I also blame it for the absolute deluge of “Dark and Gritty” that absolutely overwhelmed pop culture throughout my college-age years.

In what can certainly be interpreted as a “before it was cool” moment, I will tell you that I was never fully on board with this particular wave of storytelling. That is not to say I didn’t have some fun with certain films and tv shows. I enjoyed much of GAME OF THRONES until the universally agreed-upon tragedy that was that show’s finale. That said, coming into my adult years, I already saw the waking world as complex, amoral, and seedy. I remembered watching the aftermath of the Bill Clinton scandal on television as a kid, probably eating cereal and watching the morning news with dad. I saw the OJ Simpson Bronco Chase live, and recall, even then, questioning the subsequent court decisions. I witnessed 9/11 on my science teacher’s big screen in 7th Grade. The following debacle of the “War on Terror” lasted most of my adult life. The Epstein Files only serve to confirm suspicions I’ve had most of my years.

I understand, all too well, that the world we exist in is “Dark and Gritty”.

What does this have to do with writing?

Good question.

I suppose, if I reflect upon it, this is the lodestone that upholds the structure of my personal writing philosophy. The foundation is certainly rooted in fictional tales of heroes and heroines, Indiana Jones, Jason and his Argonauts, James Bond, and Rooster Cogburn, among others. But placing these characters and their exploits upon a personal pedestal requires a reason beyond childhood nostalgia and “rule of cool”.

I gravitate towards these stories because they offer a beacon, a compass point in a world often devoid of clarity, one favoring ambiguity in all its many guises.

I believe it was Jason Ray Carney, editor of WHETSTONE Magazine, who once wrote in a Discord chat, “There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure. Like what you like, and don’t be ashamed of it.” Or at least something to that effect. Also could have been author Ed Erdelac. Seems like something he’d say. Maybe it was both.

Whatever.

The point still stands.

Here’s a recent anecdote: I received feedback on a current project that I dismissed outright. Not that I don’t appreciate this individual taking the time and energy to do so, but the comment they made made it clear to me that they “didn’t get it.”

And that’s fine.

Not everyone has to get it. Not everything is for everyone. No hard feelings.

But the comment in question was in relation to a specific scene that I play completely straight. The commenter expected, and I quote, “subversion.”

Listen, I’m not in the game of trope-flipping, subverting expectations, or critiquing the fictional zeitgeist laid by the many authors before me. I’m not interested in that.

For better or for worse, I write with complete sincerity.

It is true that in both the list of characters above and the cast of characters that appear in HONOR AMONG ROGUES contain certain individuals who are not necessarily upright citizens. Inparticular, I’m thinking about TRUE GRITS’ Rooseter Cogburn and Frank Brogan from CURSE OF THE BONE GOD. Although one could argue that Indy in TEMPLE OF DOOM has morally gray qualities, as well. Likewise, the eponymous tale of my collection leans heavily on Ben Talon’s criminal tendencies.

Regardless of their situations, moral failings, and lawful status, these characters have a few key qualities in common. They are decisive men of action, and they consistently rise to the occasion. When there is a need for good, for a hero, they toss aside their baggage and adapt to fit the mold required of them. Sometimes this is simply a matter of survival, as in Frank Brogan’s case. Rooster Cognburn refuses to let down his ward, perhaps the only person to see the goodness beneath his rough-hewn exterior. Ben Talon chooses to do the right thing because his conscience demands it.

But ultimately, none of the characters in the entire volume are the sort to second-guess themselves, to flounder, or waffle.

This is where I believe that fiction shines the most. When it can offer up guiding lights for readers to strive to replicate. Real life and honest history offer few, if any, real heroes worth absolute adoration. Fiction does not have to adhere, in the strictest sense, to this. It can offer readers relatable characters that fight for good, for the sake of good, for the sake of doing right, when in the real world actions are often defined by how much wealth or power might be gained from doing them.

I love writing characters like this, and I am unashamed of it.

My plots are equally sincere.

