Wednesday, December 18, 2024

Short Story Wednesday: Barry N. Malzberg and Bill Pronzini: FINAL WAR AND OTHER FANTASIES (Ace 1969) and IN THE POCKET AND OTHER SCIENCE FICTION STORIES (Ace 1971) by Barry N. Malzberg: newly offered together; THE HANGING MAN AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES by Bill Pronzini, including one in collaboration with Marcia Muller; Stark House 2024

Barry N. Malzberg,  July 24, 1939-December 19, 2024.

Two sorts of retrospective, the kind of fine work Stark House continues to do...from two writers whose work I've been reading for nearly my whole literate life, Malzberg because my father had anthologies including his work when I was very young (and I would eventually inherit them), Pronzini whose work I would discover only a bit later via Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and the essentially unrelated (except by paying license fees) Alfred Hitchcock Presents: volumes edited by Harold Q. Masur for Random House (reprinted in Dell paperbacks) in the '70s. As we face our Final Wars and try to avoid joining  the Hanging Man in his fate, this is a propitious time to take in these books, for me those stories I have read are usually decades ago, and those I haven't deserve to have my neglect remedied. 

Barry has also contributed to this blog, and very graciously indeed. Bill Pronzini and Marcia Muller have helped with a few projects of mine (and in her case, a very badly-handled project of one of my bookstore colleagues decades ago). I am glad to have been able to make the acquaintance of both.

Barry N. Malzberg's own writing on this blog:

Quoting Barry Malzberg

Guest FFB: Barry Malzberg and Charles Ardai on the last published Cornell Woolrich novel, as completed by Lawrence Block: INTO THE NIGHT

Cele Goldsmith Lalli, interviewed by Barry Malzberg


guest essay by Barry Malzberg: NEW AMERICAN REVIEW (later AMERICAN REVIEW), edited by Theodore Solotaroff: the best American literary magazine  (for some reason, Blogger has tagged this as featuring sensitive content...I'd say yes, but  not the way they mean it.)

Barry Malzberg's first two collections of his short fantastica stories were published as halves of Ace Doubles (and under his fantastic-fiction pseudonym "K. M. O'Donnell"--a tribute to writers, and married couple, Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore, who among their collaborations signed some of their best as Lawrence O'Donnell), in 1969 paired with a John Rackham novel, and in 1971 with his own novella Gather in the Hall of the Planets. "Final War" has reminded at least two Richards, the late Richard Geis (of Science Fiction Review fame) and Rich Horton (of  Locus, his anthologies and his blog) strongly of Joseph Heller's  Catch-22, and was probably the most widely-admired of Malzberg's early fantastica stories, coming a close second in the balloting for the Nebula Award  in its contest. When asked what he'd like to be remembered for, he told his interlocutor that the latter might note just how funny he could be (since his work is shot through with wit, even at its most anguished). Particularly in the vignettes in these collections, he demonstrates this frequently.

Novella cover illustration by Jack Gaughan;
second cover by Karel Thole

Here are the two tables of contents (from ISFDB):  

[2] Final War and Other Fantasies (frontispiece) • interior artwork by Gray Morrow

In the Pocket and Other S-F Stories • (1971) • collection by Barry N. Malzberg [as by K. M. O'Donnell]
The Stark House edition has only one (new) cover, and Barry has decided to write a single new brief introduction, as he looks back less than fondly at either collection's original introduction; a decent bibliography of his books rounds out the book.
 
Malzberg cover by Jeff Jordan

Pronzini cover by Mark Shepard

The Hanging Man and Other Western Stories by Bill Pronzini
Stark House, December 2024, 204 pp.

Indexed by TM using links from the FictionMags Index.

