2011 - 07/2011 Meeting
Page Created: 06/14/11. Last Updated: 08/13/11.
PAUL MALMONT
Books:
The Astounding, the Amazing, and the Unknown
The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril
Jack London in Paradise
Comics:
Doc Savage
Official Site:
MEETING SUMMARY:
Meeting Date: July 9, 2011.
Meeting Site: Barnes & Noble, Hackensack.
Official Attendance: 21.
Meeting Program: Talk by Science Fiction Writer.
Notes:
Additional notes to be added at future date.
Newsletter Account:
The following account is reprinted with permission from THE STARSHIP EXPRESS Copyright 2012 Philip J De Parto:
The Science Fiction Association of Bergen County met on Saturday, July 9, 2011 at Barnes & Noble in Hackensack, New Jersey. Writer Paul Malmont, author of JACK LONDON IN PARADISE, THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL, and THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, AND THE UNKNOWN, was our speaker.
Paul Malmont has worked in movies, television, comic books, video games, dot.coms, and advertising. He graduated from New York University Film School in the 80's and rose through the ranks working on a number films shot in Manhattan. He then jumped to television, becoming a production assistant for A CURRENT AFFAIR and a producer on GOOD DAY, NEW YORK. Along the way he married, started a family, and became an advertising executive.
Our guest had tried his hand at horror and science fiction without success shortly after college. He lacked the mindset to do short fiction (“I write LONG”) and the focus to successfully tackle novel length work at that time. But he took away something from each of his careers which later serve him in good stead. For example, filmmaking taught Mr Malmont the usefulness of detailed planning and outlining.
Writers had always been our speaker’s heroes. He was inspired to write stories mixing fact and fiction and playing off different writers against against each other by such diverse works as Philip Jose Farmer’s imaginative histories linking Tarzan to Sherlock Holmes to James Bond, by Alan Moore’s THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN, and by THE SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION which matched Sherlock Holmes with Sigmund Freund.
It took the birth of Paul Malmont’s first son to provide the author with a consistent structure in which to work. The toddler would wake up at 5:00 AM every morning and want company. Our speaker would rise and watch TV with the child until he fell back to sleep. Then Mr Malmont would write until it was time for him to get ready for work.
His first book was THE CHINATOWN DEATH CLOUD PERIL in which the death of pulp horror writer H P Lovecraft sets in motion a sequence of events which include (courtesy of the back cover) “courageous heroes, evil villains, dames in distress, secret identities and disguises, global schemes, deadly superweapons” and more. The heroes are Lester (DOC SAVAGE) Dent, Walter (THE SHADOW) Gibson and L Ron Hubbard.
This was only a warmup for his current book, THE ASTOUNDING, THE AMAZING, AND THE UNKNOWN. This is set during World War II and is the secret history of what was really going on when Isaac Asimov, L Sprague de Camp and Robert Heinlein worked on scientific research at the Philadelphia Naval Yards. The parade of characters is a Who’s Who of the golden age of science fiction: Forest Ackerman, Ray Bradbury, John Campbell and Hugo Gernsback; don’t blink or you’ll miss Kurt Vonnegut and Frank Herbert; plus the return of pulp writers Dent, Gibson and Hubbard; also starring scientists Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman and Nikola Tesla; actor Jimmy Stewart; German saboteurs, the Tunguska explosion, the Philadelphia Experiment and more.
Possibly the best sequence in the book begins ... “Christ almighty!” Heinlein spun around. De Camp, closer to the railing picked up ... a pair of familiar, thick-rimmed glasses for all to see. “You’ve vaporized Isaac Asimov!”
Additional notes will appear on the July 2011 Meeting Page at sfabc.org.