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Month: November 2011

Behind the Mask: Dr. Phibes – In the Beginning by William Goldstein

Behind the Mask: Dr. Phibes – In the Beginning by William Goldstein

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untitledphibes-4Forty years ago, American International Pictures released The Abominable Dr. Phibes starring the late Vincent Price to movie theaters and Award Books published the novel, Dr. Phibes by the character’s creator, William Goldstein. The novel serves as an intriguing variant to the camp classic film in treating the same story with a great deal of reverence and pathos. The following year Price starred in a hastily-produced sequel for AIP, Dr. Phibes Rises Again and Award Books again published a tie-in novel by the character’s creator which expands upon and corrects a number of the film’s flaws. Flash forward to 2011 and William Goldstein’s new novel, Dr. Phibes: In the Beginning has just been published.

I am not aware of any other creator having returned to his seminal work after such a lengthy passage of time. That said Goldstein had never truly abandoned Phibes. Much like the good doctor’s own quest to revive his beloved wife Victoria, Goldstein has had his own never-ending quest to re-launch the franchise with a new film or a television series. He is a rarity among screenwriters in that his literary efforts do not read like little more than movie treatments or as typical novelizations that slavishly follow the source material.

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World Fantasy Convention in a Really Large Nutshell, Part 2

World Fantasy Convention in a Really Large Nutshell, Part 2

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SHARON SHINN!

(…Being a continuation of Part One…)

It began, as all good days should, with breakfast.

A breakfast with FRIKKIN SHARON SHINN, y’all!

This is how it went down. John O’Neill emails me a few weeks ago. It goes something like this:

Hey Claire!!

Want to have lunch with me and Sharon Shinn?  Come on, I’ll introduce you! – John

And I go something like this:

OH MAH GAWD SHARON SHINN!

I am not going to go on about my thing for Sharon Shinn’s books. It’s just one of those things. That you have. When you think, “Ah! Look! A little novella by Sharon Shinn in this collection! How nice!” And two weeks later you emerge from rereading ALL of her books, with little black suns bursting behind your eyes and a nervous twitch, and you assure people, “No, really. I’m all right.” Anyway, for an in-depth encounter with my Sharon Shinn thing, read my review of her book, Troubled Waters.

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Goth Chick News: What the Heck Is That?

Goth Chick News: What the Heck Is That?

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image002As you would expect, Halloween means the servers that handle Goth Chick News email all but melt down in the month of October.

Though I love nothing better than hearing from some of the more… well… “interesting” members of the Black Gate fan base, there are definitely some communications I could probably go my entire life without seeing, and others that aren’t exactly “wrong” in the strictest sense of the word, but are definitely pushing a few boundaries.

You know who you are, and in the future you’ll thank me for not posting you-know-what.  Someday you may want to run for office or something…

But I do get some incredibly intriguing bits of data as well and 2011 was no exception.  This year the cool stuff seemed to run along a common theme; so much so that I couldn’t help but share it.

Pictures of ghosts.

As an amateur ghost-hunter myself, this is a topic I just can’t get enough of; and I don’t mean “orbs” (there are just too many other explanations for those), or streaks of light (same issue).  I’m after pictures showing distinguishable forms and faces that appear in pictures once they are developed or reviewed, which were not in the shot when it was taken.

It scarcely matters which side of the ghost question you come down on.  Believe or no, you can’t deny that some of the “photographic evidence” is creepy if not downright compelling.  If it gives you a little shiver, it’s a great shot.

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Realms of Fantasy Folds Again

Realms of Fantasy Folds Again

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realms-oct-2011For the third time in less than three years, Realms of Fantasy magazine has closed its doors. This time however, it doesn’t appear likely the venerable fantasy print zine will rise again.

Realms of Fantasy was launched in October 1994 by Sovereign Media, as a sister magazine to Science Fiction Age (published 1992 – 2000).  Sovereign Media canceled Realms with the April 2009 issue, blaming “plummeting newsstand sales, the problem currently faced by all of the fiction magazines.”

The magazine was purchased by Warren Lapine’s Tir Na Nog Press and reappeared in July 2009, skipping only one issue (May 2009). A year later Lapine announced the magazine would be shut down after the October 2009 issue, but Realms was spared again when small press publisher Damnation Books acquired it and resumed publication with the December 2010 issue.

Today Damnation Books publisher William Gilchrist made this announcement on the Realms of Fantasy website:

When we purchased Realms of Fantasy last year we truly thought that we could suceed in publishing the magazine for the foreseeable future. We were unable to realize this goal, have been loosing (sic) money, and we must regetfully announce the closure of the magazine.

During our time with the magazine we picked up without missing a single issue and were lucky enough to produce the 100th issue. We were able to introduce poetry and bring back the tabletop gaming column. We have been truly amazed at the positive feedback on the issues we have produced from all of the fans. This is what makes this decision so painful for us.

