Unless I happen to win the lottery in the next couple of weeks this will be yet another year I won’t be attending Howard Days in Cross Plains.
I keep telling myself that I’ll make it “someday”, but we all know that someday never comes. So I’m making myself this promise, if not before, then I will attend Solomon Kane’s 100th Birthday Event. That will be 2028. I’ll be 62. Absolutely. But I’m hoping for before…
Star Wars is not what it once was, at least for me. There was a time when it was everything to me. Like most pre-teen kids in the late 70s, I was well and truly obsessed.
Turn back the clock forty years and Star Wars was almost a year old. Marvel was knee deep into the comics and really hitting their stride. That run of issues throughout 1978 was a real highlight for me and now, in the order of my ranking all-things Star Wars, it is those comics that come in second only to the first film.
1978 also was the beginning salvo of Kenner toys.While I really waish MEGO would have gotten the license, my love and affection for those toys was boundless. Unfortunately they came just I was nearing the age when I would be too cool to play with them, but there was a brief window there when they were the subject of countless hours of fun for me and my kid brother.
And then, there was the Holiday Special.
The Star Wars Holiday Special aired on November 17, 1978 and, somewhat blissfully for me, tv reception on CBS that night was abysmal. We lived in the country and received our television via a thirty foot tv antennae with a rotor attached. Often times tv reception was pretty bad and this night, at least as far as CBS was concerned, was about as bad as it got. But my little brother and I still watched. Even through the crackle and snow and rolling picture, I could tell this show was a disaster. Its one saving grace was the introduction of Boba Fett.
The animated segment, during which was the clearest the tv got that night, thankfully, was pretty solid. While I didn’t love the animation style (it’s grown on me through subsequent viewings) it did feel like a continuation of the movie universe and was akin to the comics I was reading.
The rest of the program was ridiculous. I don’t know what CBS was thinking. I can only hope that Lucas was paid well for allowing his characters to be so soundly abused.
Star Wars turns 41 this year. It’s been a bumpy ride. Like I said at the beginning, Star Wars as a whole doesn’t mean the same to me as it once did, but I have never lost the sense of wonder and excitement that I felt when the opening scrawl debuted back in 1977.
No matter where the franchise goes, the Star Wars of my childhood remains firmly entrenched in my mind, untouched and unsullied…
In his most recent newsletter, Brian Keene offered up a list of his 20 favorite authors. That’s a challenge I just could not pass up. So here are my favorites, the caveat being that this is a list of writers of fiction and as close to their proper order as I can muster. Also, because of the third author on my list, I have decided there should be 23 names instead of 20. Fnord.
1. Robert E. Howard
2. J.R.R. Tolkien
3. Robert Anton Wilson
4. Neil Gaiman
5. Katherine Kurtz
6. Alan Moore
7. Umberto Eco
8. Fritz Leiber
9. Mary Stewart
10. Roy Thomas
11. Manly Wade Wellman
12. Stephen King
13. George R.R. Martin
14. Edgar Rice Burroughs
15. Algernon Blackwood
16. H.P. Lovecraft
17. Raymond Chandler
18. Anne Rice
19. Rex Stout
20. Shirley Jackson
21. Arthur Machen
22. Aleister Crowley
23. Margaret Weis
That’s a beauty, no? Word on the street is they’re giving those away in bookstores with a purchase of the book. I was lucky enough to have received the hardcover for my birthday last year. Makes me almost want to go out and grab another just to have that piece of work hanging on my wall.
Speaking of birthdays, I survived another. Turned 52 on Thursday with a full moon to light my way. After a doctor visit in the morning (I am the picture of health), I came home to cupcakes and presents with Kim and Conn.
They nailed it this year, gifting me Little Wars by HG Wells, Robert E. Howard’s Sword Woman (with the Leigh Brackett introduction), the Conan: Blood-Stained Crown graphic novel, a hardcover of Fritz Leiber’s Knight & Knave of Swords, and Swords by Ben Boos.
After, Conn and I played some Kingdom Come: Deliverance, then we were off to Kokomo where we ran a quick errand, then sauntered over to Books-A-Million for a little “window shopping”, aka drooling all over new books. We ended our City of Firsts jaunt with a sit-down at Outback Steakhouse.
How did we lay my birthday to rest? By binge watching a couple of episodes of Fringe.
A perfect day? About as close as you can get.
Today I’m prepping this evenings D&D session, getting everything aligned for a brilliant Last Writes with Madame Pamita I’ll be posting on Monday, and writing a chapter in my collaboration with Greg Mitchell. And maybe, if the gods are kind, I’ll get to delve once more into Kingdom Come. We’ll call it research as Conn and I are shooting a video on Sunday.
Well, that’s all for now. Time to swing that hammer and make some magic.
Fancy a look at what an occult detective’s sanctum sanctorum looks like? Here’s a peek at mine, a place I call “The Aerie“, tucked away in the upstairs of our rural Indiana home. In it, I wrote the novels Keepers of the Dead, Descendant, dozens of short stories, and the lion’s share of First Born.
Yes, it’s a cluttered mess. I like clutter. It’s my clutter and I revel in the overwhelming sensory overload that occurs every time I ascend to my sacred space overlooking Little Pipe Creek.
I’ve been working, sparingly I’m afraid, on a number of important projects, all while trying to juggle my father’s illness, family duties, and the day job, not to mention my work for various non-profit organizations and me lending a helping hand to a local start-up.
What’s that old saying about irons in the fire?
Well, with my lovely wife’s help, I am starting to get all my ducks in a proverbial row and progress is being made on several fronts, especially now that the witching season is coming to a close.
You can expect a litany of announcements in the near future… Either that or you’ll take notice of my obituary in the local paper ;)
Another Hallowe’en has passed. We had a great night. We visited my parents at the Woodcarvers Building and watched some of the kids parade through in their costumes, then headed back home for a bonfire and camp supper.
We ended the evening with some para-entertainment, courtesy of Rob Lowe, and an episode of Lucifer.
All in all, a fine Hallowe’en that came and went too fast. Luckily, we’re still in the throes of Samhain, which will culminate this coming weekend with November’s Frost Moon.
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It being November 1st, I can’t let the day pass without acknowledging the birthday of Landon Connors.
Yes, I know, he’s a fictional character, but in truth he’s much more than that. Giving him a birthdate grounded him for me. Knowing how old he was in, say, 1986, helps me make him a living and breathing person.
He was ten, by the way.
Happy 41st Birthday, Landon Connors. I hope there are many more to come…
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If you were one of those who purchased the latest issue of Occult Detective Quarterly and found my Walter Davies tale, “Birds of a Feather”, truncated, fear not. The good folks at ODQ have uploaded the missing words in an Erratum, with future editions having the corrected prose.
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That’s all for now… I’ve writing to attend to.
