Strange Worlds Contest: The Winner

Well, it took me longer than I'd planned to have my drawing for the copy of Strange Worlds, the illustrated Sword & Planet anthology that I have a story in. But it is now completed, as of about 9:00 this morning.

The winner is: Bernardl, and judging by his comments on Edgar Rice Burroughs I think the book has found a good home.

Sorry to all those who didn't win, and thank you for your patience.

Bernard, I have your email address so I'll email you later today about mailing you the book. Let me know if you want me to sign my story.

If anyone wants to purchase a copy of Strange Worlds, you can order them here. I'm going to order a few more copies myself for sale at some point. This month was not a good 'money' month, though.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on that post, and who faithful visit my blog. I appreciate you folks.
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High Noon: Contest Winners

High Noon. Or thereabouts. The stage arrives from Abita Springs, the horses lathered from a hard run. Josh Gramlich is driving; Arkansas Slim rides shotgun. They pull to a halt in front of the Lana Branch Saloon and Slim grabs the iron strongbox and leaps down to the street, his boots kicking up puffs of dust. A crowd begins to gather.

Hitching his gun belt higher, Slim carries the strongbox into the saloon and plunks it down on the bar with a loud jingle. Everyone follows, and a murmur builds among the people as the handsome and slender Slim first wets his whistle from a cold, foaming glass of beer.

“All right, pawdners,” Slim intones, then belches before continuing. “The winners of the Strange Worlds Contest are right chere in this box. But I’m afraid I don’t have the key. Only one lady carries the key to this here padlock. And to my heart."

“And who would that be, Handsome Slim?” a bell-sweet voice calls out from the stairs.

Slim breaks into his patented killer smile and doffs his hat to execute a bow before the Lovely Lana, the proprietress of the Lana Branch and the most beauteous woman in the territories.

“Why you, Lovely Lana,” Slim says. “Bring yoreself on down here and open up this box.”

The Lovely Lana sashays down the stairs in her scarlet saloon gal dress and drifts up to Slim where he stands by the bar. She reaches into the glory of her hair and draws out a key, which just happens to fit the lock of the strongbox. She opens it, pushes up the lid, then steps back a bit as Slim reaches in and pulls out: some gold coins, which he tosses aside like so much trash, some black diamonds, which he tosses aside, some bundles of greenbacks, which he tosses aside.

“Tarnation,” he says. “I know they’se here somewhere.”

He pulls out some rubies, then a few emeralds, and throws ‘em aside. But finally, nestled beneath a pile of silver ingots, he finds the two slips of paper he is looking for. These he draws slowly out as if they are worth a whole bunch more than their weight in platinum.

He looks at the gathered throng, all 43 of them. “Thanks to everyone who entered the Strange Worlds Contest,” he says. “It’s time to announce the winners. I appreciate everyone’s patience, so without further ado, the winners are:
Donnetta Lee.
Avery DeBow.

If Donnetta and Avery will send me their addresses at kainja at hotmail dot com, I’ll get yore books ready for the Pony Express to deliver right away.

Yippe ki yay.”
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Writer or Actor

I’ve never wanted to be an actor. Except… I’ve always secretly harbored a desire to appear in a western movie, preferably as a gunfighter. Thus, you see why at age 50 I’ve strapped on my shootin’ iron and had Lana take pictures of me as Arkansas Slim. I feel like a goof, but it’s good fun. (No comments about the “slim” part.)

I’ve realized, though, that being a writer is something like being an actor. Our characters are our roles. We inhabit them. We try to bring them to life. Our stories live and die, as do movies, on the ability of our characters to carry the tale. Maybe some readers won’t notice if we give short shrift to our characters as long as we fill our stories with action. But we’ll notice. If we’re in the skins of our characters in the way good actors put on their roles, we’ll know when we “make” the character do something instead of watching them respond in ways natural to them.

If they want to be gunfighters you have to let ‘em.

