The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in November
We’ve had a great fall here at Black Gate: more folks visited us than at any time in our history, and we’ve had steady increases in readership every month since June. We’ve nearly doubled our traffic since this time last year — which would be terrific, if we could just get all you folks to wipe your feet before stepping on the carpet. In any event, thanks for the support, and here’s to an even better 2013.
The most popular fiction at Black Gate in November was:
- “Godmother Llizard,” by C.S.E. Cooney
- Pathfinder Tales: Queen of Thorns, Chapter One, by Dave Gross
- “The Whoremaster of Pald,” by Harry Connolly
- “The Poison Well,” by Judith Berman
- “Awakening,” by Judith Berman
- “A Phoenix in Darkness,” by Donald S. Crankshaw
- “The Quintessence of Absence,” by Sean McLachlan
- “The Daughter’s Dowry,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
- “The Duelist,” by Jason Thummel
- “The Moonstones of- Sor Lunaru,” by Joe Bonadonna
And the Top 50 articles of the month were:
- Where Life is Cheap and Secrets are Plentiful: Vox Day’s A Magic Broken
- Avengers Commentary
- Teaching and Fantasy Literature Breaking and Entering in the House of John Gardner
- Goth Chick News: Gird Your Loins
- Art of the Genre: Art of the Disappearing MMORPG
- Undiscovered Treasures: An Open Call for Self-Published Books
- Dorian Hawkmoon: The History of the Runestaff and The Chronicles of Castle Brass
- In Search of the Lost Black Crypt
- Keep Up on Fantasy Gaming with Kolbold Quarterly
- The Return of Dr. Mabuse
- The Fantasy Adventures of Alexander the Great
- Teaching and Fantasy Literature: Sometimes the Magic Works
- Publishing Nightmares
- Fools in the Hotzone: Sarumon as the Bold but Incompetent Firefighter
- Exploring Medieval Baghdad
- The Guide to Glorantha Kickstarter
- World Fantasy 2012: Neither Hurricane, Superstorm, Sleet nor Hail can Daunt our Heroine if She Wears Enough Chain-mail
- Adventure on Film: The Color of Magic
- A Dark and Glorious World: The New Midgard Campaign Setting
- Marvel Feature: Red Sonja 5
- New Treasures: Jeffrey E Barlough’s What I Found at Hoole
- Explore the Horrors of the Jericho Reach in The Achilus Assault
- Teaching and Fantasy Literature: Hefting the Dramatist’s Toolkit
- Wreck-it Ralph
- Stormdancer
- Black Gate Online Fiction: “Godmother Lizard,” by CSE Cooney
- Infinity, January 1958: A Retro Review
- Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Horror Writer Ania Ahlborn
- Gygax Magazine: A New Gaming Magazine from TSR Games
- Marvel Feature: Red Sonja 4
- November/December Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine now on Sale
- The Nightmare Men: The Spirit Breaker
- Adventure on Film: The Horseman on the Roof
- Adventure in the Spaceways with Perry Rhodan: The Cosmic League
- Making the Clock Your Friend
- Vintage Treasures: The Power of Darkness — Tales of Terror
- The Top 40 Black Gate Posts in September
- Baldur’s Gate Enhanced Edition on Sale Tomorrow
- Phyllis Ann Karr’s At Amberleaf Fair
- Goth Chick News: Tales of Fear: More Indy Horror Film Fun
- Black Gate Online Fiction: “The Poison Well,” by Judith Berman
- Teaching and Fantasy Literature: Whatever Became of that Kid
- Urban Fantasy Corner: Ghosts
- Marvel Feature: Red Sonja 6
- Venture, March 1957: A Retro Review
- New Treasures: Legacy of Kings, the Final Volume of The Magister Trilogy
- World Fantasy Award Winners Announced
- Marvel Feature: Red Sonja 3
- A Weird Fiction Kindle Story Giveaway
- Carrie Vaughn Steals the Show
The Top 45 Black Gate blog posts in October are here.
