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Table of Contents: HelloHorror – The Halloween Issue
HelloHorror
Table of Contents
Volume 6, Issue 25
Autumn 2018,
The Halloween Issue
- THE POE TOASTER – Short Story by David Dean
- SIGHTING – Poem by Erric Emerson
- BENEATH THE PEW – Short Story by Lisa Napolitan
- WISHING FOR ANTS – Micro by Michael Riera-Smith
- GHOST TOOTH – Poem by Stephen Jackson
- THE BURNED CLUMPS OF KEW GARDENS HILLS – Short Story by John Oliver Hodges
- THE WATCHER – Micro by Steppen Sawicki
- HUNGER AND MEMORY – Short Story by John Thomas Allen
- RESONANCE – Poem by Erik Bergholm
- THE SPECIAL WINE – Short Story by Lance Dean
- GRASS ROOTS – Prose Poem by James Finan
- THE BODY FARM – Short Story by Amanda Crum
- WALKING ACROSS OTTER CREEK BRIDGE – Poem by Lyn Lifshin
- INTERIORS – Short Story by Alexei Kalinchuk
- WATERSHED – Novel Excerpt by Colin Dodds
- LOOKING FOR MR. CARL – Short Story by Jeff Barker
- DIRTY LAUNDRY – Poem by Faye S. Brontide
- DINNER IS SERVED – Micro by Jackie Valacich
- CASUALTIES – Short Story by John J. Zelenski
- FADING GIRLS – Poem by Kim Mannix
- ROAD KILL – Micro by Madeline Mora Summonte
- MY JOURNAL – Poem by J. Davies
- YOU FROM YOU – Short Story by Mark Judge
- NEW DARK AGE – Poem by Anonymous
The artwork featured on the Halloween 2018 cover is “Raven” by Édouard Manet.
Halloween 2018 cover by Ignacio Carrión.
Astounding History
I’ve always thought interest in science fiction’s history was extremely tiny, but when Alec Nevala-Lee’s new book, Astounding: John W. Campbell, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Ron Hubbard, and the Golden Age of Science Fiction got reviewed in The Wall Street Journal and Nature I had to revise that thought. Who knew? Earlier this year Paul Giamatti and Stephen Colbert discussed Golden Age science fiction on The Tonight Show. That blew me away. Just how many old Baby Boomers know about Astounding Science-Fiction?
Astounding under slight title variations was published from 1930 to 1960 when it became Analog Science Fact & Fiction The science fiction boom that began in the 1950’s coincided with the Baby Boom generation. It was kickstarted with hardback and paperback reprints from 1930’s and 1940’s Astounding. It’s glory days, often called The Golden Age of Science Fiction was from 1939-1950 when its editor John W. Campbell reshaped the genre with new writers like Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, A. E. van Vogt, L. Ron Hubbard, and many others.
All my life I’ve been reading about the legendary issues of Astounding Science-Fiction. I even collected them for a while in the 1970’s but I gave that up when I realized it would become an obsession. Last year I bought the complete run of Astounding scanned to digital images sold on DVDs at eBay. The same digital scans are available free on the net if you look around. For the past several years I’ve been seeing cover images and interior art shared all over the web. Evidently, those scanned copies are being read again by a fair number of people. It’s wonderful to have this digital library of Astounding because whenever I read a reference to a story, editorial, or letter to the editor, I can quickly call it up.
What I’d love to know is just how many fans of Astounding are there today? Evidently, enough to make Alec Nevala-Lee’s book a minor hit. His book is not the first history of Astounding, and maybe not the last, but it seems to have arrived at a significant time. The book has gotten lots of advance reviews, it’s available in hardback, Kindle, and audio, and it’s getting great word of mouth. I really want to know how many people buy it. That number should be a census of my people.
Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee is probably the most significant book about science fiction history since The World Beyond the Hill by Alexei and Cory Panshin. That book won a Hugo, and I expect this one will too.
2018 British Fantasy Awards Winners
The winners for the 2018 August Derleth and Robert Holdstock awards have been announced at FantasyCon.
August Derleth Award for Best Horror Novel:
WINNER:
- The Changeling by Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)
SHORTLIST:
- Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough (Harper Collins)
- The Boy on the Bridge by MR Carey (Orbit)
- The Crow Garden by Alison Littlewood (Jo Fletcher Books)
- Relics by Tim Lebbon (Titan Books)
Robert Holdstock Award for Best Fantasy Novel:
WINNER:
- The Ninth Rain by Jen Williams (Headline)
SHORTLIST:
- Age of Assassins by RJ Barker (Orbit)
- The Court of Broken Knives by Anna Smith Spark (HarperVoyager)
- Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng (Angry Robot)
Our congrats to Victor LaValle and Jen Williams and all the shortlist authors. What do you think of these results?
