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Some Thoughts on the Eve of Conan the Barbarian

Some Thoughts on the Eve of Conan the Barbarian

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conan-2011-movie-posterI’ve refrained from talking about Conan the Barbarian (2011) until now, despite my love for Robert E. Howard’s works. But now that we’re poised on the eve of its U.S. release, I thought I’d weigh in with my personal hopes—and fears—regarding the film.

The bottom line for me is this: I’m going to do what the studio execs want, which is opening my wallet and seeing the movie. And I might even consider it money well spent. That said, the updates I’ve followed up to this point (your ultimate source is Al Harron’s Conan the Movie Blog) don’t leave me with great expectations.

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Jabberwocky 7 & Goblin Fruit Summer 2011

Jabberwocky 7 & Goblin Fruit Summer 2011

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bgfrontjabberMorning and evening
Maids heard the goblins cry:
“Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the rye!”

…Dear Mr. Carroll and Ms. Rossetti,

I AM SO SORRY!

But I couldn’t help myself!

I’m just so excited because the summer issues of Jabberwocky and Goblin Fruit are up!

Sincerely,

Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney

P.S. I’ll talk about both issues LOTS if you keep reading! Promise!


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Win a Limited Edition Copy of Rage of the Behemoth from Rogue Blades Entertainment

Win a Limited Edition Copy of Rage of the Behemoth from Rogue Blades Entertainment

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rotbJason M Waltz, publisher of Rogue Blades Entertainment, is giving away a free copy of the limited edition of Rage of the Behemoth to one lucky winner this week.

Described as “Almost 150,000 words of monstrous mayhem recording the ferocious battles that rage between gargantuan creatures of myth and legend, and the warriors and wizards who wage war against, beside, and astride them,” Rage of the Behemoth gathers 21 splendid tales of pure adventure fantasy under one cover, including contributions from Bill Ward, Andrew Offutt & Richard K. Lyon, Lois Tilton, Mary Rosenblum, Sean T. M. Stiennon, Brian Ruckley, Bruce Durham, Jason Thummel, C.L. Werner, and many more.

How do you win? Easy!

Just comment on any of the three posts this week at Rogue Blades Entertainment’s Home of Heroics , and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a copy. The Home of Heroics is the Grand Central Station for heroic fiction on the Web, and previous writers have included Martha Wells, E.E. Knight, David C. Smith, Charles Saunders, Bill Ward, and many others.

Comments must be made between Monday, July 25, and Friday July 29. Complete details on the contest are here.

Learn more about Rage of the Behemoth here.

You won’t find many contests this easy — or this much fun. Check out Home of Heroics today. You can thank us later.

The Nightmare Men: “Physician Extraordinary”

The Nightmare Men: “Physician Extraordinary”

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john-silence

‘Rich by accident and a doctor by choice, John Silence took only those cases which interested him.’

The above is from “A Psychical Invasion” (1908), the first of Algernon Blackwood’s stories to feature Dr. John Silence, the ‘psychic doctor’.  Blackwood chronicled six of Silence’s cases, though only five appear in the initial collection, John Silence (containing “A Psychical Invasion”, “Ancient Sorceries”, “The Nemesis of Fire”, “Secret Worship”, and “The Camp of the Dog”; “A Victim of Higher Space”, the sixth story, was included in later collections) released in 1908 (then re-issued in 1942). Even if you can’t get your hands on one of the many reprint collections (or on the 1942 re-issue as I was lucky enough to do), you can rest easy…Blackwood’s work is in the public domain and is freely available from a variety of electronic sources.

The stories themselves are in the inimitable Blackwood style, seen at its most effective in “The Wendigo” and “The Willows”, and display the author’s interest in the occult. The horrors that Silence faces are nebulous things, at once more vast than the horizon and smaller than the inside of a cupboard. They range from nightmare assaults out of deep time to unrequited yearnings gone impossibly savage, originating in both human action as well as from events far outside of human understanding. Time and space are suggestions at best, and as in the works of Hodgson and Lovecraft, reality itself comes under assault from outside entities which seek to impose themselves on their victims.

Enter John Silence, MD.

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Borders Begins Liquidation

Borders Begins Liquidation

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borders-lockedBorders, one of the largest bookstore chains in the United States, has began the process of closing its doors.

