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Cadigan, Pat joint author with Mike Resnick, et al.
Campbell, Ramsey, "The Change"
Don works at Inland Revenue. In his spare time he is writing his second fantasy/horror novel. He becomes obsesses with human regression and lycanthropy. He sees people changing at the bus stop outside his window. Finally, he himself may have changed into a werewolf (or something similar).
Weird Tales 52:4 Summer 1991 (pp.55-63)
Campbell, Ramsey, "The Insects from Shaggai"
Fantasy writer Ronald Shea is told by an admirer in a pub of a spooky local legend that he might find useful for his fiction. Shea investigates and finds to his sorrow that the legend is all too real.
The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants, Sauk City WI: Arkham House 1964
Cold Print, Scream/Press 1985
Cold Print, Headline 1993
The Azathoth Cycle, (edited by Robert M. Price), Chaosium 1995
Campbell, Ramsey, "Kill Me Hideously"
Lisette is a fan of the earlier writings of Willy Bantam such as Ravage! and Writhe! She wants him to write another of this sort—not like his newer ones—with herself as a character. She identifies joyously with the victims of these novels and eventually kills herself in order to be in his stories. What she never knows is that all the victims are based upon his ex-wife.
Weird Tales 55:3 Spring 1999 (pp.13-19)
Campbell, Ramsey, "Meeting the Author"
A small boy meets Harold Mealing, author of a children's horror/fantasy book, at a local signing. He doesn't like the book Beware of the Smile, nor does his mother who gives it an unfavorable review in the local paper. The author is upset and begins to harass the family although this soon ends. The son gets a copy of the second book Mr. Smiler's Pop-Up Surprise Book and realizes that when the author said he put himself into his books, he was not just using metaphor.
Interzone 28, March/April 1989
The Year's Best Horror Stories XVIII, (edited by Karl Edward Wagner), DAW 446-2, October 1990 (pp.40-54)
Campbell, Ramsey, Needing Ghosts
Writer Simon Mottershead is losing his memory as strange things happen to him. He buys a copy of his book Cadenza, not remembering that it is his. This book opens with the same lines as Needing Ghosts.
Century 0-7126-3685-4 [limited], August 1990; 3691-9 [trade], September 1990; 2159-8 [paperback] September 1990
Jeremy Bates is an embittered fanzine editor (Parade of the Maladjusted and Malformed, formerly Retard) attending a science fiction convention in Edinburgh. There, he meets a more than usually obnoxious fan, Jess Kray. Later, Kray sells the usual fantasy trilogy; the first book is A Touch of Other. However, Kray's masterwork is a book called The Word. The audience rapidly moves from a readership to a cult to a religion where Kray's book is given equal weight (or more) with the Bible and the Koran. Bates refuses to read the book, which is supposed to contain the answers to all problems until the very end.
Revelations (edited by Douglas E. Winter) HarperPrism 0-06-105246-9, May 1997 (pp.383-412)
Revelations (edited by Douglas E. Winter), HarperCollins 0-06-105643-X 1997 (mass market paperback January 1998)
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 9 (edited by Stephen Jones), Carroll & Graf 0-7867-0585, 1998 (pp.274-307)
Campbell, Ramsey, "Writer's Curse"
The author is visiting Dunn, another writer whose works are derivative of M. R. James, William Hope Hodgson, and Ramsey Campbell. Dunn is not pleased with this critique. At their next meeting, incensed by a rejection Dunn flings an ink bottle at Campbell who is cut by a shard. At the third visit Dunn reads a new story and Campbell is sucked into it to face nameless monsters. He saves himself by finding a flaw in the logic of the story. It turns out that Dunn had put the drop of Campbell's blood into the ink in which he wrote the story.
