RETURN OF THE SWORDS

Decades ago, back in the mists of time, my earliest attempts at writing revolved around what I later came to know as Sword & Sorcery (somewhat influenced initially by Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Mars series, and then Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion books). These primitive, immature scribblings morphed over time, and my earliest printed work was a very short story in the British Fantasy Society’s magazine, Dark Horizons #10 – “Designs of the Wizard” – in 1974. Two sequels followed – “Shadows of the Weaver” and “The Closing of the Days” – in Dark Horizons #12 and #14 respectively. All were bundled under the overarching title of “The Second Dragons”, and told an epic tale of human versus humanoid lizards in a post-apocalyptic desert Earth in well under 10,000 words. I returned to that particular world a couple more times – “Nightfall of a Dying World” (Dark Horizons 28, 1985) and “Fair Dues” (Dark Horizons 33, 1992) – when the mood struck, and may well do so again. I even wrote a novel, expanding on the original three stories; posterity will be relieved to know it no longer exists.

Now and then I’d dabble in other S&S tales [“The Pistol and the Sword” (Dark Horizons, 1979), “But the Stones Will Stand” (Fantasy Tales 10, 1982), “Sword of Light” (Victor Summer Special, 1987), and “Day of the Dark Men” (Fantasy Tales Vol.12 #6, 1991)], but over time I drifted away from that particular genre, for some reason. (Although I never entirely left: the jokey “Saving Prince Romero” was published in Unfit for Eden: Postscripts 26/27, in 2012).

Then, during 2020 – whether it was the unusually summery weather, or lockdown madness, who can say – I discovered a new enthusiasm for the form. I found time to dust off some of my unpublished S&S fiction and give it a good polishing (read: re-writing from the ground up) and I’m glad to say the exercise bore a little fruit. And so – by one of those typical coincidences which often plague the writer’s world – two pieces are appearing within a sort time of each other. “Face of Heaven, Eyes of Hell” has just been published in Phantasmagoria #18, while “The Essence of Dust” will shortly be released on an unsuspecting world in Swords & Sorceries Volume 2. And although there is little to connect either tale, they do take place in a shared universe (or should that be multiverse?).

I think it’s fair to say my S&S days are actually far from over.

Pulp Heroes: Stuart Young

Stuart Young provided the story "Do Not Go Gently" for THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES 2. Here he speaks of its inspiration, and Capt. WE Johns...

Would you like to briefly introduce yourself: what inspired your writing and when you began, and – if possible – of all of your published work could you tell me which your favourites are (and why)?

 

I started writing as a kid. I started submitting stories to the small press back in the ’90s. For some reason this has yet to bring me fame and fortune.

 

As for which of my stories are my favourites I suppose “The Mask Behind the Face” because it won a British Fantasy Award. Although on a less egotistical level it’s one of my favourites because it’s brilliant. (Wait, that was supposed to be less egotistical.) “Houses in Motion” is another favourite; it’s semi-autobiographical and so has a strong emotional resonance for me. And “Jarly and the Saga of the Snowball” was fun to do, partly because I got to play around with story structure and partly because I don’t get the chance to write comedy nearly often enough.

 

Do you have a favourite genre, or sub-genre? What exactly is it that attracts you?

 

I suppose my favourite genre is speculative fiction, assuming it’s being used as an umbrella term for SF, fantasy, horror, weird fiction etc. And I quite often add a dash of crime and comedy.

 

Some say Pulp is a genre, others a style; which side do you come down on?

 

Style. My gut response attempt at describing Pulp is that it’s fast-moving, accessible and fun, but that doesn’t necessarily give an accurate picture. Writers such as Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Ross Macdonald, Cornell Woolrich, HP Lovecraft, Robert E Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, Fritz Leiber and Robert Bloch didn’t all write in the same style. The same goes for modern pulp writers such as Joe R Lansdale, Andrew Vachss, Stephen Hunter and James Ellroy. And let’s face it, no one’s going to refer to Lovecraft’s style as fast-moving, accessible and fun. Intense, maybe. Perhaps the best single word to sum up pulp is vivid.

 

What was the inspiration for “Do Not Go Gently”?

 

The impending deadline. I’d been working on another project that I only managed to complete the day before the Pulp Heroes 2 deadline ended, so I’d resigned myself to not actually submitting anything. Then I woke up with the inkling of an idea in my head and only got one day to get the story written. And then I realised this was the same day the clocks went forward…

 

Do you have a particular favourite author, or authors? What is it about their work which appeals to you?

 

For this particular story I went back to one of my childhood favourites, WE Johns, who created the aviator and adventurer, Biggles. When I originally created the character of John Blake about ten years ago for a one-off appearance I hadn’t actually read a lot of pulp so I just mixed a Biggles-style character into a John Carter of Mars type setting. The idea was to compare the reaction of an English gentleman with those of a Southern gentleman. For example, Blake, instead of taking the sight of a scantily clad alien princess in his stride, got all embarrassed and offered her his coat. Consequently the story ended up being something of a light hearted romp, which was quite fitting as some of the WW1 set Biggles stories have a comedic vein, with the pilots playing pranks on each other between the deadly dogfights. They read a little like PG Wodehouse taking a crack at adventure fiction – JEEVES AND THE ROYAL FLYING CORPS.

 

For “Do Not Go Gently” I decided to examine the grimmer side of the WW1 Biggles stories. The ones where Biggles would snap and engage in vengeance fuelled vendettas, where he couldn’t remember exactly when he fought the last six men he killed because the constant strain had distorted his sense of time, and where he ended the war as a bag of nerves with a drinking problem.

