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Oh, Those Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons…

Oh, Those Deranged Mutant Killer Monster Snow Goons…

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I’m working on a Douglas Adams post as part of an upcoming recurring feature on his non-fiction quotes.

But I got sidetracked reading Calvin and Hobbes this past weekend. Much of America is in a war against brutal weather. We got over 16 inches of snow in Central Ohio, and sub-zero wind chill has been a regular thing. Throughout the country, people are seeing snow for the first time in decades; and in huge amounts.

There are some terrific Winter strips for Calvin and Hobbes; that was definitely a more magical time when we were kids. As opposed to multiple sessions digging out the car; to go to work, now. Sigh…

Life through Calvin’s eyes is a treat to read after all these years. And even as adults, we can still find ourselves locked in family battles over the thermostat setting. Fox Trot, another favorite cartoon of mine, deals with that more than once. As a family with three kids, you can imagine it.

Here, Dad ends the debate with a valid parental option, as he often does. And Calvin gives up. I really enjoy these interchanges, which often involve grumpy old man ‘builds character’ lessons.

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Forgotten Authors: Robert Moore Williams

Forgotten Authors: Robert Moore Williams

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Robert Moore Williams

Robert Moore Williams was born in Farmington, Missouri on June 19, 1907 and attended the Missouri School of Journalism, from which he graduated in 1931 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism. He married Margaret Jelley in 1938 and they had one daughter. The couple divorced in 1952.

Williams published his first short story, “Zero as a Limit” in the July 1937 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, at the time still edited by F. Orlin Tremaine. Later in 1937, he published a story in Thrilling Wonder Stories, edited by Mort Weissinger, and his third story, “Flight of the Dawn Star” appeared in the March 1938 issue of Astounding, now edited by John W. Campbell, Jr. By the end of 1938, he added Amazing Stories, edited by Raymond A. Palmer to the list of magazines and editors he sold to.

In addition to science fiction, Williams published in a variety of other genres, occasionally using pseudonyms, including John S. Browning, H.H. Harmon, and Russell Storm. He also used the house name E.K. Jarvis on some stories written for the Ziff-Davis magazines, such as “Hickson’s Strange Adventure.” Although Williams was the most prolific (and possibly only) author to use the Jarvis name in the 40s, Robert Bloch used it most often in the 50s, with seven stories appearing under that byline. Other authors to use it included Paul W. Fairman, Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, and Henry Slesar.

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Five Things I Think I Think (January, 2026)

Five Things I Think I Think (January, 2026)

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It’s been quite a while since I’ve shared some Things I Think. Since I just jumped back down the Castle rabbit hole, and finished off the associated Nikki Heat books, I had the basis for this column. And away we go!

1 – CASTLE STILL SLAMS

Nathan Fillion was a big name on the nerd convention circuit (you know I was a nerd way back when it got you laughed at in school) due to the cult favorite, Firefly. He’d had some attention in more mainstream things such as Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place, but in 2009 a buddy cop show launched him to stardom. He was Richard Castle, a James Patterson-like writer who works with NYC detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic). It’s an odd couple pairing, with the immature Castle constantly annoying the professional driven Beckett.

I like a drama buddy cop show with humor, and Castle is one of the best. There are some over-arching story-lines, and even a big cast change. Humor, original crimes, good cast: this show worked. I’m on season two of my first-ever re-watch, and this is still a favorite show. It holds up, and Fillion really shines. It’s got more humor than his current hit show, The Rookie, which I also watch.

The show ran eight seasons, with viewership trending downward, as is often the case in long-running ones. But it got to where Fillion and Stanic were not even speaking off camera. It was abruptly announced that the show would continue without Katic – only Fillion. Not long after that, it was canceled outright. Several Castle co-stars have appeared on The Rookie. Katic has not been one of them. But you can’t go wrong watching Castle.

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Forgotten Authors: Raymond F. Jones

Forgotten Authors: Raymond F. Jones

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Raymond F. Jones was born in Salt Lake City on November 15, 1915. He studied engineer and English at the University of Utah before working as a radio engineer. He later suggested that getting an English degree is one of the worst things a writer could do. He had a reasonable amount of success as an author, with his novel This Island Earth being the work he is best known for. It was adapted into a film in 1955, starring Jeff Morrow and featuring Russell Johnson, who would go on to portray the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, and Richard Deacon, who played Mel Cooley on The Dick van Dyke Show.

According to Jones, he was introduced to science fiction in 1927 when he read H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. He decided he never wanted to read it again because he was afraid it couldn’t live up to the “thrill of that first contact with the realm of imagined science.”

After graduating college, he served on a mission in Galveston, Texas and worked installing telephone exchange equipment for Western Electric in Texas, but after marrying Elaine Kimball on June 27, 1940, he took a job with the Weather Bureau to cut down on travel. During World War II, he used his radio engineering degree at Bendix Radio in Baltimore before settling in Arizona after the war.

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Friendships Matter

Friendships Matter

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A young red spaniel lies down and looks lovingly at a young black cat.
Image by StockSnap from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

I’m going to rant a bit this post, so if apologies in advance for getting too serious about things that are, in fact, quite fun.

I want to talk friendships. Friendships in fiction, specifically, and how they’re often hijacked by well-meaning, representation-starved folks, and how that robs us of examples of deep, meaningful, powerful, but entirely platonic love in real life. And I think that’s more than a shame. It’s a crime.

