Waiting

It has been too long since I updated anything here! This time (he said again) I will do my best to update things at least once per month.

Status of stories...

Accepted but not yet out:
"The Inside Man" for Moonstone's GREEN HORNET CHRONICLES
"Trail of the Brujo" for TALES FROM THE CAULDRON
"Zorro and the Bruja" for MORE TALES OF ZORRO
"Invisible Empire" for THE AVENGER CHRONICLES II

Submitted:
"Adrift on Other Seas" for HIGH SEAS CTHULHU II
"The Cwoss-Time Twaveler" for TIMES OF TROUBLE
"The Adventure of the Ethical Assassin" for Moonstone's Sherlock Holmes Anthology

In Progress:
"Kumiho" for Moonstone's Kolchak, the Night Stalker Anthology
"Like Magic" for MORE TALES OF ZORRO

Robots Beyond

I just found out that Robots Beyond from Permuted Press is now available at Amazon. This was a fun one ot work with, largely because editor Lane Adamson and a lot of the contributors are friends of mine. I had the chance to see some of the stories in the workshop stage and there is some seriously great stuff in here.

The table of contents is:

- Electric Crown by Thom Brannan
- The Last Protector by Billy Wong
- Franchise Hell by Ren Holton
- Burning Down the House by Paula Stiles
- Tinman by Jesse A. Lynn
- Crocus by William Carl
- Narrative Device by Alistair Bishop
- Other Dreams by Dave Dunwoody
- The Strange Affair of the Artisan's Heart by Joshua Reynolds
- Surveillance by R. Thomas Riley
- Primero by Richard Mosses
- The Cure by Christopher Donahue
- Hothead by Mark Patrick Lynch
- How Coyote Made Robot by John W. Oliver
- Again, Iabrochium by Joel Sutherland
- Be Swift, My Soul by Lane Adamson
- A Robot Named J35U5 by Matt R. Jones
- Nano-Domini by Matthew Baugh
- Are You Lonesome Tonight? by Doug Wojtowicz

Not bad for a Cat-Frightener

I just got an advance copy of SHANGHAI MOON, the latest installment in the amazing Bill Smith/Lydia Chin series by S.J. Rozan http://www.sjrozan.com/. S.J. has a series of questions on her blog and was giving advance copies to her favorite answers. She said mine made her laugh, which startled the cat.

This is a fantastic series. The locations from New York to Shanghai and various other places are vividly described, the characters (down to the walk-ons) are so well characterized that you'd swear you know them. Finally the detective heroes feel like old friends. They are deeply flawed yet admirable people. You want them to win (they probably will) and you want them to solve their personal issues (not a chance) and get together. (Honestly, the series has managed to maintain a romantic/sexual tension between these two for nine novels now, and it's still working!)

Bill is the more typical of the two, a big, white, intellectual, tough-guy detective with a checkered past. Though he's the more familiar character type of the two, he's anything but a stereotype. Lydia is small, young, Chinese-American, and Bill's opposite in practically every way. The novels are written in first person and alternate voices. This time around Lydia is the narrator. Something remarkable that Rozan does is that Bill seen through Lydia's eyes is still recognizably Bill, but he's also very different from Bill through his own eyes. The same goes for Lydia in the two POV's. It's brilliant because it's so true.

Anyway, if you couldn't tell, I am eager to devour this one! I've dipped in enough to find that it revolves around an obscure but fascinating bit of history (did I mention that S.J. is also a teriffic researcher?). It seems that when the Nazis first started driving the Jews out of occupied Europe, many of them ended out in Shanghai, which was one of the only ports that would accept them.

I don;t know where the novel is going from there, but I'm goign to love finding out.

The Avenger Chronicles

I got my contributor copies from Joe Gentile today!

Joe and I share that we read this series when we were young and loved it. The Avenger is Rivchard Henry Benson, a pulp hero who is the combination of super athlete, super inventor, and super detective (think Batman without the spiffy costume). His wife and daughter were presumed murdered by criminals and he vowed to protect others from the same sort of loss. The terrible shock of losing hs loved ones also turned Benson's hair and face white and gave him an odd paralysis that allows him to mold his flesh like clay. This makes him a natural master of disguise.