I just finished writing a Sword & Sorcery story that has all sorts of “silly on paper” elements: dinosaurs, ape men, psychic alien gods. The stuff of boyhood imagination. None of this was written to be schlocky, cheesy, or poke fun. I wrote the entire plot with absolute sincerity because these are things that I unashamedly love. I want to incite readers to wide grinning, not because of the wink and the nod, being in on the joke, so to speak, but because there is genuine passion for even seemingly ridiculous, maybe even juvenile, elements.

That is not to say there isn’t a place for subversive fiction. Of course there is. It just isn’t what interests me most. It isn’t what I want to write. If that is what you, dear readers, wish to write, because you are passionate about it, because you can’t possibly write anything else, by all means, dive in.

In my (limited) experience, passion is the most important element of writing fiction. My projects live and die by the flames of my passion for them. It is for this reason that I write what I do without apology, completely sincere.

And maybe, just maybe, the world needs a little bit more of that.

If you’ve made it this far, maybe you’d be into checking out my latest release HONOR AMONG ROGUES. You can find it right here!

HONOR AMONG ROGUES

I do not believe the fiction I write to be ground breaking. It’s not even THAT original. I can’t even say that I truly have a unique voice of my own. If you’ve read HONOR AMONG ROGUES, you can probably see a distinct change of tone, diction, and style between stories, especially when comparing the title story, GOLD CANYON GHOSTS, and CURSE OF THE BONE GOD. What I think I DO excell at, is absorbing the style and voice of the authors that I read the most, and then using those voices to tell similar stories.

Does that make me a good writer? I don’t know. Probably not.

What it does do, however, as evidenced by the reviews so-far, is ensure that my fiction FEELS like it could have been published in old Pulp Magazines. Which, to tell you the truth, is exactly what I was going for.

So kudos to me, I guess.

To maintain this mode of writing, I have to keep up a pretty healthy diet of vintage fiction. It is, afterall, what I have dedicated myself to for at least the next year of my writing career.

BUT there is a consequence to this.

You see, vintage Pulp and retro paperbacks aren’t my only reading interest.

Here’s a story for you:

I’ve always enjoyed reading. My mother taught me to do so before I entered Kindergarten by walking me to the library and telling me I could pick out one dinosaur book and one easy-reader, but I had to read the easy-reader first. I say I enjoyed reading, but I didn’t acquire a real PASSION for reading until I was maybe 10 or 12 years old.

I grew up in a really small town in Nebraska, but it was placed close enough to the capital that weekly trips weren’t a chore. One day, after we had picked up some groceries at Super Saver, mom took me to the first Barnes & Noble bookstore to open in our area. I was still young, so my purusing was still relgated to the “kids” section. Tucked away in the chapter books aisle I found two books that would change my life, INCA GOLD and SHOCKWAVE by Clive Cussler (the now out-of-print YA versions).

I LOVED these books. So much so, that I quickly graduated to the adult versions and then had nearly every paperback put out by the man. Dirk Pitt was my idol back then. I remember playing a game of like Cops and Robbers or something in my Granny’s backyard, and my cousins were like LA PD officers but I insisted on being a NUMA agent. Of course, I was the only one who knew waht that meant, but I didn’t care.

This started me down the path of Adventure novels. I DEVOUR James Rollins books, Preston & Child is like binging the X-files for me, I learned more about writing from reading Dan Brown than perhaps any other class or any other author.

Let me tell you, I loooooong to write books like these. High-octane techno-thrillers, mysterious dives into myth and psuedo-science, smart Thrillers than seek to explore man’s greatest questions; these are my dream. I have characters and plots ready to go. I can see the covers in my mind, still throwbacks to those 90’s Cussler paperbacks, bur shiny and new.

The problem is this dream detracts from the Pulp Fiction that I also love, a medium which I feel I can produce well and at a pretty rapid pace. There is only so much writing time in the world.

You see, being a reader and likewise a man of a thousand interests, it is exceedingly difficult to stay focused on one single goal. That said, I have comitted myself to this course. I know I can maintain it for at least a year, but I have ideas that stretch out longer. A side effect of this dedication, in hindsight, is that it gives me a path forward even in this contstantly changing, tumultuous world.

With that out the way, there is also a benefit to being well-read.

I’ve mentioned this before, but reading makes writers better. And I would argue that reading outside of your favored genre is even more helpful, but in certain doses.

