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Writers, Readers, and Glorious Fools

Writers, Readers, and Glorious Fools

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Novels vs. Short Stories, and Why We Write

fool-11
The Fool -- a leap of faith.

“What fools these mortals be…”
–Puck, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

 “But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning around…”
–The Beatles, “Fool On the Hill”

 

A colleague of mine recently asked the question: “Why do we write short stories?” Good question. It set me to thinking: “Why do people READ short stories?”

Which set off a whole line of thought involving the reasons why writers write, and conversely, why readers choose to read what they read.

Readers: Which do you like best, novels or short stories? I may be a writer but I’ve been a reader a lot longer and my answer has to be “It depends on the novel or story.”

I’ve read novels that touched my soul and changed my life…and I’ve read short stories that did the same thing. In most of those instances, the novels seem to stay with me longer…maybe because of their greater size and time commitment. Yet I could never discount the power of marvelous short stories like Harlan Ellison’s “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream,” Robert Silverberg’s “The Reality Trip,” or Clark Ashton Smith’s “Xeethra.” (To name only three of hundreds.)

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Michael Moorcock on the Birth of Hawkmoon

Michael Moorcock on the Birth of Hawkmoon

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jewel-skull-moorcock-hawkmoonLast week Tor.com ran a terrific article by Michael Moorcock about the origins of his (recently reprinted) Hawkmoon stories. In ‘The Genesis of Hawkmoon‘ Moorcock talks about method, motive, and how the big cultural changes of the sixties heavily influenced his work. Firstly, the man’s writing MO is legendary, and he wrote fantasy fiction with a journalistic mindset: fast with no revisions. The political elements of Hawkmoon, in which a far-future Britain is the ‘Dark Empire’ opposed by a German hero, was a direct protest of the lingering prejudice and division left over from WWII in England. Moorcock sees the books, and himself, as a product of the times — and the times they were a’ changing.

Finally, Moorcock expresses his quiet astonishment over the longevity of Hawkmoon and all the Eternal Champion stories, and remarks “Not bad, I guess, for twelve days hard work!”

No, Mr. Moorcock, not bad at all.

John C. Hocking’s “The Face in the Sea” wins The Harper’s Pen Award

John C. Hocking’s “The Face in the Sea” wins The Harper’s Pen Award

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harpers-penThe Sorcerer’s Guild has announced that John C. Hocking’s “The Face in the Sea” (Black Gate 13) has won The Harper’s Pen Award for the best all-around Sword & Sorcery short story of 2009.

Award administator Jeff Crook puts it this way:

John’s story is a superb example of the genre, harkening back to the master himself – REH. It hit all the points I mentioned in my previous post: two strong hooks (story and adventure); well-crafted, believable historical fantasy setting; solid characters; monsters, mayhem and magic aplenty; a satisfying ending, and an entertaining storyteller’s voice.

The Award winner receives $200, a certificate, and an engraved handmade pen by Syzygy Pens.

You can read an excerpt from “The Face in the Sea” as part of our Black Gate 13 online preview.

The sequel to the story, “The Bonestealer’s Mirror,” appears in Black Gate 14, now shipping.

Congratulations to John Hocking on the Award! Congratulations in fact, to all the finalists, including stories from Asimov’s Science Fiction, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Dark Worlds, Electric Spec, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Rage of the Behemoth, and Silver Blade.

Jeff Crook is posting his notes on each of the finalists at The Sorcerer’s Guild over the next few days.

On behalf of John C. Hocking and Black Gate, we’re extremely honored to receive this award. We also hope that, if you enjoy his story, you’ll take some time to explore Beneath Ceaseless Skies,  Electric Spec, Rage of the Behemoth, or one of the other fine publications on the ballot. And if you like what you see, we hope you’ll support some of our worthy competition.

Me, I’m going to start off with a subscription to Dark Worlds. It looks great.

