Browsed by
Category: Editor’s Blog

The blog posts of Black Gate Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones and Editor John O’Neill

Take Advantage of Holiday Discounts at Lulu.com

Take Advantage of Holiday Discounts at Lulu.com

Comments 0 Comment

luluI got a reminder from Lulu.com this morning that the window for placing Holiday orders in time for Christmas is closing.  Thanks Lulu!

Plus, they sent me the handy coupon at right.  It’s good for 20% off any order (up to a total of $100 savings) until Dec 31, 2010.

I hope I don’t get in trouble for sharing it. Probably not.  But if anybody locks you in a small room and shines a bright light in your face and demands to know where you got this coupon, remember these handy phrases: “I’ll talk!  It was Gordon van Gelder.”

Or just go get your own coupon online, at their Daily Deals page.

startling-storiesLulu is the leading Print on Demand (POD) publisher. Need a reminder of all the great titles available at Lulu?

Over the past year we’ve told you about the two volumes of The Clayton Astounding reprints, Vagabonds of Space and Planetoids of Peril.

For gamers, there’s the new role playing game of heroic rodents, Hyperborean Mice, featuring grim swords & sorcery action… with talking mice.

For short fiction lovers, there’s G.W. Thomas’ terrific Dark Worlds magazine, featuring tales of modern adventure fantasy, and the new incarnation of pulp magazine Startling Stories, from Wild Cat Books (shown at left).

And don’t forget Charles R. Saunders’ latest Imaro novels, The Naama War, and The Trail of Bohu.

At that and much more.  Support your favorite small press publishers, and get some great gifts at the same time. How cool is that?

Apex Magazine 19 arrives, featuring C.S.E. Cooney

Apex Magazine 19 arrives, featuring C.S.E. Cooney

Comments 3 comments

apex19I’m very jealous of how punctual this magazine is. I suspect a pact with demonic forces.

The new issue of Apex has arrived, featuring fiction from our own marvelous C.S.E. Cooney, with her short story “Pale, and from a Sea-Wave Rising,” as well as less interesting people like Nick Wolven, with “Radishes,” and Erzebet YellowBoy, with the reprint “At the Core” (from Fantasy Magazine, 2006.)

The issue also includes two poems: “Flourless Devil’s Food” by Shweta Narayan, and “Cancelled Flight” by W.C. Roberts.

Apex Magazine 19 is sold online for $2.99; it’s also sold in a downloadable, pay-what-you-want edition through Smashwords, and in a Kindle edition (for 99 cents). Previous issues are available through their back issue page.

C.S.E.’s complete story is online. Here’s the first line:

Aquilo Vickery Makepeace, anatomy student, was looking for corpses when he found the undine.

I like it. We last profiled Apex with their November Arab/Muslim issue, the October issue and in August (also featuring C.S.E. Cooney).

Apex Magazine is edited by the ethereally beautiful Catherynne M. Valente. To join the Apex Army and donate, subscribe, or help spread the word, visit their online store.

“The Word of Azrael” Selected for The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

“The Word of Azrael” Selected for The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy

Comments 9 comments

yearsbest2011Matthew David Surridge’s novellete “The Word of Azrael” has been selected for The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011 Edition, edited by Rich Horton.

Congratulations, Matthew!  “The Word of Azrael” has been praised in many places since it appeared in Black Gate 14. Here’s what Rich said in his Locus magazine review in the August issue:

Even better is Matthew [David] Surridge’s “The Word of Azrael.” It concerns Isrohim Vey, who sees the Angel of Death on a battlefield and as a result is spared — more a curse than a blessing — to search again for the Angel. His search almost takes the form of a catalog of sword & sorcery tropes, his many adventures told briefly but with style and an ironic edge. Surridge both celebrates and winks at the genre. It’s very entertaining, clever, and even thought-provoking.

…

Read More Read More

New Treasures: Songs of the Dying Earth

New Treasures: Songs of the Dying Earth

Comments 13 comments

sotdyWe get a lot of review copies here at the rooftop headquarters of Black Gate magazine, and it’s always a treat when the mail truck arrives. Getting free books never gets old, and we usually drop everything to tear open packages and pass around the most intriguing titles.

What is unusual is for a single book to bring all toil to a complete standstill for half an hour  (except for the tireless Howard Andrew Jones, who’s been missing in the restricted section of our pulp library for the last 48 hours). That’s exactly what happened when Songs of the Dying Earth (SotDE), edited by George R.R. Martin and Gardner Dozois, arrived today.