When reading vintage Pulp, I treat it something like a master/understudy relationship. I read sentences aloud to understand the cadence. I type out the especially great ones so I can feel them in my finger tips. I make mental notes of interesting vocabulary, sentence structures, or analogies for later use. This practice is very much work, its writing practice. In fact, roughly 50% of my Pulp Fiction intake is actual enjoyment. The rest of my mental capacity is slated for this sort of study.

Reading contemporary Thriller novels includes a lot of the same work, but it leans much harder into enojyment. Maybe a 25%/75% split. Like I said, Dan Brown taught me a lot. His pacing, especially over exceedingly long page counts, is bar-none. The way he weaves fact and psuedo-fact into gripping, plot-centric narratives is masterclass. Yes, his prose exceptionally economical, almost brutalist in nature. It eschews atmosphere and detail for the most powerful parts of his particular engine.

The particular big lesson learned from reading his works is this: Chapters only need to be as long as the need to be.

That sounds like a “duh” moment, but if you’ve read ANGELS & DEMONS, you’ve seen his 1-3 sentence chapters that manage to provide character beats, propel the plot, and fuel the intrigue. I can’t overstate how much of a revelation this was for me as a writer.

Likewise, James Rollins is an expert at integrating chapter-by-chapter cliffhangers and shifting PoVs.

But that all beggars my point. As a writer, you NEED to read, and read WIDELY. Learn from the modern blockbusters, learn from the long-running Romance series, the tomes of High Fantasy a la Brando Sando. They are popular best sellers for a reason.

That said, only read things that you truly find interesting. Reading a book you care nothing about is a chore, far more work than it needs to be.

But here again we run up against the long winded point of my post: this is all a balancing act. For a writer, reading is work, it is also entertainment. Reading out-of-genre is great for fueling inspiration and honing your storytelling, but it can also distract you from your main body of work or current writing goal.

In summation: Read. Read widely. Hone your craft. Stay focused.

Thank you for attending my TedTalk.

If you’ve made it this far, maybe you’d be into checking out my latest release HONOR AMONG ROGUES. You can find it right here!

HONOR AMONG ROGUES

Anyway, I’m reading and sipping my joe. This week’s read is “Kid Rodelo” by Louis L’Amour. I’ve never read it before, but I saw it mentioned somewhere that it is a treasure hunt story, and I’m a sucker for those. It is admittedly a pulpier entry in Louie’s bibliography, lacking some of the gravitas of others, but there is one place L’Amour never skimps—his description of Nature. Check out this paragraph:

“The sun was high overhead, the heat intense. In the brassy sky there was no cloud, only the sun whose rays seemed to blend into one great searing blast. The floor of the desert was hot beyond belief, and their horses plodded wearily, hopelessly, into the dead stillness. Far off to the south a dust devil sprang up, racing wildly across the flat desert floor.”

It’s a brief passage, but the bleak, brutal nature of the setting is palpable. The story takes place south of Yuma, Arizona. Having lived in AZ for a time, I’ve seen this harsh, uninviting environment firsthand. There is a beauty to it, and a certain sort of terror, that L’Amour’s workman-like grace captures perfectly.

Westerns, both novels and films, are known for highlighting the splendor of the American wilderness. The best of these are able to evoke a sense of awe and wonder at the natural world, because to a good Western, the frontier is as much a character as the heroes and villains. The Searchers iconic shot of Monument Valley (despite the story taking place in Texas), the vast, almost painterly quality to Jeremiah Johnson’s Rocky Mountain backdrop, the rugged crags and autumnal forest of the Coen Brothers adaptation of True Grit; all prime examples of how westerns showcase the environment through which the story moves.

Adventure Fiction and Westerns are kissing cousins, or maybe more closely related than that, though I won’t attempt a more accurate analogy. Western stories populated the pages of Adventure Pulps, both sharing a penchant for action-forward, plot-driven tales of heroes and villains with a dash of romance. In a lot of instances, though not all, it is really a matter of set dressing that names one story a Western and another an Adventure.

