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Ryan Harvey Wins Big

Ryan Harvey Wins Big

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ryan-harveyIt gives me great pleasure to announce what some of you may have already heard — the talented Ryan Harvey, author and Black Gate blogger extraordinaire, has placed third in the International Writers of the Future contest for the First Quarter of 2010.

Judged by a panel of experts made up of well-known speculative fiction writers like Orson Scott Card, Anne McCaffrey, Eric Flint (to name just a few!)  the Writers of the Future contest was established 27 years ago by L. Ron Hubbard “to discover and provide talented new and aspiring writers of science fiction and fantasy a chance to have their work seen and acknowledged.”

I can think of few writers as deserving of notice as Ryan, who’s been tirelessly drafting brilliant essays and reviews not only at  Black Gate, but for his own blog and the defunct swordandsorcery.org web site and other places besides.

What many of you may not know is that Ryan is also a talented fiction writer. The winning story is from his Ahn-Tarqa short fiction cycle which — if you haven’t already experienced it — will be featured in two upcoming stories in Black Gate.

I hope you’ll join with us in wishing Ryan congratulations!

Goodbye Realms of Fantasy — Again?

Goodbye Realms of Fantasy — Again?

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realms-april2010Reports have surfaced that Realms of Fantasy publisher Warren Lapine has written to subscribers of the magazine, telling them that if they don’t renew their subscriptions he’s going to shut it down.

Warren rescued Realms just last year, when his Tir Na Nog Press purchased it with much fanfare from Sovereign Media, who had announced that April 2009 would be the final issue. Tir Na Nog’s first issue was July 2009, and the magazine has continued with renewed vigor ever since — publishing new fiction from Euan Harvey, Bruce Holland Rogers, Richard Parks, Harlan Ellison, Carrie Vaughn, and many more.

Perhaps not surprisingly, Warren’s complaints stem from his obvious disappointment that so many fans were highly vocal about the pending loss of the magazine last year, and yet so few are willing to put their money where their mouth is.

However, as author and subscriber Mishell Baker so eloquently puts it, “Why should I send my money to a guy who’s telling me there may not be a magazine by the time he cashes my check?”

Warren clarified his position to Baker in a follow up post at The Dreaded Sword:

I think your missing the point of the letter. The magazine isn’t quite making enough money to go on as things stand right now. It was close down the magazine now, or send the letter. So saying that I shouldn’t have sent the letter suggests that I should have just shut down the magazine and not given it’s readers a heads up before closing it. Fortunately, your reaction to our letter is not the norm. Many people have a larger sense of community than you are displaying here and I expect this to save the magazine.

Realms of Fantasy is one of the few remaining professional fantasy magazines, and well worth your support.  You can purchase a subscription here.

The Cimmerian Takes a Final Bow

The Cimmerian Takes a Final Bow

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cimmerian2The Cimmerian, one of the most respected websites devoted to heroic fantasy — indeed, perhaps the most respected — has announced it will wrap up in on June 11.

The Cimmerian began as a bi-monthly print journal in April 2004. Edited by Leo Grin and dedicated to the work of Robert E. Howard, it ran for thirty-five issues and was twice nominated for the World Fantasy Award.

The Cimmerian website launched the following year, featuring contributions from Steve Tompkins, Rob Roehm, and Mark Finn, and it attracted considerable attention. When the print version came to an end in December 2008, Grin handed the reins to Tompkins, who managed the site until his tragic death a few months later. 

Since December 2008 the website has broadened focus, becoming “a website and shieldwall for Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien and the Best in Heroic Fantasy, Horror and Historical Adventure.” Under the guidance of new manager Deuce Richardson, over the past year it’s also turned its keen critical eye to Sax Rohmer, David Gemmell, Karl Edward Wagner, Charles R. Saunders, Michael Moorcock, Clark Ashton Smith, H. P. Lovecraft, and many others. With the greater scope has come greater readership, growing to nearly 100,000 viewers/month.

The articles at The Cimmerian, by such folks as Miguel Martins, Al Harron, Barbara Barrett, William Maynard, Jeffrey Shanks, Keith Taylor, Brian Murphy, and Jim Cornelius, have never been less than fascinating, covering everything from the latest on the new Conan movie to Weird Tales to the recent — and excellent — tributes to Frank Frazetta.

Leo Grin says the blog will continue until June 11, the anniversary of Robert E. Howard’s death, and after that the site will be archived.  Its loss will be keenly felt.

