Lawrie, eyes fastened on the empty cell next to him, did not answer. He could not. He was watching something—something that formed before his eyes into a man, a shadowy figure that smiled horribly and wore gleaming spurs. He saw it form, growing clearer and drawing nearer the bars. The shadowy eyes gazed back into his terrified ones, and then he screamed at the thing he read in them. A scream that died in his throat in a gurgle as he fell heavily.
The guard came running. "What's going on here?" he demanded, angrily. He peered in suspiciously at the fallen figure. At last they entered the silent cell and raised him to his cot. He was dead. And across the horror that death had stamped indelibly on his face, there ran the livid gash of a spur!
ABOUT AUTHORS
Clark Ashton Smith makes very little use of alliterations and has probably invented more alien names for the characters in his stories than any other author…. There are quite a few writers whose first initials are E. E…. A few of them are: Speight, Smith, Repp, Chappelow, and Newton…. Miss Leslie F. Stone was taken for a man, even after her picture had been printed in Wonder. Probably that is why a new one was drawn for "The Hell Planet" in the June, 1932 number…. Jack Williamson wrote science fiction more than three years before he tackled weird stories, and now seems to be doing a good job at both…. Malcolm Afford's story, "The Gland Men of the Island" in Wonder was printed in Amazing by mistake over two years later under the name of "The Ho-Ming Gland." This case shows to what extent the editors revise each story. Compare both stories and you will find many changes of one over the other, especially at the conclusion … Kaw, Anthos, and Marius: authors without first names…. Gernsback was the only editor who imported foreign stories and translated them into English for his science fiction publications. Fletcher Pratt, an author of note himself, usually does the translating…. Weird Tales has had the largest number of authors who have never had a second story appear…. How many are familiar with Bertram Atkey's fantastic stories in Blue Book? In 1930 he had a series of humorous reincarnation stories published there….
Come over to "Our Readers Say" and "The Boiling Point" and join in.
THE BOILING POINT
The Smith-Ackerman debate is still going strong, with Smith in the lead. However, the Ackerman side is taking a big leap with the following defenses. The first comes from Allen Glasser, who says:
"I am surprised at the vicious remarks being made about Forrest Ackerman. He really doesn't deserve any such abuse. Perhaps his writings are a bit flamboyant and over-enthusiastic; but surely that's no great fault. To those who know him well, Forrest is a fine fellow; and his zeal for science-fiction merits praise rather than censure."
Donald Alexander is all for Ackerman and wishes to make no secret of it: