Action Pulp!

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January 26, 2026

By Adam Messer

Teel James Glenn is a swashbuckling adventurer who acts, performs and writes fantastical stories.

Please introduce yourself.

Hi all, I’m Teel James Glenn. I’ve killed hundreds and been killed more times–on stage and screen, as he has traveled the world for forty-plus years as a stuntman, swordmaster, storyteller, book illustrator, bodyguard, actor, and haunted house barker.

I worked at 60 Renaissance Festivals as a fighter/jouster/storyteller and did lots of low budget movies that showed up on Cinemax and Tubi and worked on all the New York based soap operas doing mover 300 appearances.

Then I decided to do something adventurous—I turned to writing!

I have dozens of published books in print,and my poetry and stories have been printed in over two hundred magazines, including Weird Tales, Mystery, Pulp Adventures, Mad, Black Cat Weekly, Cirsova, and Sherlock Holmes Mystery. 

I am a Shamus, Silver Falchion and Derringer finalist and won Best Novel 2021 in the Pulp Factory Award and winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Award for Best Author.

What genres do you write and why?

I write in a number of genres from pure pulp adventure to Sword & Sorcery, Mystery, Urban Fantasy and horror. But I’ve also written westerns and historical adventures as well.

What is your earliest memory of reading?

I learned to read from Sunday comic stripes and comic books but I quickly graduated to Tom Swift, 3 Investigators, and Hardy Boys…Then on one glorious day in 6th grade I discovered Tarzan, John Carter and Doc Savage books!

When did you know you wanted to write? How did it happen?

I created little comic books- story and art early in grammar school so I was always about telling stories. In fact every career I embarked on really was about telling stories in one form or another. It was always part of my DNA.

What’s one of your favorite scenes in one of your books?

Why not ask me to chose which of my children is my favorite? (for the record I only have one king sized kid so I’ve been saved that decision)

I would have say there is a running gunfight in my novel “Call Down the Lightning” through a haunted house attraction which I have a soft spot for. The hero, a Marine vet is pursued by 5 mercenary killer through the haunt and he uses his knowledge of the attraction (having worked there) to take them all out. Having worked in many haunts it was a wish fulfillment for many a haunt actor—lol. 

Afterall—one draws from one’s life for stories….right?

What makes a good character? A bad one?

Depth. A writer must understand his character’s motives and be able to communicate that to the reader. A bad character is simply a flat or underdeveloped one—a red shirt that is only in the story as a plot device.

What moves the story for you?

The characters has to have a stake in the story moving—either to gain or lose something or discover something. There has to be a compelling reason that that particular story is being told—what make it necessary to that character or world? The reader has to see that and become invested in the arc of that story or it is just incidents strung together.

What is your favorite book and why?

Of my own or other folks? Of my own I’d have to say whatever I’m working on at the time, right now I am working on book 3 of the Paradise Investigations Series “The Undiscovered Country” It deal with Adam Paradise (who is the creature created by Frankenstein) as a PI in 1939 New Orleans.

Of other people’s books that I could sit down and read any time I’d say the first John Carter Trilogy by ER Burroughs- taken as a single book is the best action book in the last century.

For something more ‘modern’ I think Richard Matheson’s ‘Iam Legend’ is a master class in tension.

What do you want to say to your audience?

That I promise that I invest myself in everything I write so the if you pick up a story by me I never phone it in. I hope you can be as excited about my words as I am.

What advice do you have for new writers?

Write what you love, don’t chase trends or fads and read, read, read-everything in and out of your genre—history, science, fantasy, geography, and write to have fun.

Do you have anything else you would like to add?

Only that I appreciate each and every reader and I have been blessed with supportive fellow writers—because none of us are competition—we are all colleagues from the  unpublished writer to the  60 published book author… never forget all boats rise together.

Website: https://theurbanswashbuckler.com/

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