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Category: Editor’s Blog

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

Weird Tales 356 Arrives

Weird Tales 356 Arrives

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wt356The latest issue of the Grand Old Lady of dark fantasy, Weird Tales, arrived at the Black Gate rooftop headquarters last week. This is issue 356, Summer 2010, of a magazine that’s been published semi-regularly since 1923.

This issue’s theme is “Uncanny Beauty: A celebration of the eerily sensuous.” Fittingly, it includes fiction from the eerily sensuous Catherynne M. Valente, as well as a tarot card riff on an eerily sensuous Lady Gaga video, written by the entirely sensuous Amal El-Mohtar.

Plus — there’s more fiction from Ian R. MacLeod, Kat Howard, L.L. Hannett, Mike Aronovitz, and poems by Natania Barron and the extremely cool F.J. Bergmann. Non-fiction includes an article on “Strange Faces” by Theodora Goss, a look at Weird Tales pulp cover artist Margaret Brundage by Paula Guran, a fine remembrance by Senior Editor Stephen H. Segal of long-time WT editor George H. Scithers, who recently passed away, a column about H.P. Lovecraft by Kenneth Hite, and the usual book reviews.

Editor Ann VanderMeer continues to collect sniffs from some of the old guard, who seem to find insufficient sword & sorcery in this incarnation of the new weird, but so far I find little to fault with the authors she has gathered around her banner. And the design and artwork remain top notch.

Cover price for the issue is $6.99. It is 80 pages; cover art is by Alberto Seveso. The website is here.

Harlan Ellison Struggles to Sell Early Typewriter

Harlan Ellison Struggles to Sell Early Typewriter

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ellisontypewriter2Harlan Ellison is selling his first typewriter.

Following the sale of Jack Kerouac’s typewriter for $22,500 at Christie’s in New York on June 22, interest in genre circles was high to see what kind of demand there would be for a similar relic from the famed science fiction writer. The item in question is a used Remington Rand “noiseless” portable dating from around 1936 to 1940, used by Ellison until he turned eighteen. Now David Silver, the man brokering the sale, reports at Harlan Ellison Webderland that he is having trouble attracting serious bids:

Way back in September, Harlan asked me to go forward and attempt to sell his extremely precious first typewriter…  but I met with virtually no success. There was a lot of “Harlan who?” or (gasp!) “You mean that Star Trek guy?” or similarly uninformed responses…. Everywhere I found mentions of the sale, I couldn’t help but feel they all lacked any real element of care…  I wasn’t expecting anybody to lie for Harlan, to invent anything, or to reinvent the wheel. I simply thought MANY of you would get excited… Stand up, spread your arms, and yell at the world, “C’mon, all you dumb asses with the money and the initiative to take ADVANTAGE of this opportunity, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! Are you STUPID?! Do I gotta spell it out for you?! SHOW HARLAN THE MONEY!!” … We’re talking about a first tier unique collectible item with an asking price of $40,000!!

Ellison, who announced he was leaving the internet on July 6 in a short Goodbye note (saying “I’ve finally had as much of the internet as I can bear”), returned to posting at Harlan Ellison Webderland on July 26. The home page of the Webderland has been replaced with detailed information on the typewriter.

No closing date for the sale has been announced.

Is The Bookish Owl the Worst Web Site Ever?

Is The Bookish Owl the Worst Web Site Ever?

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Well, no. Probably not. But it is currently the most personally irritating.

I recently discovered that the site’s admin is reprinting Black Gate material without our permission, and frequently without byline. The site isn’t merely quoting from us, or summarizing, or pointing interested readers here, which we appreciate and encourage, they are copying and pasting our complete articles onto their own web site. We’re not alone — they’re apparently doing this with a lot of other fantasy and science fiction web sites as well.

My first hope was that this plagiarism was some sort of amateurish mistake, and it may still be. Some people, even some literate, intelligent people, might not understand what’s wrong about taking someone else’s work without credit.