Myrddin, 1981
Fantasy Tales 9:17 Summer 1987 (pp.9-12)
Cannon, Peter Hughes, Pulptime [Mystery]
The story is supposedly related by the writer Frank Belknap Long. It tells of the time in 1925 in New York when he and his friend H. P. Lovecraft assisted Sherlock Holmes in combating an evil menace. In the foreword to the book, Long (the real one), says how well the author has captured the style of Lovecraft's speech and actions.
Weirdbook Press, September 1984 [trade & hardcover editions]
Cannon, Peter Hughes, "The Sky Garden
The protagonist, a New York editor, visits an old college acquaintance, who convinces him to read his unpublished fantasy novella. The novella tells of an earthman who discovers a doorway to another world, gets in trouble there with the ruler, and is allowed to return to earth only so long as he lures other humans into the other world as slaves. The editor soon discovers the story is not fiction. Recursive elements include numerous mentions of fantasists to which elements in the story are compared (Blackwood, Lovecraft, C.S. Lewis and others) and the closing lines of the narrative proper, which explicitly parody the close of Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.
Richmond, VA: Dementia Press 1989
100 Creepy Little Creature Stories (edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble August 1994 1-56619-516-X (pp.453-460)
Capp, Jerome B., "The Quiet Stranger"
Roger Nesbit is a science fiction writer. He is spending an evening at the club in the company of other SF writers and some guests. Near the end of the evening a young man lectures the writers about the mechanistic bent of their stories. He says he is from Tetranus—6000 light years from Mars. When Nesbit tracks him to his home, he claims to have borrowed the body of the cab driver Frank Smith. Was he an alien or not?
Satellite Science Fiction 2:3 February 1958 (pp.117-125)
Card, Orson Scott, "Lost Boys"
Basically a ghost story, this is told in the first person by a science fiction writer (ostensibly Orson Scott Card) and some data of his writing life are included. There is an afterward explaining the circumstances of the story.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1989 (pp. 73-91)
Back From the Dead, (edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh), DAW 472-1 (#845), March 1991 (pp.83-104)
Carmichael, Cristine, "A Scorpion-Tailed Romance"
An alien race invades Earth by distributing inexpensive copies of a highly addictive fantasy novel Dreams of Zelenique (by H. H. Tain). When this book proves successful, they distribute others.
Space & Time 82 Fall 1993 (pp86-92)
Carr, Jayge joint author with Mike Resnick, et al.
Carrère, Emmanuel, Gothic Romance
This is a very convoluted story taking place in the early nineteenth century and in 1984 London. John Polidori (author of The Vampyre) is a major force in this. Was Mary Shelley's novel Frankenstein based upon ideas discussed at the Villa Diodati or was it an attempt to disguise the real story. That story being the invasion of Earth by Selenites (Martians?) who take over resurrected bodies after the soul of the original inhabitant has gone. At any one time the position of the characters and plot on the complex plane (defined by the real and imaginary axes) is difficult to determine. Is Mary Shelley a pawn or a player or both?
Scribner's 19199-7, August 1990 [translated from Bravoure, 1984 by Lanie Goodman]
Carroll, Jonathan, A Child Across the Sky
Weber Gregston's friend Phil Strayhorn has committed suicide. Strayhorn had made the very successful Midnight series of horror movies. He has left behind a set of video tapes and the final uncompleted film in this series. Gregston is called upon to complete it; he also will study the tapes to try to find a reason for his friends suicide.
Century Hutchinson, 1989
Doubleday 26535-2, August 1990
Carroll, Jonathan, The Land of Laughs
Thomas Abbey comes to Galen, Missouri to write the biography of his childhood's favorite fantasy writer, Marshall France. He discovers that the line between fantasy and reality is much thinner than he ever considered it to be.
