Jeffrey L. Blehar's Blog, page 8
October 24, 2017
The Machines: Caligraph
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Before George Yost left to produce his own machines, he oversaw the production of the Caligraph 1 for The American Writing Machine Company in 1880. The Caligraph 1 became the third machine on the market, after Remington/Sholes & Glidden and the unusual Hammond. The 1 could only write in capital letters. By 1882 several modifications were made (the 1 had many mechanical problems) and the No. 1 Ideal and No. 2 were introduced.
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The Caligraph 2 was the first machine to utilize a full keyboar...
October 23, 2017
Do you want to see your creative vision in print?
Millhaven Press is starting a quarterly pulp-inspired print magazine and is seeking story and art submissions. Action, adventure, fantasy, horror, crime, mystery, western, science-fiction…you name it, we are interested. If you are an amateur writer and want to see your story in physical form, give Millhaven Press a try.
Just click the link for submission guidelines:
October 22, 2017
Goodreads: Enter to win a free paperback edition of “Nighthawks”
You can enter to win one of five signed copies of Nighthawks: A Book of the Broken at Goodreads. The contest runs through Halloween (10-31-17).
The link takes you to the giveaway page.
Book Giveaway
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October 21, 2017
Saturday Spotlight: ATTENTION amateur writers and artists
Today I am foregoing my usual Saturday Spotlight feature for something a little different. Every Saturday I feature a pulp story from the past to shed a little light on some of the nearly forgotten authors. Today’s entry is almost the exact opposite. I am featuring a new idea by Millhaven Press.
Millhaven is seeking short stories from amateur writers in the hopes to put out a quarterly pulp inspired print magazine. We think there is enough interest in these types of stories to make this i...
October 20, 2017
Dune: The expanded saga
A few days ago I wrote about Frank Herbert’s genius as a writer. Much of which centers around the Dune universe he so meticulously created. I was going to leave it at that…but I couldn’t let sleeping dogs lie. I spent some time thinking about the Dune universe Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson continued.
Some hate the books because they are not anything remotely like Frank Herbert. A small, yet vocal minority would hate anything not written by Frank Herbert, himself. It is a losing battle...
October 17, 2017
Influences: Richard Adams
Richard Adams (1920-2016) is best known for his anthropomorphic fantasies. Remembered mostly for Watership Down, which began as a story he would tell his daughters on long car trips. The novel was rejected by four publishers and three agencies. He never quite re-captured the magic of the rabbit warren, but many of his animal-centric stories are regarded as cult classics (Shardik and Plague Dogs).
Watership Down follows the pilgrimage of a group of rabbits seeking out a safer place to liv...
October 15, 2017
Influences: Frank Herbert
Frank Herbert (1920-1986) is considered one of the best science-fiction writers of all time. His name belongs in the stratosphere with Asimov and Clarke. Dune was a watershed novel in science-fiction. In a time when science-fiction centered on human advancement through the development and use of technology, Dune suppressed technology. He also brought an epic world-building view to science-fiction which had been reserved for the fantasy genre. He also popularized ideas concerning ecology...
October 14, 2017
Saturday Spotlight: Rope the Wind
Rope the Wind
Author: Norman A. Fox
Cover Artist: John Leone
First Published: 1958
Reviewed Edition: Dell 1020 (1960)
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Norman Fox set most of his westerns in Montana, roughly following actual history. He differs from many of his contemporary western authors in his strict adherence to authenticity.
Rope the Wind is the first novel by Fox I have read and I plan on reading more. The plot is simple enough: a drifter floats in to town and finds a wild Appaloosa he wants to catch, draws the ire o...
October 13, 2017
The Machines: Yost
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George Yost had been involved with Sholes & Glidden and Caligraph before launching his own machine in 1888. It was an upstrike, blind-writing machine (meaning the typist could not see what was being typed). The typebars were arranged in a ring against a circular ink pad which resulted in perfectly aligned typeface (no ribbon to hinder the alignment). The Yost did not utilize a tab to separate upper and lower case letters, instead providing a full keyboard with keys for each.
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The Yost 4...
October 12, 2017
Nighthawks: A Book of the Broken Paperback release 10-27-17
In a rare occurrence of perfect timing, it looks like the Nighthawks paperback will be available on Amazon starting on Friday October 27th…just in time for Halloween. There is no better date for a supernatural dark fantasy series to begin than on Halloween weekend.
I am excited for this to happen and have been looking forward to it since I finished the first draft. It seems like an eternity since that day…
For the time being, a newly edited ebook is available right now.
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