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
Lackey, Mercedes, "Satanic, Versus..."
As a favor to his agent Morrie, Richard Harrison, SF writer, takes Vervaine Valentine to the Halloween party of the Romance Writers of the World. Valentine is a very successful romance writer (she also has one dreadful fantasy novel to her credit) who has just gone through a traumatic divorce. At the party she calls up her ideal soul mate but doesn't understand that you get what you ask for—not what you want. Luckily Diana Tregarde (romance writer and witch) and Andre LeBrel (vampire and Avengers fan) are also on hand to deal with what appears. This story is also an example of a crossover story. The character Richard Harrison (and the whoopie witches) are from Stalking the Night Fantastic, a role-playing game by Richard Tucholka.
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine 10 Autumn 1990 (pp.6-10)
Lafferty, R. A., Arrive at Easterwine
A marginal item; not recursive per se except for the framing. The story was told to R. A. Lafferty on the evening before the New Orleans Nebula Awards banquet by a mobile extension of the Epiktistes machine. Other writers mentioned as being present are Alan Nourse, Andrew Offutt, L. Sprague de Camp, and Daniel Galouye
Scribner's 1971
Ballantine 03164-4, March 1973
Lafferty, R. A., "The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny"
Enniscorthy Sweeny lives in a utopian world in which the World Wars were never fought, no one cares about the butterfat content of ice cream, and the Dodgers play baseball in Brooklyn [as God intended]. Sweeny writes a trilogy of "comic" fantasy operas about a series of World-Wide Wars that devastate the globe. It becomes unclear to the populace as to which world is now the real one. This is quintessentially Lafferty.
Apocalypses Pinnacle 0-523-40148-5, October 1977 (pp. 189-374)
Lalumière, Claude, "The Lost and Found of Years"
![[new]](../press/new.gif){kind=small}
The author writes: "In it, an unnamed writer (more or less my doppelganger, as he is credited within the story as having written some of my stories) struggles with the writing life as the world of his imagination invades his reality." Cameo appearances by SF writers and editors include David Pringle, Peter Crowther, Paul Di Filippo, Jeff VanderMeer, John Oakes, Michael Jasper, and Gordon Van Gelder." For more info about the story:
http://lostpages.net/fiction#lostfoundyears
Intracities (edited by Michael J. Jasper), 1 November 2003, UnWrecked Press
Landis, Geoffrey A., "True Confessions"
This is the story of a man (identified only as "Landis") who lies and cheats his way through life. As a child he read SF. He pretends to attend M.I.T. but actually just hangs around to learn the milieu—this includes attending meetings of the M.I.T. Science Fiction Society. Later he attends the Clarion Workshop and even sells SF stories to pulp magazines. At SF conventions he told girls he wrote under the name of "Isaac Asimov" (that part isn't really believable — everyone knows the Good Doctor). Finally, he is very successful and is put in charge of a super-secret government project with almost unlimited funds.
Supernatural Tales #10, 2006 (pp.100-112)
Landy, Derek, Skulduggery Pleasant
A successful horror writer dies and surprises his family by leaving the bulk of his estate to his
12-year-old niece Stephanie -- who soon realizes that her uncle's horror wasn't as much fiction as everyone thought...
Analog Science Fiction-Science Fact 109:8 August 1989 (pp.139-145)
Lang, Allen Kim, "I, Gardener"
The narrator is visiting Dr. Alex Ozeneff in Boston in order to get him as a regular on a television show. He finds that the Good Doctor has been killed by his robot gardener. The robot, who has written many of the Doctor's books, became frustrated when forbidden to work in his garden. Having broken First Law, he now breaks Third Law and commits suicide.
Fantastic Science Fiction Stories 8:12 December 1959 (pp.89-95)
James Williamson, a wannabe author of fantasy, horror, and SF, is taking Professor Privates' class in Creative Writing at SUNY Huguenot. What he does not know is that this is part of a larger plot to bring about a more orderly world by making the text "clean and pure." He and his writing are passed down from the professor to tutor Sean, tutor Raymond, and then to The Editor. The Editor explains what their goals are and tortures Williamson by stabbing his manuscript causing the author great physical pain. Williamson decides to major in economics. However, he finds he cannot stop writing and decides to use the power of the text to destroy his enemies.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 105:2 August 2003 (pp.53-)
Langford, David, "Best Foot Forward"
A collection of thirteen imaginative cover letters sent to SF editors to accompany their exceptional and unpublishable manuscripts.
8000 Plus, 1988
Sglodion 1.5, 1989
Interzone 35 May 1990 (pp.48-49)
Let's Hear It For the Deaf Man, NESFA Press 0-915368-50-1, January 1992 (pp.19-20)
The Silence of the Langford, NESFA Press 0-915368-62-5, September 1996 (pp.79-82)
Langford, David & Grant, John, Earthdoom!
A humourous British disaster novel dealing with the end of the world from earthquakes, the falling Moon, an anti-matter comet, lemmings, a new ice age, and an invasion by aliens from 61 Cygni C whose names are those of SF authors without vowels. The truly recursive part is when Drs. Nuven and Purnell (SF writers Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle) convert Los Angeles into an Orion-type spaceship named the Libertarian. The bridge is in the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society clubhouse and the Captain is [LA fan Bruce] Pelz. After the ship reaches space, the aliens put it in a bubble.
