M.G. Herron's Blog, page 9

Halloween Horror Story: “Wendigo” by M.G. Herron

After years of digging, anthropology student Blake Meier is about to strike pay dirt.

If all goes well, an interview with the Navajo chief will complete his doctoral thesis. It may also lead to the discovery of a lifetime.

But his advisor, Dr. Samarjit Chambers, has his own agenda. And unbeknownst to either of them, hidden horrors lurk in the ancient petroglyph they both lust after.

To what lengths will Blake go to satisfy his own desires?

“Wendigo,” by bestselling author M.G. Herron, is free on this website for one week only. The story’s also available as an ebook or paperbac...Herron, isdesires?

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Around the world, around the world

Well, that was fun! Yesterday I shared 5 Illustrated Pulp-Era Sci-Fi Stories with my email list and in 24 hours, 350+ people from all over the world came to read the stories.

Here’s the geographic distribution of page visits on the day of the email.

Here’s

Getting old stories out of the house

“You grow a whole lot more as a writer by getting old stories out of the house and letting new ones come in and live with you until they grow up and are ready to go. Don’t let the old ones stay there and grow fat and cranky and eat all the food out of the refrigerator. You have dozens of generations of stories inside you, but the only way to make room for the new ones is to write the old ones and mail them off.”

– Orson Scott Card, How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

Simple, smart advice, but really hard to do. This i...Fantasy

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5 Beautifully Illustrated Pulp-Era Science Fiction Stories

Copyright is a double-edged sword. On the first edge, it’s amazing that after a certain amount of time, and under certain circumstances, every book, every story, every beautiful creature of the imagination that was ever created will enter the public domain, from which point they will be forever free for all to enjoy at no cost.

Dancing on the other edge of the blade, when it comes to classic SF stories from now defunct genre magazines, even when the stories are out of copyright they are often hard to find, expen...cost.

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Sci-Fi Short Story: “The Lost Kafoozalum” by Pauline Ashwell

One of the beautiful things about a delusion is that no matter how mad someone gets at it … he can’t do it any harm. Therefore a delusion can be a fine thing for prodding angry belligerents….

This story is reprinted courtesy of Project Gutenberg. View the source text.

THE LOST KAFOOZALUMBy Pauline Ashwell

remember some bad times, most of th...Ashwell

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Sci- Fi Short Story: “The Lost Kafoozalum” by Pauline Ashwell

One of the beautiful things about a delusion is that no matter how mad someone gets at it … he can’t do it any harm. Therefore a delusion can be a fine thing for prodding angry belligerents….

This story is reprinted courtesy of Project Gutenberg. View the source text.

THE LOST KAFOOZALUMBy Pauline Ashwell

remember some bad times, most of th...Ashwell

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The Highlander TV series from 1992 is on Prime

I stumbled across the Highlander tv series from 1992 on Amazon Prime. Title sequence music by QUEEN and starring that ponytail wearing dude Adrian Paul and his lovely lady Alexandra Vandernoot.

Man, that opening scene is cheesy, but something about it sucks me in. THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE. Immortals waging a secret war for immortality with their swords… The battle of good against evil…

And the truest part is, even though the guy is four centuries old and great with a sword, he’s an absolute idiot...

Sci-Fi Short Story: “The Holes Around Mars” by Jerome Bixby

Science said it could not be, but there it was.
And whoosh—look out—here it is again!

This story is reprinted courtesy of Project Gutenberg. View the source text.

THE HOLES AROUND MARSBy Jerome Bixby

Spaceship crews should be selected on the basis of their non-irritating qualities as individuals. No chronic complainers, no hypochondriacs, no bugs on cleanliness—particularly no one-man parties. I speak from bitter experience.

Because on the first expedition to Mars, Hugh Allenby damned near drove...

6 Impactful Science Fiction Novels of the Twentieth Century

I’ve long been a fan of classic science fiction novels. There’s something ineffable about a book that sticks with generation after generation of new readers. It’s the closest thing we have to time travel, and the stories that have aged well are worth remembering, and even revisiting from time to time.

This guest post from Emmanual Nataf, co-founder of author services marketplace Reedsy, reviews six of the most impactful science fiction novels of the 20th century from a 2019 point of view.

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Be...

Sci-Fi Short Story: “A Little Journey ” by Ray Bradbury

This story is reprinted courtesy of Project Gutenberg. View the source text.

A LITTLE JOURNEYBy Ray Bradbury

She’d paid good money to see the inevitable …
and then had to work to make it happen!

•••

There were two important things—one, that she was very old; two, that Mr. Thirkell was taking her to God. For hadn’t he patted her hand and said: “Mrs. Bellowes, we’ll take off into space in my rocket, and go to find Him together.”

And that was how it was going to be...together.”

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