Let’s travel back in time, to the long-ago era that was 2007. By this time, I had been writing professionally for a few years, having worked for Marvel Comics on their Encyclopedia series and the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe. Inspired by Ron Forter & Gordon Linzner’s The Hounds of Hell I had even begun self-publishing some New Pulp stories. Already I had released a couple of Rook novellas (Lucifer’s Cage and Kingdom of Blood), as well as Conquerors of Shadow, which was my love letter to Edgar Rice Burroughs.
I wanted more.
Self-publishing gives you tremendous freedom but it also takes away from what I really like to do — which is write. I’m fine with giving up a measure of control over the finished product if somebody else will handle all the formatting and editing that I really don’t want to do.
So I began to consider looking for a publisher. The obvious choice was the folks who had published The Hounds of Hell — not only had that book inspired me in the first place but at the time I didn’t know of anyone else who was publishing that sort of pulp fiction. Keep in mind that this predated Pro Se Press and so many of the others. So I wrote to the two Rons (Hanna and Fortier, who were working together at Wild Cat Books) and pitched them on my Rook series. Perhaps they could re-publish the first two novellas and I could add several new shorts to round out the package? They were agreeable and we were set.
Only about a week or two later, I got an email saying that the Rons had decided to part ways. I’m not going to go into the whys of that, though I’ve heard a good bit from both sides. What’s important for our purposes is that I was given a choice — I could go with Ron Fortier and his writers or I could stay with Ron Hanna, who planned to continue publishing New Pulp. Fortier was planning to start up his own company (this would become Airship 27) but initially had no idea how quick or how slow this might end up being. It ended up not being all that long but I didn’t know that at the time. I elected to stay with Hanna because he could get my book into print the fastest.
The first volume of The Rook came out and we were all happy about it. My buddy Storn Cook did the cover and it looked aces. Following on that, I ended up writing a lot for Wild Cat Books over the next few years — the first five volumes of The Rook series, Guan-Yin and the Horrors of Skull Island, The Damned Thing, Rabbit Heart, Savage Tales of Ki-Gor, etc.
Wild Cat was publishing other things, as well, but I think it’s safe to say that I had become their primary source for new books. I’m not tooting my own horn there because sales weren’t great — I’m simply speaking about the quantity of things I was producing.
WCB was wonderful in giving me tons of freedom. Too much freedom, in fact! They did little in the way of editing and hardly ever said “No,” which is a dangerous thing to give to creative types. Left to my own devices, I sometimes went off on weird tangents. I need an editor to occasionally say, “Um… Hmm. No.” So these were good and bad times — good in the sense that I was writing like a madman and having fun. Bad because some of the finished product was not particularly professional and I was making… well, nothing. Ron occasionally sent me money if I inquired about it but the sales he reported were miniscule. I’m not saying he was lying but I do think he’d agree that his business sense is not the best — he’s a fan of pulp and loves helping produce it but he’s not an entrepreneur in the money-making sense. With the eBook sales, I knew many people who claimed to be buying and reading my stuff but the sales indicated that this was not the case. There was also the issue of promotion — WCB generally released the books and that was it. I tried to push them myself, of course, but I wanted to have someone help me with the marketing.
Eventually, I decided to branch out. I wrote for other companies and once Pro Se Press came along, I took my creations over there and licensed them to Pro Se. I left my back catalog at Wild Cat Books out of respect for Ron Hanna as I didn’t want to gut the majority of their line. For awhile, I produced new Rook material for Pro Se, while the old books were still with WCB. I finally decided to remove my books entirely from WCB because sales at Pro Se were pretty good… and yet I was making nothing from the older books at WCB. That was strange to me — again, I’m sure that Ron was very honest with me about the sales figures but my thought was that if the new stuff I’m writing is selling this well, maybe new editions of the old stuff (with new packaging and editing) would, as well. So Pro Se began rolling out new editions of The Rook and Conquerors of Shadow (now called The Family Grace) — and soon they’ll do the same with Rabbit Heart and The Damned Thing.
Sales are much better on the new editions of The Rook. Go figure!
Ron was understanding when I began to ask him to pull my books from circulation. He did it quickly and efficiently and never complained. I told him honestly that I appreciated all the support he’d given me and for allowing me the opportunity to break into New Pulp. I felt then and do now that Wild Cat Books does not get the respect it deserves. With so many people producing New Pulp now, we need to remember companies like WCB who kept this alive when few others did. I salute Ron Hanna for being a true fan of classic pulp and for believing in the viability of New Pulp. I nominated him for both a Munsey Award and for the Lifetime Achievement Award (Pulp Ark) and was proud to do so.