I haven't read the stories yet but an impressed by the talent they have brought in. I'm excited to have my story "In Forgetfulness Divine" (many thanks to Richard for the title and overall help with this one) alongside the sotries of such talented authors. The list is:
Tom DeFalco
Win Scott Eckert (an old friend!)
Joe Gentile (A newer friend!)
Clay and Susan Griffith
Ron Goulart (Who worked on the Avenger paperbacks in the 70's!)
CJ Henderson
Howard Hopkins
Paul Kupperberg
Max McCoy
Christopher Mills
Will Murray
Mel Odom
Gary Phillips
Martin Powell
Robert Randisi
James Reasoner
Richard Dean Starr (A friend and colaborator with all kinds of Moonstone projects!)
& Dan Wickline.

It's strange and humbling to work on a character I loved as a kid! It's amazing to see it out in print.

My Stories To Date

A friend recently asked about what I had in print and I realized I wasn't sure. Record keeping isn't exactly my best thing. It made sense to do something about that, and the blog seemed a good place to do it.

Many thanks to Win Scott Eckert for helping me to figure out how to make the cool slideshow feature work on this blog! I’m insufferably pleased with it!

For anyone who is curious, here is the tally for the moment:

STORY APPEARS IN...
"The Legacy of the Fox" (essay) MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE
"The Mask of the Monster" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 1
"Ex Calce Liberatus" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 2
"The Heart of the Moon" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 3
"Captain Future and the Lunar Peril" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 4
"Fool’s Gold" HELL’S HANGMEN
"The Cold Comes South" “In Lovecraft’s Shadow” Issue 1
"Mysterious Dan’s Legacy" ARKHAM TALES
"Clown Fish" HIGH SEAS CTHULHU
"Snake Oil" FRONTIER CTHULHU (Origin Award Semi-Finalist)
"Fire Lilies" A FIELD GUIDE TO SURREAL BOTANY
Enemy of My Enemy (With Mike Bullock) TALES OF ZORRO

IN FRENCH
TITLE APPEARS IN...
"Le masque du monstre" LES COMPAGNONS DE L'OMBRE (Tome 1)
"Ex Calce Liberatus" LES COMPAGNONS DE L'OMBRE (Tome 1)
"Le masque du monstre" LES NOMBRUESES VIES DE MAIGRET
"La voie de la grue" LA SAGA DE MME. AROMOS (Tome 4)

ACCEPTED BUT NOT YET IN PRINT
TITLE WILL APPEAR IN...
"The Way of the Crane" TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN – VOL 5
"In Forgetfulness Divine" THE AVENGER CHRONICLES
"Nano-Domini" ROBOTS BEYOND
"Decently and Quietly Dead" “In Lovecraft’s Shadow” Issue 2

Have You Ever...

Ever written something and thought... "Well, at least I'm done" and then gotten back an amazing response?

I finished my most spiritually ambitious piece of writing this week. "Nano-Domini" is the story of a medical nanobot and his developing relationship with the scientist whose body he shares. It's meant to parallel the relationship of God and humanity from an unusual perspective.

I was worried about it being too preachy (it might stll be just a bit) and it felt clunky as I was writing it. I ran it past my writer's group thinking I would probably get some kind words about how not every story can be your best.

The responses I've gotten back have been better than to anything else I've ever submitted there(!) I'm floored and surprised (very pleasantly so) to get the comments I'm getting, and from people whose opinions I really respect and value!

Something went right and I'm really tickled about it! Now I get to be nervous about my story making the ROBOTS BEYOND cut.

Leah says that things look hopeful for her story (a wonderfully creepy/funny Lovecraftean tale with robots) and I got an advance look at the rewrite of Bobbie's Civil War robots story (which was very good before and is amazing now). It would be so cool if we all made it!

Frontier Cthulhu Review

The estimable Matthew Carpenter who posts lots of reviews on Amazon has weighed in on Frontier Cthulhu. His review cam be viewed at http://tinyurl.com/2wkgv6 and scroll down the page a bit.

Here's what he had to say about my story:

"Snake Oil" - Matthew Baugh has been busy with stories in Arkham Tales,
High Seas Cthulhu (the excellent "Clownfish"), Hell's Hangmen and In
Lovecraft's Shadow issue #1. I wonder if Dave Mather, descendent of Cotton
Mather, will become a fixture in Mr. Baugh's stories? Dave Mather is a
deputy marshal in Nevada who gets mixed up in some mysterious goings on. As
you might surmise from the title, this is the Yiggiest story in the book.

(It's nice to be the Yiggiest)

One small correction. My story is set near Las Vegas, New Mexico. I think Mr. Carpenter (understandably) thought of Nevada when he saw the name.

Happy Dance!

My two contributor copies of HIGH SEAS CTHULHU came today! I'm so happy it's just obnoxious!

Hmm... looking at the blog I see it's 2 weeks already since my last post. (Mental note: must quit job to spend more time on line.)