Rogue Blades Announces Challenge! Writing Contest

Rogue Blades Announces Challenge! Writing Contest

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2010-discoveryRogue Blades Entertainment (RBE) has published some terrific fantasy anthologies over the past few years, including Return of the Sword and Rage of the Behemoth, featuring original work from writers such as E.E. Knight, James Enge, Bill Ward, Michael Ehart, Thomas M. MacKay, S.C. Bryce, Steve Goble, Brian Ruckley, C.L. Werner, Harold Lamb, and many others.

This week Rogue Blades publisher Jason M. Waltz announced the first annual RBE Challenge! Writing Contest. The competition is open to anyone, and the top stories will be printed in the competition anthology, Discovery (cover at right).

Submissions must consist of heroic adventure in any genre, and must arrive between June 1st and September 1st, 2010.  The top twelve stories will recevie a copy of the anthology; the top three will also receive cash awards, and a detailed critique from the contest judges.

The entry fee is only $10, almost criminally cheap. If you’re any aspiring writer looking for an opportunity to show your stuff, now’s your chance to appear in a new anthology from one of the top publishers of modern heroic fantasy.

More information is on the Official Announcement page, including this invitation from Jason Waltz:

Using V Shane’s artwork and the title Discovery as inspiration, pen me mighty and mysterious tales of action and adventure. Speculative fiction is NOT required… Sword & Sorcery, Sword & Planet, Soul & Sandal, Western, Mystery, Dark Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Sci-Fi, even Horror and Romance! You name it, so long as it’s heroic fiction, you can submit it.

…

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Mark Sumner reviews Black Gate

Mark Sumner reviews Black Gate

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devils-tower2Well, sort of.

Mark Sumner, the Nebula Award-nominated author of the Devil’s Tower books — and one of Black Gate‘s most prolific and popular contributors — has a popular blog at Daily Kos where he discusses… well, everything.

Recently he touched on the impermanence of fiction, especially short fiction:

Speaking as someone whose entire lifetime oeurve is at this moment out of print, I can tell you with certainty that books are no more guarantee of immortality than games….But if novels are transient, short story collections are the mayflies of the literary world… Still, a good short story is a jewel of writing, and a collection of stories from the same author can subject you to more ideas, more emotion, and more pure wonder than any novel. They’re a great chance to get an insight into the most important character in any book — the one behind the pen.

Sumner points to four classic short fiction collections, any one of which is a great place for a new short fiction reader to get started.

They are: the horror collection Soft and Others: 16 Stories of Wonder and Dread by F. Paul Wilson, Simak’s book of  terrific early SF, The Worlds of Clifford Simak, Cordwainder Smith’s expansive future history The Rediscovery of Man, and especially George R. R. Martin’s Sandkings.

His recollection of Sandkings was right on the money, and made me want to read it all over again.

…

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Frank Frazetta enters Valhalla

Frank Frazetta enters Valhalla

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death-dealer2Frank Frazetta, the greatest fantasy artist of his generation, died today at age 82.

Frazetta got his start in comics in the early 1950s, working with legendary artists such as Al Williamson, Roy Krenkel, Al Capp, and Harvey Kurtzman on Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon, and Li’l Abner, as well as many titles at EC Comics.

In 1964 Frazetta did his first movie poster for (of all things) Woody Allen’s first film, What’s New Pussycat?  This eventually led to cover paintings for some of the most popular paperbacks of the 60s and 70s, most notably the works of Edgar Rice Burroughs, including Tarzan and John Carter of Mars.

For fantasy fans Frazetta is best remembered for his groundbreaking Sword & Sorcery images — such as “Death Dealer” (right), the cover to Lin Carter’s 1973 anthology Flashing Swords 2 — and most especially his colorful and visceral depictions of Conan, which revolutionized fantasy art.

Until Frazetta, Conan was primarily depicted as a white, clean-cut warrior in pseudo-roman garb, straight off the set of a Cecil B. DeMille film (see the covers of Robert E. Howard’s first Gnome Press editions from the 1950s, such as Conan the Barbarian).

But Frazetta swept away all who had come before, re-envisioning Conan as a muscular, dark-skinned titan, a true barbarian in spirit and appearance. Since Frazetta, in defining work by artists like Ken Kelly, Sanjulian, Barry Windsor Smith, Mark Schultz and Gary Gianni, Conan has been revealed as both heroic and fearful, a thick-sinewed, long-haired mongrel, a truly striking figure in all respects.

Frank Frazetta died at a hospital near his home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania.

