Читать книгу The Second Mystery Megapack - Mack Reynolds - Страница 3

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

I became a mystery writer almost by accident—I was attending a writer’s conference (as a speaker, talking about Wildside Press and careers in writing). Although I had published some 40 books and more than 100 short stories, all but one of them had been in the science fiction/fantasy/horror genre.

That’s when I met her…Linda Landrigan, the editor of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine (also attending as a speaker). We ended up at the same banquet table, where, of course, every mystery writer and would-be mystery writer at the conference also sat.

For after-dinner entertainment, the conference staged a Murder Mystery Theatre.

Guess what? I was the only one at our table who solved it correctly.

Then, at the end of the conference, the conference raffled off a selection of gift baskets. Every speaker received a complementary ticket. And I won one of the baskets. The Mystery Writer’s Basket, to be precise, complete with a half-dozen how-to-write-mysteries books, a pair of handcuffs, a vial labelled “poison” (I haven’t dared open it!), and similar murderous items.

I figured the Fates were trying to tell me something. So I went home, wrote 3 mysteries in the space of 3 weeks, and mailed them all off to my Linda Landrigan.

It took a year, but she bought all three stories…and so my career as an occasional mystery writer was launched. I’m including one of those original 3 stories, “Pit on the Road to Hell,” in this volume. (I’m particularly proud of it.) Peter “Pit-Bull” Geller—Pit to his friends—has gone on to star in 6 stories, one of which won the Black Orchid Novella Award. (Five of them are collected in Pit and the Pendulum. The sixth is forthcoming in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine as I write this.)

* * * *

I have very eclectic tastes. I like pulp fiction, but I also like contemporary work. One of the great things I’ve found about mysteries is that they really don’t age; stories written in the 1920s become period pieces (unlike, say, science fiction from the 1920s…or 1930s…or 1940s which…to put it kindly!…often creaks with age.)

In selecting the stories for this volume, I looked primarily for the sort of tales I enjoy reading. I tried to find less familiar stories, or stories that have never been reprinted before.

I turned up a brief Sherlockian tale from 1903 (“Dr. Watson’s Wedding Present,” by J. Alston Cooper) which is fun if you’re a big Holmes fan. And I’m delighted to showcase a few newer writers, like noir writer Arlette Lees and newcomer Meg Opperman. In fact,

Meg’s “Just the Facts” is original to this collection—her third sale (the other sales being to Weird Tales and a regional anthology). I think you’ll be hearing a lot from her in years ahead. We don’t normally run original stories in the Megapacks, but this one is a worthy exception.

And, of course, there are fun stories by great writers like Ron Goulart, Mack Reynolds (his first published story—before he became famous as a science fiction author), Michael Hemmingson, Ray Cummings, and many more.

Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Publisher, Wildside Press

ABOUT THE MEGAPACKS

Over the last few years, our “Megapack” series of ebook anthologies has grown to be among our most popular endeavors. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

The Megapacks (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

A NOTE FOR KINDLE READERS

The Kindle versions of our Megapacks employ active tables of contents for easy navigation…please look for one before writing reviews on Amazon that complain about the lack! (They are sometimes at the ends of ebooks, depending on your reader.)

RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the Megapack series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

TYPOS

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at wildsidepress@yahoo.com or use the message boards above.