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Year: 2016

Discovering Robert E. Howard: Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Re-Read “Red Nails”

Discovering Robert E. Howard: Howard Andrew Jones and Bill Ward Re-Read “Red Nails”

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Weird Tales July 1936 Red Nails-smallHoward Andrew Jones and Bill Ward wrap up their re-read of The Conquering Sword of Conan by Robert E. Howard with the novella “Red Nails,” the last Conan tale REH ever wrote. In a letter to Clark Ashton Smith, Howard said:

Sent a three-part serial to Wright yesterday: “Red Nails,” which I devoutly hope he’ll like. A Conan yarn, and the grimmest, bloodiest and most merciless story of the series so far. Too much raw meat, maybe, but I merely portrayed what I honestly believe would be the reactions of certain types of people in the situations on which the plot of the story hung…

“Red Nails” was originally serialized in the July, August/September, and October 1936 issues of Weird Tales. Here’s Bill and Howard:

Bill: Arguably, the final Conan stories seem to show a bit of a distancing between REH and his creation… I think anyone reading “Red Nails” who has some awareness of REH’s life will at some point stop to ponder the question of whether or not he ever intended to return to Hyboria, or if perhaps the Cimmerian himself had run out of stories to dictate at REH’s shoulder. Whatever the answer, “Red Nails” does serve as a fitting farewell to the character and world that have become so dear to so many, offering a story of adventure, intrigue, and exoticism…

Howard: [Valeria is] the closest we’ve come for a long time to seeing someone who is Conan’s equal partner… although she’s not, really. She IS the most formidable of the women who appear in Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories… But what a masterful opening, with Valeria finding the lay of the land, then mystery following upon mystery. The strange skeleton, the lost city, and the exotic environment are all incredibly compelling.

Read the complete exchange here.

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January Short Story Roundup

January Short Story Roundup

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oie_1623615pLzdaIcYIt has finally gotten cold here in the Northeast, but I’ve got plenty of thunderous swords & sorcery stories to keep me busy indoors reading. January brought not only Swords and Sorcery Magazine’s usual complement of two stories, but also issues of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Grimdark Magazine. That’s a terrific way to kick off the new year.

Swords and Sorcery Issue 48, as editor Curtis Ellett writes, brings four years of publication to a close, which is pretty impressive. That’s like fifteen years in internet time, so congratulations are in order.

The issue kicks off with the impressive (and impressively titled) “The Quarto Volume, or Knowledge, Good & Evil” by Ken Lizzi. Cesar is a member of a mercenary company in a land similar to Renaissance Italy but with demons and wizards. Those who control those spirits control the world, and that’s a small number of people. Now, Cesar learns, there’s the possibility of power escaping into the hands of the many. Cesar is cut from the same cloth as any number of roguish heroes, but Lizzi’s prose lends him a clear voice and the setting has great potential. An earlier Cesar the Bravo story was included in the anthology Pirates & Swashbucklers from a few years back. Considering my love of all things piratey (check out the article Howard Andrew Jones and I did about Captain Blood), I’ll probably be buying that soon.

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Fellowship of the Pathfinders: The Importance of Party Dynamic in Fantasy Adventure

Fellowship of the Pathfinders: The Importance of Party Dynamic in Fantasy Adventure

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illustration by Eric Belisle
illustration by Eric Belisle

I bought my first Pathfinder novel after reading about it here in a New Treasures post. Howard Andrew Jones’s Stalking the Beast just looked like a lot of fun. Hunting down a big scary monster? Okay, cool. And I’m a sucker for half-orcs. The potential dynamic of a half-elven ranger and a half-orc barbarian working together grabbed me — in fact, I don’t think I ever ran a D&D campaign that didn’t have something like that combination in the mix.

As I described in my review here at Black Gate, I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun the book was — I found myself not wanting to put it down: an experience I was not primed to expect from previous RPG adaptations I’ve read. It delivered the sort of entertainment I am hoping for when I crack open an RPG-themed book, and it was very well written just in general terms as a fantasy novel. Well plotted; good world building; but most importantly, great characters. The dialogue was just as entertaining to read as the action set-pieces.

I subsequently read two of Tim Pratt’s books for Paizo Publishing, and then I went back to Jones’s first contribution to the series. All four of the books impressed me, which left me wondering: is it just because I’m a fan of Jones and Pratt? I mean, these are good writers (a critic more dismissive of “tie-in” literature might have uncharitably suggested they were just “slumming,” writing for a game publisher’s bi-monthly novel line). Were these books the exception, or are Pathfinder novels routinely this level of quality?

