Publishing: A Quick Overview

Publishing: A Quick Overview

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Image by Jose Antonio Alba from Pixabay

Good afterevenmorn!

I have taken a protracted break from social media for the past fortnight, which has been both a boon and a source of deep frustration for many reasons I will not rant about here. But while it has been an overall win for my mental health, it does mean that I’m very out of the loop when it comes to writerly news, and any gossip and drama happening in that world. Which leaves me with few options for today’s post. Which means, today I’d like to address all the aspiring writers of the readership.

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All My Robert E. Howard Essays (October 2024)

All My Robert E. Howard Essays (October 2024)

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I am the in-house mystery guy (that’s how I hoodwinked John O’Neill into giving me a weekly column). Ten years later, he’s still trying to configure the Firewall to keep me from getting up my Monday morning post! I organized the Discovering Robert E. Howard, and Hither Came Conan series’ here at Black Gate. And contributed, of course. That’s the advantage of being in charge of them!

Robert E. Howard is my second-favorite writer (trailing only the terrific John D. MacDonald), and I’ve written over two dozen essays related to him here at Black Gate. With more to come, of course. I posted my second Kirby O’Donnell post in last month, and I’m working on my second spicy tales post.

I came late to Howard. I have loved mythology since grade school. The Iliad remains one of my all-time favorite stories, and I have a copy of Schleimann’s Ilios. That led me to Dungeons and Dragons in middle school, and I know I was reading The Lord of the Rings somewhere around the 8th grade. I was a fantasy fan for life.

I bought the first Ace Conan paperback, but it sat on my shelf, unread. Not sure why. I know I read David C. Smith’s Oron, but not that one. As my son was playing with the Thomas the Train layout in the kids section of Barnes and Noble one day, I started reading the first Dely Rey Conan book. I read that the next time we were there. And I bought it. And Robert E. Howard would move up the ranks of my favorite writers, as I bought more Del Reys.

Conan and El Borak are about even at the top, and then Solomon Kane. But I just continued to like Robert E. Howard, more and more.

Here are all of my own Robert E. Howard-related essays here at Black Gate. A couple are pretty good, I think. Mostly in the first two sections below. Check out a couple, please. By Crom!

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Southern Horror: Pigeons from Hell by Robert E Howard

Southern Horror: Pigeons from Hell by Robert E Howard

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“Voodoo!” he muttered. “I’d forgotten about that—I never could think of black magic in connection with the South. To me witchcraft was always associated with old crooked streets in waterfront towns, overhung by gabled roofs that were old when they were hanging witches in Salem; dark musty alleys where black cats and other things might steal at night. Witchcraft always meant the old towns of New England, to me—but all this is more terrible than any New England legend—these somber pines, old deserted houses, lost plantations, mysterious black people, old tales of madness and horror—God, what frightful, ancient terrors there are on this continent fools call ‘young’!”

This exclamation by Griswell, the protagonist of Robert E Howard’s racially fueled horror tale set among the piney woods of the Louisiana-Arkansas border region, always struck me as a bit of a “take that!” to the old gentleman of Providence, HP Lovecraft. I think Howard was on to something as “Pigeons from Hell,” published posthumously in 1938 is a riveting tale of well-earned revenge, voodoo, and the walking dead. Two young travelers from New England decide to spend the night in an abandoned plantation mansion. The balustrade is covered by a flock of pigeons. Its oak door sags on broken hinges, and the interior is dark and dusty. After they fall asleep, they are ensnared by events set in motion many years ago.

“Pigeons” opens with Griswell (no first name), waking up from a troubled sleep on the floor of a dilapidated plantation mansion. He had dreamt of a “vague, shadowy chamber” wherein “three silent shapes hung suspended in a row, and their stillness and their outlines woke chill horror in his soul.” In the corner crouched a “Presence of fear and lunacy.” As his eyes open, he spies something crouching at the top of a flight of stairs.

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Ladies Are Dangerous: Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart

Ladies Are Dangerous: Dastardly Damsels, edited by Suzie Lockhart

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Dastardly Damsels (Crystal Lake Publishing, October 11, 2024)

Dark fiction anthologies are currently very popular and, with a few exceptions, tend to be a medley of horror, fantasy, mild SF or something in between. I don’t like the expression “speculative fiction” but maybe this is an acceptable label.

Some are published exclusively in digital format, which explains why the number of stories included is getting increasingly higher.

The present anthology, for instance, features thirty-two contributions (including a couple of short poems). A distinctive characteristic of this book is that the contributing authors are all female (including the editor), and so are the leading roles in the various tales.

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A to Z Reviews: “The Dybbuk in Love,” by Sonya Taaffe

A to Z Reviews: “The Dybbuk in Love,” by Sonya Taaffe

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A to Z Reviews

Over the weeks as I’ve written these reviews, I’ve noted coincidences such as sequential stories that have similarities. Today’s review of a story about Jewish folklore just happens to be the one that falls on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Originally published as a chapbook in 2005, Sonya Taaffe’s “The Dybbuk in Love” is a look at a traditional part of Jewish folklore.  Not as well-known as the golem,  which traditional states was created by Rabbi Judah Loew in sixteenth century Prague, the dybbuk dates to the same period and refers to the soul of a dead person that possesses a living person in order to achieve an unfinished goal.

