Guest Blogger: Bobby Nash: WHEN TITANS TUSSLE AND WRITERS RAMBLE!

When I first got into reading comic books as a kid, one of my favorite type of stories would be the team up between two characters. It was magical to see Spider-man and Captain America work together or see The Hulk and The Thing go toe-to-toe. The creators of those comics made it feel like an event. These team ups felt like they were something special.

 

Because they were special.

 

When Charles F. Millhouse first mentioned the idea for Pulp Reality #1 to me, a lightbulb popped up over my head. An idea clicked into place and I knew in that instant I had to be involved because there was a chance to do something special. 

A little background. I own a character called Lance Star: Sky Ranger. Lance is an aviator adventurer in the grand pulp tradition who flies around the world from one exciting story to the next. Lance and the Sky Rangers have appeared in four anthologies and a collected edition of my stories from Airship 27 Productions. He has also appeared in comic book adventures and some new tales at BEN Books. You can learn all about Lance and his Sky Rangers at http://lancestar.blogspot.com.

 

 

Charles F. Millhouse is no stranger to pulp aviator 

adventurers himself. Charles is the mastermind behind the Captain Hawklin series published by Stormgate Press. You can learn all about Captain Hawklin at http://www.choosetheadventure.net  

 

My brilliant idea was to team up these two titanic New Pulp heroes for an adventure. There was only one hurdle. Would Charles be interested in such a titanic team up in his magazine? Would he want someone other than himself writing his character? As writers, we get attached to our literary babies. Trust me on this. Now, in my head, I assumed this idea was an easy yes, a no-brainer of an idea. However, if I’ve learned anything in my years in publishing, and some would say I’ve learned very little, I’ve discovered that my no-brainer ideas and other people’s no-brainer ideas are not always one and the same. I know, I was just as surprised as you by this revelation.

 

Luckily for me, Charles is a man of great no-brainer thought. Wait. I may have said that wrong. Suffice it to say, he thought it was a no-brainer too. Charles loved the idea and gave the story a big thumbs up. I was relieved. Whew. With the blessing of Captain Hawklin’s creator in place, I then faced the most hated problem any writer ever faced.

 

I had to come up with a story.

 

Not just any story would do, either. Oh, no. This had to be special, remember? Just like Hulk and Thing.

 

This had to be a good story.

 

That’s always the tricky part.

 

Writing characters that aren’t yours can be fun, but also a bit nerve-wracking. On the one hand, you want to be respectful to the work that has come before and not be the writer that knocks a character off course. On the other hand, you kind of want to leave your mark as well. It’s a delicate balance between writing the best story you can and not completely screwing up said character.

 

I tossed a few plots about, rejecting them for one reason or the other before the one I settled on that eventually became the story appearing in Pulp Reality #1, a fun tale I called “Showdown on Scavenger Quay.” Pro tip: when writing pulp, you can never go wrong with the word showdown. Once I knew what Scavenger Quay was and how things worked there, I put Lance Star in a plane on a solo, undercover mission to infiltrate the island. Why? What was he searching for?

 

Then I sat back and watched the story unfold.

 

When it comes to writing, my #1 rule is that every story starts with the characters. I am a firm believer that if you know your characters well and you trust them, they will lead you where you need to go. I absolutely believe this. Don’t believe it? Try this test. Take three characters you know well (they don’t have to be yours) and drop them into the same basic plot. Based on how each character reacts to the plot you dropped them into, you will get three different stories. That’s because each character brings something unique to the plot and that determines the story.

 

Following Lance Star into a story was a pretty easy way to kick off things for me. I know Lance well, having been writing him since 2005, so I had a solid grasp on his character. I knew the good Captain Hawklin from reading some of Charles’ work and I used that as a starting point for the first time these two characters ever met. A few sparks flew. They are both alpha males in a high-flying (pun intended) position. These are men who are used to being in charge. To find themselves working together wasn’t an easy task.

 

Did they succeed? For that, you’ll have to read the story and decide for yourself. I am pleased with the story and thankfully, Charles gave it a thumbs up as well and I returned his literary toy back to him in the same shape I found him.

