Prosperous Progeny.
“And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper.”
That’s Mary Shelley, writing in her Introduction to the 1831 edition of Frakenstein.
While writing the book as a teenager, she could not have imagined how successful the novel would become. But as an adult, after witnessing a reissue of the book and several stage adaptations, she realized her youthful creation had assumed a prosperous life of its own.
“Lo and behold,” she wrote to a friend upon learning of the notoriety generated by Frankenstein‘s first London stage adaptation. “I found myself famous.”
[Click here to view my TEDx talk on “The Resilience of Frankenstein.“]
Going Forth!
Irish playwright and short story writer Frank O’Connor once said there are two kinds of plays: “Ones that take ten years, and ones that take ten minutes” to write.
Ten minutes may be an exaggeration, but the point is clear. Some stories come together quickly.
My “Echoes” is one of those, quickly progressing from idea to a finished draft during a single week in March 1982.
Most of the drafting involved cutting, deleting unnecessary scenes and characters until all that remained was a tight two-hander playing out in a single room (or two, if we count the kitchen in the opening sentence and conclusion).
The story appeared in the January/February issue of Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine.
But that was only the beginning.
A Life of Its Own
In the years following its initial appearance in Twilight Zone Magazine, “Echoes” would be reprinted in a series of magazines and anthologies (including Year’s Best Horror: Series XII), translated into over a dozen languages, and optioned for several film adaptations (one of which you can stream on YouTube and Vimeo).
And now, “Echoes” is available once again in print from The Weird Fiction Review 13, where you will also find beautiful reproductions of TZ cover art accompanying an essay by Jason V. Brack.
And There’s More
Weighing in at 440 pages, WFR 13 features an eclectic mix of fiction, reviews, analyses, and striking artwork lovingly reproduced on glossy paper.
Among the contributors are fellow writers I’ve had the pleasure to meet and work with over the years. Among them:
Philip Fracassi, an LA-based novelist and screenwriter who took part in a panel I moderated at last year’s Nebula Awards Conference in Pasadena. Philip’s offering is “Red Leather,” a short story that centers on a quiet town “where people sometimes see things differently. Whether they want to or not.”
The multi-talented John Llewellyn Probert, a writer and film critic who is also a fine performer (I caught his reenactment of Peter Cushing’s Corruption at World Horror in Brighton in 2010). In this issue of WFR, John provides an in-depth look at the low-budget horror classics The Brotherhood of Satan and The Blood of Satan’s Claw. And if you’re a fan of those films, you’ll also want to check out John’s film-review blog site House of Mortal Cinema as well as his analysis of Mario Bava’s Planet of Vampires on a recent Blu-ray from Radiance Films.
Also on board is Danel Olson, a scholar and critic I met through Ash-Tree Press, the publishers of my collection This Way to Egress who also brought out the first three volumes of Danel’s anthology series Exotic Gothic. His contribution to WFR 13 is the essay “Women and the Wars of Guillermo Del Toro,” which looks at how “women are caretakers of secrets and revealers of spells cast by bizarre creatures, and the real monsters are male embodiments of fascism’s unchecked ego.”
Additional selections include recommended readings from editors T. E. D. Klein (who first published “Echoes” in Twilight Zone Magazine) the late Karl Edward Wagner (who selected “Echoes” for Year’s Best Horror) and a retrospective on the uncanny art of Richard Taylor by Stefan Dziemianowicz (the editor who reprinted “Echoes” in the anthology 100 Fiendish Little Frightmares).
Call to Action
Weird Fiction Review is available directly from Centipede Press. You can find the order page here, and while you’re visiting their site, be sure to check out their other selections.
Over the years, Centipede Press has produced some of the finest editions of genre fiction and criticism to be found anywhere. I can’t recommend them enough.
Finally, if you enjoyed this post (and I trust you have if you’ve read this far), please consider signing up for the Minute-Men: Execute & Run newsletter (link below), where you’ll get the inside scoop on my next novel.
Based on a concept created by brother Christopher Connolly, MM: E&R is due for release this October from Caezik Science Fiction & Fantasy–the same people who brought you this year’s Nebula-Award finalist Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory.
You’ll find more details about the MM: E&R newsletter here, and you can subscribe by entering your email address into the box below. Go ahead. It’s free.
First issue goes out in just a few days.
I’ll meet you there.
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