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Year: 2010

SF writers as (or around) criminals: Homer Eon Flint

SF writers as (or around) criminals: Homer Eon Flint

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blind-spot1Last night at dinner we were discussing (as one does) Homer Eon Flint.

Since my guests were working on ideas for the 2011 Potlatch convention, we can be forgiven this. Flint was a local author, having grown up in San Jose, and there was talk of doing a panel on him.

I had not known that Flint was working in a shoe repair shop in SJ, or that he was killed in a car crash (perhaps after stealing it from a local gangster, perhaps instead murdered by that local gangster).

It’s covered on his Wikipedia page, and in the article by his granddaughter Vella Munn, “Homer Eon Flint: A Legacy,” available on the Strange Horizons site.

Munn’s piece talks with great respect of the work of one Mike Ashley in ferreting out facts without disturbing the family’s peace. Munn mentions that there were other writers in the area, with whom Flint (actually, Flindt) used to hang out when he lived here in the teens and early 20’s.

Forry Ackerman talks about Austin Hall meeting Flint in his shoe shop, in his introduction to The Blind Spot, the 1921 novel the two wrote together.

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Letters to Black Gate: iPads and Submission Windows

Letters to Black Gate: iPads and Submission Windows

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cover_issue2Matthew Maestri writes:

I’m a new writer looking for open markets, especially in the fantasy/science fiction genre. I’m very impressed and intrigued by Black Gate, which I stumbled upon a couple months ago. I will be the first to admit that I tend to hover near the longer side of fiction, and it was very appealing to me that your magazine is one of the few remaining that actually prefers to publish longer stories. I have some brewing and I was just wondering when you might be accepting submissions again? Thanks for your time.

Glad to hear you’re interested in Black Gate, Matthew. Unfortunately, we’re still digging through the pile of submissions we received during the brief period we opened last year. 

We were deluged with submissions, far more than we expected, and just as we were making progress, I was waylaid by an 8-month project that demanded all my time (my company was bought by Microsoft).

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It Droppeth as a Heavy Metal Unto The Place Beneath: Exploring Fantasy in Metal

It Droppeth as a Heavy Metal Unto The Place Beneath: Exploring Fantasy in Metal

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Part One: The Adventure Begins

metal1aThere’s this thing I do when I know a given task will be difficult. I announce my intentions. Loudly, casually, on Facebook, in blogs, emails, telephone conversations.

I talk about my task (usually self-appointed and with no particular due-date) blithely, in capital letters, as if the execution thereof were going to be the easiest thing in the world, done up all djinn-like, in the twinkling of an eye.

Then comes an indeterminate period of time wherein I do nuthin’ at all.

So a while ago – I won’t say how long – I mentioned somewhere that I wanted to write a blogicle about Metal and Fantasy.

I said it once. I repeated it often. I went about soliciting interviews on the subject. I coaxed tutorials in remedial Metal out of long-suffering friends. I spent endless midnight hours with a notebook in my lap and a double bass beat booming from my speakers.

“Why,” you ask, “did you do this to yourself?”

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Luke Reviews looks at Black Gate 14, Part II

Luke Reviews looks at Black Gate 14, Part II

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blackgate-issue-14-cover-150Luke Forney. who reviewed the first third of the 384-page Black Gate 14 last month, continues to share his thoughts on our latest issue with part two of a big three-part review, saying “the novellas in particular stole the show.” He starts with a look at “The Price of Two Blades” by Pete Butler:

A story-teller and entertainer sits down to learn a new story for his repertoire, and finds much more. This is an absolutely brilliant piece. The novella flew by, playing both with action fantasy and the art of telling stories. One of the best pieces of short fiction I’ve read from 2010, it would be an injustice for this one not to win some awards.

He also discovers the adventures of Morlock for the first time in the novella “Destroyer” by James Enge:

A tale of Enge’s popular character, Morlock the Maker. Morlock leads a family through hostile territory, trying to pass through a valley in the middle of a gigantic mountain range. With insect-like enemies on all sides, Morlock does everything he can to lead his charges to safety. This was my introduction to Morlock, and I will certainly be on the lookout for more, including both of Enge’s Morlock books out from Pyr.

And finally, “The Natural History of Calamity” by Robert J. Howe:

The last novella of the collection is another winner… the  tale of a karmic detective in a case far deeper than she ever imagined…  The plot was very engaging, working as a mystery novella along with its fantasy trappings. I will be looking for more from Howe.

 You can find Part Two of the complete review here.

Thinking about it

Thinking about it

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193350027102lzzzzzzz193350032802lzzzzzzzFor all those recovering English majors interested in science fiction criticism, you might want to check out Paul Kincaid’s review of Cheek by Jowl by Ursula K Le Guin and Imagination/Space by Gwyneth Jones.

Also in last week’s Strange Horizons is the always erudite though sometimes unfathomable critic John Clulte’s Scores column, a comparison and contrast between Cory Doctorow and Robert Heinlein.

Also, you can read one critic’s assessment (Niall Harrison) of another critic’s (Gary K. Wolfe) collection of reviews here.