The sad thing is I still don't know how to do some simple things here, like link to other blogs I like. Heck, I can't even get the blog to remember me. I always check "remember me" but it never does. (At any other time that might make me feel sad and lonely, but not on a contributor copy day!)

Huzzah!

Four into the Void

I've sent four more stories out into the outer reaches of internet publications. Several of them were rejected earlier and the (hopeful) improved versions are back into the fray.

"Fox Hunt" is away to the as-yet untitled ahthology that Cat Scratch Books is putting out. This is a gothic romance(!) with fantastic elements. In my case it's the story of a young woman who goes to live as the companion of an elderly woman in a secluded estate in the interior of Alaska. There are shape-shifting animals and people as well as connections to two other stories, "The Cold Comes South" and "Kumiho." It was very different for me for a number of reasons, not the least that it's 17,ooo words long which is almost twice anything i've done before. It was a fun exercise. I hope they like it.

"Trail of the Brujo" was recently rejected by Weird Tales but is now on the way to the anthology CROSS-GENRE CTHULHU. It's a Mysterious Dave western with a villain and a supporting character I particularly like. The editor is John Sunseri, who I know likes weird westerns. (He had a story in HELL'S HANGMEN.)

"Kumiho" is a horror offering based on Korean legends about a nine-tailed fox. I usually don't write straight horror. I tend to like adventure stories with fantastic elements much better. Good horror has an air of hopelessness and meaninglessness. That's what makes it so frightening. Unfortunately, I'm not much interested in hopelessness and meaninglessness. However, I have really enjoyed Asian fox tales for much of my life and enjoyed writing one. It's gone off to an anthology called LYCANTHROPE: THE BEAST WITHIN. They said they wanted lycanthropes other than werewolves so this may suit their needs. (What would you call a were-fox anyway? A vulpanthrope?)

Finally, "Horse Latitudes" is a high seas adventure featuring the same protaganist as "Clown Fish." It's a strange story that starts out like a high adventure then takes a strange turn through an unseen world. It was inspired by some beautiful stories by Lord Dunsany I read a while back. It's going to CLOCKWORK PHOENIX which is collecting stories that, "...stories that sidestep expectations in beautiful and unsettling ways."

"Horse Latitudes" is inspired by an old Jim Morrison poem about a part of the Atlantic where ships were often becalmed and horses were sometimes thrown overboard. That image has always stayed with me.

Avast!

I just heard that my story "Clown Fish" has officially made it into HIGH SEAS CTHULHU!

That be no bilge matey, arrr!

http://www.esp-books.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=221

Dr. Syn

I've been watching a VHS (yes, I'm still that primitive) of Disney's "Dr. Syn, Alias the Scarecrow" this week. I saw it at the drive-in when I was in grade school and loved it! It was a double feature with "Treasure Island" and (in my young eyes) blew Long John Silver away.

For one thing, Dr. Syn features a masked hero and I've always been a sucker for those. He's not just some good in a cape and mask either. The Scarecrow is weird, spooky, and impressive in a way very few masked characters are. The idea that this fearsome creature was a force for justice was inexpressably cool.

The other thing that really attracted me to the character was that he was a clergyman. Church was starting to be an important part of my life at that age and the combination of wise pastor and masked outlaw hero was a potent combination. I never questioned the idea that a minister could be motivated to put on a spooky costume and fight for justice. In some ways it made more sense than having a millionaire playboy of a bored caballero do the same thing.

It took me many years to track down the print stories that inspired the movie but I did. I was in graduate school before I found a novel by an American author named Buchanan titled CHRISTOPHER SYN. It was many more years before I ran across the series of novels by Russell Thorndike. These really filled out Syn's odd personality from his early years to his career as a pirate, to his dual career as vicar of Dymchurch and swashbuckling masked smuggler.

There are two other movies, both predating the Disney version. "Doctor Syn" (1937) tells the story of Syn's final days when his piratical past finally catches up to him. "Captain Clegg" (1962) is a remake of "Doctor Syn" with Peter Cushing replacing George Arliss in the title role. I've never seen the Arliss version but liked the Cushing version quite a bit. I've always enjoyed the actor's work. Still, for my money, Disney's movie is by far the best. It shows syn in the prime of life outwitting the King's men at every turn, and Partick McGoohan is perfect as the character. He projects the cool intellect and the core of decency perfectly. Dr. Syn is kind and mild, but you never doubt that he is a man of integrity. The Scarecrow is frightening, but we see a glimmer of mercy and compassion shine through his fierce guise.