I've also read that publishers strongly advise you not put anything like that in a cover letter.
Robert Howard's fiction output was impressive, and he published poetry as well.  As with the other authors, Wikipedia has a very thorough biography. Unfortunately he committed suicide at age thirty. Many years after his death all his unfinished writings and notes were passed from party to party until, by lucky chance, it came into the hands of L. Sprague De Camp.  (I told you I'd get back to him.) De Camp plus two others, Bjorn Nyberg and Lin Carter, edited the finished stories, completed those not done and wrote complete stories from Howard's notes. However you felt about the two Conan movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, (I gave 'em a C-) the stories are much better and Conan is much smarter and agile than presented in those movies. Read them! And some of the other works by Howard as well, if you have any interest in that genre.
 
The next name on the list is one everybody will recognize: Stephen King. King may be the most successful fiction author ever if you include the movies made from his books and stories. And they are not all horror. The Shawshank Redemption, Lean on Me, and Total Recall are three movies I can recall without effort based on King's non-horror stories.
King is simply one hell of a writer. His use of similes particularly make me envious. I certainly have not read anything close to all his books—if I did that I wouldn't have time to write my own.  Which reminds me, my current project, Saving Atlantis, was initially inspired by King's Bag of Bones, though you wouldn't know it if you read them both...I think. King's crowning achievement (pun intended) is his seven-book series, The Dark Tower. None of it is really horror, but it is definitely fantasy—mostly dark fantasy. Warning: Once you start that series it may be tough to stop.  And some of those books are really long.  My only objection to it is that volume 5, Wolves of the Calla wasn't nearly necessary enough to the overall story to justify the length. Only my un-asked-for opinion.
 
The number of high-quality speculative fiction writers is much too great for me to even try to guess it, and more are appearing every year. I have here mentioned five deceased authors because of their proven staying power. To the best of my knowledge everything published by the Big Three since 1939 has never been out of print.
Next time I'll thumb through a few other genres. I hope you'll be here. In the meantime, please, read and read and read some more.
One note slightly off subject: my monthly stories review is on the The Writers Table tab at Page and Spine. Good stories this month; you might want to check them out at www.pagespineficshowcase.com

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Recommendations for Reading, Part 1

5/14/2016

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In order to write, you must read. You would not expect to build a decent house without first studying one already built. Would you try to design a new city without seeing how other cities have been planned? Would you undertake designing clothing before seeing how existing clothing was designed and manufactured?
I certainly hope not.
So, to write a biography you must read biographies. To write history, read history. And to write science fiction or fantasy, you should read lots and lots of speculative fiction.
I have here a very partial (and yet, long) list of recommended reading that will help you to write in the field of speculative fiction.
I'll start out with "The Big Three" of science fiction: Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke.  Absolutely anything by any of these three is a worthwhile read.
I urge you to look up their biographies on Wikipedia. Those will also give a list of book titles for you to explore.  For Asimov I would suggest Asimov's Mysteries for short stories and his Foundation series of novels.
For Clarke I suggest his The Nine Billion Names of God for short stories and his Space Odyssey novels.
Heinlein, my own personal favorite, offers lots of both.  His Wikipedia biography does not give a list of all his books, though many of them are mentioned in the text. For short stories, I recommend The Green Hills of Earth or Expanded Universe, which presents not only short stories, but also essays and the author's notes on the stories and articles and a fair amount of autobiographical information.  For novels, Stranger in a Strange Land is one of four to win the Hugo Award. Another winner of the same award is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Have Space Suit, Will Travel is the first one of his works I read, and it made me want to read more, more, more!
The point is, the writings of these three authors are great examples of how to get it done; but not only in the science fiction genre. These three provide great examples for any genre of writing because all three of them have a sterling command of language. All three were educated in a school system that taught the correct use of language, and, more important, they learned it. As you read them, notice how they seem to use the exact correct words for every situation rather than approximations of the right words.
Besides all of that, reading these three authors will forever enrich your lives. Trust me.
Next entry I'll offer three more authors of slightly or widely different genres.
Thanks again for reading—now visit your local library and check out a book or two!