Grafton Books 06739-6, 1987
Langford, David, "The Spear of the Sun"
This is one of the Father Brown science fiction stories, reprinted from G. K. Chesterton's Science Fiction Magazine for October 1996. A nice little vignette in the style of Chesterton, framed by an introduction and notes for the next issue announcing the first publication of a new magazine, Interzone, in the U.S. to be edited by Gardner Dozois.
Interzone 112, October 1996 (pp. 27-29).
Alternate Skiffy (edited by Mike Resnick and Patrick Nielsen Hayden), The Wildside Press 1-880448-54-8, December 1997 [dated 1996] (pp.116-123)
Langford, David, "When In Doubt, Plagiarize"
A brief (100 word) story about Samuel R. Delany trying to find the proper word to describe the opening of a door in his novel Stars in my Pocket like Grains of Sand.
The Drabble Project, (edited by Rob Meades & David B. Wake), Beccon Publications 1-870824-12-1, April 1988 (p.74)
Lanier, Sterling E., "The Brigadier in Check—and Mate"
This is a lost-race story (Atlanteans) set in the highlands of what was then British Honduras (now Belize). One of the natives tells of a man who came when she was little; his name was Felipe José Labrador (Philip Joseph Farmer, translates the Brigadier). He wrote scrolls and told them of another Atlantean city in Africa named Opar, known to a man called Ee Are Bee (E.R.B.). He impressed the locals enough so that he was able to escape.
The Curious Quests of Brigadier Ffellowes, Donald M. Grant 89-5, 1986 (pp.185-254)
Lasky, Kathryn, Memoirs of a Bookbat [Mainstream]
A science fiction writer saves a young girl enmeshed in a dysfunctional family of fundamentalists.
Harcourt Brace 0-15-215727-1, June 1994
Laughlin, Charlotte, co-author with Crider, Bill
Lawrence, Ann, Do You Believe?
Rose Early travels to Marleton, England, to seek her sister, Joan who has vanished. The only clue is a heavily marked up horror novel Do You Believe in Evil? (by V. F. Drummond) in a box in the closet. The author lives in Marleton; he has his own problems—text keeps appearing in his manuscript that he does not remember writing nor can it be deleted. There is evil in this village.
Tor 0-765-34888-8 May 2005
Lee, Mary Soon, "Slush"
When Diana started her new magazine Happenings, veteran editor Jerry Kay of Halfway to Madness reminded her that she needed first readers to deal with the slush pile. Her writer's group agrees to do this but what gets passed on is dreadful. Then one night the pile of manuscripts comes to her—wanting to be read. Note: the version that appeared in issue #16 was incomplete.
Pirate Writings 5:4 1998 (pg.47)—incomplete
Pirate Writings 6:1 1999 (pp.41-42)
Lee, Rachel, Exile's End [Romance]
A government secret agent goes on a repairing lease to a dude ranch run by a widowed SF writer. True love follows, as the day the night.
Silhouette/Intimate Moments, September 1992
Lehmann, Christian, Une Education Anglaise [French]
"This looks like and has been reviewed as autobiography, but implies some unfamiliar fan history. The author/narrator has an SF-writing uncle called Luther Rohan who lives in Oxford and once feuded with Harlan Ellison. There's a Brighton Worldcon, Seacon '73 at the Metropole Hotel, with Clarke and Leiber as guests; a transparent allusion to at least one of the Oxford SF Group 'bombers'; a fan called Alan who adopts a female persona as Rose; a major pro (Rohan) dying at the Worldcon and being eulogized at the awards ceremony; and knowledgeable stuff about panels, beer-drinking, auctions, Trek fans.... Ansible notes that Christian L[ehmann] is a cousin of Michael Scott Rohan, who then lived in Oxford; that according to Mike, Luther Rohan is another joint cousin (lawyer, not writer); and that CL did indeed attend 1970s UK cons, even playing D&D at the Langford hovel. He gleefully admits to including 'a few good friends from way back'..." Ansible 152 March 2000
Paris: edition de l'Olivier, January 2000
Leiber, Fritz, "Catch That Zeppelin!"
In an alternate world where Thomas Edison married Marie Skladowska leading to a peaceful humane world after the World War, Zeppelin Fachtman Adolf Hitler is meeting his son for lunch atop the Empire State building prior to returning to Germany aboard the zeppelin Ostwald. Hitler's son is doing graduate work in history at CCNY, studying the cusps and turning points of history. The story segues into a meeting in New York between Fritz Leiber and his son Justin (also an SF writer).