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Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Monster Gets One (Maybe Two) Loving Tributes

Goth Chick News: Frankenstein’s Monster Gets One (Maybe Two) Loving Tributes

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Just in time for Spooky Season, I have two bits of exciting news about one of our favorite classic monsters.

For over a year I’ve been talking about Guillermo del Toro’s adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein for Netflix. News has been incredibly scarce from the jump, to the point of rumors coming and going that del Toro had shelved the project as he has so many other others (over 30 to be precise).

However, in January quite a lot of very specific information came out about Frankenstein including a cast list, a brief description of project details, and the fact that in March 2022 Netflix optioned the visual representation of Frankenstein, owned by Elizabeth S. Wrightson. This is the imagining of the monster that American artist Bernie Wrightson (1948-2017), Elizabeth’s husband, developed in 1983. This seemed to indicate that del Toro would be delivering a reimagining of Frankenstein rather than simply a retelling of Shelly’s work.

And this is all important as the first exciting announcement comes from our friends at Centipede Press.

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Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Dragons and Wolveses

Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: Dragons and Wolveses

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Wolfhound (Russia, 2006)

The Barbarian Boom of the ‘80s was the first normalization of fantasy as a mainstream genre for the movies. As the boom faded in the ‘90s (Xena notwithstanding), it seemed as if fantasy film had been just another passing phase. But then, in the early 2000s, along came The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean series: the Second Normalization of Fantasy Film had arrived, and as we’re still living with it in 2024, it looks to be permanent.

So, now we’re livin’ large and eatin’ good, right? Absolutely — as long as you’re something of a picky eater. Because along with normalization comes mediocrity and commercialization. I kid you not: Behold the KFC promotional toys for eragon!

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An Astonishing Bit of Modern Horror: The Substance

An Astonishing Bit of Modern Horror: The Substance

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Demi Moore in The Substance (Mubi, 2024)

Just staggered out of the cinema, shell-shocked and delirious, after witnessing what will undoubtedly be the best film I’ll see all year.

Coralie Fargeat’s audacious debut film, Revenge (2017), concerns a young woman called Jen, who is raped and left for dead by three men. Over the course of the film we are witness to Jen’s transformation from a meek, fun-loving person, into a vengeful spirit of death. The film is stunning to look at, painful to watch, and brutal as all hell. If you have indeed seen it, then you might think you have an idea of what to expect from The Substance.

You have no idea.

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What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024

What I’ve Been Reading: September, 2024

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I listen to audiobooks because I can fit them in far easier than I can actual books, to read. But even as my bifocals have to continually work harder, I still enjoy actually reading, be it a physical copy, or on my Fire tablet (I prefer the former, but needs must win out sometimes). So, let’s look at some of what I’ve been reading lately.

THE WATERS OF ETERNITY – Howard Andrew Jones

I’ve been talking more about my Black Gate buddy since he announced he is battling brain cancer. As I mentioned last week, I re-listened to his two Dabir and Asim novels. I prefer the short stories, and this collection of six of them is my favorite featuring the duo. While still being sword and sorcery, with elements of the fantastic, these are more mysteries, which is what I really enjoy about the two.

Howard’s a really good writer, he loves these Arabian fantasies, and they mix sword and sorcery with mystery. And the ebook is dirt cheap. You can’t go wrong with this one.

WOLFE OF THE STEPPES – Harold Lamb

Lamb was a prolific Pulpster in the early 20th Century. A historian as well, his adventure stories are detail-filled thrill-rides. There are eighteen tales of Khlit the Cossack, a gray-bearded survivor on the Asian steppes around the start of the 17th Century.

Lamb was a great influence on Robert E. Howard, and Howard Andrew Jones collected all the Khlit stories in four volumes. There are three more books of Lamb’s adventure tales as well. The first story, which was much shorter than the others, didn’t do anything for me. However, the next two were novella-length adventures and much better. Other than REH, I don’t read Adventure stories, but I am enjoying Khlit and will continue on.

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Biggus Footus, Part III

Biggus Footus, Part III

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Primal Rage (Talent One, 2018), Wild Men (Goocher Films,
2017), and The Bigfoot Project (Fallen Films, 2017)

This is Part III of my new watch project. All Bigfoot (or similar) movies, no Yetis allowed. They must be films I haven’t seen before. All free to stream. Read Part I here and and Part II here.

Primal Rage – 2018 – Tubi

In tents? It had its moments.

Any good? Ooh, this was a good one. A survival horror with a dash of Deliverance and a sprinkling of Predator, this one features an Uber-Sasquatch picking off hapless hikers and hunters using primitive tools and forest camouflage. It’s a great looking monster, and the film is chock full of extreme practical gore. Chock full. I love it when former fx artists direct movies (see Harbinger Down), as the effects work is always front and center and beautifully shot.

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