tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87025708034363582492024-03-12T17:46:43.290-07:00Peter AtkinsPeter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.comBlogger35125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-54738204894308665402021-04-29T18:19:00.004-07:002021-05-01T19:14:27.414-07:00What Did You Do In The Lockdown, Daddy?Normally when I've taken a year between posts all I do is tuck my tail between my legs and make empty promises that it won't happen again. But this year's been a bit special, hasn't it? I hope any and all of you who are kind enough to occasionally waste your time by checking in on my nonsense here have managed to survive the Covid pandemic with your health and your sanity intact. Here's a little Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-36884900369424350932020-02-24T14:49:00.001-08:002020-02-25T11:49:14.349-08:00My God, This Thing Still Exists?Like everybody else who eventually realized it was the twenty-first century, I've been posting most of my newsy stuff on Twitter or Facebook recently. I now understand that this has hardly been fair on those of you who miss the world of 78rpm records, penny-farthing bicycles, smallpox, and author blogs, so I apologize and will try to do better in future. (I won't do better, obvs, but I Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-88633976660908298202018-07-28T16:35:00.003-07:002018-08-09T10:45:58.752-07:00Dreaming of Stars and ScalesThose kind but misguided chaps and chapesses at Shadowridge Press, perhaps feeling that they didn't lose quite enough money on their editions of BIG THUNDER and RUMORS OF THE MARVELOUS last year, have now also brought MORNINGSTAR back into print as one of their typically spiffy trade paperbacks. They have my gratitude and sympathy. (For those of you too fragile or too hip to hold a physical Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-23719474711572109652017-08-10T12:17:00.000-07:002017-08-10T12:17:25.579-07:00But Enough About Me #10I was having lunch with that nice young Hirshberg fellow a couple of weeks back and he mentioned that he'd recently read a few pieces, including mine, from DANCING WITH THE DARK, a non-fiction anthology put together by Steve Jones. I don't know what prompted his reading -- perhaps his bathroom had run out of old ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLYs and NEW YORKERs -- but it made me realize that, astonishingly, Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-39296514125680403822017-06-17T17:25:00.000-07:002017-06-19T14:18:29.426-07:00Waiting for rumors of thunderSo there's this feisty little publisher here in Los Angeles which has begun charming its way into the hearts of readers of discernment all over the globe. Shadowridge Press technically started up several years ago but really began throwing its weight around just in the last twelve months or so. They boast books by Sarah Pinborough & F Paul Wilson, Tracy L Carbone, Stephen Woodworth, and Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-73484154153845286242017-01-20T13:02:00.000-08:002017-02-08T11:34:57.810-08:00But Enough About Me #9
Two or three years back, I marked the occasion of Dennis Etchison's seventieth birthday by reprinting here my introduction to his FINE CUTS collection, leading no doubt to a massive upswing in sales for the lucky Mr. E. I am ashamed to say that this time last year I neglected to do the same favor for another then-brand-new septuagenarian, my dear old mate and living-fucking-legend, the Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-18744331047580360142016-02-15T18:32:00.001-08:002016-03-04T21:36:57.025-08:00Back to the BoneyardMuch to the surprise of many of you, I'm sure, last July's launch into the ether of some of my deathless prose (see the earlier post "A Graveyard Ballet in Cyberspace") apparently destroyed neither the reputation nor the finances of the publisher, Cemetery Dance. In fact, tempting Fate though they almost certainly are, they've been kind enough to keep me at the Boneyard Ball a little longer by Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-45932434446957531712015-12-29T12:54:00.000-08:002015-12-30T16:14:58.283-08:00But Enough About Me #8
GEORGE CLAYTON JOHNSON (1929-2015)
My friend the great George Clayton Johnson died on December 25th. The date, being Rod Serling's birthday, suggests a kind of hand-picked and narratively-appropriate closure to George's long and accomplished life. There are heart-felt and eloquent tributes all over the web and, rather than try and compete with them, I thought I'd mark his passing not with any Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-82006913042587370802015-10-15T16:14:00.000-07:002015-10-16T17:10:46.868-07:00"So How Bad at Math ARE You Guys?"
Okay, nobody's actually been rude enough to ask that question directly. But I see it in their eyes (at least the eyes of the ones who can add up) whenever I carelessly refer to the upcoming Rolling Darkness Revue extravaganzas as our Tenth Anniversary shows.
And their disdain is thoroughly justified. The RDR started in 2004. So, etymologically, we don't have a leg to stand on because 'Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-61430125491495561612015-10-03T14:01:00.004-07:002015-10-03T15:55:14.147-07:00Keep That Darkness Rollin'
All aboard!
God knows how it happened, but apparently it's October already. Which means Halloween's just around the corner. Which means it must be time for Atkins & Hirshberg to put on their fancy hats and suspenders*, assume their secret identities as Algy Black and Artie Mack, and venture once more into the dark.
(*Relax, England. Doesn't mean what you think it means.)
It seems Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-82582259413241943342015-07-16T16:36:00.002-07:002015-07-16T21:27:01.196-07:00A Graveyard Ballet in Cyberspace
I've never been what the tech media refer to as an early adopter. Didn't have a VCR until well into the eighties (and even then it was a second-hand Betamax), never had an iPod, still don't have a smart-phone, and only signed up for Netflix streaming about a year ago. Sad, I know. So you'll hardly be surprised to learn, my lovelies, that the Atkins oeuvre has heretofore been available only in Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-29373797840143769922014-08-05T18:35:00.000-07:002014-08-05T18:35:12.946-07:00But Enough About Me #7
ARTHUR MACHEN AT 150 151
I remember, couple of posts back, blithely promising that I'd use the next But Enough About Me installment to reprint two tiny pieces I'd published about Arthur Machen some years ago. "Tomorrow," I said airily, "or some time soon." That was last October. Would have been nice, wouldn't it, if I'd got my finger out and actually managed to put the post up in 2013, Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-23060487525205683652014-06-23T18:08:00.000-07:002014-07-11T11:07:30.598-07:00Postcards from the ApocalypseAn author's Brag Shelf, for the uninitiated, is the particular bookcase where said author keeps copies of his or her own work, as opposed to the other bookcases -- sadly more numerous -- where he or she keeps the inferior rubbish produced by lesser talents.
Now, unless an author is an insufferable douchebag -- and you'd be surprised, my poppets, you'd be surprised -- the brag shelf, despite its Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-10671914078992206022013-10-14T13:38:00.000-07:002015-09-23T11:17:47.616-07:00Will the Real Algy & Artie Please Stand Up?
When that nice young Hirshberg fellow and I created a pair of 1930s radio hosts for KRDR: Welcome to the Ether, the 2008 edition of The Rolling Darkness Revue, we thought it would be a cute little in-joke for our fellow horror geeks students of supernatural literature if we named said radio hosts after two towering icons of the classic period of fantastic fiction. Hence were born Algy Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-51945558570521908232013-10-10T12:55:00.000-07:002013-10-11T12:17:16.210-07:00But Enough About Me #6Actually, despite being the sixth installment of this ongoing series of non-fiction reprints, this one is a bit of an anomaly in that it is sort of about me. It's a little slice of memory first committed to paper at the request of the great and good Mr. Peter Crowther of PS Publishing, who commissioned it as a guest editorial for the 16th issue of PostScripts, a special Halloween issue. Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-56902699683316392742013-10-07T14:52:00.000-07:002013-10-11T11:02:52.221-07:00Darkness on the Edge of BurbankOh alright, not so much the edge of Burbank as smack in the middle, but gimme a break; I'm running out of cutesy post titles that riff on 'dark' or 'darkness' and at least this one has the benefit of (approximate) geographical accuracy.
