In Which a Prince Encounters a Spirit of the Night. Rainbow Snippets for February 18, 2023 from Jeff Baker.

Posted on February 18, 2023 by jeffbaker307

Every week we post six lines of a story of ours, a work-in-progress or from someone else’s work we recommend that has LGBT characters on Rainbow Snippets here https://www.facebook.com/groups/RainbowSnippets/?multi_permalinks=8650580131678639&comment_id=8654478567955462&notif_id=1676181788488596&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

For Valentine’s Day Week, how about somebody who’s running away from romance? “The Spirits of the Night” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2018/12/01/spirits-of-the-night-for-friday-flash-fics-by-jeff-baker-november-30-2018/ was the first of my stories about Prince Almazotz; youngest son of the youngest son of a prince and on the run from an arranged marriage to a guy he can’t stand. He’s about 26th in line for a throne in an itty-bitty principality on my quasi-Arabian Nights fantasy world of three moons. Here’s the first snippet:

After two weeks sleeping in fields and eating handouts from taverns, Prince Almazotz was beginning to realize that while the title sounded good, there were a lot of princes around and the title was no good without an army or money and he had neither at the moment. But for that evening anyway, he was the guest at a castle, or what was left of one. The main house may have been more comfortable but he wasn’t going to complain about a hot meal, or a room at the top of a tower with a comfortable bed, windows with shutters and a fine view and even a fireplace, if he needed one.

Prince Almazotz rolled over, under the warm blankets and was still half-asleep when he noticed the pale figure half in, half out of the room’s shadows. The figure was male, which was a plus, dark haired and very pale. At first, he thought the figure’s arms were covered in tattoos, but the moved and Almazotz realized they were wings.

Here’s a little more:

“I am one of the Spirits of the Air,” he said in a breathy voice. “A Spirit of the Night Air, I was flying past your open window and I saw you slumbering so peacefully, looking like a young god.”

Prince Almazotz wiped some drool off his chin and hoped his hair wasn’t too much of a mess.

“Allow me to caress you as a wind, as if we were both mortals, the spirit said. It is the thing most spirits truly desire and you, oh handsome one, are one that any spirit would desire.”

Prince Almazotz shrugged and said “True.”

And on that breathy note, I will bid you farewell and a belated Happy Valentine’s Day until next week!

—–jeff

Oh, and I’ve written about the Spirits of the Air before! Check the links below or to the right of the original story! —-j

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets, The Spirits of the Air | 8 Comments

“I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” Friday Flash Fiction by Mike Mayak. February 17th, 2023

Posted on February 17, 2023 by jeffbaker307

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

by Mike Mayak

My older Brother and I were both on Spring Break in 2011. I was a Junior in High School and he was in Grad School. He was about ten years older than I was. Anyway we were driving around town and I was showing off my car, this beat-up old convertible where the top wouldn’t go down. We had a cassette player on the dash (no C. D. player) and I was playing the cassettes I’d bought cheap at the used store.

So, we were driving around singing along with the tape. “Deck The Halls,” “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day” and “Twelve Days of Christmas” when we pulled into a convenience store to grab a soda and maybe unload the sodas we’d been drinking in the men’s room. Anyway we walked around the corner and Bryan stops dead when he sees an old yellow Plymouth parked in front of the door.

“Oh, my gosh!” Bryan blurted out. “That looks like…” And he runs to the back of the car and gawks at the back bumper and starts laughing.

“This was my first car!” Bryan laughs. “I bought it when I was in my first year in college.”

That was why I didn’t remember a Plymouth. I’d never seen it.

“How can you be so sure?” I asked.

“Look here, Nate,” he said pointing at the back bumper. “That old bumper sticker I put on is still sort of there.”

I stared down at the bumper. The paper stuck to the bumper was green and blue with faded reddish lettering.

“Um…I brake for…” I read aloud. “Not sure…”

“I Brake for Not Sure sounds better,” Bryan said. “Wow!”

“How much time did you spend in the back seat with girls?” I asked.

“Not much!” Bryan said. “I had to study.”

I hadn’t told him yet that I would be more interested in making out with guys in the back seat but really hadn’t done it yet.

“It’s been a long time since I drove this thing,” Bryan said. “Maybe a lifetime.” He looked up from gazing at the Plymouth and gazed into the distance. Then he looked over at me and grinned.