It is for this reason that I advocate here for two things:

1. Adventure writers, don’t ignore Mother Nature in your writing.

2. Go out in the world and experience nature first hand.

In Kid Rodelo, the main characters must cross a stretch of some of the harshest desert on the North American continent. They do not move through this setting, hitting their plot beats in easy stride. The desert fights against them, drains their water reserves, their strength, and even their senses. The characters struggle not only against themselves, but against the world itself, which is described by the author with reverence and wonder.

This same principle can be easily applied to anywhere in the world. Jungles are alive with hostility and beauty, mountain peaks are sublime and threaten bone-chilling blizzards or deadly avalanches, monsoon storms toss the seas and are a force to be spoken of in hushed awe. Treating nature as an antagonist lends to your fiction a sense that the world is alive, that it is lived in. Going a step further, treating it with the respect it deserves adds a deeper layer still.

Which brings me to my next point.

My favorite artist of all time is a German-American painter by the name of Albert Bierstadt, a leading figure in both the Hudson River and Rocky Mountain Schools. He joined expeditions westward into the Yosemite Valley seeking to depict the Divine through Nature. His paintings are most often of towering slopes and dense woodland rimmed in gilded sunlight. These works resonate with me deeply, as being immersed in nature, for me, is akin to visiting a holy place, perhaps the closest I have ever felt to anything approaching divinity.

Perhaps nature does not strike the same level of stirring fervor for you as it does me, but there is no denying the grandeur of the natural world. It is important for any author, and I would argue Adventure authors even more, to go out into the world and experience its wild places. Sit for a while and listen to the wind, to the songs of birds and babbling streams. Feel the warmth of the Summer sun and Winter’s bitter kiss. While I heartily encourage any writer of Adventure to travel internationally, I understand that it is not something everyone’s budget permits. In lieu of that, writers should take a road trip, a hike, go camping, go hunting, and feel the beating pulse of the Earth. Remember it well, and when next time you sit down to write, allow that feeling to flow onto the page.

As I mention briefly in the introduction to Honor Among Rogues, Adventure fiction is rooted in the tradition of lived experience, even if the stories are fiction. While you may not climb the slopes of the Himalayas or trek through uncharted jungle, by experiencing the world, you can more readily imagine what doing those things might feel like. Then, through your written words, you can instill those same feelings in your readers.

While the worry part is unnecessary and likely a byproduct of my own internalized stressors and a desire to “be successful” (or maybe be liked? Enjoyed?), I don’t think any of these questions is inherently bad to ask. An individual who wants to write AND sell books, SHOULD think about these things. All passions aside, this is a business, after all. I’ve sure spent a lot of time ruminating upon them. Now, I think I’ve come to some conclusions, too.

My writing career has been kind of all over the map. I started out writing Lovecraft-influenced short stories strictly for my own enjoyment. I branched out a bit when I started reading Robert E. Howard, but it wasn’t until much later that I thought someone else might actually like to read my stories.

2020 was a big year for me and my writing.

I had been somewhat involved in the Sword & Sorcery community since really getting into Conan the Barbarian and REH. Through that community, I stumbled upon a submission call for a Sword & Sorcery Anthology titled “Death’s Sting—Where Art Thou?” by Rogue Blades Entertainment, wherein every story dealt with immortality in some way. I had just finished reading Howard Andrew Jones’ wonderful “Desert of Souls”. I took that as inspiration to quickly pen a tale rooted in the Gilgamesh Epic but influenced by Arabian Nights-style fiction.

Much to my surprise, the editor Jason Waltz accepted the story.

Waltz was simultaneously accepting stories for a Weird Western anthology titled "Reach for the Sky”. I had also recently finished up James Rollins’ novel “Excavation” and took some inspiration from there to create a mashup of the Wild West and sci-fi/horror with a splash of Uncharted mentality.

He nabbed that too.

Right around the same time, I also completed writing a short Adventure novel in the vein of James Rollins and fueled by my love of monster movies. Initially titled “Existence” and released into the wild with no other experience, it just so happened to catch the eye of a small indie publisher, Primal Press, who rebranded the book as “Remnant”.

“Remnant” had a lot of success, at least way more than I imagined it would. Mike Esola, editor-in-chief at Primal did an outstanding job at getting the word out to readers hungry for what he dubbed “Prehistoric Thrillers”, as in Thriller novels that feature prehistoric animals. In fact, it paid a couple of bills for over a year. I couldn’t have been happier with it.

