Eddie looked at Carla. She suddenly seemed very young; a lovely, innocent girl who’d been caught up in the meshes of violence and bloodshed. Trapped by the pseudo-glamour of the gangster’s way of life. His eyes caught sight of the black coffin with the silver nameplate: KING LOGAN. Carla had been King’s moll…it seemed appropriate that she should have her lover’s coffin. He picked up her limp body and carried it across to the alcove and laid her flat in the bottom of the black box and closed the lid.
He turned away, thinking of Martha…and Old Matthew Bowman. Yeah, it was appropriate.… A coffin for Carla!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
by Philip Harbottle
Born in Brighton in 1920, and living most of his life in Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, SYDNEY JAMES BOUNDS, 86, died November 24, 2006, after battling cancer.
Bounds’ first published short story was a supernatural tale, “Strange Portrait” in 1946, and he went on to sell hundreds of stories and forty-two novels in a lifetime of writing. He became a very successful children’s writer, and appeared in dozens of junior magazines, annuals, and anthologies. He also wrote more than two dozen comic book scripts. Alongside this work he published scores of adult dark fantasy and science fiction stories. His science fiction appeared in the US magazines Other Worlds and Fantastic Universe, and more widely in the UK, in New Worlds, Science Fantasy, Authentic, Nebula, the John Spencer paperback magazines, Vision of Tomorrow, and Science Fiction Monthly. Supernatural magazine appearances included Fantasy Tales, Fantasy Annual, and other small press magazines, but most of his best supernatural tales appeared in the long series of ghost and horror anthologies published by Fontana, edited by Mary Danby and R. Chetwynd-Hayes. Particularly outstanding were “The Circus”, which was adapted by George Romero for American TV’s Tales from the Dark Side, and “The Mask,” which was adapted for UK radio. A generous selection of the best of these stories is to be found in the two-volume collection, THE BEST OF SYDNEY J. BOUNDS (Wildside Press, 2002, edited by Philip Harbottle).
In recent years, along with science fiction, Bounds continued to write new supernatural stories, appearing regularly in each issue of FANTASY ADVENTURES (Wildside Press, edited by Philip Harbottle.) His dark fantasy stories there included: “Writer for Hire” (#2, 2002), “The Ballet of the Cats” (#3, 2003), “The Wall” (#5, 2003), “The Excavation” (#6, 2005), “The Trunk” (# 7, 2003), “Dreamboat” (#9, 2004), and “Victim” (#11, 2004). The final 13th issue of this magazine featured seven of his last stories. His horror story anthology appearances include “Homecoming” in MOONLIGHT ONLY (2002), “A Taste for Blood” in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRES (2004), “The Circus” in THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF NEW TERROR (2004), “The Night Comers” in GREAT GHOST STORIES (2004), and “A Little Night Fishing” in TALES TO FREEZE THE BLOOD (2006), all edited by Stephen Jones.
Bounds published more than forty novels, beginning with a detective thriller in 1951, A COFFIN FOR CLARA AKA CARLA’S REVENGE, but soon switched to writing SF and westerns, most notably his “Savage” series, begun in 2000, with the eighth and last novel, SAVAGE RIDES WEST, appearing posthumously in 2007. He also returned to writing detective novels, and amongst his later titles were THE CLEOPATRA SYNDICATE (1990 Italian, 2007 English), ENFORCER (2005), THE GIRL HUNTERS (2005), and BOOMERANG (2008).
Novels of SF interest include DIMENSION OF HORROR (1953), revised as THE VANISHING MAN (2010), THE MOON RAIDERS (1955), revised as SWORD OF DAMOCLES (2008), THE WORLD WRECKER (1956), THE ROBOT BRAINS (1957), revised as MISSION OF THE BRAINS (2009), THE PREDATORS (1977 Italian, 2002 English), and STAR TRAIL (1978 Italian, 2003 English).
The best of Bounds’ novels and stories are being reprinted by the Borgo Press, beginning with THE WORLD WRECKER, together with some new SF, weird, and mystery fiction.
It has been a privilege for me to act as Bounds’ agent, and occasionally, to collaborate with him. A recent highlight has been the conclusion of a deal for the sale of the film rights to one his best short stories (“The Animators,” 1975) to a leading British movie company, Qwerty Films. The film went into production in 2011, directed by Ruairi Robinson, with a screenplay by long-time Bounds fan Clive Dawson. It went into general release in September 2013 as THE LAST DAYS ON MARS (Universal), staring Liev Schreiber and Romda Gara.
In addition to his own writing, Bounds worked as a Tutor for a Writing School for many years, and this was work he loved, encouraging and helping new authors to break into print. Just three days before he died, he learned of, and gave his blessing to, the inauguration of the “Best Newcomer—the Sydney J. Bounds Award” given annually by the British Fantasy Society.
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