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An Interview with Author Bradley Beaulieu

An Interview with Author Bradley Beaulieu

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bradleybeaulieuI’m pleased to interview my great friend and writer buddy, Brad Beaulieu. We’ll be discussing his new novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, Book One of The Lays of Anuskaya, which comes out the first of April 2011 from Nightshade Books as a trade paperback and as an eBook. Winds is a sweeping epic fantasy with a Czarist Russian and Persian feel, a unique combination to be sure. I’m so proud of Brad’s accomplishment with the world building and the story. I’ve been involved with this novel for several years now, and have had a part in the revisions, so I’ve seen it go from an awesome book with an amazing concept to a truly exceptional one with a fully fleshed-out world.

Brad has had his short stories published in the most prestigious speculative fiction publications including Realms of Fantasy, The Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future, and several anthologies from DAW Books. He’s also the father of two and the husband to a wonderful woman, Joanne. They live in Wisconsin and besides being an excellent writer, Brad is an amazing cook.

Now on to the interview…

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Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Part Ten – “The Mummy”

Blogging Sax Rohmer’s The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu, Part Ten – “The Mummy”

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mummy1blood-of-fu-manchu-1968-01-g-1“The Mummy” was the tenth and final installment of Sax Rohmer’s Fu-Manchu and Company. The story was first published in Collier’s on December 4, 1915 and was later expanded to comprise Chapters 31-33 of the second Fu-Manchu novel, The Devil Doctor first published in the UK in 1916 by Cassell and in the US by McBride & Nast under the variant title, The Return of Dr. Fu-Manchu.

Following on from the unbearably suspenseful sadomasochistic tour de force of “The Six Gates,” this final installment of the second Fu-Manchu serial opens with Petrie sleeping securely for the first time in months aboard a ship’s cabin as he crosses the Mediterranean when his rest is disturbed by an urgent telegraph message that has just been received from an unknown destination. The message reads simply, “Dr. Petrie – my shadow lies upon you all.” It serves as a chilling reminder that, though believed dead after being shot by Karamaneh at the conclusion of the next episode, Dr. Fu-Manchu’s servants may yet take vengeance for her betrayal.

No sooner has this fact occurred to them than all concerned are startled by the sound of Karamaneh screaming. They rush to her cabin along with her brother Aziz and find her hysterical after an attempt on her life by an Egyptian mummy she claims entered her cabin through the porthole and attempted to strangle her in her sleep. Of course there is no sign of an intruder anywhere.

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Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Special Effects Artist Brian Demski

Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Special Effects Artist Brian Demski

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image0062Let’s be honest. A skull in a bell jar with an eyeball hanging off of it would attract anyone’s attention, so you can’t say it’s just me.

Special effects artist Brian Demski’s booth at the Haunted Attractions Show in St. Louis may have just as well grabbed my wrist in a boney hand for the hard left it caused me to take; out of an aisle of more latex body parts and straight into a Victorian Steampunk nightmare.

Over the next hour Brian talked me through his many skeleton-filled art pieces, molded by his own hands (directly from samples of the real thing, I might add).

The results are mesmerizing, disturbing and sure-fire conversation starters.

When I also learned that his “day job” was as a Hollywood special-effects creator, I knew I had to find out more.

So, may I introduce you to Mr. Brian Demski and his beautifully creative yet somewhat twisted imagination.

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King of Cats, Queen of Wolves

King of Cats, Queen of Wolves

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apexmagazineWhat do you get when you take Monster Blogger Mike Allen, a dark spark of poetic genesis, two fellow Rhysling Award winners, Sonya Taaffe and Nicole Kornher-Stace, throw them in a cauldron together with some wine and a few herbs and some sauteed onions…

Oh, wait. Sorry. Forget it. You know how they say never shop when you’re hungry? Well, same rule applies to writing blogs. Where was I?

Right! This POEM! “The King of Cats, the Queen of Wolves.”

It’s up at Apex Magazine, which continues to publish fine fiction and poetry under editor Catherynne M. Valente, not to mention an often fun blog.

Speaking of Fun Blogs! There I was, trawling Facebook, when all of a sudden, out of nowhere, this LINK jumped out at me! It howled, it gnashed its teeth, it gnawed upon my ankle. Surrending to the inevitable, I followed it.

And LO! See what Francesca Forrest (Go FRANCESCA! I shall put you in my soup as well! ) hath wrought:

AN INTERVIEW with the aforementioned three poets of the aforementioned poem, which you really should go and read before you read the interview. After which, you should read the outtakes of the interview.

For, as fantasy author and poet Saladin Ahmed said in the comments section beneath the poem:

“Dear God, that was just wonderful.”

Art of the Genre: Legend of the Five Rings

Art of the Genre: Legend of the Five Rings

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I loved L5R and Chris Dornaus so much, I commissioned her to do line art for two of my characters in 1st Edition glory.
I loved L5R and Chris Dornaus so much, I commissioned her to do line art for two of my characters in 1st Edition glory.
Sometimes art pulls you into a game, sometimes its marketing, sometimes it takes place in a genre or storyline you like, but most times I find people get into games because of a friend. In 1998 my friend Mark bought three copies of the Legend of the Five Rings RPG, trucked them eight-hundred miles to my house in Maryland, and forced me to play it. I’ve never been so happy about being bullied into a game in my life.