Now, looking back, the novel is a little rough. My writing has improved dramatically, at least in my eyes. The characters are perhaps a little juvenile. And maybe I leaned a little too far into the tongue-in-cheek references to the fancies of my childhood. That said, it currently sits with 319 ratings and 4.5 stars.

Not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

I have actually been negotiating with Primal to get the rights back to “Remant” so I can rework it and put it back out in the wild as something that more reflects the current iteration of “me”. But I digress.

At this same point, I found myself at a crossroads. This is where those aforementioned questions began to arise. Simultaneously, I was really getting involved with the Sword & Sorcery community through Rogues in the House Podcast. As such, I found myself torn between the world of writing Thriller books like my novel, or delving more into Sword & Sorcery as I now found myself in a position with a built-in audience.

Let me tell you, this really stalled me.

I wrote a number of Sword & Sorcery stories, most of which eventually found homes in various publications, but I false-started on a sequel to “Remnant” and like 5 other thriller projects.

The problem was, I didn’t really have the passion for Sword & Sorcery that my peers did. I like to dabble, delve even, within that realm. But I can’t consistently attach myself to a character or world in order to keep myself creating that kind of art.

However, I truly think my strength lies in shorter-form stories. Even “Remnant” is only about 45,000 words, if memory serves.

You see, I don’t really know if I have ADHD, but I definitely have the attention span of a squirrel. It is very difficult for me comit to long-form projects. This is complicated further by the fact that I like to DO THINGS. I like to go hiking, watch movies, play video games, spend time with my family, read…all that stuff, and more. Time is a finite thing, and I can’t be held down because life has so much to offer. I am also painfully aware that the longer I spend on a project, the more likely I am to pivot to something shiny and new. Likewise, if I spend too much time away from a project, I encounter the same issue.

It is in this roil of conflicting wants and needs that “Honor Among Rogues” was born.

I already had one short story ready, the title tale (also featured in a Rogue Blades Anthology), and I knew I could write more. I also knew that I wanted whatever I produced to reflect the variety of my interests and passions. It wouldn’t be a character collection like those common in Sword & Sorcery. I would combine my love of adventure, history, action, and Pulp storytelling into the package you see now: an eclectic mix of vintage-inspired storytelling that is distinctly “me”.

So, how is my “brand” going to reflect this? Because that mix of characters and settings isn’t going anywhere. This year, I plan to also release a novella of espionage and adventure set in Tibet at the height of the Great Game, and a follow-up collection titled “Follow the Backwards Track” that already promises to include treasure hunts, showdowns, aerial combat, and a trip back in time to man’s stone age past.

I came to realize that my brand is not rooted in a character or a setting like Sword & Sorcery is inclined to do. Neither is it built on a foundation of genre, like Thrillers. My brand is action-packed adventure. It’s propulsive, punchy narratives you can stuff in your back pocket and finish in a day. My vision, my hope, is that when a reader picks up a book by L.D. Whitney, they know they are going on a trip, and it’s going to be wild, whether they travel to Post-War Papua New Guinea, the Wild West, or 10,000 BC.

In short, I decided to lean all the way into just writing about things that I love.

Because ultimately, that’s the brand.

YOU, other writers reading this, are YOUR brand.

Be you.

Because I’m going to be me.

Not really.

But do I enjoy having space for all the things that make my daughter happy? Space for her to play? Places to store my family’s memories?

Yes, I do.

See, the problems with physical books are as follows:

1. They take up space.

2. Gathered together, they are heavy as F.

3. Most of the words in 500-page tomes don’t mean anything.

Ok, so that last one is some hyperbole, but I steadfastly maintain that the plot of MOST fatty books could be excised down to like 150, maybe 200 pages. I am guilty of being a Dan Brown fan, as well as Clive Cussler and James Rollins. These pulpy thriller novels typically represent the pinnacle of the form. Even considering their bloated nature, they maintain a gripping pace and offer thrilling action set-pieces.

That said, I am not sure there is any real reason for them to be as long as they are outside of some corpo-suit telling the author that it is the financial sweet spot. You see, I KNOW that a good story, even a complex story, can be told in 6,000 words and sometimes less. In fact, I’d argue some of the BEST stories EVER have word counts that pale in comparison to modern novels.

