Short Fiction Roundup: Coming Soon
A new online science fiction magazine
, coming soon to a monitor near you. Looks promising.
Goth Chick News: Pass Me the O-Positive Please
Back in 2005 I had the pleasure of lunching with Charlaine Harris, who was on a book tour celebrating the release of her fourth Sookie Stackhouse novel Dead to the World.
It was a major milestone — not only was it her first hardcover release but the cover was embellished with gold sparkly bits; naturally Ms. Harris and her publicist were thrilled. Frankly, being a novice contributor to Black Gate at the time, it was really hard to say which one of us was more thrilled, but I’m pretty sure it was me.
Always the quintessential Southern lady, Ms. Harris was the picture of floral-print charm as she quite proudly told me about the advent of her characters and how excited she was about her next series, Grave Sight, to be released later that year. It was with a slight blush that she admitted her writing mortified her teen-aged children, which made me like her even more.
At the end of that lovely lunch I followed Ms. Harris across the parking lot to a Borders bookstore, where she appeared before a small but adoring crowd of around thirty fans who greeted her like a rock star. And I drove home that day thinking that those sexy, imaginative Sookie books which had become favorites of mine didn’t seem like the sort of stories that would spring from someone who smelled of lilacs and carried a patent leather purse.
Around that same time, on the other side of the country Alan Ball was stuck in an LA airport waiting on a tardy departure when he stopped into a news stand and picked up a paperback copy of Living Dead in Dallas, Ms. Harris’ second Sookie Stackhouse novel, thinking he’d kill some time with a pulpy vampire story. Having just wrapped Six Feet Under for HBO, Alan Ball was looking for his next project, never believing he’d find it in an airport. Numerous interviews indicate that once Alan Ball dug into chapter one of Living Dead, he didn’t close it until he’d read the last page.
And that is precisely when sexy, steamy, vampire magic happened, and though I didn’t know it at the time, I was practically at ground zero.
Original Fiction: “THE WEIRD OF IRONSPELL” by John R. Fultz
“The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz
Illustrations by Alex Sheikman
4. The Jewel and the Giant-King
Yom was a city of magicians.
Of all the kingdoms lying west of the Greyfold Mountains, only Yom boasted that its walls were defended by a legion of sorcerers, or that its wizard-king had slain a dozen ancient wyrms to free the Western Realms of the dragon plague. In the inky depths of night the city’s towers and ziggurats gleamed with all the brilliance of the wizardry that was its claim to fame.
Of all magical arts only the practice of necromancy was banned from the city’s environs, for the people of Yom did not want their dead disturbed. Yet every other manner of sorcery thrived here. Alchemists, adepts, enchanters, conjurors, soothsayers, theosophers, prestidigitators, thaumaturges, and mages wandered its marbled streets and hobnobbed among its hanging gardens. Yom was also home to vast wealth, and the penalty for thievery was death.
So it came to pass that Tumnal the Swift found himself locked in a damp cell, his limbs heavy with enspelled chains, deep in the catacombs below the wizard-king’s palace. Once known in seven realms as the Lord of Thieves, Tumnal was destined to be a footnote in the pages of an executioner’s journal. Although Yom’s penalty for thievery was precise, the bureaucracy of the place was staggering. Through no fault of his own (other than his libidinous nature) Tumnal had been caught and sentenced to death one month ago. But he might linger for years among the rats and roaches of the dungeon until the headsman came with his axe to carry out the sentence.
Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #1—1 Million Years B(ruce) W(ayne)
After reading the Batman/Doc Savage Special, I didn’t imagine I would return to pick up any monthly Batman comics—or any monthly comics—for a span. I’m a trade paperback fellow who follows news of monthlies so I know what to buy in larger bound form when it reaches the bookstores.
Then I saw the sneak of the cover for issue #2 of the limited series Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne. And I screamed “Solomon Kane!” and rushed to find out what writer Grant Morrison was doing with this series. I learned that he was going to give me six issues of pulpy adoration, with Batman filling in a series of legendary pulp hero roles throughout history: barbarian Stone Age warrior, puritan witch-finder, pirate swashbuckler, and hard-boiled P.I.
Okay, I was on board for this, even though it rises out of the confusing mess of recent crossovers and events in the DC Universe, a mix-up that has alienated a lot of Bat-fans.