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Future Treasures: Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak

Future Treasures: Black City Saint by Richard A. Knaak

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Black City Saint-smallBlending genres seems to be all the rage these days… but nobody does it like Richard A. Knaak. His latest is a historical urban fantasy gangster horror novel, which combines action, mystery and even romance — quite a trick. Brian Staveley, author of The Emperor’s Blades, says “Black City Saint is jam-packed with awesome – cursed Roman emperors, incorporeal dragons, paranormal detectives, a shapeshifter from the Feirie realm trapped inside a dog’s body, and one very tormented unsaintly Christian saint — all set in prohibition-era Chicago… a brilliant mash-up of Ghostbusters, The Da Vinci Code, and the ancient story of St. George and the Dragon.”

For more than sixteen hundred years, Nick Medea has followed and guarded the Gate that keeps the mortal realm and that of Feirie separate, seeking in vain absolution for the fatal errors he made when he slew the dragon. All that while, he has tried and failed to keep the woman he loves from dying over and over.

Yet in the fifty years since the Night the Dragon Breathed over the city of Chicago, the Gate has not only remained fixed, but open to the trespasses of the Wyld, the darkest of the Feiriefolk. Not only does that mean an evil resurrected from Nick’s own past, but the reincarnation of his lost Cleolinda, a reincarnation destined once more to die.

Nick must turn inward to that which he distrusts the most: the Dragon, the beast he slew when he was still only Saint George. He must turn to the monster residing in him, now a part of him… but ever seeking escape.

The gang war brewing between Prohibition bootleggers may be the least of his concerns. If Nick cannot prevent an old evil from opening the way between realms… then not only might Chicago face a fate worse than the Great Fire, but so will the rest of the mortal realm.

Black City Saint will be published by Pyr Books on March 1, 2016. It is 383 pages, priced at $18 in trade paperback and $11.99 for the digital edition. The cover was designed by Jacqueline Nasso Cooke.

Back Issue 86 Now Available

Back Issue 86 Now Available

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Back Issue 86-smallBack Issue is one of the best comic magazines on the market, especially if you’re a fan of comics of the 70s, 80s, and today. The latest (February) issue is a 100-page giant, celebrating the Marvel Bronze Age Giants like Marvel Tales, Fantasy Masterpieces, and Marvel Triple Action. I have many fond memories of curling up with those lengthy treasures long ago, and looking through the full-color digital issue preview brought them all back. Here’s the issue description.

Back Issue #86 (bonus-size 100 Full-Color pages, $9.95) takes a big look at Marvel Bronze Age Giants and Reprints! We open Marvel Comics’ vaults for an in-depth exploration of its GIANT-SIZE series! Plus: indexes galore of Marvel reprint titles, Marvel digests and Fireside Books editions, and the last days of the “Old” X-Men. Featuring the work of DAN ADKINS, ROSS ANDRU, RICH BUCKLER, DAVE COCKRUM, GERRY CONWAY, STEVE GERBER, STAN LEE, WERNER ROTH, ROY THOMAS, and more. Re-presenting the cover of Giant-Size Marvel Triple Action #1 by JOHN ROMITA, SR.! Edited by MICHAEL EURY.

See the full details on issue 86 at the TwoMorrows website.

Back Issue is edited by Michael Eury, and published by TwoMorrows Publishing. Issue #86 is cover-dated February 2016. It is 100 pages in full color, priced at $9.95. The cover is by John Romita, Sr. An eight-issue subscription is $73 in the US ($31.60 for the digital version). Order right from the TwoMorrows website.

See our Late January Fantasy Magazine Rack here, and all of our recent Magazine coverage here.

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: How George Raft Made Bogie a Star

The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: How George Raft Made Bogie a Star

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Raft_BogaratLast week, we talked a lot about Humphrey Bogart as we roamed around The Maltese Falcon. And I had already done a post on Bogie’s only horror-sci fi film, The Return of Doctor X. Today, I’m going to talk about one of my favorite aspects of Bogart’s career. In the annals of Hollywood, never has one actor so torpedoed his own career, while making another actor a star at the same time. Let’s take a look, shall we?

George Raft grew up in Hell’s Kitchen, New York, where he was a childhood friend of Owney Madden, who would become a powerful mobster in the days of Prohibition. Raft toyed with being a boxer and then taught himself to dance, hitting it big in Vaudeville in the early twenties. At the same time, he hung out with professional gangsters, gaining access to them through his friendship with Downey. He studied how they walked and talked, and mastered the ability to imitate them.

After appearing in a few films as a dancer, Raft broke through in 1932. Long before Rod Steiger and Al Pacino played Capone roles, Paul Muni made a classic gangster film: Scarface – Shame of a Nation. Raft had a part as Rinaldo, a coin-flipping gunman. Emulating the men he knew, he received strong reviews for his performance.

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Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Pro-Tip From Nancy Kilpatrick

Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Pro-Tip From Nancy Kilpatrick

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Nancy Kilpatrick-smallOur Pro-Tip author this week is the multiple award-winning writer and editor Nancy Kilpatrick. She writes dark fantasy, horror, mysteries, and erotica. Her publishing credits include 18 novels, over 220 short stories, 7 collections, and 1 non-fiction book. She has edited 15 anthologies.