Origin: Official Trailer
It seems like this theme of “people fighting for a better life find themselves fighting for their lives when things go horribly wrong on their spaceship” is getting a little too much play. Don’t get me wrong, I think this trailer still looks pretty good but is it too much to ask for sci-fi with a dash of optimism? I for one could use a bit of a break from the current real-life shit show that threatens our future. Bah. Who am I kidding? I’ll watch anything sci-fi that has decent special effects in the trailer and there is a YouTube Premium 30-day free trial. Bring on the mayhem.
Origin airs on November 14th. More info and clips available on YouTube.
2018 Aurora Award Winner
The 2018 Aurora Awards winners have been announced, celebrating the “best works and activities done by Canadians in 2017.”
WINNER:
- Jade City by Fonda Lee (Orbit)
FINALISTS:
- The Rebel by Gerald Brandt (DAW)
- To Guard Against the Dark by Julie E. Czerneda (DAW)
- All Those Explosions Were Someone Else’s Fault by James Alan Gardner (Tor)
- Recipearium by Costi Gurgu (White Cat)
- Light of a Distant Sun by Brent Nichols (Bundoran)
Locus has the full list of winners in all categories. Our congrats to Fonda Lee and all the finalists!
Good Omens – Official Teaser Trailer
I don’t know anything about the book but this trailer looks great to me. If you’ve read it tell us what you think of this little glimpse. Excited or worried?
Reading the Pulps: Robert F. Young
I can’t remember ever seeing a book by Robert F. Young at a bookstore, new or used. My library has nothing by him. Young published over a 150 SF/F short stories from 1953-1987, and just five novels few fans have ever heard about. If you search for “Robert F. Young” at ABEBooks.com most of the returns are used magazines. Worlds Without End lists three collections and three novels, just about all of Young’s published work — not much to show for a lifetime of writing. Amazon offers just three short story collections still in print, and one of them is a 55 cent ebook of out-of-copyright stories.
In other words, Robert F. Young is a forgotten writer. He was never famous, but I was always delighted to buy an SF mag with one of his stories. I remembered his name. He seldom got the cover story, but I’d say he often got his name on the cover. Young’s stories were easy to read, gentle, sentimental, romantic, and usually involved fun science fictional ideas. His tales were never great, but always entertaining. He appeared in a huge variety of magazines, including Playboy, Saturday Evening Post, but mostly in science fiction digests. Towards the end of his life, his literary home seemed to be The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.
The cliché for writers is their work will make them immortal. That’s not true, of course. Sure, a handful of writers have written things we’ve remembered for hundreds of years or even thousands, but nothing lasts forever. I wish Robert F. Young’s stories would last a little while longer. I hope reading this makes you give him a chance.
I wish I knew more about Young. He was born in 1915 and died in 1986. He served in the Pacific during WWII. The most fascinating thing Wikipedia says about him is “Only near the end of his life did the science fiction community learn he had been a janitor in the Buffalo public school system.” That intrigued me. Was his whole writing career done while working as a school janitor? Did the kids know their janitor wrote science fiction? The Science Fiction Encyclopedia doesn’t offer much more about his personal life. Was he married? Did he have kids? Was he an active fan that attended conventions? Did he contribute to fanzines? I can only find one grainy photo of him. If you know more, post a comment below.
The interesting thing about Young is how readers remember him. Every now and then I’ll meet readers who loved the science fiction digests growing up like I did, and sometimes the Robert F. Young name comes up. Always fondly. I doubt Robert F. Young was anybody’s favorite writer, but quite often I’ve talked to people who said they always read his stories when one appeared in the table of contents.
I envy Young. I always wanted to be a science fiction writer. Of course, I always fantasized about writing famous novels, but now, I just wish I had some short stories published. At least one story that was as good as RFY’s best. I think it’s kind of special that his stories linger on and wished before I die I could hide away a story in a magazine too. We don’t know much about Robert F. Young, but his stories leave a mysterious marker that he was once here.
The pulp and digest magazines published thousands of writers that never achieved book fame. They live on in the hearts of fans, who are mostly old now. I belong to a number of groups that remember the pulps, and I’m always surprised by how different fans fondly remember authors I can’t recall ever hearing about before.
I wonder how many Baby Boomer SF fans remember Robert F. Young? If you do, post a comment. If you’re interested in giving Young a try, his first collection from 1965, The Worlds of Robert F. Young was reprinted in 2017. I bought this recently, hoping the Avram Davidson introduction would have provided more biographical information – it didn’t.
