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Black Gate Interviews Howard Andrew Jones, Part Three

Black Gate Interviews Howard Andrew Jones, Part Three

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Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows, by Howard Andrew Jones. Coming February 2011In part one of our interview Howard talked about one of his new novels, The Desert of Souls, and about historical fantasy; in part two we discussed the works of Harold Lamb and Howard’s efforts to collect and republish Lamb’s fiction; for our third and final installment Howard tells us about yet another newly released novel, and his experience with gaming:

We’ve talked about historical fiction and historical fantasy, but you also have a history with gaming. Tell us a bit about your new Pathfinder novel, Plague of Shadows.

James Sutter, the editor of the Pathfinder line, is pretty selective about what he buys, so when I was invited to submit ideas I had to throw several his way before one finally took. I think the line in the pitch that hooked him was “Jirel of Joiry crossed with Unforgiven.” I made it clear that I wasn’t going to lift the plot or character, but that I was going to strive for a similar feel. As for the subject matter, I think that James described it pretty well in a blurb he posted recently: “It revolves around the exploits of not one but two bands of adventurers journeying in eastern Avistan, two decades apart. The parties are connected by Elyana, an elf seeking to cure her former adventuring partner (and former lover) Stelan from a curse that’s connected to events — and people — from their shadowy past. Elyana’s journey will take her and her companions from Taldor to Galt, into Kyonin and to the Vale of Shadows, where the consequences of events decades before will affect Stelan’s future.”

I wanted a story that started out with a linear feel so that it could move forward with momentum, then added complications as the adventure got under way. I think there are some nice character moments and well-motivated, though unexpected, plot turns. Personality wise Elyana didn’t end up being a Jirel of Joiry knock-off, although she’s definitely a kick butt protagonist, so she has that in common with the famous character. She’s also seasoned and clever, and she’s relentless — she simply never gives up. I had a lot of fun writing her.

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Black Gate Interviews Howard Andrew Jones, Part Two

Black Gate Interviews Howard Andrew Jones, Part Two

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hannibal2In part one of Black Gate’s interview with Howard Andrew Jones we heard about one of Howard’s new novels, The Desert of Souls, and the joys and pitfalls of writing fantasy stories set in an historical milieu. In our second installment we talk about Howard’s reverence for the greatly under-appreciated historical adventure writer Harold Lamb, and the massive project Howard undertook to collect and republish Lamb’s fiction to preserve it for new audiences.

All this talk about historical fiction naturally brings us around to Harold Lamb. When and where did you first encounter his work?

I first found him as a high school sophomore. I had to write a short history paper on a famous historical figure, and I happened to find Lamb’s biography of Hannibal on the library shelves. I loved that book. I had reread books in the past, but they were always novels or short story collections. Hannibal  was the first non-fiction text I revisited again and again. Lamb presented what was almost a Shakespearean drama about a man blessed by the gods with brilliance and charisma, doomed never to achieve the one thing he truly fought for, which was the preservation of his homeland, the citystate of Carthage. A military genius, Hannibal won battles employing tactics that are still studied today, but no matter how clever he was, he could not win the war. He had luck in abundance, but it was almost a curse, for while he continued to survive, all those closest to him fell. When he returned home to Carthage after the war, he turned his intellect to reforming the state. He eliminated graft and corruption, and  overhauled the elective system so that senators, appointed to lifetime power, had to be elected every two years by the people. Though beloved by the commoners, his sweeping changes drew only ire from the ruling elite, who lied to Rome, saying Hannibal was still plotting against them. He had to flee his city and wander for the rest of his life, taking employment with more and more distant places as a military adviser while the Romans expanded their holdings. Hunted to the end by Rome, he finally died by his own hand rather than permitting them to capture him alive.