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Steamed: January 2026 (More LA Noire)

Steamed: January 2026 (More LA Noire)

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I bought LA Noire on sale, several years ago. But I did not actually dig in to play it until last year. 68 hours of game play later, I completed it the second week of January, this year.

LA Noire is one of my all-time favorite games. It’s not perfect. But my goodness, what an experience to immerse yourself in. With a couple exceptions in the final chapter, you are Cole Phelps, a Marine and WW II war hero, starting out in the Patrol Bureau (known as a ‘desk’) of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). It’s 1947, and LA is a terrifically rendered city.

You move up the ranks, to Traffic, Homicide, Vice, and then down (bit of a career hiccup there), to Arson. You solve multiple cases working from each desk. With the Complete Edition, there are about two dozen cases, which do vary, and usually involve some violence. There are random crimes that come over the radio and you can choose to take them or not. They usually involve killing people, though there are quite a few high-damage chases.

There is an overarching plot that gives a Chinatown vibe to the game. I recognized some screen actors, who look like the characters they voice in game, which is cool.

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Forgotten Authors: H. B. Fyfe

Forgotten Authors: H. B. Fyfe

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February 1940 Astounding, with Fyfe’s debut story “Locked Out.”

Horace Brown Fyfe, Jr. who published under then name H.B. Fyfe, was born on September 30, 1918 in Jersey City, New Jersey. He was educated at Stevens Academy before attending Columbia University. Fyfe served in World War II and earned a Bronze Star. Fyfe’s day job was working as a laboratory assistant and a draftsman.

Fyfe began publishing in 1940, with the short story “Locked Out,” which appeared in the February issue of Astounding. Later that year, he published the short story “Hold That Comet!” in collaboration with F.H. Hauser. This was Fyfe’s only collaboration and Hauser’s only science fiction sale. He returned to college after the war and married Adeline Doherty in 1946.

Fyfe may be best known for his stories of the Bureau of Special Trading, which featured alien bureaucrats who were generally outwitted by the humans who they were attempting to stymie. His novel D-99, was unrelated to the BTS series, but it was similar in tone, although Rich Horton commented “That whole aspect of the book is wildly sexist, in a vaguely Mad Men-ish fashion.” Given that Campbell appreciated stories that demonstrated human superiority to aliens, it isn’t surprising that Fyfe’s fiction found a home in Astounding and Analog.

 

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Forever An Important Life – Howard Andrew Jones (1968 – 2025)

Forever An Important Life – Howard Andrew Jones (1968 – 2025)

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(As long as Black Gate lets me post here, this will run every year the week of Howard’s passing (January 16), to help keep his flame alive)

A LIFE IS NOT IMPORTANT EXCEPT IN THE IMPACT IT HAS ON OTHER LIVES – Jackie Robinson’s epitaph

Mark Rigney, Howard Andrew Jones, Bob Byrne

I did an interview last week with Jason Waltz for his ’24 in 42′ podcast (Yeah, I know: You just can’t wait to hear that one…).

One of the questions was about my favorite quote/lyric/poem/motivational thought. Some of you who know me probably figure it’s a Bible verse. And there are a couple that are right up there.

But it’s the epitaph on Jackie Robinson’s gravestone, which leads off this post.

My buddy Howard Andrew Jones has passed away from brain cancer. You’re going to see a LOT of people singing his praises in the coming weeks. All of it deserved. If I can stop crying long enough, my Monday morning post will be on Howard.

But you’re gonna see a common thread in the talk about Howard. The impact he had on other people’s lives. Especially in encouraging and helping writers – mostly in the sword and sorcery field.

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Forgotten Authors: George Allan England

Forgotten Authors: George Allan England

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George Allan England

George Allan England was born in Fort McPherson, Nebraska on February 9, 1877. He attended Harvard University, where he earned Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees. In 1903, he published Underneath the Bough: A Book of Verses. His first published science fiction story was “The Time Reflector,” which appeared in the September 1905 issue of The Monthly Story Magazine, edited by Trumbull White.

He published numerous short stories throughout the 1910s, which his novels Darkness and Dawn, Beyond the Great Oblivion, and The Afterglow being serialized in The Cavalier, between 1912 and 1913 and published by Small, Maynard & Company in 1914. These novels, set in 2915, a thousand years after “The Great Death” killed most of the human race during the 1920s. England’s protagonist, Allan Stern and his secretary survived the Great Death in a form of suspended animation, waking up to the new world. …

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This is Silly. Book Goals Are Not Personal

This is Silly. Book Goals Are Not Personal

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A tea cup sits atop a stack of artfully placed old books.
Image by Ylanite Koppens from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn, Readers!

How was your winter holidays? I hope you found it gentle and restful and full of the things that make you happy. I spent some time with family, which is always lovely, and more time by myself recovering (the joys of being a massive introvert). It seems that the end of the year was more fraught for others than myself, though.

I’m speaking of the BookTok community. There have been a few ruffled feathers with folks getting angry at other folks for the massive number of books they may (or may not, as one of the accusations proclaim) have read.

If that sounds silly to you, you are not alone. I’ve been watching from the sidelines giggling or rolling my eyes, depending. Let’s get into this nonsense… because sometimes watching train wrecks in slow motion is mildly amusing. And so I am here after another adventure into social media to report on what’s going on over there.

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