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The Intentional Quality Abandonment by an American Icon

5/5/2016

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This blog deals with entertainment. Usually it concerns the writing side of that process, but I'm going to expand it to include reading and even films. In other words, I might be all over the map. The first stop from this point on that map is…(drum roll)…Playboy magazine.
I have been  a long time subscriber to Playboy. Over the last few years they have offered really good renewal rates—as low as $12 for a year. Can't hardly beat that. But I received in the mail an offer from them for two years for a few cents under ten dollars. That is an offer very difficult to refuse. A year ago it would have been automatic.  But now I had to think about it.
Playboy magazine changed very severely in March.
To be completely fair I must admit that I heartily approve on one change: all articles and stories run straight through. No more "continued on page 75," or "concluded on page 132." I've wondered for years why they didn't just run the whole thing in one piece. That is the only change I like. And they have kept "The Playboy Interview" and the monthly fiction contribution, both of which I enjoy. And they still have "The Franco File" which is worthwhile and the fashion and other product evaluations and features which I don't really care about one way or the other.
The big headline-grabbing change was announced months in advance, The magazine would no longer show nudes. The reasoning was that nudity and even erotica was only a free click away on the internet and it was superfluous in the magazine. They would still feature pretty girls (or beautiful women—a subjective difference) but those young ladies would no longer be shown nude.
By itself that did not bother me. I like looking at pretty girls and nude pretty girls even more. But that was not the only reason I subscribed to Playboy. Unfortunately, almost every other feature that I did like in the magazine was also discontinued.  I was an avid reader of the Jokes Page…no more jokes in the magazine. I also enjoyed the clever and well-drawn cartoons, many offering drawings of beautiful women that could not possibly exist outside of fantasy.  Bye-bye cartoons. Another source of tongue-in-cheek humor were the "Men" and "Women" articles every month. Now those, too, are a thing of the past.
Playboy abandoned its sense of humor. The magazine crumpled it up and tossed it into the waste basket.
It seems, too, that they lost their judgment on art. The illustrations they've featured so far are unimaginative, amateurish, and totally without humor or drama or meaning.
I really enjoyed reading "The Playboy Advisor" every month. Chip Rowe wrote well, included humor on occasion, and usually covered around a dozen questions each issue. Now they have a new "advisor" that addresses one question each issue.
Two other features I thought were an integral part of the magazine were "Dear Playboy" and "The Playboy Forum."  The first was simply the publication of letters from readers and occasionally an editorial answer. The Forum featured one or two researched articles about a relevant modern topic often highlighting news of legislation or law enforcement regarding issues of interest to Playboy readers. The Forum included readers' observations and comments. I've had comments published in the past in both the Forum and the Dear Playboy features. Not anymore; those features are gone. Along with that is the published email address for Dear Playboy correspondence. 
This said to me loud and clear that the magazine no longer gave a tinker's damn what the readers thought about anything.
But all that together shouted out even louder one clear message: "Playboy is going cheaper!"
Clothed models are cheaper than nude ones. Plus, it's no longer necessary to airbrush out appendectomy scars or other "flaws." They can just wear clothing over that part. Cheaper.
They no longer have to pay for jokes or cartoons, which means they also no longer need to pay to edit all those contributions. Cheaper.
No doubt the new Advisor commands a smaller salary than the long-time and experienced Chip Rowe. Cheaper.
They no longer have to pay for those researched Forum articles, nor edit them, and the same goes for the "Men" and "Women" articles, so that saves money.
They no longer have to make editorial choices of which readers' comments will be printed in the Dear Playboy and Playboy Forum, so more money saved!
And regarding the April and May issues, they had many photographs of the model inside the magazine—pretty girls, both—but they chose the most un-flattering one to put on the cover! They apparently have a new editor to decide that…a cheaper one.
Playboy has always been a product that showed loyalty to the reader. Now it is obvious that they expect the reader to show loyalty to the product…they believe they can skate on their past performance.
Not with me.
I sent back their re-subscription offer with no money, but the assurance that I would allow my subscription to lapse, and a letter saying pretty much what I just wrote above, though a bit abbreviated.
I will miss my Playboy every month. But I have already missed most of it for the last three months, so it won't be that jarring a change.
I wonder where else I can find good jokes and great cartoons…internet, don't fail me now.


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    I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

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