Thursday, October 25, 2007

In a flaming crucible was born... The Avenger!


In a move that has left me utterly gobsmacked -- and thrilled beyond belief -- Moonstone Books, which recently licensed the rights to the classic pulp hero, The Avenger, has asked me to contribute a tale to their upcoming prose anthology The Avenger Chronicles.

Here is the preliminary cover art by Peter Caras. Caras, along with George Gross, did the covers for the paperback reprints (and new novels by Ron Goulart) by Warner Books in the 1970s.

Wow.

Based on the guidelines I've received, Moonstone is intent on doing this character right, with tales that honor the spirit of the original characters and stories.

The original pulp novels were written by Paul Ernst and appeared under the traditional Street & Smith byline of "Kenneth Robeson," the same byline used on the Doc Savage novels (although Ernst did not write the Doc Savages). The later 1970s books by Goulart also appeared under the Robeson name.

I don't think that Moonstone is issuing the new stories under the Robeson byline (don't quote me on that, I'm not really sure), but either way, what a blast to be able to say -- in a very small, small way -- I am one of the "Kenneth Robesons!"

The story is due in 30 days, so I'll been running fairly silent for the next few weeks.

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