Black Gate

Rescue Imaro

I just got word that Nightshade Books is going to be cancelling its reprint of the Imaro series. The sales have been disappointing — I can only assume that’s because word, somehow, didn’t get out about the books. Charles Saunders’ Imaro is one of the most important sword-and-sorcery characters to walk onto the scene after Conan himself.

Here’s what I said about him in a recent history of sword-and-sorcery article I wrote with some help from Robert Rhodes:

Imaro was the first important black hero of sword and sorcery. The three Imaro novels and a set of related short stories breathe with atmosphere, so much so that the setting is a character unto itself. The customs, people, and places feel real. While the supernatural and fantastic stalk this world, Saunders’ storytelling skills present even the ordinary features of his setting, from savanna to jungle, as vivid and new. Tie in Saunders’ skilful world-building with his taut action and suspense scenes and you have an explosive mix, one that Lin Carter was quick to recognize, printing Imaro tales in several volumes of The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror anthology series.

Born the son of mixed parentage in a warrior society, Imaro longs always for acceptance, although when he finally earns it his own pride sets him on another path. A mighty warrior, at heart Imaro is a decent, loving man who hides behind a wall of stoicism he’s built both to protect himself during his troubled upbringing and to endure the horrors he’s faced. Most other sword-and-sorcery heroes are rogues born with wanderlust. They’re fascinating to see in action but aren’t necessarily people we’d care to meet. Imaro, however, is honestly likable.

Disastrous marketing decisions killed the Imaro series back in the ’80s. Now it looks like poor market penetration is going to kill it again, and may already have done so. And that means that two never-before-published Imaro novels and any kind of collection of Imaro short stories won’t be seen.

Now I can’t speak for all of Black Gate on this particular issue, but speaking for a moment simply as Howard Andrew Jones minus his editing hat, GO BUY THESE BOOKS. If you like sword-and-sorcery, GO TO NIGHT SHADE AND BUY THESE BOOKS. Maybe we can still save Imaro!!! Do NOT delay!!!

Archon/Nasfic

So here’s what I’d been planning to post about before I got the bad news this morning. I didn’t get to do this sooner because I’ve frankly been trying to re-earn some spousal goodwill points after being gone for four days.

The convention was fun as usual: John and I had a good time. A steady stream of visitors dropped by the booth to look over the magazine, and most of them picked up at least one issue — many more subscribed, and some even purchased entire runs of the previous issues! We showed interested parties the unbound copy of issue 11.

In between various panels Steven Silver and Rich Horton dropped by and helped out at the table. Both men have contributed to the magazine and it was a pleasure getting to know them. The little shop at the convention center sold surprisingly good soup, which I lived on during the day, and then John and I would head out with whoever was around in the evenings to grab dinner. The first night we drove into Collinsville, away from the crowded restaurants near the con, and stumbled upon a nice Chinese place — the only open restaurant in town, so far as we could see. The next day the nearby places were even more crowded, and John and Steven and I were joined by Gordon van Gelder and David Marusek, who didn’t actually complain about my awful direction sense as I tried to find my way back to the Chinese restaurant.

Saturday I snuck away from the booth long enough to try out Richard Hatch’s new role-playing game, The Great War of Magellan. His Captain Apollo had been one of my childhood heroes, so it was pretty nifty when he sat down beside me and joined the game.

There was a flurry of sales at the last minute on Sunday, so I hung around later than I’d planned (I couldn’t abandon John when the booth was so busy). Thank goodness Steven was there to help out as well.

I’m a relatively recent convention attender. It still strikes me as pretty amazing how approachable most of the industry professionals are. I’ve looked up to many of these people for years, and it can feel a little surreal to find yourself in casual conversation with them.

It should return in a couple of weeks, and then the zombie minions will start stuffing envelopes and get them in the post.

This week John O’Neill and I will be heading to Archon/Nasfic, which is in St. Louis for those too bored to click the link. We should both be there at the Black Gate table by Thursday afternoon, and will be staying until Sunday. I hope that we’ll see some of you there. If the Black Gate hydrofoil hadn’t been damaged during my last encounter with the Zeppelin Master I’d be there even faster, but I’m falling back on the utility van.

