Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 72
February 10, 2014
‘The Messenger of Evil’
On this date in 1911 was born the greatest evil the literary world has ever known. A creature so cunning, so malevolent, that to speak his name is to invite death and destruction. Created on the eve of World War I by writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, the monster has had a long life, moving through a number of books, movies, television serials and comic books.
So, to celebrate, here’s an essay I wrote about this ferocious individual for the now sadly defunct Smiling, Damned site. Enjoy!
♦♦♦
“Fantomas.”
“What did you say?”
“I said: Fantomas.”
“And what does that mean?”
“Nothing…Everything!”
“But what is it?”
“No one…And yet, it is someone!”
“And what does this someone do?”
“Spreads TERROR!”
-Fantomas, 1911
Fantomas, the Lord of Terror, the Genius of Evil. Whatever his name, he (or she) is the ultimate archetype of villainy. No crime is too small, no act too depraved for Fantomas to contemplate, to undertake, to accomplish. He made it his mission to destroy the fabric of society for no other reason than that he could.
Put simply, Fantomas is the first super-villain. Born at the dawn of the Twentieth Century, on the eve of the bloodiest conflict the world has ever seen, Fantomas sprang fully formed into a world teetering on the edge of madness. To say that he did his best to push it over said edge is an understatement.
Criminals like Professor Moriarty or Fu Manchu dominated the previous century, spinning Byzantine schemes and matching wits opponents of equal determination, if not skill. Fantomas’ opponents could only scramble to keep up. His schemes were chaotic things, not the precision instruments of his antecedents, but rather a form of madness only recognizable after the fact.
His crimes were outrageous, daring and avant-garde…plague-infested rats released on an ocean liner, sulphuric acid hidden in the perfume dispensers of a famous Parisian department store, or the stripping of the gilded gold from the roof of the Invalides Dome each evening; a man hung by his feet inside a cathedral bell like a human clapper, raining blood, brains and bone down on the masses below, and forcing a judge to witness his own execution by placing him face-up in a guillotine.
Fantomas was everyone and no-one, everywhere and nowhere. A man, a woman, a devil…a phantom. He wielded an army of street-apaches, spies and saboteurs in a calculated effort to spread fear and terror across Europe and the world. There was no purpose to this, save that it was Fantomas’ will that it be done. He was a satanic hurricane, a typhoon of terror, a nightmare without end.
In his wake came a host of imitators and disciples…Satanik, Diabolik, Kriminal, Demoniak, Sadik among others, though none would ever rival the first and most mysterious master of menace…FANTOMAS.
February 8, 2014
It’s My Birthday But YOU Get The Gift!
If you haven’t checked out Derrick’s DILLON series, this might be a good opportunity. It’s well worth a read, and I personally enjoyed every page of this particular story. I strongly encourage you to check it out!
Originally posted on DILLON:
It’s My Birthday but YOU get the gift! If you go to Smashwords, Amazon or DriveThruFiction you’ll get the free ebook of the newest Dillon adventure DILLON AND THE LAST RAIL TO KHUSRA! And after you read it, please leave a review to let others know how much you enjoyed it!
Thank you all for your support and your kind words and I truly, TRULY do appeciate it. Now go read!
It's My Birthday But YOU Get The Gift!
It's My Birthday but YOU get the gift! If you go to Smashwords, Amazon or DriveThruFiction you'll get the free ebook of the newest Dillon adventure DILLON AND THE LAST RAIL TO KHUSRA! And after you read it, please leave a review to let others know how much you enjoyed it!
Thank you all for your support and your kind words and I truly, TRULY do appeciate it. Now go read!
If you haven't checked out Derrick's DILLON series, this might be a good opportunity. It's well worth a read, and I personally enjoyed every page of this particular story. I strongly encourage you to check it out!
February 6, 2014
February 3, 2014
A GRIMOIRE OF ELDRITCH INQUESTS
A murder has been committed and another about to be. A fortune has gone missing, a letter and map have mysteriously appeared and something is frightening the children at night. Nothing is quite clear and the only thing for certain is that a detective is needed. But the first detective got a glimpse of what the children are afraid of and left without so much as a word…
And so a different kind of detective is needed—one who understands or at least accepts that not all answers or threats will be human or even physical. What this situation calls for is the Occult Detective.
Yes, the rumors are true!
If you heard the rumors. Which, come to think about it, you probably didn’t.
Regardless, I’m co-editing my first anthology! How about that? Anyway, it’s for Emby Press, publishers of The Whitechapel Demon, and I am very excited to be embarking on what I’m sure will be the most horrifying six month period of my life to date, if what the few editors of my acquaintance say is true. There’s no turning back now.
Here’s the official whatsits:
Occult Detective Monster Hunter
A GRIMOIRE OF ELDRITCH INQUESTS
Call For Submissions:
Give us your best, most fascinating and eccentric characters, or continue the adventures of a character in the public domain. It’s up to you.
Just make certain that they are investigating something, be it murder by monster, death by curse, blackmail, fraud, theft, extortion, kidnapping, child endangerment, alimony payments, or anything that makes up a compelling mystery.
And make certain that the mystery is supernatural in nature, or at the very least appears to point in an otherworldly direction, even if it ends with a gang of thieves using hallucinogens, a mastiff covered in phosphorescent paint, or even teenagers pulling off a villain’s mask.
Occult Detective fiction reaches back to at least 1855, and now we want to continue the tradition in grand fashion with A Grimoire of Eldritch Inquests!
Edited by: Josh Reynolds and Miles Boothe
Submission Period: 2/1/14 through 8/1/14
Reading Period: 8/2/14 through 9/7/14
Acceptances will be announced 9/7/14
Tentative Publication Date: December 2014
Payment: $25.00 and 1 trade paperback and electronic copy of the book upon publication.