Viking 41755-6, September 1980
Ace 46987-6, October 1983
Arrow 939260-7, November 1987; Legend 939260-7, September 1989
Carter, Lin, Lankar of Callisto
This is the sixth book in the "Jandar of Callisto" series, a Burroughs homage. Briefly, Jonathan Dark (Jandar) was transported to Callisto (or, Thanator, as they call it there) by a transdimensional beam within a jade well in a deserted temple in Cambodia (Kampuchea). Lin Carter has been editing the manuscripts that Jandar has been sending back to Earth. Now, he and his wife Noël are visiting the dig at this site. Carter is careless and falls into the well. He, too, is transported to Callisto where, under the Thanatorian name of Lankar, he has the usual span of adventures. He finally returns to Earth via the same mechanism. This book is the result of the trip.
Dell 4648, June 1975
Carter, Lin joint author with Randall Garrett
Cartmill, Cleve, "Youth, Anybody?"
The author has accidentally overheard snatches of a telephone conversation and has, at some level, figured put why Hollywood personalities do not age. He wrote this as a fantasy story called "Nor Custom Stale." Every magazine that buys this story goes out of business before it can be published. Finally, a devil shows up to tell him that he has been given eternal youth in return for suppressing the story.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 9:5 November 1955 (pp.99-103)
Caspar, Susan joint author with Mike Resnick, et al.
Cassutt, Michael, "Mules in Horses' Harness"
This is a marginal item from a universe of the Confederacy. Included because of a mention of a refugee from tsarist Russia named Asimoff. He is a professor at Emory and has written on the possibility of mathematically predicting the future—psychohistory!
What Might Have Been, vol. 2: Alternate Heroes (edited by Gregory Benford & Martin H. Greenberg) Bantam 28279-4, January 1990 (pp. 79-100)
Chalker, Jack L. joint author with Mike Resnick, et al.
Chandler, A. Bertram (as Whitley, George), "The Explanation"
Bill Corrigan, an explorer, attends a meeting of the Westernport Science Fiction Club where the members are arguing about flying saucers and U.F.O.s. He tells them of a tribe he found in the highlands of Papua who had seen airplanes and believed that they might be cloud formations or mirages—there must be some rational explanation but could not accept the explorer's belief that these objects could be signaled (or propitiated).
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction 9:1 January 1958 (pp.122-128)
Chandler, A. Bertram, "The Kinsolving's Planet Irregulars"
On Kinsolving's Planet Commodore Grimes is taken through a hole in reality to a universe where fictional characters have taken on real existence. His meerschaum pipe turns out to belong to Sherlock Holmes, who retrieves it from him. Grimes gets sent to Earth on board the ship commanded by Captain A. Bertram Chandler, his author. Chandler finally sends him back to Kinsolving's Planet. [The numbers refer to entries in Ronald Burt De Waal's catalogues of Sherlockiana.]
Galaxy Magazine 28:5, July 1969 (pp. 119-153) De Waal 5853a
Alternate Orbits, Ace 13783, May 1971 [as "Hall of Fame"] De Waal 4870b
Chandler, A. Bertram, "Sense of Wonder"
George Whiting is a science fiction writer. He and his colleagues Bill Crowell and John Samuels are discussing the loss of the sense of wonder in SF as more knowledge of the universe has been discovered by science. That night, on his way home, Whiting is taken up by a flying saucer from Procyon IV. They reveal that there was a previous civilization on Earth. All attempts by the aliens to impress Whiting arouse in him only a vague interest; he has lost his sense of wonder.
New Worlds Science Fiction 22:64 October 1957 (pp. 42-)
Fantastic Universe 9:2 February 1958 (pp.23-28)
Chandler, A. Bertram (as Whitley, George), "The Tie That Binds"
George Whitley, SF writer and merchant seaman is buying a blazer and ties with a tax refund. Unfortunately, he accidentally buys a tie that is used by explorers from Alpha Eridani III as identification. Because he has stumbled into this, he and he wife are impressed into the service and taken from Earth. The aliens do allow him to write this as a science fiction story and send it to his editor in New York.