This last weekend John put a sneak preview of the issue on the Black Gate web site, so drop by and take a look.  If you haven’t subscribed, why not? Waste no time! 

I know it’s been said a million times, but it bears saying again, so pardon me if I sound repetitious. You can’t look on markets ONLY as places to get published. Support those markets that publish the kinds of stories you like to read so that they’ll keep going. I’m not saying this because Black Gate is in any sort of trouble (in truth we’re stronger than ever) but partly because it’s so clear, from the kinds of slush I get, that around 75% of the subs I receive are from people who’ve never read a copy of the magazine. I’m probably preaching to the choir, as the folks who are crazy enough to read this blog surely know what Black Gate is about. Hopefully you’re subscribers as well. Your support can only mean there’s more money to buy more stories with. And that’s a good thing, right? With even more support I could spare even more of my time editing the mag, and then response times would be even faster, and who wouldn’t want that! Plus I could afford more sushi. In summary, if you want more good adventure fiction and want to ensure that I can afford sushi lunches, be sure to subscribe.

Next week I will dive straight back into the submissions pile, and so will John.

Best,
Howard

…will be ready for my once over today, and shortly thereafter off to the printer. It appears unlikely that it will be in our hands by the time of Archon, unfortunately, although John and I hope to have a mock-up with us. But it should shortly thereafter be available to all

I returned from my secret mission. You can see me in action in a picture below, fending off space aliens. Note the intent look of concentration. I’m told I look very similar when I’m writing or editing, and, indeed, that my expression was nearly identical when I proposed to my wife. You can understand, then, why she married me.

I turned 39 while I was away at Disney and Epcot. I’ve had few birthdays as pleasant, despite the crowds. My wife and kids were very sweet all day and night.

I hope soon to be back at the slush reading. John will be right there with me.

Howard

Ready yourselves for Black Gate 11, because it is almost here.

It can take a long time to take a magazine from a whole bunch of separate submissions to a coherent magazine-like shape. You have to remember that Black Gate is much thicker than most of its competition. It will be handed off to the printer very shortly now.

If you’ve grown curious about what we’re publishing now’s the time to subscribe. We’re pretty sure you’ll like what you see. John will be uploading a preview of issue 11 soon. But, really, if you like adventure fantasy, why aren’t you supporting the best source of it on the newsstands today? Here, take a look at what reviewers have said about recent issues.

After Black Gate 11 we’ll get back to the business of responding to e-mails and reading manuscripts. John and I were talking just today, and once this is all cleared away we’ll probably start having reading periods rather than being open to subs at all times. It’s my fervent hope that we’ll have all the backlog cleared away in just a few more months.

Ouch

There are a number of things I’m proud of having accomplished in my life, but one of the ones I am most pleased with is having earned a first degree black belt in Shotokan Karate. I’m now working toward my second degree. As someone who was never especially good at athletic pursuits and was always that short skinny pale kid with glasses, I used to believe the chances of me earning a black belt were about as good as the chance of me becoming an astronaut. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of earning my master’s degree, and it was harder to achieve than I expected, but I knew I could get that because I had been taking classes and reading and writing all my life. Studying martial arts for four years and advancing and then earning a black belt — well, I wasn’t sure I could pull that off. (Of course, once you get that black belt you realize just how much more you have to learn, but that’s another story.) I try not to go out of my way to mention it, but I suppose I do sometimes, because I’m inordinately proud of that piece of cloth.

Anyway, so yesterday I came home from a workout, wearing my karate pants and my karate t-shirt and feeling all lean and flexible, and I stopped to pick up a package in front of the house. When I stumbled on the step because the package blocked my view of the stairs and my old, old sandals snagged on something, did my cat-like ninja reflexes keep me from injury? Nay, I slammed my foot into the walk at exactly the wrong angle and collapsed on the stones as pain shot up my ankle and spread like rabid fire ants across the top of my entire foot. It hurt too much to curse, but I managed to tell my daughter to go get her mother and to tell her that I had hurt myself. Humble pie. Yes, black belts aren’t a guarantee against being clumsy. (And, incidentally, I need sandals that don’t have bottoms that are split in half.) I had to lean on my lovely wife to walk into the house. Today I am mostly well, and only limping a bit. My wife theorizes I injured a ligament, but not severely.