Upon digging further,  I realized that there is NO WAY to contact anyone involved in the site. No contact information for the administrator is listed anywhere on the pages of The Bookish Owl. I filled out a comments page and submitted it, but my comments were ignored. I tracked down to whom the site was registered (a company) only to discover that the company’s web site has not been updated since 2008 and that their voice mailbox is full. Their e-mail address bounces.

I can only conclude that theirs is a deliberate attempt to steal the work of others to boost traffic to their own site. As their admin seems to regularly cut and paste material from this site, perhaps he or she will read this note and realize their error, and correct it with an apology, in which case all will be well. Or perhaps it will simply reappear automatically at The Bookish Owl with the headline above and I’ll have a chuckle before I track down all the others from whom The Bookish Owl is stealing material and together we will contemplate appropriate action.

Today is Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day

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veteransToday is Veterans Day. For our readers and contributors in the United States, today is a federal holiday (no mail!).

Known around the world as Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, Veterans Day commemorates the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I. Major hostilities of that war were formally ended on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.

In 1953, a shoe store owner named Alfred King lobbied residents of his small town of Emporia, Kansas, to expand Armistice Day to celebrate all veterans, rather than just those who’d served in World War I. The local Chamber of Commerce agreed, and Representative Ed Rees (also from Emporia) helped push a bill for the holiday through Congress. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the bill into law on May 26, 1954.

The Black Gate staff is an international group of writers who celebrate fantasy in all its forms. We’re particularly fond of tales of warriors, men and women of valor who struggle heroically against great odds, and we honor the writers who’ve paid tribute to those who fight the good fight, real and imagined, every day here on the Black Gate blog.

But today there are men and women around the world who have left their homes and families behind to take up arms and stand on guard for something they believe in. As most of us are painfully aware, often they pay for that dedication with their lives.

Today we’d like to take a moment to honor them. And we hope that all of you who enjoy fantastic tales of selfless heroism, as we do, will remember that our communities are filled with veterans who have made sacrifices on our behalf, and perhaps make the time to reach out to them. To let them know we honor the heroes in our midst just as much as — if not more than — the Aragorns, Arthurs, and Amazons who fire our imagination.

Realms of Fantasy Returns — Again

Realms of Fantasy Returns — Again

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rofLess than three weeks ago we reported that Realms of Fantasy magazine was being closed by Tir Na Nog Press and publisher Warren Lapine. (And Brian Murphy asked if the end of Realms of Fantasy begs the question: Too much fantasy on the market?)

At the time, Warren offered to sell the magazine for $1 to a responsible party who could continue publication. Now SF Scope is reporting that the magazine has been sold to Damnation Books.

Who the heck is Damnation Books? I admit I never heard of them either. According to their website, they’ve published electronic novels, novellas and short stories by Joshua Martyr, S. A. Bolich, Matthew S. Rotundo, and many others. Their CEO is Kim Richards, and their staff includes William Gilchrist, Tim Marquitz, and Lisa J. Jackson.

Damnation Books plans to release the December 2010 issue (previously only available electronically) in print form, and continue virtually immediately with the February 2011 issue, meaning the magazine’s bi-monthly schedule will suffer no gaps.

All subscriptions will be honored, and Damnation has announced plans for an extra-sized June 2011 volume, to coincide with the magazine’s 100th issue. The website remains at www.rofmag.com, and effective immediately the magazine has reopened to submissions.  No official word yet on whether any of the magazine’s current staff will remain.

This is great news for fantasy fans — and kudos to Warren and Damnation Books for orchestrating what looks like a smooth transition.  Here’s hoping Damnation finds the right formula to keep this grand lady of fantasy alive and thriving.

Writing: Mistakes Are Future Tips

Writing: Mistakes Are Future Tips

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1793-notebook1Several weeks ago I waxed on about how useful I find my Paperblanks writing notebook. I fill one up about once a year, and recently found myself copying over some of the information I always jot down in the first few pages. One of the most important things I keep there is a list of reminders intended to help me be a better writer. On the whole, although I call these writing tips, most of them are mistakes I’ve made. I try to glance over them every few days.