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction 9:6 June 1958 (pp.122-128)
Chandler, A. Bertram (as Whitley, George), "The Wrong Track"
Andrew Dunstan is a science fiction writer and a sailor (just like George Whitley). After he and his wife Margaret have dinner with Arthur C. Clarke they all go to the White Horse pub [Clarke made the The White Hart in his stories] where A. Bertram Chandler and Peter Phillips are singing. The Dunstans leave early but their train switches time tracks and they finally end up in a battle against an alien intelligence that has invaded Earth. Dunstan finds that few of his accomplishments have any value in this fight.
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction 2:3 October 1954 (pp.4-32)
Chappell, Fred, "The Somewhere Doors"
It is 1936 and Arthur Strakl is a science fiction writer, living in Cherry Cove, North Carolina, and getting through life by cooking and washing dishes in a small restaurant. His stories are more poetic than superscientific and those few that are published are ruthlessly edited. One night a woman appears telling him that he will be given a gift of two doors that open onto different worlds. Once through, he cannot return to Earth. Until they come, and until he makes his choice, he should keep writing. She discusses with him stories that he wrote, but were never published and ones he has not written (perhaps, yet). After the doors arrive, Arthur has a decision to make.
More Shapes Than One, St. Martin's Press 06418-7, September 1991 (pp.71-97)
The story deals with four meetings between Hart Crane and H. P. Lovecraft. However, it was Sterling Croydon who first penetrated the veil and suffered a horrible death for it. As Lovecraft, Crane, and others find out what the world is really about, they either die or commit suicide. Finally, the ancient gods come again—much to our regret.
The Texas Review Spring/Summer 1984
The Year's Best Horror Stories: XIII (edited by Karl Edward Wagner), DAW 086-6 (#648), October 1985 (pp.133-144)
More Shapes Than One, St. Martin's Press 06418-7, September 1991 (pp.58-70)
Chapple, Paul K., "The Growth Promoter"
Nada Williams, at eighteen, has become a SF writer with a sale to Miracle Tales. She gets ideas from her foster father, the scientist Albert Webster resulting in such stories as "The Plant Men." One idea for a story, "The Growth Promoter", is about a ray that forces physical maturity upon an infant while leaving the mind undeveloped and subject to hypnotic control. She realizes that this is how Webster got his four lab assistants. When Webster finds out she knows this, he dies of a heart attack and his assistants follow. Williams decides not to publish the story nor to write any more SF.
Wonder Stories 6:6 November 1934 (pp.702-703,747)
Chilson, Rob, "Logos: My Tale is Read"
Hugh Hesseltine enters the Wheat and Sickle pub and is surprised to find Sir Stanleigh Storm reading a book by Rob Chilson since he has always believed Sir Stanleigh to be a fictional character in Chilson's novels. However, Sir Stanleigh is of the same opinion about Hesseltine. As they discuss their situation, Chilson arrives but he has no idea what is going on—he, like them, is a character in this story. [The title is a play on the song Tell Me a Story.]
Amazing Stories 66:4 august 1991 (pp33-36)
Churchill, Reginald Charles, The Short History of the Future
It is not exactly fiction, in that it assumes that science fiction is actually predictive and tries to reconcile major works into a coherent timeline. Oppressive societies described by Bradbury, Vonnegut and Orwell coexist on Earth while Bradbury’s The Martian Chronicles occurs on Mars. Then, Bradbury’s nuclear war leads to Huxley’s Ape And Essence and to works by other authors. Apparent inconsistencies are explained humorously so that implausibilities do not really matter.
London: Werner Laurie, 1955
Chye, Huan-Hua see Huan-Hua Chye
Members of the "UK Arcanum Convention" (who for the occasion are all wearing masks representing famous famous fantasy authors and characters) attend the traditional convention raffle. This year, scores of them are declared winners of special mystery prizes and are sent one at a time to a previously out-of-service elevator to be taken to an unknown floor to claim those prizes. The narrator notices that none are coming back; then he wins a prize as well and we discover why.