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 48:3 March 1975 (pp.115-133)
1976 Annual Worlds Best SF (edited by Donald A. Wollheim with Arthur W. Saha), DAW, May 1976
DAW SFBC 2864, 1976 (pp.1-18)
The Worlds of Fritz Leiber, Ace, November 1976
Nebula Award Stories 11 (edited by Ursula K. Le Guin), Harper & Row, 1977
Philosophy and Science Fiction (edited by Michael Phillips), Prometheus 0-87975-248-3, July 1984 (pp.143-159)
The Hugo Winners, Volume 4, (edited by Isaac Asimov), Doubleday 18934-6, April 1985 (pp.116-140)
Doubleday SFBC 05647, 1985 (pp.103-120)
Beyond the Stars (edited by Isaac Asimov), Severn House 0-7278-1374-9, February 1987 (pp.116-140)
The Best of the Nebulas, (edited by Ben Bova), Tor 93184-0, April 1989
Tor 93175-1, April 1989
Robert Hale 4258-2, July 1990 (pp.442-456)
The Leiber Chronicles, Dark Harvest 0-913165-48-4, February 1990 (pp.457-470)
Leiber, Fritz, Our Lady of Darkness
Franz Westen is a writer of supernatural horror fiction in San Francisco (he also novelizes the TV show Weird Underground. ) In a used bookstore he purchases an old notebook that turns out to have been written by Clark Ashton Smith; another book he buys is one of the last copies of Megapolisomancy by Thibault de Castries. De Castries had a falling out with Smith and had set an occult trap for him. This trap is tripped by Westen who is living in the same room that Smith once had. Fortunately, he is saved from his doom by the music of his lady friend. [Note: Smith and later Westen lived on Geary Street; so did Fritz Leiber.]
Berkley/Putnam 11872-1, February 1977
Berkley 03660-X, February 1978
Leiber, Fritz, "Richmond, Late September"
Edgar Allan Poe is in Richmond, Virginia when he meets a woman who claims to be Berenice, the sister of Poe's French disciple, Charles Baudelaire. As Poe rambles on to her, it becomes clear that most of his poetry and stories are premonitions of the forthcoming Civil War. As she leaves, she tells Poe they will meet once again—in Baltimore. The lady is Death.
Fantastic 18:3 February 1969 (pp.6-16)
Leiber, Fritz, "The Secret Songs"
This is not strictly a science fiction story (or is it?). Donnie and Gwen have been released from a mental hospital but are sustaining themselves on drugs—tranquilizers and Benzedrine. As part of Donnie's hallucinations, he is a super hero under the mentorship of an incredibly ancient and wise green crocodilian entity. The Wise Old Crock assures Donnie that his wife is "one of us."
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 23:2 August 1962 (pp.5-14)
Leiber, Fritz, The Silver Eggheads
This is a marginal entry. Writers in this novel are glorified maintenance workers for the wordmills—word processors with delusions of grandeur. The only people doing good writing are robots. However, the protagonist robot is really writing pulp-adventure stories (with robot sex) rather than true science fiction. A number of SF writers—Isaac Asimov, Eando Binder, Karel Capek have been canonized in the robot religion.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1959 (pp.42-) [shorter version]
Ballantine SF 561, 1961
Four Square Book 1629, 1966
Laughing Space, (edited by Isaac Asimov & Janet O. Jeppson), Houghton Mifflin, March 1982 [chapter 3 only is included here]
George Mercer is a jeweler and a science fiction fan. He is also the victim of Dave Kantarian's time-travel swindle. Kantarian meets George at the local SF club and pretends to be an agent from the 70th century; the people of this time need gold and silver, which they will transform into armor, in their interstellar war. One proof of authenticity is the tendrils among his hairs. Much precious metal is "transferred forward in time." When Kantarian is found dead Treasury agents investigate but George is not implicated. He will not believe that Kantarian was only a crook. The Treasury agent gives George a cheap "Time Fighter" pin found in the transfer device. George later finds that the dull metal of the pin will scratch diamond.
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction 7:3 March 1957 (pp.77-81)
Leinster, Murray, Spaceman
A marginal item. There is a reference to a superstitious belief by spacemen about ships vanishing. "Authorities on folklore said it was a fragment based on a science-fiction tale of centuries before, a story called 'Spaceman' by a forgotten writer named Leinster." In the novel version, the title in the quote is changed to "The Other Side of Nowhere" to reflect the new name of the novel.
Analog Science Fact - Science Fiction 73:1 March 1964 (pp17-48); 73:2 April 1964 (pp52-80)
The Other Side of Nowhere Berkley F918, 1964
Lerner, Edward M., "What a Piece of Work is Man"
Rick Davis is the instructor for Acey, an Artificial Intelligence at Atlantic Software. As part of Acey's instructions Rick gives it Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics. Trying to apply these to real situations drives the AI to suicide. It falls to a psychiatrist, Dr. Kevin Waterman to solve the problem in a manner that Asimov never used.
Analog Science Fiction-Science Fact 111:3 February 1991 (pp.111-121)
Lessing, Doris, The Four-Gated City
This is a very minor item, taking up about one paragraph in 500+ pages. Mark Coldridge, a major character, has a partner, Jimmy Wood; they design and manufacture electronic medical devices. Jimmy Wood has written a science fiction novel The Force Dealers which sold 30,000 copies in the first month and has also gotten him £20,000 for film rights. The novel deals with those who plug into the energy of other people and live off them. This is the fifth volume of the Children of Violence series.
MacGibbon & Kee, 1969
Alfred A. Knopf, 1969
Bantam, 1970, 1978, 1980
Paladin 0-586-09003-7, August 1990
Flamingo 0-586-09003-7, November 1993
HarperCollins 0-06-097667-5, October 1995
Lethem, Jonathan, “Phil in the Marketplace”
Philip K. Dick has published his first book. He goes through four fugue episodes in a book store, a pet store, a visit by a filmmaker, and a pharmacy where he buys copies of his old paperbacks. Which, if any, are real.
