October 2023 Notes
Notes from the Fiction Factory
Another month is in the books and 2023 is soon coming to a close. November is here, the days are now shorter, and the cold nights have arrived. If you are new to The Pulp Fictioneer newsletter, welcome. Every month, I publish a short recap of the previous month and share some of the things I’ve learned on my journey to becoming a pulp writer.
Let’s dive in.
Words Written
Fiction:
Last month, my short story Wired for Compliance, was in the
publication. A short tale about Man vs (Corporate) Machine. Check it out below.
If you missed it, my short fiction collection, Grind: And Other Strange Stories, was published a few weeks ago. The book is now available in paperback and ebook on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple Books, Google, & Kobo. Five strange stories of corpo dread and speculative fiction.
Essays:
I wrote a tribute essay honoring my heroes Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Harlan Ellison, and Rod Serling.
Here’s an essay on the importance of studying your craft. I even offer a quick guide on what I would do to study fiction if I were starting over again.
Stories Read
Short Fiction:
A Point of Honor - Charles Beaumont (3/5)
The Hunger - Charles Beaumont (5/5)
A Death in the Country - Charles Beaumont (3/5)
Black Country - Charles Beaumont (3/5)
The New People - Charles Beaumont (5/5)
Taste - Roald Dahl (4/5)
The Pedestrian - Ray Bradbury (4/5)
The Landlady - Roald Dahl (4/5)
William and Mary - Roald Dahl (4/5)
Unmasking a Confidence Trickster - Franz Kafka (3/5)
The Sudden Walk - Frankz Kafka (3/5)
Dance of the Dead - Richard Matheson (5/5)
The Funeral - Richard Matheson (4/5)
I’m about 60% of the way through Harlan Ellison’s collection, Approaching Oblivion. So far, not great. The stories, though well-written, are meh at best. They lack the usual Ellison punch and I found myself abandoning two of the stories early on.
Non-Fiction:
One of my favorite books of 2023 is Spillane: King of Pulp Fiction written by Max Allan Collins and James L. Traylor. It’s a wonderful biography of Mickey Spillane and is filled with great stories from his early comic book days to his horror stories in Hollywood. Once I cracked it open, I couldn’t put it down! It’s a fantastic look at the man’s life.
My full review will be published tomorrow in Pulp, Pipe, & Poetry Magazine.
This Month:
I’ve got new projects in the works both for this newsletter and for the P3 magazine. I’ve carved out more time for reading and started building out my plans for 2024 which I will share at a later date.
As always, thanks for stopping by and spending a little time with me.
‘Til next time.
Beaumont, Dahl, and Kafka are among my favorites. A lot of people aren’t familiar with Dahl’s weird fiction for adult readers. I binged them during lockdown in 2020.
Love this Frank!