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Saturday, November 06, 2010
Another Million Words
I know I said I wasn't going to be posting as much, but yesterday I hit a million words for the year again, sixth year in a row, and I think that's worth noting. Last year I didn't reach a million words until December 1, so I'm a few weeks ahead of that pace. I'm very grateful to the editors who have faith in me and give me a chance to write that much, and to Livia for everything she does to make the process work as smoothly as it does. (And let me tell you, she does a lot!)
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19 comments:
By coincidence I was thinking of those million words yesterday. You'll see what I mean today, I'm sure.
Congratulations, James! That is indeed an accomplishment. Looking forward to reading some of those words in print.
Also, I am at NoirCon, and last night at dinner I found myself seated next to a very nice gentleman and we were talking a lot about Westerns and Sci-Fi and eventually he tells me he lives in Texas. Turns out his is a friend of yours -- Scott Cupp. We had a great conversation, and I walked away with a lot of recommendations to look up.
Congrats, James!
Thanks, guys. Yeah, Cullen, Scott and I have been friends for at least 30 years. Wonderful guy and a fine writer. I'm glad you ran into him.
Sometimes I feel as if I barely 'read' a million words a year. I'm getting further behind all the time in my Reasoner reading.
You are an inspiration, James.
I'm just tired thinking about a million words a year. Congratulations to you--and Livia!
I don't even speak a million words a year, or in ten years. You're a wonder, James, and deserve all the kudos you get.
That is quite a feat. I had a dickens of a time pouring out 50,000
words one November. And that was trying to make them come together as one story which I never could quite achieve. Congratulations.
And, better yet, I suspect, a million good to great words. Congratulations!
I was croggled the other day that you were published (first?) in MANHUNT...even in its last years, I suspect you were rather young, if not quite younger than the magazine itself...
Oh, hey, I see that that citation, by Mike Ashley, might be incorect. I see you site gives this:
I made my first sale in December 1976, and by the end of the Seventies my work was appearing regularly in mystery and men's magazines and I had sold my first novel, a private eye yarn entitled TEXAS WIND. It was published by Manor Books in the fall of 1980.
While Mike was under this impression:
I wouldn't dismiss those later issues too quickly. They still contained some good material by Jack Ritchie, Joe Gores, James M. Reasoner (who slyly contributed under the alias M. R. James), Lawrence Block and Richard Deming.
This from http://www.crimetime.co.uk/features/mikeashley2.php
...or was there an earlier JMR?
Todd,
That's a puzzle. I definitely never sold anything to MANHUNT. My first sale was to the confession mag INTIMATE STORY, and my first mystery sale was to MSMM. The M.R. James name was used on only one of my stories, "The Graveyard Shift", in the 11/77 issue of MSMM, and that was Sam Merwin's doing, not mine. Sam also stuck the name R. Mason on my story "The Old College Try" in the same issue. As far as I know, I'm the only James M. Reasoner to have ever sold any fiction.
And you've published the only story "by" my father (Bob, and not the WEAPON/SOLO Robert Mason), obviously. Hm...Mike assumed, I guess, that your Merwin-installed pseud on the one story meant you were the Only "M.R. James" in the CF digests, too (unless EQMM or someone had reprinted Montague Rhodes in living memmory). Wonder if That MANHUNT MRJ was also "Adobe James"...
According to the Fictionmags Index, Adobe James was really James Moss Cardwell, who published a couple of stories under that name back in the Forties. I still remember that creepy Adobe James story published in one of those Alfred Hitchcock anthologies. Good stuff.
Another oddly-named, obscure writer I always liked was Moss Tadrack, who appeared frequently in MSMM for a while. Real name William Caryl, again according to the Fictionmags Index.
Harold Q. Masur liked "Adobe James"...he had at least two stories in Masur's volumes of ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS:, though in my current drowsiness I can think of only "The Ohio Love Scupture"...somewhat improbable, but certainly effective on young me.
We are a full-service, actually beat everything to death, commenter..."Ohio Love" was in AHP: STORIES TO BE READ WITH THE LIGHTS ON, as well..
from the Contento indices:
JAMES, ADOBE; pseudonym of James Moss Cardwell (chron.)
* The Ohio Love Sculpture, (ss) Escapade Jun 1963
The Devil’s Kisses, ed. Linda Lovecraft, London: Corgi 1976
* The Road to Mictlantecutli, (ss) Adam Bedside Reader #20 1965
Stories That Scared Even Me, ed. Alfred Hitchcock, Random 1967
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Scream Along with Me, ed. Alfred Hitchcock, Dell 1970
The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural, ed. Bill Pronzini, Martin H. Greenberg & Barry N. Malzberg, Arbor House 1981
* Tomorrow and Tomorrow, (ss) Adam Bedside Reader 1967
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read with the Door Locked, ed. Alfred Hitchcock, Random House 1975
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read with the Door Locked (Volume I), ed. Alfred Hitchcock, Dell 1977
wv: witever (I like that.)
And "The Road to M..." story would've been in what might've been Robert Arthur's last ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS volume, unless it was his penunltimate before his too-early death.
"The Road to Mictlantecutli" is the one I remember reading in STORIES THAT SCARED EVEN ME.
That's great, James! Keep up the good work!
WV: "insubill" sounds like, er, something.
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