Blogging Northwest Smith: Shambleau

"Shambleau" is the first of the Northwest Smith adventures, and the first published story by C. L. Moore.  According to Lester del Rey, in his introduction to The Best of C. L. Moore (1975), she had been writing for 15 years before she submitted anything for publication.  I'd like to know where he got that information, but I'm not questioning it.  Since he'd known Moore personally for decades, I'm inclined to believe him.  Of course, what I'd like even more is to get my hands on some of those unpublished stories.  I suspect they've long since ceased to exist.

I don't remember if "Shambleau" was the first story I read by C. L. Moore, but it certainly made the strongest impact on me.  Here's a synopsis of what happens (spoiler alert):

Happy Birthday, Conan.

I'm a little late getting this post up, but this month marks the 80th anniversary of the first appearance of Conan, the man from Cimmeria.  Conan first appeared in "The Phoenix on the Sword", a rewrite of an unsold Kull story, "By This Axe I Rule!"  I blogged about both pieces here.  That's the cover of the issue, December 1932, there on the right.  And, no, Conan wasn't featured on the cover.  But he soon would be.

It's been a while since I last wrote a piece dedicated solely to Conan.  No, don't go looking it up; all you'll do is embarrass people, namely me.  I'm going to look at three more Conan stories, maybe more.  The stories I'll definitely look at are "Rogues in the House", "Queen of the Black Coast", and "Red Nails."  There are a few other Conan tales I will try to get to, but those three are, in my mind at least, major stories that every Howard fan should read.

Blood and Thunder, Release 2.0

Blood and Thunder
Mark Finn
The Robert E. Howard Foundation Press
$45 REHF members, $50 nonmembers, plus shipping

It's been a few years since the first edition of this volume was published, and in that time Howard studies have moved forward, with new biographical material coming to light.  In fact, new biographical details  have continued to be unearthed since this edition went to press. That will probably (hopefully) continue for some time.

As he explained in the two part interview posted here last year (part 1, part 2), Mark Finn felt it was time for a second edition.  Rather than rehash his remarks, I'm going to get straight to the point and discuss the book.

Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp, and Hawks

This year marks a number of anniversaries in Robert E. Howard fandom:  25 years of Howard Days in Cross Plains, 50 years since the first publication of Glenn Lord's The Howard Collector, 75 years of Robert E. Howard's Legacy, and 100 years since the founding of Cross Plains.  In addition to these, this year is the 40th anniversary of Marvel Comics bringing Conan to comics and the 45th year since the Lancer publication of Conan the Adventurer.  It's the last that's of interest to us in this post. 

Or to be more precise, it's the stories that L. Sprague de Camp either finished or rewrote that we're going to take a look at.  Specifically, "Hawks Over Shem", which was a rewrite of an unsold historical adventure entitled "Hawks Over Egypt".  Those of you who are familiar with the Lancer (later Ace) editions might be saying, "Wait a minute, that story is in Conan the Freebooter", and you'd be correct.

I was reading "Hawks Over Egypt", remembered it was one of the stories de Camp had rewritten, and thought a post about the changes he'd made might be of interest to some of you, especially since this was the 45th anniversary of the Lancer editions.

So let's take a look at what de Camp changed.  As you might suspect, there will be spoilers.

The Adventures Fantastic Interview: Mark Finn, Part 1

Mark Finn should be no stranger to hard-core Robert E. Howard fans.  He is the author of the Howard biography Blood and Thunder as well as numerous articles and essays about the man from Cross Plains.  In addition to his writings about Robert E. Howard, Mark is also a fiction author with a number of short stories to his credit.  He took time out of his schedule recently to sit down with Adventures Fantastic to answer a few questions.  Here, in the first of two parts to this interview, Mark discusses why he writes, why he felt the need to write a biography of Robert E. Howard, his admiration of jazz trombonist Jack Teagarden, and what other projects he has in the works.

AF:  Why do you write?

MF:  Why do I write?  That's a good question.  When I was a lot younger, I wanted to be an entertainer of some sort.  I went through a period where I remember in the 70s television would always have these variety shows, so I got to see ventriloquists and magicians, and guys who could do impressions, Rich Little.  I used to watch the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts with Foster Brooks.  I didn't understand why it was so funny, but my parents just thought it was the best thing ever.

AF:  I remember those.

MF:  Oh, they were so funny.  And Foster was great.  I mean really underappreciated kind of guy.  So I went through phases where I studied ventriloquism, and I studied magic.  I still play with magic on a strictly amateur basis right now.  But as I got older I wanted to do special effects makeup for the movies and found kind of accidentally that I was good at writing.  And I kept wanting to do other things.  I wanted to draw.  I've always wanted to tell stories.  I've always wanted to entertain people and tell stories.  However that needed to happen.  I found that of all the things I wanted to do, the thing that came easiest to me was writing.  If I spent a lot of time and went to school and learned art and got a degree in commercial art or graphic art and sat down and made an effort at getting into comics, I probably would be pretty good.  But I was always naturally better at writing than I was anything else, so by the time I was fifteen, I met somebody, incidentally, who was gifted in art the way I was in writing, so that's what made me go, "Oh, I get it.  All right."  And he and I have been friends, and he, John Lucas, has pursued the art career, and I've pursued the writing career.  For me it boils down to entertaining people, storytelling. I think that's our primary means of communicating with one another, whether it's a joke or "Honey, you won't believe the day I've had."  It's all stories.  I like that form.

AF:  What got you interested in Robert E. Howard?