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Year: 2014

Amal El-Mohtar reviews “Witch, Beast, Saint” by C.S.E. Cooney

Amal El-Mohtar reviews “Witch, Beast, Saint” by C.S.E. Cooney

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C.S.E. Cooney
C.S.E. Cooney

Erotic fiction makes me blush. You know how some people have to cover their eyes when watching horror movies? I’m like that with erotic fiction. When C.S.E. Cooney submitted short stories to Black Gate, I had to peek between my fingers to read them. We published two, “Godmother Lizard” and “Life on the Sun,” (which Tangent Online called “bold and powerful… on a scale of 1 to 10, I rank this one as a twelve”), and I had to look the other way while editing them.

Fortuantely, there are readers braver than I. Over at Tor.com, Amal El-Mohtar has reviewed C.S.E’s new story, “Witch, Beast, Saint: an Erotic Fairy Tale,” saying in part:

Absolutely no one writes fairy tales like Cooney…what Cooney does is make you feel as if you’re a citizen of fairy tale space, inhabiting the lands and experiencing the stories adjacent to those better-known: Cinderella might be a few towns over, but she doesn’t matter here. Cooney writes new fairy tales with a vigour and velocity that make me remember how I felt on first discovering The Snow Queen in a book too big for my lap…

A witch discovers a beast dying in a forest, and takes him home to keep. She can tell right away that he was once a man; she washes and revives him, feeds him, takes care of him, and they become companionable. Soon they become rather more than that; not long afterwards, the arrival of an itinerant saint troubles their romance…

It was shockingly delightful to me to see such a beautiful depiction of enthusiastic consent, kink, and polyamory in a fairy tale setting — no technical terms, no rhetoric, just the cheerful twining of compatible desires in a magical world.

C.S.E. Cooney is a past website editor of Black Gate, and the author of How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes and Jack o’ the Hills. “Witch, Beast, Saint” was published at Strange Horizons; read the complete story here. And read Mark’s recent interview with C.S.E. Cooney here.

New Treasures: We Are Not Good People by Jeff Somers

New Treasures: We Are Not Good People by Jeff Somers

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We are not Good People-smallJeff Somers has made quite a name for himself as an SF writer. His first novel, The Electric Church (2007), launched what eventually became know as the Avery Cates series (five volumes, including the most recent, The Final Evolution in 2011.) He’s less well known as a fantasy writer. His first fantasy novel, Trickster, published by Pocket Books last year, introduced Lem and Mags, two unlikely heroes in an underground world of blood magic. But Trickster was only the first half of the tale, and now it has been re-packaged with the second half and re-released by a new publisher as We Are Not Good People.

Ethics in the world of blood magic is gray at best. Unbeknownst to most, powerful mages have orchestrated disasters — plane crashes, floods, wars — for centuries to fuel their spells with blood. Lesser practitioners, Tricksters like Lem Vonnegan, work smaller magical grifts to eke out a living using only their own gas. For refusing to bleed innocents for his spells, Lem has pretty much condemned himself and his massive, dumb sidekick, Mags, to a life of transient poverty. So when the pair finds Claire Mannice, marked with runes of deep magic and stuffed inside the trunk of a car, Lem knows the rescuing her may be noble or may be infatuation disguised as redemption. Either way, it is most definitely fatal.

For the world’s most powerful mage, Mika Renar, has earth-shattering plans for Claire — and the old woman has noticed their interference. Hopelessly outclassed, and both intrigued by the mysterious girl and devoted to protecting the pet-like Mags, Lem engages his Trickster knack for misdirection and survival to follow the trail of ling cons that Renar and the other archmages have going.

But even if Lem and Mags win, they can still lose. Dealing with the kind of power that doesn’t heed mercy — or death — the duo is fighting for nothing less than reality itself. For magic is nothing but cons all the way down.

We last covered Jeff Somers when we linked to his Huffington Post article, Fantasy Series Better Than Harry Potter. We Are Not Good People was published by Gallery Books on October 7, 2014. It is 514 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $12.99 for the digital edition.

Selling Short Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Fiction, Part II

Selling Short Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Fiction, Part II

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Superman004
Don’t sell your copyright. Superman smash!!

Hey everybody. Welcome to the second of a three-post series on selling short fiction. Last time, I talked about knowing the markets and how your own writing fits into them. This week, I want to talk about sales, contracts, payments, and what rights you’re selling when you sell short fiction. This blog post is in no way a sleep-aid, despite the fact that the last sentence included the words sales, contracts, and rights.

To snap you awake, let’s assume you’re new and you’ve written something. What’s your second worry, after worrying about backing up your masterpiece of short fiction? That nobody steals your shit! You’ve heard about Siegel and Shuster. DC owns Superman. Same with Batman. They sold the copyrights.

You’ve probably heard some variant of “brilliant-but-shy-artist-shows-his-genius-to-a-Hollywood-producer-who-says-no-and-three-years-later-sees-his-magnum-opus-on-the-big-screen-with-all-the-names-changed.” I’ve felt that fear. I’ve written stuff I thought was genius. Hahahahaha. No, seriously. People are worried about losing what they created.