Secret Journey

Those of you who’ve visited the Black Gate rooftop headquarters overlooking downtown Chicago know that there are wall-to-wall oak bookshelves stuffed with rare and wonderful books, pulps, and busts of our favorite writers, editors, and a few characters from our favorite stories. I know some of you have noticed the bust of Solomon Kane along the south wall, near the bound volumes of Weird Tales and Spicy Troubador Stories, but you probably didn’t know that the Black Gate priority line is hooked through good ’ol Solomon. Today when his eyes gleamed bright I flipped up his hat to access the line, only to learn that a disaster was imminent, one that only the staff of Black Gate was capable of averting. Since John is heads-down over the magazine, I am jetting off to deal with the matter — which naturally I dare not discuss in detail — despite my recent injury. I may well be away for several days, but I will return.

Howard

Valentine’s Resolve

For the last few years I usually get to see my friends Eric Knight and his wife Chats on or around the 4th of July. At our old house we had a magnificent view of the local municipal fireworks from the highest hill in the city; from our new place we don’t have a view of much of anything (the one drawback about living here) although we can hear people sounding off firecrackers late into the night for several days before and after. (As an aside, I’ve never really gotten the point of firing off huge amounts of firecrackers. I loves me the pretty lights, but I just don’t get the joy of purposefully creating a bunch of loud noise.)

Anyway, it’s always a pleasure to see Eric and Chats; not only is it the one time a year that our local role-playing group indulges in a college-style marathon gaming session, they’re good people and we enjoy their company. This year, instead of welcoming them into our home on the holiday I’m welcoming Eric’s new book into the home.

Yep, there it is, and danged if it isn’t the best novel of David Valentine yet. Number six if you’re counting. These aren’t your sister’s vampire novels where the vampire is really just a troubled soul aching to make love to the woman who really understands him. Nah, forget that. These are like WWII French resistance movies crossed with the setting from the Road Warrior, with the part of the Nazis played by life-sucking aliens. Action and more action, great settings, compelling characters, monstrous villains, heroism… It’s great stuff, well-plotted and with plenty of surprising turns.

I’ve known Eric since a little before these books were launched by ROC, and this success couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. It’s heartening to see someone you know rise in stature and publish well-received book after well-received book. Eric’s earned this success by hard work, perseverance, study, and natural talent, now honed to a sharp edge. He is firmly committed to passing on all that he has learned about writing, both in courses taught at a local college, and through insightful articles online, not to mention in person should you happen to be in the neighborhood. And he’s a loyal friend; one you can trust to tell you the straight truth and one who’s got your back, for he always stands up for what, and who, he believes in. He’s a class act and deserves all that good he’s earned.

So get out and by that book already!

Black Gate Updates

I’m turning over the rest of the non-fiction today, and John has nearly everything else layed out.

I’ve been receiving queries about submissions. Right now we’re both taking a break from subs so we can get the magazine out. We’ll resume reading submissions in a just a week or so. I can’t predict how many more months it will take, but certainly before year’s end we’ll have worked through every submission, and when we re-open for subs we’ll never let this sort of backup take place again. We’re sorry about the delayed responses and ask you to be patient with us for just a little bit longer. 

Howard

First, I seem to have missed an interesting series of posts Martha Wells had on writing. Fortunately they’re all still available, and she’s once again asking for writing questions, so the posts will continue. I just found a nice mini-essay on doling out backstory while moving action forward. You can find it here, on Martha’s blog.

