Herbert Van Thal – Pan Horror 25
Posted by demonik on September 18, 2007
Herbert Van Thal (ed.) – 25th Pan Book Of Horror Stories (1984)
Alan Ryan – Baby’s Blood
Terry Jeeves – Upton Reflects
J. I. Crown – Josie Comes To Stay
Norman P. Kaufman – Just One Of The Family
Curt Pater – Job Centres Are Less Dangerous
Alan W. Lear – Let’s Do Something Naughty
Christina Kiplinger – Grave Business
Alan Ryan – Onawa
Ian C. Strachen – The Architect’s Story
Stephen King – The Boogeyman
Alan Ryan – Tell Mommy What Happened
Carl Shiffman – The Squatters
Stephen King – The Woman In The Room
Barbara-Jane Crossley – Black Silk
See also Vault’s Pan Horror 25 thread
The Other Pans People 
christinakiplingerjohns said
Hi! If anyone is still reading this. I ran across the site while searching the web :)
It was really neat reading the posts on this book!
I remember that this was my very first professional sale! The first submission of this story was rejected by van Thal, but he told me what to fix and asked me to send it back and he would read it again. On the second time, he accepted it! Karl Edward Wagner was the editor who told me to try Pan with the yarn.
I could not believe that I would have a story beside work by Stephen King (my idol, before I met him, and Alan Ryan who I had read books by.
After publication, I went to DeepSouth Con, held in Knoxville that year. It was difficult for me to get there, I didn’t drive. But I ended up hooking up with poet and writer, Joey Froehlich of Frankfort, Ky., for a ride. All I had to do was get to Ky.
It seemed like the biggest struggle of my life, but I made it to Froehlich’s place. Both of us were a bit star struck once we got there. It all seemed like a dream to me. I actually conversed with King and another favorite–Peter Straub like anyone else.
The funniest thing was when Wagner introduced me to King. He said, “This is the girl that Pan Books paid more to than they paid you, Christina Kiplinger.”
Of course, the event was that my story is very short, and Pan Books apparently had a limit on how little they would pay so, per word—I made more than King.
What a time!
The next year, I sent another story to van Thal. After a time, I received the piece back and a note from van Thal’s wife. It said,
“Herbert has passed on. Good luck with this. He thought a lot of you, Rosemary Timperley.”
demonik said
Thanks for sharing that with us, Christina. The guys on the Vault forum would be very interested to hear your experiences of Pan & Van Thal if you’d like to repeat them on there (i know it’s a chore)?
demonik Vault of Evil