Exciting Pulp Tales

The exciting sequel to Tom Johnson's 2010 anthology, PULP DETECTIVES, EXCITING PULP TALES brings you ten more all-new stories featuring classic pulp heroes such as The Angel, The Green Ghost, The Cobra, The Crimson Mask, Gentle Jones, The Purple Scar, Funny Face, Mr. Death, The Jungle Queen, and Ki-Gor. Almost 400 pages of pulp thrills, featuring original characters from the pulp era. Available from Amazon at $24.00.

Boricua Brat Review Correction

I typed the incorrect spelling of Boricua in the previous heading, and wish to correct that typo. When searching for the book, it is "Boricua Brat", not Baricua Brat", my apology to the author. The corrected Review is posted below.

Boricua Brat (Nonfiction)

“Coming Of Age As A Military Dependent”

By Nelson Pacheco

ISBN #978-1611560008

190 Pages

Bookbrewer http://bookbrewer.com/home

Price: ebook $2.99

Rating: 5-Stars

“So the soldiers went overseas, accompanied by their families, cars, barbecues, cats, and dogs. We were the kids that went with the package.” The Author

This novel is a wonderful chronicle of a young dependent growing up as a military brat. And for someone facing a brand new language, there was even more difficulties. That he succeeded successfully is evidence of his determination. From Puerto Rico to New Jersey, and finally to southwestern France, the author grew up in a Dorm at Poitiers, four hour’s drive from his parents, who were stationed at St. Nazaire. The Army bussed the Dorm kids home on weekends to spend a few days with their parents every Friday, but from Sunday night until Friday afternoon, their home was a small room shared with three other boys in a two-story building. Boys were in one wing, the girls in the other, both had Dorm supervisors to keep order. Some of the lucky few were living in homes off Post with their parents, if they happened to be stationed near the school. At Poitiers, the High School was located in a compound named Camp de Chalon, which also consisted of a military hospital, and a 9-hole golf course and athletic field.

I was an Army MP at Poitiers and had occasion to interact with students and teachers, and constantly marveled at the young men and ladies who attended school while I was there. The reader will be fascinated by their way of life as they read through the author’s reminiscences of his four years of Dorm life, and the lifelong friendships he gained. Those four years shaped his future, and left a lasting memory of everyone he met. His broken heart, when he lost his first love, will make you sad. You will also feel his emptiness when friends departed before him. And you’ll smile and laugh at the mischievous antics he and his pals got into. 

This book is highly recommended for all military brats and their families, regardless of when or where they went to school, or branch of service.  Well written, and nicely told, it was a fun read!

Tom Johnson

Cold War Heroes

Baricua Brat Book Review

Boricua Brat (Nonfiction)

“Coming Of Age As A Military Dependent”

By Nelson Pacheco

ISBN #978-1611560008

190 Pages

Bookbrewer http://bookbrewer.com/home

Price: ebook $2.99

Rating: 5-Stars

“So the soldiers went overseas, accompanied by their families, cars, barbecues, cats, and dogs. We were the kids that went with the package.” The Author

This novel is a wonderful chronicle of a young dependent growing up as a military dependent. And for someone facing a brand new language, there was even more difficulties. That he succeeded successfully is evidence of his determination. From Puerto Rico to New Jersey, and finally to southwestern France, the author grew up in a Dorm at Poitiers, four hour’s drive from his parents, who were stationed at St. Nazaire. The Army bussed the Dorm kids home on weekends to spend a few days with their parents every Friday, but from Sunday night until Friday afternoon, their home was a small room shared with three other boys in a two-story building. Boys were in one wing, the girls in the other, both had Dorm supervisors to keep order. Some of the lucky few were living in homes off Post with their parents, if they happened to be stationed near the school. At Poitiers, the High School was located in a compound named Camp de Chalon, which also consisted of a military hospital, and a 9-hole golf course and athletic field.

I was an Army MP at Poitiers and had occasion to interact with students and teachers, and constantly marveled at the young men and ladies who attended school while I was there. The reader will be fascinated by their way of life as they read through the author’s reminiscences of his four years of Dorm life, and the lifelong friendships he gained. Those four years shaped his future, and left a lasting memory of everyone he met. His broken heart, when he lost his first love, will make you sad. You will also feel his emptiness when friends departed before him. And you’ll smile and laugh at the mischievous antics he and his pals got into. 

This book is highly recommended for all military brats and their families, regardless of when or where they went to school, or branch of service.  Well written, and nicely told, it was a fun read!

Tom Johnson

Cold War Heroes

Hatchet Force Journal #1

After what has been a relatively short but incredibly encouraging journey, Hatchet Force Journal #1 is almost ready to land on Amazon's Kindle bookstore.  All the material is in hand, layout is mostly complete, and I hope to have the final editing finished by this weekend.  My hope is that the Journal will go on sale Monday morning.

As a little bit of a sneak peek, here is the cover for Issue #1:

Jack Badelaire

Pulp Echoes

Coming Soon From Tom Johnson And NTD!

www://bloodredshadow.com/

PULP ECHOES presents seven new stories in the pulp tradition, both new and original characters: The Bat returns in “Blind As A Bat,” The Crimson Clown returns in “The Crimson Clown – Killer,” and Nibs Holloway battles Dr. Death in “Till Death Do Us Part.” The Black Ghost is back in “Carnival of Death,” Captain Anthony Adventure in “Terror In The North Country,” The Black Cat in “A Cat Among Dogs,” and Senora Scorpion in “Senora Scorpion.”