So, first thing: You own it. Only you can sell the rights. And the rights you sell are always described in a contract, that you can choose to either sign or not sign. So, sigh of relief. Let me explain what you are being offered by way of example.

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Sax Rohmer at Towers of London

Sax Rohmer at Towers of London

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51xCPS2lXQL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_190px-FaceoffumanchuA couple weeks ago, I finally read Mr. Towers of London, the posthumously published memoirs of Harry Alan Towers, the unflappable veteran British radio/TV/film writer-producer with well over a hundred works to his credit. It wasn’t Towers’s first stab at writing his memoirs, but this final work was notable as his most personal.

Anyone who actually knows major figures in the entertainment industry is likely aware of some of the salacious stories of debauchery, sometimes even criminal activity, that are never far from the surface. Towers’s memoirs are unique for being perhaps the most honest ever committed to print. If he pulls any punches or whitewashes any parts of his adventures, he can surely be forgiven for what he does dish out about himself and others.

That said, the most disappointing part of the book for me is that he tells the reader very little about his experiences as a writer. I would have loved to have understood more about the more private side of his profession as the book places all of the emphasis on his role as a producer. Today, he is unfairly remembered as the producer of genre films and exploitation fare. While that accounted for much of his output after 1960, he was also a respected writer-producer of family drama who frequently cast some of the biggest stars in Hollywood in his radio, TV, and film productions.

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Firefly Friday: Serenity: Those Left Behind

Firefly Friday: Serenity: Those Left Behind

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SerenityLeftBehindFan passion for more Firefly stories led to the rare (unprecedented?) move of turning a failed television series into a feature length film, in the form of 2005 film Serenity (Amazon). As an attempt to bridge the narrative gap between the end of the series and the start of the film, Joss Whedon collaborated with Dark Horse comics to produce the three-issue comic limited series Serenity: Those Left Behind (Amazon). This review is based on the original hardcover collection of the series, published in 2007. (They’ve since published a 2nd edition.)

Here are the major jumps between the end of Firefly and the beginning of Serenity, which the comic series seeks to explain:

  • Inara is no longer on the Serenity
  • Shepherd Book is no longer on the Serenity
  • Instead of the mysterious blue-handed agents in the series, the film introduces the operative as the key person hunting down River Tam

Serenity: Those Left Behind covers all three of these elements, and also brings back a villain from the television series who would have been recurring had it continued. I won’t ruin it by saying which one. As a hint, though, it’s someone who feels that they were wronged in their last interaction with Malcolm Reynolds, so that should narrow it down. This individual joins forces with the blue-handed operatives to move against the folks on Serenity. In addition to the mysterious recurring villain, there’s also a nice cameo by Mal’s contact Badger, who assigns them a job that doesn’t go exactly as intended. (Or at least not as intended by Mal and the crew.)

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Judges Guild Premium Editions Coming

Judges Guild Premium Editions Coming

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JudgesGuild_KelnoreWhen I began playing Dungeons and Dragons in the late seventies, I was a Judges Guild fan. My friend, who had more money, would buy shiny TSR modules. And I would get the cheaper-covered Judges Guild products. F’Dech Fo’s Tomb, Ravenscrag, Inferno (with a real cover), City State of the World Emperor, Wraith Overlord… I loved reading those things.

Frontier Forts of Kelnore guarded the border of my kingdom of Troya, ruled by the great warrior, Astyannax (I got more creative over the years). I even subscribed to Pegasus magazine, right up to the day it was discontinued.

Now, I liked those Judges Guild modules and supplements, but looking back, many did not age well (though a few did). Gaming has changed a lot over the years and reading them is kind of like watching an early talkie from the thirties. They’re out of place.

Having said that, they can still be interesting. I recently considered updating Glory Hole Dwarven Mine to work with Forge of Fury as a Pathfinder dwarven adventure. However, converting those old AD&D/Universal modules would take a LOT of work.

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Vintage Treasures: Sea Tales of Terror, edited by J.J. Strating

Vintage Treasures: Sea Tales of Terror, edited by J.J. Strating

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Sea Tales of Terror-smallWhen you’ve been collecting paperbacks as long as I have, there aren’t a lot of discoveries left that really get you excited. Sure, there are still the occasional finds in a good used bookstore, or that opportunity to replace a lost book at a great price. But nothing like those unexpected discoveries you made when you first started collecting. The ones that made your pupils go big, and made you think, “I need this book right now.”

Of course, there are exceptions.

A few weeks ago, I spotted Sea Tales of Terror, a 1974 paperback from British publisher Fontana, on eBay. It was the first copy I’d ever laid eyes on. And my eyeballs got big, and I thought “I need this book right now.”

Mostly it was the cover, I think. Painted by Justin Todd, it shows a skeletal figure, made entirely of salt water and sea foam, clutching a full-masted schooner, against an angry red sky. That cover promised adventure and nights of delightful reading curled up in my big green chair.