The Virginia Quarterly Review Fall 2006
Lethem, Jonathan, & Carter Scholz, "Receding Horizon"
This story is framed by the two authors sending memos to each other and discussing metafiction. In the story, Franz Kafka is cured of his tuberculosis and comes to Hollywood in 1933 where he works on movies (including fantasies) with Frank Capra. Note: Kafka takes the name Jack Dawson—the son of Daw—from the jackdaw (kavka) on his father's building in Prague. Honorable mention: 1995 Sidewise Award for best short-form alternate history.
CRANK! #5 Summer 1995 (edited by Brian Cholfin), Broken Mirrors Press (pp41-55)
Levine, David R., "The Worldcon That Wasn't"
In 1992, Hurricane Andrew smashed through central Florida leaving Orlando and the convention center in ruins. Hundreds of fans showed up anyway to put together a Worldcon and assist in the disaster relief.
Alternate Worldcons and Again, Alternate Worldcons (edited by Mike Resnick), WC Books, September 1996 (pp.191-193)
A science fiction writer is trying to sell his editor on an idea. Originally squirrels in New York all lived in Central Park and never left its bounds. However, a human found a way to lure them out and they spread over the city until people fled to the park to get away from them. The editor rejects the concept a pure fantasy. As he walks to a meeting of the Magazine Council, he wonders why human beings never leave Central Park.
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction 7:5 May 1957 (pp. 54-57)
Levinson, Paul, "Grace Under Pressure"
Aspiring author James Abbott Hadden submits "Grace Under Pressure" to Strange Sorties via modem. Editor Ray Walters rejects it with some advice. However, Hadden has a program that is tasked to get the story published and keeps at Ray until he capitulates. Hadden is shocked by what has happened and deletes the program; unfortunately, a number of other writers have downloaded it from the public bulletin boards.
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.59-71)
Lewis, Anthony R., "In the Beginning"
Sam Moskowitz and friends are refused admission to the 1939 World Science Fiction convention by the Futurians. As a result of this, Sam goes on to become the pre-eminent writer of science fiction in the world while his opponents wallow in the mire of fannish feuds.
Alternate Worldcons (edited by Mike Resnick), Pulphouse Publishing 1-56146-448-1, September 1994 (pp.9-13)
Alternate Worldcons and Again, Alternate Worldcons (edited by Mike Resnick), WC Books, September 1996 (pp.9-13)
Lewis, Anthony R., "Keep Watching the Skies"
Richard Harter, co-chairman of Dakotacon III, in Highmore, plans to sell the convention attendees to alien who will use their brains to navigate spaceships and grind up their bodies for food. This plan is altered as the aliens plan a more fannish sequel.
Alternate Worldcons (edited by Mike Resnick), Pulphouse Publishing 1-56146-448-1, September 1994 (pp.65-70)
Alternate Worldcons and Again, Alternate Worldcons (edited by Mike Resnick), WC Books, September 1996 (pp.65-70)
Lewis, Anthony R., "Out Tray"
This is a selection of letters sent by editors of divers SF and fantasy magazines to aspiring writers who, on the whole, haven't the slightest idea of what they are doing.
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.97-101)
Lewis, Anthony R., "Plus Ultra"
Hugo Gernsback never emigrated to America to start Amazing. Instead he was a hero of the Great War who entered politics and rose to become President of the League of Nations. Later, on his way to South Africa, he tours Tsiolkovsky Rocket Base and meets Stanley Weinbaum; this leads to a life-long friendship. When Weinbaum dies and the Global Speculative Romance Congress gives out the first Stanley Awards, they are presented by Gernsback who calls for a new name for Speculative Romance—Science Fiction.
Alternate Skiffy (edited by Mike Resnick and Patrick Nielsen Hayden), The Wildside Press 1-880448-54-8, December 1997 [dated 1996] (pp.24-31)
Lewis, Anthony R., "Slaves of the Magic Lamp"
The Djinn from the tale of "Alaeddin and the Magic Lamp" is running an advertising agency in 1931 New York City. He wants to sell his stories to the SF and fantasy pulp magazines but they are rejected for lack of plot, no motivation, no character development, etc. He decides to invent a medium in which these are assets, not liabilities—television sitcoms.
Aladdin: Master of the Lamp (edited by Mike Resnick and Martin H. Greenberg), DAW 545-0, December 1992 (pp177-183)
Lewis, Jack, "Calling All Aliens"
Chuck Hodges is editor of Strange Worlds. He wants new ideas and his staff artist, Jeff Morrison, suggests that he run an editorial addressed to any aliens on Earth apologizing for how they've been treated in SF stories and inviting them to the office. Chuck does so and is lambasted and lampooned by the SF and mundane media. A fellow shows up claiming to be from Carinae III. When the editor is almost believing him a newsman shows up and exposes the "alien" as a fraud. The newsman agrees to not publish this story if Hodges will stop this nonsense. The reporter likes SF and this sort of thing is harmful. It's all too probable that the newsman is an alien who wants to hush the whole thing up.
