Read the Lions Are Asleep This Night Waldrop

Major Works

Howard Waldrop, Photo by Martha Grenon, Austin, TX

Novels

• A Dozen Tough Jobs (1989)
• Them Bones (1984)
• The Texas-Israeli War (1974) with Jake Saunders

Brusk Story Collections

• Equus caballus of a Different Color (2013)
• Other Worlds, Amend Lives:  Selected Long Fiction, 1989-2003 (2008)
• Things Will Never Be the Same (2007)
• Middle of Whitenesse (2005)
• Custer's Last Jump and other Collaboration (2003)
• A Ameliorate World's in Birth! (2003)
• Flying Saucer Rock and Roll (2001)
• Nighttime of the Cooters (1993)
• Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (1991)
  
• Going Home Again (1988)
  
• All About Strange Monsters of the Recent Past (1987)
  
• Howard Who? (1986)
  
• Night of the Cooters: More than Neat Stories
  
• Strange Things in Up Shut

Novellas

• Dream Factories and Radio Pictures (2001)
• A Dozen Tough Jobs (1989)
  
• You lot Could Become Home Once more

Curt Stories

• The Ugly Chickens
• Heirs of the Perisphere
• Custer'southward Concluding Jump
• Save A Identify In the Lifeboat for Me
• Fair Game
• He-We-Await
• What Makes Heironymous Run?
• The Lions Are Asleep This Dark
• Ike at the Mike
• Dr. Hudson's Cloak-and-dagger Gorilla
• Horror,We Got
• God's Hooks and more..

Return to Summit

Howard Waldrop: A Biography

by Bjorn El. Lundin (SHS) 1997, Updated 2015

Why is it a fact that a nifty writer like Howard Waldrop remains relatively unknown? Everybody who is coming to this folio looking for an reply to that question will probably not discover the answer here. Here is some background information almost this creator of fantabulous scientific discipline fiction, only non the answer to why his books are and so difficult to find or why he is relatively unknown. Howard Waldrop was built-in in Houston (Chickasaw County),  Mississippi, September 15, 1946. Later his family moved to Texas in 1950, he spent role of every summertime in either Houston, Mississippi, or Bruce, Calhoun County, Mississippi , until he graduated from high school.  His Mississippi background has influenced some of his stories,  especially A Dozen Tough Jobs.  In add-on,  the character named Madison Yazoo Leake in the novel Them Bones was named after three Mississippi counties. He is a graduate of the University of Texas, where he majored in English (Waldrop letter). One thing is for sure: somewhere in his studies he picked up an first-class  cognition of history. This fact is evident  in several of his works, whether the history  is  native American history, world history or the history of the United States. Howard Waldrop is a fiction writer with the best history knowledge that I take come beyond.

One remarkable thing is that Waldrop manages to make the history fun and interesting , and it always fits in nicely. Some writers employ their knowledge in a certain field but to evidence off. Waldrop actually uses his history in a way that fits naturally in the story. A skillful case appears in the novel Them Basic where he combines ancient American history with ancient globe history and molds them both to fit in his own universe. He does this in a very convincing fashion and leaves the reader with the idea: What if?

Howard Waldrop lived in Austin, Texas, before moving for a fourth dimension to  the state of Washington, where he spent his days fly fishing for trout.  As Waldrop himself says: "If I'm going to write and be poor, I might just besides practice it in a place where I can fish for trout all the time" (Waldrop letter). This statement may very well capture the spirit of Howard Waldrop, who has made himself a reputation in the science fiction world past constantly selling his works to the publisher that pays the least. Of course, this doesn't change the fact that he is born with talent and that he has received awards like the Nebula and the World Fantasy Award. He got both theNebula and the Globe Fantasy Award for his short story The Ugly Chickens. It was also nominated for a Hugo. (A Reader Friendly Guide to Howard Waldrop). All readers of science fiction who have grown tired of the mainstream, everyday kind of stories should endeavor to observe any work past Howard Waldrop. It may have some searching. but it will be worth the attempt.

Waldrop  has now moved dorsum to Austin from Washington state because, as he explained in an interview with Locus magazine,  "later on living there for vii years,  they started closing down the river from March through June" so he had to drive twenty miles to a lake to fish when he just lived 100 feet from the river.   (Annotation: Amazon lists  him now every bit living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, merely also mentions Austin, Texas).