SotDE is a tribute collection; its subtitle is Stories in Honor of Jack Vance, and it contains nearly 700 pages of original fiction set in Vance’s Dying Earth — one of the great settings in all of fantasy, and home to Turjan the wizard, Rhialto the Marvellous, Cugel the Clever, and other fabulous characters. The Dying Earth is a far-future Terra, where the sun is on the verge of extinction, magic is potent and terrible, monsters roam the land, and the ruins of countless civilizations rest uneasily beneath layers of thin dust and vegetation.

dying-earth2The table of contents is one of the most impressive I’ve ever seen — it read like a Who’s Who of the most influential fantasy authors of the decade, including Robert Silverberg, George R.R. Martin, Walter Jon Williams, Jeff VanderMeer, Tad Williams, Glen Cook, Tanith Lee, Howard Waldrop, Elizabeth Hand, Lucius Shepard, Neil Gaiman, Phyllis Eisenstein, Liz Williams, Matthew Hughes, Terry Dowling, Mike Resnick, Paula Volsky, Kage Baker, John C. Wright, and others. It also includes a big new novella from Dan Simmons, an appreciation by Dean Koontz, and a preface by Jack Vance himself.

SotDE was first published in a limited edition by Subterranean Press last July; since then the book — and many of the stories — have received considerable attention. Jeff VanderMeer’s H.P. Lovecraft-inspired tale “The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod” has been turned into a novel, and SotDE was nominated for Best Anthology in the 2010 Locus Awards. Neil Gaiman’s story “An Invocation of Incuriosity” took home the Best Short Story prize at the same Awards.

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honor of Jack Vance goes on sale Dec. 7th. It is published by Tor books, in hardcover for $27.99, and gets our highest recommendation.

Crossed Genres 25 Arrives

Crossed Genres 25 Arrives

Comments 1 comment

crossed-genresCrossed Genres, the online magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy with a twist, has just published its 25th issue.

Crossed Genres is edited by Jaym Gates and Natania Barron. This issue includes five complete works of fiction, including “We Shall Overcome,” by Nicole Givens Kurtz, and “The Gift” by Christie Yant, as well as stories by Jaymee Goh, Arthur Carey and Jacob Edwards.

The wonderful cover art (left), “Balloons,” is by Margaret Hardy.

Crossed Genres is published monthly; this is the first issue with the new editorial team. The magazine was previously edited by Bart R. Leig and K.T. Holt. The first issue appeared in September, 2008.

The genre (or theme) changes each issue. The genre for the current issue is “Celebration;” the genre for issue #27 (to be released January 1, 2010) is Tragedy. Submissions for Issue #27 will be accepted until midnight December 31. The next two genres are Superhero and Mystery.

Congratulations, Jaym and Natania! Here’s to many more.

NASA Announces Mysterious News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

NASA Announces Mysterious News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery

Comments 3 comments

imagesOkay, this is pretty cool. Freelance Black Gate operative John C. Hocking leaks word to us that NASA has announced a press conference this Thursday regarding an “astrobiology finding.” The prestigious journal Science has also “embargoed details” until the conference:

NASA Sets News Conference on Astrobiology Discovery;
Science Journal Has Embargoed Details Until 2 p.m. EST On Dec. 2

WASHINGTON — NASA will hold a news conference at 2 p.m. EST on Thursday, Dec. 2, to discuss an astrobiology finding that will impact the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life. Astrobiology is the study of the origin, evolution, distribution and future of life in the universe.

Anyone who follows these things regularly knows they usually lead to some announcement about fossilized remnants that might once have been bacteria, maybe, in some rock in the arctic that once maybe came from Mars. Lame.  They hardly ever announce that alien life is hours away from totally devouring downtown Pittsburgh, or knocking over skyscrapers in Tokyo or anything like that.

But you never know. What does “embargoed details” mean? Does it involve suited men in late model sedans, monitoring the activities of journalists who don’t respect the government’s requests to “keep a lid” on this? We can only hope. ‘Cause that would be cool.

In the meantime, the anticipation shall doubtless be far more delicious than the actual announcement, but that’s OK. We have until Thursday to dream that maybe, this time, they’ll announce that alien life has touched down in Oklahoma, and they’re willing to trade advanced tech for more Chuck Berry CDs.

Subscribe to Black Gate? Get a PDF Version for just $2.95!

Subscribe to Black Gate? Get a PDF Version for just $2.95!

Comments 0 Comment

black-gate-12Are you a current Black Gate magazine subscriber? If so, you’re eligible to purchase PDF copies of your favorite issues at $2 off regular price — just $2.95 per issue.

High-resolution PDF versions of Black Gate are regularly $4.95 each, and are now available in the same quantities as print subscriptions: 2 issues for $9.50, 4 for $17.95, or 6 for just $25.95.

However, subscribers to the print version can now buy PDFs for just $2.95 for single issues. Discounts are offered for subscriptions as well: $5.50 for 2 PDF issues, $9.95 for 4, and just $14.25 for 6!

