Black Gate

Robert E. Howard. C. L. Moore. Henry Kuttner. Leigh Brackett. Gary Gygax. For fantasy readers and gamers, these are names to conjure with. And all of them are now roaring back into print courtesy of Paizo Publishing, one of the leading publishers in the fantasy and role-playing fields.

Black Gate Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones checks in with Paizo publisher Erik Mona for all the details about his ambitious new fantasy imprint, Planet Stories, and the classic tales at the center of the endeavor.

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“Think Realms of Fantasy meets The Onion.” That’s how the editors of Blood, Blade, and Thruster describe their new magazine of “speculative fiction and satire.” Angela at SciFiChick.com has posted a lengthy discussion with the editors of BBT which we thought would be of interest to Black Gate readers. We even get mentioned in the course of the interview:

I started by pestering every editor I could get my virtual little hands on. . . I was surprised when almost all of them answered in the most forthright way possible. So basically I used people who had been in the business a lot longer than I had for advice. People like Jason Sizemore at Apex Digest, John O’Neill at Black Gate, and all the folks at Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, were of tremendous help.

Read the rest at the SciFiChick.com website, and learn about one of the more unique fantasy-oriented mags to hit the marketplace.

During the fantasy boom of the 1970s and ’80s, the work of a young Chicagoan named David C. Smith consistently kept Sword-and-Sorcery readers enthralled with tales that heralded back to the pulp S&S adventures of old. Now after many years away from the field, he sits down with Black Gate to discuss that storied publishing age and his career as one of the genre’s shining lights.

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James Enge’s tales of Morlock the Maker have earned praise from an ever-growing list of Black Gate readers and reviewers. A few weeks ago Black Gate’s Howard Jones had the pleasure to “sit down” with James and get some detailed answers about Morlock’s origins, his future, and some insight into Enge’s writing practices.

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Twilight Tales is a Chicago institution. For over a decade it’s brought hundreds of authors from around the world to perform their stories live at Chicago’s Red Lion Pub as part of its weekly fiction reading series.

Over the years Black Gate editor and publisher John O’Neill has participated in Twilight Tales editors’ panels, and been a judge for its “Authors in the Hot Seat” critique shows.

Now David Munger interviews John as part of the Twilight Tales Interview series, covering such topics as the magazine’s beginnings, his editorial vision, the future of short fiction, and the three novels every Black Gate reader — and aspiring fantasy writer — should read.

Darrell Schweitzer is one of fantasy’s true renaissance men. As co-editor of Weird Tales he’s kept alive the field’s most venerated and historic magazine, while simultaneously helping guide and shape the next generation of fantasy authors. As a literary critic he’s illuminated the careers of many modern masters with his Discovering Modern Horror Fiction series, The Thomas Ligotti Reader, the upcoming Neil Gaiman Reader, and many other fine works.

But it’s with his fiction that he’s made his most important contributions. The author of over three hundred published short stories and three novels, including Mask of the Sorcerer and The White Isle, Darrell Schweitzer has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award three times.

Black Gate author John R. Fultz examines the career of this celebrated author with a look at his most influential novels and collections, and a lengthy interview with the man the critic Mike Ashley labels “today’s supreme stylist.”

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In the late ’90’s, Cyberus struck a deal to be acquired for $5.2 million…[which] meant we could finally talk seriously about doing some of the things we’d dreamed about. I drafted a business plan for a publishing house, and showed it to the other owners… It called for the creation of a fantasy magazine with the emphasis on exciting, accessible fiction. In essence, it would be a modern age pulp magazine, with serials, colorful settings and characters, and an unabashed emphasis on fun.

Read Daniel E. Blackston’s hard-hitting interview with Black Gate‘s Editor and Publisher John O’Neill at SFReader.com. Ranging from the early days of the SF Site through Black Gate‘s genesis and recent success, the conversation covers modern adventure fantasy, pulps, electronic publishing, the perils of modern distribution, and much more. Read this candid and surprising talk with a “website pioneer and print publisher extraordinaire.”