Fading Shadows

FADING SHADOWS was a small press publishing house that began in June 1982 with the publication of ECHOES, the hobby magazine for the pulp enthusiast. The magazine lasted for 100 issues before becoming a newsletter, finally ceasing in December 2004. However, in June 1995, FADING SHADOWS branched out to fiction magazines with the first issue of CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES. That first issue contained a number of stories written in the pulp tradition, from a Vietnam War story to the start of a science fiction serial. Also in the first issue were new stories of Ki-Gor, Doc Harker, Bill Barnes, and the Phantom Detective. In coming issues, there were more of the same, though the characters still under copyright were quickly dropped. But the writers continued to send in new adventures of the Black Bat, Phantom Detective, Doctor Death, and even a Jim Hatfield western by James Reasoner.

Soon it became apparent that one magazine could not contain all of the stories coming in to FADING SHADOWS, so more titles were quickly added: WEIRD STORIES for the weird menace genre, STARTLING SCIENCE STORIES for the science fiction (title later changed to ALIEN WORLDS), DETECTIVE MYSTERY STORIES for the detective mystery fans, EXCITING UFO STORIES for the UFO crowd, and DOUBLE DANGER TALES for the new hero stories. There was no shortage in writers and artists, only in subscriptions.

In the beginning, there were only a few established authors. James Reasoner, Will Murray, Clayton and Patricia Matthews, and maybe one or two others. But many of the new writers that got their start with FADING SHADOWS went on to become established writers in their own right. Although FADING SHADOWS was not able to pay for their stories, they sharpened their writing skills while turning out great yarns for the genre magazines, and are now writing novels for paying markets. One writer that would have made it big passed away much too young. Sean Danowski was something of a creative genius, and could write any genre. He stood almost seven foot tall, and had to use a cane to walk, and was barely thirty years old when he died of a rare cancer. Sean created several new hero characters in the mold of The Shadow and Secret Agent X, but he preferred the title CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES over that of DOUBLE DANGER TALES, and wanted most of his stories in CPFS. Before he became too ill to sit up, Sean was putting his own weird menace book together, which he was writing and designing. Unfortunately, he never had the chance to finish it.

Other writers did become discouraged. Not because they were not being paid. They understood that ECHOES was paying the bill for printing the magazines, and FADING SHADOWS was not making any profit. What discouraged most of them was the lack of recognition. Not only couldn’t the magazines bring in subscriptions, it was impossible to get letters of comment from readers.

To get a general idea of how many words were published in these genre magazines, each issue contained approximately 40,000 words. There were 91 issues of CLASSIC PULP FICTION STORIES, 32 issues of STARTLING SCIENCE STORIES, 39 issues of ALIEN WORLDS, 55 issues of DETECTIVE MYSTERY STORIES, 63 issues of DOUBLE DANGER TALES, 26 issues of WEIRD STORIES, and 6 issues of EXCITING UFO STORIES, for a total of 312 issues. You do the math. That adds up to a lot of words for a small press publishing house.

Publishing on a monthly schedule made it impossible to get special art for each issue. Although there were probably a dozen artists contributing to the genre magazines, by the time a story came in, there wasn’t time to ask a specific artist to do something special for that story, so artists were asked to send generic art, i.e., a science fiction, a detective, or a general piece, or just a flying saucer or cowboy illustration, and when there was a story that sort of matched, that’s where the art went. And artists and writers were all treated the same. There were no favorites played. The only reason the same author might appear in six straight issues was because that author got his stories in on time. But even then, attention was given to each issue, and what authors and art was on hand, and what artist or author should be next.

There were problems. The magazines were a two-person operation, Tom and Ginger Johnson, both sharing in typing stories to format. The early years were done on manual typewriters, and then word processors, until finally, Ginger was using a computer. Most authors sent their manuscript in double-spaced, and each story had to be retyped to format dimensions. There was no time for a proofreader, and one was desperately needed, as typos appeared in every issue, if not every story! The magazines were amateurish at best, but the stories and art were top notch.

In a way, FADING SHADOWS paved the way. Genre magazines like ours closed out the last century and started the new century before ceasing publication. In March of 2002, Tom had a stroke, which limited his workload, and Ginger was not able to take on more of the responsibility, so it was decided to plan on stopping the magazines. ECHOES was now a newsletter, and not bringing in enough money to support the genre magazines anyway, so one at a time, the titles folded, until they were all gone by December of 2004.

Some day I would like to compile an index to the authors and stories that were published under the FADING SHADOWS imprint, but that would be a massive task, and I’m not sure I am up to it. However, all of the data is available at http://www.geocities.com/fadingshadows1/index.html At least the authors and titles are available. The cover and interior art is not listed.

Anyone care for the task? (Smile)

Koryo Dynasty (11C- 13C)

Here is a shot of our fireplace mantle. The vases on the left are Korean replicas from the Koryo Dynasty (11C- 13C). These will surely bring our home good luck in our life. Thanks to Jae and my Korean friends from Vietnam! My wife loves them, by the way!