Second, you may have noticed that it’s been quiet around here. That’s the sound of issue 11 being worked upon, and me pushing through as much e-slush as I can before I finally finish a game review of a new Traveller package for issue 11 of Black Gate. All I have left are a few longer stories. I don’t know how John does it, but as I’m reading through subs and come upon REALLY long ones — 10k and longer — try a few paragraphs and they have any promise… I’m afraid I put those longer stories at the bottom of the pile. That’s probably not fair of me, but when I have only a limited amount of time available each day for slush, and we’re running behind, I prefer to read as many stories as I can rather than spending all of that time on a single tale. Right now I’ve only got ONE big one left. After issue 11 I have approximately 60-70  subs to go; the last stories turned in before we closed to submissions.

Third, regular readers know that I’m a huge fan of Leigh Brackett and that I’ve been reading my children Brackett tales this summer. I mentioned Haffner press as an excellent source of her work, and there will shortly be another, Paizo, which will ALSO be publishing a number of other classic sword and planet tales under their Planet Stories imprint. I’m most looking forward to having a complete collection of Kuttner’s Elak stories, which they’ll be publishing come fall. I tracked them down the hard way one-by-one, but others deserve easier access, and Kuttner’s in need of rediscovery because of these and many other works. He was writing Ray  Bradbury style stories before Bradbury was. Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore are two favorites of mine, and coincidentally were best friends with Brackett and her husband Edmond Hamilton. Anyway, I like the sound of this imprint’s plans and will be watching them.

Back to regularly scheduled programming…

Howard

E-submissions: I’m almost up to the final batch of slush before we closed to submissions, sent to BG near the end of last year. I will dive into those soon, but must turn my attention to some work for the next topic…

Issue 11: John’s making final adjustments for the new issue, which means I need to get him a big parcel of non-fiction pretty swiftly. 

Writing: Do NOT miss a great article on novel writing (writing in general, really) from Eric Knight. A lengthy post, and worthy of reading, and re-reading, and reading again.

Stories forwarded for further consideration: Still under further consideration, I’m afraid, as the pressures of getting out the next issue take center stage.

First up on my summer reading is Black Gate submissions. That’s first up on my reading list all the time, any more. I’ve been sending out responses and have about forty more to read in THIS batch before I move on to the last 75 submissions. I also need to finish up my contributions to the gaming and review sections of issue 11. John’s got the issue all lined up, with just a few holes to plug in, article and review wise, from the stockpile I’ve accumulated from our talented contributors. You can see a preview of issue 11’s cover at the Black Gate web site.

I’ve taken a little time for reading for fun; more than I’ve been able to take for three or four years, really, as there wasn’t much time for fun reading while working on the master’s degree. I tore through a book Eric Knight sent me, Fatherland. I sure wish I could figure out how Harris made all that description and world building so interesting, but I’m still scratching my head. Maybe it was in the creation of the alternate world as a character, but that’s too simple an answer.

Me reading an entire novel, and a thick one, like Fatherland, is a rare occurrence at this point in my life. What with the recent madness of the degree and the move and remodel, before that reading subs for Flashing Swords and now for Black Gate, and having children, well, anything but short stories feels like an impossible barrier rather than something to look forward to.

Speaking of looking forward to reading, though — I had the rare honor of reading something many have desired to see but few have ever held in their hands. Shortly before their death, L. Sprague de Camp and his wife Catherine related that they had finished the manuscript together reading on the floor of de Camp’s study because they couldn’t put it down. De Camp called it one of the best Conan pastiches he’d ever read, but Catherine de Camp just came right out and said that it was THE best Conan pastiche she’d ever read. No small wonder, since its writer had drafted Conan and the Emerald Lotus, which remains near the top, if not at the very apex, of most people’s Howard pastiche list. John C. Hocking really captured the character of Conan — the complexity, the atmosphere, and the style. The de Camps liked Emerald so well they pulled it out of the slush and published it, and the second, Conan and the Living Plague so well that they were going to try to take it to hardback. Hocking thought he’d be drafting many a Conan tale in years to come.

But it was not to be. The de Camp’s were older, and the market was changing, and the Conan property changed hands. Hocking’s book got lost in the shuffle despite being championed, and later companies opted to publish Turtledove’s Conan (which was pretty much thoroughly blasted by Conan fans). No other Conan novels have followed, despite continued interest from Conan fans in this “lost” Conan novel. They know Hocking wrote Plague, and still bring it up from time to time on forums even today, almost a decade later. Hocking himself shrugs his shoulders about it and doesn’t seem to bear anyone ill will for what happened, but then he’s a gentlemanly fellow.

