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Author Duet V: Rod Serling’s Biography stories PLUS  Serling’s lost tale “First Squad, First Platoon”

Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination

The life, work, and imagination of Rod Serling.

Long before anyone had heard of alien cookbooks, gremlins on the wings of airplanes, or places where pig-faced people are considered beautiful, Rod Serling was the most prestigious writer in American television. As creator, host, and primary writer for The Twilight Zone, Serling became something more: an American icon. When Serling died in 1975, at the age of fifty, he was the most honored, most outspoken, most recognizable, and likely the most prolific writer in television history.

Though best known for The Twilight Zone, Serling wrote over 250 scripts for film and television. Notably, he also won an unmatched six Emmy Awards for dramatic writing for four different series. His filmography includes the acclaimed political thriller Seven Days in May and cowriting the original Planet of the Apes.

Nicholas Parisi explores Serling’s entire work, including never-published insights drawn directly from Serling’s personal correspondence, writings, speeches, and unproduced scripts. With a foreword by Serling’s daughter, Anne Serling, Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination is part biography, part videography, and part critical analysis. It is a painstakingly researched look at all of Serling’s work—in and out of The Twilight Zone.

Strand Magazine: Unpublished Rod Serling Short Story

(Strand Magazine: Featuring an unpublished Rod Serling short story, fiction by Adam Hamdy, John Floyd, and Vasa Clarke, and exclusive interviews with Robert Littell and Laurie R. King)

Rod Serling’s unpublished short story “First Squad, First Platoon” headlines The Strand Magazine’s latest issue. Written after his return from World War II, Serling drew from his experiences with the 511th Airborne in the Philippines. Here he witnessed some of the most intense combat and the horrific deaths of many of his fellow soldiers.

Serling wrote this story in his early twenties, yet it carries a maturity beyond his years. Through terse prose, Serling delivers the immediacy, sense of place, and cutting dialogue expected from Hemingway, Crane, or Dos Passos. It’s a powerful, unvarnished look at war in all its brutality. Moreover, this story is an unforgettable study of ordinary people in extraordinarily hellish situations. This unique issue also includes forewords to the story by Rod Serling’s daughters, Jodi and Anne. They provide context to the story and deeper insight into the man behind the words.

Also, in this issue, the inimitable John Floyd offers us “Pushing Joe Carter,” a Twilight Zone-esque tale of man’s inhumanity to man with—you guessed it—a twist at the end. Furthermore, Adam Hamdy and Emily Fox show us the psychological toll a life in law enforcement can take on the psyches of those sworn to serve and protect in “The Fear in Their Eyes.” And Vasa Clarke has turned Holmes and Watson’s attention to an unlikely case involving veterinary medicine and national security in “The Adventure of the Ayrshire

What’s more, we have an exclusive interview with espionage novelist Robert Littell. In a career spanning over half a century, Littell has elevated the genre into the realm of serious literature. His novels have earned comparisons to the works of John le Carré, Graham Greene, Len Deighton, and Eric Ambler. He is indisputably the modern-day master of the literary spy novel.

Throughout his writing career, Littell has used the genre of espionage fiction to explore the human condition. Notably, one of the hallmarks of his novels is his character-driven plots. He has a keen understanding of the men and women who live in the shadows where moral ambiguity reigns. His complex characters often find themselves struggling to hold onto the last vestiges of their humanity amid the deception required by their work as they fight for or against the inexorable, heartless tide of realpolitik.

Next, we also have an exclusive with Laurie R. King, known for her Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes series. Throughout a prolific three-decade career, King has leveraged her extensive knowledge of history and literature to produce some of the most authentic historical novels of our time. Moreover, King has also written several bestsellers set in the modern day, winning over legions of readers worldwide.

Lastly, as the weather warms and beaches beckon, you’ll no doubt need the best new books. Storm Watch by C. J. Box, Independence Square by Martin Cruz Smith, and The Spy Coast by Tess Gerritsen are but a few of the many gems in our reviews section.