A couple of days ago I was posting away on Facebook and put the following: Reading “Live and Let Die” by Ian Fleming and struggling to figure out how I should feel about this one. It’s undeniably a rip-snorting adventure but the casual racism of the book makes me feel all skeevy. I’m trying to remember the era in which it was written but I frequently wince as a great paragraph stumbles over something decidedly non-pc.
What I meant by this (and assume was obvious in the post itself) is that I’m really enjoying the book… but that when I run across things like Chapter 5 being entitled “Ni**** Heaven”, it gives me pause. I really like Ian Fleming, actually, but it’s still weird when you see an entire race being described in huge generalities. That’s all I meant. I’m enjoying the book but it makes me feel all skeevy. A classic conflict between intellect and emotion, as my wife pointed out — my intellect reminds me that it’s a product of its time, my emotion says “Ew!”
Ron Hanna took some issue with my post, saying I’ve been reading a lot of “Classics” recently: “Robinson Crusoe”, and stuff by Jules Verne and Mark Twain… If the “non-pc” aspects turn you off, despite realizing the times in which they were written, then maybe you should get over it… “Huckleberry Finn” was BANNED for many years, in many schools, yet it’s a CLASSIC… and since you are a Librarian, I would think that you would have a more open mind about stuff like that, Barry…
I explained that I thought Ron needed to get off his high horse! I didn’t think my status update was close-minded at all but whatever. Ron then asked me if I was to write a story set in the 1930s, how would I handle it. I responded by saying that I figured Ron would know since he’d published my stuff for years. Seriously, he published The Rook Volumes 1-5 — shouldn’t he be very familiar with what I would do with stories set in that era?
And this is how he answered that: LOL… Very true! And since I couldn’t afford to pay you what you truly deserved, I totally understand your taking your work elsewhere… I never had a problem with that… But when you talk about “High-Horses”? Well, you list yourself as “Pulp Author Extraordinaire” and have your own “Imprint” and you ARE a “Professional” writer… Yet you still work at a Library… so when will you finally make a LIVING off your writing? Not trying to be harsh… I guess I just get upset when people have to blow their own horns so much that they run out of breath… I’ve always wished you nothing but the best, and I hope that one day, you CAN become a TRUE “Professional” writer when you can devote ALL your time to writing fiction… FWIW… I’m a “Published” writer as well, but I know I’ll never make a living at it… I hope you can… Really, I do…
Well, now.
That was rather hurtful, I felt. Implying that I was blowing my horn so much that I was running out of breath… that I wasn’t a true professional because I also have a day job… and then taking a swipe at my humorous (I thought) “Pulp Author Extraordinaire” tag on my blog. Not cool. I decided to not feed the furor any further and simply thanked him for the concern.
Would I love to be living in a mansion and writing all day long? You betcha. But I’ve had so many dreams come true… seeing my name listed in Marvel’s solicitations and on their website, writing my childhood hero The Avenger, having dozens of books with my name on the cover, having people who tell me that they love my characters and my stories… All of that is worth more than money.
I appreciate all that Wild Cat Books has done for me. Without that company and without Ron Hanna, I would not be where I am today. If he’d blown me off when I’d first approached him, I might have never created Lazarus Gray or Fiona Chapman or Charity Grace. I owe him and genuinely wish him the best. I think it’s clear that he harbors some sort of resentment or jealousy towards not only me but others in the New Pulp field. I’d love to see WCB rise like a phoenix and become a true force in New Pulp again — hopefully that will happen.
I really do hope so.
So I finished off the Lilith novel and shared it with Tommy Hancock last week. Now I’m working on a story for the St. Germain project. It’s going to be a short (no more than 10k) and I’m sitting at around 3,000 words right now. Once that’s done… I have a mummy collection of stories that I’d like to complete. I’m hoping to have 4-5 stories in the book. I’m considering it shopping it to somewhere besides Pro Se – I’m very associated with them but they also have a huge backlog of material, much of it mine. I might like to see this book in print a little earlier than it would be if it comes out through my usual channel. The Lilith book worked so well for me because while it was part of my Reese Unlimited Universe, it also felt very different. The mummy book is just an exercise in doing something I think is fun and can stand on its own. In some ways I feel that my creativity has returned and I’m interested in doing various different things that may not always fit the ‘pulp adventure’ definition.
I’m moving closer and closer to the end point for the current novel and it’s at this stage that I’m always bursting at the seams to go ahead and type, “The End.” I’m anxious to think about what’s next and the thrill of the current WIP has simply evaporated. I’ve lived with it for too long.
Halloween is almost here and the crisp bite of Autumn is definitely noticeable in my neck of the woods.
