Admittedly, the combination of black cats and oyster pirates is unusual, but they do fit together with some explanation. What started out as a story about a 1892 oyster pirate misadventure in Alameda California developed into a larger project. After writing up the Alameda story featuring an oyster pirate boat called Black Cat, I wondered if the ship's name was a fictitious creation for the newspaper story. This question about the ship's name led to research about earlier ships named Black Cat and superstitions surrounding cats. Eventually I looked into different cultural attitudes towards domestic cats. The oldest and best known association between cats and humans began in Ancient Egypt. These additional avenues of research made this project into both a cat and oyster book. The basis of the illustrated short stories in this book are actual reported events in 19th century newspapers. For interest's sake, the stories are narrated from the perspective of the ship's spirit, Black Cat of Alameda (schooner). As well, I have used tarot cards throughout the stories to delineate the nature of different events. This use of tarot cards in the stories is similar to the idea portrayed in Italo Calvino's book "The Castle of Crossed Destines." In Calvino's book, the storytellers use tarot cards as a medium to describe their tales to the audience. The depictions and definitions for the tarot cards used in the Black Cat stories are styled after the well-known set of cards referred to as the "Rider-Waite Tarot Deck" or "Rider Deck." The Rider Deck has a long standing reputation as a very easy deck to interpret. The pictorial displays on the cards are often self-explanatory (or provide enough visual clues to hint at their symbolic meaning).

Our 78th issue features another lineup sure to please. We have an original mystery by Tom Milani (thanks to Acquiring Editor Michael Bracken). Acquiring Editor Barb Goffman has selected a great mystery by Brian Cox. Our other two Acquiring Editors, Cynthia Ward and Darrell Schweitzer, are still on break, but we hope they will be back soon. I’ve balanced out the mystery side of this issue with a Sexton Blake story and a Hulbert Footner novel. For the fantasy side, we have three tales: a Frostflower & Thorn short story from Phyllis Ann Karr, a Jules de Grandin occult detective story from Seabury Quinn, and a ghostly tale by Grant Allen. On the third side, we have three science fiction stories—tales by Joe Bigson, Bill Venable, and Lester del Rey. Fun stuff. I hope you enjoy it. Here’s this issue’s lineup: Mysteries / Suspense / Adventure: “Night of the Laundry Cart,” by Tom Milani [Michael Bracken Presents short story] “A Valentine by the Numbers,” by Hal Charles [Solve-It-Yourself Mystery] “The Frozen Fiske.” by Brian Cox [Barb Goffman Presents short story] “The White Mouse,” by Hal Meredith [Sexton Blake novelet] Cap’n Sue, by Hulbert Footner [novel] Fantasy & Science Fiction: “A Night at Two Inns.” by Phyllis Ann Karr [Frostflower & Thorn short story] “Pallinghurst Barrow,” by Grant Allen [novelet] “The Man Who Cast No Shadow,” by Seabury Quinn [Jules de Grandin novelet] “I Like You, Too—” by Joe Gibson [short story] “If At First,” by Bill Venable [short story] “Moon-Blind,” by Lester del Rey [short story]

For this edition of Jack London's observations on the craft of writing—culled from essays, reviews, letters, and autobiographical writings—a significant amount of new material has been added.

From the day she was born in January 1883, and every day thereafter, Reno, Nev. native Emily Ann Cox was as straight as an arrow; she was as trustworthy as the sun coming up in the east over Sparks. She, after all, graduated from the top of her class in high school and was salutatorian, with a degree in English, from the State University of Nevada in Reno. Her work and her character were impeccable; it was no wonder she left her friend and student newspaper colleague Brad Porter behind and enthusiastically went to work at Mission Dolores, the California mission in San Francisco, the summer of her graduation. So how was it a prim and proper young woman and intelligent, to boot who doesnt have a problem in the world one day and then within a few short weeks ends up being a resident a high-grade (less insane) inmate by definition of the state mental asylum in Yountville? Due to situations beyond her control namely her mother and her snoopiness and rush to judgment Emily became defenseless in the practices of the Superior Court. She believed her explanations of what really happened inside the church at Mission Dolores that fateful day, and not her mothers assumptions, would be heard and believed and then shed be acquitted in short order. After all, the truth was the truth in Emilys book. That, of course, wasnt the case. Emilys mother bought the verdict she was looking for; a buy that wasnt all that too uncommon with the judges in the San Francisco Superior Court system as it was later learned. Emily was railroaded and little did she know or suspect anything was working against her. Despite harboring resentment against her mother for the womans unbelievable act her reason for getting Emily committed was taken supposedly to prevent Emily from assuming and accepting a promiscuous life style she accepted her fate and tried to fit in among the Yountville population as best she could. She even made friends quickly with some of the residents in her residence building Stoneman Hall. Like everyone else at Yountville. Emily had to go to school an asylum requirement even though she was a college graduate. She also had to work in two of the institutions industries and chose the Sewing Room and the Farm. She especially liked the farm; not so much the chickens, but the hogs. No matter who her supervisors were Lefty on the farm, Miss Rose in the Sewing Room, or Sarah in the superintendents office she took to them quickly as they did to her. Emily was, after all, completely sane and was quite capable of relating to her supervisors just like any intelligent woman would. The shifty medical superintendent Dr. Josey Anselmo was sharp in his own way. He knew all the details that worked against Emily to make her a resident at Yountville so he took advantage of her outstanding clerical skills and made her his assistant secretary, a position seriously questioned by Anselmos wife, Mona, who was also the hospitals nursing director. Never before had an inmate been tapped for work in the Administration Building, much less the superintendents office, but Dr. Anselmo persuaded everyone, including Mona, that he had the situation, as well as Emily, under his control. In the end, nothing could have been farther from the truth. Little did the superintendent know that Emily vowed to retrieve and record as much dirt on the institution as she could find, this following the botched sterilization of her close friend, Katie Brewster, who ended up in the asylums cemetery instead of her residence hall. Emily saw the horror of the nurses dragging Katie off to the hospital one night in April 1909 and, being the curious one she was, overheard all of Katies pleadings, moaning, and cries, prior to being anesthetized and then butchered in the hospitals operating room, an experiment Superintendent Anselmo called her a guinea pig so doctors and nurses could learn how to perform and what to expect fro

Now in paperback! Cloth edition previously published in 1979. Volume 2: From Wells to Heinlein, samples the science fiction from a wide variety of authors that paved the way for the Golden Age.