Black Gate

Joseph A. McCullough has been a behind-the-scenes contributor to Black Gate for over a decade. He has a superb story sense, and put it to work as a submissions reader for us for many years, sifting through hundreds of short stories and sending the most promising my way.

That story sense has served him well in other arenas as well. A decade ago, Joe wrote what many consider the definitive modern essay on S&S, “The Demarcation of Sword and Sorcery,” originally published at Howard Andrew Jones’s SwordAndSorcery.org, and prominently referenced in the Wikipedia definition of the genre. It was eventually reprinted here and quickly became one of the most popular articles we’ve ever published. For years it was the backbone of the BG blog, drawing thousands of readers every month.

Joe is a fine writer in his own right (just check out his terrific adventure story “Stand at Llieva” in Black Gate 5). He also has the enviable task of guiding a publishing imprint, as Project Manager for Osprey Adventures, an imprint of Osprey Publishing — which he wrote about here.

Joe is occasionally able to combine vocations, and has now published a total of five books through Osprey, including Zombies: A Hunter’s Guide. His latest release, Dragonslayers From Beowulf to St. George, is a gorgeously illustrated look at some of the most famous heroes of legend.

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Editor’s aren’t supposed to have favorites — or we’re not supposed to admit to favorites, anyway. So I’ll temper what I wanted to say and just say this: I published two short stories by David Wesley Hill in Black Gate, and they were both so brilliant and unusual that I considered renaming the magazine David W. Hill’s Magazine of Fantasy.

It’s probably best that I didn’t, since David has since gone on to a successful career as a novelist, and I’d be stuck with a magazine that didn’t have any short stories in it. But I do urge you to check out “Far From Laredo” in Black Gate 4, in which gunslinger Charles Duke is hired to rid a town of three troublesome demons, and “The Good Sheriff” (BG 13), in which Duke finds himself up against a maimed god in a mining town full of sorcerers and demons.

Or, if you happen to have a Kindle, you could try David’s latest adventure novel, the tale of young cook Peregrine James on an expedition under Francis Drake, for free:

It was as fine a day to be whipped as any he’d ever seen but the good weather didn’t make Peregrine James any happier with the situation he was in. Unfairly convicted of a crime he had not committed, the young cook was strung from the whipping post on the Plymouth quayside when he caught the eye of the charismatic sea captain Francis Drake, who agreed to accept Perry among his crew despite the stripes of a thief on his back.

Soon England was receding in their wake and Perry was serving an unsavory collection of sea dogs as the small fleet of fragile wood ships sailed across the deep brine. Their destination was secret, known to Drake alone. Few sailors believed the public avowal that the expedition was headed for Alexandria to trade in currants. Some men suspected Drake planned a raid across Panama to attack the Spanish in the Pacific. Others were sure the real plan was to round the Cape of Storms to break the Portuguese monopoly of the spice trade. The only thing Perry knew for certain was that they were bound for danger and that he must live by his wits if he were to survive serving at Drake’s command.

David’s previous novel was the SF adventure Castaway on Temurlone.

At Drake’s Command was published November 1, 2012 by Temurlone Press. It is 424 pages, priced at $14.95 for the trade paperback, and $2.99 for the digital edition. For today and tomorrow, you can get the Kindle edition for free here.

I’m a huge fan of E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth novels. For me it started years ago, with the paperback editions of the first two books in the series, Way of the Wolf and Choice of the Cat.

If you’re new to the series, of course, things are easier. You don’t have long waits between releases, haunting bookstores for the next installment. You can even get the first three novels in a handsome omnibus edition from the Science Fiction Book Club, Enter the Wolf, as we reported right here last month.

Appalachian Overthrow, the tenth novel in E.E. Knight’s exciting series, arrived in stores last week. This volume focuses on David Valentine’s fellow freedom fighter Ahn-Kha, telling a tale of the time when he was imprisoned and forced into hard labor by the alien Kurians — and the rebellion he led against them.

Captured and sold to the Kurian–allied Maynes Conglomerate, to work as a slave in the coal mines of Appalachia, Ahn-Kha is angered and appalled by the dangerous working conditions, and the brutal treatment inflicted upon his fellow miners. When a protest against shortages is deliberately and bloodily suppressed, Ahn-Kha sets himself against the ruling Maynes family and sets out on a trail of vengeance through the Coal Country.

Finally, the people of the Coal Country are driven to the breaking point — and they now have a leader, a powerful and battle-hardened leader, determined to forge them into an army that will wage guerrilla warfare against the Maynes family and their Kurian masters — and free the Appalachians from their tyranny…

E.E. Knight’s Blue Pligrim story “The Terror in the Vale” was one of the most popular stories we’ve published as part of our Black Gate Online Fiction line. It is a relentless and chilling tale of sword and sorcery, with an ending that will stay with you long after you turn off the monitor and climb into bed. Read the complete story free here.

Appalachian Overthrow was published by Roc on April 2. It is 339 pages in hardcover, priced at $24.95 ($11.99 for the digital edition).