The Wrap Up

This has been an . . . interesting . . . year, dominated by three things: the knee surgeries that had Sammy, our Great Pyrenees, laid up for the first part of the year; storm damage to our roof in March that led to a three-month struggle with the insurance company before we were able to get it replaced; and finally Livia’s cancer diagnosis in July, followed by surgery, radiation treatments, and many, many doctor visits. Yet we’ve come through all of them. Sammy doesn’t get around as well as he once did, but other than that he’s doing fine. We have a really nice new roof. And Livia’s radiation treatments will be wrapping up soon. In the midst of all this, we decided to get in better shape and have been walking, walking, walking, around five miles a day for me and more than that for her. I really miss it now when things interfere with us getting our steps in. So in some ways, it’s been a good year.

I can’t say I’m sad to see it end, though.

Moving on to the usual items in this year-end post:

WRITING

As I mentioned yesterday, I wrote a million words—barely—again this year, for the 15th consecutive year. That works out to nine-and-a-half novels and one short story. It’s a very nice achievement, and I’m proud of it, but I’ll be fine with it if I actually manage to cut back next year, as I’ve been threatening to for some time now. There are a lot of other things I need to do, and want to do, that I haven’t been able to because writing that much sucks up so much time.

READING

I read 107 books this year, the second-lowest total since I started keeping records of what I read in 1980. But a lot of them were pretty darned good books. Here are the ten I liked the most, in the order in which I read them:

BUZ SAWYER, VOLUME 1: THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC, Roy Crane
THE OFFICE, Fredric Brown
MADBALL, Fredric Brown
CONAN AND THE LIVING PLAGUE, John C. Hocking
ROBERT E. HOWARD: A LITERARY BIOGRAPHY, David C. Smith
THE STRANGEST SIN, Orrie Hitt
GAMBLING MAN, Clifton Adams
TOUGH AS NAILS: THE COMPLETE CASES OF DONOHUE, Frederick Nebel
SLUGFEST: INSIDE THE EPIC, 50-YEAR BATTLE BETWEEN MARVEL AND D.C., Reed Tucker
BURNED WITH THE COYOTE BRAND, Dan Cushman 

I don’t claim these are “bests”, but they are my favorites from my reading this year.

THE STATE OF THE BLOG

Readership here still isn’t what it once was . . . but what is? It’s enough for me that most of you seem to be enjoying it, I’m still having fun, and so it goes. Thanks to all of you who drop in. I’ll be here.

A Million Words and Counting

A little while ago, I finished a chapter in the book I'm writing, and that put me over a million words for the year for the 15th straight year. I never set out to do that, but as the years piled up, I kept thinking, well, one more won't hurt anything . . .

15 is a good number to stop on, though, especially since for most of the year I didn't believe I'd be able to do it this time, what with all the real life stuff going on. I honestly thought the streak was going to come to an end at 14 years, which, by the way, wouldn't have been anything to sneeze at. But I had a very productive October, November, and December, and so here we are.

Next year, I have approximately 750,000 words worth of work lined up. That's a pace I maintained for years and years before I ever started this million words nonsense. I'd like to try that again for a year or two and then maybe ease off even more, down to half a million, say. I think I could keep that up for a long time yet. But we'll see. You never know in this business. Some project might come along next year that I can't turn down. I've lived by the creed of the freelancer--"Sure, I can do that"--for too long now to turn my back on it. So I'll be interested to see how things turn out.

And no matter how they do, I'll probably be here yammering about them.

In the meantime, thank you so much to Livia, Shayna, Joanna, and all the editors, agents, and publishers who have helped make this possible.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Love Story, December 31, 1938

This is the way Livia and I will be spending our New Year's Eve, of course, in our swanky penthouse. Actually, we'll probably both be asleep by midnight. This is a nice cover, though. I have no idea who did the art, and all the authors who contributed stories to this issue are totally unknown to me. I like a lot of the Western romance pulps, but I'm just not the target audience for the regular romance titles. I do like the cover, though.

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Texas Rangers, September 1952

Art by Sam Cherry

This is a pulp that I own and read recently. The scan is of my copy. TEXAS RANGERS is one of my favorite pulps, and this is a good issue.

It leads off, as all issues of TEXAS RANGERS do, with a full-length novel featuring Texas Ranger Jim Hatfield. “Ranger’s Ransom” finds Hatfield, also known as the Lone Wolf, arriving in a West Texas cowtown to investigate the murder of a rancher who’s an old friend of his, only to find that he’s already been there. Or rather, somebody pretending to be Hatfield has been, and he’s made off with a vital piece of evidence in the case. That doesn’t stop Hatfield from launching his own investigation, which winds up with him being captured by the villains and held for ransom (hence the title). Hatfield, of course, still has some tricks up his sleeve and doesn’t intend to let the bad guys win.

