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How I Spoiled My Own Bad Guys with Unexpected Success

How I Spoiled My Own Bad Guys with Unexpected Success

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el_greco_view_of_toledo. . . not that I mind, really.

I’m getting prepared to go on vacation in my own hometown, staying in a hotel a mere five miles from my current apartment. That’s what you get when you win a free trip to Hollywood . . . and you live in Century City (a.k.a. “Beverly Hills Adjacent”).

I am getting good mileage out of that joke, believe me. For this year’s Writers of the Future and Illustrators of the Future workshop and award ceremony, people are being flown into Los Angeles from as far away as Perth in Western Australia and Johannesburg in South Africa. As for me: a right turn, a left, another right, another left. With good traffic, sixteen minutes, or so declares the Lords of MapQuest. I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten to Hollywood in under sixteen minutes, but I tend to travel there during peak hours.

But what’s this post really about, since I imagine most of you do not dial into the Black Gate frequency to hear my driving reports?

First, it’s to explain why I might not have a post up next Tuesday, which is the start of the workshop week for winners of the Writers of the Future Contest. Second, it’s to shamelessly plug the upcoming Writers of the Future Vol. 27, in which I’ll be making my professional fiction-writing debut with my story “An Acolyte of Black Spires.” The anthology’s unveiling will be on Sunday, May 15, but the book won’t be on sale at bookstores and online outlets until the next month. None of the contributors have even seen the cover yet, nor have we seen the illustrations for our individual stories. (There’s apparently a special procedure for that.) The ceremony on the 15th at the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel will stream live through the Writers of the Future website, in case anybody cares to see what I look like in a tux. Also, I have a few people on the Black Gate team I plan to mention in my speech. So, John, Howard, and Bill . . . you might want to tune in. Just saying.

But what I really want to talk about is the bizarre nature of “short story order.” When I first set out to write short stories in a series, I knew I would not have much control over the order in which they appeared. I’ve read enough on pulp history to understand how that works. However, 1) I never expected to sell any of these stories; and 2) I would never have imagined that this particular one would be the first in the series to appear.

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Black Gate 15 Complete Table of Contents

Black Gate 15 Complete Table of Contents

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bg-15-cover2The theme of our massive 15th issue, captured beautifully by Donato Giancola’s striking cover, is Warrior Women. Eight authors — Jonathan L. Howard, Maria V. Snyder, Frederic S. Durbin, Sarah Avery, Paula R. Stiles, Emily Mah, S. Hutson Blount, and Brian Dolton — contribute delightful tales of female warriors, wizards, weather witches, thieves, and other brave women as they face deadly tombs, sinister gods, unquiet ghosts, and much more.

Frederic S. Durbin takes us to a far land where two dueling gods pit their champions against each other in a deadly race to the World’s End. Brian Dolton offers us a tale of Ancient China, a beautiful occult investigator, and a very peculiar haunting. And Jonathan L. Howard returns to our pages with “The Shuttered Temple,” the sequel to “The Beautiful Corridor” from Black Gate 13, in which the resourceful thief Kyth must penetrate the secrets of a mysterious and very lethal temple.

What else is in BG 15? Howard Andrew Jones bring us a lengthy excerpt from his blockbuster novel The Desert of Souls, featuring the popular characters Dabir & Asim. Harry Connolly returns after too long an absence with “Eating Venom,” in which a desperate soldier faces a basilisk’s poison — and the treachery it brings. John C. Hocking begins a terrific new series with “A River Through Darkness & Light,” featuring a dedicated Archivist who leads a small band into a deadly desert tomb; John Fultz shares the twisted fate of a thief who dares fantastic dangers to steal rare spirits indeed in “The Vintages of Dream,” and Vaughn Heppner kicks off an exciting new sword & sorcery saga as a young warrior flees the spawn of a terrible god through the streets of an ancient city in “The Oracle of Gog.”

Plus fiction from Darrell Schweitzer, Jamie McEwan, Michael Livingston, Chris Willrich, Fraser Ronald, Derek Künsken, Jeremiah Tolbert, Nye Joell Hardy, and Rosamund Hodge!

