ROB SHELSKY -- AUTHOR

My Credits and Samples of My Work

Here, you'll find a little about what I do, the style I do it in, and the quality of my work. I'm in the 2007 Annual Anthology of Aberrant Dreams with both a reprint of my story, Bradbury County (sample below), and my new novella, Serpent's Teeth (Avenger of the People). Here's what a couple of rather famous people have to say about the anthology and me:

"Aberrant Dreams - The Awakening is a treasure, an anthology with both variety and an aesthetic sensibility, a rich compendium of speculative fiction and art that really does have something for just about everyone." -- Pamela Sargent.

"And of course there is some out-of-the-box adventure. Rob Shelsky, in "Avenger of the People," follows a submersible into a hair-raising situation." -- Jack McDevitt

Bradbury County
By Rob Shelsky

Illustrated by Michael Doig

h, Mr. De Vinge, you’ve come.” A silhouetted figure spoke. “I’m so glad you could attend our little party.”

Phillip squinted, raised a hesitant hand to shield his eyes against the blinding light pouring out of the doorway. So long did he pause, that a growing crowd of newcomers gathered behind him.

“Please, won’t you come in?” The dark form stepped to one side... FOR THE FULL STORY, GO TO ABERRANT DREAMS MAGAZINE. CLICK LINK ABOVE.

Aberrant Dreams Interview With Me:

Reader's Eye On Rob Shelsky

Internet Review of Science Fiction

Using Medieval Towns as Story Settings

by Rob Shelsky

Essay:

Using Medieval Towns as Story Settings

The Black Knight thundered down the road. He raced past the old abbey. Its crenellated walls thrust defiantly upward, as if daring the forces of darkness to attack it. However, the knight knew that his best hope lay in the hamlet ahead of him. It was there that he was to meet with the White Wizard. So on he galloped, passing the wattle huts of the outlying and poorest inhabitants, and then past the quaint stone church with its surprised priest. At last, he entered the main street. The inhabitants scattered before him. Some ducked inside the bakery, while others fled into the chandler's shop. One panicked citizen, a wealthy merchant, sought shelter with the smithy. The Black Knight reached the Hound and Hunter, the hamlet's only inn.

Okay, so that isn't the greatest piece of writing you've ever read. I didn't intend for it to be. Rather, it is an illustration of things that can go wrong with a story. This happens when a writer assumes he knows more about a given subject than he actually does. Most of us have read enough medieval fantasies to think it's no big deal using them as settings for our own stories, right? Wrong!

One Reader's Review of Article:

By "northwoods48"

"Too true, too true, what Robert Shelsky writes in this article. I stopped reading fantasy altogether for over a decade because of all the lousy, dull, cookie-cutter novels that were churned out in the 1980s and early 1990s. Yech. Thanks to RS for the discussion about the differences between hamlets, villages, towns and cities; many of the details were unknown to me until I read this article. I will have to write this stuff down for future reference."

By "keris"

"Agree whole-heartedly. Nothing bugs me more than a setting/economy/political set-up that just wouldn't work...

Even if a writer doesn't set their books in a mediaeval world, nor in a real historical place/time (as I don't), nonetheless, the society has to work. Cities live off something. People need to believe in something. Not even the most autocratic of kings could govern without some kind of power structure and tacit support behind him... and so on. It can't be said too often. And if these things are believable, then your story becomes that much more believable...

Thanks, Robert, for saying it so well.

Glenda Larke"

Continuum Science Fiction Magazine published "The Dance of the Butterflies." Click on the link below to go to the magazine's website.

Link To Email: ROBSHELSKY@EARTHLINK.NET

Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit -- The fellow is either mad or composing verses!