I’m not saying ALL books should be drawn and quartered. Epics will always and should always have a place. I just don’t think that EVERY novel or story NEEDS to be an Epic. Is that too much to ask?

Perhaps I’m getting off track.

My central thesis here is that big fat books in weird tall sizes are bad and also dumb. While I have surrendered my reading pile to a mostly digital space, I reserve my physical book purchases now solely to that most sacred of shapes: the mass market paperback.

There was an age, the waning days of which I witnessed as a child born in the late 80’s, when supermarkets had spinner racks and the so-called mid-tier novel was printed in a back-pocket-sized format complete with evocative cover art. This, my friends, was the golden age. A las, Traditional Publishers and their soulless corporate pencil pushers have determined, sans meaningful deliberation, that the populace no longer enjoys this format as a way of pigeon-holing consumers into purchasing the product that yields the most fruit per dollar.

*Pukes.*

Listen, I like making money as much as the next guy. I have mouths to feed, bills to pay, yadda yadda. But I also find value in things that maybe don’t make THE MOST money. This tendency toward soaking every last cent out of something is, I sincerely believe, a core source of moral disease in society. Min/Maxing monetization reduces diversity in the marketplace. I thought we were pro-free market, here?

Another digression.

I am so freaking glad that Independent Authors and Publishers are bringing back the mass market paperback IN SPITE of higher printing costs forced out by Amazon (who obviously doesn’t make enough money boo hoo) and other print-on-demand services. The mass market paperback is a thing to be loved, shared, cherished, and read till the pages fall out.

Time to call some people out.

Matthew John, my muscle-bound, syrup-chugging, Canadian friend, was the first (to my knowledge) to bring the MMPB back to the Sword & Sorcery space with his knock-it-out-of-the-ballpark “To Walk on Worlds”. On top of that, he sourced superbly retro cover art from artist Mike Hoffman.

What a champ.

Following suit, one of my favorite modern S&S authors, Steve Dilks, reprinted “Gunthar: Warrior of the Lost Land” and “Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures” in the classic size.

I would also be remiss if I didn’t call out New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, who took it a step further in their “Double-Edged” release, “Walls of Shira-Yulun/Waste Flowers” by Dariel Quiogue and Bryn Hammond, respectively. You see, this resurrected a variant MMPB where two novellas share the same space, and the back cover acts as the front cover for the other story. This was something popular in the fantasy/sci-fi sphere back in the day. New Edge even has painted edges!

It makes total sense to me that this sort of thing blossomed in the Sword & Sorcery space. Afterall, the Conan Ace/Lancer line is something of a holy artifact to all my dog-brothers, lawless rogues, and sword-maidens.

In the Adventure realm, I applaud the commitment of Nathaneal Hummel and his Nate Colt series. The covers are reminiscent of the Hard Case Crime imprint with a dash of James Bond and Magnum P.I. It is especially worth noting that the author himself poses for the Cover Art, embodying the character he pens. Likewise, the Veritas imprint he publishes under puts out a number of offerings in mass market size.

Early February, “Honor Among Rogues” will release in Mass Market Paperback size, as well. I did everything I could to replicate the releases of the 70’s and 80’s when the world saw runs of Conan, Thongor, Talbot Mundy, Tarzan, and Louis L’Amour. From the front cover art, the design of the back cover, and even the formatting of the interior, it is all intended to evoke the feeling of reading something that could have been purchased from your local Pac-N-Save (Shout out to my fellow Nebraskans) nearly half a century ago.

Is that nostalgia bait?

Maybe.

But I’d argue, in this specific case, the older format is the better format. Who genuinely likes to carry around those stupidly shaped trade paperbacks? I can’t even fit one in my briefcase without it making a big dumb lump on the side. Is that a briefcase problem?

Of course not.

Anyway, Indie authors and publishers, I behoove you, with the most possible hooves, adopt the Mass Market Paperback. In fact, if anyone out there needs some directions or a template, I’m happy to provide it. If you need interior formatting inspiration, look to the old Louis L’Amours, the Lin Carters, the Robert E. Howards, and the Edgar Rice Burroughs. And if you need some cover art, I know some guys and gals who do the work. GOOD work. I’m happy to pass those on.