In our generous non-fiction section, Mike Resnick educates us on the best in black & white fantasy cinema, Bud Webster turns his attention to the brilliant Tom Reamy in his Who? column on 20th Century fantasy authors, Scott Taylor challenges ten famous fantasy artists to share their vision of a single character in Art Evolution, and Rich Horton looks at the finest fantasy anthologies of the last 25 years. Plus over 30 pages of book, game, and DVD reviews, edited by Bill Ward, Howard Andrew Jones, and Andrew Zimmerman Jones — and a brand new Knights of the Dinner Table strip.

Buy this issue for only $18.95, or as part of bundle of back issues — any two for just $25 plus shipping!

Buy this issue in PDF for only $8.95!

Buy the Kindle version at Amazon.com for just $9.95!

Black Gate 15 is another huge issue: 384 pages of fiction, reviews, and articles. It contains 22 stories, totaling nearly 152,000 words of adventure fantasy. Complete details on all the contents after the jump.

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An Interview With Claude Lalumière, Part Two

An Interview With Claude Lalumière, Part Two

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Claude LalumièreHere’s Part Two of my interview with writer, critic, and editor Claude Lalumière. You can find Part One here. This time around, we discuss Claude’s influences, his work as an anthologist, his criticism, and his process as a writer. My great thanks to Claude for his generosity, thoughtfulness, and candor.

An Interview with Claude Lalumière, Part Two

Conducted and Transcribed by Matthew David Surridge

Your fiction shows the powerful influence of a number of different writers, and the fusion of those particular writers creates something strong and unusual. Could you write a bit about how you first encountered the work of people like Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, J.G. Ballard, Ursula K. Le Guin, Lucius Shepard, Rachel Pollack, and Paul Di Filippo, and what those writers came to mean to you?

This is a question requiring an epic-length answer.

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Shipping April 30: Black Gate 15!

Shipping April 30: Black Gate 15!

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bg15_320aBlack Gate 15 arrives from the printer this week, and subscriber copies will begin shipping out April 30th.

BG 15 is another massive issue: 384 pages of fiction, reviews, and articles. It contains 22 stories, totaling nearly 152,000 words of adventure fantasy. Jonathan L. Howard returns with “The Shuttered Temple,” the sequel to “The Beautiful Corridor” from Black Gate 13, in which the resourceful thief Kyth must penetrate the secrets of a mysterious and very lethal temple. Howard Andrew Jones bring us a lengthy excerpt from his blockbuster novel The Desert of Souls, featuring Dabir & Asim. And Harry Connolly returns after too long an absence with “Eating Venom,” in which a desperate soldier faces a basilisk’s poison — and the treachery it brings.

What else is in BG 15? John C. Hocking kicks off a terrific new sword & sorcery series with “A River Through Darkness & Light,” featuring a dedicated Archivist who leads a small band into a deadly desert tomb; John Fultz shares the twisted fate of a thief who dares fantastic dangers to steal rare spirits indeed in “The Vintages of Dream,” and Vaughn Heppner offers the first chapter of an exciting new sword & sorcery serial as a young warrior flees the spawn of a terrible god through the streets of an ancient city in “The Oracle of Gog.”

Plus fiction from Darrell Schweitzer, Jamie McEwan, Michael Livingston, Frederic S. Durbin, Chris Willrich, Fraser Ronald, Maria V. Snyder, Brian Dolton, Sarah Avery, and many others!

In our generous non-fiction section, Mike Resnick educates us on the best in black & white fantasy cinema, Bud Webster turns his attention to the brilliant Tom Reamy in his Who? column on 20th Century fantasy authors, Scott Taylor challenges ten famous fantasy artists to share their vision of a single character in Art Evolution, and Rich Horton looks at the finest fantasy anthologies of the last 25 years. Plus over 30 pages of book, game, and DVD reviews, edited by Bill Ward, Howard Andrew Jones, and Andrew Zimmerman Jones — and a brand new Knights of the Dinner Table strip.

