SUNDAY SHORTS: 2025 RoundUp, Part 1

Here’s a list of all the short stories I read in the first half of 2025. I decided to break them up by month and then within each month by where they were published, with links where appropriate and available.

 

JANUARY

Lightspeed Magazine #176, edited by John Joseph Adams

“Tell Them A Story To Teach Them Kindness” by B. Pladek

“The Exquisite Pull of Relentless Desire” by Will McMahon

“Dyson Spheres of the Vaba Cluster” by Filip Hajdar Drnovsek Zorko

“After the God Has Moved On” by Kate Elliott

“A Heap of Petrified Gods” by Adelehin Ijasan

“Bone and Marrow Woven Into Song” by Neon Yang

“I Eat the Sky For Us” by Vijayalaxmi Samal

“Chickenfoot Soup” by Marika Bailey

Uncanny #62 edited by Lynne Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas

“Kaiju Agonistes” by Scott Lynch

“Six People to Revise You” by J.R. Dawson

Janie's Got A Gun: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Aerosmith ed. by Michael Bracken

“Sight For Sore Eyes” by John C. Bruening

Pulp Reality #5 edited by Charles F. Millhouse and Mary Ann Millhouse

“No Quarter” by Jim Beard

Nightmare #148 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“The Morning Room” by Katharine Tyndall

“They Bought a House” by Osahon Ize-Iyamu

“Karabasan” by Leyla Hamedi

Captain America: The Shield of Sam Wilson edited by Jesse J. Holland

“Everyone's Hero” by Maurice Broaddus

“Exclusive Content” by Sheree Renee Thomas

The Dark #116 edited by Sean Wallace

“Four Questions with Something Like God” by Carlie St. George

“In the Blue Room” by Orrin Grey

“Lost You Again” by Ian Rogers

“Coffin Dancing” by Chris Kuriata

Do Not Go Quietly edited by Jason Sizemore & Leslie Connor

“Kill The Darlings (Silicone Sisters Remix)” by E. Catherine Tobler

Strange Locations edited by Marissa Van Uden

“See the Empress of Yesteryear!” by Violet Marr

“Echoes of Toyland on the Harmonic Coast” by Daisy Lyle

“The Ephemeral Conservatory of Dr. Carmen Sol Echeverria” by Silvathcus Riddle

“A Plea to Our Readers” by Steve Neal

“Those Who Stand Beneath Sagrada” by Akis Linardos

“For the Pilgrims of Mary Magdalena” by Salena Casha

“Late Exhibition” by Guilherme Vieira

“The Theatre Meridian” by Nicholas Jay

“Heroica” by Andrew Kao

“If Nothing, The Cloud Remembers” by Mwenya S. Chikwa

“The People's Republic of You” by Gordon Brown

You Glow In the Dark (single author collection)

“The Cave” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

“Atomito” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

 

FEBRUARY

Lightspeed Magazine #177, edited by John Joseph Adams

“It Holds Her in the Palm of One Hand” by Lowry Poletti

“Books to Take At the End of the World” by Carolyn Ives Gilman

“My Girlfriend is a Nebula” by David DeGraff

“An Omodest Proposal” by Andrew Dana Hudson

“Standardized Test” by Seoung Kim

“Some to Cradle, Some to Eat” by Eugenia Triantafyllou

“What We Don't Know About Angels” by Kristina Ten

You Glow In the Dark (single author collection)

“The Debt” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

“Chaco” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

“The Greenest Eyes” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

“The Narrow Way” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

“You Glow in the Dark” by Liliana Colanzi (trans. by Chris Andrews)

Dark Corners (Amazon short story collection, editor unknown)

“The Sleep Tight Motel” by Lisa Unger

Strange Locations edited by Marissa Van Uden

“The Urban Explorer: Site 1337” by Sam W. Pisciotta

“Wiki.StrangePlaces/TheLeaningSlabGallery” by Sarena Ulibarri

“Summer's Crimson Shadow” by Jonathan Wood

“A Review of the Myrkvi Black Sand Beach Tours” by Dale Rappineau

“Visitors' Guide: Personal Hygiene on Jones Atoll” by Kay Vaindal

“Fecal-Oral Tours Presents: Anusha's Bed and Breakfast” by Nina Miller

Nightmare #149 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“God of the Black Moon” by Dan Stintzi

Clarkesworld #220 edited by Neil Clarke

“When There Are Two of You: A Documentary” by Zun Yu Tan

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #424 edited by Scott H. Andrews

“Late Autumn on the Pilgrim's High Road” by Samuel Jensen

“The Garden Must Thrive” by Anaea Lay

The Deadlands Winter 2025 edited by E. Catherine Tobler

“Extreme Sports Club for Octogenarians” by Kate Lechler

Thrilling Adventure Yarns 2025 edited by Robert Greenberger

“57 Seconds” by Christopher Priest

“Doc Dresden and the Lost Hollow” by Bobby Nash

“The Collar” by Charles Ardai

“She-Devil of Paris” by Win Scott Eckert

“Stories You Tell When You Get to Hell” by Paul Kupperberg

“Goldmark's Universe” by Elliot S! Maggin

“The Game of Wons and Toos” by Michael Jan Friedman

“The Thing in the Crate” by Jeffrey J. Mariotte

“The Bonds of Friendship” by Aaron Rosenberg

“The Tale of the Never Be” by Dan Abnett

“My Crush” by William F. Wu

“Gnat” by Russ Colchamiro

“Zayne Stormrunner and the Prince of Saturn” by Mary Fan

“ESPD” by Hildy Silverman

“Grey” by Liz Braswell

 

MARCH

Lightspeed Magazine #178, edited by John Joseph Adams

“Dekar Druid and the Infinite Library” by Cadwell Turnbull

“Those Who Seek to Embrace the Sun” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

“Message in a Babel” by Adam-Troy Castro

“Instructions for Good Boys on the Interplanetary Expedition” by Rachael K. Jones

“Pure of Heart” by Jake Kerr

“Memories of Temperance” by Anya Ow

“The Shift” by Nina Kiriki Hoffman

“The Lexicon of Lethe” by Sunwoo Jeong

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

“Chide the Waves” by Seanan McGuire

Uncanny #63 edited by Lynne Thomas and Michael Damien Thomas

“10 Visions of the Future; or, Self-Care for the End of Days” by Samantha Mills

“Butterfly Pavilion” by G. Willow Wilson

“Red, Scuttle When the Ships Come Down” by Wen-yi Lee

Clarkesworld #222 edited by Neil Clarke

“From Enceladus, with Love” by Ryan Cole

Strange Horizons February 2025 ed. by Joyce Chng, Dante Luiz, Hebe Stanton, Kathryn Weaver and Aigner Loren Wilson

“Ticket po mamser” by Caroline Hung

Nightmare #150 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“sharp house” by Samir Sirk Morato

Strange Locations edited by Marissa Van Uden

“1 Star, March 15th 2022” by M. Lopes da Silva

“Prometheus Live” by Sasha Brown

“The Food Truck at the Corner of the Street Where I Live That Everybody Sys is Overrated But Eat at Anyway” by Sek Han Foo

“A Disappointing Experience After 'Unintentionally' Consuming a Bioluminescent Mushroom in the Glow Wood” by Rachel Ashcraft

“A Travel Advisory For Your Past” by Ende Mac

“Welcome to Resurrection Lodge” by Chris Clemens

“Exploring the Tangents of Indus: The Mad Omnivorous Ruins of Lakir” by Amayah Perveen

“Ghost Tours of Eaden Marsh” by Marie Croke

“Ephemera” by Derrick Boden

“The-Town-Where-All-the-Residents-Are-Saints” by Avra Margariti

“Greendam” by Kurt Fawver

“Welcome Home - An Art Tour of Your New Apartment” by Ashley K. Frantik

“A Walk Down Emberley Road” by Amanda Van Rhyn

The Dark #118 edited by Sean Wallace

“Malo Malo Malo Malo” by Louis Inglis Hall

The Deadlands Winter 2025 edited by E. Catherine Tobler

“His Love's Ashes On His Tongue” by Monte Lin

Beneath Ceaseless Skies #427 edited by Scott H. Andrews

“Bind the Herbs to Bring the Shift” by R.Z. Held

Installment Immortality (InCryptid novel)

“Mourner's Waltz” by Seanan McGuire

Shivers Collection (Amazon Originals), editor unknown

“Jackknife” by Joe Hill

Kaleidotrope Winter 2025 edited by Fred Coppersmith

“The Diamond Mountain” by Helen De Cruz

“Once, Now, Always” by Ire Coburn

Apex Magazine #148 edited by Jason Sizemore

“One By One” by Lindz McLeod

 