 

The icing on the cake for this particular story is that the cover art was done by the amazing Clayton Murwin. I’ve known Clayton for years, but this was our first big collaboration and I still remain in awe of the way he captured both Lance Star and Captain Hawklin. I still smile when I see it.

 

Playing with other creator’s toys is a lot of fun. It can also be nerve-wracking. I have been fortunate in my career to play with some cool characters I did not create like The Green Hornet, Domino Lady, Secret Agent X, Abner Perry, David Innes, Johnny Dollar, The Spider, The Avenger, and more. I’m thrilled to add Captain Hawklin to that list. Who knows, maybe our New Pulp flyboys will get the chance to fly together again.

 

Thanks for letting me play with your toys, Charles.

 

Bobby

 

Bobby Nash

Bethlehem, GA

A REFLECTION ON INSPIRATION BY KELLIE AUSTIN

In our world, there are many, different kinds of writers. From every corner of the mind’s imagination and every genre, fact, and fiction, we sit and troll out our deepest desire and nightmarish worlds that our sleeping eyes play for us when the waking world is not alive to save us. For others, daily factual terrors from the living, fill our readers brains that make us feel ashamed, embarrassed, mortified, or guilty. War, disease, racism, murder and even the inevitable death of a total stranger within a crowd some thousand miles away.

