One of PulpFest‘s hallmarks has been its willingness to seek out and try new ideas. This was amply demonstrated by its decision in 2009 to present readings by “The New Fictioneers,” contemporary authors whose fiction is inspired by a love of the pulps. Since then, several other conventions have added a “New Pulp” track to their programming schedules.
PulpFest‘s dedication to new ideas and “New Pulp” continues with its annual panel moderated by Ron Fortier, a professional writer for over forty-five years. In 2007, Ron teamed up with illustrator Rob Davis and founded Airship 27 Productions. Together, they’ve built a home for new adventures featuring many of the pulp characters long remembered by our community. Ron’s own creation, the undead avenger known as Brother Bones — recently optioned as a motion picture — would certainly have been at home with Paul Ernst’s Doctor Satan in the pages of WEIRD TALES and Norvell Page’s The Spider. Ron has also penned the adventures of pulp heroes Captain Hazzard and the Domino Lady, as well as pop culture icons The Green Hornet, Popeye, and The Phantom.
On Saturday, July 28, Ron will be joined by five practitioners of contemporary pulp fiction for PulpFest‘s 2017 new pulp panel. The six authors will be discussing their writing experiences and why — of all the genres out there — they gravitated to pulp fiction.
Fred Adams, Jr. is a western Pennsylvania native who has enjoyed a lifelong love affair with horror, fantasy, and science fiction literature and films. He holds a Ph.D. in American Literature from Duquesne University and recently retired from teaching in the English Department of Penn State University. He has published over fifty short stories in amateur and professional magazines, as well as hundreds of news features as a staff writer and sportswriter for newspapers. For Airship 27, Fred has written HITWOLF, SIX-GUN TERROR, and most recently, DEAD MAN’S MELODY.
John C. Bruening has been writing professionally for more than thirty years, first as a newspaper reporter and magazine editor and later as a marketing copywriter. As far back as he can remember, he has been a fan of comics, pulps, adventure fiction, vintage movies and serials, old-time radio, and any other form of heroic storytelling. His 2016 debut novel, THE MIDNIGHT GUARDIAN: HOUR OF DARKNESS, has been called “a Republic serial set to prose” and “the creative construct of a first-rate storyteller.” His most recent published work is “The Warrior and the Stone,” a short story appearing in RESTLESS: AN ANTHOLOGY OF MUMMY HORROR, a 2017 release from Flinch Books, where he is a publishing partner with Jim Beard. John is currently working on the next adventure of The Midnight Guardian. He lives near Cleveland, Ohio.
A life-long fan of science fiction and pulp fiction, Wayne Carey grew up reading Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. G. Wells, Isaac Asimov, H. Rider Haggard and all the grand masters. His reading guided him toward a career in science with degrees in biology and education and provided the desire to write from an early age. A love of classic and noir films also influences his writing. He is the author of THE NANON FACTOR, a young adult contemporary science fiction thriller that blends a murder mystery with cutting edge technology. His work has also appeared in a variety of anthologies such as LEGENDS OF NEW PULP FICTION. He and his wife live in the wilds of Central Pennsylvania with their three children, who provide a great deal of inspiration to the author.
Born to a father who was both a writer and a pulp enthusiast, Michael Maynard has been a fan of pulp all his life. Some of his favorites include the works of Dashiell Hammett, Sax Rohmer, John Buchan, and H. G. Wells. His favorite medium, however, is the cinema. Some of Michael’s favorite movies include such classics as THE MALTESE FALCON, DOUBLE INDEMNITY, and CASABLANCA. Michael’s first work of fiction was published in 2016: a short story that he wrote with his father. It was featured in the Airship 27 anthology, THE TOWERS OF METROPOLIS. He intends to continue writing for the foreseeable future.
Charles Milhouse has been independently publishing since 1999, but really didn’t get into pulp until 2010. That was when he started to work on Captain Hawklin. He has written four books in the series and is currently outlining a fifth volume. He has published fourteen books, including the recently concluded, five-volume TALON’S EPIC. Charles is influenced by writers such as William F. Nolan and Frank Herbert. He is a professional chef, but writing is his passion. To learn more about Charles’ writing, please visit the Stormgate Press website.
Our new pulp panel will take place at 2:15 PM on Saturday, July 28 in the PulpFest programming room at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. Watch for the PulpFest PANELS banner outside the entrance to our programming room. PulpFest 2017 — the destination for fans and collectors of vintage popular fiction, art and related materials — will begin on Thursday, July 27, and run through Sunday, July 30.
You can join PulpFest by clicking the Register for 2017 button on our home page. And don’t forget to book a room at the DoubleTree. They’re going fast! Thanks so much to everyone who has reserved a room at our host hotel. By staying at the DoubleTree by Hilton, you’ve helped to ensure the convention’s success.
(In case you’re wondering about the term “fictioneer,” most dictionaries place its origin during the early twenties. However, it was relatively commonplace in magazines between 1910 and 1920 and has been spotted in works dating back to the mid-nineteenth century. H. Bedford-Jones used it in a series of articles called “The Graduate Fictioneer,” originally published by AUTHOR & JOURNALIST in the early thirties. In 1932, a group of Wisconsin writers got together and called themselves “The Milwaukee Fictioneers.” At various times, Robert Bloch, Fredric Brown, August Derleth, Ralph Milne Farley, Lawrence Keating, Ray Palmer and Stanley Weinbaum were members of this group. In the late 30s, Popular Publications started Fictioneers, Inc., a pulp line that paid its authors half the going market rate of a penny a word. E. Hoffmann Price, soldier-of-fortune, and prolific pulp author, used the term in his memoirs from the pulp years, BOOK OF THE DEAD — FRIENDS OF YESTERYEAR: FICTIONEERS & OTHERS, published by Arkham House in 2001. Pulp historian and anthologist John Locke likewise used it in his non-fiction anthology PULP FICTIONEERS: ADVENTURES IN THE STORYTELLING BUSINESS, published by Adventure House in 2004.
In 1927, German filmmaker Fritz Lang brought to the screen one of the most ground-breaking science fiction films of all time. METROPOLIS is regarded as a classic and one of the first full-length movies in the genre. THE TOWERS OF METROPOLIS — published by Airship 27 — is an anthology of four dramatic tales which unfold in this amazing world prior to the events of the film. It features front cover art by the award-winning Michael W. Kaluta.)
