A Life of Ideas
In brainstorming topics for my ‘getting back on the horse’ return post here at Black Gate after my absence of a few months — I’ve come up with a few mildly interesting ideas. Firstly, I thought about looking at the nature of escapism, how it shouldn’t have the unfair pejorative connotation it does, and how it certainly isn’t limited to works of prose or film or video games designed solely to entertain. Then too I was considering a weird phenomenon I’ve only really just been made conscious of, that of how utterly mainstream fantasy, or, let’s say ‘the fantastic,’ has become just in the last few decades — and I mean aside from the obvious stuff like the popularity of fantasy and science fiction books and movies, but everything from television commercials and product packaging to childrens’ toys and popular expressions bear out the reality that the once distant worlds of speculative fiction are now familiar place names in the cultural atlas of modern life.
But then it struck me that what I was doing, actively ransacking my mind for ideas, has to be a fairly unusual practice, all things considered. And one worthy of a blog post, at least.
This week we lower the drawbridge at Black Gate headquarters and invite you to head out to Clarkesworld magazine for your weekly genre fix. Clarkesworld has just published a lengthy article on the profound effect that fantasy gaming has had on fantasy writing. Written by Justin Howe and Jason S. Ridler, the piece is titled “Of Dice and Men: Modern Fantasists and the Influence of Role-Playing Games.” 