APRIL

Lightspeed Magazine #179, edited by John Joseph Adams

“Does Harlan Lattner Dream of Infected Sheep” by Sarah Langan

“Meditations From the Event Horizon” by Deborah L. Davitt

“Talk: "The Siren Song of the Otherworld Goggles”” by Domenica Phettleplace

“To Navigate the Night” by Rich Larson

“The Price of Miracles” by Nigel Faustino

“The Potter, His Daughter, and the Boy with Tribal Marks On His Face” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess

“The Other River” by John Lasser

Stand-Alone E-Book

“The Bee Wife” by Francesca Forrest

Kaleidotrope Winter 2025 edited by Fred Coppersmith

“Hidden Meaning” by Lindsey Duncan

 

MAY

Lightspeed Magazine #180, edited by John Joseph Adams

“Rthing It Up: An Oral History” by Gene Doucette

“The Temporal Displacement of the Graves” by Russel Nichols

“Through the Machine” by P.A. Cornell

“The Meaning We Seek” by Nancy Kress

“Shadows on the Pavement” by R.P. Sand

“The Price of Manners” by Martin Cahill

“Ninnagan Says Remember” by Jonathan Olfert

Nightmare #152 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“Beak” by Ian Muneshwar

Amplitudes: Tales of Queer and Trans Futurity edited by Lee Mandelo

“The Republic of Ecstatic Consent” by Sam J. Miller

“Trans World Takeover” by Nat X Ray

“The Orgasm Doula” by Colin Dean

“The Shabbos Bride” by Esther Alter

“MoonWife” by Sarah Gailey

“Forever Won't End Like This” by Dominique Dickey

“They Will Give Us a Home” by Wen-yi Lee

“There Used to Be Peace” by Margaret Killjoy

“Fettle & Sunder” by Ramez Yoakeim

“Six Days” by Bendi Barrett

The Bloody Chamber (single-author collection)

“The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter

“The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” by Angela Carter

“The Tiger's Bride” by Angela Carter

“Puss-in-Boots” by Angela Carter

“The Snow Child” by Angela Carter

 

JUNE

Lightspeed Magazine #181, edited by John Joseph Adams

“The Twenty-One Second God” by Peter Watts

“Multi-Spatial Apartment Complex Malfunction Results in Body Horror” by Reyes Ramirez

“See Now the Misfortune of the Thinking Tenax” by Lowry Poletti

“All I Got Was This Lousy T-Shirt” by Marissa Lingen

“Eyes Grown Thick on the World” by Will McMahon

“When the Faerie King Toured the Human Realm” by Vanessa Fogg

“A Week at the Raven Feather Salon” by Carrie Vaughn

“My Mother, the Supervillain” by Benjamin Blattberg

Amplitudes: Tales of Queer and Trans Futurity edited by Lee Mandelo

“The They Whom We Remember” by Sunny Moraine

“When the Devil Comes From Babylon” by Maya Deane

“Copper Boys” by Jamie McGhee

“A Few Degrees” by Ash Huang

“Where The World Goes Sharp and Quiet” by Ewen Ma

“Circular Universe” by Ta-wei Chi (trans. Ariel Chu)

“The Garden of Collective Memory” by Neon Yang

“Sugar, Shadows” by Aysha U. Farah

“A Step Into Emptiness” by Aiki Mira (trans. by CD Covington)

“pocket futures in the present past” by Katharine Duckett

“Bang Bang” by Meg Elison

Apex Magazine Bonus Issue #1 edited by Jason Sizemore

“The Swap” by Lavie Tidhar

Nightmare #153 edited by Wendy N. Wagner

“Here I Go Again” by Lindz McLeod

“Eleven Songs for Another Lover” by V.H. Chen

“Edgar Addison, the Author of Devorer (1862 - 1933)” by Ben Peek

Strange Horizons May 2025 ed. by Joyce Chng, Dante Luiz, Hebe Stanton, Kathryn Weaver and Aigner Loren Wilson

“Everything We Lost in the Apocalypse” by Mar Vincent

Kaleidotrope Spring 2025 edited by Fred Coppersmith

“Mabinogion” by Katie McIvor

Seanan McGuire’s Patreon

“What's Fair to Offer in Exchange” by Seanan McGuire

The Dark #121 edited by Sean Wallace

“The Death of Abigail Goudy” by Neil Williamson

Amazon Original Stories (editor unknown)

“Abscond” by Abraham Verghese

Clarkesworld #225 edited by Neil Clarke

“Emily of Emerald Starship” by Ng Yi-Sheng

Sunday Morning Transport edited by Julian Yap and Fran C. Wilde

“Welcome 2 the Freedom Galaxy” by Maurice Broaddus

 

And there’s the first half of 2025! Tune in next week for the list of stories I read in July through December of 2025.

SERIES SATURDAY: 2025 Television and Movie RoundUp

As noted in the past few days’ round-up posts, I did not do a whole lot of television or movie watching in 2025. Despite the huge number of DVDs I own and streaming services I subscribe to. But here’s what I did watch:

 

MOVIES

I had a goal of one movie per week (regardless of whether on DVD, streaming, or in an actual movie theater), so 52 total. I managed: three. Yes. I watched three whole movies in an entire calendar year. If you know me at all, this is definitely not my normal modus operandi.

Those movies were:

Superman (2025), directed by James Gunn; starring David Corenswet, Rachel Brosnahan, and Nicholas Hoult. (theatre)

Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman; starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Jospeh Quinn. (theatre)

The Life of Chuck, directed by Mike Flanagan; starring Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benjamin Pajak, Mark Hamill, and Mia Sara.

I greatly enjoyed all three. I keep meaning to do a “page to screen” post about The Life of Chuck. Maybe sometime this month.

 

TELEVISION

I had a goal of watching an average of one episode of television per day in 2025. I managed 63. Again, quite unusual for me. There are several shows I love that I’m now at least a full season or more behind on (like Slow Horses and The Wheel of Time), or that returned late in 2025 and I haven’t started yet (season 2 of Percy Jackson and the Olympians) and a bunch of shows I have yet to start but keep meaning to (I keep hearing great things about The Expanse and Down Cemetery Road) and shows that are soon to show up on American TV from overseas (Mark Gatiss’ new bookshop-set mystery series sounds right up my alley), not to mention all the “one season wonders” I have DVD that I want to do a series of posts about after I re-watch them. So hopefully 2026 will be a better television viewing year as well.

Here's what I did manage to watch:

·       The 78th Annual Tony Awards

·       The 97th Annual Oscar Awards

·       Doctor Who Classic (7 episodes, all while dining at The Pandorica restaurant in Beacon NY)

·       Doctor Who 2005 (4 episodes, 1 at the Pandorica, the others at a friend’s house)

·       Doctor Who 2023 Season 2 (all 8 episodes, streaming, Disney+)

·       Only Murders in the Building Season 5, (all 10 episodes, streaming, Hulu)

·       Poker Face (1 episode from S2, at a friend’s house)

·       Shoresy Season 4 (all 6 episodes, streaming, Hulu)

·       Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 (all 9 episodes, streaming, Paramount+)

·       Stranger Things Season 5 (all 8 episodes, streaming, Netflix)

·       What If…? Season 3 (all 8 episodes, streaming, Disney+)

2025 Reading Roundup: By The Numbers

Time for my annual round-up of what I read and watched in 2025. Because I dropped the ball on doing monthly Round-Up reports, I’m going to run a few more detailed posts over the next week or two listing everything I’ve read or watched. Today’s post is mostly a “by the numbers” thing.

 

 

 

BOOKS

I did manage to read 123 books in 2025: 13 hardcovers, 49 softcover/paperbacks, 35 e-books, and 23 audiobooks. 19 of those titles were rereads, the rest books I read for the first time in 2025.

 

Monthly distribution: 7 in January; 9 in February; 9 in March; 6 in April; 5 in May; 11 in June; 9 in July; 10 in August; 13 in September; 5 in October; 13 in November; and 26 in December.

 

I read work from approximately 110 different creators (authors and anthology editors mostly; I did not track graphic novels editorial staff, colorists, and letterers this year).

 

17 of these books were for book clubs at Sparta Books in Sparta NJ and Stanza Books in Beacon NY. 12 of them were Advanced Review Copies (either print or from NetGalley). 3 of them were for my “Reread My Favorites” project (hopefully debuting on the blog soon.)

 

The shortest book I read was 41 pages long (Jeffrey Ricker’s short story collection Lies I Tell Myself: Stories), the longest 609 (Suzanne Finstad’s Natalie Wood: The Complete Biography).

 

Genre Breakdown:

·       Adventure: 1

·       Biography: 1

·       Crime: 1

·       Pop culture analysis: 2

·       Fantasy: 20

·       Historical fiction: 2

·       History: 2

·       Horror: 28

·       Memoirs: 25

·       Mimetic/current day fiction: 3

·       Mixed genre short story collections: 2

·       Mystery: 12

·       Mythology: 1

·       Romance: 7

·       Science: 3

·       Science Fiction: 11

·       Superhero: 2

·       Thriller: 1

·       True Crime: 1

 

These were my own rough classifications, and in hindsight I’m not sure why I broke crime fiction and mysteries into separate categories. I was surprised to realize I once again read a lot more horror than I thought. I didn’t read any playscripts this year for the first time in a while. And also, for the second year in a row, not a single poetry collection. I am not a big poetry reader, but I usually like to at least try to read a collection or two during National Poetry Month.