With a little determination, I won the auction. (Truthfully, it wasn’t hard. The bidding fizzled above five bucks and I got it for less than seven. Vintage paperbacks — there just aren’t that many that cost as much as a new paperback.)

We’ve mentioned Fontana’s Tales of Terror anthologies before, but I really had no idea there were so many. I count a total of ten, although that’s not a firm number. Earlier this year, I wrote about Gaslight Tales of Terror, edited by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, who edited several others, including Welsh Tales of Terror (1973), and Tales of Terror from Outer Space (1975). J.J. Strating, editor of this volume, also produced European Tales of Terror (1968) and Oriental Tales Of Terror (1971). Clearly, I need to do some homework and report back on what I find.

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Goth Chick News Reviews: The Sword of Michael – Authored by an Exorcist

Goth Chick News Reviews: The Sword of Michael – Authored by an Exorcist

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The Sword of Michael-smallWhen a publicist contacts me in October to see if I’d like to review a new novel with demons and zombies, written by an exorcist, I think two things. First – monsters? Perfect timing; it is October after all. And second – do exorcists actually have publicists?

The answer apparently is yes, and good ones at that.

The publicists are none other than our friends over at Wunderkind PR, who have always been excellent sources of Goth Chick News material. The novel in question is The Sword of Michael, book one in a new contemporary fantasy saga. And the author is Marcus Wynne, a trained depossessionist.

To be honest, I wasn’t sure where to look first. The book certainly caught my attention, as the Wunderkind team knew it would. But as a devotee of such things, it was the word depossessionist which drew my attention immediately, as I had never heard the term before. What I learned was this:

Depossession is the act of exorcising attached discarnate human spirits and nonhuman spirits, allegedly attached to living people, causing a host of physical, mental, and emotional ills. Various types of depossession are practiced throughout the world and are different from exorcisms which refer to demonic possession.

Okay, click “add to dictionary” on the word depossession — now I’m extremely interested. But before we explore Marcus Wynne and his fascinating vocation, let’s start with a look at his book, The Sword of Michael.

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Find the Conflict: Unblocking (or Actually Planning!) your NaNoWriMo Novel

Find the Conflict: Unblocking (or Actually Planning!) your NaNoWriMo Novel

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Pulp-O-Mizer_Cover_Image
Let’s imagine I’m my 20-something self and this is my NaNoWriMo project

Last week, I did a kind of public service announcement about “pantsing”, the “just write” school of  writing — discovery writing — applied to your NaNoWriMo novel.

Truth is, I hate pantsing. Pantsing is why my old hard drive had a dozen first three chapters gathering bitrot. The only thing I discovered in several years of writing this way was the need to outline.

OK, there are pros who do pants. However, there are lots of other pros who swear by planning. Not just minor writers like yours truly (bows), but rising stars like my mate Hannu, who is very much a planner and an outliner (though he drafts by hand — hello, the 17th century called ).

Now, NaNoWriMo is all about literary elan; “Get the words down, doesn’t matter how bad.” And if you’re all about the word count, then it’s probably asking a bit much to get you to metaphorically sit on your hands and sketch out your story before pushing out the paragraphs. Even so, there’s a good chance that you’ll write yourself into a corner, or get stuck, run out of plot. Get blocked. So I thought you might find it useful if I shared an approach I used last year when writing novels to order — professionally, my 2013 was like NaNoWriMo does Groundhog Day.

Just to keep me honest, I went over to the Thrilling Tales Derange-O-Lab, generated random pulp titles, picked one that jumped out and built a cover for it (right).

Let’s imagine I’m my 20-something self and this is my NaNoWriMo project, The Eternal Dome of the Unknowable.

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Book Review: Shackleton by Michael Smith

Book Review: Shackleton by Michael Smith

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The furthest south of the Nimrod expedition, 9 January 1909. From left to right: Jameson Boyd Adams, Frank Wild, and Ernest Shackleton pose for a self portrait at 88°23'S, only 97 geographical miles (178 km) from the South Pole.
The furthest south of the Nimrod expedition, 9 January 1909. From left to right: Jameson Boyd Adams, Frank Wild, and Ernest Shackleton pose for a self portrait at 88°23’S, only 97 geographical miles (178 km) from the South Pole.

As the world marks the centennial of World War One, it’s in danger of forgetting that the year 1914 saw the beginning of one of the most ambitious Antarctic expeditions ever launched, the Endurance expedition led by Ernest Shackleton. A complex and driven man, Shackleton’s accomplishments were overshadowed by personal failures and a global war.

There hasn’t been a full biography of Shackleton since 1985, so to mark the centennial, Polar exploration expert Michael Smith has come out with Shackleton: By Endurance We Conquer. This detailed, 440-page study traces Shackleton’s life from his Anglo-Irish roots through his early years at sea and his first Antarctic expedition as a member of Scott’s Discovery expedition.

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