Yes, kids, it's that time of year again. The time when you delete all those foolishly optimistic 'record series' settings on your DVR (because, Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-46130876218358565432013-04-01T18:17:00.000-07:002013-04-01T18:17:25.279-07:00But Enough About Me #5Astonishingly, the national treasure formerly known as Dennis Etchison turned seventy years old this past Saturday. We had a party for him at the great Glendale bookstore Mystery & Imagination and a whole bunch of people came and ate cake and drank wine and a whole other bunch of people who'd have liked to have been there but couldn't (on account of being in the UK) sent Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-76476002258340953122012-10-20T13:32:00.000-07:002012-10-21T11:51:10.286-07:00Rumours about Rumours... #5Two very generous reviews of Rumours of the Marvellous have just appeared in print in the UK. Neither are online yet, so I can't link to them, but here are some kind words from the illustrious gentlemen responsible:
David V Barrett, in Fortean Times #294, said
"A superb collection of short stories that fall in the borderland between science fiction, fantasy, horror and the supernatural&Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-43786991787107045732012-09-28T10:34:00.000-07:002015-09-23T11:20:48.651-07:00The Raven FliesJust a quick follow-up to the last post: We've finally found a theatre plucky enough to risk its previously impeccable reputation by agreeing to host this year's Rolling Darkness Revue.
The Road Theatre (based in the historic Lankershim Arts Center in North Hollywood) will be the venue for this year's shows, and Glen, Kevin, Jonas, Rex, and I want to thank their artistic directors Taylor GilbertPeter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-53282228887256599022012-09-15T13:42:00.000-07:002012-09-15T17:27:06.368-07:00The Dark is RisingThe nights grow longer, o best beloved, and the evenings are perfumed with the scent of burning leaves. The season of the witch approaches, and something stirs in its grave, eager to be reborn...
Relax. It's just Atkins & Hirshberg up to their old tricks. Or treats, depending on how easily pleased you are.
Yes, kids, I'm delighted to announce that, after its sabbatical last year, The Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-9401848758220996362012-06-21T16:48:00.000-07:002012-06-21T16:48:40.275-07:00Rumours about Rumours... #4When it comes to places to hang your hat, I hold with the poet-philosopher Katy Perry: You can travel the world/But nothing comes close to the golden coast. California. Where it's at, baby. It's just the way God planned it. And one of the many advantages to living in California (or L.A. if you want to be specific) is that you're within driving distance of Dark Delicacies, a specialty store Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-9628943070535693932012-05-29T17:18:00.000-07:002012-05-29T17:18:58.017-07:00Best New Ghosts and ZombiesThe tireless and talented Paula Guran -- who seems to be cranking out anthologies for Sean Wallace's Prime Books on an almost daily basis -- has seen fit to include my 2005 short story, "Between the Cold Moon and the Earth", in her upcoming GHOSTS: RECENT HAUNTINGS, a gathering of modern ghost stories all written within the last decade. As you can see from the names on the cover --
&Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-9824546470437035672012-05-02T16:52:00.000-07:002012-05-02T16:52:52.397-07:00Rumours about Rumours... #3To my delight and astonishment, Rumours of the Marvellous continues to get off lightly in its run-ins with the critics. A particularly generous review appeared a week or so ago, courtesy of the lovely Simon Marshall-Jones. More about Simon in a moment, but first here's this month's pull-quote:
"A treasure-trove Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-34465135387468513672012-04-20T17:18:00.000-07:002012-04-20T17:18:44.184-07:00But Enough About Me... #4As the excellent Anno Dracula novels by the great and good Mr. Kim Newman are currently enjoying renewed success thanks to the spiffy re-issues escaping the velvet-lined coffins over at the UK's venerable Titan Books, it seems like a fine time to hype a more obscure item from Kim's bibliography.
Where the Bodies are Buried, published twelve years ago as a limited editionPeter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8702570803436358249.post-59990040664821213332012-02-23T16:54:00.000-08:002012-02-23T16:54:25.265-08:00Rumours about Rumours... #2Some very kind things are still being said about Rumours of the Marvellous out there in the blogosphere, and I'm told I would be derelict in my self-promotional duty if I didn't apprise you of them.
That fine fellow Jim McLeod, eponymous ginger nutcase of thegingernutcase.blogspot.com, must have finally received the plain brown envelope of used fivers I left for him in the pub because, in the Peter Atkinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18415820266311062886noreply@blogger.com0