Below is an author interview with New Pulp Tales author, David Henry! What inspired your recent story, The Shrine of the Skull? I’d been wanting to try an old school D&D flavor for a
Below is an author interview with New Pulp Tales author, David Henry!
What inspired your recent story, The Shrine of the Skull?
I’d been wanting to try an old school D&D flavor for a while. I’ve gone underground before with Orsog, but he’s too much of a loner to join up with your classic adventuring party. It’s that combination of wizard, fighting man, thief, and priest that gives the classic games a lot of their flavor, so capturing it was important to me. I already had a priest, Santiano, from a game I’d run years ago, and the lore of that world encourages a very specific kind of thief, which became Banco in this story. That left my POV characters–not usually the last ones you come up with! Lofric and Comillas turned out to be very fun to write, so I hope to return to them in the future.
Who are some Pulp Writers you enjoy?
Lovecraft is an absolute favorite. He’s a master of portraying deep time, and populates his vast aeons with such compelling aliens and monsters, it’s no wonder he’s inspired so many. I like my pulp with a philosophical edge, which he’s got that in spades. So does Robert E. Howard, all of whose Conan and Kull stories I’ve read multiple times. The ability of both these men to deal with these larger themes without wrecking the dread of a good horror story, or the thrill of a swashbuckling adventure, is wonderful. I’ve also been getting into Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories lately, which are their own kind of fun.
Is there any guidance you’d give to someone looking to write Pulp?
Have fun with each and every installment. The larger story may look good on paper, but a project of any length is going to wear you out at certain points, and maybe the reader, too. If you can’t find something bizarre or thrilling to do in every episode, you’ll lose interest long before the job is done.
Do you have any recent work you’d like to spotlight?
I published a book last year called The Fairy Common-Wealth. It’s a collection of short fairy tales, some of them very offbeat. They’re different than the kinds of things I get up to around here, but a keen eye will catch some common themes. It is my fervent hope that it would start a lot of arguments among its readers.