L5R was epic, a Matt Wilson cover making me sit up and take notice, and the mechanics of game play a fresh change from the D20 of D&D and the D6 of Shadowrun as L5R introduced ‘exploding D10s’. The setting, an amalgam of Asian culture called Rokugan, overwhelmed, and although my mindset is distinctly and irrevocably western, I still fell into this game head first.

I credit this addiction to two things, the absolutely incredible writing of John Wick, and the stellar black and white artwork of Cris Dornaus.

Let me first start off with John Wick. I know absolutely nothing about John personally, but my experience reading his RPG work leaves only one singular fact, he can write! If you’ve ever sat down to read an RPG, you typically get a good feel for the game, perhaps have a laugh, and come away educated on the subject. When you read L5R 1st Edition, you come away entrenched in a world so deep that you’d swear it had been around for decades.

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Today is Deathless Day!

Today is Deathless Day!

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catherynne-m-valente-deathless1Great tidings of joy! Today Deathless, a novel by Catherynne M. Valente, is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, Nook and iPad!

The author writes:

In brief terms, it is a retelling of Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless set during the Stalinist era and the siege of Leningrad.

Cory Doctorow says:

This is a book that broods but never stoops to cynicism, a book full of dream-logic and eros. Valente is a major talent, and this is some of her best work.

Cat also tells us in her colossal post with the cool links that the audiobook will be available in a few days.

For myself, I can tell you that I read this book in its early draft, and that it’s a gut-punch of gorgeous. It’s funny, it’s sexy, it’s dark as midnight in Midwinter Siberia, and it glitters like blood and rubies.

Here is the beautiful YouTube trailer for Deathless.

I Am Number Four: Why Movies Are Rarely As Good As Books

I Am Number Four: Why Movies Are Rarely As Good As Books

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i-am-number-fourI am in my mid-thirties and my wife is in her mid-twenties. The eight-year difference between us can be jarring at times, especially because I am a pop culture junkie and she grew up without cable television (and rarely watched the network television she did have access to, as I learned when I discovered she’d never seen an episode of The Dukes of Hazzard, even in rerun).

Recently, this generation gap has became particularly evident. A close friend of hers has formed a book club, of which I am the only male attendee and also about the only thirty-something. As such, the books that we’re reading tend to track toward chick lit, much of it in the Twilight-like realm of paranormal, horror, or fantasy-related romance novels, many targeted toward young adults.

Some of the books that fall into this category these days are truly outstanding, such as The Hunger Games, but many of them have serious issues … which brings us to last month’s book, chosen in part to coincide with the release of its film version: I Am Number Four.

I Am Number Four: The Premise

As the planet Lorien was being destroyed by a race known as the Mogadorians, a group of Loriens came up with a plan that would have put Jor-El to shame. They cram 9 of their young on a spaceship to Earth, along with 9 mentors. The Lorien youth are of a class known as the Garde, who will eventually develop powers, called Legacies, intended to defend Lorien. The mentors are part of the class known as Cepan, who help train the Garde.

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R.A. Lafferty: An Attempt at an Appreciation

R.A. Lafferty: An Attempt at an Appreciation

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R.A. LaffertyA little while ago, John O’Neill posted a news item on this blog about the literary estate of R.A. Lafferty (1914-2002) being put up for auction, with the current bid being $70,000 for the copyright to all his works. It’s an odd development, but then Lafferty was an odd writer. I want to try to say something about his work here, not because I’ve read everything he’s written — I’ve read only a fraction of his output, which runs to over two dozen novels and two hundred short stories — but because he’s a writer strong enough to have hooked me to want to read more. And I want to say something about why.

Which is tricky, because that means having to identify what it is that Lafferty does that’s so intriguing. And I think much of what is powerful in his work comes from its sense of strangeness. Almost all of his writing feels like nothing else; not like a traditional sf tale, not like a New Wave tale, not like typical fantasy or horror, less like a mainstream writer trying out genre. You could say there’s something folkloric, but not mythic to it; so it’s become almost a truism to say that Lafferty wrote tall tales. It’s an accurate statement, but what does it mean?

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Goth Chick’s Crypt Notes: The Best of C2E2

Goth Chick’s Crypt Notes: The Best of C2E2

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C2E2_Logo4aIt isn’t very often that I suffer from complete sensory overload, but the Haunted Attractions Show in St. Louis, immediately followed by the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo nearly did me in. It was therefore necessary to retire to the underground offices of Goth Chick News, barricade myself in with the espresso machine, the blender and a bottle of good tequila, and take a few quiet days to absorb everything I had seen.

Black Gate editor and big cheese John O’Neill graciously stood in for my post last Thursday, partially out of sympathy for my over-stimulated state; but mostly because he wanted the blender back.

Now rebooted with sufficient caffeine and marguerites, I am ready to begin telling you more of the amazing events of the last two weeks.

C2E2 takes place in Chicago’s largest convention center, McCormick Place and the event consumed all of one of the largest buildings. Focusing on all manner of artwork, collectibles, music, film and entertainment, it was… well, gi-normous.

Though it will take several weeks of posts to delve into detail on all of the fantastic things I saw, I start as always with a Best of Show overview.

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