“Always remember, Little ‘Bro. Enjoy it all when it’s happening.”

“I nodded and the two of us went into the store to get some useless junk food.

—end—

Posted in Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, LGBT, Mike Mayak, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Happy Valentine’s Day! New Poem Up on RoMMantic Reads! Jeff Baker, February 14, 2023.

Posted on February 14, 2023 by jeffbaker307

It seems to be my month over at “RoMMantic Reads!” My poem “Date Night” is the Valentine’s Day offering! Enjoy!!! https://rommanticreads.wordpress.com/2023/02/14/jeff-baker-date-night/

Posted in Poems, Poetry, RoM/Mantic Reads, Romance | Leave a comment

Aesop on the Sun and on T.V. Results for February 2023’s Flash Fiction Draw Challenge. (February 13, 2023, from Jeff Baker.)

Posted on February 13, 2023 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Jonathan Meza on Pexels.com

The draws for the February 2023 Flash Fiction Draw Challenge were an Aesop’s Fable set on or near the Sun involving a vintage T. V. set.

E. H. Timms wrote “The Mouse who Lived In the Sun.” https://thinkingthinking123.blogspot.com/2023/02/flash-fic-challenge-mouse-who-lived-in.html

And I wrote “The Grackle and the Sun.” https://authorjeffbaker.com/2023/02/10/the-grackle-and-the-sun-by-jeff-baker-flash-fiction-draw-challenge-story-for-february-2023/

My special thanks to everyone who wrote or read a story and it’s never too late to write one and post it in the comments here and I’ll post it here!

See you on March 6th for the next draw!

———mike

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More of the Best Of Ballantine’s “The Best Of…” Compiled By Jeff Baker. February 13, 2023.

Posted on February 13, 2023 by jeffbaker307

More of The Best of the Best of Ballantine’s The Best of…

Compiled by Jeff Baker

From about 1974 through at least the late 80s, Ballantine Books published a series of over 22 (paperback and hardcover) “Best of” collections of the work of science-fiction writers, many from the “Golden Age” in the 30s and 40s, with a representative sampling of the work of some masters of the craft. Many of the authors were around to contribute an afterward to their books and the forwards were written by a friend or someone who had intimate knowledge of the author in question.

A while back I speculated about a “Best Of” collection of stories, one each, from these books that I collected in used stores in the 90s when I was studying short stories and hoping to write my own. This list counts as a sequel or second volume.

I am happily a retro writer, influenced by stories like the ones I read here.

“The Day is Done” by Lester del Rey. One of three very good Golden Age stories about an immortal Neanderthal I know of. Del Rey also collected some of his earlier stories in a Doubleday book (reissued as two Ballantine paperbacks) “The Early del Rey” where he provides a lot of background commentary about his career. Very encouraging to writers. (Del Rey later co-founded Del Rey books an important publisher of sci-fi and fantasy.)

“The Days of Perky Pat” by Phillip K. Dick. Another post-apocalyptic story by a somewhat apocalyptic writer. Dick’s stories and novels have been reissued all over. This one involves a game, rivalry and children who are more forward-looking than their elders.

“A Gun for Dinosaur” by L. Sprague de Camp. A time travel story written to poke a few holes in another author’s historically inaccurate vision of dinosaurs. De Camp was known for his meticulous research and fact-checking. And while his wit is dry it is there in almost all his fiction. De Camp wound up writing a whole book of stories based on time traveler Reggie Rivers; “Rivers of Time.”

“Surface Tension” by James Blish. Like a lot of younger readers I first heard of Blish from his books of authorized adaptions of Star Trek scripts. He was one of the serious hard science writers of the genre who led a double life as a critic under a pen name.

“Old Faithful” by Raymond Z. Gallun about a very alien but nonetheless sympathetic extraterrestrial reminds me just a bit of the Weinbaum story I picked in the previous installment of this column. Gallun is one of the writers I had never heard of before I stumbled across his “Best of” collection in the short-story section of a used bookstore.

“The Taste of the Dish and the Savor of the Day” by John Brunner is one of the stories he wrote intending to break from the less-challenging science fiction he felt was being written at the time. A fine example from a master whose career was derailed by a stroke.