Black Gate 15 is $18.95 for the print edition, $8.95 in PDF, or shipped right to your door as part of a 2-issue subscription for just $32.95! We’ll have a detailed sneak peek, with tantalizing story excerpts and artwork, right here in a few days. Stay tuned. And don’t forget our back issue sale — any two back issues for just $25, including our double-sized BG 14!

Cover art by Donato Giancola.

An Interview with Claude Lalumière, Part One

An Interview with Claude Lalumière, Part One

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Claude LalumièreClaude Lalumière‘s involvement with fantastika has taken many forms. He’s been a retailer, an editor of anthologies, and a critic. But lately he’s become best known for his fiction. Claude’s writing is most often a surreal and precise blending of fantasy, horror, science fiction, superhero adventure, and any other genre that seems handy and to the point. His first collection, Objects of Worship, was published by ChiZine Publications two years ago; now a new set of linked short stories, The Door to Lost Pages, is about to hit shelves.

I’ve known Claude for a long time, and was happy to take the opportunity of the publication of his new book to have an e-mail conversation with him about his writing, his past, and many other things. In this first part, he discusses his language, his time as a bookseller, his two books, and his ongoing web series Lost Myths, among many other things.

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Update: Black Gate Back Issue Sale

Update: Black Gate Back Issue Sale

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bg_3_cover_500On Monday I announced a sale on back issues of Black Gate magazine.

Response to the sale has been terrific — thanks to everyone whose purchases have helped me clear away back stock, and get a lot closer to fitting my precious automobile in the garage.

Since Monday I’ve emptied four boxes of back issues, and lost count of how many I’ve packed up to take to the post office.  This afternoon I did a quick inventory count to see what’s left.

We’re virtually sold out of Black Gate 3 (just a handful of copies left), and I opened the last box of Black Gate 4 on Friday. I found another box of Black Gate 5, which brings the total to two boxes. Compared to those three, we have fair stock in all other issues.

For the duration of the sale any two back issues are just $25 (plus shipping and handling). Any three are just $35, and any four just $45. This includes our first issue (regularly $18.95), as well as our double-sized issue 14 (also $18.95). You can buy a complete set of the first four issues, a $65.80 value, for just $45.

For the Table of Contents for all of our back issues, use the navigation bar at left and scroll down to “Back Issues.”

The sale will run for a limited time. Once I can squeeze my Audi into the garage and shut the door, the sale is over.

Just use the form on our subscription page to order. Remember that PDF copies are just $8.95, even for big double issues.  You can also order print versions of both of our 384-page double issues, BG 14 and 15 (combined cover price $37.90, plus $4.50 shipping) for $32.95, shipping included.  We’ll ship BG 14 this week, and send the massive BG 15 right to your door hot-off-the-press later this month.

James Enge to do Morlock Trilogy: Tournament of Shadows

James Enge to do Morlock Trilogy: Tournament of Shadows

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morlock41I can’t help it! I must speak, and I must speak now, for I just found out about it. John O’Neill will probably glare at me, because once he hears, he’ll immediately want to post about it, and then he’ll discovered that I already have!!!

*cue maniacal laughter, canned music of doom*

But! But! So, I was cruising LiveJournal, you know, like you do, and there was a James Enge post, so I stopped by (which I always must, compulsively strewing comments like candy wrappers, and then suffering a guilty conscience about the inevitable litter of exclamation points), and there it was…

THIS ANNOUNCEMENT!!!

I’ve signed with Lou Anders at Pyr to do three more Morlock books. The contracts were dated March 25–Fall of Sauron Day! Coincidence, or destiny?

This will actually be a trilogy, not three standalone books. Each book will have its own story (because I believe in plot resolution) but each book will depend on its predecessor(s) more than the three books of Morlock in exile did. It’s not a prequel trilogy, though. It’s an origin story. The trilogy as a whole is titled Tournament of Shadows. The first book, which should be out next year, is called A Guile of Dragons. Which is about as much as I should say, since I’m not done with it yet…

There. Did that not just make your day???

