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

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in May

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The Hugo Award-smallBlack Gate had 1.16 million page views in May, slightly more than our monthly average last year. We’ve gotten used to significant traffic increases year after year, so it’s actually something of a relief to have traffic stabilize for a bit. Nonetheless, we’re grateful to you, our readers, for all the time you spend with us each month, and we hope we keep things interesting for you.

How did we keep things interesting last month? Our top story for May was Black Gate‘s second Hugo nomination… which we declined (again). The brief statement announcing our decision was read 8,200 times, making it our number one post for the month. It was followed by an article questioning whether Weird Tales had quietly folded, and Rich Horton’s analysis of the 2016 Hugo situation.

Rounding out the Top Five for May were Martin Page, with his thoughtful piece on the 80’s moral panic surrounding Dungeons & Dragons, and Bill Maynard’s examination of the Abuses of Public Domain Fiction.

Coming in at number 6 for the month was our report on the launch of one of the most exciting magazines of the past decade, Skelos, followed by our photo-essay on the 2016 Nebula Awards weekend. Peadar Ó Guilín clocked in at #8 with his detailed review of Michael Swanwick’s modern classic The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, followed by our announcement that SF Signal was shutting down.

Closing out the Top Ten for last month was Thomas Parker’s thoughtful and frequently hilarious review of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake, titled Shut Up, You Freak!

The complete list of Top Articles for May follows. Below that, I’ve also broken out the most popular overall articles, online fiction, and blog categories for the month.

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Swastikas Over the Sahara: The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville

Swastikas Over the Sahara: The Afrika Reich by Guy Saville

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The Afrika Reich-small The Afrika Reich-back-small

Who doesn’t love a good Nazi alternate history? I sure do. Twenty years ago I read Richard Harris’ riveting Fatherland, about a relentless detective who stumbles on the long-buried evidence of the Holocaust in 1964 Nazi Berlin, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Something else I like? Discount books. I’ve found a few online sellers who specialize in new-condition titles at remaindered prices, and I’ve spent waaay too much money cozying up to them. They call on the weekend and send birthday cards now. I think we’re all going walleye fishing in Alberta this August.

One of those sellers had a curious book called The Afrika Reich in stock and, well, let’s just say we came to an arrangement. I admit to buyers remorse about the Star Trek cookbooks and picture books on Damascus architecture, but this one, about the realization of the Third’s Reich’s diabolical plans for Africa, definitely has my interest. It made the Sunday Express Books of the Year list in 2011, The Times calls it “An horrific reimaging of the Dark Continent,” and Daily Telegraph says it’s “Fatherland for an action movie age.” That all sounds great to me. I’m sold (literally, in this case).

The Afrika Reich was published by St. Martin’s Griffin on January 13, 2015. It is 379 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback. The cover was designed by David Shoemaker (click the images above for bigger versions). BookOutlet USA currently has new copies in stock for $1.98.

Total Pulp Victory: A Report on Windy City Pulp & Paper 2016, Part I

Total Pulp Victory: A Report on Windy City Pulp & Paper 2016, Part I

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Pulp vendors at Windy City Pulp 2016-small

Pulp and book vendors at Windy City Pulp 2016

My favorite Chicagoland convention, by a pretty wide margin, is Windy City Pulp and Paper. It’s organized by Doug Ellis and a team of volunteers, and this year it took place from April 22-24 in Lombard, Illinois, its home for the last decade or so.

It’s a little strange that Windy City has bubbled to the top of my list. I entertain myself in numerous ways at conventions, but I especially enjoy a robust reading program, lively programming and panels, and late-night conversations at parties. Windy City has none of that. Sure, they have their Sunday New Pulp reading series, and the Friday night auction, and those are fun. But at heart, Windy City is mostly just a giant Dealer’s Room.

But what a Dealer’s Room! Dozens and dozens of dealers from all over the country packed into the ballroom of the Westin Hotel, selling pulps, vintage paperbacks, DVDs, artwork, comics, rare books, new books, small press publications, posters, and so much more. It’s the kind of Dealer’s Room you can get lost in for days, and for a lifetime pulp and book collector like me, it’s paradise.

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Science Fiction’s Unsung Hero: SFX on Perry Rhodan

Science Fiction’s Unsung Hero: SFX on Perry Rhodan

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SFX on PerryRhodan page 1-small

Two weeks ago I got a cryptic e-mail from the distinguished John DeNardo, founder and publisher of SF Signal. The whole thing read:

Just read David Barnett’s SFX article on Perry Rhodan, including quotes by you. Very cool!