 

 

STORIES

I did manage to read 366 short stories in 2025 by 243 different authors (this includes translators).

 

The monthly distribution: 35 in January; 38 in February; 36 in March; 8 in April; 24 in May; 31 in June; 17 in July; 16 in August; 39 in September; 14 in October; 12 in November, and 96 in December. (Clearly, I was way behind my 1-per-day pace by the time I hit December, but a few anthologies and single-author collections helped me catch up.)

 

These stories came from 23 anthologies and single-author collections, 15 different magazines, 1 author Patreon site, 1 author website, 1 stand-alone e-book independently published, 3 printed chapbooks, and 2 novels (as back-matter). Last year, I calculated exactly how many stories came from each format, but as I’m running behind on this post, I’m going to skip that this year. In previous years I’ve also counted how many different editors were involved, but I neglected to accurately track that this year as well.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Adventure: 3

·       Comedy: 3

·       Crime: 3

·       Fantasy: 102

·       Horror: 134

·       Mimetic/modern-day: 4

·       Mystery: 9

·       Science Fiction: 104

·       Super-Heroes: 4

 

Again, I’m surprised that I read a bit more horror than I thought I did. And I’m still not sure why I separated crime, mystery, and thrillers into distinct subcategories.

 

 

MOVIES

I didn’t even come close on my “watch 52 movies” challenge. I watched 3 whole movies in 2025.

I had challenged myself to watch more of the several hundred DVDs I own (split between movies and television series). 1 of the 3 movies watched was on DVD. The other two were in actual movie theaters.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Horror (kind of): 1 (The Life of Chuck, a movie that is hard to categorize)

·       Super-Heroes: 2 (Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps)

 

These 3 movies were the work of 3 different directors.

 

 

TELEVISION

I only managed to watch 63 distinct episodes across 9 series, so nowhere near the “1 episode for every day” goal.

 

Genre breakdown:

·       Comedy: 2 series

·       Science Fiction: 2 series

·       Super-Heroes: 1 series

·       Horror: 1 series

·       Crime: 1 series

·       Variety/Comedy Specials: 2

 

 

LIVE THEATER

I saw 11 live theatrical productions in 2025, so I missed my “average one per month” goal by 1! I attended these shows in 11 different theaters, 9 of which were in New York City. One was in the Los Angeles area, and 1 was a local high school production. 8 were musicals, 3 were dramas. One was a new production of a show I’ve seen live before (Guys and Dolls), and two were shows I’ve seen movie or filmed stage versions of (Moulin Rouge and Pirates of Penzance).

 

 

OTHER LIVE EVENTS

I also tracked what other live events I went to. I attended:

·       one college graduation (my goddaughter’s, from the University of Pittsburgh),

·       1 baseball game (our local minor league team, The Sussex Miners)

·       1 work convention

·       2 book conventions/festivals (PulpFest; Milford Readers and Writers)

·       1 antiquarian book fair (in NYC)

·       1 annual birthday bookstore crawl (in NYC)

·       4 In-Person Author Events (1 at Kew and Willow in NYC, 3 at Stanza Books in Beacon)

·       6 online author events (mostly on C.S.E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez’s Twitch channel)

·       16 book club meetings (6 at Sparta Books in Sparta NJ, 10 at Stanza Books in Beacon NY)

 

 

PODCASTS

I only really started listening to podcasts late this year (other than about a decade ago when I used to listen to the New Yorker’s short story podcast, back when I still had an iPod Nano). So of course I decided to track my listening: 54 individual episodes across 5 different podcasts. All of them were comic book-related with the exception of 2 episodes:

·       The Borgo Pass podcast (Universal Monsters): 2 episodes

·       World on Fire: the All-Star Squadron podcast: 3 episodes

·       The Boxing Glove Arrow podcast (Green Arrow): 5 episodes

·       JSA Presents (various Justice Society related shows): 16 episodes

·       The History of Comic Books in 500 Issues: 24 episodes

 

 

COMIC BOOKS

I also decided to track how many individual comic books (single monthly issues, or “floppies”) I read in 2025. The total was 467. 30 of those were rereads, the other 437 were new (and mostly newly published). These issues were stretched across approximately 112 different titles from 10 different publishers.

 

The monthly distribution: 32 in January; 55 in February; 15 in March; 34 in April; 45 in May; 42 in June; 35 in July; 29 in August; 31 in September; 66 in October; 29 in November, and 54 in December.

 

The genre breakdown:

·       Comedy: 2

·       Fantasy: 25

·       Horror: 44

·       Mystery: 7

·       Sports: 2

·       Science Fiction: 2

·       War: 2

·       Super-Heroes: 383

 

 

Summary of Challenges:

366 Short Stories Challenge: 366 of 365 read.

Goodreads Challenge: 123 of 120 read.

Movie Challenge: 3 of 52 watched.

Television Challenge: 63 of 365 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: 11 of 12 shows attended.

2026 Reading Challenges!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Here’s hoping for a healthy book-and-story-filled 2026.

I always set myself more than one reading/viewing challenge per year. Some goals carry over from year to year, and some are new. Some are broad and some are themed. And in many cases, books read will help me meet more than one challenge. In 2024 I also started making some formal movies, television, and live theatre viewing challenges.

On the reading side of things, in 2025, I hit my overall book and short story goals but on the viewing side of things, I only got close to my goal for live theater, and majorly dropped the ball on my television and movie viewing goals. Instead of one large annual wrap-up post, I’m going to make a series of shorter posts: one for overall numbers (probably tomorrow), one for books, two for short stories (the first of which will go up on Sunday January 4), one for comic books, one for live theater and other live events (Thursday, January 8), and one for television/movies.

Once again, this year, I’m sticking mostly to the basic challenges:

 

365 SHORT STORIES CHALLENGE

Every year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Some years I keep the pace well, and some years I fall behind and then scramble to catch up (and some years, I catch up and fall behind again, and some years I blow past the goal handily). I’m defining “short story” as anything from flash fiction to novella-length. I am going to once again make an effort to review one or two stories every Sunday in my “Sunday Shorts” feature.

 

GOODREADS CHALLENGE

Goodreads allows members to set a challenge. In previous years, I’ve set goals ranging from 125 to 150 books. For 2025, I’m setting a goal of 120 to start with (10 books per month), and we’ll see what happens.

 

MOVIE CHALLENGE

I own a lot of DVDs. (I know, you’re shocked. Shocked!) Every year I say, “This is the year I’m going to make an effort to watch them!” And then, somehow, I … don’t. One year, I did a list of 12 and two alternates as I used to do for the ToBeRead Challenge, called it the ToBeWatched Challenge … and failed it miserably. In 2024, I got about halfway to the goal of 52 movies (an average of one per week). In 2025, not so much. So this year, I’m setting myself the same challenge. This includes movies on DVD, streaming services, and any trips to an actual movie theater (which have become rare for me).

 

TELEVISION CHALLENGE

Did I mention I own a lot of DVDs? And that I’m subscribed to a lot of streaming services? I did? Well, you won’t be shocked to know that it’s not all about the movies. So I’m setting myself a “TV Series Watch” challenge akin to my Short Story Challenge: an average of one full episode of a television series (regardless of length) for each day in the year, which this year means 365 episodes.

 

LIVE THEATRE CHALLENGE

I did pretty well with this one in 2025, even though I didn’t manage to post reviews of everything. So I’m continuing the goal for 2026: I want to see at least 1 live theatrical performance per month. Most of them will be in New York City, but I’ll count any play, musical, opera, ballet, or staged reading I see anywhere, regardless of whether it’s fully professional productions, college, community theatre, whatever. (Music concerts, author signings, and conferences/conventions do not count towards this but will be tracked separately.)

 

COMIC BOOK CHALLENGE

I also own a lot of comic books. I went “cold turkey” on buying new comics about 20 years ago for budget and space reasons. But then in 2018 Seanan McGuire and Saladin Ahmed, two authors whose work I love, started writing various comics for Marvel and thought brought me back into buying monthly comics. And I keep buying more. 2025 was the first year I actually tracked every individual comic book issue (“floppies,” as some people call them) I read, so I’m going to make this an official Challenge for 2026: as with the short stories and the television episodes, I plan to read at least one comic book (new or back issue) for every day of the year … so again, 365 total.

 

ALPHABET CHALLENGE

I saw at the beginning of 2025 several book bloggers posting about various alphabet challenges: one book title for each letter of the alphabet, one author for each letter of the alphabet. I made a good run at both in 2025 without necessarily making reading decisions based on either, so I think I’m going to do them again in 2026.

