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Goth Chick News Interviews: Deadgar Winter and Dark Coffin Classics

Goth Chick News Interviews: Deadgar Winter and Dark Coffin Classics

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When Black Gate photog Chris Z isn’t too busy surfing the net for combat kilts and more camera equipment (both for attracting gender-specific attention at our many trade shows), he is a veritable font of potential GCN subject matters. Granted, much of it is questionable at best or at worse, flat out rejected by the “big cheese” John O (re: Zombeavers which got us both reprimanded before I had even typed the first paragraph).

Still, on occasion he hits pay dirt, which Chris Z did in spades when he suggested I check out a cable access show called Deadgar’s Dark Coffin Classics, hosted by Deadgar Winter.

I did. And though I am still trying to find just the right words to describe what I saw, what I can tell you is that I found my new binge while I wait for season 2 of Stranger Things.

Deadgar’s Dark Coffin Classics is about taking older, sometimes very cheesy classic horror and sci-fi films and reviewing them on an internet / cable access show. Throughout the movie, Deadgar and his “Dead Girls” will break in to comment about what you’re watching; imagine if Svengoulie and Elvira got together and partied on with Joel from MST3K…

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Dorgo’s Dozen Questions: Getting Grilled by Joe Bonadonna

Dorgo’s Dozen Questions: Getting Grilled by Joe Bonadonna

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Thanks to Joe Bonadonna for the opportunity to be grilled by Dorgo’s Dozen questions. Phew, this will be intense! One cannot lie to a detective as keen as Dorgo, especially when his dowsing rod can sense minor indiscretions — I just hope he can differentiate between fantasy and reality. So please read on, as I attempt to pass the interrogation.

Who the hell are you?

I’m Seth (S.E.) Lindberg, residing near Cincinnati, Ohio working as a microscopist during sunlight and writer by moonlight. Two decades of practicing chemistry, combined with a passion for the Sword & Sorcery genre, drives me to write adventure fictionalizing alchemy. I write the Dyscrasia Fiction series and contribute to Perseid Press anthologies. All are invited to the Goodreads.com Sword & Sorcery Group which I co-moderate.

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Wordsmiths: An Interview with Evan May

Wordsmiths: An Interview with Evan May

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Well, folks, we’ve survived the first month and a bit of 2017 – barely, some might say. I’m of the mind not to let various disruptions get you down or mess with the writing mojo, which is partly why I’m really glad to be sharing this interview with my fellow rational human being and generally chill writer, Evan May. Below we discuss his first novel, The King in Darkness, which I reviewed a few posts back, as well as the fantasy genre, the writing craft, and Vladivostok (no joke). Here’s a short bio for Evan, followed by the interview:

Evan May is a freelance writer and history professor who lives in Ottawa, Canada. Evan studied Creative Writing at the University of Windsor before moving on to study medieval history, concentrating on scamps and troublemakers in 15th century York and London. He has recently been pleased to return to writing down some of the strange things that live in his head. When not writing or teaching, Evan enjoys distance running and tending to the whims of two lazy cats.

For more about Evan’s work, visit his  blog (emaymustgo.wordpress.com) or follow him on Twitter: @GiantTourtiere.

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I’m Ready For My Close-Up, Mr. DeMille: A Look at Image’s Glitterbomb

I’m Ready For My Close-Up, Mr. DeMille: A Look at Image’s Glitterbomb

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Last fall, Image released a new comic book series by Jim Zub (Wayward and Thunderbolts) and Djibril Morissette-Phan (The Ultimates, All-New Wolverine) called Glitterbomb, a horror story about fame and failure.

The first four issues are out, and a collected trade paperback of those 4 issues is hitting comic book shops and book stores in March. I read Glitterbomb, really enjoyed it, and got a chance to talk with the creators.