Word Limits: 2000 to 8000 words. Please query if longer.
Format: Submissions should be .doc (.docx is fine) or .rtf formats. The entire text will be reformatted, so no need to worry about margins, spacing, etc. Please use a standard font.
Genres Accepted: Dark Fiction, Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy. No poetry accepted for this volume.
Reprints Accepted: Yes. Please include a history of publication with your submission.
Simultaneous Subs: (submitting to Emby and another press at the same time) can be avoided by requesting an early response.
Multiple Subs: Each author may submit up to 2 stories. Only one story per author will be accepted.
Exclusive Rights: The contract will stipulate 1 year exclusive worldwide print and electronic rights. However, the contract does also state that under certain circumstances, Emby Press will consider granting permission to the author to place the story with additional publications.
For general Emby Press guidelines, where to submit, etc. set your browser for HERE. And good luck!
January 29, 2014
THE AGE OF MONSTERS IS UPON US
Last year, I and a whole host of what you might call gen-u-wine talent were invited to contribute to Ragnarok Publications’ giant monster anthology, Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters. Funded entirely through Kickstarter, the anthology more than met its goals, stretch or otherwise, and while the print edition won’t be out until March, the electronic edition is now available, should you be into that sort of thing.
My contribution, “Dead Men’s Bones”, is a Royal Occultist story. Set during St. Cyprian’s tenure as Carnacki’s assistant, it takes place during the later years of the Great War, only months before Carnacki’s death at Ypres, and sees the Royal Occultist and his assistant joining forces with an American ghost-breaker to investigate a plague of walking corpses behind Allied lines in the province of Averoigne.
“Dead Men’s Bones” is something of an homage to one of my favorite Clark Ashton Smith/giant monster stories, “The Colossus of Ylourgne”, which, if you haven’t read, you really should. Its got zombies, guns, not-Nazis, weird science, alchemy, guns, a car chase, guns, airplanes and a monster made of corpses that sweats mustard gas. What else could you want, really?
January 27, 2014
TODAY’S FEATURE PRESENTATION
Today sees the first installment of an all new, absolutely free three part serial, “Deo Viridio” beginning over at http://royaloccultist.wordpress.com/. Subsequent installments will appear on Wednesday and Friday, and any and all re-tweets, ‘Likes’ and comments are welcome.
For previous multi-part Royal Occultist serials, see “Wendy-Smythe’s Worm” and“Krampusnacht”, as well as last year’s free Halloween giveaway, “The d’Erlette Configuration”.
And now, on with our feature presentation!
January 23, 2014
THE SHOW
This post by John Scalzi is pretty dead on the money. It’s an interesting read, and I encourage you to do so, at your leisure. Unless you have something against sports metaphors, in which case maybe just skim it.
Here’s a relevant bit:
The longer you play in The Show, the more chances you get to make things happen for yourself.
Being published (by major publishers primarily, but with some notable exceptions) is like being in The Show. It means that you’re working at the top levels of your field — just having a book out there in the world means you’ve got skills that distinguish you from the mass of people who hope to be where you are. It’s an accomplishment in itself.
But as with major league players in their idiom, not every author is going to be an instant, obvious success. Not every book is going to get into the bestseller lists. Not every book is going to get nominated for an award. Some writers have instant hits; some have to keep at it for years, slowly building an audience of readers. Some authors will never hit it big; some that do hit it big will have it happen just once. Sometimes authors will be dropped from their publishers and need to find another one. Sometimes they will have to use a different name to get published again (and sometimes they will be a hit under that different name). Sometimes the book an author thinks is their best will sink while something they think as inconsequential is a major hit.
Once again: You never know. No one knows. But as long as you keep publishing, you get to keep making chances for yourself.
‘Why do you write so much?’ I get asked that a lot. The simple answer is ‘it’s my job.’ The honest answer is ‘I got tired of loading mail trucks on the graveyard shift’. The complex answer is: every short story sale is an opportunity, every book, tie-in or otherwise, builds the audience–MY audience–by increments, however small. And as that audience grows, so too does its potential for further growth, which leads to more opportunities.
More opportunities to write the things I want to write, to write the sorts of books people want to read. More opportunities to write the things I hope some kid finds stuffed onto a second-hand bookshop shelf at a weird angle, to write the sort of thing that sparks that kid’s imagination.
It’s all about the opportunities.
January 22, 2014
NEW STORY AVAILABLE-”Mordiggian’s Due”
Pulp Mill Press‘ fledgling anthology, Libram Mysterium, is now available for electronic download via Drivethrufiction.com. A print version of the anthology will soon be available as well, for those who prefer the heft and weight of a real book.
My contribution, “Mordiggian’s Due” is a bit of yog-sothery, with added swords and sorcery. Set in Earth’s Dreamlands, the story follows a pack of ghouls as they seek to redress the blasphemous grievances a necromancer has committed against the charnel god.
It’s a punchy little story that’s got humor, sword-fights and a mummified-yet-still-incredibly-spry wrestler. Why not go check it out?
January 21, 2014
DARK MONOCLE TOC ANNOUNCED
Emby Press has announced the table of contents for their forthcoming steampunk monster hunter anthology, The Dark Monocle. I’m pleased to say that I have a story in this one. “Mr. Brass and the Lonely Cry of the Moon” is the latest story to feature the eponymous ‘American Automaton’, and it sees the mechanical Pinkerton go up against a lycanthropic killer on the surface of the Moon. I quite enjoyed writing this one, and I think it makes good use of all of the tropes, including Selenites and Cavorite.
