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Wagner, Karl Edward, "The Last Wolf"
In the future there are no more book publishers. His agent tries to get him to write for television but he refuses. Spirits come--characters whose stories were never completed--who invite him to come to Limbo with them. Again, he refuses and waits for the last reader.
Midnight Sun 2, Sum–Fal 1975
Fantasy Tales 1:2, Win 1977 (pp 31-36)
Wagner, Karl Edward, "Neither Brute Nor Human"
Science Fiction and Horror writers are psychic vampires who leech the vitality from their readers and fans. However, these readers are hemovoric vampires who suck the writers' blood.
World Fantasy Convention Program Book (edited by Robert Weinberg) 1983
Masters of Darkness (edited by Dennis Etchison) Tor 0-812-51762-8, August 1986 (pp134-170)
Why Not You and I? Tor 0-812-52708-9, September 1987 (pp99-127)
Why Not You and I? Arlington Heights Illinois: Dark Harvest 0-913165-25-5, November 1987 (pp1-26)
Author's Choice Monthly Issue 2: Unthreatened by the Morning Light Pulphouse October 1989 (pp17-52)
The Complete Masters of Darkness (edited by Dennis Etchison), Underwood-Miller 0-88733-116-5, February 1991 (pp99-124)
Waldrop, Howard, "The Effects of Alienation"
In an alternate universe where Nazi Germany used nuclear weapons to win the war, the Zürcher Ensemble presents a performance of Berthold Brecht's Die Dreiraketenmensch Oper in a cafe owned by his widow. Two of the actors are Shemp and Zero Mostel.
Omni 14: 9 June 1992 (pp64-72; 87-90)
Waldrop, Howard, "Thirty Minutes Over Broadway!"
The "Wild Cards" series origin story. The young Jetboy flies an experimental jet fighter against the Axis. The plane was designed by Dr. Silverberg (confirmed as a deliberate tuckerization). After the war, in New York Jetboy passes a bookstore in whose window are The Grass-Hopper Hangs Heavy (Hawthorne Abendsen) and Growing Flowers by Candlelight in Hotel Rooms (Mrs. Charles Fine Adams). Hawthorne Abendsen was the author of that book in Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle. Mrs. Adams' book exists only as a reference in The Abortion: A Romance (Richard Brautigan). Jetboy is derived from Airboy, a World War II comic book hero.
Wild Cards, (edited by George R. R. Martin), Bantam 26190-8, June 1987 (pp.10-46)
Night of the Cooters, Ursus, 1990
Waller, Nicholas, "Frame by Frame"
Steve Davidson designs monsters for digital games and stories. He is having trouble with the lead in Vampire: Born of Atlantis! He finally winds up in his creation.
Interzone 138 December 1998 (pp.37-43)
Ward, Jean Marie & Smith, Teri, With Nine You Get Vanyr
A group of nine women have been writing fan fiction on the web. These stories are based upon the television program Domain: The Series. Naturally, they have written themselves in as heroines. The first time they get together is at Dragon*Con. Another attendee is the Mother Goddess of the true Domain and she has plans for them. They are transported to Domain and there have to fight evil while dealing with relationships with the Vanyr males who are a lot more than their television counterparts.
Samhain Publishing (electronic) 1-59998-166-1 November 2006
Samhain Publishing (print) 1-59998-360-5 February 2007
Warren, Bill & Rothstein, Allan, "Fandom is a Way of Death" [Mystery]
Crimes are committed at the 1984 World SF convention, L.A.con II, in Los Angeles (actually Anaheim), California. Many local fen are characters in this tale.
L.A.con II, mimeographed booklet, 1984, 40pp + 3pp in an envelope with the murder solution
Another marginal item; it is notable, in this context, for the appearance of the proto-Gernsbackian stf writer, Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (author of the novel Beyond the Planet Earth, 1920). A group of Soviet filmmakers are using a new technique of hypnotic reincarnation to "observe" Anton Chekov. However, his travels and companions, including Tsiolkovsky, are not according to history. When they observe the future, they see a Soviet interstellar ship accidentally plunging back through time to become the Tunguska explosion of 1908 and also of 1888 in this new history. Tsiolkovsky and Chekov have a very brief discussion at one point where they define SF as it is to come.
