Bookmarks: Favorite Writers

 Robert Bloch -- Bloch was the youngest member of the famous "Lovecraft Circle", corresponding regularly with H.P. Lovecraft and others at the tender age of 15. In years to come, he became a grandmaster of both horror and detective fiction, and one of the greatest short story writers of his generation. Like many of my favorite genre authors, Bloch was also incredibly active in Hollywood: he scripted some of the best Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Thriller and Tales From the Darkside, and also wrote one of my favorite episodes on the original Star Trek, "A Wolf in the Fold". Somehow he also found time to produce over 20 novels, a number of radio plays, and more non-fiction articles than you could shake a stick at. This link leads to the Unofficial Robert Bloch Website, which is compiled and maintained by Michael G. Pfefferkorn.
The Joe Bob Report -- "Joe Bob Briggs" is the pen-name of John Bloom, whose career as an author, critic and actor has spanned every medium from newspaper syndication and television to stand-up comedy. Like Mark Twain and Pablo Neruda, he's better known by his pen-name than by his real name, but he can draw blood as either; a rose by any other name has thorns just as sharp. His writing has the rare virtue of making people laugh and think at the same time, a quality I much admire. His most recent book was called Profoundly Disturbing; the sequel, Profoundly Erotic, should be released in autumn of 2005. His website has a rich archive of reviews and articles. Four stars: Arinn says check him out.
Harlan Ellison-- I first met Ellison in the spring of 1988, when he came to my tiny home town in Colorado for the annual Southwest Literature Conference. After being much impressed by the man in person, I ran out and bought most of the books he had written in a career that spanned three decades. I quickly learned to appreciate the enormity of his talent and his integrity, both as an artist and as a man. He is justly famous not only as a grandmaster of science fiction, fantasy and horror, but as one of the best critics of his generation. If you have an interest in author's rights and copyright law, look into his lawsuit against AOL.
Robert E. Howard-- Howard was one of the great joys of my childhood; I was always addicted to Conan stories and comics as a kid. As an adult, I'm in a better position to appreciate his lushly imagined settings and his passionate, vigorous prose. I also enjoy reading his letters to his friends, H.P. Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. Howard is indispensable to the education of anyone who loves the swords 'n' sorcery genre. This particular link leads to the site of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association, which is notable for its picture archive and helpful links.
Marvin Kaye -- I can never figure out why more people in SF and horror haven't heard of Marvin Kaye. His work as an editor has been absolutely superlative. The Masterpieces of Terror anthologies are truly definitive; I always recommend them to anyone looking for a solid grounding in horror. He has also edited countless other anthologies which are rich reading experiences, including Devils and Demons, Angels of Darkness, and Don't Open This Book. For the record, Kaye has also produced some great fiction of his own: he and Parke Godwin are the co-authors of Masters of Solitude, which is one of my favorite novels. This link leads to his personal website.
Stephen King -- I started stealing Steve's books out of my mother's purse when I was nine or ten. He remains to this day the only writer who has ever kept me awake until dawn--and he did it twice, once with "The Bogeyman" and once with "The Reaper's Image". His overview of horror, Danse Macabre, was a great gift to me as a young fan--not only did it give me some important new concepts to mull over, but also a cornucopia of books to read, old comics to track down, and old movies to see. Nowadays I don't read him as often as I once did, but my own nine-year-old is raiding my bookshelves to find a copy of The Firestarter. This link leads to his Official Web Presence.
H.P. Lovecraft -- One of my favorite horror writers of all time. I'm not alone, of course; every major author in this genre has listed Lovecraft as an influence for the last 70 years. He's an acquired taste, but his writing and his ideas can be highly addictive for certain persons of...special sensitivity. This particular website is maintained by the indispensable Donovan K. Loucks, and I highly recommend it.
Richard Matheson -- There are a select few who remember Richard Matheson's name when they list the top ten genre writers of the 20th century...but not enough, in my opinion. Matheson is one of the true grandmasters of the form, with a career in letters, television and film that few others can match. He wrote some of our favorite episodes of The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery, has authored countless brilliant short stories, and has produced a spate of novels which were adapted for films. This site has a very nice bibliography and a listing of his script credits, which include some of my favorite Corman movies--and it also has a free version of his metaphysical work, "Reality", which is an interesting read.
Tim Powers -- I first discovered the work of Tim Powers when David Herter loaned me his copy of The Stress of Her Regard. I enjoyed the novel so much that I immediately went out and found the rest of the books in his backlist: The Anubis Gates, The Drawing of the Dark, On Stranger Tides, Dinner at Deviant's Palace, etc.. Given my admiration for Powers, I naturally looked forward to reading his reviews--but at the time, I found the critical response to his work very disappointing. Eventually I read a dismissal of Stress which forced me to write a rebuttal: as it happened, my defense of this book turned out to be the first sale of my career. My admiration for Powers is undimmed to this day, and has only grown after meeting him and his wife Serena personally. This link leads to John Berlyne's site, "The Works of Tim Powers", which is one of the most comprehensive resources of Powers information on the Net.
Lucius Shepard -- I first met Lucius Shepard several years ago, and I have never ceased to learn from him; he is one of the most fascinating people I have ever met. He's a writer whose skills and interests seem to span the whole fabric of human existence: music, literature, politics, sports, film--he can write beautifully and passionately on any subject. He has produced some superlative science fiction and dark fantasy, and will long be remembered for novels like Green Eyes, Kalimantan, and Life During Wartime. He's received most of the awards that the SF and fantasy genres have to offer, but he also writes some of the best prose available in the mainstream, and has been short-listed for the Pulitzer. This link leads to his official website.
 