The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration (edited by Paul Kane and Mare O'Regan), UK: Newport British Fantasy Society 2006 (pp.207-214)
Clarke, Arthur C., "Armaments Race"
This is one of the stories told by Harry Purvis in the White Hart pub in London. [Many SF writers frequent this place and are mentioned by name but this is the only story with significant recursion.] Accompanying Harry is Solly Blumberg, a former Hollywood special effects expert, who had formerly been working on the Captain Zoom movie series. To meet the director's demands for realism in ray guns (his one interest in any kind of realism), the special effects department accidentally built a disintegrator ray gun that worked Solly fled to England ahead of the inevitable government investigation—this was during the McCarthy era.
Adventure April 1954
Tales from the White Hart, Ballantine 186, January 1957; 539, October 1961; U2113, November 1966; 01562 (pp.30-38), March 1969; 02754, June 1972; 24165, June 1974; Del Rey 25746-4, 1977
Harcourt, Brace & World, February 1970; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 187979-6, 1975
Sidgwick & Jackson, 1972; 98365-5, January 1977
Nelson Doubleday SFBC 3674-9, March 1980
Across the Sea of Stars, Harcourt, Brace, 1959; Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 103259-9, 1979
Harcourt, Brace SFBC, November 1959
Clarke, Arthur C., Ghost from the Grand Banks
This story—or related stories—of attempts to raise the Titanic has a minor recursive element in a letter to the London Times from Lord Aldiss of Brightfount [clearly Brian W. Aldiss], President Emeritus of the Science Fiction World Association [mirroring the initials of the current Science fiction and Fantasy Writers of America]. The letter deals with the two "science fiction" writers who perished on the ship—Jacques Futrelle and John Jacob Astor, with a snide attack on L. Ron Hubbard. In addition, Dr. Susan Calvin, the robopsychologist of Isaac Asimov's positronic robot stories is cited as one of the "small pantheon of famous women programmers."
Gollancz 04906-5, October 1990
Bantam Spectra 07222-6, December 1990; 29387-7, January 1992
Clarke, Arthur C., "Publicity Campaign"
A publicity campaign for a sci-fi movie leads to disaster when real extraterrestrials arrive.
London Evening News March 1953
Satellite Science Fiction 1:1 October 1956
The Other Side of the Sky Corgi 1961
From the Ocean, from the Stars Harcourt Brace World, 1961
Tales from Planet Earth Legend 0-7126-3480-0, January 1990; Bantam Spectra 0-553-34883-3, June 1990
The Collected Stories of Arthur C. Clarke Tor 2000 0-312-8721-4
Clarke, Arthur C., "A Recursion in Metastories"
SF writer Jinx's story is rejected by editor Morris K. Mobius but, inasmuch as this rejection is part of the story, both the salutation and the closing work towards each other at infinite levels. There are two points of interest. Firstly, if Clarke was paid by the word then, since this story is infinite, we can understand how he could afford to retire to Sri Lanka. Secondly, the editor cites "The Anticipator" by H. G. Wells as an historic precedent for rejection; however, this story was actually written by Morley Roberts (see Brian Stableford in Interzone 88, October 1994 in his book review column).
Galaxy 25:1 October 1966 (pp78-79)
The Wind from the Sun [retitled "The Longest Science-Fiction Story Ever Told"]
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 0-15-196810-1. April 1972; 1985
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Science Fiction Book Club 5543-4 D1, 1973
Signet Q5581, July 1973; Y6607, 1975; W8441, 1979; 0-451-11475-2, April 1982,
0-451-14754-5, March 1987
Corgi 0-552-09654-7, October 1974
Clarke, Arthur C., The Sands of Mars
Martin Gibson is a science fiction writer, author of Martian Dust, Thunder in the Dawn, etc. He has been hired to document the maiden voyage of the first Earth-Mars passenger ship. Once on Mars, he finds that more is going on than has been revealed to the Earth authorities. Gibson finds his loyalties switching to the Martians.
