Author Archives: ogresan

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About ogresan

Richard Parks' stories have have appeared in Asimov's SF, Realms of Fantasy, Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and numerous anthologies, including several Year's Bests. His first story collection, THE OGRE'S WIFE, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He is the author of the Yamada Monogatari series from Prime Books.

For Fritz Leiber

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Saddened as I am by other more recent losses in the field, today I’m sending out props to the late Fritz Leiber. Why? Lots of reasons, but in the spirit of the Thanksgiving season, I’ll concentrate on the personal–Fritz Leiber was responsible for a revelation. For those of you (anyone? Bueller?) who are old enough to remember, the mid to  late 1970’s saw a boom in the Sword & Sorcery genre. Yes, it’s still around, sort of, but back then it was different. S&S was HOT, hot like urban fantasy hot, like Steampunk hot, if you can grasp that. As both a reader and a beginning writer, I got caught up in it. REH, the De Camp retellings, Andy Offutt, Gardner Fox for pete’s sake.

And then I found Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Mouser series. I was a little too late to the party to have read them in the Cele Goldsmith Fantastic, as I said before, I came along in the Ted White era, but the Fafhrd and Mouser stories were being collected in book form by that time, and that’s where I found them.

Whoa. Continue reading →

What Dreams Are Made On

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Had an interesting dream not too long ago. I mean, not like last night, where I dreamed I was delivering a load of tank barrels to a WWII armored division who’d gone off without theirs.  And by “interesting” I mean it was to me, so I’m going to talk about it here.

 I had one of those cliché dreams where you’re going back to school. Though apparently I was going to a private college with communal dorms, and your dorm group bought food as a group and took turns cooking. A little odd and outside my experience, but ok.Then in the middle of the school term I went to Hell. Literally. Not sure why. Don’t remember the death experience in the dream, but I was in Hell, not having a good time. The Devil was being about what you’d expect him to be, punishing people, and once fighting off a challenge from a rival god (not that God. A god).

Then I was back in school, but I wasn’t out of Hell. More like a furlough. See, being in Hell was no excuse for missing your turn cooking, so there I was, fresh out of Hell and trying to make pancakes. Problem was, being in Hell had screwed up my sense of temperature, so I kept burning them. Then back to Hell. Where I found out it was someone ELSE’s turn to be the Devil.

Apparently, we were all taking turns there, too.

Losing My Religion

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I’m going to get a little autobiographical here. Consider yourself warned.

I used to haunt the Post Office nearly every day. That is to say, I would check the PO box dedicated to writing correspondence, submissions, etc., every single day, save only holidays. By any reasonable standard, it was obsessive and overkill.  Considering the usual number of stories I had in circulation and the number of available markets, two, three times a week at most would have been plenty. Of course in my head I knew that at the time, but it didn’t stop me. Obsession and I were old friends. I’d often said that, if I didn’t have obsession, I wouldn’t have any discipline at all. It got the words out, the stories written. Now I actually do check the PO box once or twice a week, but of course these days I’ve switched my obsessive focus to email because that’s where the action is. Most submissions and acceptances and rejections, even contracts are arriving by email, and the Post Office lost its…well, I won’t say “luster.” It was the Post Office. It never had luster. Say rather its focus and attraction for me. Gone now. I do not really miss those daily trips to the Post Office.

Book stores, on the other hand…well, here’s where I start to worry a bit. Continue reading →

Scenes From a Marriage

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Scene: a man and a woman repairing a plain board fence. The rails have been installed and they’re mounting the boards. The boards are rough pine, six feet long and five inches wide. The man is using a brad nailer to tack the boards on temporarily until they can be nailed properly. The woman is using a shim to set the gap in the boards and  check position before the man tacks them down. There is, however, a delay in the process.

Man: What are you doing?

Woman: (Holding a fence board and turning it this way and that). “Checking, of course.”

Man: Checking? What for?

Woman: To find the prettiest side, of course. Continue reading →

Evolve or Die Revisionism

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This has touched on something I’ve talked about before, but I’m always willing to revise an opinion when new information comes to light. Especially if the new information tends to back me up but suggest an important angle that I’ve overlooked. I’ve talked about ebook pricing, but now I think I need to revisit the role of traditional publishers in this brave new world of electronic media. Before I do, you really need to read this article by Kristine Kathyrn Rusch, so hop on over there. I’ll wait. Continue reading →