Page:Weird Tales volume 30 number 04.djvu/126

510 was really thinking of I don't know; probably Scotland. Now supposing an English author, in a story, were to describe Rocky Mountain scenery in Florida or Louisiana bayous in Maine, would you be pleased? Our islands may be small, but their different regions have characters of their own."

Max Armstrong, of Spokane, Washington, writes: "The Carnal God, written by John R. Speer and Carlisle Schnitzer, was truly a magnificent story, well written, and my choice for the best in the June issue. Second is the one written by Paul Ernst, Clicking Red Heels, a fascinating story, one that holds your interest to the end. The cover design by M. Brundage is a knockout!"

"An acrostic sonnet, written in a sequestered Providence churchyard where Poe once walked." Thus was Adolphe de Castro's poem Edgar Allan Poe blurbed in the May issue of. But what was not announced was that seated beside de Castro as he composed the acrostic verse were H. P. Lovecraft and R. H. Barlow HPL, incidentally, was a sixth cousin of Barlow Jack Williamson, of Kansas, spent the month of June with his old friend Edmond Hamilton in Pennsylvania Robert Bloch left his beloved Milwaukee for a few weeks' stay with Henry Kuttner in Beverly Hills. C. L. Moore dropped in on them from Indianapolis, and Kuttner "had the pleasure of taking C. L. Moore for a ride on the roller coaster, and giving Jirel a new experience." Kuttner's Hydra, soon to appear in WT, tells of the fate of Robert Ludwig (Bloch), who is imprisoned and mutilated in another dimension. In the original version, H. P. Lovecraft was another main character in the tale, hiding under the name Howard Phillips; but after his demise a revision obviously was necessary. Kuttner himself is in the story, presenting credentials under his brother's name Virgil Finlay, who has had an appreciable amount of work exhibited at the famed art center in Rochester, may illustrate the Derleth-Wandrei volume of Lovecraft's works I wish to retract a statement made last time to the effect that Earl Peirce, Jr.'s The Surgery Master had been rejected by Editor Wright and handed over to Bruce Bryan for a collaborative revision. The tale was not even submitted to WT until it had been reworked by the two young writers of Washington. It will appear under the title, The While Rat A convertible coupe overturned on Peirce recently in the Adirondacks, and he came out of it with his due of lacerations and bruises. If the windshield on the car had struck Peirce four inches lower he would have been beheaded The Scarab, proposed official organ of the Washington Weird Tales Club, will not see publication after all Clifford Ball's next Rald story is The Goddess Awakes, a 14,000-worder. WT has also accepted Ball's The Swine of Aeaea, 13,000 words, built around the legend of Circe the Enchantress. This 29-year-old newest sensation of has led a life as adventurous as that of either of his two barbarian heroes. He went through high school in Millerstown, Pennsylvania, experiencing great difficulty with his mathematics and with a young and attractive school-teacher of whom he became enamored. After he had been graduated, he took a job in the license bureau of the State Highway Department. A few months later he began to hate the place, and left. The Miami catastrophe of 1927 occurred, and he and a friend trekked south to Florida, expecting to find heavy salaries waiting for eager workers. The state was "broke;" and tourists, alarmed by the tidal wave, were frightened away. Ball has slung hash, worked on dynamite crews as a capper, fry-cooked, run a dice table in a gambling-house, dug ditches, leveled auto springs, spread cloth in a shirt factory, and served beer in a Virginia tavern. This will always remain in Ball's memory, he says, as the best moments of his life.

Arthur L. Widner, Jr., writes from Waterbury, Vermont: "The July issue is one of the best to date. The cover is the most realistic-looking painting I have ever seen. Clifford Ball seems to have stepped into Robert E. Howard's shoes, but whether he will fill them is another question. So far he has not done too bad, but his feet will have to grow some before he can equal The Devil in Iron, Black Canaan, and other creepy tales. When I heard of Lovecraft's death it seemed as if I had been hit with some