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Category: Interviews

An Interview with Midnight Syndicate mastermind Ed Douglas

An Interview with Midnight Syndicate mastermind Ed Douglas

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The Dead Matter

Yes, my goth friends, there is a Santa! The highly creative people over at Midnight Syndicate are finally delivering on my personal wish list in the form a movie, The Dead Matter. Best known for creating amazing soundtracks to your worse nightmares, Ed Douglas and company are raising the stakes (or should I say “driving in the stakes”?) with this spine-tingler due out later this year. If their latest CD, The Dead Matter, Cemetery Gates is any indication, you won’t want to miss this cinematic horror extravaganza that mixes all the best elements of a classic, 1930’s monster movie, with your favorite bits from the 80’s. And if you’re listening to a Midnight Syndicate classic as you read this article, you’ve got something in common with Hugh Hefner! Read on to learn more as we clear the cob webs and sit down for a chat with the masterful music and movie creator, Ed Douglas. …

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Sword Against Slug: Robert E. Howard’s Almuric

Sword Against Slug: Robert E. Howard’s Almuric

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In the old days, when sheep were sheep and ewes were embraceable, genres tended to ossify pretty fast. But no genre-formula became so formulaic so fast as sword-and-planet. Burroughs set the pattern with A Princess of Mars: a lone American (not a Canadian–not a Ugandan–not a Lithuanian–an American) is mysteriously plunged into an exotic other world which is both more advanced and more primitive than the earth he knows. He conquers all by virtue of his heroism and marries the space princess. In the inevitable sequel the pitiless author will somehow compel him do it all again, sometimes under another name. This sounds like mere mockery, and of all subgenres sword-and-planet may be the most mockable (one has but to mention the magic syllable “Gor” to banish all useful thought), but when well-done it can be a blast. Burroughs’ Barsoom books are still being read, are still being filmed and name-checked in other media, and not because of his melodious prose style or his thoughts on the eternal verities; somehow the pattern he hit on (and partly appropriated) rang people’s bell, and continues to ring it. Figuring out why wouldn’t be a waste of anyone’s time, even if the books are not a matter of high seriousness.

In this genre or subgenre, Almuric is of special interest, because it is by one of the greatest fantasists of the pulp era, Robert E. Howard. It’s also interesting as one of REH’s few booklength works and, it seems, his only experiment at building an entire secondary world. Although the story (like much of REH’s work) is now in the public domain and available online, I read the novel in Planet Stories’ new edition and I recommend that anyone really interested in the book do the same. I say this not because the publisher has paid me an enormous illicit bribe (although I will accept one if offered). The online texts are mostly poor transcriptions littered with many obvious proofreading slips (e.g. “forward” and “foreward” for “foreword”; “premediatated” for “premeditated”, etc.–and that’s on the first two screens of this one). In contrast, Planet’s text is clean and readable; there’s an interesting introduction by Joe Lansdale and a great cover in the Jeff Jones tradition by Andrew Hou.

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Black Gate at Late Night JengaJam

Black Gate at Late Night JengaJam

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Last week Black Gate Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones was the guest of Jefferson Jenga at his popular and well-regarded call-in podcast show Late Night JengaJam. During the interview they talked with callers and each other about the ups and downs of the fantasy field, numerous authors such as Robert E. Howard, Harold Lamb, and J.R.R. Tolkien, and especially about the perils and rewards of editing one of the premier magazines of fantasy fiction.

It was a lengthy and engrossing conversation, so grab the entire show, pop it onto your iPod, and give it a listen. You can download the entire podcast in MP3 format here.

An Interview with Paizo publisher Erik Mona

An Interview with Paizo publisher Erik Mona

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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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Blood, Blade and Thruster Interview

Blood, Blade and Thruster Interview

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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.

An Interview with David C. Smith

An Interview with David C. Smith

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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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An Interview With James Enge

An Interview With James Enge

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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 Interview with John O’Neill

Twilight Tales Interview with John O’Neill

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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.

The Sorcery of Storytelling: The Imaginary Worlds of Darrell Schweitzer

The Sorcery of Storytelling: The Imaginary Worlds of Darrell Schweitzer

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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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An Interview With Editor John O’Neill

An Interview With Editor John O’Neill

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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.”