Going-out-of-Business sales started today at all Borders, Borders Express, and Waldenbooks locations, with up to 40% off most items. The store has announced that gift cards will be honored during the liquidation, Borders Rewards Plus discounts are good through August 5th, and Borders Bucks will be accepted until July 31.

CEO Mike Edwards sent this e-mail to all Borders Rewards members yesterday, saying in part:

We had worked very hard toward a different outcome. The fact is that Borders has been facing headwinds for quite some time, including a rapidly changing book industry, the eReader revolution, and a turbulent economy. We put up a great fight, but regrettably, in the end, we weren’t able to overcome these external forces.

Going out of business sales begin in stores Friday, July 22. I encourage you to take advantage of this one-time opportunity to find exceptional discounts on your favorite books…

When I moved to my current home in St. Charles, IL in 1997, it was a town filled with many bookstores. The arrival of Borders and then Barnes & Noble gradually killed virtually every one of them.

But I consoled myself with the fact that Borders was, in fact, a superb book store. Clean, well organized, and marvelously well stocked, it was a terrific place to browse and find books. And now it is gone, leaving my town with one small bookstore: Town House Books, the sole survivor of the coming of Borders over a decade ago. One town over, there’s also a B&N superstore — another marvelous place for book lovers.  Until it too goes bankrupt, as many investors are now predicting.

It is the end of the bookstore?  I hope not, but time will tell.  And until then, I’ll be shopping at Town House books.

Encouraging Production Video of The Hobbit Released

Encouraging Production Video of The Hobbit Released

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the-hobbit-cover1I’m officially Much More Encouraged about The Hobbit now that I’ve seen the latest production video released today. You can view it here on Peter Jackson’s Facebook page.  

I’ve long believed that The Hobbit is (or was) a risker film to make than The Lord of the Rings. Not now of course—The Hobbit is all but a guaranteed hit, as most LOTR fans would lap up a Jackson-directed four hour Tom Bombadil Lifetime special. But I think it was a smart move to make The Lord of the Rings first. Even though Rings is five times the length of The Hobbit, features far costlier set pieces, and has a much more complex, sprawling narrative, The Hobbit has its own unique movie-making handicap: Namely, that it’s about a hobbit and 13 dwarves. Hunks like Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen and chicks like Cate Blanchett and Liv Tyler are nowhere to be found (though most of these guys are getting cameos, it seems. And Kili is the token heartthrob). A troupe of short, bearded, rotund men is a tougher sell for mass audiences used to handsome stars and starlets.

In perhaps the only serious moment of an otherwise fun, lighthearted clip, Jackson admits as much. “Thirteen dwarves is one of the reasons why I dreaded The Hobbit, and why I really didn’t think I was going to make it for such a long time. But the irony is, it turns out to be one of the joys.”

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Just Two Months Left to Enter the Challenge! Stealth Writing Competition

Just Two Months Left to Enter the Challenge! Stealth Writing Competition

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challengeThe 2011 Challenge! Stealth Writing Competition from Rogue Blades Entertainment is officially one month old — which means there’s only 60 days left to enter.

The Challenge! writing competitions ask writers to submit an original work of short fiction using a piece of art and a one-word theme for inspiration. This year’s art, by Storn Cool, is at right; this year’s theme — appropriately enough — is Stealth.

Here’s the official call to action from Rogue Blades:

Using the awesome cover art provided by Storn Cook and this year’s title Stealth, capture your muse over the next 15 days and embark upon grand adventure! … Get your heroic adventure in any genre to RBE between June 15th and September 15th, 2011, and see if you have what it takes to deliver a winning tale! Speculative fiction is NOT required for Challenge! themes, so readers could find Historical Swashbucklers, Sword & Sorcery/Planet, Soul & Sandal, Western, Mystery, Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Horror and even Romance — ALL the flavors of HEROIC FICTION so long as they are mighty and mysterious tales of action and adventure.

The top twelves stories, as determined by the judges, will be awarded a print copy of the anthology, and the top three will also be awarded a cash prize,  and written critiques from the judges.  Judges this year are artist Storn Cook, author and writing instructor Mary Rosenblum (Horizons & Water Rites), and Black Gate editor John O’Neill (Me. And I’m ready to be entertained, so sharpen those pencils kids).

