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Fundraising Month at Ralan’s

Fundraising Month at Ralan’s

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ralan-banner-01As a significant number of the readers of this site are writers I thought it only appropriate to mention that this month is the annual fundraising month for a terrific writer’s resource, Ralan’s Webstravaganza.

Those of you who use it know why it’s so great: up to date market information on everything from book publishers and pro-markets, calls for anthologies, freezines, pro-markets, contests — in fact just about everything that’s out there is listed at Ralan’s. It’s no exagerration to say that without Ralan’s I would not have found half of the magazines that I currently subscribe to or submit to, including the one I’m typing this post for right now.

So, if you use it, why not kick a little back to the guy that’s been doing all the work of keeping track of this stuff for us for years, Ralan Conley, a guy who doesn’t bombard his users with the hassle of a lot of adds or redirects or phony links. When I think about how much use I get out of Ralan’s over the course of the year, a 10 or 20 dollar donation is peanuts, an absolute bargain for a site that has become my favorite way to find new fiction markets and keep track of everything that is out there.
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BILL WARD is a genre writer, editor, and blogger wanted across the Outer Colonies for crimes against the written word. His fiction has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies, as well as gaming supplements and websites. He is a Contributing Editor and reviewer for Black Gate Magazine, and 423rd in line for the throne of Lost Lemuria. Read more at BILL’s blog, DEEP DOWN GENRE HOUND.

The Incredible Adventures of Algernon Blackwood

The Incredible Adventures of Algernon Blackwood

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algernon-blackwood-oldIncredible Adventures
Algernon Blackwood (Macmillan & Co., 1914)

Of all the practitioners of the classic “weird tale,” which flourished in the early twentieth century before morphing into the more easily discerned genres of fantasy and horror, none entrances me more than Algernon Blackwood. Looking at the stable of the foundational authors of horror—luminaries like Poe, James, le Fanu, Machen, Lovecraft—it is Blackwood who has the strongest effect on me. Of all his lofty company, he is the one who seems to achieve the most numinous “weird” of all.

Blackwood is often referred to as a “ghost story” writer; indeed, one current in-print volume is titled The Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood. But true ghosts rarely appear in his fiction. Blackwood liked to dance around the edge of easy classification, and as his work advanced through the 1900s and into the teens, it got even harder to pinpoint. Blackwood’s interest in spiritualism, his love of nature, and his pantheism started to overtake his more standard forays in supernatural terror. His writing turned more toward transcendentalism and away from plot. The most important precursor to this development is his 1911 novel The Centaur, which critic S. T. Joshi describes as Blackwood’s “spiritual autobiography.”

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Conspiracy Theory: The Plot Against Plot

Conspiracy Theory: The Plot Against Plot

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Lev Grossman maintains that the reading public’s desire for plot accounts for the rising popularity of young adult novels among adult readers who have tired of difficult, and, by implication, plotless novels that are supposed to be “good for you.”  Perhaps not coincidentally, Grossman himself is the author of what is classified in some corners as young adult fiction; his latest, The Magicians, sounds like a “grown-up” take on Harry Potter.  I’m looking forward to reading it, but not because I have been denied plot and have to resort to the young adult fiction aisles to avoid more difficult work that might give me a headache.

Grossman argues that the general reading public is reacting against the “plotless” works of Modernism that presumably have come to dominate our reading selections. The problem with this is that many of the works cited as “plotless” Modernist, such as The Great Gatsby, weren’t all that popular  at the time of their publication. Indeed, it wasn’t until after World War II when the academy declared these works as part of the literary canon, coupled with the post-war rise in college attendance, that people came to hear of them.   …

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Non-Fantasy Reading

Non-Fantasy Reading

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c595ea9a962fb1e597a344c5551417941414141I tend to go through my “to be read pile” looking for themes as an approach to wend my way through and choose what  I want030727944801_sx50_sclzzzzzzz_ to attack next. These two are about the realities of war and the casualties of those who manage to survive.  The first, Denis Johnson’s Tree of Smoke is a novel about the Vietnam war fiasco; the other is non-fiction, The Forever War (also the title of  Joe Haldeman’s classic satire of hard SF and the Vietnam war, whether by coincidence or intention I don’t know), a memoir by Dexter Filkins of his experiences as a reporter in Afghanistan and Iraq.  Harrowing, unsettling stuff and highly recommended as a dose of “reality” (even when, as in the case of Johnson’s novel, it is presented through a fictional lens) from fantasy swashbuckling.