For those of you who don’t know, Morlock Ambrosius rocks my world, your world, the Sea of Worlds, and any other world you can think of. He is a Maker, a son of Merlin, a Crooked Man, a crow-talker, a sometime drunk, a dragonslayer, a friend to werewolves and the bane of things that want to kill him. Novels thus far featuring him? Why, they are Blood of Ambrose (nominated last year for the World Fantasy award), This Crooked Way and The Wolf Age.

All of which, may I add, are worthy of your time: at the cost of meals, sleep and possibly your dignity as you find yourself trawling Enge’s LiveJournal and leaving a slew of capital letters in your wake…

Black Gate Back Issue Sale!

Black Gate Back Issue Sale!

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bg_1_coverWe’re going to press this week with the long-awaited Black Gate 15 — and you know what that means.  It means I won’t be able to get my car in the garage unless I clear out some of the back issue stock first.

My unnatural love for my 2006 Audi is your gain. Starting today, and continuing until I can fit my beloved automobile in the garage, we’re having a sale on back issues of Black Gate magazine. Any two are $25 (plus shipping and handling). Any three are just $35, and any four just $45.

This offer even includes our rare first issue (price just reduced to $18.95), and our double-sized issue 14 (also $18.95). You can buy a complete set of the first four issues  — totaling 896 pages of the best in modern fantasy, a $65.80 value — for just $45.

But hurry. Quantities are limited. Yes, we know. Everyone says that. (Try it yourself, and you’ll understand. “Quantities are Limited!” It just trips off the tongue somehow.) But really. There’s not many copies left, and once I can squeeze a compact car into the garage and shut the door, the sale is over.

Just use the form on our subscription page to select any two issues for $25, any three for $35, or any four for $45, and we’ll apply the discount. It’s that easy.

Want a PDF copy instead? They’re just $8.95, even for big double issues.  Why not try a 4-issue PDF subscription for just $29.95, or a 2-issue print sub for $32.95? You can order print versions of both of our 384-page double issues, BG 14 and 15 (combined cover price $37.90, plus $4.50 shipping) for $32.95, shipping included.  We’ll ship BG 14 this week, and send the massive BG 15 right to your door hot-off-the-press later this month.

Malcolm McClinton sells a Cover to Kobold Quarterly

Malcolm McClinton sells a Cover to Kobold Quarterly

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golden-dragonMalcolm McClinton, who painted the cover for Black Gate 13 and has been doing interior art for us since Black Gate 10, has sold another cover to Dungeons & Dragons magazine Kobold Quarterly.

The cover, Golden Dragon, pictured at right, will be on the fall issue. Concerning the piece, Malcolm says:

Most of the time I find that Asian dragons seem too cartoonish and almost comical in their deception and I was really excited to try and bring one to life in a way that captured them in a more living realistic way. Any one that knows my  intrepid boarder collie Lilly, might instantly recognize her influence on the piece.

You can read more details and see more samples of Malcolm’s terrific art at his blog, Hanged Man Studios.

Kobold Quarterly is celebrating their 5th Anniversary this year.  The magazine, edited by Wolfgang Baur, was created to focus on open design, and now fills the niche once occupied by Dragon and Dungeon magazines, both now sadly defunct.

The latest issue, Winter 2011 , is the 16th, and is the launch issue for the new Midgard campaign setting. It features official Paizo magic items for Golarion, the Pathfinder world and setting for Howard Andrew Jones’ novel Plague of Shadows, Harem Assassins feats and spells for Pathfinder, Potion Miscibility rules for 4th Edition D&D, the Ecology of the Gearforged for the Midgard campaign, an interview with gaming legend Robin Laws, Monte Cook’s column, the return of popular Dungeon Magazine author Willie Walsh with a humorous mini-adventure, plus a sneak peek of the Northlands sourcebook with a beer run among the Thursir Giants — two complete Pathfinder mini-adventures. The issue is 76 pages with a cover price of $5.99, and you can order it in PDF format here.

Malcolm’s last cover for Kobold Quarterly was Issue 13, in Spring 2010. Their website is here.