Jayme Lynn Blaschke

Thanks to the classic Dolly Parton film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and ZZ Top's ode "La Grange," many people think they know the story of the infamous Chicken Ranch. The reality is more complex, lying somewhere between heartbreaking and absurd. For more than a century, dirt farmers and big-cigar politicians alike rubbed shoulders at the Chicken Ranch, operated openly under the sheriff's watchful eye. Madam Edna Milton and her girls ran a tight, discreet ship that the God-fearing people of La Grange tolerated if not outright embraced. That is, until a secret conspiracy enlisted an opportunistic reporter to bring it all crashing down on primetime television. Drawn from exclusive interviews and expanded with newly uncovered information, Jayme Lynn Blaschke's revelatory exposition of the Ranch illuminates the truth and lies surrounding this iconic brothel.

Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse

Robert Sheckley

Malcolm Jameson

Don Webb

Edmond Hamilton

Henry Slesar

Mel Gilden

James Holding

Stacy Woodson

Hal Charles

 Wil A. Emerson

John Bernard Daley

Welcome to Black Cat Weekly #32. This issue, we have more original stories than ever before. Editors Michael Bracken and Cynthia Ward have brought in new tales by Wil A. Emerson and the writing team of Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb, and I snagged magazine rights to Mel Gilden’s new novel, The Case by Case Casebook of Emily Silverwood. Mel’s story is a new and thoroughly modern take on the Mary Poppins theme. Wil Emerson has a study on the dynamics of detective partners. And Blachke and Webb’s story (as Cindy Ward put it) “reveals the connections between Nietszche’s abyss, Lovecraft’s god-monsters and non-Euclidean spaces, and Cordwainer Smith’s monsters of subspace.” Wow! Not to be outdone, Barb Goffman acquired Stacy Woodson’s first story, which won the Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine Reader’s Award. And, of course, we have a solve-it-yourself mystery from Hal Charles, a historical adventure novel from Edison Marshall, and a slew of great science fiction stories from such masters as Henry Slesar, and Edmond Hamilson. And a World War II fantasy from Malcolm Edwards. Here’s the lineup: Non-Fiction: “Speaking with Robert Sheckley,” conducted by Darrell Schweitzer [interview] Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Insieme,” by Wil A. Emerson [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “An Eggcellent Equation,” by Hal Charles [solve-it-yourself mystery] “Paper Caper,” by James Holding [short story] “Duty, Honor, Hammett,” by Stacy Woodson [Barb Goffman Presents short story] The Infinite Woman, by Edison Marshall [novel] Science Fiction & Fantasy: It Gazes Back,” by Jayme Lynn Blaschke and Don Webb [Cynthia Ward Presents short story] The Case by Case Casebook of Emily Silverwood, by Mel Gilden [serialized novel] “Vengeance in Her Bones,” by Malcolm Jameson [short story] “The Man Who Liked Lions,” by John Bernard Daley [short story] “A Message from Our Sponsor,” by Henry Slesar [short story] Crashing Suns, by Edmond Hamilton [novel]

Black Cat Weekly #32

As the world around us becomes more fantastic, and science itself more surreal, the realms of science fiction and fantasy become correspondingly both more bizarre and more relevant. Voices of Vision offers a rare look into the inner workings of this realm and into the very thoughts and methods of those who make it tick: editors and writers of science fiction and fantasy, and creators of comic books and graphic novels. In wide-ranging interviews that are by turns intimate and thought provoking, irreverent and outrageous, Jayme Lynn Blaschke talks shop with some of the most interesting voices in these genres as well as the people behind them, such as current Science Fiction Weekly and former Science Fiction Age editor Scott Edelman. ø A host of authors talk to Blaschke about what it?s like to do what they do, how they work and how they started, and where they think the genre is headed. Blaschke talks to writers such as Robin Hobb, Charles de Lint, Patricia Anthony, and Elizabeth Moon; revered authors of comic books and graphic novels, including Neil Gaiman and Brad Meltzer; and icons such as Samuel R. Delany, Gene Wolfe, Harlan Ellison, and Jack Williamson. Editors such as Gardner Dozois, editor of Asimov?s Science Fiction magazine, discuss their publishing philosophies and strategies, the origins and probable directions of their magazines, and the broader influence of such ventures. For devoted reader, aspiring writer, and curious onlooker alike, these interviews open a largely hidden, endlessly engrossing world.

Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy Speak

Voices of Vision

Rachael Slate

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