Every writer’s going to have his or her own favorite mistakes; I’m listing the ones I’m most aware of in my own writing in the hope you’ll find some of them instructional. Maybe this list can even help you avoid them.

  • Don’t be too quick to reveal the villain’s plan

In my rough drafts the villains usually are way too obvious. Sometimes it’s good if the readers know exactly what the plan is because that creates tension, but I have a habit of just laying it all out as I’m figuring out the bad guy’s motives and as a result, crush suspense.

…

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Black Gate at World Fantasy Convention 2010

Black Gate at World Fantasy Convention 2010

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Well, I’ve finally returned to the Black Gate rooftop headquarters here in St. Charles, Illinois, after a weary week of travel. We had the largest team gathering in the magazine’s history at the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio last weekend — including several Contributing Editors, half a dozen bloggers, and over two dozen writers and contributors. I started the magazine ten years ago and have been attending conventions for decades, and there were several long-term staff members I met for the first time, including the distinguished Ryan Harvey and John R. Fultz.

Team Black Gate
Team Black Gate: editor John ONeill, contributing editor Bill Ward, author and blogger James Enge, Jason Waltz (Rogue Blades), managing editor Howard Andrew Jones, author and blogger John R. Fultz, and author and blogger Ryan Harvey.

All of us were invited to take part in a podcast on Sword & Sorcery organized by the charming Jaym Gates — stay tuned for the broadcast location and date.  Our Saturday night reading was a rollicking success, as nearly two dozen Black Gate authors read from work sold to the magazine over the past ten years, including James Enge, Frederic Durbin, E.E. Knight, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, L.E. Modesitt Jr, Darrell Schweitzer, Donald S. Crankshaw, Howard Andrew Jones, Martha Wells, Ryan Harvey, Robert J. Howe, John R. Fultz, Myke Cole, Renee Stern, Steven Silver, Michael Shea, S. Hutson Blount, Janet Stirling, F. Brett Cox, and Frederick Tor.

I also got the chance to meet with other contributors including Mike Resnick, Jeffrey Ford, David B. Coe, Ellen Klages (and her charming sister), and Charles Coleman Finlay.  It was a delight to finally meet artist Jim Pavelec in the Dealer’s room, as well as fellow editors Adrian Simmons (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly) and Mike Allen (Mythic Delirium), and make several new friends, including long-term reader Matthew Wuertz. I made the trip with Jason Waltz, publisher of Rogue Blades Entertainment, who shared our table and turned out to be a stalwart traveling companion.

Due to the sheer size of the convention there were also BG writers wandering the halls I somehow managed to miss completely, including Jeremiah Tolbert and Rick Bowes. Ah well, maybe next year. There’s a reason it’s called the World Fantasy Convention. No matter how much you try, life is too short to see it all.

Nov/Dec Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine Now on Sale

Nov/Dec Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine Now on Sale

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fsfnov-dec2010aHuzzah!  The latest issue of my favorite fantasy magazine goes on sale today.

Ahem.  Favorite other than Black Gate, of course.

The big November/December double issue of Fantasy & Science Fiction includes contributions from Robert Reed, Alan Dean Foster, Albert E. Cowdrey, Alexander Jablokov, and many more.

Here’s what the editor, Gordon van Gelder, tells us about the issue:

The Robert Reed story about running in this issue is so effective that I lost 8 pounds and knocked 0:31 off my best mile time just by editing it. Speaking of editing it, it is 100% true that when it was on submission, I read one of the stories in the issue while attending one of my daughter’s tea parties. (I won’t say which story.) Jerry Oltion has bought 5,000 copies of this issue and stored them away, just in case he might need them in the future. Alex Irvine didn’t get the memo that he was supposed to send me a story just so his name could be on the cover.

We last covered F&SF with their Oct/Nov issue, with Richard Chwedyk, Michael Swanwick, Terry Bisson, and Richard Matheson. If you missed it, maybe it’s time to consider subscribing?