This novel has long been attributed to Walker A. Tompkins, writing under the house-name Jackson Cole. However, now that I’ve read it, I’m not 100% convinced that it’s Tompkins’ work. The writing just doesn’t sound quite like Tompkins to me. It’s definitely not by Peter Germano or Roe Richmond, the other two principal authors on the Hatfield series at this point. Joseph Chadwick also write a few Hatfield novels right around this time, and “Ranger’s Ransom” has a hardboiled tone to it that makes me wonder if Chadwick actually wrote it. It does have the double initials in the title that Tompkins was fond of using, so that’s one point in his favor. But I doubt if I’ll ever know for sure, one way or the other. Anyway, what’s most important is that this is a very entertaining yarn with some good action scenes, and Hatfield’s boss, Ranger Captain “Roaring Bill” McDowell, gets to play a part in the action, which almost never happens in this series.

Thomas Calvert McClary was a prolific pulpster, producing hundreds of stories, mostly Westerns and detective yarns, from the early Thirties on through the end of the pulp era. And after that he contributed numerous stories to the mystery digests in the Fifties and Sixties. His story in this issue, “Long Live the King”, under the name T.C. McClary, is about an outlaw gang on the run and their leader, Tom King, weary of the owlhoot life and wanting to leave it behind. That doesn’t set well with some of the others in the gang and leads to a showdown that also involves a young lawman. This story is predictable and even a little melodramatic, but McClary does a really good job with it, including the epic gun battle that wraps it up.

I’ve mentioned before that I don’t care much for Ben Frank’s long-running Doc Swap series of comedy Westerns, but I read the one in this issue, “Doc Swap’s Reversible Wrangle”, and actually enjoyed it. The series if very formulaic—"Doc Swap is an irascible old geezer who swaps for stuff he wants, and hijinks ensue” is the plot of every one I’ve read—but I guess if you space them out long enough in between, they can be kind of entertaining. Ben Frank, who also wrote under his real name, Frank Bennett, turned out some pretty smooth prose, I’ll give him that.

H.A. DeRosso is another favorite of mine, the author of some of the bleakest Westerns you’ll find. His story in this issue, “For Love or Money”, isn’t as dark as some of his work that I’ve read, but it’s still a compelling yarn about a man whose former partner steals his woman, his ranch, and all his money. So naturally, he’s out for revenge. But not everything is as it seems, and while the twist isn’t very surprising, DeRosso handles it fairly well. This is minor DeRosso but worth reading.

Steuart Emery is another author whose career lasted a long time, all the way from 1919 to 1970. Early on, he wrote almost exclusively for the aviation and air war pulps but eventually came to specialize in Westerns about the U.S. Cavalry. His novelette in this issue, “Manhunt in the Sun”, is about a cavalryman serving in the army under a fake name because he’s wanted for murder. His past is about to catch up to him when he finds himself in the middle of a war with the Apaches and has to decide where his true loyalties lie. This is a superb story told in a gritty, fast-moving style, and it includes a scene most definitely inspired by one of my favorite films, GUNGA DIN. Everything I’ve read by Steuart Emery has been top-notch, and this continues that streak.

Giles A. Lutz was a productive, well-respected Western novelist for many years who started out writing for the pulps. His story here, “Best Man”, is about a romantic triangle, a windmill, and a blue norther. It’s slight but likable.

The same is true of “One Man’s Law”, by yet another veteran pulpster who wrote a lot for the aviation pulps, Robert Sidney Bowen. It concerns a lawman whose search for a murderer takes him back to his old hometown, which he left under less than ideal circumstances, so the protagonist has to face his past as well as corral a killer. Bowen was enough of an old pro to make it slick and entertaining.

This issue also includes several features, among them “Sagebrush Savvy”, a question-and-answer column written by S. Omar Barker, which was the only one that interested me. Barker is always worth reading.

Overall, this is a very solid issue of TEXAS RANGERS, with a good Jim Hatfield novel, Steuart Emery’s excellent novelette, and a variety of other stories that range from very good to okay. There’s not really a weak one in the bunch. If you’re a fan of this pulp and have a copy of this one you haven’t read yet, it’s well worth pulling down from the shelf.

The Annual December 27th Post

Regular readers of this blog may recall that December 27 is the anniversary of my first fiction sale, which occurred in 1976, 43 years ago today. I’ve written about that in detail for December 27 posts in previous years. Looking back at that day 43 years ago when I first opened an envelope and saw a check for something I’d written, I’m glad I’ve been able to hang around in this crazy business for so long. I’m very grateful to everyone who’s helped, especially Livia, Shayna, and Joanna, and all the readers who have enjoyed what I’ve written. (And those who hated it but paid me anyway.)