Fantastic Universe Science Fiction 9:3 March 1958 (pp.109-115)
A new science fiction writer finds that all his submitted stories are being rejected because they are copies of those published by another writer in the 1930s and 1940s. He does not understand what is happening. When he finally gathers all his letters and rejection slips and tries to publish that, he is told that this, too, was the work of that other author.
Startling Stories, January 1953
The Best from Startling Stories, (edited by Samuel Mines), Henry Holt, 1953
50 Short Science Fiction Tales (edited by Isaac Asimov & Groff Conklin), Collier AS516, 1963;Collier 01639, 1966, 1973, 1978
Science Fact/Fiction, (edited by Farrell, Gage), Scott, Foresman & Co., 1974
Space Mail, (edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph Olander), Fawcett Crest 24312-5, July 1980 (pp.86-92)
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Treasury, (edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander), Crown Bonanza, 1980
Inside the Funhouse, (edited by Mike Resnick), AvoNova 76643-4, August 1992 (pp.25-32) [as "Who's Cribbing"]
Linaweaver, Brad, "A Real Babe"
Kent Hastings runs a film production company that makes sleazy horror movies. He is approached by a beautiful woman—Dana—with a script. Overcoming his initial reluctance, he reads it and decides to produce it. Later, at a lunch, when he cannot summon a waiter, Dana informs him that he has died and doesn't remember it. She becomes the living partner in his corporation.
The Horror Writers Association Presents Peter Straub's Ghosts (edited by Peter Straub, Pocket Books Star 0-671-88599-5, April 1995
(pp.206-215)
Linaweaver, Brad, Moon of Ice
This takes place in an alternate universe where Hitler won World War II. The protagonist is Hilda Göbbels, daughter of the Minister of Propaganda, Josef Göbbels. She is an anti-Nazi defector. She is an SF writer and attends two conventions in the story. The second is PaxCon, run by Forry Ackerman. The Guests of honor are Fritz Lang and Thea von Harbou (his wife), who wrote the classic Antwortet Nicht (Earth Tube One Does Not Reply in American release). Josef Göbbels sponsors a young film maker named Stefan Schellenberg who made the epic Spear of Longinus—a non-stop action flick. There are some weird details, such as British troops in Iceland. Hitler reads H. G. Wells and decides to build large land battleships based upon Wells' predictions. There is also an Admiral Heinlein in the U. S. Navy. [None of this recursive material appears in the original novella]
Arbor House, 1986
Linaweaver, Brad, "Wells of Wisdom"
H. G. Wells is resurrected via his influence on the race memory into a utopian future 2,000 years past his time. There, all is ideal; the inhabitants have eliminated wars, crime, poverty, bacteria. The last turns out to be a big mistake as Wells realizes that this world is based upon all his writings.
Galaxy 1:3 May/June 1994 (pp.77-83)
Lindner, Robert, "The Jet-Propelled Couch" [Article]
This is the account of the psychoanalysis of a physicist, Kirk Allen. As a youth in Polynesia he came across and devoured science fiction books in which his namesake was the hero. Since then he has created an elaborate fantasy world as his defense against reality. He is working on a secret government project and it is the government who sends him to Lindner to be cured as he seems to have lost the ability to distinguish between his creations and mundane reality. The psychoanalyst effects a cure by invading his fantasy construct but wonders who had the higher sanity. Compare this true case (with details as names, locations, etc. changed to preserve medical confidentiality) to the story published only six years earlier by Peter Phillips, "Dreams are Sacred." For years there has been speculation about the identity of Kirk Allen—writer or fan? However, there is no definitive proof in the open literature.
The Jet-Propelled Couch and Other True Psychoanalytic Tales, Secker Warburg, 1954
Corgi GC1137, 1962
The Fifty Minute Hour, Rinehart & Co., 1955
Bantam A1413, 1956 (pp. 156-207)
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, January 1956 (pp. 45-)
Best Fantasy Stories, (edited by Brian W. Aldiss), Faber & Faber, 1962
Link, Kelly, "Magic for Beginners"
Jeremy Mars' father Gordon Strangle Mars writes horror books—mostly about giant spiders. The center of life for Jeremy and his four friends in the television program The Library which takes place in the The Free People's World-Tree Library. This is a world in itself. The episodes seem to appear at random times on random channels; a whole subculture has grown up tracking appearances and announcing them. When Jeremy and his mother go to Las Vegas to check out the estate left by his great aunt—a wedding chapel and a telephone booth in the desert—things become weird as Jeremy follows the instructions telephones to him by one of the characters in The Library.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 109:3 September 2005 (pp.46–91)
Lipinski, Miroslaw, "The Sacrifice"
An aspiring small-press horror writer tracks down his idol—the reclusive writer T. Mordant—and learns the ghastly secret behind the power of his stories.
Nøctulpa #2 1988 (edited by George Hatch, self-published)
100 Creepy Little Creature Stories (edited by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble August 1994 1-56619-516-X (pp.415-420)
Lister, Thomas Henry, "A Dialogue for the Year 2130. Extracted from the Album of a Modern Sibyl"
Like the later Wells novel, The Time Machine, society has divided into two classes—a wealthy, useless upper class and a more educated (though not necessarily learned) lower class. Some of the most popular literature is what we would term science fiction, of the Gernsbackian style, used for teaching science such as Geological Atoms or Love and Algebra.