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Howard Andrew Jones on John Scalzi’s Big Idea

Howard Andrew Jones on John Scalzi’s Big Idea

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62356_485436920976_596055976_7149232_4556461_nHoward Andrew Jones month continues with no let up in pace. Tuesday Howard published a novel and a magazine review; yesterday he held his first book signing (in Terre Haute, Indiana) and conducted an interview with Black Gate‘s Bill Ward.

Today Howard is the subject of The Big Idea at John Scalzi’s blog:

Neil Gaiman and P. Craig Russel’s brilliant portrayal of 8th century Baghdad (in issue 50 of The Sandman) brought that particular locale into sharp focus for me. Arts, mathematics, poetry, and science blossomed during the golden age of the Abbasid caliphate, while Europe wallowed in the the poverty, illiteracy, and disease of a Dark Age. Yet there were still plenty of blank spaces on middle-eastern maps, filled in by glorious storytelling. Men and women lived ordinary civilized lives, but they knew that the supernatural might lurk in the neighboring kingdom, or around any street corner…

The Desert of Souls came into being as an origin story, not just about how the characters met, but how Dabir and Asim came to depend upon one another. Two men are caught up in events bigger than themselves and in their journey they learn to work together so they have the strength to face a terrible evil. It takes place against the technicolor backdrop of the Arabian Nights, complete with lost cities and sweeping deserts, scheming sorcerers, implacable djinn, and secrets men were not meant to know. There’s romance and heartbreak, swashbuckling action, and hard won victories… In brief, it’s an adventure with the kind of elements I’ve always loved.

There’s no stopping him.  Today Scalzi’s blog — tomorrow, the world.

You can read the complete post here.

Black Gate Interviews Howard Andrew Jones, Part One

Black Gate Interviews Howard Andrew Jones, Part One

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howard-pic2The great thing about interviewing Howard Andrew Jones is that it is impossible to run out of interesting things to talk about. That’s because Howard has been busy. Busy writing stories, busy preserving the legacy of an unsung founder of historical adventure, busy editing Black Gate Magazine. And, oh yeah, busy writing and selling novels — his first two, the Dabir and Asim origin story The Desert of Souls, and Plague of Shadows for Paizo’s new Pathfinder fiction line, are both due out this month!

In this first installment of a multi-part interview with Howard, he talks about his new Dabir and Asim novel and the relationship between historical and fantasy writing.

A Conversation with Howard Andrew Jones

Your Dabir and Asim stories are some of the most popular to be featured in Black Gate Magazine. For those readers perhaps still unfamiliar with them, what can one expect from a Dabir and Asim tale? More specifically, what is in store for readers that pick up Dabir’s and Asim’s first novel-length adventure, The Desert of Souls?

Mystery, adventure, swashbuckling swordplay, two brave friends standing against things man was not meant to know… to further sound like a radio announcer, there’s all this and more! I think my two favorite descriptions about their exploits come from John O’Neill and Kevin J. Anderson. O’Neill described their tales as “something like Sherlock Holmes crossed with the Arabian Nights, except Watson has a sword,” and Kevin J. Anderson wrote that the novel read “like a cross between Sindbad and Indiana Jones.” There’s a strong sense of the exotic, because I like to take readers to strange and colorful places, be it a haunted tower in the Baghdad night, or ancient ruins. I had a lot more room to spread out in the novel, so the readers are introduced to more figures from Dabir and Asim’s world, including the brilliant Sabirah, Dabir’s one true love, and the caliph himself.

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A Talk with Amal El-Mohtar

A Talk with Amal El-Mohtar

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bghoneyWhen you taste honey, do you think of ravenfolk, the wicked and the lovely? Do you find sex, death and trickery on your tongue? Ms. Amal El-Mohtar does. Amal was given 28 vials of honey. She tasted one vial per day over the course of one month and wrote down her impressions – some days in prose, others in poetry. These writings have been published as The Honey Month.

Seriously, you should buy the book for “Day 27: Leatherwood Honey” alone. It made me gasp. Never mind “Day 11: Blackberry Honey” wherein the universe reminded me what it’s like to have a poem bust open a heart ventricle and fill it with breath-catching melancholy.