Here’s the synopsis:

Farrah Durante is a middle-aged actress hunting for her next gig in an industry where youth trumps experience. Her frustrations become an emotional lure for something horrifying out beyond the water…something ready to exact revenge on the shallow, celebrity-obsessed culture that’s led her astray. The entertainment industry feeds on our insecurities, desires, and fears. You can’t toy with those kinds of primal emotions without them biting back…

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Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast Presents: Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Conversation with Ryan Harvey

Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast Presents: Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Conversation with Ryan Harvey

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Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast Ryan Harvey

Dream Tower Media, the mad geniuses behind The Blue Lamp by Robert Zoltan (which Fletcher Vredenburgh called “marvelous… a full sound production, like a radio show”), have released Episode 2 of their new audio series, the Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast. The title is spot on, as this one-hour episode is a thoroughly entertaining and far-ranging discussion of the great Edgar Rice Burroughs, featuring Robert Zoltan and Black Gate‘s own Ryan Harvey.

Like The Blue Lamp, this is no typical podcast, but an imaginatively designed (and frequently hilarious) radio show set in the windswept Dream Tower (with a talking raven). But stellar production aside, the real star of the show is the always-interesting Ryan Harvey, whose deep knowledge and profound enthusiasm for his subject prove infectious. Even if you’re not an Edgar Rice Burroughs fan, you will be by the end their discussion. Terrific stuff.

I was also pleased to hear that the Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast will be produced on a regular schedule. Robert tells us:

I made a real effort to create something unique and engaging, almost like a MST 3000 feel, that would be an ongoing serial. The third episode in February is going to be Orcs!: A Conversation with Historical Fantasy Author Scott Oden.

Great news! Check out all the episodes of the Literary Wonder & Adventure Podcast here.

The Poison Apple: The Paintbrush is as Mighty as the Sword — An Interview With Lissanne Lake

The Poison Apple: The Paintbrush is as Mighty as the Sword — An Interview With Lissanne Lake

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Cover for Hammer of the Gods, photo by E. Crowens

Lissanne Lake is a Sword and Sorcery fantasy illustrator with an artistic career spanning over thirty years. A New Jersey resident, she’s designed everything from book jacket and magazine covers to tarot cards, games and wall murals for public art projects and has also worked with famous authors such as Sir Terry Pratchett. On the side, she’s a fencing instructor, a re-enactor, and is learning to speak Japanese.

Crowens: Were there any particular artists from whom you drew your inspiration?

LL: Western art paintings and illustrations by contemporaries Charlie Russell and Frederic Remington. Comic book art most likely had its genesis from Russell, and certainly he was (Hall of Fame action-style Sword and Sorcery and comic book illustrator) Frank Frazetta’s hero.  Russell’s work always captured motion — the horses are charging, the bears attacking, and hats are flying off cowboys’ heads.

Were these strictly fine art paintings?

They were illustrations for newspapers. I believe he wrote the articles, as well.

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The Poison Apple: Interview with a Brooklyn Vampire

The Poison Apple: Interview with a Brooklyn Vampire

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Steven Van Patten from That Metal Show

For our next “victim” of the new Black Gate column, The Poison Apple, I’d like to introduce Steven Van Patten. Steven is a member of the Horror Writer’s Association and when vampires are supposed to be sleeping, he works as a TV show stage manager. In the past he’s worked on shows such as MTV’s Total Request Live, The Dr. Oz Show, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell and The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore. He straddles two extremes of a busy lifestyle but still manages to write about topics that are underexplored in the speculative fiction realm. He’s written the Brookwater’s Curse series, Rudy’s Night Out, a children’s vampire story, and Killer Genius: She Kills Because She Cares, which was nominated for the African-American Literary Show Award.

Crowens: What got you into vampires?

SVP: As a little kid and an only child, often I had to entertain myself. Back in the day, that included Chiller Theater and being inspired by movies with Christopher Lee. When Blacula was released, that stuck with me as a strong, dominant character but in a sea of stereotypical nonsense in a Blaxploitation flick. As I got older, I started getting annoyed as to what happened to the brothers in a horror movie — they were dead before the credits rolled and characters were underdeveloped.