Gollancz 03213-8, 1983
Carroll & Graf 523-X, October 1989
Watson, Ian, "The Odor of Cocktail Cigarettes"
James Swallow is a science fiction writer, one who dislikes self-referential stories as in-group jokes. He has even spoken out against them in guest of honor speeches. He is now part of a first-contact team, one of eleven humans chosen to meet the gaming challenge of an alien. To win means mankind get interstellar travel; to lose may mean his life—at best. Will his SF writing background aid or hinder him in the game?
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 15:4&5 April 1991 (pp.122-135)
Watson, Ian, "What Actually Happened in Docklands"
This takes place at the 1997 World Fantasy Convention held in the Docklands area of London. Apparently, the convention has sold out to aliens. This may reflect the viewpoint of some of the attending fans and professionals.
Interzone 132 June 1998 (pp.48-53)
Watson, Ian, "The World SF Convention of 2080"
The 2080 World SF Convention is being held in Boston. However, sometime before it there has been a nuclear holocaust and fan activities have been limited a bit in time, although not in scope. And, without contradicting data, the entire universe is once again open for speculation.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1980 (pp 63-66; 96) [cover by Barclay Shaw]
The Road to Science Fiction #4, (edited by James E. Gunn), Mentor, November 1982
Inside the Funhouse, (edited by Mike Resnick), AvoNova 76643-4, August 1992 (pp.136-141)
Watt-Evans, Lawrence, "Just Perfect"
In order to make more of His nature known to humanity, God submits the perfect story. As soon as the editor has finished reading it and deciding to print it, the phone rings. It is God. The editor tells Him the good news—but, he says, there is the need for a few editorial changes.
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.102-104)Watt-Evans, Lawrence, "Return to Xanadu"
Dunyazad is expelled from the Kalevala back to the pleasure dome of Xanadu where her fellow harem members declare she is demon tainted and seek to have her executed. She flees and is able to petition Kubla Khan for aid. He summons a great magician (described as his "aide de camp"—subtle, no?) who places Dunyazad where she belongs—the world of the كتاب ألف ليلة و ليلة (Kitāb 'Alf Layla wa-Layla).
The Enchanter Completed (edited by Harry Turtledove) Baen 0-7434-9904-2, May 2005 (pp.261-275)
Watt-Evans, Lawrence, "Science Fiction"
A marginal item. Two young boys on board the space station Havel are inspired to build a spaceship by a century-old paper science fiction book one of them finds. They believe if someone could launch from the bottom of the Earth gravity well, they ought to be able to do it from orbit. The flight is marginally successful (or maybe a failure) as a flight but it is the beginning of the space stations' efforts to cut free from the economic dependence on Earth. [Earth economics seems to have reverted to mercantilism.]
Analog Science Fiction - Science Fact 111:4 March 1991 (pp. 158-177)
The narrator's (Mike) classmate David Davis has become a famous New Age writer. The narrator himself once took an Science Fiction Honors course and got an A for his story "Diary Found in an Abandoned Jeep." (Actually, author Don Webb did this in college.) It turns out that David had sought Yig's blessing (Yig is a serpent god) but was greedy and petty. As he shed his skin he became smaller and was eventually eaten by another disciple of Yig.
Interzone 143, May 1999 pp 43-47
Webb, Don, "The Literary Fruitcake"
The history of a Christmas fruitcake that inspires literary effort is chronicled; the author buys it in a small shop on Haight. It was originally given to Charles Dickens in 1843 by Queen Victoria; the path afterwards is Bram Stoker, Arthur Machen, Algernon Blackwood, Margaret Anderson, Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Richard Farina, Thomas Pynchon, Mary Denning, Don Webb. However, the fruitcake was stolen from the author and soon great literature begins to appear as graffiti on the walls of Austin, Texas. No one has ever tasted this fruitcake.