The Mass Market Paperback is an art form, a culmination of various media, that should be celebrated, preserved, and replicated.

And to revisit my original modern trade paperback criticism, MMPBs:

1. Take up less space so I can have more of them.

2. I can fit more of them in a box before it’s heavy as F.

3. Every word on every page counts for something.

Come on.

All the real ones are doing it.

I KNOW I MISSED SOME AUTHORS IN THE GAME. IF YOUR BOOK GOT THAT MASS MARKET PAPERBACK VIBE, DROP A LINK IN THE COMMENTS!

LINKS TO AFFORMENTIONED REAL ONES:

“To Walk on Worlds” by Matthew John: https://tinyurl.com/yc7r646b

“Within the Weeping Eye” by Matthew John: https://tinyurl.com/ueh3uk6p

“Gunthar: Warrior of the Lost Land” by Steve Dilks: https://tinyurl.com/y2bvsc5r

“Bohun: The Complete Savage Adventures” by Steve Dilks: https://tinyurl.com/yajhd2ed

“Walls of Shira Yulun/Waste Flowers” by Dariel Quiogue and Bryn Hammond: https://newedgeswordandsorcery.com/product/double-edged-sword-sorcery-mass-market-paperback-pre-order/

“Treasure is my Trade” by Nathaneal Hummel: https://www.amazon.com/Treasure-My-Trade-Nate-Adventure-ebook/dp/B0F5MZ3L6W

“Crime is my Caper” by Nathaneal Hummel: https://www.amazon.com/Crime-My-Caper-Nate-Colt-ebook/dp/B0GCNNTQGS?ref_=saga_ast_ss_dsk_dp

“Honor Among Rogues” by L.D. Whitney: https://tinyurl.com/f25zhdm6

Take that for what you you will.

A long time ago, I did a rare thing. I contributed to a Kickstarter Campaign. My second of three, ever. I don’t regret my contribution, as it was/is something I have a passion for and believe in. With the information in the prior paragraph, it will surprise you little to know that it was a short story magazine.

I’m not going to name the publication outright. I respect the editor and the authors within. Nor do I mean to shame them or berate their work. I only aim to express my thoughts and perhaps level some constructive criticism.

The magazine in question focuses on the contemporary Thriller genre. Not vintage stuff, like CLIFFHANGER!, but stories truly set in a recognizably modern time period. The Thriller genre encompasses a wide variety of fiction, from detective stories, Clive Cussler-style adventure, Dan Brown-esque mysteries, psuedo-science escapades like James Rollins and Preston/Child, spies, and theives, among others. Astute genre readers may recognize that most (if not all) of these subjects have their roots deeply planted within the fertile ground that is the Pulps. In fact, the number of Thriller authors that list Doc Savage, The Shadow, Conan, and Tarzan as direct inspriations is too large to count.

You would think then, that these authors would have some experience in the art of short stories.

As far as this certain publication is concerned, that appears to be wrong.

If it’s not, then well…I don’t know what happened.

The publication in question is entirely penned by Indie authors who write novels, many of them that I have read. And let me tell you, a reader familiar with shorts can tell. Literally all of the stories in every issue read like a short novel, never taking into account any advice or practiced skills laid down by their Pulp forebears. This doesn’t necessarily make the stories bad. They aren’t. But it does make them feel slow, less impactful or breakneck, and sometimes boring when compared to more intentionally crafted shorts.

Every tale rolls out exactly the same. First, we are introduced to characters, then their plan, then some stuff happens, then the story ends.

When I spell it out like that, that’s basically every story ever written. But readers familiar with Pulp-influenced short stories instinctively know the difference. I am personally a pretty strict adherent to the Lester Dent Method of short story writing. In short, that means I like to pile stakes and twists upon the main character all the way through to the resolution as much as I can. Am I always successful? That’s up to readers, but likely not. Still, I try.

The authors in this Thriller publication consistently pace their tales like novels. Or maybe sometimes chapters of a novel. Chapters don’t end of cliffhangers and the stakes don’t mount. This is so weird to me, as this sort of blood-pumping pace is at the very heart of the Thriller genre. And short stories, I think, are uniquely poised to be exceptionally thrilling.