 Clark Ashton Smith -- One of the greatest lights in the history of SF and fantasy, Smith was a master prose stylist and a powerful poet. He was a friend and a frequent correspondent with both H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, and he has been the inspiration for most of the truly accomplished literati in the field of science fiction and dark fantasy. I've posted a review of his short story collection, Zothique, to this site, but the link here leads to Boyd Pearson's excellent and highly comprehensive C.A.S. tribute, The Eldritch Dark.
Theodore Sturgeon -- Science fiction, fantasy and horror are generally not associated with deep and compassionate exploration of the human condition. Ted Sturgeon is the exception to the rule that SF is about ideas, not people. Very few writers can offer as much insight into the human heart--and can deal with such warm affection with the human libido. Sturgeon is the kind of writer who could really make you believe that love was the answer--and a damn good one, at that. This link leads the The Theodore Sturgeon Page, maintained by Eric R. Weeks.
James Tiptree, Jr. -- The pen name of one of the most brilliant SF writers of her generation, Alice Sheldon, who also wrote as "Racoona Sheldon". Tiptree's successful impersonation of a man for many years didn't prevent her from writing very strongly from the female and feminist point of view. Her willingness to explore issues of gender and equality in her fiction, and her long-time prank on the SF community, have inspired a yearly award for "gender bending fiction"--the James Tiptree Jr. Award. The link above connects to the James Tiptree, Jr. World Wide Website, which is maintained by David Lavery.

Gene Wolfe -- Wolfe is one of the finest prose stylists ever to grace the SF genre, and he has produced a profound and beautiful body of work. Like James Joyce, the richness of his writing is almost overpowering; he creates the kind of fiction that intellectuals and critics love to grapple with, because his layered prose always rewards their struggles. A reader can return to any given Wolfe novel over and over again, finding something new beauty every time--and his short stories are also works of art. Coincidentally, he was also one of my teachers at the Clarion West Writer's Workshop, in 1990. This link leads to the Lupine Nuncio, a fansite dedicated to Wolfe and his works.

Publishers and Markets

Electric Story -- A publisher of new and reprinted books in electronic form, Electric Story has established a benchmark for quality ebooks. They also publish stories from various authors, articles from Harold Waldrop, and exclusive movie reviews from Lucius Shepard on their website, which are always worth a click.
Fairwood Press -- Patrick and Honna Swenson are the editors of Talebones magazine, and Fairwood Press is their publishing concern. They publish a full range of quality fiction, non-fiction and poetry in the SF, fantasy and horror genres, and their catalog is well worth a look.
Spicy Green Iguana  -- One of the best places on the 'Net to find market information for writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror. Print magazines, webzines and book publishers, all organized into Pro, Semi-pro and Small Press listings...and a fairly comprehensive list of dead markets, which is useful for hungry youngsters who don't want to waste a lot of time and postage sending their submissions to a cemetery.
Ralan's Webstravaganza -- Ralan Conley maintains one of the best market lists on the 'Net for SF, fantasy, horror and erotica fiction. Well-maintained and frequently updated, his site is one of the better places to find information if you're a writer of genre fiction. It's always fun to swing by his contests page and see what's new.
Wildside Press -- Owned and operated by the genre publishing magnate John Betancourt, Wildside Press is one of the most important small presses in the genre. It is home to the venerable Weird Tales magazine, edited by Darrell Shweitzer--who has the distinction of being the one editor who has kept the magazine alive the longest in any of its many incarnations. Wildside also publishes a lot of top quality literary sf. fantasy and horror, and one other magazine which is particularly close to my heart--H.P. Lovecraft's Magazine of Horror, edited by Marvin Kaye.