Sidgwick & Jackson, November 1951; 98351-5 (paperback), September 1976
Gnome Press, April 1952; SFBC edition, January 1954
Corgi T43, 1954
Poket 989, February 1954
Permabooks M4149, June 1959
Pan X281, 1964
Prelude to Mars, Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965; SFBC edition 2469-5 27G, August 1965;
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 173922-6, 1975
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967
An Arthur C. Clarke Second Omnibus, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1968
Thorpe LargePrint 034-3, 1971
Harbrace Paperbound Library HPL53, March 1972
Signet Y5754, January 1974; W7486, 1977; E8176, February 1979; 11186-9, December 1981;
12312-3, 1983; 14790-1, March 1987
Harcourt Brace Jovanovich 179290-9, 1975
Clarke, Arthur C., "Security Check"
Hans Muller is an old-fashioned craftsman. As payment for some work he receives a television set. He is fascinated by Captain Zipp, Commander of the Space Legion. However, he is appalled by the lack of authenticity in the sets and props. He designs realistic ones for the show. Later he is visited by two men who take him away in their spaceship—apparently his designs are too close to the truth. According to his biography, this story was inspired by a 1951 visit to the stage of Captain Video in New York [Arthur C. Clarke: The Authorized Bibliography by Neil McAleer, Contemporary Books 0-8092-4324-5, 1992 (p. 79)]
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 12:6 June 1957
The Other Side of the Sky Harcourt Brace & World 1958
From the Ocean, from the Stars Harcourt Brace & World
1961; Science Fiction Book Club (pp.221-225)
Of Time and Stars
Gollancz 0-575-01571-3 1972 (pp.181-186)
Cobbe, Frances Power, The Age of Science, A Newspaper of the Twentieth Century
In a future (1977) world run by the medical profession. Almost all predictions in this satire are wrong (except we do have a Channel Tunnel, albeit we didn't in 1977). The only fiction still written is based upon science; it is science fiction of the Gernsback type. This was written under the pseudonym of Merlin Nostradamus.
London: Ward, Lock, and Tyler, 1877
Cogswell, Theodore R., "Conventional Ending"
Cogswell writes to his agent, Bob Mills, proposing a story to be written by Cogswell, Poul Anderson, and Gordon Dickson. The major reason for this story is to provide them with drinking money at SF conventions. The story is based upon Cogswell's upstairs neighbor, whom they posit to be a Martian; his goal is to take over fandom one person at a time. Mills sells the story to Robert ("Doc") Lowndes for Future if it can be ready for the 12th World Science Fiction Convention in San Francisco. Problems with the neighbor cause Poul and Gordy to drop out of the writing and it appears as if truth may be stranger than fiction.
Future Science Fiction October 1954
The Third Eye, Belmont 500-00840-050, September 1968
Conquest, Robert, A World of Difference
It is 2007 (but a 2007 extrapolated from 1964, a 2007 that is quite different). The Government is working on creative computers and interstellar travel. It is threatened by remnants of the old Soviet state based in the asteroids. Martin Stahlberg, one of the protagonists is a writer—mostly of essays. He contributes to Selene, a magazine published on the farside of the Moon, that prints science fiction stories. There are a number of references to SF throughout the book; it has become an integral part of literature in this culture. Arthur C. Clarke appears as Sir Arthur, Honorary President of the Interplanetary Society. A specific reference is made to The Sands of Mars project to turn Phobos into a small sun.
Ballantine U2213, June 1964
Coons, Hannibal, "The Moon Maiden"
Federal Pictures is producing The Moon Maiden, a grade-Z SF flick. They want to get some extra publicity by connecting it with Prof. Waldo Zoom's Moon rocket, being build outside of Pittsburgh. Initially, the Professor wants no publicity, but his financial backer has other ideas. Things rapidly build up to an explosive climax.
