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Forgotten Authors: Harl Vincent

Forgotten Authors: Harl Vincent

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Harl Vincent

Harl Vincent born Harold Vincent Schoepflin on October 19, 1893 in Buffalo, New York to Ida (nee Kuntz) and Reverend William Schoepflin. Vincent married Ruth F. Hoff in 1911. They had a daughter, Jane, in 1913 and a son, Guy, in 1925.

He debuted in the June, 1928 issue of Amazing Stories with the story “The Golden Girl of Munan” and he published in Amazing, Science Wonder Stories, Air Wonder Stories, Astounding, and other magazines into the 1930s. He managed to continue to sell to Amazing after Hugo Gernsback lost control of the magazine, often bringing a sense of wonder to the stories, even if they were not particularly innovative. Walter Gillings noted that Vincent was not particularly successful at adapting to Amazing’s “thought-variant” demands of the time.

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Into the Weird: Weird Tales, July-August 1923 (Volume 2, Number 1), Part 1

Into the Weird: Weird Tales, July-August 1923 (Volume 2, Number 1), Part 1

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Weird Tales, July-August 1923, front and back covers.
The fifth issue of Weird Tales was cover-dated July-August 1923, meaning for practical purposes that the magazine had skipped publishing in the month of July. With the skipped month the first volume of Weird Tales came to an end after four issues; the fifth issue began Volume 2, which would last for four months. Then the magazine skipped the month of December, and the January 1924 issue began Volume 3, which would run for another four issues. Things got a little confusing at that point, as we will eventually see.

The second volume doesn’t have any major differences in format from the first, which is to say the July-August issue physically resembles the June one. It’s the same size, with the same logo. The cover illustration’s black-and-white instead of colour, but is a definite step up in craftsmanship. The image is signed ‘Mally’ above the initials ‘RLM’ in a circle, and is likely the work of George William Mally, perhaps in collaboration with his wife Ruth Lena Mikelson Mally. It’s solid draughtsmanship and looks reasonably dramatic, though it’s unclear what story it’s meant to be illustrating.

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Forgotten Authors: R. R. Winterbotham

Forgotten Authors: R. R. Winterbotham

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R.R. Winterbotham

Russell R. Winterbotham was born on August 1, 1904 in Salina, Kansas to Gertrude (nee Bond) and Dr. Jonathan Winterbotham. He married Nadine Shick and they had one daughter, who they named Ann.

His sf career had two phases, the first running from 1935, when he published “The Star That Would Not Behave” in the August Astounding Stories, to 1943. Most of his science fiction was bylined with his initials: R.R. Winterbotham. Winterbotham claimed that he “was the only writer to have stories in the one and only issue of Flash Gordon Magazine. I wrote both of the stories in that issue, one under the name of R. B. [sic] Botham. Don’t read them.” In fact, the only issue, which appeared in December, 1936 included Winterbotham’s “The Sage of the Smokepot” and “Botham”’s “The Last War,” but also James Edison Northford (or Northfield)’s The Master of Mars and R.C. Vance (or Vane) and F.K. Young’s “The Man Without a Brain.”

The early forties saw him publish three novels about Maximo the Amazing Superman. He also continued to publish short fiction until 1943 when “Oridin’s Formula” appeared in Planet Stories, but after its appearance, Winterbotham focused on his newspaper career and writing numerous books for Big Little Books and Little Blue Books.

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What I’ve Been Listening To: Mistletoe Murders (November 2026)

What I’ve Been Listening To: Mistletoe Murders (November 2026)

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Tis the season. Yeah, I know, we just put Halloween to bed. But I got chocolate Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes at the grocery store last week and I’m not complaining about that ONE bit!

I’m about to pitch you an Audible streaming series that has ties to How I Met Your Mother and Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., The Good Witch, and Veronica Mars. Just to whet your interest.

Headspinner Productions created a streaming series for Audible: Mistletoe Murders. Hallmark then adapted it to a TV series. Unless I specify, I’m talking about the Audible streaming show.

Emily Lane runs a year-round Christmas store – Under the Mistletoe — in a small Canadian town. A town that has a hunky, too-good-to-be-true, sheriff; Sam. Who has the perfect teen daughter, Violet (more on her in a bit). Naturally, she works in the store.

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Weird Times 8: The International Scene

Weird Times 8: The International Scene

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The Canadian Red Ensign as used from 1922 to 1957 (top), and the current flag of Canada, the Maple Leaf or l’Unifolié.
This is the sixth post in a series reflecting on the world of the 1920s as a background to early issues of Weird Tales. Imagine that you’re an American in a big city in 1923, and you’re taking a walk to the newsstand to buy the first issue of a new pulp fiction magazine. What sort of things might you see? What do those things suggest about ways people think? Or about the stories they tell?

Perhaps, just possibly, you’ll walk past a hotel or other building with a display of flags of the world. In which case you might see a flag representing Canada. You won’t find a Canadian consulate or legation, as Canada doesn’t have any of those in 1923. The reason why not will be hinted at by the Canadian flag you’ll see. Officially, the national flag of Canada in 1923 is the Royal Union Flag, also known as the Union Jack. But there is another flag more specifically associated with Canada: the Canadian Red Ensign. The original Red Ensign, flown by British merchantmen, is a field of red with the Union Jack in the upper left corner. The Canadian Red Ensign formerly added the coat of arms of the nine provinces to the red field; in 1922 when King George V granted Canada a coat of arms the new heraldry replaced the provincial insignia. The Red Ensign’s not an official flag, and in fact will only be formally authorised for use on Canadian government buildings outside Canada in 1924, but it’s widely-used nevertheless and during the Great War was a common symbol of Canadian identity. You will certainly not see a red-bordered flag with a red maple leaf against a white background; in 1923, you’re more than 40 years too early for that.