 NOVELLA NOVEMBER

I’ve made NovellaNovember (or, as another book blogger on Bluesky coined it, Novellavember) a thing for the past few years. My goal is to promote and discuss novellas and short novels (and even novelettes) throughout the month, including publisher, author and editor interviews. I say every year I’m going to shoot for a novella day, but I think I’ll make that a novella every two days for 2026.

OTHER UNOFFICIAL CHALLENGES

There are a few ongoing (in some cases, sort of life-long, or at least second-half-of-my-life long) challenges that I don’t think I’ve ever written about here. For instance, I’m well on my way to having read everything Bram Stoker ever wrote. Here are those challenges, and I’m going to do my best to create dedicated posts early in the year showing what I’ve already read/watched for each challenge and then update as I go along. Again, these are multi-year challenges:

·       The Complete Bram Stoker Read-Through

·       The Complete Seanan McGuire Read-Through

·       The Complete Silvia Moreno-Garcia Read-Through

·       The Complete Philip Jose Farmer Read-Through

·       The Complete Edgar Rice Burroughs Read-Through

·       The Complete Maurice Broaddus Read-Through

  • The Complete Perry Rhodan Read-Through

·       The Complete Dark Shadows Rewatch

·       The Complete Doctor Who Rewatch

·       The Complete Star Trek Rewatch

·       The Complete Planet of the Apes Rewatch

·       The Complete Brother Cadfael Read-Through and Rewatch

·       The Complete A.A. Fair (Cool and Lam series) Read-Through

·       The Complete Marvel Comics 1970s Novels Reread

·       The Complete Hard Case Crime Read-Through

·       The Complete Radium Age of Science Fiction Read-Through

·       The Complete American Mystery Classics Read-Through

·       The Complete Doc Savage Read-Through

·       The Complete Three Investigators Read-Through

·       The Complete Man From U.N.C.L.E. and Girl From U.N.C.L.E. Read-Through and Rewatch

·       The Complete All-Star Squadron Reread

·       The Complete The Invaders (Marvel Comics) Reread

·       The Complete Starman (2000’s DC) Reread

·       The Complete Tomb of Dracula Reread

·       The Complete Micronauts and ROM Reread

·       The Complete Shakespeare Watch (either Live theater or filmed)

·       Read A Book or Story From Every Nation in the World

·       Read a Book From Every State and US Territory

·       Read a Book from Every Canadian Province/Territory

 

And one of these days I would really like to finish creating a list of every book I remember reading in my life.

 

 

ACCOUNTABILITY

So how am I going to hold myself accountable? I’m planning to bring back my monthly Reading RoundUps. (I know, I know … I said this in the 2025 Challenge post and failed miserably at actually doing it. Second time’s the charm?) I’m not going to rename/rebrand because I like the alliterative title (which falls well in line with Series Saturday, Sunday Shorts, and a few other blog series I’m hoping to make regular features again in 2026), but those posts will also track the Viewing challenges.

 

 

I would love to hear what YOUR Reading, Writing, or Viewing Challenges are for 2024. Let me know in the comments!

Interview: Christa Carmen

Today for Writer Wednesday, I chat with author Christa Carmen.

Christa Carmen lives in Rhode Island. She is the Bram Stoker Award-winning and two-time Shirley Jackson Award-nominated author of The Daughters of Block Island, Beneath the Poet's House, and How to Fake a Haunting, as well as the Indie Horror Book Award-winning Something Borrowed, Something Blood-Soaked, the Bram Stoker Award-nominated "Through the Looking Glass and Straight into Hell" (Orphans of Bliss: Tales of Addiction Horror), and co-editor of the Aurealis Award-nominated We Are Providence and the Australiasian Shadow Award-nominated Monsters in the Mills. She has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, an MA from Boston College, and an MFA from the University of Southern Maine.

When she’s not writing, she keeps chickens; uses a Ouija board to ghost-hug her dear, departed beagle; and sets out on adventures with her husband, daughter, and bloodhound–golden retriever mix. Most of her work comes from gazing upon the ghosts of the past or else into the dark corners of nature, those places where whorls of bark become owl eyes, and deer step through tunnels of hanging leaves and creeping briars only to disappear.

 

Hi Christa! Thanks for taking some time to chat.

Thank you so much for having me, Anthony!

How To Fake A Haunting, which released on October 7th, is your third book in three years. That’s consistent output! Tell us a bit about the plot.

Lainey Taylor is being pushed to the brink by her alcoholic husband, Callum. However, without any DUIs or missed work days for a judge to point to, Lainey knows she won’t win against Callum–and his influential family–in divorce proceedings or an attempt to gain full custody of their daughter, Beatrix. She’s trapped, angry, and completely helpless. 

Her best friend Adelaide has a wild solution. They’ll stage a haunting so convincing it will drive Callum out of Lainey’s life for good. They start small, with strange smells, noises in the walls, and flies unleashed along the windowsills (I had to insert at least a little Amityville-esque influence!). But with each stage of their plan (and a little help from Callum’s alcohol-induced night terrors), Lainey is closer to seeing the haunting through to its bitter, freeing end.

Without giving anything away, I’ll just say that there’s far too much rage, resentment, and fear for Lainey and Adelaide’s plan not to go horribly wrong. As their fake haunting spirals into something no one can control, Lainey discovers that the only way out is to join forces with Callum, or die trying.

What inspired or influenced How To Fake A Haunting?

There was a very specific moment of inception for this book. My husband and I have been married for nine years this October, and like all married couples (or maybe just like all people once they reach a certain age), we tend to occasionally (ahem, often) spend so much time choosing a movie to watch, that by the time we turn it on, one or both of us falls asleep. On this particular evening, my husband swore he wasn’t tired; we chose a movie, and not five minutes later, I heard heaving breathing coming from the couch. 

Annoyed, I decided to head in and get ready for bed. But before I could, an idea–BAM–hit me like a horror movie jump scare. I grabbed his cell phone, and took a picture of him sleeping on the couch. I think maybe I was planning to show him the picture in the morning, like, “I told you you’d be the one to fall asleep!” Instead, I texted the picture to myself, walked into the kitchen, and then stormed back into the living room loud enough to wake him. “Why did you just text me a picture of yourself sleeping?” I asked. Disoriented, he replied, “What? Why would I text you a picture of myself sleeping?” But I doubled down, narrowed my eyes, and said, really cryptically, “You mean, you didn’t just text me this picture of you sleeping from your phone?” Needless to say, he was suitably freaked out, and eventually, I caved and admitted to the prank. When the time came to get working on a new novel, I thought of the playfulness of scaring your spouse, and how the idea of faking a haunting could be really fun, which morphed into questions of why someone would want to commit to a fake haunting, and then things just took off from there!

It seems like you did quite a bit of research into the paranormal investigation field, and particularly in regards to faking a haunting. Can you tell us a bit about that research?

I think the research for this book might have been some of the most bonkers research I’ve ever conducted. Around two-thirds of the way through the book, in chapter 32, Lainey and Adelaide have returned to Lainey’s house under cover of darkness to orchestrate the mother of all fake hauntings, a terrifying spectacle that will finally send Callum packing for good. In order to pull off what is essentially an elaborate theatrical production, the women dig deep into their arsenal, acquired through extensive horror movie research and a meeting with a husband-wife team of paranormal investigators. Without spoiling anything, I’ll say that, in order to write the scene, I had to rely on my own knowledge of horror films, titles like Let’s Scare Jessica to Death, The Conjuring, The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist, Carrie, The Changeling, and Malevolent, as well as deep dives into smart speaker and television programming capabilities, magnetized candles, recordable teddy bears, and how much pig’s blood might be required to recreate an abattoir inside a bathroom.

Having read and loved all three of your novels, I feel like it’s safe to say you have slowly increased the supernatural quotient in each book. Daughters of Block Island was more classically Gothic, with mostly eerie vibes; Beneath the Poet’s House had some moments that could have been supernatural or could have had mundane explanations but were left up to the reader to decide, and now, without spoilers, it appears the fake haunting turns real. Has this slow increase in the supernatural been a conscious decision on your part?

So, short answer… yes? But one that was met with a fair amount of reluctance on my part and lots of encouragement from writer friends and beta readers.

I recently took part in a wonderful event an An Unlikely Story in Plainville, MA with fantastic thriller writers Vanessa Lillie and Tracy Sierra, and Tracy said that she thinks one of the most difficult things in writing horror is coming up with a ‘system’ of the supernatural—or monsters, or killers, or whatever frightening thing the author is working with—that is unique but also makes sense in the world of the story, and she stated that she felt I’d done a good job with it in How to Fake a Haunting (for which I’m eternally grateful). She then asked if I had any advice on how to invent a ‘horror world’ that is also logical, and my answer was that I start by getting something onto the page that serves the story, but that ultimately, I don’t want the supernatural in my work to be, as the kids say, “cringe.” 