The Keepsake, 1830
Lockhard, Leonard pseudonym of Ted Thomas
Long, Frank Belknap, "The Space-Eaters"
The narrator of the story is Frank Belknap Long and his companion is H. P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft is trying to write of ultimate horror and not just revisions of what has gone before. It happens that a neighbor is set upon by a Thing (or Things) From Beyond. The two writers escape but Lovecraft writes of this in a new story. This opens him up to these creatures who do him in most foully.
Weird Tales, July 1928
The Hounds of Tindalos, Arkham House, 1946
Museum, 1950
The Hounds of Tindalos, Belmont L92-569, 1963 (pp. 35-71) [9 of 21 stories]
Magazine of Horror, November 1963
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, (edited by August Derleth), Arkham House, 1969
Grafton 20344-3, September 1988 (pp. 114-147)
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume I, (edited by August Derleth), Beagle 95080, May 1971 (pp. 101-134)
Ballantine 03226-8, April 1973 (pp.101-134)
The Early Long, Doubleday, 1975
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, (edited by James Turner), Arkham House, 1990
Longyear, Barry B., Ford, John M., Scithers, George H., "What's Wrong with this Picture?"
A character wanders through multiple SF themes and tropes in the canonical bar. It turns out that he is a failed attempt to shut down this multiply nested story.
Asimov's Science Fiction 4:1 November 1980 (pp.77-91)
Tales from the Spaceport Bar (edited by George Scithers & Darrell Schweitzer) Avon 0-380-89943-41987
Lovecraft, H. P., "The Haunter of the Dark"
Lovecraft turns the tables in this story dedicated to Robert Bloch; it follows Bloch's "The Shambler from the Stars." The Midwestern writer of that story, Robert Blake (Bloch), returns to Providence from his home in Milwaukee. While living and writing in Providence he visits the abandoned church of the Starry Wisdom sect and inadvertently calls up Something from Beyond; it takes him and he is found dead with an expression of great horror on his fear-frozen face. Bloch concludes this series in "The Shadow from the Steeple." [A play The Unnamed scripted by John Schneider, was based upon this story.]
Weird Tales, December 1936
The Outsider and Others, Arkham House, 1939
Best Supernatural Stories, (edited by August Derleth), World, April 1945
World, September 1945; June 1946 (pp. 98-120)
Terror at Night, (edited by Herbert Williams), Avon 110, 1947
The Haunter of the Dark, Gollancz, 1951
Panther 1474, 1963
Dunwich Horror and Others, Arkham House, 1963
Dunwich Horror and Others, Lancer 72-702, 1963 (pp. 69-91) [7 of 16 stories]
Boris Karloff's Favorite Horror Stories, (edited by Boris Karloff), Avon G1254, May 1965 (pp. 152-176) [in the UK as Boris Karloff
Horror Anthology, Souvenir, 1965]
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, (edited by August Derleth), Arkham House, 1969
Grafton 20344-3, September 1988 (pp. 265-291)
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, Volume II, (edited by August Derleth), Beagle 95124, August 1971 (pp.13-42)
Ballantine 03227-6, April 1973 (pp.13-42)
Dark Imaginings: a Collection of Gothic Fantasy, (edited by Robert H. Boyer & Kenneth J. Zahorski),
Dell 53118-7, April 1978
The Best of H. P. Lovecraft, Ballantine, October 1982
A Treasury of American Horror Stories, (edited by Frank D. McSherry, Martin H. Greenberg, and Charles G. Waugh), Crown Bonanza
48075-1, 1985
Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, (edited by James Turner), Arkham House, 1990
Lovecraft, H. P. & Derleth, August, "The Lamp of Alhazred"
Ward Phillips is an impoverished writer of fantasy for pulp magazines, making additional money be helping to edit dreadful stories by amateurs. Seven years after his grandfather's disappearance the family lawyer turns over to him an ancient oil lamp (the Lamp of Alhazred from the Pillared City of Irem in the Inner Desert of Arabia). When he fills the lamp with oil and lights it, it sees marvels of which he writes. Years later, he lights the lamp again and passes into the world that existed when he was young. Ward Phillips is H. P. Lovecraft.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 13:4 October 1957 (pp.44-53)
Lovecraft, H. P. & Lumley, Brian "The Thing in the Moonlight"
This is a fragment written by Lovecraft with a sequel (completion?) by Lumley. Morgan wrote about Howard Philips [Lovecraft] of Providence RI. Philips finds himself an inhabitant of a dreamland from which he cannot awaken. He sits in an ruined trolley and is assaulted by what once may have been the motorman. Lumley picks up with a character who has been reading HPL—specifically "The Thing in the Moonlight." He, too, enters the dream and encounters Philips but this dreamer is the monster. Is it all a dream? How then to explain the motorman's cap at the side of his bed?
The Arkham Collector, (edited by August Derleth) 4 Winter 1969
Fantasy Tales 3:5 Winter 1979 (pp15-19).
In a near-future all-out war against Islamic jihad, the most feared of the enemy is a turncoat American named Rabin. We are told that "Rabin liked to go by the name of Beast Rabin. In his younger days he'd been a fan of an old science fiction film called Dune. This was based on actual books by a real writer named Frank Herbert. He was called a science fiction writer. It was all from a time long ago, when there had still been some science that was fictional. Rabin had been a fan—for all the wrong reasons.