Art

 Virgil Finlay -- Probably the most famous fantasy illustrator of his generation, Finlay was the premiere artist of Weird Tales and produced hundreds of illustrations for the SF pulps of his day. His sophisticated black-and-white pointillism technique was perfect to produce a rich, delicately shaded image...and these images, of near photographic quality, were also incredibly easy for printers to reproduce. The link above leads to a small on-line gallery of Finlay's art: I also recommend this brief biography of Finlay, and the collections of his work that are currently available on the market. I can personally vouch for Virgil Finlay's Phantasms, Virgil Finlay's Strange Science and Women of the Ages, all of which are in my collection.
Frank Frazetta -- I learned my love of Frazetta early; he was one of the most popular cover artists for the books I loved to read in the early '80's, when my taste ran strongly in the direction of Robert E. Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs. Over the years his paintings and sketches have come to symbolize an ideal of feminine beauty which appeals to me very strongly. He has a gift for portraying landscapes and animals, but above all, Frazetta's great talent is to make the human body a symbol for human passion. This link connects to his personal website and gallery, including an extensive bio, information on the Frazetta Museum, and an on-line store for buying his prints.
Michael Kaluta -- Kaluta is a truly great illustrator, and one of those artists so talented that some people are amazed he's willing to draw comics at all. He's probably most famous for his work on The Books of Magic and his incredible illustrations for Thea von Harbou's Metropolis, but to me he will always be the definitive artist of The Shadow. I met him in 2002, when he stopped in at one of the tiny local comic cons; he was charming, personable, and kind of enough to talk samurai flicks with me for several minutes--while making me a beautiful sketch of the Shadow in combat with two Japanese demons. This link leads to his official site.
Maxfield Parrish -- One of the great illustrators of all time. I find the oneiric quality of his paintings very soothing; looking at them is like reading the verses of the Tao Teh Ching, or sitting in a pool of clear water. Of all the painters of the 20th century, he was the only one who seems to have had a real glimpse of Paradise. This link leads to the Artcyclopedia entry for Parrish; notable because it gives an entire page of links to on-line galleries of his artwork and a few articles on his life and career.
Nicholas Roerich -- Artist, philosopher, world traveler, and a powerful proponent of both peace and culture, Nicholas Roerich is one of my personal heroes. I first encountered him through H.P. Lovecraft, who turned to Roerich's famous Tibetan landscapes for inspiration while writing his novel At the Mountains of Madness. The image here is a scan of a painting called "Mother of the World", which is one of my favorites. This link leads to the website of the Nicholas Roerich Museum in New York; someday I'd like to take a pilgrimage to that little place on West 107th Street, to see the paintings and touch base with the great soul who inspired The Roerich Pact.

 

Music

The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets -- Maybe they're the only punk rock H.P. Lovecraft Tribute Band in North America...or maybe they're just the only one that I like. The Thickets are a Vancouver-based band, and a never-miss show for me whenever they play within driving distance. Visit their website, buy their CD's (Toren's shoggoth gets hungry) or better yet--catch a show.
The Unsatisfied -- I had the pleasure of seeing this band play live twice in 2003; it was about the most fun I had all year. The Unsatisfied tour the eastern seaboard on occasion, and often play in and around their home town of Chattanooga, Tennessee; you can usually catch them once or twice a month in Atlanta, as well. They always put on a high-intensity show which will rock your teeth right out of your jaw. Eric Scealf knows how to make you feel lean, mean and sweet sixteen, no matter how old you are. You should also definitely see the rockumentary Ambition Withdraw, directed by Jason Eustice--the movie is just as amazing as the band.

Books, Movies and Other Collectible Goodies

Gavinicuss Books: Gavin Smith is a friend of mine from Irving, Texas. He is also my first and only stop for all my Weird Fiction needs--whether it's the latest edition of Clark Ashton Smith's collected letters or a copy of The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath on DVD, Gavin either has it or he can get it for me. I recommend his services to anyone who needs a good book.
Gonzoriffic Films is the home base for director, photographer, singer, artist, and good old-fashioned male feminist Andrew Shearer. An amazingly talented and entertaining man who has surrounded himself with strong, beautiful, hilariously funny women, his films must be seen to be believed. Only Andrew could have persuaded me to appear in a movie called "Cannibal Sisters"!
Pretty-Scary.net is the website by Women in Horror, for Women in Horror. Swing by the site for news, interviews, reviews and essays of interest to anyone with two X chromosomes and a chainsaw. It's also the only place that you'll find my occasionally feminist horror column, Personal Demons.