I think I shied away from the supernatural on the page in the past because I was worried I would do it in a way that would be hokey or take readers out of the story. I should have trusted myself more, however, because I was happy with how the final third of How to Fake a Haunting played out.

I’m always interested to know what an author’s creative process is like. Are you a plotter, a pantser, somewhere in between? Has your process changed over the years you’ve been writing?

I am neither, I suppose. I’m a writer who tends to know where she wants a story to begin, where she wants it to end, and the major beats in between. The details, though, how I get from beginning to beat one, beat one to beat two, etc., those are apt to surprise me. I do tend to—if I stumble on an idea I want to include somewhere in a manuscript—get nervous that I’ll forget it, so I text myself little “breadcrumbs,” as I call them, so I can go back over the text thread at the end of each draft and make sure I’ve incorporated everything I wanted to include. So…I’m a ‘Hansel-and-Greteler?’

I love that term! Let’s make it a thing. You also write short stories and have edited some anthologies of local Rhode Island writers’ work. What do you look for as an editor?

First and foremost, adherence to submission guidelines! It may sound nitpicky, but this shows an editor that you respect their process and their time, and helps you put the right foot forward from first glance. As for content, I look for work that keeps me guessing, keeps me uneasy, has me questioning everything I thought I knew in the world of the story. I love a well-done ambiguous ending, a jump-scare-on-paper, and both quiet and cinematic horror, as long as it’s well done. Most importantly, I want to be thinking about the story long after I read it, turning over lines and plot points in my mind. I’m currently editing an unannounced project right now, and it’s been a delight to discover some new voices and be told some amazing, get-under-your-skin stories from writer’s I’ve come to admire.

I’m already eagerly anticipating your next book, as you probably have guessed. Can you tease us at all about your next project and when we might expect it?

Well, thank you! That’s so nice to hear. I’m indeed hard at work finishing up my fourth novel, as well as putting a second short story collection together. The novel will NOT be set in Rhode Island, which is pretty wild for me, but in London, Geneva, and Rome, and is a sort of body horror/sci-fi/artifact chase mashup. I’m having lots of fun with it and am looking forward to getting back to work on the project post-release of How to Fake a Haunting.

 In the meantime, my short story, “The Clearing,” is part of Lindy Ryan and Stephanie M. Wytovich’s HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror, out November 4th. I also have a story, “Comeback Kid,” in The Rack II: More Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks, edited by Tom Deady, that came out October 14th, and several other stories in anthologies, as well as an editing project, that I can’t announce just yet.  

Anyone interested in updates can find me online, at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/christaqua/), Instagram (@christaqua), and Bluesky (‪@christaqua.bsky.social), as well as on my website, www.christacarmen.com.

And my traditional final question: What is your all-time favorite book?

I’m going to be such a downer on this question, because my favorite book is A Little Life by Hanya Yanigahara. I’ve never read something beyond this book in which the characters felt realer to me than some of the real people I know. Yanigahara’s ability to immerse you in the story, in the world she’s created, is unparalleled. Jude’s plight also helped me understand more about how trauma can follow and shape a person than some of my experiences working at an actual inpatient psychiatric hospital ward; I worked to get into patients’ heads, to help them, but one can never quite reach through someone’s barriers the way you can into a well-rendered character’s head, and this was Jude St. Francis all the way.

Thanks, Christa!

Thank you, Anthony! This was a blast!

You can find my review of Christa’s second novel, Beneath the Poet’s House HERE.

INTERVIEW: BETH CATO

Today, I’m chatting with author Beth Cato. Beth Cato hails from Hanford, California, but currently writes and bakes cookies in Red Wing, Minnesota. She usually has one or two cats in close orbit. A 2015 Nebula finalist, she is the author of the cozy mystery CHEDDAR LUCK NEXT TIME as well as fantasy like A THOUSAND RECIPES FOR REVENGE. Her short stories can be found in publications ranging from Beneath Ceaseless Skies to Uncanny Magazine. In 2019 and 2022, she won the Rhysling Award for short speculative poetry. Her website BethCato.com includes not only a vast bibliography, but a treasure trove of recipes for delectable goodies. Find her on BlueSky as @BethCato and Instagram as @catocatsandcheese.

Photo Credit: Corey Ralston Photography (2013)

ANTHONY: Hi Beth! Thanks for taking some time to chat. Your latest release, which was an Amazon First Reads pick for September, is A House Between Sea and Sky. Tell us a bit about the plot.

BETH: It’s a cozy standalone set in 1926 Carmel-by-the-Sea in California. A grieving writer and a secretive silent film star are adopted by a sentient cottage with a dark past.

What inspired you to write A House Between Sea and Sky?

After I wrapped up my Chefs of the Five Gods series, I asked my then-editor what she’d like to see next. She said she wanted historical fantasy set in the real world. From there, I started mulling. I’m a native Californian, so exploring that setting feels right.

House is historical fantasy, much like your Blood of Earth trilogy. How much research did you have to do into the time period this book takes place in, and how did you go about that? (I loved all the details you incorporated about the Silent Film industry of the time, even the unsavory aspects of it.)

I spent a solid three months on research before I could even finish a synopsis, and then I kept researching through the writing and revision process. For me, worldbuilding really needs to come before fleshed-our characters or plot. Our world shapes everything. I was truly blessed to find a wealth of scanned Carmel 1920s newspapers on Archive.org, plus a tourism book that was published in 1925. There is a very special famous person cameo appearance in the book, and that person’s involvement determined the exact days of the plot. As for the silent film elements... I actually have a trunked novel I wrote a few years ago that I think is one of the best things I’ve ever written, but my agent wasn’t able to sell it. My main character in that book was a scenarist in 1923 Hollywood. I had kept the most interesting research books and had tons of information on my computer, so I was able to repurpose that material, which felt wonderful!

I would love to see that trunked novel be published some day! Without spoiling anything, I think it’s safe to say that Russian folklore plays a large role in the book. Was this folklore that you grew up with?

In my teens, I collected a number of century-old Andrew Lang Color Fairy Tale books and other mythology tomes that were discarded from my local library. (There’s a reason those Lang books get a mention in A House Between Sea and Sky!) I still have them all, too. That’s really the first place I encountered a broader variety of stories that were identified with their places of origin, and I was then able to connect creatures and elements to the AD&D books I was also reading at the time.

While I don’t think it’s ever explicitly stated in the text, I got the very strong feeling that Fayette is asexual/aromantic (although those terms probably didn’t exist in the 1920s), and thus her relationship with Rex is one of mutual respect and quickly-developing friendship, but nothing more. I think we still don’t see enough of this in historical fantasy (the lack of a romance between leads). I’m not sure I have a question here, other than “is my understanding of the character correct?” But would you like to talk a bit about how you approach representation in your books (which always have diverse casts)?

You’re 100% right. I wrote Fayette to be ace. I love a good main character romance, but I don’t think that should be a requirement even if it appeals to the big trend. People CAN just be friends. I want my books to be realistic, and for me, that means diversity is natural. That includes a spectrum of queer rep as well as different skin tones and ethnic backgrounds. By the way, the racism shown in this book was directly inspired by reading Jack London’s book The Valley of the Moon, which is partly set in Carmel, and is also horrendously racist with very particular ideas on who is a “real American.” So I guess my approach to representation is sometimes inspired by active defiance against a book that is over 100 years old!

I would love to know what your writing process is like, and if it varies when you delve into different genres (you know how much I loved your foray into cozy mystery/thriller territory, Cheddar Luck Next Time) or different story lengths (novels vs. novellas vs. short stories for instance).

I’m a hardcore outliner and researcher. Even for a flash fic, which is normally about a thousand words, it’s not uncommon for me to have a few sentences of outline to guide me! Poetry is the only thing I write spontaneously. So many of my recent fantasy books have been historical, and the research has been immersive. A Feast for Starving Stone had a 25,000-word outline, but that was also long because my characters were talking a lot in my head, and that dialogue was sketched in. Cheddar Luck Next Time was nowhere near as intense, but I still had to research details on running a cheese board business. The details on the many cheeses included were largely drawn from my own personal cheese log, which is over 200,000 words and is nearing 2,000 cheeses. Bird’s taste note on cheese are pulled from my own experiences.

 

Speaking of Cheddar Luck Next Time (which I reviewed HERE … is there any word on whether we’ll get to see more adventures of Bird and company?

I hate to be a tease, but I hope to be able to talk more about that soon!

I’ll take whatever teases I can get! What do you have in the pipeline/coming out next?

I do have one contract signed that I can’t talk about yet, and I’m in a very early research stage for something else. I’ve been very busy recently!

And my traditional final question … what is your all-time favorite book?