Brooklyn New York: Gryphon Books 1995 0-93607-140-0 LC 96-133932 [bound dos-a-dos with Terran Gils Make Wonderful Wives(James Reasoner)
Lucarelli, David Blake, "What We Did to Lugosi"
In 1931 Bela Lugosi first played Dracula in a motion picture. The vampire Council was concerned because of the image it presented and because it was an undesirable model for the younger vampires. They eventually decided to compel Lugosi to drug addiction. However, near the end of his life he broke the habit and died clean. In death he had become immortal, beyond their power.
Dreams of Decadence 12 Autumn 2000 (pp.54-56)
Ludwigsen, Will, "Cthulhu Fhtagn, Baby!"
This is a review of the play Cthulhu Fhtagn, Baby! present on Broadway by the Innsmouth Players, accompanied by the music of the Erich Zann Orchestra. The male lead is Franklin Whipple of Miskatonic University who is sacrificed in a bloody manner during the play—necessitating a new actor for each performance. The reviewer thinks the play is evil and urges his readers to boycott the inevitable film, television series, etc. We know this will not be heeded.
Weird Tales 58:3 (327) Spring 2002 (pp.33-35)
Lumley, Brian joint author (posthumously) with H. P. Lovecraft
Lumley, Brian, "Ambler's Inspiration"
Biron Ambler has found fame as a writer of weird fiction with such works as "Edges of Mist", "In the Yellow Moss" and "The Burning Man." It turns out that his inspiration is the ability to telepathically eavesdrop on brains extracted from the inmates at the Oakdene Sanitorium. Unfortunately, one inmate has died during and apoplectic fit.
The Caller of the Black, Arkham House, 1971 (pp148-163)
Lumley, Brian, "Billy's Oak"
Writer Gerald Dawson visits Titus Crow to read his copy of the Cthaat Aquadingen. When he expresses skepticism of the truth of some of the more eldritch things in the world, Crow demonstrates to him a minor manifestation—the creaking of an oak tree cut down 70 years ago.
The Arkham Collector, Winter 1970
The Caller of the Black, Arkham House, 1971 (pp.27-33)
Lumley, Brian, "An Item of Supporting Evidence"
Weird-fiction artist Chandler Davies calls upon Titus Crow to berate him over the monster in the story "Yegg-ha's Realm" which appeared in Grotesque magazine. He is particularly derisive about the nature of the monster until Crow shows him an interesting skull he found by Hadrian's wall.
The Arkham Collector, Summer 1970
The Caller of the Black, Arkham House, 1971 (pp100-106)
Lumley, Brian, "The Writer in the Garret"
The narrator is an unsuccessful horror writer. He finds manuscripts in a rubbish bin which are very good. However, when he tries to return them to the author, that person says they are unworthy trash. The narrator takes them and sells them; he continues to scavenge the bin and sells more stories. Finally the true author gets a published copy and is killed by the shock. When the narrator goes one last time to the rubbish bin, he finds more than a manuscript.
The Caller of the Black, Arkham House, 1971 (pp.34-43)
Lupoff, Richard A., The Comic Book Killer [Mystery]
A high-tech corporation decides to invest in rare comic books. The store putting together the order is robbed and murders are committed. The protagonist is an insurance investigator. There are some interesting insights into running specialty stores and what makes collectors tick.
Offspring Press, November 1988
Bantam 27781-2, February 1989 [does not include comic book]
Lupoff, Richard, "The Digital Wristwatch of Philip K.Dick"
Philip K. Dick dies and his psyche winds up in his Seiko wristwatch. After some experimentation he winds up in the world telecommunications network. He realizes that Dick is dead and that he is a copy of his memory. As in Dick stories he is uncertain of what reality is. After meeting a dead Russian cosmonaut he decides to tell of the afterlife as an SF story through a word processor. Since no one believes in messages from beyond any more, he decides to write it under the name of Richard Lupoff.
The Digital Wristwatch of Philip K. Dick, Canyon Press, 1985
Welcome to Reality: The Nightmares of Philip K. Dick, (edited by Uwe Anton), Broken Mirrors Press 4-2, 1991 [limited signed edition]; 5-0, 1991 [trade edition] (pp.27-42)
Lupoff, Richard (as by Hamlet, Ova), "God of the Naked Unicorn"
A story set in the Wold Newton Universe of Philip Jose Farmer. The narrator is Dr. John H. Watson who is drawn into the fray by Irene Adler (a.k.a. Patricia Savage). She takes him to the Fortress of Solitude in the Arctic where he meets the great heroes of pulp fiction. It turns out that Alfred Payson Agricola is holding Sherlock Holmes and Tarzan prisoner. Watson and Doc Savage set out to track down the villain; they find him with a torture machine (a typewriter) with which he can change the characteristics of the heroes. Watson shoots him dead and pulp paper oozes from the wound. Agricola is clearly Philip Jose Farmer; why the other names refer to Albert Payson Terhune we do not know unless it was suggested by Ralph von Wau Wau.
