Brushes with Fame

What do Peter Straub, Ramsey Campbell, and Joe Lansdale have in common? They were all in anthologies with the illustrious Charles Gramlich. What about Piers Anthony, Graham Masterton, Brian Lumley, Steve Rasnic Tem, Richard Christian Matheson, F. Paul Wilson, Poppy Z. Brite, and Karl Edward Wagner? Is there anything in common among these great writers? Yep. Gramlich again.

What about one of the hottest names in the writing world right now? No, not J. K. Rowling or Stephanie Meyer. I’m talking about Neil Gaiman! Even Neil Gaiman has been in an anthology with the mysterious author known only as Charles Gramlich (or sometimes as Charles A. Gramlich, or as Charles Allen Gramlich, or sometimes as another name entirely.)

Or perhaps you’d recognize the names of some more historical authors: Spinosa, Machiavelli, Shakespeare, Keats, Hume, Herman Hesse, Lord Byron, Percy Shelley, William Blake, Omar Khayyam, Walt Whitman, Anton LaVey and Edgar Allan Poe. Is it possible that any of these famous authors’ names could be found in a table of contents alongside Gramlich? It is. They are. All posthumously , of course. Well, Gramlich is still alive. Or so the rumors have it.

I think it’s kind of cool that Ardath Mayhar, Jane Yolen, Michael Moorcock, and Brian Stableford have had the privilege of appearing alongside Gramlich. I’m glad that Glenn Lord and S. T. Joshi have had that chance. I’m happy for David J. Schow, Joe Haldeman, and John Brunner. It’s not every day you get to have a piece in the same book as a Gramlich.

But then, Gramlich has been privileged beyond belief to be in the august company of a few other writers: Sidney Williams, Wayne Allen Sallee, O’Neil De Noux, Debb De Noux, Del Stone Jr., Rexanne Becnel, Kent Westmorland, John Edward Ames, Charlee Jacob, Marge Simon, Bruce Boston, Ann K. Schwader, Keith Gouveia, A. P. Fuchs, Greg Schwartz, Robert Reginald, Charles Nuetzel, Michael Malefica Pendragon, Wendy Rathbone, Denise Dumars, and a hundred others whose work lifted his own.

And, of course, all joking aside, Gramlich is pretty tickled about everyone in the first four paragraphs of this post, as well. Just goes to show, you hang around the writing world for twenty plus years and you get to brush shoulders with greatness. I’ve been very priviledged!

Bibliography:
Once Upon a Midnight, edited by Jame Riley, Michael N Langford and Thomas E. Fuller.
Dark Terrors, edited by Stephen Jones and David Sutton.
Dark Voices IV, edited by David Sutton and Stephen Jones.
Erotic New Orleans, edited by Debra Gray De Noux.
Choice Words, edited by Robert Reginald
Vicious Verses and Reanimated Rhymes, edited by a. p. fuchs.
The Bible of Hell, edited by Michael M. Pendragon.
The Parasitorium: Terrors Within, edited by Del Stone Jr.
F/SF, edited by David Bain.
Small Bites, edited by Garrett Peck and Keith Gouveia.
Bits of the Dead, edited by Keith Gouveia.
Two-Gun Bob, edited by Benjamin Szumskyj.
The 1995 Rhysling Anthology.
The 2002 Rhysling Anthology.

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