Black Gate found Amal wandering in our godswood. We yelled, “HALT, TRESPASSER!” not knowing who she was. As we ran at her ready to tackle, she pulled an ancient blade from behind her back and, well, hmm, embarrassing though it be, we were unarmed. As it’s our swindling nature to distract folks with words we sat down and began to ask her questions. Ms. El-Mohtar very kindly answered these instead of chopping off our heads and we forgave her for trespassing in our godswood.

Here is our chat with Amal El-Mohtar:

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Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Catherine Mary Stewart

Goth Chick News: 13 Questions for Catherine Mary Stewart

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image015The gentlemen staff of Black Gate tirelessly seeks out ways to entertain you. There have been cross-country zeppelin rides and waist-high stacks of manuscripts to pour over, seeking only the crème de la crème of stories to tell and the most interesting tidbits to pass along. The boys often go for days without showering, living only on beer and pizza while spending countless, sleepless hours reading the latest comics or playing the latest video games; all for your enjoyment and approval. During these marathon sessions of creativity, toilet sets are left up and the communal fridge sprouts intricate science experiments, which I am sure have some unobvious value.

It’s exhausting to watch, really.

But here in the underground bunker of Goth Chick News, we’re generally just concerned with the tequila supply and whether plugging in the blender while five Xboxes are going upstairs will cause a breaker to trip.

That is, until two weeks ago.

It was then that I brought you a collection of favorite scary movies from the 80’s, gleaned from an outwardly cool-looking, mixed group of New Years Eve revelers; with a goal to either remind you of a picture you’d forgotten, or tempt you into something classic that you may never have heard of.

As it turns out, plenty of you have heard of Catherine Mary Stewart.

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Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans

Speculate! The Podcast for Writers, Readers, and Fans

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speculateSpeculate! is a podcast for writers, readers, and fans, run by Gregory A. Wilson and Bradley P. Beaulieu, two writers of speculative fiction. Speculate! will be sharing podcasts of several different types, including:

  • Fiction Reviews – discussions of novels or short fiction.
  • Author Interviews – interviews or roundtables with some of the great and new voices in speculative fiction.
  • Writing Technique – nuts and bolts discussions of writing technique that stem from the works we’ve reviewed.
  • Artist Interviews – just to shake things up, we thought we’d include some interviews with various artists in the speculative fiction arena.

In general, though we may not always stick to this formula, we’ll be discussing a particular set of short stories or a novel, then we’ll interview the author(s) in the following episode, and will finish up with a show where we get into the more nitty gritty details of writing technique. This allows us to dig deeper into the fiction we’re discussing, and it hopefully allows you, the listener, to be both entertained and informed. We’re always looking for suggestions for improvement, though, so if you have any thoughts on new topics or even authors we might interview, please feel free to discuss in our posts or send us an email through the contact page.

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John Joseph Adams Interviews Jonathan L. Howard

John Joseph Adams Interviews Jonathan L. Howard

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cabalJonathan L. Howard, author of the Johannes Cabal novels (Johannes Cabal the Necromancer and Johannes Cabal the Detective), had the lead story in Black Gate 13, the popular tale “The Beautiful Corridor.” It followed the exploits of the master thief Kyth, as she took on a commission from the jovial lich Maten Shal to explore an impossibly deadly tomb (read an excerpt here.)

Now Jonathan’s story “The Ereshkigal Working,” also featuring Johannes Cabal the Necromancer, appears in the new anthology The Way of the Wizard. Editor John Joseph Adams has interviewed Jonathan  in conjunction with the book launch:

A necromancer’s lot is not a happy one… Horrible things befall him on a regular basis, although this story is the first time his experimental subjects have reanimated before he’s done anything necromantic to them at all. The story came from wondering how Cabal would handle a full-on zombie outbreak.

Adams: Most authors say all their stories are personal. If that’s true for you, in what way was this story personal to you?