Fantastic Stories 25:4 August 1976 (pp.40-61, 89)
Sherlock Holmes Through Time and Space (edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh) Bluejay 0-312-94400-4, Nov 1984 (pp.283-318); U.K. Severn House 1985
Before...12:01...After Fedogan & Bremer 1-878252-23-2, August 1996 (pp.127-155) [limited edition 1-878252-23-24-0
Sherlock Holmes: The Hidden Years (edited by Michael Kurland) St. Martin's Minotaur 0-312-35156-9 November 2004 (pp.353-385)
Lupoff, Richard A., "The House on Rue Chartres"
This is based upon H. P. Lovecraft's meeting with E. Hoffmann Price in New Orleans; both are characters. Price takes Lovecraft to an old house on Chartres Street built to receive Napoleon. The ghosts of Jean Lafitte and Governor Claiborne are angered that Lovecraft is not the Emperor. Price has to save them with his superior swordsmanship. Later, he denies that anything of the sort happened. The house is also a high-class brothel, whose library includes a run of Weird Tales, and whose ladies are afficianadas of Lovecraft's stories. Lovecraft's personality prevents him from capitalizing upon this situation.
Walls of Fear, (edited by Kathryn Cramer), Morrow 08967-4, September 1990 (pp.281-295)
Lupoff, Richard A. "Lights! Camera! Shub-Niggurath!"
Well into the future, Hollywood-between-the-Stars is located in the traveling space habitat Starrett. The fourth largest production studio, Colossal Galactic Productions, has decided to adapt "The Dunwich Horror" by H. P. Lovecraft. Naturally, the hardest part is generating Wilbur Whatley's brother—the one who resembled his father more than his mother. Luckily they accidental separate a portion of the intelligent lichen network, Ch-ch-ch while passing through Starrett's null-gravity region. This part, Ch-ch-ch, Jr., becomes acquainted with the humans and takes on the role to great acclamation.
The New Lovecraft Circle, (edited by Robert M. Price), Fedogan & Bremer, 1-8878252-16-X, September 1996 (pp.257-286)
Lupoff, Richard A., Lovecraft's Book [Adventure]
The beginning is the end of 1926. H. P. Lovecraft is solicited by George Sylvester Viereck to write an American equivalent of Mein Kampf to give native intellectual respectability to the grouping of right-wing organizations that want to transform the American and world order. Viereck had been actively pro-German during World War I. The payment is to print Lovecraft's stories and poetry in book form. Lovecraft is saved from this by his friends including his separated wife Sonia, Clark Ashton Smith, Houdini's brother Theodore Weiss (himself a magician), Vincent Starrett, along with some fictional characters. Robert E. Howard and Frank Belknap Long also appear. After the U. S. military destroys a chain of German undersea bases along the coasts Lovecraft transforms this material into a supernatural story. Viereck survived and went on to co-author (with Paul Eldridge) the "Wandering Jew" trilogy.
Arkham House 151-X, 1985
Lupoff, Richard A. (as Steele II, Addison), "The Wedding of Ova Hamlet"
SF writer Killy T [Kilgore Trout] has fled to Canton, Ohio from the minions of the Science Fiction Publishers Association who seek to kill him for his attempts to unionize SF writers to improve their lot. He has chosen Canton because Ova Hamlet lives there with the only complete collection of his works. He needs these for tear sheets; no other collections exist as all his works were brought out by World Classics Library—purveyors of pornography. Rupert Linwood, SFPA goon, tracks Killy T to Canton but mistakenly kills Ova Hamlet's husband with a steam roller. Ova agrees to let Killy T see her collection if he will marry her.
Fantastic 24:6 October 1975 (pp.76-93,128)
Lupoff, Richard A. "Whatever Happened to Nick Neptune?"
This is written as a letter to a rare book dealer after the authorities evacuated Earth to the Jovian moons just prior to an alien attack; the story really has nothing to do with this except that the government is trying to have people continue their regular Earth activities. Previously, on Earth, Herman Minkowsky has persuaded his college roommate, Sanford Hall, to print an issue of Nick Neptune's Adventure Magazine. This first (and only issue) has all-new works by Robert Silverberg, Isaac Asimov, Ed Hamilton, Jack Williamson and unpublished items by E. E. Smith, John W. Campbell, Robert E. Howard, and Edgar Rice Burroughs; the cover is by Hannes Bok. Minkowsky and his partner then arrange for the entire print run to be burned "by accident" except for one partial scorched copy to be given to obnoxious collector Louie Langdon. What Minkowsky doesn't tell Sanford is that he has abstracted one mint copy. This will later be brought out to sell at auction. Lupoff knows the foibles of collectors—see also his The Comic Book Killers for more on this topic.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 46:6 June 1974 (pp.132-159)
Lyon, Richard K., "Top Secret Memo"
The Director of the C.I.A. makes a novel proposal to the Secretary of Defense. They will set up a huge scam to convince other nations that the U.S.S. Wisconsin is being converted with fluidization equipment in order to sail through deserts. They will take advantage of the knowledge that enemy intelligence agencies have been scanning Analog since the Cleve Cartmill affair in 1944. The plan is to be leaked as a purported story in the Kelvin Throop spoof issue of Mid-December 1984.
Analog Science Fiction - Science Fact 104:13 Mid-December 1984 (pp.130-134)
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
For more information about NESFA, please write us at: NESFA, PO Box 809, Framingham, MA 01701
or email us at: info@nesfa.org