On top of this conundrum, the stable of authors in every issue are almost always the exact same. I’m sure there is a strategy to this. I just don’t know what it was. It seems to me this was a hand-picked cadre of author friends who wanted to do a project together. There are no submissions, no open calls. And that’s fine. I only lament that it could have been so much more.

A consquence of this is that so many of the issues feel exactly the same, despite a variety of narrow themes for each release. Opening a magazine for submissions is a ton of work. More than I imagined when I launched CLIFFHANGER! I’ll admit that I also hand-picked authors for all three Book of Blades volumes. In doing so, I consciously chose authors that not only had a grasp of Sword & Sorcery short stories, but also offered a wide variety of ideas and styles. Based on the reviews, I think I was pretty successful in that.

But I digress.

I think perhaps the most useful tip for writng shorts that I’ve ever read/received is this: start your story as close to end as you possibly can.

These novelists and this publication could really stand taking this to heart.

Listen, I’m not a masterclass Pulpster. Others have written more than me, and better as well. But I do read a lot of short stories and tend to practice what I preach. If there is one message that might be worth taking from this rant, it is that if you are going to write short stories, you should read them too. Not just as entertainment, but sometimes as something to study, to learn from.

Short stories are an art and a serious short story-ist should appraoch them as such.

/highhorse

As such, I am making a conscious effort to remove distraction from my life and focus on what is most important to me.

1. My Family

2. Writing

3. Reading

Family obviously takes up the vast majority of my time. And any writer knows too well that practicing the Craft takes time too. Which leaves only a meager handful of minutes for reading.

I know there are a TON of good novels out there. Too many to read in a lifetime. Especially for a slow reader like me. There are even some modern novelists that I adore, but it is a rarity for me to pick up a five-hundred page tome. Even if it’s written by my favorite contemporary traditionally published author.

Instead, my reading has settled into savoring the countless short stories and novellas found in out-of-print Pulp Magazines and those written by modern authors with the same sort of ethos.

Modern shorts rarely exceed seven-thousand words and can typically be consumed in less than an hour. Classic shorts trend longer, but are never so daunting that they take weeks to finish. All are written with a focus on tight pacing and high-adventure. The exact sort of thing that I crave when I read.

While it is true that some of these Pulp Authors founda niche in the Pop Culture Zeitgeist many of them did not and their works can only be found in the yellowed pages of Argosy, Adventure, Top Notch, or Weird Tales. Likewise, contemporary short fiction authors are often tied up in smaller scale publications like New Edge Sword & Sorcery and Crimson Quill Quraterly. Even then, a lot of these sort of magazines are relegated to fantasy, scifi, and horror.

Nothing wrong with that, of course. But I favor more grounded Adventure fiction in line with authors like Theodore Rosce, Louis L’Amour, L. Patrick Greene, and Arthur O. Friel. I actually created CLIFFHANGER! to privide such an outlet.

Luckily, I am not alone in this endeavor.

Authors Nathan Hummel and L. S. Goozdich are going full-bore on fast-paced, action-minded Adventure fiction, some of which can be found on the Pulp, Pipe, and Poetry substack page. Likewise, on the Sword & Sorcery front, I cannot praise the efforts of Matthew John enough. His two collection, “To Walk on Worlds” and “Within the Weeping Eye”, are among the very best of what the genre has to offer. Best part: his books are printed in vintage Lancer Conan paperback size. The same size as all those Louis L’Amour westerns with the sick Western cover art. As far as I am concerned, there is no better size for a book.

These authors are just a few examples of those writing with what I can only describe as a warrior-like vitality. You can feel it in their words, their plots, their sentence structure. Their characters are alive, not in the sense of being well-developed or well-rounded, but in sense that they crave existence.

And that, dear readers, is why this Millenial put all his cards on this particular table. These stories pulse with life and refuse to relent. There is a passion present in these works, in their authors, that I don’t find seeping from the pages of even the best-selling contemporary traditionally published authors. Maybe it’s the brief word counts. Maybe it’s a fire in the authors’ bellies.

It’s probably both.

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