Crowell-Collier Publishing Company, 1951
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 3:3 June 1952 (pp.30-43)
Coppel, Alfred, "The Hills of Home"
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A military spaceman grew up on the Burroughs' Barsoom stories. He is chosen for the first Martian expedition as the only crew. When he lands on Mars he fantasizes that he is on Barsoom. This may bring about his death.
Galaxy 19:1 October 1960 (pp.43-52)
Cots, Fernando J., "Los Invasores del Sábado"
["The Saturday's Invaders"] A group of children play, each assumes the role of a character in a TV space opera. However, at the end—unlike television—life must still go on with many conflicts unresolved.
Más Allá de la Sciencia Ficcíon y la Fantasia 1987
Más Allá—Cience Ficcíon Argentina (edited by Horacio Moreno), Desde La Gente IMFC 1992
Coulson, Robert joint author with DeWeese, Gene
Cowdrey, Albert E., "Danny's Inferno"
Danny is a horror writer. His wife, Edith, is a topologist. His dreams seem to take place in a Lovecraftian universe beyond the Wall of Sleep. Knowledge of topology helps explain the Shining Trapezohedron.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 105:6 December 2003 (pp.142-158)
Cowdrey, Alfred, “Thrilling Wonder Stories”
In 1950 New Orleans, ten-year-old Farley has a difficult home ife, but takes comfort in his favorite magazine, Thrilling Wonder Stories Farley believes himself to be the son of a space alien rather than of his mother's husband. He also believes an alien has taken over the body of an alligator and is encouraging him to do some very bad things (which he does). It's ambiguous is the latter belief is true, or if this is simple madness brought on from stress and from reading too much bad sf.
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 114:5 May 2008
Cowdrey, Albert E., "Twilight States"
Milton runs an used book and magazine shop. One day he sells a copy of the January 1942 Arcana to Dr. Erasmus Bloch. There is a story in that issue written by Milton's brother Ned (as Ralpha O'Meagan) before Ned went off to the Navy. Ned was murdered after the war. Before that he was a patient of Dr. Bloch. As things develop it is unclear just who wrote the story and what the difference between Milton and Ned is; Dr. Bloch dies in a particularly unpleasant manner.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 109:1 July 2005 (pp.71–89)
Cox, Arthur Jean, "A Collector of Ambroses"
Sidney Fergus is a collector. He knows, but is not necessarily friendly with Bill Ambrose and Coolanthe Ambrose (nee Ambrose) who run the Ambrosia Bookstore which deals in SF, fantasy, and the like. It is Sidney who brings to their attention materials being sold by A. I. Sorbma at ridiculously low prices. They try to cheat the old man but wind up cheating themselves. Was Charles Fort correct? Is someone collecting Ambroses?
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 41:3 September 1971 (pp.5-40)
Cox, Arthur Jean, "The Spectacles of Jorge Luis Borges"
It is 1948 and a young SF fan is resorting his magazine collection. His landlord comes in and offers him a set of glasses obtained from a friend in Argentina. These glasses have four sets of lenses and, as he looks through them in sequence, he sees the world as it really is in a mundane, realistic manner, in an optimistic vision, a pessimistic vision, and finally as it really is in excelsis. [Nice illustration of the fan and his room by Alex Schomburg.]
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, 3:7 July 1979 (pp.134-147)
Cox, Greg, "GoH: H. P. L."
H. P. Lovecraft has led a successful life as husband, father, writer, editor of Weird Tales; now he is to be guest of honor at Weirdcon '75 in Seattle. There he runs into Hollywood SF filmmaker Bob Howard. Both have led long, happy successful lives.