Forgotten Books: Barbary Gold - H. Bedford-Jones

Art by Modest Stein

H. Bedford-Jones is probably best remembered for his historical fiction, but he wrote in a lot of different genres, including contemporary thrillers. This one certainly qualifies. BARBARY GOLD was published originally in the March 25, 1919, issue of PEOPLE’S FAVORITE MAGAZINE and follows the adventures of three World War I veterans—an American (who’s the narrator), an Englishman, and a Spaniard—who meet while recuperating from their wounds in a French convalescent hospital.

They form a fast friendship and discover that two of them share something in common: the Englishman was on a British ship that sunk a German submarine carrying millions of dollars in gold along the coast of Africa, and the Spaniard was the prisoner of Moors along the same coast and knows the waters better than anyone else. They hatch a plan to travel there and recover the gold from the sunken sub and rope their friend the American in on the plan with them. Once the enterprise gets underway, though, they find it threatened by not one but two beautiful, mysterious women who can’t be trusted, and there are also secrets from the past, including murder, that may ruin everything and put them all in deadly danger.

If you’re thinking this sounds like something Jack Higgins or Alistair Maclean would write a few decades later, you’re absolutely correct. It’s exactly that sort of high-stakes adventure novel. Bedford-Jones’ style is more reserved and old-fashioned than those later writers, as you’d expect from a yarn written and published a little more than a hundred years ago, but his prose always had a more modern feel to it, compared to most of the other pulp authors, so it holds up well. I really enjoyed BARBARY GOLD, and if all you’ve read by Bedford-Jones is his historical fiction and you like thrillers, you ought to give it a try.

Merry Christmas

WESTERN STORY, December 31, 1932, art by Sidney Riesenberg

Hope the stagecoach drops off some mighty good presents at your house today, pards.

Overlooked Old Time Radio: The Santa Claus Rustlers (Hopalong Cassidy, April 15, 1952)

Andy Clyde as California Carlson and William Boyd as Hopalong Cassidy, from one of their movies.

I recently came across a Christmas episode of the HOPALONG CASSIDY radio show, "The Santa Claus Rustlers", which seems like a nice thing to write about today on Christmas Eve. Hoppy is a longtime favorite character of mine, both the original version in books by Clarence E. Mulford and the version played in movies, on TV, and in this radio show by William Boyd.

In "The Santa Claus Rustlers", Hoppy and his sidekick California Carlson (played by the great Andy Clyde) are on their way back to the Bar-20 ranch after selling some cattle, but on the way they encounter a ranching family that's being plagued by rustling. Hoppy and California befriend the young couple and their two children, of course, and decide to stick around for Christmas and find out who's behind all the widelooping. Could it be the somewhat sinister and unfriendly ranch hand, Johnny No-Name?

There are a couple of twists in the plot, but nothing you won't see coming. However, being a Christmas episode, the whole thing is rather gentle and heartwarming, and I enjoyed it. William Boyd and Andy Clyde are top-notch as Hoppy and California, as always. One oddity is that the episode originally aired on April 15, 1952, instead of around Christmas. Why that was, I have no idea.

"The Santa Claus Rustlers" is available numerous places on-line for your listening pleasure. It might be a nice way to spend half an hour on Christmas Eve for some of you.

Sunday Morning Bonus Pulp: Detective Story Magazine, December 22, 1928

Street & Smith probably had more Christmas-themed covers than any other pulp publisher, such as this one on the December 22, 1928 issue of DETECTIVE STORY MAGAZINE. The art is by John A. Coughlin, who did many covers for DSM during this era, and I think it's pretty good. Of the authors inside, Johnston McCulley is almost certainly the best known today. His story in this issue is the final installment of a serial featuring a crossover between two of his series characters, the Crimson Clown and Thubway Tham. I have to confess, I haven't read anything with either of those characters. Maybe I will, eventually. Other notable authors are Cherry Wilson, a prolific contributor to WESTERN STORY, and Oscar Schisgall, also better known as a Western author who, in fact, wrote the first Masked Rider novel. I hope the Santa on this cover was able to convince the cop he wasn't up to any mischief (unless, of course, he actually was).

Saturday Morning Western Pulp: Wild West Weekly, December 27, 1941

You can't really tell this is a Christmas issue by looking at the cover art on this WILD WEST WEEKLY, but it says so right there: "A Thrilling Sonny Tabor Novel of Christmas by Ward M. Stevens". The story is actually called "Six-Gun Santa". Paul S. Powers, who wrote the Sonny Tabor series under the Stevens pseudonym, has a second Christmas story in this issue under his own name, called "Vigilante Christmas". Also on hand are stories by Norman A. Fox (writing as Clint McLeod), William R. Cox, Chuck Martin, Archie Joscelyn (writing as Andrew A. Griffin), R.S. Lerch, and a poem by S. Omar Barker. All that probably would be enough to get me in the Christmas spirit.