As we were considering closing the magazine we thought it was important for the October 2011 issue to be released in print for the fans. We did this knowning there would not be a return on the investment, but did it simply because we felt it was right. This does mean the October 2011 issue will be the last issue…

If there is anyone interested in purchasing the magazine we will listen to all offers. Those intersted should send an email to support@rofmag.com.

Shawna McCarthy, who was the Editorial Guest of Honor at last weekend’s World Fantasy Convention, has been the magazine’s Fiction Editor since its first issue. Editor Douglas Cohen had this to say in his farewell message:

We reached issue 100, and with this latest issue we’ve managed to publish 600 stories in RoF’s lifetime… There’s a lot to be proud of in this final year, and I’m glad we and the magazine managed to have it. It makes for a fitting end. It’s time to move on, and I’m excited at what the future holds for me in this field.

Farewell Realms of Fantasy. You will be missed.

World Fantasy Convention In A Really Large Nutshell, Part I

World Fantasy Convention In A Really Large Nutshell, Part I

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C.S.E. Cooney and Delia Sherman (all con-related photos in this post courtesy of Patty Templeton)

It was a long and arduous journey from New York City to San Diego last Thursday. Oh, the delays! Oh, the taxiing! Oh, the stand-bys!

However, two things made the journey incredibly pleasant. One was my traveling companions, Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman, who both travel so often that they have it down to an art form.

When I told her I liked to arrive at the airport two hours early, Ellen replied:

“I’m more like Peter Sellars, who said he likes airplanes to be like taxicabs:  He gets to the airport, gets on one, and it leaves.”

Daunting! But, see, it worked!

bg-freedom-mazeThe second thing was the book I read on the airplane. It was Delia’s book, actually released during the convention. It’s a Young Adult time-travel fantasy called The Freedom Maze. I sank into its story as doth the unwary sheep in the treacherous highland bog, and emerged from the last page as we were landing in Texas. Where, due to earlier delays in New York, we’d missed our connection flight.

But have no fear, gentle readers! Even though I was certain I’d never make it to World Fantasy in time for my VERY FIRST EVER WORLD FANTASY READING, the Gods of the Air (and my two traveling companions, AKA fairy godmothers) were with me. Lo was I shunted onto the next flight, the Last of the Stand-By passengers, while Ellen and Delia waved goodbye and sent me texts saying:

“We are eating BBQ and feeling no pain.”

They were booked on the next flight out. I was on my way. I fell promptly asleep.

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Art Evolution Special: Erol Otus

Art Evolution Special: Erol Otus

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Otus does the cover of perhaps my favorite TSR Module of all time, and be sure to remember that creature!
Otus does the cover of perhaps my favorite TSR Module of all time, and be sure to remember that creature!

Erol Otus hates me… It’s a dead on fact, something that can’t be changed, I’m afraid, and yet I find myself having a hankering to talk about him in a favorable light. I went after Erol for Art Evolution, and he was the very first artist I’d never met to get an invite to the project. Erol wasn’t interested, and no matter what I did to try to entice him he just kept getting further away from a commitment. It’s the name of the game, a numbers game, and John O’Neill once told me that if I went out to get 20 artists and my approach had a capture rate of 19, then whatever went wrong couldn’t be put on me.

Still, the more Art Evolutions I did, the more I found people asking for Erol and what his contribution would look like. Erik Mona over at Paizo went so far as to say that without Erol my project would never be complete.

To tell you the honest truth, when I was young I detested Otus’s contributions to the field. I thought his work was that of a child among men, and if you showed me an Otus image I’d sneer at it in veritable disgust. Remember, however, that youth doesn’t represent good taste, and certainly as the years went by and my eye for art changed, a greater respect grew for Otus’s work. Now that’s not to say it became ‘better’ art, but it did facilitate a nostalgic bent to my youth that softened its edges and helped me accept what it was.

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Closing out Halloween with Algernon Blackwood: The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories

Closing out Halloween with Algernon Blackwood: The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories

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empty-house-1st-editionThe Empty House and Other Ghost Stories (1906)
By Algernon Blackwood

I’d say “Happy Halloween,” but by the time you read this it is probably already All-Saints Day, also known as “The Start of National Novel Writing Month.” Ah, whatever: Happy Halloween!

In celebration, I’ll turn to my favorite author of the “weird tale”: Algernon Blackwood. I’ve written about Mr. Blackwood before on this site when I reviewed his most unusual collection of fantasy tales, the uncategorizable Incredible Adventures. I’ll now turn the clock back to one of his earliest original collections, a volume that is a bit more on the ordinary side but still contains fine treasures.

Blackwood first emerged into supernatural fiction with The Empty House and Other Ghost Stories in 1906. Although the term “ghost story” would literally haunt Blackwood all of his career, much of his finest supernatural work has little to do with specters and the unquiet dead. The Empty House is the exception that proves the rule: at this early stage of fiction writing, Blackwood was interested in standard ghost tales, but showed signs that he wanted to go a different direction from the style of M. R. James that was popular at the time. The classics “The Wendigo” and the “Willows” were only another bend around the river.

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