7 * Preface * Bill Pronzini * in
11 * The Hanging Man, (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine August 12 1981
22 * Markers, (ss) Roundup ed. Stephen Overholser, Doubleday, 1982
28 * Hero, (ss) Small Felonies by Bill Pronzini, St. Martin's, 1988
33 * McIntosh’s Chute, (ss) New Frontiers, Volume I ed. Martin H. Greenberg & Bill Pronzini, Tor, 1990, as by Jack Foxx
43 * Decision, (ss) The Arizonans ed. Bill Pronzini & Martin H. Greenberg, Fawcett Gold Medal, 1989; originally published as 
“I’ll See to Your Horse”, (ss) Zane Grey Western Magazine February 1972; rewritten as opening of The Gallows Land; this is a composite of both.
49 * All the Long Years, (ss) Westeryear ed. Ed Gorman, M. Evans, 1988
57 * Burglarproof, (ss) Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine February 2010
71 * The Gunny, (ss) The Gunfighters ed. Bill Pronzini & Martin H. Greenberg, Fawcett Gold Medal, 1988
76 * Fyfe and the Drummers, (ss) New Frontiers, Volume II ed. Martin H. Greenberg & Bill Pronzini, Tor, 1990
82 * Wooden Indian, (ss) Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine March 1989
93 * The Gambler, (ss) New Frontiers, Volume I ed. Martin H. Greenberg & Bill Pronzini, Tor, 1990
101 * Fear, (ss) Louis L’Amour Western Magazine March 1995
109 * The Cruel and Deadly Winter, (ss) (2024 original publication in this volume)
113 * "Give-a-Damn” Jones, (ss) The First Five Star Western Series Corral ed. Vicki Piekarski, Five Star US, 2000
126 * Righteous Guns, (ss) The Best Western Stories of Bill Pronzini, Swallow Press, 1990
130 * Doc Christmas, Painless Dentist, (ss) Louis L’Amour Western Magazine May 1994
141 *Not a Lick of Sense, (ss) The Fatal Frontier ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg, Carroll & Graf, 1997
147 * "Crucifixion River" by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini; apparently first published in the collection Crucifixion River: Western Stories  (Five Star, 2007; ISBN-13: 978-1594145568)  by Muller and Pronzini (this story won the WWA Spur Award)
202 * Pronzini Bibliography * bi





As the acute scanner might note, there is an overlap with, though not complete duplication of, The Best Western Stories of Bill Pronzini, Swallow Press, 1990...I picked that one up when it was new--at first thought, hard to realize it's been almost 35 years:

The FictionMags Index (FMI) listing:

For more of today's short stories, please see Patti Abbott's blog.






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Monday, December 16, 2024

"She's Not There" (composed by Rod Argent) as recorded by The Zombies and others: Saturday Music Club (on Monday)

The Zombies: "She's Not There"  

Maeve Lander: "She's Not There" (for Brass Quintet)  
 
Santana:
 

Neko Case and Nick Cave:  

Ola and the Janglers:
 

System:
 

The Cleverlys: "She Ain't There"  

Dirty Martha: 
 

The London Symphony Orchestra:  

Vanilla Fudge:

The Ventures:




Peter Schickele: 
 

from the television series Glee:

U.K. Subs:

Howlin' Jaws:
 

The Road:

Danny McEvoy:

The Zombies (2000s reunion band):

And their NPR Tiny Desk Concert:

John Lee Hooker's song "No One Told Me", which apparently inspired Argent to write the lyrics of "She's Not There"...the title phrase alone particularly sticking with Argent.

A recent, not completely accurate (nor even internally consistent) 2-part video 
documentary tracing the Zombies' career, but still useful and enjoyable for the most part:

Part 1:

Part 2:

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Wednesday, December 11, 2024

"*true confessions*" by Vivian Fumiko Chin, BOSTON REVIEW, October/November 2003; "Release your emotions" by Chin, MOTHER OF ALL STORIES: ASIAN WOMEN UNITED 2017: Short Story Wednesday

Courtesy LinkedIn

Vivian Chin, as she signs herself to apparently her first published story, "*true confessions*", in 2003 in the Boston Review, as perhaps the first of a series of stories chosen for the magazine by Junot Diaz. This being some years before Diaz was called to the carpet for sexually harassing various women writers; with luck, Chin didn't have to put up with this.

Chin's story deals with her character's attempts to find good and lasting romantic and sexual relations as the latter has just returned from some academic research abroad, and how things tended to not go so well...the story is humorous, if also a bit wistful, and shot through with pop-culture references that fit my generation pretty well, ranging from citations of the Velvet Underground's songs through others of US tv series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, and the 1995 Hong Kong film Fallen Angels, a major international hit. The story can be read at the link above, or here. 

Cutting a bit closer to the bone is a short essay by Chin, dealing with the experiences of women on both the Japanese and Chinese sides of her family, "Release your emotions", published in 2017 as part of the Mother of All Stories project of Asian Women United, and can be read here.

