Given the state of some of the pulps I’ve seen (and bought), I shouldn’t be surprised at just how many people read the pulps. And how badly they treated them. But this has to be the record for a single issue. I believe I can say that the magazine I buy is read by more… Continue reading Record maximum readers for a single pulp magazine issue
Author: Sai S
Roe Richmond – Western Writer, Professional athlete, Cowboy
Everybody thinks they know what a western is. Frank Gruber, a long time pulp author with a flair for self-promotion, categorized the western into seven categories: In my reading I’ve come across these plots frequently, but such categorization does disservice to writers who stayed away from these tropes. Like Roe Richmond. That may come as… Continue reading Roe Richmond – Western Writer, Professional athlete, Cowboy
Interview William E. Barrett – Best-selling writer, movie man
William Edmund Barrett (1900 – 1986) was an American writer, best known for the 1962 novella The Lilies of the Field, later made into a movie that won Sidney Poitier his best actor Oscar. Before Barrett got into movies, he wrote many stories for the pulps, including this one that I reviewed a few years… Continue reading Interview William E. Barrett – Best-selling writer, movie man
Simple, Fast search of the FictionMags Index
Simple, fast search of the FictionMags Index. It’s finally here. https://pulpflakes.com/fmisearch/ The FictionMags Index (FMI) is the biggest online index of English language fiction published in periodicals. Search the FMI by author or artist name, magazine title or look for a specific issue by date or issue number. Tips and tricks While search tolerates partial… Continue reading Simple, Fast search of the FictionMags Index
2022 End of Year Link Clearance (part 1)
Come the holidays, it’s time for me to post all the links I collected through the year. Bring the popcorn and settle down on the couch. Paperback Writer Gunshots in Another Room: The Forgotten Life of Dan J. Marlowe” (2012) by Charles Kelly The profession of “paperback writer” is as romanticized, mythological, and distorted as… Continue reading 2022 End of Year Link Clearance (part 1)
One writer looks at the evolution of the western story
John A. Saxon (1886-1947) wrote mostly western and detective stories in a writing career that spanned more than twenty five years. Working as a law clerk, he wrote stories on the side and was part of a California writing circle that included Robert Leslie Bellem, the author of the Dan Turner stories. ABOUT THE AUTHOR… Continue reading One writer looks at the evolution of the western story
Wm Clayton and his magazines
The Clayton pulps offered a range of genres to the casual reader – western, detective and science-fiction. In this article, he lays out the policies of his magazines. The President of This Group of Magazines Gives You in This Article Instructions He Has Outlined to His Various Editors Concerning the Manuscripts They are to Buy… Continue reading Wm Clayton and his magazines
Ralph S. Kendall on becoming a writer
Ralph S. Kendall was an Englishman who became a member of the RCMP, a Mountie as they were called then. After a long career, he wrote two novels partly based on his experiences: Benton of the Royal Mounted and its sequel, The Luck of the Mounted. His hero, Benton, was the younger son of a… Continue reading Ralph S. Kendall on becoming a writer
British pulps – ads
Lesser known fact: Britain had its own pulps, among the best were Hutchinson’s stable of Adventure Story, Mystery Story and Sovereign. The contents were often reprints from Clayton and/or Fiction House pulps (The US pulps featured stories from the British pulps, too). The covers, though, were originals and they were stunning, exotic scenes. They’re all… Continue reading British pulps – ads
Know their policy, insure against rejection
This article is on how different magazines even within the same genre have different requirements for what and how stories should be told. Richard A. Martinsen was editor at Dell and Fiction House in addition to being an author who had published stories in many of the magazines mentioned here. Martinsen was the editor who… Continue reading Know their policy, insure against rejection