“Uncommon Sense” by Hal Clement. Clement is one of the other writers I had never heard of before I saw his name listed in another “Best Of” collection and I apparently was not alone in that. He was described in a review as one of the least-known of the authors in the series. He also specialized in hard science fiction and the story I selected was awarded a Retro Hugo Award in 1996.

“The Color out of Space” by H. P. Lovecraft. Yes, there was a “Best of H. P. Lovecraft” published by Del Rey/Ballantine and I’ve seen it listed with the others I’ve mentioned here. This story was originally published in Amazing Stories and Lovecraft considered it one of his best. The full title of the 1982 collection is “The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre.” And it’s great fun!

“Star Mouse” by Frederic Brown closes out my second imagined collection with a writer known for both mystery and science fiction as well as his quirky plot twists. The latter earned him comparisons to O. Henry. The title character of this story, a mutated mouse, is named Mitkey. Yes. I could have picked Brown’s story “Arena,” which was adapted (without pay!) for the original “Star Trek.” Brown’s work appeared in the pulps including the legendary magazine “Unknown.”

So that’s it! I think this would make a great anthology. The original series was drawn from writers Ballantine had in their catalog and was also self-promotional but very good. They may be phasing out paperbacks but an e-book could be wonderful!

Any takers?

Posted in Books, Fantasy, H. P. Lovecraft,, L. Sprague DeCamp, Reading, Science Fiction | Leave a comment

Rainbow Snippets Takes a Nap! “Skid and T’amec in Slumberland” by Jeff Baker, February 11, 2023.

Posted on February 11, 2023 by jeffbaker307
Photo by Alexander Grey on Pexels.com

Every week we post six lines from a work of ours, a work-in-progress or published or a recommendation of someone else’s work with at least one LGBT character. Posted at Rainbow Snippets here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/963484217054974 This snippet may be appropriate for Valentine’s day.

Remember Skid and T’amec? The two twenty-something guys with the budding relationship who work in the Food Garden Court restaurant in a magical mall in a magical world? https://rommanticreads.wordpress.com/2022/11/11/jeff-baker-all-the-pleasures-prove/ This unpublished vignette came to me while I was dozing off one night; in it T’amec is showing Skid his cramped new apartment after work one evening. Think of this as a snippet of a snippet:

“I figure this whole apartment was probably the kitchen for a bigger apartment, then they partitioned it off into smaller apartments, or something,” T’amec said.

“Yeah,” Skid said, edging by T’amec to look out the small back window. They brushed together and stopped for a moment, looking into each other’s eyes.

“Hang on, here’s the fridge,” T’amec said opening the door. “Not much in there.”

“Yeah, anybody could tell you work in a restaurant,” Skid said.

Here’s a few more lines from “Skid and T’amec in Slumberland.”

Skid followed him out of the kitchen to the darkened doorway to one side. T’amec flipped on the light revealing a medium-sized bed and a small nightstand that largely filled the small room. There was a small space between the bed and the wall and Skid noted a pair of shoes sticking out from under part of what he assumed were T’amec’s dirty clothes.

“This is the, uh, bedroom.” T’amec said.

“Yeah, I noticed,” Skid said. “Nice bed.”

Let’s leave them to happily snooze. The whole thing will probably never see print unless I write a few more full-fledged stories and put them together as a novel. Until then and until next week, pleasant dreams! —–jeff

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Food Garden Court, LGBT, Rainbow Snippets | 6 Comments

“The Grackle and the Sun” by Jeff Baker. Flash Fiction Draw Challenge Story for February 2023.

Posted on February 10, 2023 by jeffbaker307

The Grackle and the Sun

by Mike Mayak

AUTHOR’S NOTE: The draws for the February 2023 Flash Fiction Draw challenge were an Aesop’s Fable, set on or near the Sun, involving a vintage T.V. set.

There once was a Grackle who made his home in an old console television set that was sitting abandoned in an overgrown lot outside of town. He lived in the base of the old wooden cabinet where he had built his nest and from time to time would hop to the top shelf where the old tubes had been but now there was just an empty space with the big glass screen on one side. The birds and other little animals who frequented the lot could see him through the screen and of course got the wrong ides.

“He’s a wonder!” said a squirrel.

“He’s a king!” said a mouse.

“He’s a god!” said a pigeon. “For he sits in the same temple the people in the houses gather around to listen to the Oracle tell the future. Saying ‘Here are some exciting scenes from next week!’”