More on her personal life and times has been published in the academic press, though it seems currently locked up here...I will look into it more in the near future: "Gestures of Noncompliance: Resisting, Inventing, and Enduring in Citizen 13660", Vivian Fumiko Chin, Pages 21-42 | Published online: 08 Feb 2019.

She reminds me of not a few of my friends in high school and university, who have been to one degree or another peers of hers in years since

For more (and prompter!) of today's short stories, please see Patti Abbott's blog.



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Friday, December 6, 2024

Books Received: COLLECTING MYSELF: THE UNCOLLECTED STORIES OF BARRY N. MALZBERG, edited by Robert Friedman and Gregory Shepard; CREAM OF THE CROP: BEST MYSTERY & SUSPENSE STORIES OF BILL PRONZINI edited by the author, Stark House 2024

Three of my favorite new stories in 1978, not quite a half-century ago but not far from it, the year I started reading fiction magazines regularly and probably more passionately than before or since, were "Strangers in the Fog" by Bill Pronzini, in EQMM's June issue, "Prowl" by Barry Malzberg in Fantastic dated July, and "Another Burnt-Out Case" by Malzberg and Pronzini in the October Fantastic, albeit arguably out of place in that issue, as it wasn't really fantasy, horror nor sf, but a bit of absurdism, that Barry remembers as including as much as they could that just made them laugh and laugh. (Barry doesn't seem to much like "Prowl"--it's an unsparing metaphor for relations between teens and their parents in the form of a vignette about werewolves--and the only reprint of it I'm aware of is in the Fall 2011 issue of Allen Koszowski's Inhuman magazine, apparently not with his permission.)


There's more to say about these, and the careers of these writers, and the noble efforts of Stark House, but it's been a distracting and busy week, and it's not over yet. (A d&b fortnight, by the time it's done.)

Collecting Myself: The Uncollected Stories of Barry N. Malzberg by Barry N. Malzberg (Stark House Press, March 8, 2024, 979-8-88601-081-7, $15.95, 186pp, tp, co) [edited by Robert Friedman & Greg Shepard]



Cream of the Crop: Best Mystery & Suspense Stories of Bill Pronzini edited by the author (all content by BP) Stark House Press, August, 2024, 979-8-88602-099-2, $19.95, 340pp, tp, co

9 * Preface * Bill Pronzini * pr

11 *  Standalones 
13 * Opportunity * Bill Pronzini * ss * Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine December 1967
24 * Proof of Guilt * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine December 1973
33 * Sweet Fever * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine December 1976
38 * Smuggler's Island * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine December 1976
53 * Under the Skin * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine October 1977
58 * Strangers in the Fog * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine June 1978
66 * A Craving for Originality * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine December 17 1979 
95 * Liar’s Dice * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine November 1992
102 * Out of the Depths * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine September 1994
117 * Possibilities * Bill Pronzini * nv * The Strand Magazine #17, October 2005/January 2006
131 * The Cemetery Man * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine July 2013
139 * Hooch * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine June 2014
147 * Snap * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine December 2015

171 * Carpenter and Quincannon
173 * Gunpowder Alley * [John Quincannon & Sabina Carpenter] * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine August 2012  [Remarkable how often even conscientious reviewers will revise the Marcia Muller character's name into "Sabrina"...TM]

195 * Nameless Detective
197 * Thin Air [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * ss * Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine May 1979
214 * Cat’s-Paw [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * nv * Waves Press, 1983, chapbook
233 * Skeleton Rattle Your Mouldy Leg [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * nv * The Eyes Have It ed. Robert J. Randisi, Mysterious Press, 1984
256 * Incident in a Neighborhood Tavern [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * ss * An Eye for Justice ed. Robert J. Randisi, The Mysterious Press, 1988
274 * Souls Burning [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * ss * New Crimes 3 ed. Maxim Jakubowski, Robinson, 1991
281 * La Bellezza Delle Bellezze [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * ss * Invitation to Murder ed. Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg, Dark Harvest, 1991
305 * Home Is the Place Where [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine November 1995
313 * The Big Bite [Nameless Detective]  * Bill Pronzini * nv * Shots Winter 1999
326 * Who You Been Grapplin’ With? [Nameless Detective] * Bill Pronzini * ss * Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine December 2014

339 * Bill Pronzini (1943-date) Bibliography * Bill Pronzini * bi

TM

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