Alternate Skiffy (edited by Mike Resnick and Patrick Nielsen Hayden), The Wildside Press 1-880448-54-8, December 1997 [dated 1996] (pp.46-52)
Cox, Greg, "Untitled"
Alyssa Egret, Assistant Editor, needs a title for a novel that must be in the new catalogue. Lacking one, she must consult Hector "The Rejector" Gamble who is kept secure in a back room. He gives her a title but in return she must allow him to edit her own unpublished novel.
Wildside Magalog 1:2 Fall 1993 pp14-16
Swashbuckling Editor Stories (edited by John Gregory Betancourt), The Wildside Press, October 1993 ;lettered hardcover 1-880448-21-1; numbered hardcover 1-880448-20-3; trade paperback 1-880448-22-X (pp.74-78)
Crawford, Deborah, "An Unsolicited Submission" [Poem]
A poem on SF editors who keep manuscripts until they are no longer fiction and then reject them.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, 52:6 June 1977 (p.21)
Laughing Space, (edited by Isaac Asimov & Janet O. Jeppson), Houghton Mifflin 30519-5, March 1982 (p.390)
Crider, Bill & Laughlin, Charlotte, "An Excerpt from The Stone of Namirha"
Reporter Jim Celis has unknowingly purchased and old Chevrolet that belonged to Robert E. Howard. Later he meets Caleb Zerbe, a member of an organization that is dedicated ti fighting evil. Caleb is seeking to find and destroy the Stone of Namirha before its power can be used for evil. In this they must succeed before the evil Guth Moran gets possession of the stone which is currently in the glove compartment of the Chevrolet. They use the stone to resurrect Robert E. Howard. Moran steals the stone but the three heroes set out to reclaim it.
Cross Plains Universe: Texans Celebrate Robert E. Howard (edited by Scott A. Culp and Joe R. Landsdale), MonkeyBrain Books and Fandom Association of Central Texas, October 2006 1-932265-22-8 (pp.30-44)
Critten, Stephen Henry see Bell, Neil
Curlovich, John Michael [as by Paine, Michael], Steel Ghosts
Tom Kruvener returns to a deserted steel mill in Pennsylvania for a film. This is a supernatural horror novel involving, in part, plans for filming a horror movie, The Colors of Hell (which title Paine used before on one of his earlier novels, Charter 1-55773-349-X, 1990).
Berkley 0-425-20070-1 [978-0-425-20070-4] 4 January 2005
Curry, David, "Destination: Arkon"
Wherein it is revealed that Clark Darlton (Walter Ernsting), The creator of the Perry Rhodan SF series is actually an alien whose ship crashed on Earth. The purpose of the series is to educate humans to the point where they can build faster-than-light ships so that he can return home.
Perry Rhodan100·, Ace Books 441-66084-125, August 1976 (pp.162-164)
Curry, Mike, "The Most Famous SF Writer on the Planet Isknif"
Yu-Ilimir is the leading SF writer on the planet Isknif. Through a contact, Alvin Jackson, in Great New York, he submits stories to Starworld. However, most are rejected—first for language, then for format, then for content. Finally, they buy "The Radiation Anomalies" but find that it was submitted simultaneously to a number of other SF Magazines. Later, the editor suspects that the story about the galaxy exploding may not be fiction after all.
Amazing Stories 66:7 November 1991 (pp. 53-59)
Cutler, P[eter] W., "Reconnaissance"
"Alien invaders are accidentally bamboozled by humans, in this case a kid who shows them his comic books and his older brother's copies of New Worlds and The Conquest of Space so they flee in terror of this obviously superior civilization (serving them some of his father's whiskey helped too). P(eter) W. Cutler is, I believe, a fan very briefly turned pro (total output, this story and one in Science Fantasy the same year)—at least his name is familiar from the letters column of earlier issues of New Worlds. This story is notable for an early appearance outside fanzines of the term "zap gun," applied to the protagonist's de luxe water pistol." John Boston by permission via Dennis Lien
New Worlds 30 December 1954
Return home A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Graphics Drama Related
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