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Join the Sorcerer’s Guild Today

Join the Sorcerer’s Guild Today

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harpers-penJeff Crook, the mastermind behind The Harper’s Pen Award, has announced some changes to the Award, and opened up membership to the Sorcerer’s Guild, the voting body.

He’s also offering a free PDF copy of Black Gate 14 (sold here for $4.95) to the first 100 members:

The time has come to start thinking about nominations for the next Harper’s Pen Award. That means it’s time to unlock the adamantine doors of the Sorcerer’s Guild and open our membership drive. The Sorcerer’s Guild is an autonomous anarcho-syndicalist collective of fans, editors and authors of the short fiction genre commonly known as Sword and Sorcery (cue lights, smoke, thunder). We gather once each year to trade spells and knitting patterns and select the winner of the presigious and lucrative Harper’s Pen Award. The 2009 winner was John C. Hocking for his story “The Face in the Sea” published in Black Gate #13.

Beginning this year, you must be a member of the Sorcerer’s Guild to nominate a story for the Harper’s Pen. Cruel, I know, but we must maintain some standards. Luckily, joining the Sorcerer’s Guild is not only easy, it’s rewarding, because we are prepared to offer the first 100 new members a pdf download of Black Gate #14. Yes, that’s right – by joining today, you will receive a free magazine of the some of the best Sword and Sorcery short fiction being published today.

The complete announcement is here.

If you’re interested in Sword & Sorcery or short fiction, or nominating authors for the Harper’s Pen Award, joining the Sorcerer’s Guild could be extremely rewarding — and not just for the free issue of Black Gate.

Brent Knowles Reviews Black Gate 14 on the iPad

Brent Knowles Reviews Black Gate 14 on the iPad

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ipad1So this is kind of cool.

Long time reader Brent Knowles, who reviewed our last issue here, has now also weighed in on Black Gate 14, as viewed in PDF on the iPad:

Earlier in the year I changed my print subscription to Black Gate into an electronic one. This was done mostly to save postage expense, I love the print magazine and have every issue and so this was my first time reading it digitally. I transferred the PDF through the iTunes Books folder and read it using the iBooks app. As you can see the text and images look sharp on the iPad… So all in all I’m pretty happy with reading Black Gate this way.

Brent did acknowledge the one drawback other readers have commented on — the  two-column format:

About the only difficulties I encountered were with the two-column layout that appeared for longer stories (most stories were single column). The two-column stories and articles were more of a challenge to read because the text became rather smallish.

Something of a dilemma, since the feedback on the two-column format for print readers has been universally positive, and we plan to switch the entire issue to two columns starting with Black Gate 15. We’re still looking for a solution for PDF readers.

Concerning the contents of the issue itself, Brent had several kind things to say.

…

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Peadar Ó Guilín’s “The Evil-Eater” Podcast on Pseudopod

Peadar Ó Guilín’s “The Evil-Eater” Podcast on Pseudopod

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The Evil EaterOne of our more popular recent stories, Peadar Ó Guilín’s “The Evil-Eater,” has been given the full podcast treatment by Pseudopod.org.

Dave Truesdale at Tangent Online described the story thusly:

Toby works nights at the desk of a European hotel and dreams of becoming an actor. His one and only acting gig was a cola commercial a year before. His new girlfriend, the beautiful but shallow Marie, was first attracted to him on his claim of being an actor… Toby comes into possession of a printed invitation to a very exclusive — and expensive — restaurant, a 2,000-year-old establishment shrouded in mystery. As a last ditch attempt to impress Marie, he invites her to accompany him. What Toby and Marie discover at first delights them, but Toby soon discovers to his horror that not paying for his meal has consequences far beyond his imaginings…

“The Evil-Eater” first appeared in Black Gate 13.  You can read an excerpt from our Sneak Peek of the issue here.

Pseudopod is a free weekly horror podcast hosted by Alasdair Stuart.  “The Evil-Eater” is episode 208, posted October 15, and is ably read by Wilson Fowlie, who has a clear gift for Irish accents.

The complete podcast is available here.

Original art by John Kaufmann.

R.I.P. Realms of Fantasy

R.I.P. Realms of Fantasy

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rofoct1Tir Na Nog Press has shuttered Realms of Fantasy magazine, this time apparently for good. Its last issue was September/October, pictured at left.

Realms of Fantasy was one of the few remaining professional fantasy fiction magazines. Founded in October 1994 by Sovereign Media as a sister magazine for Science Fiction Age, it published acclaimed  fiction from some of the biggest names in the industry. Its long-time fiction editor was Shawna McCarthy.

In addition to fiction and top-notch review columns, the magazine was well known for its slick look and thoroughly professional design, and it pioneered a mix of art and fiction with gorgeous color galleries of top fantasy artists virtually every issue.