I Can’t Seem to Get the Ending Right. What Should I Keep in Mind?

A short story is a slice of time in the life of the protagonist. What happens has to have a beginning, middle and end, even though most of the time the protagonist had a life before the events of the story and will (hopefully) have a life after. A short story should read from the beginning as if the reader does not know where the story will end–that’s suspense. But once the story is finished, the reader should feel that Yes!, this is how it had to end. That makes a satisfying read.

Your protagonist has a problem, aka ‘conflict.’ If he/she doesn’t, you don’t have a story. That conflict is an either/or conflict. The protagonist is torn between two basics. Base line example: live or die. The reader reading the story knows this because they see the conflict and the obvious solutions to that conflict. If the story ends with either of these obvious endings: the protagonist lives/the protagonist dies — the reader will feel let down. The writer’s job is to find either an alternative ending or a variation on one of the two obvious endings so that the story has an intriguing and unanticipated conclusion.

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New Treasures: The Bloodsounder’s Arc Trilogy by Jeff Salyards

New Treasures: The Bloodsounder’s Arc Trilogy by Jeff Salyards

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Scourge of the Betrayer-small Veil of the Deserters-small Chains of the Heretic-small

Every time a fantasy trilogy successfully wraps up, Black Gate throws a little fiesta. (Someone has to cherish these little publishing milestones. We think it should be us.)

Jeff Salyards’ Bloodsounder’s Arc trilogy began with Scourge of the Betrayer, his debut novel, back in January 2013. Veil of the Deserters was released in June 2014, and now the balloons and shrimp tacos are standing by for Tuesday’s release of Chains of the Heretic, the third and final volume. (We used to celebrate with cheeseburgers, but last year Tor started publishing Pathfinder trilogies, and I gained 30 pounds.)

Now that the whole series is available, I’m looking forward to tucking into Bloodsounder’s Arc. Over at SF Signal Nick Sharps called the first volume “both Debut of the Year and Fantasy of the Year. It is also one of the finest debuts I have ever read.” At B&N.com, Paul Goat Allen said:

Scourge of the Betrayer is a literary appetizer that will undoubtedly captivate anyone who enjoys fantasy, be it epic fantasy, adventure fantasy, military fantasy, etc. If you’re a fan of Cook’s Black Company, or GRRM’s A Song of Ice and Fire, or of classic fantasy sagas like Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser and Moorcock’s Elric, this is a debut novel that is, like Jagger said, ‘what you need.’”

Sounds pretty promising to me. Chains of the Heretic will be published by Night Shade Books on February 16, 2016. It is 524 pages, priced at $25.99 in hardcover and $11.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Ryan Pancoast. Read an excerpt from Scourge of the Betrayer here.

Bud Webster, July 27, 1952 – February 14, 2016

Bud Webster, July 27, 1952 – February 14, 2016

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Bud Webster wonders if he can afford TEXT
Bud Webster doing what he loved – selling books

It’s never easy to write obituaries. It’s especially difficult when they’re members of the Black Gate staff.

I was already a fan of Bud Webster’s Past Masters column, thoughtful biographical pieces on the enduring impact of our finest writers, when I first approached him to become a Contributing Editor. His first article for us, a marvelous discussion of Tom Reamy, and a continuation of his Who? series on neglected genre authors, appeared in Black Gate 15.

Bud didn’t waste my time with a superficial survey of Reamy’s fiction — anyone could have done that. Instead, he delivered an impeccably researched, 3,400-word piece that dove into Reamy’s history and early influences. It was the kind of piece that triggered an outpouring of discussion and gratitude from BG‘s readers (Keith West even drove to Breckenridge, Texas so he could send Bud a photo of the empty lot where Reamy’s house once stood).

It was the beginning of a long and fruitful partnership with Bud. He was briefly our poetry editor, before the death of the print magazine made that title superfluous. He became a prolific early blogger for us, contributing a dozen posts, mostly on his favorite subjects — the pros and cons of selling vintage books, his role as an stfnal historian, and the magical books that first lured him into the hobby.

Bud wrote extensively on the hobby he loved so much. His first book was Anthopology 101 (2010), an affectionate look back at the classic SF anthologies that helped define the genre. It was quickly followed by The Joy of Booking (2011) and Past Masters, & Other Bookish Natterings (2013). All three were collections of his earlier columns.

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JourneyQuest: Onwaaard!

JourneyQuest: Onwaaard!

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journeyquest

I disbelieved the search results and tried again, but got the same lack of results. Has no one at Black Gate mentioned JourneyQuest? With their Kickstarter for season three underway, this must be corrected! Onwaaard!

JourneyQuest is a web series from writer/director Matt Vancil and many of the other fine folks who brought us The Gamers series of movies. These are known for grabbing RPG tropes with both hands and bashing the scenery, with the same actors portraying the players and their characters. Even my wife, who had led a sheltered gaming life and wasn’t familiar with the tropes, thought these movies were hilarious.

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