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Forgotten Authors: Charles W. Diffin

Forgotten Authors: Charles W. Diffin

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Astounding, February 1930, Cover by H.H. Wesso

Charles Willard Diffin was born on March 25, 1884 in Meadville, Pennsylvania to Charles A. Diffin and Julia (nee Benedict). He attended the University of Buffalo, where he graduated with a degree in analytical chemistry.

In 1903, Diffin married Pearl Burnside. Their daughter, Beatrice, was born in 1905. Son Charles followed in 1910 and Douglas in 1915. Charles predeceased his parents, dying in 1938 and Pearl died in 1951.

He began publishing science fiction in the February 1930 issue of Astounding with “Spawn of the Stars,” which was reprinted in Conklin’s The Best of Science Fiction in 1946. His “The Power and the Glory” in the July 1939 issue of Astounding explored the use of nuclear power, questioning whether it would be used to benefit or harm mankind.

From 1931 to 1932, he published four stories in his Harkness Bullard series. The series includes an initial trilogy beginning with “Dark Moon,” continuing with “Brood of the Dark Moon,” (serialized over four issues) and concluding with “The Finding of Haldgren,” all published in Astounding. He followed them with the serialized novel Two Thousand Miles Below, which was set in the same universe, although several years earlier.

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Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#29-#32)

Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#29-#32)

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In August 2025, we hailed the emergence of a second Chain Story project championed by Michael A. Stackpole. This is a Sword & Sorcery-focused, contagious set of connected (“chained”) stories.

Each is:

  • A standalone tale
  • Readable in any order
  • Free to read! (for at least three months from its posting date)
  • Interconnected via a theme involving a Crown

We round up groups every several weeks, but check the Chain Story website for the latest. Here we highlight the latest set of five, Episodes 29-32.

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Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: What If? – The Unchronicled Cases

Nero Wolfe’s Brownstone: What If? – The Unchronicled Cases

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Two Nero Wolfe posts in one month? What flummery is this? Like most avid readers know, there’s just not enough time to read (and write about) all our interest areas.

I finished a Terry Pratchett novella (last week’s post), while continuing on with a Savage Sword of Conan Omnibus, and starting a first read of Tolkien’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (I’m never gonna be a poetry fan), AND grabbing an Isaac Bell detective book from the Clive Cussler shelves.

While still working on a couple of Nero Wolfe projects ‘in my other spare time.’ I started this one a year or two ago and finally dialed in to finish it. And man, it was fun. Using every original or alternate title, I came up with a different plot, title, or both. With a minimum of two per.

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Fresh Blood: Todd Grimson’s Stainless

Fresh Blood: Todd Grimson’s Stainless

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Vampires, of all the residents of the Kingdom of Fright, are uniquely vulnerable to the revisionist impulses of writers and filmmakers. People just don’t turn the same tricks with mummies or werewolves or ghosts that they do with the Nosferatu. I’m not sure why this should be so, but I do think it’s true.

This is a problem for me, though, because with monsters, I’m a traditionalist. (I want a ghoul just like the ghoul that buried dear old dad, as we used to say on the playground.) My stodginess is especially firm when it comes to the undead. When the sun goes down over the Carpathians, give me Bela Lugosi or Christopher Lee any day (or should I say, night); I want none of this Near Dark, Lost Boys or True Blood nonsense, and as for Twilight, please – Black Gate is a family-friendly site, and we’re not allowed to use words like that. This is why Salem’s Lot is my favorite Stephen King novel; its steadfast old-fashionedness warms the cockles of my heart, right where the stake would go through. (By the way, what the hell are cockles?)

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Prometheus Undone – Or, Cohen Meets the Gods (Terry Pratchett)

Prometheus Undone – Or, Cohen Meets the Gods (Terry Pratchett)

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I have written a half-dozen essays on the late, great, Terry Pratchett. As with Robert E. Howard, Rex Stout, and some other authors, I discovered him late in my reading life. I was a fan of Good Omens (I STILL find the streaming series unwatchable. David Tenant is nothing like Azrael to me), but I had never read a single Discworld novel.

Being a huge Douglas Adams fan, I gave Guards, Guards! a try, and I was hooked. I’ve since called him a ‘modern-day fantasy Voltaire.’ Do the kids still read Candide? We did in high school. I liked it.

The Last Hero is a 2001 illustrated novella, and is a rather unique work. This is sized between a coffee table book and an over-sized hardback, and it is LAVISHLY illustrated by Paul Kidby. There’s barely a page that doesn’t have some kind of background, or at least a block letter. And it’s literally filled with drawings of all sizes; Including full two-page spreads. If you like Kidby’s art, this will be one of your favorite Pratchetts. I’m not overestimating the sheer volume of terrific art in this. I cannot give enough praise and credit to this labor of love. I have the illustrated Eric, and this is a whole other level.

The story itself is a Pratchett-esque take on the Greek myth of Prometheus. Since we don’t teach the classics anymore, a quick recap: Prometheus was a Titan who sided with Zeus in the big rebellion against an overbearing father.

Later, seeing the suffering of man, he steals fire and brings it down from Mt. Olympus, giving mankind its greatest gift. That doesn’t fly well with the god crowd, so he’s captured and chained to a rock. Every day an eagle comes and eats his liver: Which then grows back for tomorrow’s snack. Man. Zeus could really be a vindictive SOB. Prometheus, Sisyphus: it’s not just punishment. It’s a repeatable action, for an eternity of torment. Eventually, Prometheus is freed by Hercules.

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