 

My protagonist Blake was also a WW1 veteran and adventurer so he would have seen more than his fair share of death. I thought it would be interesting to explore his reaction to all the carnage he had witnessed and dig into the darker side of his character that was only hinted at in his previous outing.

 

Outside writing, what else occupies your time (assuming you have any free time left)?

 

I fill out promotional questionnaires for publishers.

 

Is there any particular style of music – or musicians – which appeals to you?

 

I tend to like popular yet slightly offbeat stuff like Talking Heads, the Beastie Boys, Elvis Costello, Dr John and Nina Simone. Then I use those bands as a way of easing into listening to the less commercial stuff that formed the roots of their music – afrobeat, funk, jazz, Americana, blues, R&B, gospel and show tunes. Similarly, Johnny Cash, the O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? soundtrack and Aly Bain from THE TRANSATLANTIC SESSIONS have given me a starting point for listening to country, country rock, Celtic, folk and bluegrass. And I’m also trying to expand my knowledge of classical music; right now I’m at still that stage where everything I know about it comes from pop culture. You know, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony is from Die Hard, Grieg’s Piano Concerto is from that Morecambe and Wise sketch…

 

What are you currently working on?

 

I’m finishing up editing DEMONS AND DEVILRY, an anthology of black magic stories for Hersham Horror featuring tales by Peter Mark May, John Llewellyn Probert, Thana Nivea, David Williamson and yours truly. It’s my first foray into editing so hopefully I haven’t screwed it up too badly.

 

I’m also working on a collection of novellas, tackling a cross-section of different horror sub-genres – a haunted house story, weird fiction, cosmic horror, etc. If all goes to plan it’ll be out next year.

 

And I’m working on a bunch of pieces for SPARKING NEURONES, the column I write for Matt Cardin at http://www.teemingbrain.com/ where I discuss films, books, comics, television and other matters of vital importance.

Pulp Heroes: Andrew Coulthard

Andrew wrote the stirring sword and sorcery tale, "Ula and the Black Book of Leng" for THE ALCHEMY PRESS BOOK OF PULP HEROES 2. Here he generously answers questions on it and other topics.

Would you like to briefly introduce yourself: what inspired your writing and when you began, and – if possible – of all of your published work could you tell me which your favourites are (and why)?

 

I’m a 47 year-old Brit who has been living in Sweden for the past 23 years. I’ve drawn, painted and written in one form or another since I was a kid, but have only tried to get my writing into print the past few years. I tend to see each tale as a highly distinct outing into a very specific alternative world. They are generally quite different and that makes them hard to compare.

 

Do you have a favourite genre, or sub-genre? What exactly is it that attracts you?

 

I suppose fantasy has always been my favourite genre with sci-fi as a close second. Different things have attracted me to them over the years. As a youth there was the possibility of escape from banality into fantastical worlds of limitless adventure. There was also the feeling of being able to overcome all odds and the sense of wonder and scale that great science fiction can bestow. I think that I’ve increasingly come to value fantastic settings because of their potential for demonstrating complex ideas.

 

Some say Pulp is a genre, others a style; which side do you come down on?

 

I don’t really come down on either side. To me “Pulp” is a concept that is still developing and whose meaning is therefore refreshingly elastic. The term has certainly grown beyond its original reference to the low quality paper used in cheap short story collections of the 1930s. If Pulp is a genre it includes many sub-genres: detective, western, sword and sorcery, sci-fi and horror. But Pulp tales of all denominations tend to be colourful, fast-paced, laconic and full of action and so there is clearly a classic pulp style too.

 

What was the inspiration for “Ula and the Black Book of Leng”?

 

In my youth I was great fan of Robert E Howard and particularly of his Conan stories. In this story I wanted to pull together references to the pulp works I grew up with, and also to other influences that have been important to me, but which might at first seem at odds.

 

Howard made Conan his noble barbarian and gave him imaginary prehistoric Celtic origins. Ula is a name that can be found in a number of different cultural contexts, but I selected it because of its Gaelic meaning: Sea Jewel. She comes from the far north but plies the seas; a noble barbarian and, I like to think, every bit as hot-blooded, daring and courageous as her literary predecessors.

 

In the course of the story there are also, I think, echoes of my love of Ursula Le Guinn’s EARTHSEA books and of Coleridge’s ANCIENT MARINER.

 

Some of my favourite Howard stories contained Lovecraftian elements and of course those who know Lovecraft will already have encountered Leng in various settings. But THE BLACK BOOK OF LENG YEN, to use the black book’s full title, is also the name of a real book of apocalyptic Buddhist writings referenced in the SECRET OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER - THE LENG YEN CHING.

 

Do you have a particular favourite author, or authors? What is it about their work which appeals to you?

 

I’m an eclectic reader and would find it hard to pick out a specific favourite author. With regard to fantasy and SF I’ve already mentioned Howard and Le Guinn, but have also very much enjoyed Iain Banks (with and without the “M”), David Gemmell, Robert Holdstock, Peter F Hamilton and many of the classic SF and fantasy authors: Alan Garner, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Moorcock, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jack Vance and Gene Wolfe… 

 

Outside writing, what else occupies your time (assuming you have any free time left)?

 

I have a family which keeps me busy and in my spare time I like hiking in the forests and mountains. As for my day-job, I run a training company in Stockholm that provides Business Communication and English services.

 

Is there any particular style of music – or musicians – which appeals to you?

 

An eclectic listener too, I like all kinds of music: symphonic and early music, ambient electronic music, rock music and even dance music (particularly when jogging, cycling or working out).

 

What are you currently working on?

 

I am currently writing a fantasy novel called RUTHGHER’S CONCEIT set in the same world as Ula’s adventures.