The Grackle knew he was just another bird. Nonetheless, he told the other animals to bring him seeds and berries and place them by the opening in the console.

Now one day, a parrot flew into the lot. He had recently escaped the pet store and had heard a flock of wrens discussing the Oracle.

“Where have you come from, strange green bird?” asked a rabbit.

“From the Sun,” said the Parrot, who had lived in the well-lit pet shop. “Where it is daylight and warm and never cold all year round. And where there is always food. And where you can see more of the world than even from the temple of the Oracle here.”

This interested the Grackle, who waited until the Sun was high in the sky and then flew upward, heading for the Sun, flying higher than he ever had before.

To his amazement, instead of getting warmer, he was getting colder. Soon his wings began to ice over and the air became thin and he fell back to earth, cushioned by a bramble bush which did not protect him from stray cats.

The other animals spent so much time gathering berries and seeds to place in front of the temple of the Oracle they forgot to eat and soon wasted away.

The moral is: it does not always pay to get too close to a star.

AUTHOR’S NOTE: And I am proud that I made it through this without once referencing the old T. V. cartoon.

You mean, like titling this “Aesop and Sun?”

—end—

Posted in Fable, Fantasy, Fiction, Monthly Flash Fiction Draw Challenge, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Early Valentine’s Story by Jeff Baker on RoMMantic Reads. February 10th, 2023.

Posted on February 10, 2023 by jeffbaker307

My new story “The Night in Question” is up at RoMMantic Reads.” Just in time for Valentine’s Day. https://rommanticreads.wordpress.com/2023/02/10/jeff-baker-the-night-in-question/

Special thanks to Fiona Glass and Brent Silveria, who kindly lent me the use of his last name!

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Posted in Anniversary, Brent Silveria, Fantasy, Fiction, Ghost Story, LGBT, Paranormal, RoM/Mantic Reads, Romance, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

Travel “The Road to Nowhere” with Friday Flash Fics by Jeff Baker. (February 10, 2023.)

Posted on February 10, 2023 by jeffbaker307
young man reads the map and looks for the destination driving his car. Travel and trip concept

On the Road to Nowhere

by Jeff Baker

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Special thanks to Kaje Harper for providing the picture that inspired this week’s story! —jeff

Greg Gerber held tight to the steering wheel and let the breeze from the open window wash over him as the car raced down the desert highway. It made him feel cooler for the first time that day and he felt his sweaty t-shirt drying out.

Greg turned his leg a bit and adjusted his stiff knee. How long had his foot been on the gas pedal?

He glanced over at Rich McAllister, sitting in the passenger seat, staring out the window, probably enjoying the breeze.

“You doin’ okay?” Greg asked,

“As well as I can,” Rich said glancing over at Greg. “At least the Sun’s going down, kinda. Not as hot as it was.”

“Yeah. Wish we had A.C.” Greg said. “Or a radio. I’d settle for a radio.”

“Me too.” Rich said. He cleared his throat. “Look, I’ve been, well, checking you out the last few miles.”

“Yeah?” Greg said with a grin.

“Yeah.” Rich said. “I guessed you noticed. You look, well, real good with the sunlight hitting your tan like that.”

“Thanks.” Greg said. “You’re nice too.”

They drove on for a while. Then Rich spoke up again.

“Look, I’d help you with the driving if I could,” Rich said.

“Yeah, thanks.” Greg said. “I don’t think we’re supposed to have any kind of help.”

“Yeah,” Rich said. “Hey, do you remember anything else? I mean, besides our names and that we knew each other? I mean, right before we found ourselves in this car? On this road?”

“Not really,” Greg said. “Just this vague…impression. That we went after some guy. In this car. That we hit him.”

“And we hit him in this car.” Rich said. “I remember some of it. “And there was money. And that this was his muscle car.”

“Yeah,” Greg said. He stared back at the road and didn’t look at Rich as he spoke. “You think this is the road to Hell?” Rich shook his head.

“I think we may be there already,” Rich said, his throat feeling very dry.

After a few minutes, Greg sighed again.

“This is just driving me crazy. The heat, the boredom. The fucking uncertainty of this.”

“Yeah.” Rich said. “I’d almost settle for driving through big iron gates and seeing the guys with pitchforks. I could deal with pitchforks.”