According to a Wikipedia article, Waldrop is "a member of the Turkey City Author'south Workshop, has attended the Rio Hondo Writing Workshop, and has taught at the Blaring Workshop. In 2004 he started writing motion picture reviews with Lawrence Person for Locus Online. He is a frequent attendee of ArmadilloCon, the local science fiction convention held annually in Austin and was the Toastmaster at the very first ArmadilloCon (1979) and again at #29 in 2007; he was Invitee of Honor at ArmadilloCon 5 (1983). Waldrop was ane of three writer Guests of Award at the 1995 World Fantasy Convention held in Baltimore and at Readercon 15held in Burlington, Massachusetts, in 2003."   He worked on the Boob tube shows The Twilight Zone and Dazzler and the Creature .

Although his books accept been difficult to find, Amazon at present shows new reprints of almost all of Waldrop's books.

Return to Top

Reviews

A Review of Them Bones

past Bjorn E. Lundin (SHS) 1997

Bjorn Lundin, SHS Researcher

In his beginning individual novel (Note: he wrote The Texas-Israeli War together with Jake Sanders), Waldrop creates something very shut to a masterpiece in the genre of science fiction. He does this by letting an astonishing story be told from three different bespeak of views, in 3 different places, and (at to the lowest degree I recollect so) three dissimilar times. Does this sounds confusing? It actually isn't. That's the trouble with this novel. Anyone who tries to explicate information technology may make the book sound similar a empty-headed and hilarious story, when it is really very serious.

The main story begins in a nearby future, where nuclear wars and diseases have ravaged the earth. Scientists take discovered a way to travel back in time. They are now going to try to stop this third Globe War by sending a task forcefulness of 148 people to destroy an air base in Louisiana. Sounds simple enough doesn't it? The only problem is that time is a thing that is best left alone. The task force gets separated, and Madison Yazoo Leake is on his own (Yazoo is the name of a town in Mississippi). It is through Yazoo' s optics that most of the story is told. Here is an excerpt from the book, it is in the beginning when Yazoo begins to understand that something is incorrect: ."I walked toward the human being, held up my hand. He was unarmed. He had on a red-and-white striped loincloth and wore a pair of moccasins. His pilus was black, pulled back in ii braids, and had a unmarried plumage in information technology. He had ane small pearl in his left ear…I stopped. He regarded me calmly. His skin was an fifty-fifty copper color, like an quondam penny. He had no tattoos…My arm was notwithstanding upwards in greeting 'Hello, "I said. 'Amigo. Friend.' 'Hello,' he said, in Greek'" ( Them Bones, 25) The other sections are told from 3rd person point of view by a group of archeologists who stumble upon some strange findings (that kind of explains the title). The final part is told as the diary of Marie Smith, one of the 147 remaining members of the task strength.

This novel is very good, and I would strongly recommend everybody to read it. If not for the joy of reading a good book, you can read it to exist amazed by the skills of this very talented and intelligent author. On my scale I'll requite it four points out of four possible. In other words: Read it!

Return to Elevation

Related Websites

• The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction: Howard Waldrop (excellent source of information near Waldrop)
• Read the award winning The Ugly Chickens online.
• Review of A Dozen Tough Jobs on Amazon.
• Locus Science Fiction Magazine has interview with Waldrop, 2003.
• Iii Ways of Looking at Howard Waldrop (and And then Some)  past Jed Hartman, 2001
• InternetSpeculativFictionDataBase ( isfdb) has a summary bibliography for Waldrop
• Wikipedia article for Waldrop

Render to Acme

Bibliography

• Letter of the alphabet from Howard Waldrop to Jim Atkinson.  May seven, 1997.
• Howard Waldrop: A Bibliography. Internet. Available http:// world wide web.sff.cyberspace/people/Waldrop/novels.htm
• Waldrop, Howard and Eileen Gunn. "A Reader Friendly Guide to Howard Waldrop." Ed. Janna Silverstein. Internet. Bachelor http:// www.sff.net/people/Waldrop/novels.htm
• Leeper, Evelyn C. "Review of Strange Things in Close Up."   Online.  Available http:// julmara.chalmers.se/SF_archive/Authors/Waldrop,Howard
• Waldrop, Howard. Them Bones. New York: The Berkeley Publishing Grouping, 1984. (an Ace Science Fiction Volume, 200 Madison Avenue, NY. NY, 10016)

Return to Superlative

ebyviste1972.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.mswritersandmusicians.com/mississippi-writers/howard-waldrop