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Weird Tales Reprints Published by Goodman Games

Weird Tales Reprints Published by Goodman Games

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weird-tales-may-1934-450x600-225x300The Goodman Games site is one of my regular stopping points on the web. The company’s well known as an imagination factory that produces some of the most innovative and entertaining game supplements in print today. It’s also home of the popular Dungeon Crawl Classics role-playing game.

What it’s never been until now is a purveyor of Weird Tales, so I was intrigued when I discovered five facsimile issues of the famous magazine were available for purchase on the site.

I wrote publisher Joseph Goodman and asked him what this availability signified.  As I should have guessed, it involved Appendix N, Gary Gygax’s famed recommended reading list printed at the back of the original Dungeon Master’s Guide (from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, if you’re not a gamer).

For those not in the know, that appendix launched a generation into the exploration of fantasy fiction, from Anderson to Zelazny. It was an immense influence on gamers and future writers alike and something Joseph Goodman has used as a touchstone for both the creation of adventures and the design of the Dungeon Crawl Classics game itself. Here’s what he had to say.

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Ian Tregillis and The Alchemy Wars Trilogy

Ian Tregillis and The Alchemy Wars Trilogy

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the-liberation-ian-tregillis-smallAs John O’Neill wrote in November, the last book in Ian Tregillis’ new trilogy comes out this month. I’m a big fan of Tregillis, and was fortunate enough to read The Liberation in manuscript. It was a blast, and you should buy it it. Seriously. Go buy the trilogy, and if you already have the first two, go buy the third.

Alright. Now that you’ve done that, Ian and I kicked back last week and talked about his trilogy. Here’s what he had to say:

Howard: You’re on an elevator with your new book when Ringo Starr enters, sees the cover and says how fab it looks. He wants to know what the book’s about – what do you tell him?

Ian: OK. First of all, I’d probably be hard pressed not to lose my composure the moment he stepped into the elevator. I mean, there I’d be sharing an elevator with A BEATLE. I discovered their albums at just the right age, and I swear I listened to that music practically nonstop during high school. So keeping it cool would be a challenge, *especially* if Ringo asked about the book.

But assuming I could recover my composure enough to speak coherently without babbling, and assuming he wanted the long version, I’d tell him it’s an adventure story about a clockpunk Terminator apocalypse in a world where the industrial revolution never happened, disguised as a story about slave rebellion and Free Will.

If he wanted the short version, I’d tell him it’s basically Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots but with more swearing and stabbing.

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The Poison Apple: An Interview with T.J. Glenn

The Poison Apple: An Interview with T.J. Glenn

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TJ doubling The Toxic Avenger (photo by Robert Griffith)

The Poison Apple is a new semi-regular Black Gate column. Interviewer Elizabeth Crowens will be talking with atypical authors with unusual backgrounds or passions in the speculative fiction arena, and sharing their stories here.

The first “victim” to take a bite out of the Poison Apple is Teel James Glenn, known to most as T.J. Glenn, winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Best Author of the Year, Epic eBook award finalist, P&E winner, Best Thriller Novel, Best Steampunk Short, multiple finalist for Best Fantasy short stories, author of the bestselling Exceptionals series, the Maxi/Moxie series, the Dr. Shadows series, the Renfairies series, stunt double and fight choreographer, and more.

Crowens: T.J., you seem to be living the dream of what Oscar Wilde would call art imitating life, being pretty much an action fantasy character day in and day out — a cross between Errol Flynn and Qui-Gon Jinn with a touch of James Bond villain thrown in. What attracted you to this world?

T.J.: When I was a kid I wanted to write comic books, draw them and then play the character. Here I am fifty years later, and I’ve sort of done it. I’ve never been able to completely separate them. Sometimes I do full renderings of the rooms my characters live in. I always do physical portraits of them. Often I conceive a character visually and work backwards from there. I’m a better writer because I’m a fight choreographer; I’m a better fight choreographer because I’m an actor; I’m a better actor, because I’m a writer. It all morphs together for me.

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