Congrats on the awesomeness that is Black Gate John!!
Mucho kudos are due you and the industrious and ever-entertaining BG staff. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2013 holds for all involved.
By the by, a wee suggestion…as time and the catalog of BG’s Online Fiction continues to increase, perhaps having an actual catalog pinned to the top of the http://www.blackgate.com/category/fiction/ category page would be of benefit to readers (new and returning) looking for that specific tale or author or date. Otherwise, having to scroll through the ever-increasing entries to find that one particular item could be quite daunting…
But Jason… it’s exactly like looking for that one story in a stack of Rogue Blades Entertainment anthologies!
Seriously, you’re absolutely right. We’ve received a lot of helpful suggestions from readers since we started posting fiction — from a more user-friendly Table of Contents, to options that aren’t all blue text on black.
Black Gate minions are hard at work on a site wide re-design even as we speak. I’d tell you more, but they don’t let me see anything, on account of the fact that I’m the guy who came up with blue text on a black background.
Stay tuned. I have no idea what it’s going to look like, but I know it’s going to be great.
Good news ONeill.
Speaking for myself, I have been visiting the Black Gate site for a few years as a daily course.
I don’t comment often.
I’ve read nearly every article/essay/blog/whatever, though.
The only other Weird Fictional site I visit as frequently is Locus Online.
Speak of the devil, Lois Tilton the Locus Online short fiction reviewer stopped reading/reviewing Black Gate fiction after you went totally online.
That’s good to read you are doing something about the blue/black layout ’cause that specifically what Tilton let drive her off reviewing the fiction hereabouts.
Again speaking for myself I don’t mind the blue/black thing, but regaining Lois Tiltons’ reviews is worth the risk of her handing out all bad grades.
BTW where did Patty Tempelton get off to?
She seemed to have some potential as a Black Gate ‘personality’.
Any ways, glad to here the new course seems to be working out.
Okay, whatever needs to happen to get Locus reviewing BG again, do that. But. I really like the blue/black layout because the only time I get to read Black Gate is late at night, after my kids are in bed and my tutoring gigs are done. A darker palette allows me to read late into the night without damaging my circadian rhythms too badly. Staring into a white screen, even one dimmed considerably, would force me to reinstitute a computer curfew for myself, which would mean reading less of BG overall. And I can’t have that!
How did you decide to go with blue on black when you were first designing the site?
The screen colours are no threat to my rapidly declining eyes.
When I see a new piece of fiction up here, I just click on my send to kindle button (a chrome extension). It does what you would expect: it converts the web-page to something a kindle can handle and then emails it to my kindle. Problem solved.
Nice one peadarog! I have that extension but forgot to put it to use.
@ John – Thanks for the immediate response – I’ve nothing against the blue-on-black, I like the distinctive look; I am looking forward to seeing what’s in store though.
Welcome to 2013 y’all.
Radiant,
> where did Patty Tempelton get off to? She seemed to
> have some potential as a Black Gate ‘personality’.
Glad you think so. The lovely and charming Patty Templeton also has potential as a novelist, and each time I beg her to contribute (roughly every 4-6 hours), she sends me status reports on her upcoming dark fantasy novel. It’s coming along well — but whether it wins her more fame and adoration than being a BG blogger remains to be seen. 🙂
> I really like the blue/black layout because the only time I get to read Black Gate is late at night…
>
> How did you decide to go with blue on black when you were first designing the site?
Sarah,
I’m happy to hear that. I originally designed the site back in 1999, shortly after I left my position as editor of SF Site. I wanted it to be readable and have a distinct look, and (by 1999 standards, at least), I think I succeeded.
Peadar,
> When I see a new piece of fiction up here, I just click on my send to kindle button (a chrome extension).
Really? I had no idea. That sounds terrific — I’ll check that out today.
Isn’t science wonderful?
If I could do that for my Nook, I’d be a happy, happy reader.
ONeill –
I didn’t know she was trying to write a book.
I would rather see her go in that direction than blog or whatever.
I like books better than blogs.
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