Fredric Brown - Sci-Fi Writer Extraordinaire!

Fredric Brown, who died way back in 1972 and is long out of print, was a science fiction pioneer and more importantly a major influence on other writers, myself included.  In fact, no book has had a greater impact on me than WHAT MAD UNIVERSE (1949) when it comes to writing exciting pulp fiction.  It's about a man named Keith Winton

 trapped in an alternate universe where the world of the pulp science fiction magazine stories he edits are literally true.  And space travel is accidentally discovered during a freak sewing machine mishap.  No joke.  (Want a copy?   Check out Ebay.  Really, it's great.) 

And it's not just me.  Brown was a major influence on the much more famous Phillip K. Dick, but where I find Dick almost unreadable, Brown's novels are light, breezy, fun page-turners full of mind bending ideas.  Brown was also a dedicatee in Robert A. Heinlein's STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.

Sci-Fi not your thing?  Brown also wrote detective novels and crime stories with equal aplomb.  I truly hope this writer will someday be back in print and receive the recognition he deserves.

Fredric Brown's Wikipedia Page

Welcome Aboard!

Hello, Everybody!

I'm a novelist and playwright.  Yes, I'll be doing a whole bunch of self promotion, but I'm also going to write about books, plays and movies I think are cool so  this blog won't be just a bunch of "Look at me!"

What do I think is cool?  Here's a quick list:

H.P. Lovecraft
The Parker Novels by Richard Stark
Film Noir
The plays of Sheila Callaghan
Octavia Butler
Charles Bukowski
R. Crumb
The plays of Kato McNickle
Orson Scott Card
Superheroes
Greek Mythology
Tarantino
Game of Thrones
Mad Men
Walking Dead

This list is by no means exhaustive.  It should give you a basic idea about my tastes.  I like my fiction pulpy.  If I read "literary" fiction it'll be somebody like Junot Diaz.   I like strong writing, but I want a cool story, too.  The average New Yorker short story bores me to death.

What am I reading right now?  THE GOD PROBLEM by Howard Bloom, non-fiction about how the universe was created.  It's way overdue from the library.  If looking at the true nature of the universe doesn't blow your mind, you aren't looking hard enough.

Okay, that's it for now.

Michael R. McGuire

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