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Category: Editor’s Blog

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

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.

Is Weird Tales Dead… Again?

Is Weird Tales Dead… Again?

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Weird Tales 362-smallWeird Tales magazine, the oldest and most storied fantasy magazine in America, has died and returned numerous times in its near century-long history. And I’m beginning to wonder if it’s dead again.

Marvin Kaye took the editorial reins from Ann VanderMeer five years ago with much fanfare, but since then has produced only three issues — the last of which was two years ago. The magazine’s website has not been updated in well over two years. And worst of all, I’m now hearing reports from authors who sold work to the magazine that they’ve had stories returned with little or no explanation.

In fact, the lead story about Weird Tales these days is the complete lack of communication coming out of the editorial offices. At the Nebula Awards conference here in Chicago, which began yesterday, all mentions of the magazine have been accompanied by a shroud of gloom. And earlier today I received this from Black Gate author Joe Bonadonna, who sold a story to them several years ago:

Weird Tales is supposed to print one of my novellas on the online version of their Sword & Sorcery Special Edition — it’s too long for their print version. But it’s been 3.5 years since I heard from them, so who knows when that issue will be out? They are not very good at answering emails, and their website is terrible — no news on that either.

When a magazine essentially stops publishing, that’s bad news. When it fails to update its website for years, that worse. But when it goes dark for three years or more, it’s usually dead. So far, that yardstick has proven pretty reliable.

Weird Tales has been deader than this, and surged out of the grave before. I hope it does so again. But I’m beginning to doubt it.

Please Welcome Lady Business to the Hugo Ballot!

Please Welcome Lady Business to the Hugo Ballot!

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Lady Business logo

The revised Hugo Awards Ballot for 2016 has been announced by MidAmericon II, the 74th World Science Fiction Convention, following the withdrawal of two nominees: Thomas A. Mays, who declined in the Short Story category, and Black Gate, who declined our nomination last week. Two nominees were added: “Cat Pictures Please,” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015) and the group blog Lady Business. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never heard of Lady Business, so I checked them out this week — and was impressed. In announcing their placement on the ballot, they were gracious enough to acknowledge us:

First and foremost, we would like to acknowledge Black Gate, a fine blog that has been an integral part of the SF/F fandom community for many years. Withdrawing from consideration cannot have been an easy decision for them, and we wish them all the best.

They also summarized their mandate:

For those not familiar with Lady Business, we are a group of women and genderqueer people who write about media from an intersectional feminist perspective. You can learn more about our individual editors here.

They have a handy sample list of 2015 posts, and it’s got some great stuff — including Nerd Adventures: Pacific Rim at After School Special by litomnivore, and an entertainingly cranky review of one of my favorite superhero shows, Agents of SHIELD 3×01, “Laws of Nature” – Don’t Try the Fish by renay. They also offer short fiction reviews, take look at Gender Discrimination in SFF Awards, and tackle the massive project of tracking eligibility for next year’s awards in the 2017 Hugo Spreadsheet of Doom.

I admit I was a bit apprehensive about what would take our place on the ballot, and it’s great to put those fears to rest. In my opinion, replacing Black Gate with Lady Business has upgraded the ballot nicely. As a side bonus, I’ve discovered a fine new site…. and isn’t that what awards are supposed to be about? Drop by Lady Business and check them out for yourselves.

The 2016 Locus Award Finalists

The 2016 Locus Award Finalists

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Karen Memory-smallerWith all the hubbub surrounding the Hugo Awards this week, I almost overlooked the 2016 Locus Award Finalists, announced on Tuesday. There’s plenty of terrific reading on this list, and the nomination process is done with an open online poll.

The Locus Science Fiction Foundation sponsors the awards, and the winners are selected by the readers of Locus magazine. The awards began in 1971, originally as a way to highlight quality work in advance of the Hugo Awards. The winners will be announced during the Locus Awards Weekend in Seattle WA, June 24-26, 2016. In addition to creators, the Locus Foundation also honors winning publishers with certificates, which I think is kind of neat.

The finalists are:

FANTASY NOVEL

Karen Memory, Elizabeth Bear (Tor)
The House of Shattered Wings, Aliette de Bodard (Roc)
Wylding Hall, Elizabeth Hand (Open Road)
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Uprooted, Naomi Novik (Del Rey)

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The Hugo Nominations, 2016; or, Sigh …

The Hugo Nominations, 2016; or, Sigh …

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2007 Hugo Award-smallI wasn’t sure I should bother writing this this year, as I’m not sure I have anything new or interesting to say that hasn’t been said, but I feel like getting some thoughts off my chest. This isn’t, I should add, my detailed analysis with voting thoughts … that will come later, after I’ve read the stories.

As most of you know by now, the Hugo Nominations for 2016 were dominated to an even greater degree than last year by the Rabid Puppies slate, organized by Theodore Beale (“Vox Day”). The Sad Puppies also put forth a recommendation list (“Not a Slate™”), and indeed they seem to have done so in good faith – openly gathered a set of recommendations from readers, and using that set put together a list of the most-recommended items in each category, a list longer than the nomination ballot. I don’t see anything whatsoever wrong with this. That said, their direct influence on the final ballot seems to have been minimal – which is, or should be, just fine: so was Locus’ influence, so was mine, etc.

The Rapid Puppies slate took over 75% of the ballot, and apparently the percentage would have been higher except that some nominees withdrew. There are very interesting analyses at Greg Hullender’s Rocket Stack Rank and Brandon Kempner’s Chaos Horizons. Using slightly different statistical models, they came up with estimates of 200 or so to 300 or more Rabid voters. (Vox Day claimed 750 adherents.) It seems likely that the Rabid nominators were much more disciplined in sticking to slate voting this year.

A cursory glance at the fiction entries on the ballot shows that there are some worthwhile, Rabid-supported, entries on it. In Best Novel, for instance, the two Rabid choice, Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves and Jim Butcher’s The Cinder Spires: The Aeronaut’s Windlass seem pretty reasonable. Likewise in Best Novella, all four of the Rabid entries are at least decent.

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SF Signal Goes Dark

SF Signal Goes Dark

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SF Signal logoWhen I declined our 2016 Hugo Award nomination last week, I wrote:

A great many publications I deeply respect were completely swept aside by the Rabid Puppy ballot, including John DeNardo’s SF Signal… By giving up our very slim chance at winning, we can give another deserving publication a shot. That seems like a fair exchange to me.

SF Signal has been one of my favorite sites for years. So you can imagine my distress when I read John DeNardo’s last post yesterday, announcing the long-running site was shutting down.

When we started SF Signal in 2003, it was because we loved speculative fiction. Having a blog allowed us to share that love with other fans. We never dreamed it would have grown like it has… It’s been quite a ride.

But all good things come to an end.

It was a very hard decision to make, but we have decided to close down SF Signal. The reason is boringly simple: time. As the blog has grown, so has its demands for our attention. That is time we would rather spend with our families. We considered scaling back posts, but it felt like SF Signal would only be a shadow of its former self. So yes, it feels sudden, but a “cold turkey” exit seems like the right thing to do.

The site has been a fabulous resource for SF and fantasy fans for 13 years, and will be very much missed. John and his staff are looking for a good place to archive the site after the first week of June. If you have any suggestion, let them know.