There is one recent stand-out for me, and that is The Wishing Game by Meg Shaffer. It’s really a suspenseful love letter to the power of children’s fantasy novels and how they can save lives. I recently read it again because I proposed it to a local book club, and the other members loved it so much that they all immediately picked up her second book, The Lost Story, which is also excellent. It’s a queer take on Narnia-style portal fantasies. Really, you can’t go wrong with Meg Shaffer’s books! Her third one will be out next year, and I can’t wait.

I am adding Meg Shaffer to my To Be Read list as soon as I finish posting this interview. Thanks again Beth!

TOP TEN(ISH) MOMENTS FROM PULPFEST 2025

PulpFest 2025 is officially in the books. Which means so are FarmerCon XX, ERBFest 2025, and DocCon 2025. I had a phenomenal time hanging out with old friends, making new friends, spending too much money, staying up too late, and driving to/from Cranberry PA … but it was all worth it. There were way more than 10 Top Moments of the Con(s), but here are a bunch of them:

 

BEING MISTAKEN FOR WIN ECKERT’S BROTHER

Win and I have known each other a good few years now. But this is the first time anyone seeing us next to each other has sincerely asked “are you guys brothers?” (In this case, our waitress at Primanti Brothers during our Wednesday night Pre-Con dinner). I, for one, took the question as a compliment. Check out my interviews with Win HERE and HERE to get a sense of why I consider it a compliment.

“Twins” Anthony R. Cardno and Win Scott Eckert

 

BEING A (SMALL) PART OF THE RETURN OF DOCCON

DocCon (the convention dedicated to all things related to Doc Savage) has a venerable history but has taken a few years off … until Jen DiGiacomo had the idea to revive it as the latest “mini-con” to happen under the PulpFest banner. I was a (very small) part of the planning committee (being perhaps the Least Knowledgeable Doc Savage Fan Ever), my main contribution being a marketing idea (that didn’t happen for this year but may be considered for 2026, so I don’t want to spoil it) and then being the “sub-in” guy at the DocCon tables when the other folks, mainly Ron Hill (who I interviewed HERE), needed to be on panels or introducing the film.

DocCon crew, L to R: Anthony R. Cardno, Anthony Rais, Bill Lampkin, Ron Hill, Scott Cranford

 

THE EDGAR RICE BURROUGHS INC PANEL

Okay, most of what Cathy Mann Willbanks (ERB Inc’s Vice President of Operations) and Christopher Paul Carey (Vice President of Publishing) announced on this panel had already been announced at San Diego Comic Con … but that didn’t stop me from being excited to hear the details in person. They announced upcoming novels (the next ERB Universe novel from the aforementioned Win Scott Eckert; a new Barsoom novel from Chris L. Adams under the “Wild Adventures” banner; new ERBU novels in the Land That Time Forgot and Monster Men series); a new John Carter and Woola action figure set from Frazetta Girls; and several new animation projects including a Victory Harben ERBU animated series in development! (My Interviews with Christopher Paul Carey HERE and HERE.)

Most of the ERB Inc panel. L to R: Christopher Paul Carey, Henry G. Franke III, Win Scott Eckert, Chris L. Adams, Douglas Klauba. Missing because my phone is a jerk: Cathy Wilbanks. SORRY, Cathy!

 

THE WICKER MAN

During a conversation with Craig McDonald during which I bought his used copy of the novelization of The Wicker Man, I discovered that not only is there a novelization of the film … the film was also based on a long out-of-print novel called Ritual by David Pinner (and that novel has a sequel, The Wicca Woman)! How out of print is it? So out of print that there’s no English language paperback edition (only a Spanish language version) and the original hardcover is going for over $1,000 on the secondary market. But there IS a reasonably priced e-book version of both of Pinner’s books. Which you know I’ve already ordered. (Interview with Craig McDonald HERE).

L to R: The copy of The Wicker Man novelization I bought from Craig McDonald, the cover to the e-book of Ritual, the cover to the e-book of Wicca Woman.

 

FLINCH-FEST

To say that I think highly of Jim Beard and John C. Bruening, co-founders of Flinch! Books, is an understatement. (And no, it’s not just because Jim included my essay on Jack Kirby’s short-lived 1970s DC Comics series The Sandman in his book Jack of All Comics! a few months ago. But why pass up a chance at a shameless plug? Also, HERE’s the Interview about the book with Jim.) Flinch! started ten years ago, and their panel at PulpFest talked a little about that history and featured reading from their new and upcoming releases (Jim’s fourth Sgt. Janus book, and John’s upcoming fourth Midnight Guardian book). These two have such an easy, funny, rapport. They are also great dinner companions and conversationalists. I also probably spent way too much time chatting with them at their table and lost them a few sales. (Kidding.)

L to R: Flinch! Books co-founders John C. Bruening and Jim Beard.

 

CHRISTOPHER LEE

During that conversation with Craig McDonald about The Wicker Man, our friend Kim Turk mentioned having seen some anthologies with Christopher Lee’s name on the cover as Editor, and I went to check out them out. Kim patiently waited for me to notice the real prize she’d already seen … a hardcover copy of Lee’s memoir … signed by the man himself! Reader, you know I bought it immediately.

 

MARK WHEATLEY AND DOUG KLAUBA

It is incredibly fun to sit in a room and watch two amazing artists, both of whom have drawn Tarzan and other Edgar Rice Burroughs characters, talk about all the great artists who have drawn the Lord of The Jungle over the years, including what they admire about those artists’ work. (Click on their names to find my interviews with Mark Wheatley and Doug Klauba.)

L to R: Mark Wheatley, Douglas Klauba

 

DOC SAVAGE, THE JLA, AND THE JSA

Did I mention that I spent too much money? I’m not going to post pictures of every book, magazine, and print I bought … but along with the Christopher Lee book, the other Most Pricey purchases including six original Doc Savage pulps (I’ll post 1 or 2 of their covers below) and four Silver Age Justice League issues featuring the annual crossovers with the Justice Society. (I was also eye-ing a Golden Age issue of The Black Knight, but it was way outside my price range.)

 

FARMERCON DINNER AND LOBBY HANGOUTS/CHATTING AT DEALER AND AUTHOR TABLES

The reason I started attending this convention was to meet in person my fellow Philip Jose Farmer fan friends, who had been so welcoming to me in various online forums, and hanging out with them at dinner(s) and in the lobby after even programming ends is always one of, if not THE, highlight of the weekend. It was no different this time, even though our numbers were slightly smaller than usual thanks to scheduling conflicts and other things. There is such a big overlap between PJF, ERB, and Doc Savage fans at this convention that most of the people I’ve mentioned above, and many I haven’t, were present at all times. And visiting with authors like Glen Held, Brian K. Morris and Charles F. Millhouse and artists like Don Simpson and folks like Henry Franke of the Burroughs Bibliophiles at their tables is always fun as well. (Interviews with Glen, Henry, Brian and Charles at the links; interview with Don coming soon!)

L to R: Anthony R. Cardno, Brian K. Morris, Charles F. Millhouse (The “Middle Initial Squad”)

For those interested, my report on PulpFest 2024 can be found HERE. And my interview with Mike Chomko of the PulpFest committee can be found HERE.

Interview: BRIAN K. MORRIS

Today, as part of on-going but soon-to-end series of interviews with various creative types attending PulpFest 2025, I chat with author Brian K. Morris.

Brian K. Morris is a freelance writer, independent publisher, occasional actor on stage and film, as well as a former mortician’s assistant. Originally from Illinois, Brian now lives in Central Indiana with his wife, no children, no pets, and too many comic books.

Adept in multiple genres of fiction and nonfiction, Brian’s work has been published by Stormgate Press, Flinch Books, Pro Se Press, BEN Books, Blue Planet Press, TwoMorrows Publishing, and Atomic Stories, among others.

Brian won the 2022 Pulp Factory Award for Best Short Story for “Snow Ambition” (BEN Books) and his novel, The Terrors, earned Jeffrey Hayes/Plasmafire Graphics the 2024 Pulp Factory Award. Brian also received a playwriting award in 1997 for not murdering his director.

You can find all things BKM at www.RisingTide.pub where you can sign up for his monthly Insider Information email and from there, join his Patreon account where you can read his twice-weekly blog, Every Blog Deserves a Name.

 

Hi Brian! Thanks for taking some time to chat.

Goodness! Thank YOU!

Be warned… I tend to talk at sixty miles per hour with gusts of 75. You ask me for the time, I’ll give you the history of clockmaking. Brace yourself…

Since this interview is intended for my series focusing on the creative folks attending PulpFest, let’s start there: what is your first memory of the Pulps or the characters that debuted in them?

I had no idea the pulps existed before I saw the early Doc Savage reprints in a local bookstore, which was also a tobacconist. I recall they had about four or five of them in a row on their shelves. I knew nothing about Doc and the Amazing Five, but I saw the cover of Curse of the Werewolf and I just about fell to my knees, begging my mother to let me buy it.