The events leading up to The Return of Bruce Wayne come from Grant Morrison’s run as writer on the monthly Batman comic and on the massive DC Universe event Final Crisis. Morrison is either a genius or a madman, probably both, and his time with Batman has seen developments that absolutely stagger the mind. The guy brought back Bat-Mite, for cryin’ out loud! Other crazy things he’s done: give Bruce Wayne a son with Talia; suggested that Bruce’s father, Thomas Wayne, faked his own death and is still alive; created a league of international Batman-and-Robin imitators; put Batman up against an adversary who might be the devil himself; and included “the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh” from some nutball 1961 story where Batman discovers a colorful version of himself on another planet.
And the amazing thing about all this? It works. Morrison is maniacal, but he layers on so much dementia that it is impossible not to ride along with it, even if half the time while I was reading it I was thinking “Huh?” That was fine, because the other half of the time I was thinking, “Whoa, cool!” . . . usually right after thinking, “Huh?”
A Reader’s Guide to Sword & Sorcery Magazines
I recently stumbled across G.W. Thomas’ marvelous Reader’s Guide to Sword & Sorcery Magazines, which is well worth a look for short fiction readers interested in the history of the genre.
G.W. Thomas is editor and publisher of Dark Worlds, the pulp-Descended magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery and other genres. Dark Worlds was nominated for the Harper’s Pen Award earlier this year for Michael Ehart’s original sword & sorcery tale “Tomb of the Amazon Queen.”
But back to the Reader’s Guide already. You should check it out, it’s cool. There are more complete magazine guides out there, certainly — the amazing Coverpop site, for example, with scans of literally thousands of old SF magazines, and a truly fun all-in-one SF Cover Explorer, as well as the magazines section of The Ultimate Science Fiction Web Guide, and even Wikipedia’s Science Fiction Magazine entry is pretty darn comprehensive — but few assembled with such a focus on, and devotion to, heroic fantasy.
Thomas’s guide covers all the magazines that were instrumental in shaping modern Sword & Sorcery, starting with Weird Tales and Strange Tales, and continuing through Unknown, The Avon Fantasy Reader, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Fantastic, Weirdbook, Dragon, and many more. In between he also highlights lesser known (but still fascinating) titles such as The Fantasy Fan (1933-1935) and Midnight Sun (1974-1979). Finally, he provides links to some of the best sources of online S&S today, including Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Silver Blade, and Sorcerous Signals.
Here’s what he says about Black Gate:
This recent publication is the hottest place to read new S&S today. With authors like Martin Owton, Howard Andrews Jones, Charles Coleman Finley, Darrell Schweitzer, Charles deLint , it delivers a mix of Sword & Sorcery and other forms of Fantasy.
The guide includes some magnificent cover art, commentary from G.W, and links. The commentary is very short, and you can read through the entire guide in a few moments. But the fiction it will introduce you to will last a lifetime.
If you enjoyed the Reader’s Guide to Sword & Sorcery Magazines, you will likely also enjoy his broader and more ambitious Reader’s Guide to Sword & Sorcery, which also covers anthologies, short fiction, comics, TV/films, and much more. I especially recommend his encyclopedic A-to-Z Guide to S&S authors, which covers virtually every major S&S writer of the last century, with copious cover scans of much of their major work. It’s still being updated, with links to work published as recently as last year. It’s like wandering though a well-stocked library.
Goth Chick News: Where in the World is Barry Guiler?
Netflix is a happy place I only recently discovered, not just because I could avoid my fellow humans by staying home to watch the latest releases, but more so I could rediscover films I had forgotten I liked. Much like Amazon, Netflix has this rather creepy ability to pull my favorite things out of cyberspace and serve them up to me in an uncanny, if rather smug way; sort of like it knows me better than I know me. I keep wanting its suggestions to be wrong but so far, no joy.
On a recent trip to my movie-watching past, I ordered up Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and as if to prove how tragically un-cool I seem to have become, who knew this cinematic gem is now referred to a CE3K? I hope at least some of you said “no,” humor me here.
If you’re a regular reader of Goth Chick News, you know that un-cool though I may be, I’m an expert cyber-stalker — as proven by my ability to produce Danny Torrance for you (the little kid from The Shining). And as long as the police can’t seem to figure out where to serve the warrant, I’m going to keep right on honing my skills for your amusement, which is why it was with a persistent and hungry eye that I sized up little Barry Guiler.
You know who I’m talking about; that adorable little tow-head from CE3K (I can’t believe I just typed that) who toddled his way out into a pitch dark Indiana corn field chasing after the lights from the alien spacecraft, happily chirping “TOYS!” He couldn’t have been more than four when the movie was filmed in 1977, making him round about 37 years old today. No other movies, no sitcoms, nothing but radio silence from little Barry Guiler.
Target acquired. Cover me, I’m going in.