Recent Books from Black Gate contributors

Recent Books from Black Gate contributors

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johannes1What’s the point of toiling long hours in relative obscurity for Black Gate, if we don’t pimp your new books?

With that in mind, I’d like to draw attention to a trio of new and upcoming titles from BG contributors – starting with a handsome little volume that caught my eye on the New Arrivals table at Borders last week.  The summary sounded terrific, but it wasn’t until I saw the author photo on the inside flap that I exclaimed “Hey!  I know this guy!”

That’s because Johannes Cabal the Necromancer was written by Jonathan L. Howard, author of the lead story in our last issue, “The Beautiful Corridor,” a nifty little tale of a resourceful young thief penetrating a very dangerous crypt – and the talking corpse (and other surprises) that await her at its heart.

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The Call of Cthulhu Movie, 2005

The Call of Cthulhu Movie, 2005

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the_call_of_cthulhu_dvd_coverDirected by Andrew Leman; starring Matt Foyer, Chad Fifer, Noah Wagner, Ramon Allen Jr., and Ralph Lucas.

I cannot say I’ve ever been impressed with any film I’ve seen purporting to be based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft, as they have all tended to stray pretty far from what makes Lovecraft’s stories interesting in the first place. And they generally show the limits of their budget as well as being both poorly shot and acted. But then I heard about this little gem, distributed by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, that adapts Lovecraft’s foundational short ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ in as loyal and accurate a way as possible. Not only that — and here’s the really interesting bit — the movie itself is a black and white silent film, as if it had been filmed at the time of the story’s publication in the 1920s.

The choice to make this a silent film was a smart one. Firstly, it does help evoke the period of Lovecraft in a way no film before it ever has (all of the ones I’ve ever seen where contemporary pieces, for a start), and also makes it feel like a world apart from our own. In leaving some things unseen and unsaid, and in creating an at times stylized environment, this film activates the viewer’s imagination to fill in the blanks — and speeches or effects which would seem silly or dreadful when laid bare in a modern film are instead left in the shadows. In surmounting the very limited budget for this project, the choice could not have been better.

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Howard Andrew Jones and the WSJ

Howard Andrew Jones and the WSJ

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swords21Eric Knight scooped me by breaking the news below, but I thought this was worth making a little noise about.

BG Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones has been quoted extensively in today’s edition of the The Wall Street Journal, in reporter John J. Millar’s lengthy article on the Harold Lamb revival, “Shepherding a Lamb’s Lost Legacy” (available in its entirity here.) 

The article follows the completion of Howard’s eight-volume reprint series of Lamb’s work, now available from Bison Press and Amazon.com

Here’s the opening paragraphs:

“Imagine rummaging through an old stack of pulp magazines and coming across a lost story called ‘The Three Musketeers’ by Alexander Dumas,” says Howard Jones. “If nobody had heard of it, you’d feel compelled to tell people what they were ­missing.”

That’s how Mr. Jones, a writing teacher at the University of Southern Indiana, likens his discovery of Harold Lamb’s historical-adventure fiction. For years, he has tracked down dozens of obscure tales and ­novellas by Lamb. This literary search-and-rescue mission has led to a small boom in the ­author’s popularity. Lamb won’t ever achieve the rank of Dumas, but he may yet win some well-deserved ­posthumous recognition. 

And Mr. Miller closes with:

Lamb’s obituaries in 1962 barely mentioned his fiction. By then, the cheap magazines that had published his yarns were long forgotten except by a few passionate collectors. Like a burial mound’s hidden hoard of treasure, they lay undisturbed, awaiting their rediscovery by Mr. Jones—and now a growing band of admirers.

Once again Howard beats me to one of my life-long ambitions, getting quoted as an expert in the WSJ, and manages to make it look easy.  Fitting with my long and warm friendship with Howard, my immediate reaction was “Rat Bastard!  He’ll pay!”

But until that day – congratulations Howard!

Serpent of Hellas

Serpent of Hellas

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On this date, August 27th*, nearly 2500 years ago, the straits of Artemisium came alive with the creak of oar-locks and the bellow of horns. Countless voices raised the paean, the battle-hymn of Athena, to the heavens. As the song reached its crescendo bronze-sheathed rams found their marks, splintering hulls and snapping oars. And so began the Greeks’ three-day clash against the numerically superior armada of Great King Xerxes of Persia, for control of the waters off the northern shore of Euboea—and ultimately, for control of Hellas, itself.

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