I started in on the book that night. The next day, I persuaded—if kicking and screaming and begging counts as persuasion—my mother to take me back to that store so I could buy all the others on the shelves.

Then I read the first volume of Jim Steranko’s History of Comics where I learned more about the pulps. Comics and pulps have become a passion that’s enriched most of my life.

And what influence did these characters/books have on you as a reader?

BKM: I loved these episodic adventures because they were like the comic books I loved, but I had to mentally supply the images. These carried me up to the early adventure series of the Seventies and Eighties: Mack Bolan, Remo Williams, The Penetrator, The Chameleon, The Death Merchant, Edge, etc. In a way, I saw these new series as successors to the old pulps. And I still love those books to this day, just as I do the pulps.

I have a reasonable background in reading many pieces of classic literature, mostly because my parents made that a condition to continue reading the material I genuinely loved.

I’m always interested in hearing about people’s creative process. What is yours like? And does it differ between short stories and novels, or when you’re working on your own characters versus somebody else’s?

My process is ever-evolving. Mine begins with the germ of an idea which becomes an “elevator pitch” of two sentences, along with a sentence of a potential plot. If I can boil a story down to that, I’m halfway home with coming up with a decent story.

Then I apply the Lester Dent Master Plot to the process to flesh out an outline. After that, I dive into researching what I need for the story, or I just make it all up out of my head and hope I don’t need to use any real history or science.

Then I take my outline, look at it before I start writing, and then ignore it as I type to allow sudden inspiration to take hold. Every now and then, If I get bored with my outline, I’ll toss a spanner into the works to make the protagonist’s life more hellish. It keeps things fresh for the reader, I hope, and definitely for me.

My process is pretty consistent across multiple word limits except I might add steps to my outline for a large novel or delete an incident or two for a shorter story, depending on the word count I’m allowed. And make no mistake, you give me a word count, I will push it until it whimpers.

As for working on characters for other publishers, I love when I’m asked. I love being told that my work sounds like the creator’s voice. I’ve had a great deal of fun doing the CNI: Classified stories for Robert J. Mendenhall. For those stories, I purposely selected the so-called “minor” characters because I didn’t have to worry about other writers’ ideas conflicting with my own. Plus, don’t those characters deserve some time in the spotlight?

I’m keenly aware that I have to use what Stan Lee called “the illusion of change.” I must leave the characters I’ve been given, pretty much in the shape they were given to me by the end of my story, no better nor no worse. I can’t make Captain Hawklin a cyborg, or force Conrad von Honig to undergo an amputation, or allow Abraham Snow to become the King of the Venusians. In fact, I tend to add secondary characters to whoever loans me their brainchildren, so my benefactors can have new toys to play with. Then they can abuse my brainchildren to their hearts’ content.

Last year at PulpFest, you debuted Quest for the Delphi Oculus: The Chronicles of Conrad von Honig, published by Flinch! Books and featuring a character created by Flinch publishers Jim Beard and John C. Breuning who had previously appeared in a short story anthology (Quest for the Space Gods: The Chronicles of Conrad von Honig). What was that process like in particular? And will you be penning more of Conrad’s adventures?

I want to go on record that this book was quite an adventure for Jim, John, and myself. They’d never worked on a full-length novel with a writer that wasn’t either of them. I couldn’t have asked for two more helpful, encouraging, and challenging editors than those two. I’m so very proud of the book and would love to see some comments on Amazon for it.

I want to say it took about three years to get that book into print because we were all kinda feeling our way in the dark thought the process. They’d never handled a full-length novel from an outside writer—i.e., not Jim or John. Also, I’ll take responsibility for any delays because at the time, I’d overcommitted myself to other publishers at several points in our timeline. But thanks to their patience and skill, the book was written and I’m very proud of what the three of us put together. And what about that Mark Maddox cover, huh?

But I loved, and still love, Conrad von Honig. Jim ‘n’ John were fantastic to work with and yeah, I might have another CvH book in me. So if you want to see it, call Jim and John at… let me get their home phone numbers for you, okay?

I might already have them. (Kidding, John and Jim! Kidding!)

You also last year released The Terrors, an update of a classic Golden Age comics character (The Black Terror). What inspired you to write the book and what changes did you make to the character (who is in the public domain)?

I am so proud of The Terrors. It started by letting my mind roam, which can prove hazardous to those around me. I’d just finished a book that mentioned the U.S. Government approached the various comic publishers to portray members of the Axis powers as less human, even sub-human, in order to destroy any empathy a comic reader might have for them. And given that a LOT of comics were sold in P.X.s at the time, this dehumanized our foes and made them easier for the soldiers to kill.

Not long after that, I sought an idea to write about for what proved to be my first novel for my Rising Tide Publications imprint in too many years. For whatever reason, I asked myself what if the heroes with the word “Black” as part of their name—Black Hood, Black Bat, Black Condor, etc.—were actually African American? How would that have influenced their acceptance by the public they first appeared in? How would that affect their relationship with the authorities? I started taking notes.

I loved the original Black Terror and thought he’d make a good subject for a novel. Then the idea of a clandestine government organization, based on my earlier reading, popped into my head. I applied the idea of a World War 2-based minority hero in my fictional Raceway City, and the rest just fell into place. The book practically wrote itself, and I’ve gotten some great reviews as a result.

And this hero’s “The Terror” because referring to his “blackness” would be as redundant as calling another hero “The White Green Lantern” or “The Orange Thing.”

Bob Benton and Tim Rowland—previously “Roland” in the original comics—were unaltered in personality, but I gave each of them a backstory and Tim got a mom. Jean Starr’s paramour was killed in his second appearance in the comics, but he was too good a villain to not use in these stories.

I also used a version of the Fox Comics public domain version of the Blue Beetle that I renamed The Cobalt Scarab. I also snuck in an appearance from the pulps’ Black Bat. All of this is wrapped up in the notion that the comic adventures DID happen, just not as they were portrayed in government-encouraged propaganda, namely the comic books that you and I know.

I kinda upped the Terror Twins’ power levels and gave the Scarab a means of flight that amused me, based on the old E.B. Stoner illustrations. Then everything fell together, I’m happy to say.

I believe you’ve been working on the sequel. What can you tell us about that?

OOOH! I’m quite excited about the sequel, tentatively titled From Dust ‘Til Dawn. I up the threat level and pretty much destroy any limits this series might have.

In a nutshell, an ancient sarcophagus holds wrappings that will soon prove to be a deadly threat not only to the Terror Twins, but to the world. Let’s just say today, Raceway City… tomorrow, everywhere.

And there will also be two spin-offs from this book that I’m having fun writing. All of them will have GORGEOUS covers by Jeffrey Hayes of Plasmafire Graphics. Jeffrey’s become one of my most enthusiastic cheerleaders for the series, I’m tickled to report.

I am a fan of fiction related to Christmas, especially genre stories connected to the holiday. Tell us about your short novel Santastein: Or, the Post-Holiday Prometheus.

BKM: Santastein, The Post-Holiday Prometheus, is my biggest selling book and probably was the most fun to write. My wife just shakes her head at what I think is amusing, but it’s sold on eight continents, and file-shared out of Russia and China. It does my ego good to know I’m worth stealing from.

Santastein was originally a ten-minute holiday play that I couldn’t convince any of my theatre peeps to produce. They loved it but found it a bit irreverent for the holiday. Can you imagine that? Irreverent? From ME???

This book came early in my full-time writing career. I wanted to put out something fairly quickly after a serious downturn in my daily employment, so I expanded on the script from the original play and it’s become my all-time best seller. This means a lot to me because Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein was the first “grown-up” book I ever read and it might just be my favorite of all time.

And yes, I have plots for two more sequels.

You’ve also written a lot of essays for books and magazines about pop culture history, especially comic books. In fact, we just shared a table of contents, in Jack of All Comics! A Fan Conversation about the King of Comics. What is your process like for researching and writing these non-fiction pieces in general, and the piece on Jack Kirby’s run on DC’s Our Fighting Forces in the 1970s in particular?

BKM: I have so much fun working on this kind of book. It gives me legitimacy, at least in my own mind, when I tell my wife my “work” will involve reading my favorite comic books and watching classic television shows. It’s tough work, but someone’s gotta do it.

First of all, I keep my ears open for anthologies that explore subjects I’m reasonably familiar with, and passionate about. After I make my pitch for an article, and it’s accepted, I dive into the subject, whether it’s Batman ’66 or a specific run of a comic book. While doing the research, I find the “hook” that will make the article interesting to me, at least. It might be a creator’s approach to the material, or it might be a breakdown of what made me interested in the work initially, and to share WHY all this made me happy and why it was important to the medium in which it was presented.

The REAL reason why I enjoy doing articles on old TV shows, comic books, and other media of my misspent youth: I get to watch/listen/read material that makes me happy, then share that joy with the editor of the book.