Interzone 113, November 1996 (pp. 25-26)
Webb, Don, "To Mars and Providence"
H. P. Lovecraft was eight years old when the Martian cylinders landed in Providence, Rhode Island. Through telepathic communication with the invaders, he realizes that his body contains the mind of, and he is one of, the Elder Gods. This has an effect on his later writing career.
War of the Worlds: Global Dispatches (edited by Kevin J. Anderson.), Bantam Spectra 0-553-10353-9 (SF Book Club 13620), 1996 (pp203-211)
Wei Yahua, "Conjugal Happiness in the Arms of Morpheus"
[Translated by Wu Dingbo] A gentleman with a robot wife finds that her very virtues are flaws and is most incensed with the manufacturer and with Isaac Asimov whose Three Laws have been built into all robots. Darrell Schweitzer (in Aboriginal SF March–April 1990) says that this story, that questioned authority and posits a non-utopian future, was sufficient to shut down science fiction publishing in China for about a year.
Amazing, September 1984 (pp.54-72)
Science Fiction from China, (edited by Wu Dingbo & Patrick D. Murphy), Praeger 93343-1, Oct 1989
Weinberg, Robert, "Elevator Girls"
Brian Cassidy is a horror writer. At the 1989 World Fantasy Convention in Seattle, he has his first encounter with an Elevator Girl. These are a form of vampire who feed off human creativity using seduction as their mechanism. Eventually, the writer is drained (probably reduced to writing elf and dragon novels) and they move on to the next victim. At the 1993 World Fantasy Convention, Brian is about to be seduced when he is saved by his agent, whom he realizes, is another form of vampire.
The Many Faces of Fantasy: The 22nd World Fantasy Convention (edited by Richard Gilliam), October 1996, The 22nd World Fantasy Convention(pp.111-124)
Weinberg, Robert, A Logical Magician
Merlin recruits graduate student Jack Collins to save the world. Jack's qualifications are a knowledge of higher mathematics and science fiction/fantasy. He makes good use of them both. It develops that a number of supernatural folk also enjoy reading science fiction.
Ace 0-441-00059-2, April 1994
Wellman, Manly Wade, "When It Was Moonlight"
Edgar Allan Poe investigates a case of a woman who arose after a premature burial, learing she was a vampire. Her defeat—by being bricked into a wall—provides him with material for many of his works.
Unknown Fantasy Fiction 2:6 February 1940
The Unknown (edited by Donald R. Bensen) Pyramid R-851 April 1963 (pp. 137-152)
The Midnight People (edited by Peter Haining) London: Leslie Frewin 1968 (pp129-146)
The Man Who Called Himself Poe (edited by Sam Moskowitz) Doubleday 0-385-08537-0 1969 (pp86-103)
Worse Things Waiting Carcosa 0-913796-00-X 1973 pp.232-242)
Vamps (edited by Martin H. Greenberg & Charles G. Waugh) DAW 0-88677-190-0 March 1987 (pp234-250)
Unknown Worlds (edited by Stanley Schmidt & Martin H. Greenberg) Galahad Books 0-88365-728-7 June 1988 (pp85-95)
Weird Vampire Tales (edited by Robert Weinberg, Stefan R. Dziemianowitz, & Martin H. Greenberg) Gramercy 0-517-06018-3 August 1992 (pp381-392)
West, Paul, Lord Byron's Doctor
This is another view of the crew at Villa Diodati. Here the viewpoint character is John Polidori, author of The Vampyre (1819). This is supposed to be the actual journals kept by Polidari and not the censored ones previously published. The SF writer Mary Shelley plays a major role.
Doubleday 26129-2, September 1989
White, James, "The Backward Magician"
Merlin is king of a mighty nation at the dawn of time—but he is bored. He fashions a spell to hurl himself into the far future to meet others like him with whom he can commune. He arrives at the 131st World Science Fiction Convention (Minneapolis 2073), attends it and slips back to an earlier convention and then to the Mermaid Tavern, and then back to Camelot. He modifies the spell to stay there but this brings memories of places and times he does not think he has visited—one of them is MagiCon the 50th Worldcon (Orlando 1992). Finally, he returns to his own kingdom.