Time Magazine selects Swords & Dark Magic as a Summer Page-Turner

Time Magazine selects Swords & Dark Magic as a Summer Page-Turner

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swordssorcery1Lou Anders reports that Time columnist Lev Grossman has selected his new anthology Swords & Dark Magic as one of two recommended “Summer Page Turners” in the July 12th issue.

The article, appearing on the stands this week, is “Page Turners: The Summer’s Hot Writers on What’s on their Nightstand, Kindle or Beach Chair.” Lev Grossman, Time magazine columnist and author of the fantasy novel The Magician, selected Swords & Dark Magic as one of two recommendations, saying:

Fantasy is going through an explosion of creativity.  Two new anthologies showcase the best of it: Stories: All-New Tales, edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio, and Swords & Dark Magic, edited by Jonathan Strahan and Lou Anders.

Swords & Dark Magic was published by Eos on June 22, and is edited by Anders and Jonathan Strahan. Jason Waltz reviewed it for Black Gate here.

Congratulations to Lou and Jonathan on the great press.  Good to see the new breed of sword & sorcery getting some national attention.

Dracula: From Script to Screen

Dracula: From Script to Screen

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dracula_1931aDracula by Bram Stoker frequently vies with The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett as my favorite book.

Both stories are archetypes of their genres and despite endless imitations, almost every attempt to emulate the originals falls wide of the margin.

The current vogue for Twilight and its many imitations may be the worst misinterpretation of Stoker’s classic yet, despite its enviable success among pre-pubescent girls (and their emotional equals). The ignorance of most Twilight fans as to how their heroine earned her first name led me to revisit the seminal Universal Horror, Tod Browning’s Dracula (1931) starring Bela Lugosi in an iconic performance that did much to secure Stoker’s novel its hard-won place of acceptance as a literary classic.

The resulting film owed much to the stage plays which took the West End and Broadway by storm during the Roaring Twenties.

Film historian David Skal has gifted the world with several excellent books and DVD bonus features and commentaries chronicling this once untapped goldmine’s transition from page to stage to screen.

Film buff Philip J. Riley has done one better (actually twice better) by sharing with film lovers not one, but two volumes collecting the various story treatments and screenplay drafts that were languishing in Universal’s files for decades.

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Climbing Aboard the Dragon: Three Paths To a Story

Climbing Aboard the Dragon: Three Paths To a Story

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“There are nine and sixty ways of constructing tribal lays, and every single one of them is right.”
— Rudyard Kipling

Get out the map...Okay, writers. Let’s say you have a short story idea or two, but you don’t know the best way to write it. Some sage writers with some sales under their belts tell you that you Must Outline. Other wisened authors tell you to just, “Go where the story takes you,” that you shouldn’t outline at all.

So what’s a new writer to do? Who’s right?

Well, they all are, of course. They’re right about what works for them.

You have to figure out what works best for you.

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Goth Chick News: Boo To You Too!

Goth Chick News: Boo To You Too!

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boo2“Clowns, without a doubt.”

A few days ago I walked into a lunch conversation between my co-workers, who apparently started out discussing irrational fears their young children had.

This topic then morphed into the seemingly ridiculous fears that had followed these seemingly rational grown-ups into adulthood; not phobias per se, but “gives-me-nightmares” terrors.

The guy talking was a 30-something software engineer, and I could tell by the look on his face that he was in no way joking.

“Ronald McDonald and Pennywise are the absolute worst.”

Now, I totally get the whole “fear of clowns” thing, because clowns show up in quite a few horror movies such as IT and Poltergeist, and though the Pennywise reference did remind me that the best scenes of the otherwise fairly cheesey movie IT were indeed the ones with the murderous clown, I’m not particularly freaked out by them on the whole.

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PULP LITERATURE: How about some wisdom with your fantasy?

PULP LITERATURE: How about some wisdom with your fantasy?

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The three books of the PRINCE OF NOTHING trilogy. Fantasy that goes beyond entertainment and achieves enlightenment. Or at least challenges the reader's grasp of reality.

One of my favorite modern writers of fantasy is R. Scott Bakker. His PRINCE OF NOTHING trilogy absolutely blew my skull a few years back, and his latest book in that continuing saga is THE WHITE-LUCK WARRIOR, due to be released in Spring 2011.

I’ve been singing the praises of Bakker’s fantasy work for awhile now. His is a fantasy on the scale of Tolkien without stealing any of the usual tropes that go with that scale. His work is brilliant, illuminating, and challenging. In short, it is literary fantasy…i.e. fantasy with literary qualities. “What exactly does that mean?” I hear somebody asking. Well, here’s what I tell my students on the first day of any literature class: Literature is a written work of art that explores what it means to be human.

Literature allows us to view human nature, i.e. the human condition, through the lens of the written word. And the real magic is that good literature transcends time and space. Shakespeare, for instance, is still shedding light on the human condition even though he wrote 500 years ago. But literature is not just for the glimmering “elite” in their ivy-grown universities and ivory towers. Bakker’s fantasies do exactly what great literature does, while remaining tremendously entertaining.

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