“The boredom is probably the idea,” Greg said. “The pitchforks might be easy to handle. The boredom isn’t. I’ve tried to run off the road a hundred times and can’t even cross the center line.”

“I wish there was a motel and we could stop there for a few hours,” Rich said. “I’d settle for a cold burger, a soda, a place to pee and, and…”

“And a room where we could be alone for a couple of hours.” Greg finished.

“How long have we been here anyway?” Rich asked.

‘Check the odometer.” Greg said, squeezing the wheel tighter.

Rich looked at the dashboard. “Six-Hundred-Fifteen?” He looked up. “Miles?”

“Years. I think.” Greg said in a low voice.

Rich sagged into his seat and tried not to think.

They turned a curve and the sun was directly overhead and the breeze blew hot. Again.

“Look,” Rich said. “I can’t you know, reach over there or move over there but I think I can do this. Lean over this way as far as you can.”

“Lean over?” Greg said. “I’m driving. What happens if I lose control of the car…”

“And we get killed?” Rich said with a bitter half-laugh. “We passed that a while back. Okay, lean over, just try.”

Greg couldn’t take his hand too far from the wheel but he was able to lean towards the passenger seat just a bit. He realized what Rich was getting at. And he managed to bend his right elbow until it started to feel stiff.

Rich leaned to the left as much as he could, maybe a few inches and tried to raise his left arm. It felt stiff away from the area above his passenger seat.

Then the tip of Greg’s elbow touched Rich’s biceps, just below the shirt sleeve.

It was warm. Body warmth not desert heat. It felt good. They held the position as long as they could.

The car sped down the long and endless road.

—end—

Posted in Fantasy, Fiction, Friday Flash Fics, Friday Flash Fictions, Horror, Kaje Harper, LGBT, Short-Stories | Leave a comment

The Best of Ballantine’s “Best of…” by Jeff Baker.

Posted on February 9, 2023 by jeffbaker307

The Best of the Best of Ballantine’s The Best of…

Compiled by Jeff Baker

From about 1974 through at least the late 80s, Ballantine Books published a series of over 22 (paperback and hardcover) “Best of” collections of the work of science-fiction writers, many from the “Golden Age” in the 30s and 40s. At the best they offer a representative sampling of the work of some masters, some of whom were still around and writing at the time the books were released.

They were pretty popular and were also issued in Science Fiction Book Club editions. And I must note that both paperback and hardcover had different covers, excellent in my opinion. Most of the books feature an introduction by an author who knew or was very familiar with the author or his/her works and an afterward by the author in question when they were still around. These intro/outros were usually insightful, informative and often provided a personal glimpse into the reality of the author’s world.

They are a little harder to find in the used stores today but when I was starting to really read and study science fiction and fantasy short stories I scooped them up and they were an introduction to some names I hadn’t heard before. There influence on my own work cannot be underestimated, and I feel their influence even today.

So, here is one story from each one of the books I read through, stories that I think would make a fine collection today.

“A Martian Odyssey,” by Stanley G. Weinbaum.

This is the story that Isaac Asimov said burst on the scene like a nova. It is among the first really alien extraterrestrials of fiction that still comes off as a real character with emotions and even pathos.

“The Movie People” by Robert Bloch.

Something of an anomaly in that many of the best stories in the Bloch collection are fantasy or horror. Bloch wrote a lot of science fiction but he is best remembered for his creepy stories with a twist in the tale. But “The Movie People” is Bloch’s love letter to the silent movies; sweet, sentimental and a little spooky. Oh, and the movie theater he describes was a real place.

I would have selected his treatment of a then well-worn science-fiction theme “It Happened Tomorrow” but this ostensible sci-fi story was simply not included in the book!

“Who Goes There?” by John W. Campbell.

Had to go with this famous classic by the great editor who shaped magazine science fiction for decades. The story was the source for the movie “The Thing” and its remakes. Oh, and in recent years there has been a successful effort to tar Campbell as an anti-Semite to the extent of renaming the John W. Campbell Award. Writers who were Jewish (such as Asimov) debunked this notion during Campbell’s lifetime. Campbell loved to argue on all sides of an issue and he remains controversial, which probably explains some of the hostility towards him.

“He That Hath Wings” by Edmond Hamilton. This perfect collection by Hamilton dovetails nicely with the collection by Leigh Brackett (to whom he was married.) The story soars with its tragic romance.