Those who purchase a 4-issue print sub and a 4-issue PDF sub at the same time can now save even more, and receive the PDF subscription for just $7.95 — a $10 savings off regular price.

Issues currently available in PDF format are BG 11, BG 12, BG 13, and our big double issue, BG 14 — 384 pages, still priced at the regular cost of $4.95. Oppressed house elves are currently hard at work, painstakingly converting our earlier issues by hand, and PDF subscriptions to future issues are available as well.

You can get all the details on our subscription page. Act now, and help us afford that big Christmas office party!

John Joseph Adams Interviews John R. Fultz

John Joseph Adams Interviews John R. Fultz

Comments 6 comments

wayofthewizardJohn Joseph Adams, editor of The Way of the Wizard anthology, has interviewed contributor — and Black Gate blogger and author — John R. Fultz in conjunction with the book launch:

In the cannon of classic fantasy, there are many examples of terrific wizardry, such as Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales, where Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face are the heroes’ patrons – mysterious inhuman wizards who watch over and protect Fafhrd and the Mouser, as well as giving them preposterous quests now and then. The tales of Clark Ashton Smith are rife with wizardry… Malygris of Susran, Namirrah of Zothique, and Evagh the Warlock, to name only a few. Nobody could build a rich, phantasmagoric world of dark wonders like Smith… Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone is one of my favorite wizards as well… Who knew a wizard could be such a bad-ass with a sword?

The Way of the Wizard was released on November 16th; the book’s website features seven “Free Reads,” including  John Joseph Adams’ introduction, stories from Adam-Troy Castro, Jeremiah Tolbert, David Barr Kirtley, and the complete  text of John R. Fultz’s “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria.”

John R. Fultz blogs here regularly; he’s also the author of “Oblivion Is the Sweetest Wine” (Black Gate 12), “Return of the Quill” (Black Gate 13), and the upcoming “The Vintages of Dream.”

The complete interview is here.

Great Gift Ideas For Geeks and Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

Great Gift Ideas For Geeks and Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans

Comments 10 comments

honey-monthI love being interviewed.  Especially on weeks when Jack Nicholson isn’t talking to the press.  I tell my wife, “I was interviewed more often than Jack Nicholson this week.”

Alice is rarely impressed. “I don’t like Jack Nicholson,” she tells me. But I keep it up, in the hopes that it will win me some lovin’.

I was interviewed by SF Signal for their regular Mind Meld column, along with people less famous than me, like Jeff VanderMeer, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Mike Resnick, Martha Wells, David B. Coe, Jaym Gates, Brenda Cooper, Mike Brotherton, A. Lee Martinez, and other international celebrities and rock stars like that.  The topic was Great Gift Ideas For Geeks and Science Fiction and Fantasy Fans, and here’s what that VanderMeer guy said about some book about honey by Amal El-Mohtar:

The Honey Month – This beautifully illustrated volume of short fictions and poems takes as its inspiration the author’s tasting of 28 different kinds of honey, one per day. Each tasting leads to a different literary creation, but she begins each entry by describing the honey in terms that will be familiar to wine connoisseurs. To top it all off, Oliver Hunter’s finely rendered color illustrations make encountering such rich, heady prose even more delightful…. The book’s a slim 73 pages for a reason: like the honey described, any more and it would be too rich for most readers. As it stands, however, The Honey Month is the perfect length, and the perfect gift.

I tried to buy a copy of The Honey Month from Amal at Wiscon, but she wouldn’t sell it to me (I think because I was more famous than her). Now that she’s had a book blurbed by VanderMeer and done, like, the most popular interview in the history of Black Gate, I expect all that to change. And maybe a brother can buy a simple book, know what I’m sayin’?

You can read the complete SF Signal article here.

Spaceships and Beautiful Women

Spaceships and Beautiful Women

Comments 5 comments

astronomy-pic21

As I’ve written previously, the cover art of pulp science fiction magazines had two prevelant themes: spaceships and beautiful women. Both appealed on a primal level to young teen boys, and together they created a seductive vision of a promised future. Most boys my age looked forward to graduation and their first car; I was waiting patiently for a ride to Alpha Centauri piloted by women in lingerie. Hey, it got me through high school.

So, as glorious and awe-inspiring as NASA’s Astronomy Pictures of the Day have been, with sweeping high-res images of distant galaxies and massive supernova remnants, I’ve always felt they were missing… a certain something.

So you can imagine my delight at the image above, posted this week, of astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson peering out from the Cupola window bay of the International Space Station. Science is at last catching up to the promise of generations of early SF, with beautiful women gazing down at the Earth with (oh please, God) wistful dreams of conquest.

Stay tuned for news on flying cars and jet packs.