So what’s Conan and the Living Plague like?

It was glorious. Anyone who loves an out-and-out sword-and-sorcery romp would thrill to this ride. Hocking pretty much nailed Conan, who’s far more complex a character than most people realize, and came amazingly close to Robert E. Howard’s style, not to mention ably capturing the whole Weird Tales atmosphere. Here’s the one guy today who should have been tapped to write Conan pastiche, if there’s going to be any pastiche. It’s a great piece of work, and it will probably never, ever, see print. A somber thought.

In happier news, I’ve been getting some reading for fun in another way, and that’s by reading to my children. In the last few weeks they’ve heard Robert E. Howard’s “Garden of Fear,” and Leigh Brackett’s The Sword of Rhiannon (a.k.a Sea Kings of Mars) as well as Enchantress of Venus. My little girl’s a little too young to enjoy them yet, but my boy is loving them. He’ll occasionally stop and say “wow, that was a great sentence.” I remembered that I loved The Sword of Rhiannon and Enchantress of Venus, and I still did, even after a span of years away from them. I did get pretty tired of all the typographical errors in the Millenium Press collection of Brackett’s work, however, and am going to have to track down The Sword of Rhiannon in paperback once more just so I can read a cleaner version.

Thankfully Robert E. Howard’s work’s finally easier to find, although I fear that not all of it will be collected, and I darned well wish that it was available in a hardback set. Brackett too is getting some long overdue packaging, courtesy of Haffner Press. Ah, if only all book companies put the love into their products that Haffner Press does. I don’t know that I’ve ever found any kind of typo on Steve Haffner’s publications. The bindings are excellent and so are the covers. At the Windy City Pulp and Paperback con Haffner told me that the second of three Brackett volumes would be ready by some time mid-year, pending only an introduction from Ray Bradbury. Brackett fan that I am, I’m more excited about seeing this second book and reading some potentially unread Brackett (unread by me, I mean) than I am about the new Harry Potter book. As her husband, the late, great, Ed Hamilton said, “this gal can write.” Boy could she.

Last week John O’Neill sent a response to a writer who’d wanted some more detail about why his story had been rejected, and John, as you’ll see below, answered in more detail. We thought this might be interesting to Black Gate readers and writers and perhaps help further explain what we mean when we ask for more original world building, etc. Take it away John!

Thanks for taking the time to respond. I appreciate your interest. I’m always happy to elaborate.

You ask:

>What constitutes an original plot, setting and character?

This is the kind of question that begs a lengthy answer. I don’t really have time for that, so I’m going to take a shortcut and get right to the point: what I really mean is I’m looking for interesting plots, settings, and characters.

Being original is a huge step towards being interesting. Let’s take your opening scene, for example: a young man in a barbarian village is helping his father create a sword. Suddenly a group of men ride into the village with weapons drawn.

This isn’t very interesting. First, because I already know that those men are there to pillage the village and gather slaves. I also know that the boy’s noble father will die a heroic, but inevitable, death. I also know the boy will fight valiantly and be defeated, but not killed. And all that came to pass in your story, over the course of about 15 pages.

How do I know all that? Because I’ve read that plot, with that setting and those characters, more than once. More than a few times, actually.

Is it an unpardonable sin to re-use a recognizable setting in heroic fantasy? Probably not. It’s the same with familiar characters archetypes — the evil sorcerer, the noble barbarian — and even classic plots.  But each time you use a familiar element, your story gets less interesting. 

You did add some fresh elements — I was quite taken with your villains, and your intriguingly well-thought out approach to magic, for example. But when the first 15 pages of your tale presents a plot, setting, and characters I’ve seen before… it’s not for us, not matter how well written it is, or how fresh the villains are.

I hope that’s been helpful. Let me know if you have any additional questions.

Warm regards,

— John