Wait, what? When did I say stuff about the mighty Perry Rhodan? DeNardo, what are you talking about? John kindly elaborated in his next note:

It’s the Summer 2016 issue. I’m a digital subscriber. Screen caps attached.

The first of two double-page spreads John forwarded me is above. It’s a terrific full-color article from SFX magazine on Perry Rhodan, the long-running space opera, and it does indeed include a quote from me. I knew nothing about it. You know what that means. That’s right — there’s a science fiction magazine called SFX out there and I didn’t know about it. What the hell, world?

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Tor.com is Buying Science Fiction Novellas

Tor.com is Buying Science Fiction Novellas

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Tor.com bannerTor.com is on a roll. Their new line of novellas has been a commercial and critical hit — the $2.99 digital price pretty much makes them irresistible, and Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti just won a Nebula Award. Plenty of others in their catalog are getting award attention, too. And in addition to their premium publishing line, they continue to publish fine novellas for free on their website.

All in all, it’s not an exaggeration to say that Tor.com has helped usher in a new era for the novella in SF & Fantasy publishing. They certainly haven’t done it alone — Clarkesworld, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and other top sites have all recently announced that they’re starting to publish longer work — but they’ve definitely led the way in making the novella sexy again.

So I was delighted to see Tor.com recently open a new reading period for unsolicited novellas. Here’s the announcement.

Starting June 5th, Lee Harris and Carl Engle-Laird will be reading and evaluating original novellas submitted by hopeful authors to http://submissions.tor.com/tornovellas/. You can find full guidelines here, and we highly recommend you read the guidelines, because we’re doing things a little differently this time. Until the end of June, Tor.com will only be considering novellas of between 20,000 and 40,000 words that fit one of the following science fiction subgenres:

  • Time Travel
  • Space Opera
  • Near Future Thriller
  • Cyberpunk

…As always, both Lee Harris and Carl Engle-Laird actively request submissions from writers from underrepresented populations. This includes, but is not limited to, writers of any race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, nationality, class and physical or mental ability.

If you’ve had that unfinished space opera/cyberpunk thriller gathering dust on your hard drive, now is definitely time to polish it off an submit it! Read complete details here.

The Return of Dabir and Asim

The Return of Dabir and Asim

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the-desert-of-souls UK-smallHoward Andrew Jones sent me a letter in the very early days of Black Gate. It was articulate and delightful, and I remember it well. He welcomed the magazine to the fold, speaking enthusiastically about our focus on classic adventure fantasy. He also included a story featuring two characters of his own creation, Dabir and Asim, sleuths and adventurers who strode the crowded streets and dark ways of ninth century Arabia, facing dark sorcery and ancient evils, armed only with their wits and cold steel.

Dabir and Asim had many adventures together. I bought two of those tales for Black Gate — “Sight of Vengeance” (BG 10), and “Whispers from the Stone,” (BG 12) — and they became some of the most popular stories we ever published. Dabir and Asim appeared in two novels, The Desert of Souls and Bones of the Old Ones, one collection, The Waters of Eternity, and many other places (such as the awesome Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters anthology), before Howard turned his talents to other worthy endeavors. But you can’t keep great characters down for long, and on his blog yesterday Howard announced the return of Dabir and Asim in a brand new tale — and hinted at further adventures in the works.

For the first time this year I’ve sold a short story. I’m delighted to relay that the upcoming Skelos magazine will be carrying a never-before-published Dabir and Asim story in its second issue! You can see magazine details here and there is, briefly, still time to get in on its kickstarter.

I still fully plan to finish writing at least one more Dabir and Asim novel. If I can actually maintain the pace with this current set of drafts, I hope to find time to create a new Dabir and Asim every other year or so and market it as an e-book.

Welcome back, lads! You were missed.

Read our own coverage of the exciting launch of Skelos here, and Howard’s complete announcement on his blog.

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in April

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in April

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Star Trek 4 exact change

Good to see Star Trek is still enormously popular with our readers. The most widely read post at Black Gate last month was William I. Lengeman III’s review of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, the latest installment in his ongoing Star Trek Re-Watch (his review of ST III was #2 last month).

Or maybe we’re just old. The most popular category last month was Vintage Treasures (that’s my favorite too!) When I get old enough, my eyesight will fade enough that I can’t read books, and then what will it be? Maybe Old Time Radio? That’ll be fun.

Number 2 on the list was our announcement on Black Gate‘s Hugo nomination, followed by M Harold Page’s article on Worldbuilding in the Warhammer 40K Universe, and Sean McLachlan on Vintage Trash: Reel Wild Cinema (Vintage again! We are old). Rounding out the Top Five last month was M Harold Page’s review of All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World.

