Ah, yes, back to the age-old pulp game of wondering just what word/name the author was going for here, after being put through the filter of over-worked and under-paid typists. One of my all-time favorites was from a Beulah Poynter piece, where "Buick" somehow got mangled into "Bluac."

ROMANCE PULPS MENTIONED IN A 1994 ISSUE OF ROMANTIC TIMES! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Somehow I doubt that article ever came to fruition, but still! Also, I'm assuming Shirley is no longer with us, so I hope she's reading all the romance she could ever want in the afterlife. ❤️

deepest of deep breaths feeling nervous about this one, friends! I've written about the mainstreaming of pull-to-publish, its impact on fandom, and what it means for an increasingly corporate and IP-driven creative landscape.

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Only the two novellas left to proofread, but also sudden cover copy inspiration just hit??? It still needs a little tweaking/refining, but, like…yeah. I guess THAT'S out of the way now. ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ #pulp #romance

ROMANCE PULPS MENTIONED IN A 1994 ISSUE OF ROMANTIC TIMES! THIS IS NOT A DRILL! Somehow I doubt that article ever came to fruition, but still! Also, I'm assuming Shirley is no longer with us, so I hope she's reading all the romance she could ever want in the afterlife. ❤️

Realizing that LOVE MIRROR is basically what I wanted AINSLEE'S SMART LOVE STORIES to be, but Daisy Bacon and/or Street & Smith (bless their souls) seemingly 1) didn't have the nerve for the sex stuff, & 2) were too focused on the upper class, anyway. SO many boring-ass cocktail parties, my god. 🙄

In case you missed it earlier, I got two more issues of LOVE MIRROR! #pulp #romance Also…

Papa Graustein laying down some harsh truths (and making me fall in love with him at the same time???). I'm reminded of Maysie Greig's "Jim Wears the Apron" (LOVE STORY, Nov. 13, 1937), except Jim was great in that one, and it was his wife, the heroine, who had the problem with him doing housework.

I was impressed enough w/ last week's LOVE MIRROR that I got 2 more issues: Oct. & Dec. 1932. Highlights at a glance include another Jane Littell (confession edition), and 2 parts of a Mrs. Harry Pugh Smith (Anita Blackmon), which appears to be an early sports romance (baseball edition). #pulp 1/

Best Detective Magazine, January 1933. Most of the covers for this magazine from Street & Smith were dull; however, this one, with a figure resembling a saint of crime sowing vice, followed by death, is impressive. It’s like it’s an icon for a holiday that I’m not aware of. #PulpMagazine.

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Only 4 more shorts (2 short stories, 2 novelettes) and the 2 novellas left to proof! Reading them in the (tentative) order I settled on is really helping. Torn between whether I want to start the paperback layout or finally tackle the cover, afterward.

On to "In the Eyes of the World," and seriously, EVERY TIME I read this scene I get giddy all over again. The punching of a sexual predator is great enough, but then the reveal of the 6+ FUCKING KNIVES is truly the icing on the cake. Uncle Beppo is a walking arsenal, bless. 🙏 #pulp #romance

Fascinated by this letter in the March 1932 issue of GAY PARISIENNE. (Like most of the "girly" pulps, GAY PARISIENNE featured—along with fiction—sections of nude or near-nude models, 99.99% of them women, under the claim that they were for "art students.") #pulp

On to "In the Eyes of the World," and seriously, EVERY TIME I read this scene I get giddy all over again. The punching of a sexual predator is great enough, but then the reveal of the 6+ FUCKING KNIVES is truly the icing on the cake. Uncle Beppo is a walking arsenal, bless. 🙏 #pulp #romance

A portrait of Dorothy Dayton (Jones) from a 1926 newspaper, when she should have been 27. Born "Peterson," she ended up using her (tragically short-lived) husband's given name, Dayton, as her last name, professionally. She was primarily a reporter who eventually worked for the NEW YORK SUN. #pulp

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Story selection finalized, and (tentative) story line-up as follows. #pulp #romance

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Story selection finalized, and (tentative) story line-up as follows. #pulp #romance

Not getting the things I WANT to do done today, but getting the things I NEED to do done today, which still feels good in its own way. 😌

"Interesting" really is the most devastating critique-as-compliment. It's right up there with "You sure?" when someone you know is about to do something absolutely, atrociously stupid.

The writer of one of the Greatest Reviews Ever Written has died: Marilyn Hagerty of North Dakota has passed away at age 99. Cheers to a long life, ma'am. Her Olive Garden review is The PINNACLE of Midwestern Nice, in my opinion.

I am so fucking tired of having to make accounts for things. Bless those sites that still let you check out as a guest, seriously.

The thing about being an artist is that sometimes you’ll have a really silly/cursed image enter your head and spend hours of your life drawing it. Hours you’ll never get back.