Last’s year’s contest, the Challenge! Discovery 2010, had ten winners, including Henrik Ramsager, Nicholas Ozment, Frederic S. Durbin, Gabe Dybing, and Keith J. Taylor. The winning entries from the 2010 contest will be collected in the Challenge! Discovery anthology, to be published by Rogue Blades Entertainment.

The contest entry fee is only $10, and a minimum number of participants is required. The official Challenge! submission guidelines are here, and the complete details of the Challenge! Stealth contest are here. Stories must be between 3,000 and 9,000 words.

What more do you need to know?  Start writing!! I expect to see great things from you on September 15.

C.S.E. Cooney’s The Sea King’s Second Bride wins the Rhysling Award

C.S.E. Cooney’s The Sea King’s Second Bride wins the Rhysling Award

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C.S.E. Cooney
C.S.E. Cooney

Woo-hoo!  Break out the bubbly!

Black Gate Website Editor C.S.E. Cooney has won the Rhysling Award, Long-Form category, for her poem “The Sea King’s Second Bride.” The Rhysling Awards are given each year by the Science Fiction Poetry Association to the best science fiction, fantasy, or horror poem of the year.

The Rhyslings are named for the blind poet Rhysling in Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Green Hills of Earth.” The categories are “Best Long Poem” (50 or more lines), and “Best Short Poem” (49 or fewer lines).

About her winning poem, Claire tells us:

It’s all due Nicole Kornher-Stace. And Amal El-Mohtar. And Jessica Wick. Who conspired to buy me that print of John Bauer’s Agneta and the Sea King. Which made me FINALLY buy that book of Swedish Folk Tales.

“The Sea King’s Second Bride” was originally published in Goblin Fruit, edited by Amal El-Mohtar and Jessica P. Wick . You can read the complete poem here.

The winners are announced at Readercon, held this year from 14-17 July at the Burlingon Marriott, outside of Boston, Massachusetts. The nominated works are traditionally compiled into an anthology called The Rhysling Anthology. This year, there were 37 nominees in the long poem category, and 56 in the short poem category. The complete list of nominees is here.

Congratulations to C.S.E!  In honor of her win, Black Gate would like to buy all our readers a bottle of bubbly1. Raise a toast with us in honor of our favorite poet — and now the world’s favorite, too.

1. Must be of legal drinking age. Must realize we’re joking. Offer not valid outside the continental U.S.A. Or anywhere that sells bubbly.

Goth Chick News: Kolchak Stalks Again

Goth Chick News: Kolchak Stalks Again

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image0101You remember him, I know you do.

A wise-cracking, would-be-hard-bitten newsman in a battered seersucker suit and straw hat looking like he just stepped out of a 1940’s gumshoe flick — except for that slick, yellow Ford Mustang convertible he’s tooling around in.

But Carl Kolchak took a wrong turn somewhere and ended up in a couple of 1970’s TV movies and a short-lived TV show in which he kept stumbling across increasingly outrageous news stories that not only put his life in imminent danger, but inevitably involved horrific supernatural or paranormal beings.

Cue the distinctive, whistled theme music and pull up a 1970’s faux leatherette lounge chair (orange preferably); it’s time for The Night Stalker…

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Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings wins the David Gemmell Legend Award

Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings wins the David Gemmell Legend Award

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the_way_of_kingsBrandon Sanderson’s novel The Way of Kings (Tor) is this year’s winner of the David Gemmell Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel of 2010.

The list of nominees, including Peter V. Brett, Markus Heitz, Pierre Pevel, and Brent Weeks, was announced in April. Sanderson was nominated twice — once for The Way of Kings, and once for Towers of Midnight, his posthumous Wheel of Time collaboration with Robert Jordan.

The David Gemmell Legend Award is a fan-voted award administered by the DGLA. The Legend Award for Best Fantasy Novel was first granted in 2009, to Andrzej Sapkowski’s Blood of Elves, and last year’s winner was Graham McNeill’s Empire: The Legend of Sigmar.

The Ravensheart Award for best Fantasy Book Jacket/artist went to Power and Majesty by Tansy Rayner Roberts (HarperCollins Australia); illustrated by Olof Erla Einarssdottir.

The Morningstar Award for Best Fantasy Newcomer/debut went to Warrior Priest by Darius Hinks (Black Library).

The complete details of the awards ceremony are available at the DGLA website.