That’s a very true statement. I myself halted a zombie apocalypse a couple of years ago, and I remember thinking at the time, “This would make a good story.”

The Way of the Wizard looks like a terrific book, with both classic tales of wizards from some of the best names in fantasy, and new fiction from a lot of hot new talent. The book’s website features seven “Free Reads” from Adam-Troy Castro, Jeremiah Tolbert, David Barr Kirtley, and John R. Fultz’s “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria.” We reported on John Joseph Adams’ interview with John Fultz last month.

Jonathan’s next story featuring Kyth, “The Shuttered Temple,” in which Kyth attempts to solve the mystery of a sealed and very deadly temple, appears in the upcoming Black Gate 15.

The complete interview with Jonathan L. Howard is here.

Writing: Historical Fantasy and the Book Deal

Writing: Historical Fantasy and the Book Deal

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lion-of-cairo
Scott’s new book. Go buy it!
A few months ago James Enge and I sat down for a cyber conversation about serial characters and the book deal.  We both had a lot of fun, and the the exchange seemed of interest to Black Gate readers, so I asked my friend Scott Oden to join me  for a similar back-and-forth interview.

If you haven’t yet heard of Scott Oden, you’re missing a rising star in historical fiction. I learned of his work when our mutual friend, Robert E. Howard scholar Morgan Holmes, handed me a copy of Scott’s first book and urged me to read it. My “to-be-read” pile is as tottering as that of most readers, but I took Morgan at his word and was launched into an action-packed thrill ride at the side of Phoenecian mercenary leader Hasdrabal Barca in Men of Bronze. Oden’s skill with character, pacing, and description — not to mention his action chops — impressed me greatly. When I learned Scott was a fan of historical fiction writer Harold Lamb, I invited him to write an introduction for one of the Lamb historical collections I was editing.

As I’ve mentioned in previous writing posts, it was Scott who introduced me to his editor, the talented Pete Wolverton of Thomas Dunne Books, and Scott who introduced me to the agent we now share, the gifted Bob Mecoy. Scott wrote on this topic some months ago, after I took news of my own book deal public last November.

Scott’s new novel, a historical fantasy set in 11th century Cairo, hits bookstore shelves this Tuesday. I had the privilege of reading the book in manuscript, so I can tell you that it’s one of the best historical novels of the year.  Its impending release seemed like a fine excuse for a discussion about  historical fiction, middle-eastern protagonists, and, naturally, Harold Lamb. I lead off, then Scott follows. At the end of each exchange, we trade questions, and occasionally we interject responses.

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John Joseph Adams Interviews John R. Fultz

John Joseph Adams Interviews John R. Fultz

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wayofthewizardJohn Joseph Adams, editor of The Way of the Wizard anthology, has interviewed contributor — and Black Gate blogger and author — John R. Fultz in conjunction with the book launch:

In the cannon of classic fantasy, there are many examples of terrific wizardry, such as Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser tales, where Ningauble of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless Face are the heroes’ patrons – mysterious inhuman wizards who watch over and protect Fafhrd and the Mouser, as well as giving them preposterous quests now and then. The tales of Clark Ashton Smith are rife with wizardry… Malygris of Susran, Namirrah of Zothique, and Evagh the Warlock, to name only a few. Nobody could build a rich, phantasmagoric world of dark wonders like Smith… Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melnibone is one of my favorite wizards as well… Who knew a wizard could be such a bad-ass with a sword?

The Way of the Wizard was released on November 16th; the book’s website features seven “Free Reads,” including  John Joseph Adams’ introduction, stories from Adam-Troy Castro, Jeremiah Tolbert, David Barr Kirtley, and the complete  text of John R. Fultz’s “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria.”

John R. Fultz blogs here regularly; he’s also the author of “Oblivion Is the Sweetest Wine” (Black Gate 12), “Return of the Quill” (Black Gate 13), and the upcoming “The Vintages of Dream.”

The complete interview is here.