Railroad Stories – The Legend of King Lawson byE. S. Dellinger, Bold Venture Press 2015 trade paper, short story / novelette collection
The Pulp Railroad Stories published these five stories in 1932 and 1933. At the time it was a very popular pulp aimed at both railroaders and fans. These five tales give the story of King Lawson, one of Dellinger’s best known characters.
From his beginning as a gandy dancer (track worker) to his rise to brakeman and telegraph operator, King met every challenge and conquered it, until he found his wife in another man’s arms. That’s when he took to the boomer trail, the name for railroad workers drifting from one railroad to another, picking up whatever job they could.
King succeeds against stiff odds, most often imposed by nature in the form of fire, flood and landslide. If you enjoy a little railroad fiction as a change of pace, this makes a nice choice.
Tip the Wink 
INteresting. Don’t know this at all. By coincidence, I just got Bert & Dolores Hitchens’s railroad detective mystery, F.O.B. MURDER, from the library. We’ll see if I get to it.
I read THE BRANSON BEAUTY, the first of the Claire Booth series about Sheriff Hank Worth, which you recently recommended. I like the way she lets the book develop without dumping all the information about the characters up front. Also read the ROBERT SILVERBERG SCIENCE FICTION MEGAPACK, a collection of two dozen of his early work, only a few of which I had read before, and GOOD EVENING, MRS. CRAVEN: The Wartime Stories of Mollie Panter-Down, originally published in The New Yorker. I have her LONDON WAR NOTES 1939-1945, a collection of the weekly “letters” she wrote for the magazine about what life was like in Britain during the war,
I’m not sure what I will read next – I have a few choices at hand – but have gone back to finish DARK CITY LIGHTS: New York Stories.
The third book by Booth is the best so far. The Mrs. Craven sounds interesting.
Reading Michael Connelly’s CITY OF BONES. and I swear I would like it twice as much if I had a book instead of a kindle in my hands.
Patti, I’ve been reading more ebooks, since I’m having trouble with my eye and need to make the print larger. But I sure prefer printed books!
I’m rereading GOOD OMENS in preparation for watching the new AMAZON PRIME series. I’m also reading Elizabeth Bear’s Big Fat Book, Ancestral Night. I made a dent in the stack of Library books. I did score a couple dozen music CDs during a Library Book Sale. You could fill a bag for $5. I filled TWO bags with wonderful CDs!
Wow! I guess we’ll be hearing more on your blog. I’ve given up on Bear, she has gotten too preachy.
I know what you mean about Elizabeth Bear. ANCESTRAL NIGHT is over 500 pages long and too much of the time the AI is talking about government and democracy–effectively stalling the action. Without the speeches, this would be a 250-page book…and a much better read!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been zipping through various volumes of Bill Willingham’s award-winning FABLES series. Due to the vagarities of library loan system, I’ve had to read them out of order but that has not presented much of a problem. Throughout the multiverse, fairy tale characters and legends are being destroyed by the “Adversary”; surviving characters take flight to our mundane Earth, where they are hidden from sight by a number of magical means. The writing is sharp, the themes mature, and the characters are well realized. The artwork in these graphic novels (usually by Mark Buckingham) is outstanding. I’ve gone through eleven of the fifteen volumes so far and look forward to being able to read the re\st soon.
I also read Elly Griffiths STRANGER DAIRIES, a gothic-y mystery with possible supernatural overtones. Recommended.
I’m currently about a third of the way through Dean Koontz’s fifth and final novel in his Jane Hawk series. The series is a riff on themes the author first developed with 1976’s NIGHT CHILLS. Despite his many flaws, Koontz is still able to sweep you into his books.
It’s hot, hot, hot here. I’m staying inside as much as possible, unsurprisingly stunned by our Gaff-in-Chief’s state visit to Merry Olde.
Jerry, I have and have read all of the Fables graphic collections, and several of the spin-offs. Very, very good. I never much liked Koontz, but then I don’t like Steven King either.
I am currently reading FRIENDS AND TRAITORS by John Lawton.
I have ordered the first Posadas County Mystery by Steven Havill, and I think it will actually arrive today. I am looking forward to reading it.
I think you will, Tracy. Barbara is on the 8th in the series, I’m half way through number 12.