Category Archives: Odds and Ends

Odds & Ends

‘Birds of Prey’ March

Kipling, and particularly Kipling’s verse, has been important to me ever since I encountered it when I started to read. (There was a copy of The Jungle Book on the folks’ shelves, along with the first three Hornblower novels and … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , | Comments Off on ‘Birds of Prey’ March

Manly Wade Wellman, Reporter

In many respects, Manly was as much of a journalist as he was a fiction writer. He was close to his (two years older) brother Paul for all of their mutual lives. When Manly got out of college in the … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Manly Wade Wellman, Reporter

Vandy, Vandy

Manly traveled with Vance Randolph either during his time at Wichita University (now Wichita State University) or shortly after he graduated. He said that Randolph wanted him to settle in Arkansas. “Manly, you’ve got a hundred dollars. Half of it … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Vandy, Vandy

About John Lambshead

John Lambshead is joint author with Dave of The Citizen Series from Baen Books. When John Lambshead was fourteen, he helped his mother carry lunch to the firemen spreading dispersants so that oil from the tanker Torrey Canyon did not … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged | Comments Off on About John Lambshead

Like the Man Said

For my birthday in 1975, John Squires (who had been taking a bookbinding class) gave me a book bound in one of my fatigue shirts (that Jo had given him) and containing (as tearsheets) Ranks of Bronze, Arclight, Contact!, Something … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , | Comments Off on Like the Man Said

Manly Wade Wellman

On March 17, 1970, I met Manly for the first time, in his writing office above a drugstore in the center of Chapel Hill. According to my journal for the day: Talked to Mr. Wellman (“My parents wrote my great-uncle … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on Manly Wade Wellman

Whispers Magazine

In 1971 August Derleth died. He’d been publishing The Arkham Collector, a little magazine associated with his fantasy small press Arkham House. (My only published poem appeared in it.) Stu Schiff, a long-time collector and at that point a dentist … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , | Comments Off on Whispers Magazine

Jim Baen

Jim Baen called me on the afternoon of June 11. He generally phoned on weekends, and we’d usually talk a couple more times in the course of a week; but this was the last time. In the course of the … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Jim Baen

Joke Covers at Dave’s Roast

At Trinoc-con on Sunday, October 6, 2002, my friend Mark Van Name presided over what was billed as a David Drake Roast but was really a tribute. I was very embarrassed at the idea beforehand, but it turned out to … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments Off on Joke Covers at Dave’s Roast

Rudyard Kipling

Kipling had a major influence on my writing and a lesser one on my life. The photo above is me in the garden of his house in Brattleboro in September, 1996. The one at the bottom of the essay is … Continue reading

Posted in Odds and Ends | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Rudyard Kipling