ICYMI—got my issue of obscure magazine LOVE MIRROR today! A pulp in spirit if not paper, and unusual in that upper-class heroes (and the usual "Cinderella" plot) were actively discouraged. Anyway, click thru to see a use of the word "slut" in a mainstream romance story from 1932. #romancelandia

A neat post from @smartbitches.bsky.social that discusses the rise of retro romance comic-style covers among modern romance novels (though I agree with some of the commenters that a couple of the featured covers don't actually emulate the retro look). Still interesting!

One of Robert Redford’s earliest roles is still one of my favorites—the Twilight Zone episode “Nothing in the Dark,” where the world’s most clean-cut Angel of Death brings a terrified elderly woman to a moving acceptance that her time has come & with it the end of fear. RIP

Whoops, my hand slipped. 👀 #ebay

ICYMI—got my issue of obscure magazine LOVE MIRROR today! A pulp in spirit if not paper, and unusual in that upper-class heroes (and the usual "Cinderella" plot) were actively discouraged. Anyway, click thru to see a use of the word "slut" in a mainstream romance story from 1932. #romancelandia

Latest pulp (-ish) acquisition: LOVE MIRROR, May 1932. A short-lived companion to MOVIE MIRROR, it was an odd combo of confession stories and traditional romance fiction, w/ some celebrity gossip sprinkled in. There's literally no info out there on it, so a blog post will be coming sometime. 1/3

Foiled by Scribus's inability to create false italics! 😫 Trying to decide if I just want to live with this (otherwise pretty perfect) font as is, or try to find something else, with a built-in slant. 😕

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Introduction finished at a little under 2.6K words, and story order more or less finalized (it may yet see a tweak or two, but I think it's good to go). Now it's time for manuscript proofreads! 😁 #pulp #romance

One the one hand I REALLY want to make a sex joke here, but on the other hand, jfc, is it even necessary??? ("Stop! Go!" by Maryjo Miller. ALL-STORY LOVE TALES, March 4, 1939.) #pulp #romance #romancelandia

So cheeky! Illustration by Dorothy Flack for Marcia Ray's "The Blond Gorilla" (ALL-STORY LOVE TALES, March 4, 1939). #pulp #romance #romancelandia

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Introduction finished at a little under 2.6K words, and story order more or less finalized (it may yet see a tweak or two, but I think it's good to go). Now it's time for manuscript proofreads! 😁 #pulp #romance

Pulp romance anthology things I still need to do (after intro): Cover design (related: font choices) Cover copy Proofread manuscripts Finalize story order Short author/artist bios Actual layout of book It's still quite a bit, but written down like that it isn't as much as I thought/feared?

NO WAIT I WENT ALL THE WAY BACK AND FOUND MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE ONE

Aha! I knew I was bound to find a photo of her sometime! From Smith College's 1912 yearbook. Fairgrieve would have been about 22 here.

Daring (begging?) a romance author to write a hero physically based on Boris Karloff. 🙏 (From "Love Is Our Racket" by romance pulp editor Amita Fairgrieve. WRITER'S DIGEST, May 1939.) #pulp #romancelandia

A romance pulp editor who had previously worked as a spy in WWI would truly be the stuff of legend, though. Just sayin'. 👀

Oh, shit, Amita Fairgrieve served overseas in WWI!

The more I think about it and the more I look at the dates, the more I wonder if Amita Fairgrieve was ALL-STORY LOVE's main editor from the beginning, and "Madeline M. Heath" was just some sort of pseudonym. (From THE AUTHOR & JOURNALIST, February 1931.) #pulp Confusingly, there WAS…

ALL-STORY LOVE anthology update: Well, I'm struggling with the beginning of the introduction, so rather than angst and try to force it, I've skipped ahead to the middle (the history of the romance pulps, the history of ALL-STORY, and the beginning of ALL-STORY LOVE) and have hit a good stride. 👍

Just got another issue of THE ILLUSTRATED LOVE MAGAZINE (November 1930), this time containing Cornell Woolrich's "Cinderella Magic"! Also…

Well, at least the item was merely misplaced, not already sold. Still disappointing to have the order cancelled, but there's some hope. 🤞

Anyway, said package contained this lot of 5 very rough LOVE STORY MAGAZINEs, that I'll admit I purchased almost solely for the June 6, 1931 issue. It has part 3/3 of " 'Neath Tropical Skies" by Mollie Donovan Maule, which (so far) is one of those batshit, so-bad-it's-good excursions. It features…

What Ye Olde Motoring Wear™ would YOU choose?

Fascinated by the papers used to cushion this package. (FYI, I totally want that Kennard leather coat, though the "Snuggery" gets an honorable mention for being an obvious ancestor of the snuggie.)

Trawling old trade journals to see if there are any contemporary rules or guidelines for the various romance pulps, and my impression of ALL-STORY LOVE as one of the…ah…more liberal mags seems to be accurate. From WRITER'S DIGEST, February 1933. #pulp

Petition to bring back the term "legitimate sex" in romance novel criticism? (Relevant to the plot or the emotional development of the relationship or GTFO, and I will die on this hill.) From WRITER'S DIGEST, January 1940.

Gag comics from Back In The Day™ don't always hold up, but this one's actually pretty good. From WRITER'S DIGEST, August 1939.