In a controversial move early this summer, publisher Warren Lapine threatened to close the magazine if enough subscribers didn’t renew — which generated some lively discussion on whether publicizing approaching doom was a workable marketing tactic for a modern magazine. [Looks like it wasn’t.]

In his farewell note, Lapine complains about how much money the magazine cost him, and offers to sell it to “a responsible party” for $1. He claims the December issue is ready for publication, and will be released in PDF format on the website for free download by subscribers. He is also closing his vampire magazine Dreams of Decadence.

Realms of Fantasy was well known for discovering and nurturing writers who have since gone on to stellar careers, something done by fewer and fewer magazines. Its departure leaves a significant void in the industry.

Howard Andrew Jones’ Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows Available for Pre-order

Howard Andrew Jones’ Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows Available for Pre-order

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Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows, by Howard Andrew Jones. Coming February 2011Black Gate Managing Editor Howard Andrew Jones has had a busy year.

In addition to his upcoming Dabir & Asim novel The Desert of Souls, due in hardcover February 2011 from Thomas Dunne Books, Howard’s second novel Pathfinder Tales: Plague of Shadows will appear from Paizo in early 2011.

Pathfinder Tales novels are standalone novels set in the world of Golarion, home of the succesful Pathfinder role playing game.  The first two volumes are Prince of Wolves by Dave Gross (August 2010) and Winter Witch by Elaine Cunningham (November).

Here’s the book description:

The race is on to free Lord Stelan from the grip of a wasting curse, and only his old elven mercenary companion Elyana has the wisdom — and swordcraft — to solve the mystery of his tormentor and free her old friend before three days have passed and the illness takes its course. When the villain turns out to be another of their former companions, the elf sets out with a team of adventurers across the Revolution-wracked nation of Galt and the treacherous Five Kings Mountains to discover the key to Stelan’s salvation in a lost valley warped by weird magical energies and inhabited by terrible nightmare beasts. From Black Gate magazine’s fiction editor Howard Andrew Jones comes a fantastic new adventure of swords and sorcery, set in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

You can pre-order copies directly from Piazo, either individually or as part of their Pathfinder Tales subscription.

Existence of Unpublished Stieg Larsson Novel is Confirmed

Existence of Unpublished Stieg Larsson Novel is Confirmed

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dragon-tattooCBS and The New York Times are reporting that the long-rumored fourth novel in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium series does, in fact, exist.

Whether it will ever be published in another matter. The complete text has yet to surface, and the only person reportedly in possession of a copy is his longtime companion Eva Gabrielsson, who is believed to have a laptop containing the manuscript. However Gabrielsson does not control the rights to the book, which are held by Larsson’s family. CBS is reporting the Larssons have, to date, forbidden publication.

The Millennium trilogy began with The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and continued in The Girl Who Played with Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest.  Larsson reportedly planned to write 10 volumes.

Larsson, who died of a heart attack at the age of 50, did not live to see the books published.  They have become an international phenomenon, with roughly 30 million copies sold. All were published originally in Sweden and then translated into English.

Among the disclosures today was the fact that the manuscript is believed to be the fifth book in the 10-volume series, rather than the fourth, “because he thought that was more fun to write.”

I bought these books for my mother on her birthday, only to discover she’d already read them.  That pretty much makes me the last person in North America not to have read them.  On the bright side, at least now I have copies.

A Peek at The Way of the Wizard

A Peek at The Way of the Wizard

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WAY OF THE WIZARD hits stores on Nov. 16.
The Wizard hits stores on Nov. 16.

It’s almost here! Next month Prime Books releases its new fantasy anthology paperback, THE WAY OF THE WIZARD. It features 32 stories of sorcerers, wizards, magicians and the like. In addition to luminaries like Neil Gaiman,  George R. R. Martin, Robert Silverberg, and Peter S. Beagle (among others) it features my own story, “The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria.”

Editor extraordinaire John Joseph Adams just announced the book’s complete table of contents:

WAY OF THE WIZARD

– Table of Contents –

-Introduction by John Joseph Adams
–In the Lost Lands — George R.R. Martin
–Family Tree — David Barr Kirtley
–John Uskglass and the Cambrian Charcoal Burner — Susanna Clarke
–Wizard’s Apprentice — Delia Sherman
–The Sorcerer Minus — Jeffrey Ford
–Life So Dear Or Peace So Sweet — C. C. Finlay
–Card Sharp — Rajan Khanna
–So Deep That the Bottom Could Not Be Seen —  Genevieve Valentine
–The Go-Slow — Nnedi Okorafor
–Too Fatal a Poison — Krista Hoeppner Leahy
–Jamaica — Orson Scott Card
–The Sorcerer’s Apprentice — Robert Silverberg
–The Secret of Calling Rabbits — Wendy N. Wagner
–The Wizards of Perfil — Kelly Link
–How to Sell the Ponti Bridge — Neil Gaiman
–The Magician and the Maid and Other Stories — Christie Yant
–Winter Solstice — Mike Resnick
–The Trader and the Slave — Cinda Williams Chima
–Cerile and the Journeyer — Adam-Troy Castro
–Counting the Shapes — Yoon Ha Lee
–Endgame — Lev Grossman
–Street Wizard — Simon R. Green
–Mommy Issues of the Dead — T. A. Pratt
–One Click Banishment — Jeremiah Tolbert
–The Ereshkigal Working — Jonathan L. Howard
–Feeding the Feral Children — David Farland
–The Orange-Tree Sacrifice — Vylar Kaftan
–Love is the Spell That Casts Out Fear — Desirina Boskovich
–El Regalo — Peter S. Beagle
–The Word of Unbinding — Ursula K. Le Guin
–The Thirteen Texts of Arthyria — John R. Fultz
–The Secret of the Blue Star — Marion Zimmer Bradley