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A Weekend With the Greatest Talents in Science Fiction: Report on the 2016 Nebula Awards

A Weekend With the Greatest Talents in Science Fiction: Report on the 2016 Nebula Awards

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Carlos Hernandez CSE Cooney Alyx Dellamonica and Kelly Robson at the 2016 Nebula Awards banquet-small

Carlos Hernandez, CSE Cooney, Alyx Dellamonica, and Kelly Robson at the 2016 Nebula Awards banquet

I spent last weekend at the 2016 SFWA Nebula Conference in downtown Chicago. The Conference is the big annual gala for the Science Fiction Writers of America, and it culminated in the Nebula Awards ceremony Saturday night. It was a very special weekend for a lot of reasons, not least of which was the nomination for one of our own — C.S.E. Cooney, Black Gate‘s Website Editor emeritus, whose “The Bone Swans of Amandale,” from her breakout collection Bone Swans, was nominated for Best Novella of the year.

I started a new job in downtown Chicago last month, and was able to walk over to the Palmer House hotel after work on Thursday. I met up with Steven Silver, chair of the Conference (and author of the marvelous “The Cremator’s Tale,” published right here at Black Gate), and caught the last half of Mary Robinette Kowal and K. Tempest Bradford’s panel on How to Fail Gracefully, a thoughtful discussion on how to handle online criticism (hint: stay calm, learn to listen dispassionately, and avoid a kneejerk response.)

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The 2015 Nebula Award Winners

The 2015 Nebula Award Winners

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Henry Lien and the Eunuchs of the Forbidden City perform the brilliant Radio SFWA at the 2016 Nebula Awards 2-small

Henry Lien and the Eunuchs of the Forbidden City
perform the brilliant “Radio SFWA” at the 2016 Nebula Awards

I attended the 2016 Nebula Awards banquet here in Chicago on Saturday night, and I thought that meant I’d be able to announce the winners in a timely fashion. Instead, I wasted my time hobnobbing with winners, nominees, and just all around cool people until very late in the evening, got home at 2:15 am, and fell asleep for roughly 24 hours. So I’ve been scooped by every website in the industry (and even some periodicals that only publish monthly).

Ah, that’s okay. For those loyal readers who steadfastly looked away when other sites reported the winners, and waited with confidence for the Black Gate report, thank you (both of you.)

The highlight of the weekend was the awards ceremony, hosted by the genuinely hilarious John Hodgman (from The Daily Show). And the surprise highlight of the ceremony was the opening number by Henry Lien and the Eunuchs of the Forbidden City, “Radio SFWA,” which I’ve been humming non-stop for the past two days. You don’t attend an SF conference expecting to hear live pop music, much less an 80s New Wave/Space Disco anthem that doubles as a recruitment tool for the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, but that’s exactly what it was. I’m a 52 year-old guy who can’t dance, but at the end I was on my feet, pounding my hands together and ready to jump into the mosh pit.

Songwriter, lead singer and front man Henry Lien is some kind of genius. Listen to the whole thing here (be sure to read the hilariously brilliant lyrics by clicking “Show More”), and read the background here.

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We Are a Romance of the Machine: An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster

We Are a Romance of the Machine: An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster

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This weekend I attended the 2016 Nebula Conference here in Chicago, where CJ Cherryh received the SFWA Damon Knight Grand Master Award, the highest honor bestowed by the Science Fiction Writers of America. Part of the Friday afternoon programming included “An Hour With CJ Cherryh, SF’s Newest Grandmaster.” I sat in the front row, with Nebula nominees Ann Leckie and Lawrence M. Schoen, and captured the first part of the speech, in which Cherryh entertained the audience with recollections of her childhood ambition to be a writer, discovering science fiction, her early career, selling her first novel to Donald Wollheim at DAW Books, and her recent marriage to fellow novelist Jane Fancher. She spoke of the core of optimism in her work, calling it “The attitude behind my writing.” About science fiction writers, she said:

That’s our job… to make people face the future with confidence. With a notion that there is something they can do, and they should be doing it. Because, remember that [we’re] one generation removed from barbarism. People have to believe there’s a reason to keep on keeping on, and this is what we are. We are a romance of the machine. In the time when people declared Romance was dead, we were the despised literature that kept going, and kept inventing, and saying, ‘There’s a way out of this.’

The clip above includes the entirety of her prepared remarks (about 13.5 minutes), and her responses to the first few questions, including why she choose to write under “CJ Cherryh” rather than her full name.