Guest Blogging
Today I'm guest blogger at David Thompson's Busted Flush Press blog. What that means is that I did an actual blog post instead of taking the easy way of linking to something else as I usually do. So you should click here to visit David's blog and see what I had to say.
9 comments:
So, not to be redundant (and not to misspell cousin), but why the MacLane pseud for the horror?
I figured it was like a brand name. Crider for the mysteries and westerns, MacLane for the horror. Old Mac didn't last long, though. He helped kill the horror boom.
Well, you were clearly as productive, if not moreso, than most pros...were you hoping to make a full-time career of writing at any point?
(Verification: duckbil)
...Which is a backwards way of asking, since writing wasn't your main source of income, were you worried about misleading Crider readers? Not wanting one's name associated with Zebra, which holds about 75% of the responsiblity among the publishers' share for "killing" horror, is understandable...but I have to think that readers like to find other work by the folks they like, and (sadly) too many readers find it difficult to remember any writer's name, even if they disliked the last one by X.
(Verification: Hoprod
There's some sort of trend here. If the next one's "lilfrog," I'll know I'm onto something.)
Actually, I didn't mind being associated with Zebra at that time because they'd just published Joe Lansdale, and they were still publishing Ed Gorman (as Daniel Ransom). I was putting kids through college, and I knew I couldn't earn enough from writing to do that. The teaching job paid well and had great benefits, so I never considered giving it up.
The Zebra books were so different from my mysteries, for the most part, that I figured another name would be better for them.
Indeed, Zebra's line wasn't all Ruby Jean Jensen, just way too much RJJ (possibly a house name and certainly way too much like V. C. Andrews, soon to become a house name). Did you get any hologram covers?
Among ACT OF LOVE and the Ransoms and MacLanes, they also offered the Lin Carter WEIRD TALES revival (the second of four so far, with the fourth still going), and some interesting Roy Torgeson anthology series.
I have the WT volumes.
I never got a hologram, though I was supposed to have gotten a beautiful die-cut one. Didn't, though. The editor left, and things happened. I didn't even get a "knife in fresh fruit" cover, but Joe did.
Last question here, as this post slips below the horizon...is there a MacLane you're particularly proud of, or would recommend ahead of the others?
Blood Dreams is the one Zebra was going to promote heavily. Goodnight Moom is one I had a lot of fun with.
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