So I’m sandwiched in between Ursula K. LeGuin and Marion Zimmer Bradley. Not a bad place to be!

You can pre-order WAY OF THE WIZARD at Amazon.com

Cheers!
John

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize for Literature

Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize for Literature

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war-of-the-end-of-the-worldPeruvian author Mario Vargas Llosa, one of the finest writers in the world — perhaps, indeed, the finest writer — was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature by the Royal Swedish Academy yesterday.

Vargas Llosa wrote two of the best novels I’ve ever read: Time of the Hero, based on his experiences at a Peruvian military academy — which caused such an uproar that a thousand copies were publicly burned by military authorities — and The War of the End of the World, which he’s called his finest book. This historical novel of End-of-the-19th-Century Brazil reads like epic fantasy, chronicling the apocalyptic fate of the small town of Canudos, in the grip of a visionary prophet and home to the country’s outcasts — prostitutes, bandits, and beggars — and a place where money, taxation, and marriage do not exist. Until the Brazilian government deems it must be destroyed at any cost.

In total he’s written over 30 novels and plays, including The Green House, Conversation in the Cathedral, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and In Praise of the Stepmother.

Vargas Llosa ran for President of Peru in 1990, but lost to Alberto Fujimori, who was later convicted of bribery, embezzlement, and human rights violations and sentenced to 25 years in prison. In 1976 Vargas Llosa famously punched his former friend Gabriel García Márquez (author of One Hundred Years of Solitude and a 1982 Nobel Prize winner himself) in Mexico City, and the two have reportedly not spoken in decades.

The Nobel Prize for Literature is regarded as the highest award a writer can receive. Previous winners have included Guenter Grass, Toni Morrison, William Golding, Saul Bellow, Samuel Beckett, Jean-Paul Sartre, John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, Winston Churchill, William Faulkner, and George Bernard Shaw.

E-Books That Cost More Than Hardcovers?

E-Books That Cost More Than Hardcovers?

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fall-of-giantsThe New York Times is reporting that two recent bestsellers — Fall of Giants by Ken Follett, and Don’t Blink by James Patterson and Howard Roughan — are priced higher in their e-book versions than in print by Amazon.com.

As of press time, Fall of Giants, published by Dutton on Sept 28, is $19.99 for the Kindle edition, and just $19.39 for the physical book (all 1,008 pages).   Don’t Blink is $14.99 for the e-book, or just $14 for the hardcover.

As you can imagine, this has ignited something of a firestorm in Amazon’s Customer Reviews section, resulting in both novels taking a critical drubbing.

Fall of Giants has 63 five-star reviews versus over 200 one-star reviews, with comments ranging from:

Refuse to pay this much for an ebook

and

Let’s boycott the gougers

…

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Rigor Amortis: Love and Zombies

Rigor Amortis: Love and Zombies

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rigoramortisRigor Amortis, a collection of zombie erotica and romance flash fiction edited by Jaym Gates and Erika Holt, was officially released October 1.

According to Jaym, who came by our booth and entertained us during slow moments at Dragon*con, Rigor Amortis started out as a joke on Twitter, and quickly snowballed into a  real book.  A bizarre and strange book, but still a book. Check out this description:

Horror and erotica. Zombies and romance. Rigor Amortis.
       Maybe a tender love story is your thing, a husband doting on his wife’s rotting corpse. Or perhaps a forbidden encounter in a secret café, serving up the latest in delectable zombie cuisine, or some dirty, dirty dancing in the old-time honky-tonk. Voodoo sex-slaves and vending machine body-parts? You’ll find those here, too.
       Whatever your flavor, these short tales of undead Romance, Revenge, Risk, and Raunch will leave you shambling, moaning, and clawing for more.

Contributors include Armand Rosamilia, Jennifer Brozek, Annette Dupree, Alex Masterson, Edward Morris, and dozens more. The sexy and disturbing cover is by Robert “Nix” Nixon.  Rigor Amortis is $14.95 (print) and $2.99 (e-Book) for 148 pages, and published by Absolute XPress.

More details are available on the website.  Show us a little zombie love, and support a quality small press.