The terror of those monsters and the world’s they inhabit, come from every blackened soulless corner of the mind’s madness. All those who write have them from time to time. Those monsters don’t have, to be disfigured to be scary. Monsters can be a situation or place as well, and can be whatever will have the greatest effect on the reader of such work. Growing up in a mostly isolated family in a small town in Kentucky, my imagination would run rampant. Strapping on a homemade old vacuum and pretending to fly as a skyman or rocket king would be for me a daily occurrence. My mind would create alien worlds against the backdrop of my Fathers junk cars and old tin buildings. My Dad’s tools and my Mother’s hair rollers with expensive silver tape would become my super technological laser pistol with matching utility belt.
I fought against the moon men invasion of my backyard, I tried to dig tunnels into the earth to find giant diamonds and evil underground dwellers, went against immense dragons which were in reality, little green snakes. My imagination had no real boundaries, and I even took myself to jumping from one large boulder to another, eyes wide open with glee as the silent invisible space smugglers tried to steal my asteroid bounty. To those who know me, pulp heroes have always been my favorite kind of characters, with two fisted, smash’em action against the backdrop of evil machinations and long bearded, bald, long winded, would be rulers of the universe.
The early days of cable were limited and mostly boring to a small child like myself. Public Broadcasting was the place to go. From early adventures of Steed and Peel, Sapphire and Steel, time travelling doctors, and of course black and white Republic movie serials. Fifteen minutes of incredible action featuring junior g-men, green masked avengers, rocket men and so forth.
I’ve been asked before what my other inspirations were when it came to the writing process. I’ve got many of course, but the three main author’s that have had the most influence in my creative works are writer’s Robert Heinlein, Hp Lovecraft and the immortal H.G. Wells. Having suffered from extreme nightmares since childhood, I could see the twisted, mangled bulbous eyed terrors that those men did and how they dealt with those things that tortured their souls during the realm of the daylight and the dark. My favorite novels being “The Puppet Master’s” from Heinlein, “War of the Worlds”, from Wells and “The Call of Cthulhu” from Lovecraft.     
I could close my eyes and imagine great demonic beasts rise from the bowels of hell, reaching up and smashing from high into the air and back onto our unsuspecting world. I could hear the terrible shrieks from deadly space spores, or fear that my individualism was under attack from forced conformity. The ideas of dying at twenty, biological and alien attack, becoming the last woman standing or transforming into a Frankenstein give me a consistent moment of pause.
Inspiration, however, can come from the most mundane of aspects of our very lives or where we end up. All genres of adventures, horror, supernatural, pulp, and more can easily fill your brain. One’s creativity can come from living, observing people and or buildings, a trip to a strange town, as it is all there to be discovered and made into a story that will bewilder, scare, or astonish you, and make you think while rooting for the hero(s) to banish vile doom that awaits, ever lurking to destroy.
This is the reason I’m a writer. To be able to transport another person into another place or time, challenge their own personal beliefs, put them right square into the action is a joy for me. I write to give comfort to the reader, assuring them that when they close the book for the night, their back home safe and content. Their sip of hot chocolate or delicious coffee, and the comfort of the warm sheets to drift them into the netherworld of dreaming of electric sheep.
Soon, you the reader will be able to enter some of my mind filled pulp madness with the first issue of Stormgate Press’ “Pulp Reality” coming out this December.
 My first official published work will be featured here along with fantastic artist Candice Comelleri in the story called “Ace Anderson and the Curse of Doctor Atomika”. It’s a hardcore old-fashioned two-fisted pulp adventure against the backdrop of the second world war.
Ace Anderson, a reclusive adventurer and expert underwater archaeologist and biologist is recruited by the British government to investigate and retrieve the downed American sub named the Thresher somewhere within the Atlantic Ocean. Inside the sunken vessel is a criminal mastermind being transported to an undisclosed location for trial for crimes against humanity. Deep within the bowels of the cargo hold, lies the mythical elemental powder called “Orracalcum”, that once was used by the inhabitants of the Island Empire of Atlantis.
Aided in his quest to find the Thresher are American agent Finn who hides a deadly secret, Doctor Mason Moreau and his “son” Java, a “Doberman” leftover from an island massacre, Ace’s daughter Kenzie, first commander and “Kraken”, the eternal, mythical creature of constant nightmares from those on the wrong side of its wraith. The Kraken, a bio-organic Atlantean squid ship merged with manmade technological weaponry and sentient intelligence, it’s crew and Captain Anderson’s leadership race against time to stop several Nazi submarines from rescuing their German ally from the sea floor, and before Doctor Atomika and her undead zombie soldiers can use the orracalicum to destroy the Allied Forces and bring about German domination to the entire world forever…
I hope you will join me and the other great talents who have put this anthology together, get comfortable, have your favorite snack and drink before you with a comfortable fireplace or snuggly blanket. The choice is yours…Pulp Reality is some really good stuff and it’s coming all for you. DON’T MISS OUT!
Lastly, I’d like to talk about my upcoming book, coming out in April also from Stormgate Press. I can’t tell too much as about it currently, but I can say that you will love it! It’s the same good ole’ smash’em’ in your face kind of story, but with supernatural elements that will keep you the reader guessing to the very last chapter! There will be more to come regarding this book, “From the Paranormal Case Files of Bishop Kincaid: The Rembrandt Stratagem” I guarantee you will be back for more.
For all those who enjoy reading and those who love and want to write. Inspiration is all around you. There is no excuse. Get your ideas out for all to enjoy, punch letters on an olden typewriter, use a pen to paper, crayon to the cardboard, there is always a way and the will. Embrace your mind and its madness and create. You’re a writer with the first word to paper. Love to all, this girl is gone like the wind.    

Plasmafire Graphics the Choice of STORMGATE PRESS

PULP REALITY #1 COMING DECEMBER 1st

TEN MONTHS LATER...

 So, here we are. October 2020. What a year this has been. You think with all the free time I had this year I would have done some more posts in this damned blog. I suck haha.

Having been off most of the year from work because of COVID I spent most of my time writing. I completed two CAPTAIN HAWKLIN books, and besides publishing them, I published the second book of my ORIGIN TRILOGY and... I helped publish an anthology called Tales of the weird and Strange which consisted of nine writers, including myself. I wrote a BIG FOOT type tale and helped format the book together.

Back in March I put out a call for some of the leading writers in New Pulp to work on another anthology, this one a Pulp Adventure book, called PULP REALITY. I'm happy to say this book is going to knock your socks off. But there will be more of that in the very near future.

I'm just here to update you all, if you're here and you care, of what I've been up to. Let's see if I can keep this up over the next several weeks and see what happens, and hopefully you'll see I haven't been a total slacker.