Paperback Picnic
a newsletter about weird old books

Latest

Jan
13

Coming soon: HOUSE OF THE RAIN KING

I'm publishing a novel, and you could get an advance copy
4 min read
Jan
08
Grainy monochrome photo of an eerie, melancholy stone head

Among the Worst Ways to Die...

Reading every Clark Ashton Smith story, part 2
5 min read
Dec
17

Some non-weird non-old books

in which I briefly suspend my vow to read only the strange and obscure
6 min read
Dec
09
Grainy photograph of an eerie stone sculpture sitting among leaf litter on the ground

Dark Flowers of the Pulp Age

reviewing every Clark Ashton Smith story, part 1
7 min read
Nov
24
book cover depicting a flimsy, bone-like castle in a cold and swampy land

The Women and the Warlords (1987)

the second half of a feminist epic
8 min read
Nov
16

Read my new short story "Another Tide"

A story of resistance, radicalism and sea anemones
1 min read
Oct
14
book cover depicting a dragon perched on a crumbling stone arch that overlooks a distant city.

The Wordsmiths and the Warguild (1987)

teenage fantasy protagonist but make him act like an actual teenage boy
7 min read
Aug
02
book cover depicting a silver needle-shaped spaceship on a verdant alien landscape

Paradise and Hell: “The Gardens of Delight” by Ian Watson

with some thoughts on the value of modesty in fiction
6 min read
May
31
book covers of "Rogomelec" and "The Complete Stories of Leonora Carrington"

Two Books by Surrealist Women

Leonor Fini, Leonora Carrington, and the ocean of literature
6 min read
Apr
30
dinosaurs and humans marching beneath a huge wooden crucifix with a pocketwatch hanging off it.

Discovering the True Nature of Time with Brian Aldiss’ “Cryptozoic!”

time travel, psychedelia and Freud
7 min read