The Media Responds!

Here’s a great Concord Monitor story by Melanie Plenda on the NH Pulp Fiction series (particularly “Live Free or Sci-Fi”) with some great quotes from contributor Alex Caldwell. http://www.concordmonitor.com/home/9430125-95/pulp-fiction-rooted-in-nh-back-for-a-third-round

Read Full Post »

Update in which I announce a reading (and then prattle on for a bit)

(This is actually a letter I just sent out to the many contributors to the NH Pulp Fiction Series. Being a lazy man, I’ve chosen to repurpose it as a blog post.)

Dear Diverse Hands,

The first reading of the third volume of the one and only New Hampshire Pulp Fiction Series is scheduled for this coming Saturday (Nov. 23), 7 p.m. at Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St. in Concord. This note is going out to anyone who is on my list and has been involved with the series, so even if you can’t make it or don’t know what I’m talking about, I want you to feel invited.

Here are the Live Free or Sci-Fi readers, so far:

David O’Keefe
Nathan Wyckoff
Steven Cahill
Clay Wirestone
Susan Nye
Alex Caldwell

Jim Kelly sent his regrets. He’s in NYC. Joyce Wagner is also out of reach and Suzanne Sykora, who wrote a fabulous piece for Live Free or Sci-Fi has the best excuse of all as she lives in Germany.

The six readers (did I miss anyone?) are probably plenty to fill our time and if the crowd is chanting for more I can read them some of my introduction which, like Vogon poetry, will make their ears bleed and have them lunging through the plate glass to escape. That’s what you call a finale.

By the way, there will be some kind of a write up on the latest book (and on the series) in the Concord Monitor on Thursday, so keep an eye out. Be sure to put it back, though. They squish if they roll on the floor and get stepped upon. Media coverage might bring us a few more earballs to delight, but the best way to ensure an audience for these readings is to bring one, so don’t forget to compel your significant other or your insignificant brother or some hapless bystander to join you.

See some of you there. Maybe the next reading will be in Hanover, Germany and we can all crash at Suzanne’s place afterwards.

With kindest regards from your humble and obedient editor,

Rick

Read Full Post »

The Press Release is Here!

I know, it’s not really that exciting, but the pulp fiction genre dictates putting an exclamation point at the end every title. On the other hand, it is handy to have an official statement to spread around. Feel free to cut and paste this and send it to your local paper or radio station or Patch. And remember to help promote the reading at Gibson’s on Nov. 23. at 7 p.m.

For Immediate Release: 11/16/13

For more information contact Rick Broussard: 603-491-4808 or visit http://www.nhpulpfiction.com

It’s Time to Live Free or Sci-Fi!

With a third volume now available and two more in the works, the New Hampshire Pulp Fiction Series turning into a local publishing phenomenon. Readings for “Live Free or Sci-Fi” scheduled for Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, Nov. 23.

What began several years ago as an offbeat idea to encourage local writers and to help preserve both the pulp fiction genres and the short story format in the 21st century has turned into a passion for local book company Plaidswede Publishing. The first in its “New Hampshire Pulp Fiction Series,” edited by New Hampshire Magazine’s Rick Broussard, was the aptly titled collection of horror stories, “Live Free or Undead,” featuring 20 writers, mostly from NH and mostly seeing themselves in print for the first time. A year later Broussard and Plaidswede teamed up again for a volume of mystery and murder fiction, all based in the Granite State, titled “Live Free or Die, Die, Die!”

The third volume, “Live Free or Sci-Fi,” available now in independent bookstores across the state and online from nhbooksellers.com, includes 23 tales of “mind bending speculative fiction taking readers from the Granite State to the stars” — so reads the colorful book jacket, which also features a psychedelic nightmare image of Market Square in Portsmouth apparently under cosmic attack by giant space fleas.

“I see this series as something of a legacy,” says publisher George Geers. “I created Plaidswede as a showcase for great local writing talent, and to have a series that both taps into that pool and also enlarges it, giving brand new writers a chance, well, I take a lot of pride in that.”

Broussard says the series is popular because, “… pulp fiction is really timeless. It speaks to the urge for fantasy and adventure in the human soul.” He says the idea of focusing the various genres of pulp literature on the people and places of New Hampshire came naturally to him. “I focus on the state for my day job,” says Broussard, “and I know it’s the perfect back lot for the imagination. We have virtually every kind of environment, natural and cultural, so close at hand. It’s fun to set writers loose in the state, give them some basic rules and let them go berserk.”

Two more volumes of NH Pulp Fiction are due out in 2014. “Love Free or Die,” an anthology of romance stories is scheduled for a February release, and “Live Free or Ride,” an anthology of all the pulp genres using the Concord Stage Coach as a common character, is planned for fall 2014.

Readings from the current volume are already on track for the coming months. The first chance to hear the authors of these flights of fancy through time, space, and New Hampshire read aloud from their own works is at Gibson’s Bookstore at 45 S. Main St. in Concord on Saturday, Nov. 23, 7 p.m.

Below is a list of authors and stories in the current book, which includes such notables as Brendan DuBois and Hugo Award-winning writer James Patrick Kelly.

• Geoffrey James “The Singularity”
• Chris Dahlen “We Are Ted Tuscadero For President”
• Brendan DuBois “Doing It Right”
• Clay Wirestone “First in the Galaxy”
• Sandra McDonald “End of the Road”
• Elaine Isaak “Merge”
• Jeffrey R. DeRego “Mighty”
• Joyce Wagner “Of Two Minds”
• James Patrick Kelly “Pogrom”
• Susan Nye “Northern Lights”
• Brian A. Dixon “The Rejuvenated Lojeski”
• Liz Penney “Blame it on the Aliens”
• Harold L. Drake “Ice Cream”
• Suzanne Sykora “Next Year in New Hampshire”
• Michael J. DeLuca “Starlings”
• Gregory L. Norris “The Moths”
• David O’Keefe “The Universal Solution”
• S.J.Cahill “Touchdown”
• Eric Pinder “The Time Machine Next Door”
• Tincan Caldwell “The Wormhole of Wilson, NH”
• Nathan Wyckoff “Island on the River”
• Rebecca Leeb “What I Did On My Summer Vacation”

Read Full Post »