Magicon Program/Souvenir Book, FANAC, September 1992 (pp.33-51)
Whitley, George pseudonym of A. Bertram Chandler
Wightman, Wayne, "Unnatural Strangers"
A marginal item. The aliens who visit Earth in flying saucers are the galactic equivalent of rummies. The protagonist, Sebastien Eeps writes up his true experiences and submits them as science fiction. Often they are rejected as being too weird.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 78:4 April 1990 (pp.74-89)
Williams, Walter Jon joint author with Mike Resnick, et al.
Williams, Walter Jon, "No Spot of Ground"
In this alternate universe, Edgar Allan Poe managed to wind up as a Confederate Brigadier General in the American Civil War. He has still written fantasy and poetry, albeit a bit different. The war becomes the Hell to him that our Poe knew from chemical dependency.
Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine, November 1989 vol. 13 no. 11 (pp. 136-191)
What Might Have Been, vol. 2: Alternate Heroes (edited by Gregory Benford & Martin H. Greenberg) Bantam 28279-4, January 1990
(pp. 293-354)
Williams, Walter Jon, "Wall, Stone, Craft"
In an alternate universe Byron is a military hero of the Napoleonic wars. However, fate is such that he and the Shelleys' lives become entangled. Finally, Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein—albeit in a somewhat different version than in our world.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 85:4-5 October/November 1993 (pp161-239)
Williamson, Chet, "From the Papers of Helmut Hecker"
Helmut Hecker is the author of "literary" fiction. He shuns the very notion that his writing could be considered as genre fiction. In Providence on a book tour he buys a cat to replace his old one who had died. This cat turns out to be the reincarnation of Howard Phillips Lovecraft. The superior mind of the cat gradually takes over that of Hecker and, in the end, Hecker becomes a new and reinvigorated Lovecraft. A delightful story.
Lovecraft's Legacy (edited by Robert E. Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg), Tor 85091-3, November 1990 (pp.157-172)
Williamson, Chet, "I'll Drown My Book"
McPeel is a writer, including such SF books as Heart of Space, Timeframe 2000, and Within the Giant's Grip. He receives a call from the famous novelist J. M. Wingarden (In the Shadows and Over the Border) who wants an article written for widest possible distribution. It seems that Wingarden is trying to recover all the copies of his twqo novels; whenever someone reads a copy, they also access Wingarden's mind. The article is to request people to send him copies unread. Unfortunately, this causes a revival of interest that kills Wingarden. Bow McPeel is finding the same thing is happening to him and he requests copies of his books.
Rod Serling's Twilight Zone Magazine 6:3 August 1986 (pp58-61)
Williamson, Chet, "Will the Real Sam Starburst..."
Dr. David Holliday has perfected a method of somatic transformation using DNA manipulation. Some people have themselves morphed into fictional characters; then, they sue the authors for libel, etc. One such person sues Alexander Meyer, Worldcon guest of honor and author of the successful Sam Starburst series. When the court rules against Meyer, he kills Dr. Holliday. Norman Mailer and SFWA immediately set up a defense fund for him.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 66:6 June 1984 (pp 67-72)
Williamson, Jack, "The Story Roger Never Told"
Because of an administrative foul-up in Galactic Security Roger Zelazny is mistaken for an Agent and abducted from Cleveland. Part of his interrogation is being presented in a thesis diorama as a Maasai warrior. When the mistake is discovered he is returned about an hour after he left. Now, imbued with Joseph Campbell, he becomes a science fiction writer.
Lord of the Fantastic (edited by Martin H. Greenberg), Avon 0-380-78737-7, September 1998 (pp.37-44)
A group of robots cannot obtain job satisfaction because of the restrictions built into them under the Three Laws adopted by roboticists. They go to Isaac Asimov and petition him to solve their problem. The Good Doctor does.
Foundation's Friends (edited by Martin H. Greenberg), Tor 93174-3, September 1989 (pp.173-186); 50980-3, October 1990
Isaac Asimov's SF Magazine, Mid-December 1989 (pp. 28-49)
A Christmas story in which the two old warhorse movies—It's a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street play a major role as their plots are mapped into the mundane world by Santa Claus.
Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine 15:14 December 1991 (pp.138-169)
Willis, Connie, "Nonstop to Portales"
While traveling on business, Carter Stewart stops over in Portales, New Mexico; there is nothing to do or see there. He runs across, and is allowed to join, a bus tour visiting local sites with connections to Jack Williamson (his ranch, writing shed, university). Jack is away at a science fiction convention. It turns out that all the people on the tour are named after characters in Williamson's stories. Eventually Stewart comes to realize that these people are tourists from the future—a future invented in part by Williamson's stories. He cannot continue with the tour; they are off to visit asteroid #5516, named after Williamson.
The Williamson Effect (edited by Roger Zelazny), Tor 0-312-85748-9, May 1996 (pp.246-273)
Edward Haines Vernon comes from the Midwest to Providence to visit H. P. Lovecraft. In this world Lovecraft did not die of cancer but was saved by Shub-Niggurath. He has been working since then to bring these creatures into our world. One of his earliest tasks was to resurrect Clark Ashton Smith from the dead. Smith now lives with him. The creatures give them power in wealth in return for sacrifices—usually literary critics and writers of Lovecraftian pastiches. When Vernon is presented to them, they take Lovecraft unto themselves and Vernon takes over his position.
Lovecraft's Legacy (edited by Robert E. Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg), Tor 85091-3, November 1990
(pp.211-249)Wilson, Gahan, "The Power of the Mandarin"
The author who created the horrific villain The Mandarin (clearly modeled on the great Fu Manchu) and chronicled his crimes and inventions now wants to kill him off and end the series, but the Mandarin has other ideas.
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 33:6 December 1967
The Cleft and Other Odd Tales, Tor 15 October 1998 0-312-86574-0 [978-0-312-86574-0]
A local lawman is concerned about the famous horror writer who, with his family, has moved into his town. Everyone else in the community are cheerfully going on with their usual murders and atrocities, but the horror writer seems to be worrisomely law-abiding and just doesn't fit in.
Psycho-Paths, (edited by Robert Bloch and Martin H. Greenberg) Tor, March 1991 0-312-85048-4 (pp.1-16)
The Cleft and Other Odd Tales, Tor 15 October 1998 0-312-86574-0 [978-0-312-86574-0]
Wilson, Richard, "Science Fiction Story"
This opens with a story ostensibly about an Earth spaceship going to Mars, but a number of the astronomical and geological facts are incorrect. It turns out that this story was written by a Martian; the Martians had, in their language, a reversal of the planetary names. The story was rejected by all major Martian SF magazines. It has now been sent to Earth. We are asked—should it be published?
Science Fantasy [British] 9:26, 1957
Time Out for Tomorrow Ballantine F658 1962
Wilson, Richard, "The Story Teller"
William Wylie Ross is a retired pulp (including SF) writer. He writes at a flea market for $1/page to keep amused. There he meets an alien who believes he is their prophet. They move him to her interstitial world. Perhaps this is all a story he is writing, but perhaps it is reality.
Authentic Science Fiction 49 September 1954 (pp.92-102)
Wilson, Richard, "Time Out for Tomorrow"
An amusing time travel yarn set at a meeting of the Omega club, an assembly of sf writers, editors, artists, and readers, including an attractive femmefan of easy virtue. "Gosh-wow-boyoboy!"—Brad Verter
Science Fantasy [British] 9:26, 1957
Time Out for Tomorrow Ballantine F658 1962
Wilson, Robert Charles, "Divided by Infinity"
The narrator lives in Toronto; his late wife worked in one of those bookstores that pop up in SF where one can find books never written or published in our world. One book he finds is The Stone Pillow; the story is coy about the author but this is one of the "stories never written" in Robert A. Heinlein's Future History. In that universe it was serialized in Astounding in 1946 and printed in paperback by Signet ca.1957 with a Paul Lehr cover. [It would be nice to find these bookstores.] The store owner lends him a book You Will Never Die by Carl G. Soziere which takes the multiple quantum worlds to an extreme—you don't really die, you just become less probable as you live in a smaller number of universes. At the end, 10000 years later, the narrator is revived by an insectile race that tried to warn us about colliding neutron stars in our vicinity; we got the message too late to do anything about it. The aliens prepare to preserve his soul for all time by eating his body.
Starlight 2 (edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden), Tor 0-312-86184-2, November 1998 (pp.13-43)
Winkle, Michael D., "Future History"
Chilton is an SF writer in the next century. At the Fictioneers' Club, he complains to his fellow writers that the contemporary SF writing has narrowed its horizons since the days of Wells, Stapleton, Hodgkins, etc. He writes a ground-breaking story "Contact Sports" which is sent to Cosmic Stories [Cosmic Tales in the subsequent letter]. He receives a rejection from the alien who edits the magazine; there are a number of premises, such as FTL, which have been proved to be incorrect by their scientists. For a similar reason, they are not interested in a projected time travel series.
Pirate Writings 3:2 [Summer] 1995 (pp.47-48)
Winters, Michael A., "Selling a Short"
A brief excursion on how to sell science fiction stories.
Amazing Science Fiction Stories 61:2 July 1986 (pg.86)
John Roberts is a science fiction writer who manages a condominium in Massachusetts. He contracts with a waste removal company that later turns out to be future antique dealers. In the meantime his companion Marcia has gone through the dumpster into the future and it is up to him to get her back from collectors. They later collaborate on a novel—The Dumpster.
Interzone 60 June 1992 (pp33-39)
The inmates and medical staff at the United General Psychiatric Hospital exist in an alternate universe. They play an indoor version of the game of Moopsball. One of the game's participants is named Cohn. This game was described in "Rules of Moopsball" by Gary Cohn in Orbit 18 (edited by Damon Knight), Harper & Row 012433-4, June 1976 (pp.65-73). See also Paul Levitz & Keith Griffen in the Graphic Arts section.
Tor, November 1988; 50301-5, September 1989 [Chapter 9, pp.71-73]
Wollheim, Donald A., "Disguise"
A group of SF writers and editors who have grown up in fandom are at their regular get-together at "Borderland House" in New Jersey. A newer member of the group, editor Evan Carey arrives and warns them of aliens visiting the SF community. After he goes into the kitchen the real Evan Carey arrives at the house.
Other Worlds Science Stories 5:2 February 1953 (pp.134-138)
Wollheim, Donald A. [as by Grinnell, David], "Malice Aforethought"
Allen San Sebastian competes with Marvin Dane to sell to Grimoire, The Magazine of Spectral Faction, whose editor, Le Clair B. Smith, knows little of fantasy fiction but pays well. The authors' minds become psychically linked, and all of San Sebastian's story ideas are unconsciously stolen by Dane; since Dane is a much faster writer (though like Smith someone who knows little of the field), Dane's stories sell and San Sebastian's are rejected. San Sebastian finally destroys Dane's reputation by mentally "feeding" him the text of Lovecraft's "The Rats in the Walls." Neither Dane nor Smith recognizes it, but when Smith publishes the story, the resulting plagiarism scandal ends Dane's career, to San Sebastian's advantage. The reprint anthology credits the story to Wollheim. [Information from Denny Lien]
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction 3:7 November 1952
100 Hilarious Little Howlers (edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz, Robert Weinberg & Martin H. Greenberg, Barnes & Noble 0-7607-1385-5, Oct 1999
Wollheim, Donald A., "The Man from the Future"
Returning from an SF club meeting in Brooklyn, two fans come upon a strange dwarfish man in the subway. They convince him to attend the national SF convention in Manhattan to be held in two weeks dressed as a man from the future. As he is giving his talk at the con he is heckled by a loud-mouth fan from the Bronx. He turns a "ray gun" on the fan and continues his speech. Later, the fan is found at the back of the room dead, crusted with blue and green spots.