Complete details (and a subscription form) are available on their website.

Black Gate at the 2010 World Fantasy Convention

Black Gate at the 2010 World Fantasy Convention

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Only a few years ago I looked on attending a convention as a useless expenditure, an indulgence I didn’t think I had time for — probably because the unfamiliarity of it made me uncomfortable.

wfclogo1Fortunately, my friend Eric Knight shook up my composure, insisting it would be good for me to go. So I went, and my first convention ever was The World Fantasy Convention in Madison, Wisconsin, 2005, and I can still recall how nervous I was and how astonishing it was to be standing in the same room or even rubbing shoulders with writers I had respected and admired for long years. Luckily, Eric took me under his wing and showed me around. Before long we’d found our way to the dealer’s room — which didn’t seem too different from a cave of wonders — and I was soon talking for the first time with Black Gate‘s publisher and editor, John O’Neill.

A few months ago I wrote a brief primer about why conventions are worth attending, and rather than covering that again, I’ll point you there. If you’ve gone to other conventions you’ll be surprised by WFC. Only about 1,000 attendees are allowed, which promotes a greater intimacy than you’ll find at many other conventions. There are no costumes, and the many panels and readings and workshops are focused fairly specifically on writing and editing and working in the industry. Professional editors, publishers, writers, artists, and agents are everywhere, because this is the serious industry convention, although serious in this instance shouldn’t be confused with dull.

This year the 36th World Fantasy Convention is being held in Columbus, Ohio, from October 28-31, and Black Gate will be there in force. It’ll be pretty easy to find our booth in the dealer’s room, but one or more of us will be visiting panels, participating in panels, attending readings and signings, or wandering from one late night party to another, so if you want to meet us it should be pretty easy to accomplish. If you’re planning to be there we hope that you’ll drop by the booth, and that you’ll make sure to come to the Black Gate reading Saturday night, where you’ll be able to hear several dozen Black Gate authors reading from their own works.

WisCon 35 Withdraws Elizabeth Moon’s Guest of Honor Invitation

WisCon 35 Withdraws Elizabeth Moon’s Guest of Honor Invitation

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wisconSF3, the Society for the Furtherance & Study of Science Fiction and Fantasy, the parent organization of Wiscon, has withdrawn Elizabeth Moon’s Guest of Honor Invitation for WisCon 35.

This follows several weeks of intense controversy after Moon made some surprising (and to me, frankly dumb) comments about Muslims on her blog on Sept. 11:

I do not dispute that there are moderate, even liberal, Muslims, that many Muslims have all the virtues of civilized persons and are admirable in all those ways…  But Muslims fail to recognize how much forbearance they’ve had…. I feel that I personally (and many others) lean over backwards to put up with these things, to let Muslims believe stuff that unfits them for citizenship, on the grounds of their personal freedom.  It would be helpful to have them understand what they’re demanding of me and others – how much more they’re asking than giving.

As you’ve probably guessed, both events have generated the kind of blog outrage that glues you to your screen and makes you twenty minutes late for the marketing meeting. (Highlights at the World SF Blog and Wiscon News blog, among many others).

Black Gate attended its first WisCon this year and I was extremely impressed with the convention, although I think the “World’s Leading Feminist SF Convention” tag is a little misleading. WisCon seems to have evolved into something much broader, and still crucially important: a friendly and informed gathering not just for feminists, but for women, POC (people of color), and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) fans and their friends to discuss science fiction and — more importantly, I think — amplify their voice sufficiently to make the rest of us aware of just how diverse and rich the field truly is.

After just one trip to WisCon I’m hardly an expert, but even I was keenly aware that a key part of that formula is “friendly and informed.” Folks on all sides of this debate are welcomed at WisCon — indeed, welcoming all sides of a debate is something the convention is exceptionally good at — but having their Guest of Honor make so many guests feel uncomfortable must have been very awkward for the convention organizers.  This had to be a tough and extremely painful decision, but ultimately I think they made the right one.