“The Jewel of Bas” by Leigh Brackett. One of Leigh Brackett’s (Mrs. Edmond Hamilton’s) fine, pulpy adventure stories set on a Burroughs-type Mars back when it was plausible that these worlds would have an atmosphere, inhabitants and tons of adventure. They literally don’t write ‘em like that anymore. Oh, and if you have the Best of Brackett and Hamilton books don’t fail to read their introductions. Sweet and funny and written by two people still in love.

(Brackett edited an anthology “The Best of Planet Stories,” collected from the pulp magazine that was one of her regular markets. It was billed as Volume One but did not sell well and there was no second volume even though a table of contents can be found online.)

“Exit the Professor” by Henry Kuttner. Kuttner was a master of blending humor and horror and the emphasis is on the funny in this tale of a backwoods family who are also super powered mutants from Atlantis. It’s one of a series of four and I scoured bookstores looking for the other stories. (“Cold War” is included in “The Best of Henry Kuttner.”) many of Kuttner’s stories count as science-fantasy and nobody really did it better. Kuttner, of course, was married to writer Catherine L. Moore who wrote as C.L. Moore and from the late 1930s on much of their work was in collaboration. To what extent who wrote what even they weren’t sure!

“No Woman Born” by C. L. Moore. Moore has been described as a master of mood and atmosphere in a story and “The Best of C. L. Moore” proves that. While the Kuttners generally collaborated (as they explained, they were writing for a living!) this and most of the stories in the book are hers alone. Written in 1944, “No Woman Born” is mature, dramatic and anticipates much of the science fiction of later years.

“The Power” by Murray Leinster. I love stories told in the form of letters or diaries and this one is loads of fun as the present-day letter writer comments on a very old manuscript. Leinster (William F. Jenkins) was a pulp master and (along with Kuttner) he could be very funny. (He was also writing about the internet in 1945!) In the early 2000s Baen Books put out several collections of Leinster’s stories including his Med Ship series.

“A Pail of Air” by Fritz Leiber. A science-fiction, apocalypse, Y. A. story by a pulp author whose career extended into the 1990s the story quickly crafts a world after disaster, characters and a situation that seems near-inescapable. Leiber is best known for his fantasy and horror, as well as not only coining the term “Sword and Sorcery” but writing some of its best stories. “A Pail of Air” has justifiably been anthologized all over the place.

“The Game of Rat and Dragon” by Cordwainer Smith. Many writers have created their own Future History (Heinlein most famously) none quite like Smith’s “Instrumentality of Mankind” universe. Dr. Paul Leinbarger was literally an expert on East Asia and psychological warfare and kept the fact that he was Smith a secret until his sudden death at 53. “Lyrical” is a word that is deservedly used to describe his prose.

Just a further note on Smith here: Ballantine put out a companion anthology to the Best of for Smith: “The Instrumentality of Mankind” which includes a timeline for his future history.

“Day Million” by Frederik Pohl. Pohl started publishing in the late 1930s and kept on through 2010 when he was in his nineties. He was not only a prolific writer but an editor who bought some of Cordwainer Smith’s stories. Pohl was also a friend and frequent collaborator with C. M. Kornbluth.

“The Little Black Bag” by C. M. Kornbluth was adapted for an episode of “Night Gallery” over fifty years ago. It hasn’t aged, and Kornbluth’s stories are still topical and trenchant.

“Jay Score” by Eric Frank Russell. An interstellar ship, a multi-ethnic crew and alien crew members. All treated sympathetically. No, not “Star Trek,” Russell’s stories predate the Enterprise by about 25 years.

“With Folded Hands” by Jack Williamson. Another Sci-Fi master who kept writing from the pulp days (1920s) to the early 2000s. The cover of the paperback illustrates the story and is perfect!

That’s probably enough for one collection!

I picked up the bulk of these anthologies for between fifty cents and three dollars. I got a bargain.

I know (I mean personally!) writers who are doing their best to embrace the cutting edge of contemporary writing. Me? I am still and always will be a retro writer happily ensconced in the moods and styles of the pulps and the Golden Age.

Posted in Books, C. L. Moore, Fantasy, Henry Kuttner, Reading, Reviews, Science Fiction, Short-Stories | Leave a comment