I also apologize for letting the Strange Worlds Contest drag on. Work has just been crazy. If you haven’t entered to win a free book yet, please do so here. I’m going to close the contest at midnight central standard time on Saturday, January 30. And since I’ve made everyone wait so long I’m going to pick two winners for free books.

Good luck!

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Forgotten Book Friday: Donald Wollheim

A week or so ago I posted about Donald Wollheim’s wonderful juvenile SF novel called The Secret of the Martian Moons (Moons), a favorite of my youth. Little did I know that I was about to discover—not some forgotten books, but some never known books. It turns out that Wollheim wrote a virtual trilogy of young adult novels with similar themes. The other two are called: The Secret of Saturn’s Rings (Rings) and The Secret of the Ninth Planet (Planet). I had never heard of either but I had to have them, and thanks to the internet I was able to order copies of each. I’ve already finished reading them.

The three books each feature a different main character, but all are young men just reaching adulthood. “Moons” features Nelson Parr. “Rings” features Bruce Rhodes. And “Planet” features Burl Denning. They are largely interchangeable, and character development is not the attraction of these novels.

You already know what I think of “Moons,” so here’s my take on the other two. The Secret of Saturn’s Rings features Bruce Rhodes and his scientist father in a desperate race to reach Saturn’s rings. To save earth, they have to prove Bruce’s father’s theory about how the rings formed. Much like Nelson Parr and his father in The Secret of the Martian Moons, Bruce and his father are endangered by saboteurs. “Moons” was first printed in 1955, and “Rings” is copyrighted 1954, which makes me think that “Rings” was almost a run through for the later “Moons.” “Rings” is not as strong as “Moons,” and is weakest of the three books by a good margin. Don’t get me wrong, though, it’s still a fun book.

The Secret of the Ninth Planet is copyright 1959, which makes it the last of the three. It is very good. I believe if I’d read it when I was a teenager I’d remember it about as fondly as I do “Moons.” In “Planet,” Burl Denning starts out working with his father on an archeological trip to South America, but he ends up, without his father, on a spaceship racing to save earth from a group of aliens who are “stealing” the Sun’s energy.

In some ways, “Planet” is actually better than “Moons.” Instead of being focused on one planet, Burl and his fellow crew members must visit Mercury, Venus, Mars, and some of the moons of the outer planets before they reach lonely Pluto. For sheer world building then, it tops “Moons.” However, the book gives much of the “Secret” away earlier in the book than in “Moons,” and the secret itself is not quite as “cool” as in “Moons.” I still rate “Moons” a touch above, but I liked “Planet” a lot too.

I wish I’d found both “Planet” and “Rings” in my youth. Touring the solar system with Donald Wollheim could have wiled away a few more of my hours. I would have liked that.

PS: NOTE: Since I’ve been so swamped at work, I haven’t had a chance to pick a winner in the Strange World contest. I'm going to let it run until the end of January. So if you’d still like to enter to win a free book, check out this post.
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Announcements and Links

Here's a reminder that the always exciting Book Roast Team: Blogless Troll, Christine Eldin, Dee, Diesel, Jason Evans, Sarah Laurenson, and Shona Snowden, will be back in action starting this Monday, January 12.

They're hosting a party that includes one hot publisher, two terrific agents, and six fabulous authors. The schedule is below:

Monday, Jan 12: Mystery Publisher
Tuesday, Jan 13: Eric Stone
Wednesday, Jan 14: Agent Lucienne Diver
Thursday, Jan 15: Barrie Summy
Saturday, Jan 17: Elysabeth Eldering

Monday, Jan 19: Mystery Publisher
Tuesday, Jan 20: Traci E Hall
Wednesday, Jan 21: Maggie Stiefvater
Thursday, Jan 22: Agent Nathan Bransford
Friday, Jan 23: Jennifer Macaire

Check it out here

Also, if you haven't entered my "Strange Worlds Contest" to win a free book, check out my Tuesday Post. Hey, it's FREE.

And please don’t forget that a site has been set up to help Travis Erwin and his family, who lost their house to fire on January 4. There’s a link HERE.
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