Cosmic Stories, March 1941
Up There and Other Strange Directions, NESFA Press 39-0, September 1988 (pp. 123-127) NESFA Press 92-7, September 1988 (pp. 123-127) [boxed edition]
Wollheim, Donald A., "Miss McWhortle's Weird"
Following the death of the former editor of Eldritch Tales (Weird Tales ) Worth Faneman (Farnsworth Wright), the new editor Miss McWhortle (Dorothy McIlworth) makes changes that the old-liners do not like. She rejects the complex baroque works of Ashur Clark Brown (Clark Ashton Smith), messes up the art of Johan Zog (Hannes Bok), and attempts to butcher a story by the late writer Lovering (H. P. Lovecraft). However, that writer still has power as Miss McWhortle finds to her horror when it is too late for her.
The Arkham Collector 7, (edited by August Derleth), Arkham House, Summer 1970
The Men from Ariel, NESFA Press 19-6, February 1982 (pp. 91-97) NESFA Press 81-1, February 1982 (pp. 91-97) [boxed edition]
Shaggy B.E.M. Stories, (edited by Mike Resnick), Nolacon Press, September 1988 (pp. 84-88)
Wood, Crystal, Cut Him Out in Little Stars
When he was a child, Timothy Truitt was the star of the TV SF series Starship Stowaway. Now he is at a science fiction convention celebrating the show's revival on PBS. Timothy is periodically abducted by aliens—the same ones who visit Whitley Streiber.
Tattersall 0-9640513-0-3, September 1994
Worth, Peter, "Typewriter from the Future"
In the 1950s, science fiction has been outlawed "because its authors were giving away top defense secrets;" in its place is Impossible Fiction, which must be law be so ridiculous as to be beyond any belief. Phil Bacon edits Absurd Stories Magazine, a low-quality title derided by organized Impossible Fiction Fandom (typical letters are quoted). But Absurd's recent author discovery, Peter Abbott, has caused circulation to grow from 3,000 copies per issue to "well over the half million mark." When the mysterious Abbot stops submitting stories with a telegram saying that his typewriter is out of order, Bacon travels to the tiny Washington hamlet to hand-deliver a new one. Abbott turns out to be an illiterate, simple-minded man who stumbled upon a portal to the future and from a shady character there obtained a computer-brained typewriter containing famous stories already published in that future. The plot then veers off into time paradoxes, hugger-mugger with time policemen, and Bacon's insipid romance with his secretary, who turns out to be a spy from the future cops herself (but loves him and decides to stay in the past with him). Eventually the timelines are changed and the unknowing Bacon finds himself reliving first contact with Abbott, whose mind has been improved to the point where he will now be able to write his own, equally good, Impossible Fiction stories.—Dennis Lien
NOTE: while "Peter Worth" wasn't always Roger Graham, I'm [Dennis Lien] almost certain he was in this case:
- Graham had another story, as "Rog Phillips," in the same issue of the magazine (Geier did not, nor I think are there other unknowns among the lineup who could have the author)
- Graham/Phillips was much more prolific than Geier, so simple odds favor his authorship, other things being even.
- Most tellingly, Graham (as Phillips) had close links to fandom, reviewing fanzines for Amazing and other magazines for many years. The inside jokes on sf fandom in this issue sound like someone who knows what's he spoofing (and that fact that some unkind things are said suggest a further reason for Amazing fanzine columnist Rog Phillips to think twice about attaching his usual name to this story).
Amazing Stories 24:2 February 1950 (pp.44-66)
Wright, T. Lucien, Blood Brothers
Harry and Jerry Matheson are twins and writers. Harry is a horror writer in Hollywood. Unfortunately, he has become a vampire. It seems that T. L. Wright's brother, T. M. Wright, does work in Hollywood and may be involved in the filming of one of T. L. Wright's horror novels.
Zebra/Pinnacle 1-55817-580-6, January 1992
Wynne-Jones, Tim, "Time Shrink"
Solomon Marvel keeps submitting his time travel stories to his writing group. A time traveler shows up and allows him to save one of the group from being killed by a collision with a train.
Tesseracts 4 (edited by Lorna Toolis and Michael Skeet), Victoria, BC: Beach Holmes Publishers Limited,0-88878-322-1, December 1992 (pp. 345-357)
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