Original Fiction: “THE WEIRD OF IRONSPELL” by John R. Fultz
“The Weird of Ironspell” by John R. Fultz
Illustrations by Alex Sheikman
3. Return of the Golden Skull
War had come to the Kingdoms of the East.
The earth grew rich with spilled blood, and the sky grew black with smoke from the fires of conquest. Yet this war was unlike any that had come before it, for the stakes were not those of boundaries, empires, or territories. This was a war of annihilation, a war of extinction and wild slaughter. A flood of massacres and endless suffering, a surging tide of death to drown the lands of men.
Fleeing refugees and survivors of the carnage called them Agnyri, or Demon-Men. They came out of the ancient land Dylestus, where a new power had risen to twist their brutal natures into an organized mass of marching havoc. They were the spawn of devils, born with an inner hatred of their human half, eager to quench that hate by drinking the blood of any who reminded them of their earthly lineage. The Agnyri ate only human flesh and dressed themselves in the skins of slain women and children. They called up dragons to burn the forests and fields in their path. They came in the screeching millions, bearing the banner of their God-King, a golden skull on a black field.
The feuding kingdoms of Draviah, Mydrithia, and Al-Kahna joined forces for the first time in history to face the rushing horde. Already their easternmost neighbor, the city-state of Nyrion, had been obliterated, its people become fodder for the flesh eaters, its opulent palaces now charred piles of stone and scattered bones. Each of the Three Sultans knew his kingdom was next, so longstanding differences were cast aside and the Triple Alliance was formed.
Now a half-million soldiers assembled on the Plains of Zharra, awaiting the arrival of the man-eaters. Beneath a fading sun the eastern legions spread in glittering waves of bronze and silver.
Robin Hood (2010)
Robin Hood (2010)
Directed by Ridley Scott. Starring Russell Crowe, Cate Blanchett, Mark Strong, Max Von Sydow, Oscar Isaac, Matthew Macfayden, William Hurt, Mark Addy.
For the past three decades, versions of the Robin Hood legend have followed an unwritten maxim that they must be dark, realistic, epic, and not a touch of fun. It’s as if artists have done all they can to avoid looking or acting like the 1938 Michael Curtiz-Errol Flynn movie The Adventures of Robin Hood.
By St. George, why? Why wouldn’t you want to catch some of the glory of one of the most beloved adventure stories ever put on film? I don’t think it’s exaggerating to say that The Adventures of Robin Hood is the most successful and important version of the Robin Hood legend in the entire seven-plus centuries that it’s been in existence. Who is Robin Hood? He’s Errol Flynn. Nothing will ever change that.
I’m fine with somebody trying, however. But I wish one of those somebodies would recall the thrill of Flynn and Curtiz and not fear it. (I think they’re afraid of green tights. Fine, make ‘em gray. Get over the stupid “tights obsession” already!) They should also consider well the old lays that made Robin Hood both a hero and a humorous trickster figure. This is what I want to see, and I’d wager it’s what most audiences want to see as well. Rob from the rich, give to the poor, make rich buffoons look even buffoonier, and wield the sharpest-shooting bow and arrow in the kingdom. Not much to ask for, really.
Short Fiction Roundup: Bull Spec
There’s a new magazine devoted to speculative fiction with the unfortunate name of Bull Spec, which I hope for the sake of the editorial team does not become known as “BS” for short. I haven’t read any of the contents, though you can get a pdf version (there is a print edition as well) Radiohead-fashion, i.e., pay what you want. Fiction by C.S. Fuqua, Peter Wood, Natania Barron, Michael Jasper, with a serial graphic story by Mike Gallagher.
Its stated quarterly mission in exploring new fiction is: “Bring the best of speculative fiction with a focus on Durham-area authors and stories to a wide audience for shared discussion.” One critical comment: a particularly ugly website that looks like something coded in 1999.
Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek: “La Senora de Oro” by R.L. Roth
She was tiny, beautiful… and crafted of pure gold. Her gifts were pure as well: gold, and madness.
George took me aside yesterday & he said me & him shoud strike off on our own again. He doesn’t like how things are getting. I told him to bide his time just a bit longer so we can get a little more Gold & then be off home. We need the Gold lady to find the Gold so we have to stay. George says it is a foul charm that needs Blood to work. He thinks the Gold lady is the Devil. I said the Devil has better things to do then live in a little statue. Even if George is right I will leave soon with my Gold & leave the Devil behind.
I think & dream of home all the time now. In my dreams we are rich & powerful.
R.L. Roth lives in Canada. This is his first published story.
“La Senora de Oro” appears in Black Gate 14. You can read a more complete excerpt here. The complete Black Gate 14 Sneak Peek is available here.
Art by Malcolm McClinton.