{"id":15656,"date":"2021-08-13T07:00:03","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T11:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/?p=15656"},"modified":"2021-08-10T22:28:36","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T02:28:36","slug":"revelations-short-fiction-charles-beaumont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cemeterydance.com\/extras\/revelations-short-fiction-charles-beaumont\/","title":{"rendered":"Revelations: The Short Fiction of Charles Beaumont"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Charles Beaumont<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Just as I’ve discovered writers who only wrote a handful of stories and then, for a variety of reasons, didn’t write anymore, I’ve also discovered writers whose careers — and lives — were sadly cut short before they could reach their fullest potential. On one hand, I’m eminently grateful for the work they produced; on the other hand, I can only imagine what they could’ve accomplished if they’d lived longer. One of those writers is the inimitable Charles Beaumont.<\/span><\/p>\n

I discovered <\/span>The Twilight Zone<\/span><\/i> late in life. Of course in high school we read several of the teleplays aloud (\u201cThe Monsters are Due on Maple Street\u201d being a textbook staple), and I have hazy memories of watching an episode or two of the mid-eighties reboot on television as a kid.\u00a0 However, it wasn’t until about ten years ago I started making sure to catch the New Year’s Eve\/New Year’s Day TWZ marathon on the SyFy Channel every year. Eventually, I began using handpicked episodes in my classroom to teach different lessons.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically enough, even as I realized how valuable a teaching resource they were, I came to understand how valuable a resource they were to <\/span>me<\/span><\/i>, the budding speculative fiction\/horror writer. I began watching episodes not only to use in the classroom, but also to enrich my storytelling diet. I’ll save an in-depth analysis of <\/span>The Twilight Zone<\/span><\/i> for a future installment of this column, but suffice to say <\/span>it<\/span> greatly informed my development as a speculative fiction writer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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It didn’t take long to realize some of my favorite episodes were credited to the same writer. “Perchance to Dream,” “Elegy,” “Long Live Walter Jameson,” <\/span>“Shadow Play,” “Printer’s Devil,” and many others, all written by Charles Beaumont. I found it odd I hadn’t heard his name very often among horror colleagues, especially ones my age or younger. Some research explained why: He suffered an untimely death at the age of 38, unfortunately falling short of making the same mark on speculative fiction that his peers would go on to make. When I started expanding my reading diet around 2011, he was one of the first writers I wanted to explore.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"coverThe first collection I read was <\/span>The Howling Man<\/span><\/i>. Like many out of print books, the availability of this one on the secondary market wavers between affordable and expensive. Over years, I’ve read several of his other collections. <\/span>The Hunger and Other Stories,<\/span><\/i> Touch of the Creature<\/span><\/i>, and <\/span>The Magic Man<\/span><\/i>. Other short story collections exist as well, but from what I can tell (will happily accept correction if I’m wrong), I don’t think a \u201cdefinitive\u201d or \u201cBest of\u201d collection of his short fiction exists. They seemed to be spread out over a variety of collections,\u00a0 some in print, others not, and there’s a decent amount of overlap in the collections of repeat stories.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In any case, what I found in Beaumont’s work testifies to \u201chousehold name greatness which never was.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Kevin Lucia\u2019s short fiction has appeared in several anthologies, most recently with Neil Gaiman, Clive Barker, Bentley Little, Peter Straub and Robert McCammon. His first short story collection,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Things Slip Through,<\/strong>\u00a0was published November 2013, followed by\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Devourer of Souls<\/strong>\u00a0in June 2014,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Through A Mirror, Darkly<\/strong>, June 2015, and and his second short story collection,\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Things You Need<\/strong>, September 2018. His novella\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Mystery Road<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0was published by Cemetery Dance Publications in May 2020. For three free ebooks, sign up for his monthly newsletter at\u00a0www.kevinlucia.blogspot.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just as I’ve discovered writers who only wrote a handful of stories and then, for a variety of reasons, didn’t write anymore, I’ve also discovered writers whose careers — and lives — were sadly cut short before they could reach their fullest potential. On one hand, I’m eminently grateful for the work they produced; on … Continue Reading! “Revelations: The Short Fiction of Charles Beaumont”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[948],"tags":[2354,294,783,949],"class_list":["post-15656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-revelations","tag-charles-beaumont","tag-columns","tag-kevin-lucia","tag-revelations"],"yoast_head":"\nRevelations: The Short Fiction of Charles Beaumont - 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