And before you ask, YES, I do write with the reader in mind. But first and foremost, I write for the EDITOR. I figure it’s his/her job to know what their readers want, so I need the editor’s guidance to please their “customers.” I make the editor happy, the editor pleases the readers. It’s a kind of literary “trickle-down” theory.

What do you have coming up that readers should keep an eye out for?

Well, I’ve finally got a plot for the sequel to Vulcana: Rebirth of the Champion, so that’s in the queue. The following year, I hope to get the final Vulcana novel out, but you have to ask me about the title in person. It’s a bit irreverent…

I’m also working on the aforementioned The Terrors 2: From Dust ‘Til Dawn, as well as the REAL stories behind the Twin Terrors’ and Cobalt Scarab’s original four-color adventures.

I’ve been sitting on an anthology featuring my character Doc Saga, who appeared in Pulp Reality #2 from Stormgate Press. My anthology contributors have exercised superhuman patience with me, so I plan to get that out soon.

I’m also planning out a new version of an anthology that I recently got the rights to, but that’ll have to stay under my fez for now.

Thanks again, Brian! By the time this posts on my website, we’ll both be knee-deep in all things PulpFest!

Aw, thank YOU for letting me overshare my love of all things New Pulp.



Readers, as you read this, it is probably Day Two of PulpFest 2025. It’s still not too late to register for and attend the remaining two days of THE pulp magazine-focused convention in the Northeast and the other three conventions it hosts: FarmerCon (dedicated to the works of Philip Jose Farmer), ERBFest (dedicated to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs) and DocCon (dedicated to all things Doc Savage related). Check out the PulpFest website for registration and hotel information!

Interview: CRAIG MCDONALD

For the first day of PulpFest, I’m happy to have a chance to chat with author Craig McDonald.

Craig McDonald is an award-winning journalist, communications specialist, and author of the acclaimed Hector Lassiter series. His debut novel, Head Games, was nominated for the Edgar, Anthony, Gumshoe, and Sélection du prix polar Saint-Maur en Poche in France for best first novel. More recently, Craig launched his Zana O’Savin series of literary thrillers in which classic pulp magazine heroes literally come to life. Craig serves as PulpFest’s assistant director of marketing. His primary responsibility is the PulpFest YouTube Channel. You can learn more about Craig’s Zana O’Savin, Hector Lassiter, and other novels on his website.

 

Hi Craig! Thanks for taking some time to chat.

Truly my privilege, Anthony. Thank you for the opportunity.

At Pulpfest this week, you’re debuting your fourth Zana O’Savin novel, The Night Shepherd. Tell us about who Zana is and what the series is all about.

Zana is a pastiche version of Doc Savage’s cousin Patricia Savage. The Zana O’Savin series is a kind of pulp magazine version of the Justice League Unlimited cartoon series in which pastiche versions of Pat and Doc, his aides, The Shadow, The Avenger, and public domain characters like the Domino Lady join forces. The distinction between this series and most other pulp pastiches is these classic heroes, in recognizable form, are moving in our time and world, and confronting many of the same challenges and threats we face. In the manner of much of my earlier fiction, there is also often a historical element or event informing each book.

What adventure is Zana embarking on in The Night Shepherd, if you can tell us anything without spoilers?

This novel involves a kind of suicide-murder cult called Nada, first introduced in my Hector Lassiter historical thriller, One True Sentence. That novel was set in 1924, when Paris was preparing to host the Summer Olympics. The new Zana is set in summer, 2024, when Paris is deep in the throes of hosting another series of Summer Games. Zana becomes the target of Nada’s cult-like leader, a sadistic hypnotist of considerable skill, with hidden ties to my pastiche version of The Shadow. There’s actually been considerable overlap of my two series, with Lester Dent and Walter B. Gibson featuring in various Lassiter novels and short stories, and Lassiter as on-page character in the first Zana, The Blood Ogre.

Obviously, you have a love of Doc Savage. What are your first memories of encountering Doc or other Pulp characters or magazines?

My grandfather was an iron worker in New York City during the Great Depression and an avid reader. He had a basement bookcase stuffed with men’s adventure paperbacks, and magazines. He knew Doc from back-when and gave me a paperback reprint of the second Doc Savage pulp, The Land of Terror. I was maybe seven or eight. It hooked me, and I skipped The Hardy Boys and similar fiction, leaping straight to pulp reprints and Ian Fleming’s James Bond novels. Doc paperback collecting was quickly followed by those featuring The Shadow and The Avenger. That Street & Smith trinity remains my favorite and primary pulp fascinations.

Who are some of your other literary/creative influences?

My master is Ernest Hemingway. Ian Fleming is another profound influence. I’ve also learned much from reading and interviewing a number of more contemporary authors, including James Crumley, James Sallis, James Ellroy, and the recently passed Ken Bruen, who connected me with my first agent and the eventual publisher of many of the Lassiters via Betimes Books, based in Ireland.

I would love to hear about your creative process. Are you a plotter, a pantser, a mix? How many drafts do you go through before bringing a book out?

I don’t think I really fit comfortably in either camp. I’m devoted to characterization and feel story should ideally advance through a kind of double-helix propulsion in which character drives plot and plot simultaneously evokes character. I always have an opening line, a character arc in mind, a closing line, and probably a few set pieces in between. I think what also makes it hard for me to declare an allegiance to either of the 2 “P’s” is that so much of what I write is historical fiction. That means I have certain historical mile markers I’m obligated to navigate toward, whether it be details or events tied to the Black Dahlia murder, or Orson Welles’ so-called “Panic Broadcast.” A certain amount of plotting is baked in, in that sense. I also embrace the Hemingway concept of reading everything previously written before resuming writing, so there is a perpetual revision process underway that ensures the first draft and final draft aren’t very far apart. I also typically use a method Kinky Friedman sold me on in which you write about three quarters of the book in sequence, jump to the end and compose the last chapter or two, then go back and fill in the gap.

You are also known for your Hector Lassiter series. Tell us about how you created Hector and about the series as a whole.

The Lassiter series consists of historical thrillers about a pulp novelist and Black Mask Magazine writer who becomes involved in historical crimes and menaces, while also interacting with notable people—most of them fellow authors or filmmakers—including Ernest Hemingway, Ian Fleming, and Orson Welles, among many others. Hector was created for a Mississippi Review short story contest called “High Pulp,” seeking a mixture of pulp-style writing with a literary undertow, which pretty well describes the dozen-plus novels and short stories about Hector that ensued, all of which have a certain literary and meta-textual edge, which is also true of the Zana O’Savin novels. The first novel was a finalist for The Edgar and Anthony awards and adapted as a graphic novel. The Lassiters have been published in about a dozen languages.

I’m curious about the level of research you did for the Lassiter books, since they are set in a very specific timeframe and include so many real people. What was that research process like, and did you learn anything surprising about the people you researched that affected the way you portrayed them?

All my novels are written to preoccupations with crimes or historical personages I’ve studied deeply and so I don’t really require much research; it’s more a matter of memory checking. With some “characters” who had a very distinctive speaking voice, say Orson Welles, or John Huston, I’d sometimes go back and watch old interviews to kind of pick up their cadence, word choices, etc. My version of Hemingway comes mostly from his letters, where his personality and “voice” were the most unguarded and so illuminating to me in shaping his very complex character.

Will there be further Hector Lassiter books, or is the series over?

Hector has made the odd cameo since the series ended (that first Zana novel, for instance), but it’s probably over. The idea was to have Hector age in real time, coming in with the twentieth century and more or less departing with it, in between making a study of an artist moving through so many stages and phases of fiction, film, and culture. I feel like I accomplished that, and the series stands as something very unusual and cohesive and so would hate to write a book that risks weakening or damaging the larger series in some way.

What do you have coming up after the release of The Night Shepherd? Any projects you can tease or talk about?

There will be at least a fifth Zana, which is coming together very quickly, currently called The Invisible Crusade. I’ve also had some discussions with the publisher of the Hector Lassiter series about another novel that was nearly published by Macmillan about 2009, when it was stalled by a novel covering similar territory by a certain sitcom actress turned author that ended up strangling my publishing deal. I’m prolific, and publishers tend to limit you to a book a year, so as a guy who has sometimes written three novels in a calendar year, I’ve got a lot of novels in dry dock, including a couple of trilogies.

You’re at Pulpfest this week. Will you be attending any other conventions where readers can chat with you in the near future?

I do a few here and there as I can fit them in. I hope to do many more this coming year.

Thanks again Craig!

Thank you, Anthony; it’s been a blast!

 

Readers, even though PulpFest started today, it is not too late to register and attend THE pulp magazine-focused convention in the Northeast and the other three conventions it hosts: FarmerCon (dedicated to the works of Philip Jose Farmer), ERBFest (dedicated to the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs) and DocCon (dedicated to all things Doc Savage related). Check out the Pulpfest website for registration and hotel information! Join us in Cranberry, PA this weekend, and meet Craig and most of the other folks I’ve interviewed in person.