A Remembrance of Steve Tompkins

A Remembrance of Steve Tompkins

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A little over a year ago, my friend John C. Hocking called me  to let me know that Steve Tompkins passed away.  I was on a family mini-vacation at the time, and, oddly enough, I am again on a family mini-vacation shortly after the anniversary of his death.

kullI wanted to point all of you to the fine series of articles over on The Cimmerian in remembrance of Steve, but I also wanted to offer a word of explanation. Neither John nor myself could claim to be close friends with Steve, though we were occasional correspondents. I had the pleasure to meet him in person once, and we sometimes traded information and opinions, for we shared many of the same fiction preferences, but I did not know him that well.

So why, then, was Hocking so upset that he called me to let me know, and why was the passing of this acquaintance so moving that I think about him from time to time even when it’s not the anniversary of his death? Why are so many people still talking about a man that many of you may never have heard of?

It’s because Steve was a phenomenal scholar of fantasy and heroic fiction/sword-and-sorcery and probably the most well-read person I’ve ever met — and he was also, simply, a really nice guy.

You have only to visit his archived essays at The Cimmerian to see that talent, or his good natured spirit. You also can flip through the essays he drafted in many other places, not the least of which are some of the Del Rey Robert E. Howard volumes, including Kull – Exile of Atlantis. He was a genius.

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John C. Hocking’s “The Face in the Sea” nominated for Harper’s Pen Award

John C. Hocking’s “The Face in the Sea” nominated for Harper’s Pen Award

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face-in-the-sea-277The Sorcerer’s Guild announced this week that John C. Hocking’s “The Face in the Sea” (from Black Gate 13) has been nominated for the Harper’s Pen Award (formerly the Ham-Sized Fist Award).

The Harper’s Pen Award honors the best Heroic Fantasy or Sword and Sorcery short fiction. The award is sponsored by The Sorcerer’s Guild. The stated goal of the award is “to encourage authors to continue to explore heroic fantasy and sword and sorcery fiction, as well as to reward those who continue to publish it.”

The Finalists for 2009 are:

Special shout out to Black Gate Contributing Editor Bill Ward, for his nomination for “The Last of His Kind.”

There’s some fine publications on that list.  If you like heroic fantasy, I hope you’ll take the opportunity to try a few of the links above and, if you like what you see, support one of our sister magazines. Me, I’m going off to read some more Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.

Congratulations to all the finalists!  The winner will be announced next week.

The Weird of Cornell Woolrich: “Speak to Me of Death”

The Weird of Cornell Woolrich: “Speak to Me of Death”

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speak-to-me-of-deathMost pulp writers of the 1930s were itching to break into the hardcover book market. Since reprints of pulp stories in book form were rare at the time, these writers did not expect that their work for the newsstands would survive past an issue’s sell-date. They felt comfortable re-working and expanding on them to create novels. Raymond Chandler famously called his process of novelizing his already published work as “cannibalizing.” He welded together different short stories, often keeping large sections of text intact with only slight alterations. Other authors took ideas that they liked, or else felt they could do more justice to in the novel format, and enlarged them into books without text carry-over. Robert E. Howard used “The Scarlet Citadel” as a guide for The Hour of the Dragon. And Cornell Woolrich turned many of his short stories into novels. “Face Work” became The Black Angel. “Call Me Patrice” became I Married a Dead Man. “The Street of Jungle Death” became Black Alibi. And “Speak to Me of Death” became Woolrich’s most depressing novel (which is really saying something), Night Has a Thousand Eyes.

In most of these cases, Woolrich made major changes from the short version to the longer one. “Face Work” is a minor piece and only remains as an incident within The Black Angel. “Street of Jungle Death” is a pretty wretched piece of junk, and yet Woolrich took this silly “big cat on the loose in Hollywood!” and fashioned it into a grim classic — one of his best novels — set in the web-ways of a South American city.

But in the case of “Speak to Me of Death” and its growth into Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Woolrich changed little of the story. He instead deepened this examination of fate, psychic powers, and police work so it lasted over three hundred pages. The short story is a classic, and so is the novel — it’s merely a matter of the length of the author maintains the effect. If Night Has a Thousand Eyes is the superior work, “Speak to Me of Death” might be better for your nerves because it ends much sooner.

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