For a sampling of some of his finest work, visit the unofficial Frazetta Fantasy Art Gallery.

Pyr Books Fall Winter 2010-2011 Season

Pyr Books Fall Winter 2010-2011 Season

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thewolfage1Editorial director Lou Anders has posted Pyr’s complete Fall Winter 2010-2011 catalog online.

There’s a lot of great stuff to look forward to, including James Enge’s third Morlock book, The Wolf Age:

Wuruyaaria: city of werewolves, whose raiders range over the dying northlands, capturing human beings for slaves or meat. Wuruyaaria: where a lone immortal maker wages a secret war against the Strange Gods of the Coranians. Wuruyaaria: a democracy where some are more equal than others, and a faction of outcast werewolves is determined to change the balance of power in a long, bloody election year.

Their plans are laid; the challenges known; the risks accepted. But all schemes will shatter in the clash between two threats few had foreseen and none had fully understood: a monster from the north on a mission to poison the world, and a stranger from the south named Morlock Ambrosius.

Morlock first appeared in Black Gate 8, in the story “Turn Up This Crooked Way.” 

Now he’s all grown up, and taking on Strange Gods in werewolf cities.  It makes us proud.

hornsofruinThere’s plenty more on the Pyr list to command your attention, including Tim Akers’ The Horns of Ruin, which sounds very intriguing indeed:

Eva Forge is the last paladin of a dead God. Morgan, God of battle and champion of the Fraterdom, was assassinated by his jealous brother, Amon… When a series of kidnappings and murders makes it clear that someone is trying to hasten the death of the Cult of Morgan, Eva must seek out unexpected allies and unwelcome answers in the city of Ash. But will she be able to save the city from a growing conspiracy, one that reaches back to her childhood, even back to the murder of her god? 

All this plus Pierre Pevel’s The Cardinal’s Blades, Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Salute the Dark, and new novels from Paul McAuley, Mark Chadbourn, Mark Hodder, Jasper Kent, Sam Sykes, Joel Shepherd, James Barclay, and many more.

Check out all the details (and the fabulous cover art) here.

C.S.E. Cooney reviews Black Gate 14

C.S.E. Cooney reviews Black Gate 14

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hangmans1Author C.S.E. Cooney has become the third reviewer to post her thoughts on our latest issue, which she read over several train rides:

It’s MASSIVE! It’s GLOSSY! It’s full of ILLUSTRATIONS! There are THREE POEMS in it!… After chortling my way through John O’Neill’s wry romp of an editorial, laughing though the letters, and reading Rich Horton’s essay on older fantasy fiction… I finally started on the actual fiction.

She seemed to particularly enjoy “The Hangman’s Daughter” by Chris Braak:

HURRAH for the FORMDIABLE girl-child protagonist with her laconic but fiercely interesting dad and the incredible world built around them… This story was, in a word (an old-fashioned hippie word), BITCHIN’.

Dan Brodribb’s “The Girl Who Feared Lightning”

My favorite bit in “The Girl Who Feared Lightning” was a short exchange between the protagonist and her boyfriend over the phone. It was very natural and easy, yet loaded with all sorts of things left unsaid. It’s always amazing to me how a few sentences of dialogue can define an entire relationship. And then, of course, there were the mummies.

And Robert J. Howe’s “The Natural History of Calamity”

Witty and well-plotted. I expended very little effort in reading – the story just swept me along. It took most of two train rides, and I was in a panic lest I’d have to get off the train before I’d FINISHED it. Another author I must GOOGLE. Kick-ass lady protag, too, I must say. And kick-ass without being INDOMITABLE, you know. She gets knocked around her fair share and is not NOBLE about it all the time. I’d like to meet her again. In, like, a novel. Please.

Claire’s complete (and highly entertaining) review is here.

Art by John Kaufmann for “The Hangman’s Daughter.”

Black Gate 14 now available in PDF

Black Gate 14 now available in PDF

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bg-14-cover3Black Gate 14 is now available in PDF format for just $4.95. 

Black Gate 14 is a landmark issue ­ and at 384 pages, it’s also the largest in our history. The print version retails for $15.95, but now you can order the complete magazine — including the wraparound cover — for the same price as all our PDFs: $4.95/copy, or as part of a 4-issue PDF subscription for just $17.95.

Existing subscribers can purchase the issue for just $2.95.

Here’s what  Grasping for the Wind has to say about our latest issue:

One of the best collections of fiction on the market – whether books, magazines, or online. The latest edition has just been released, and Black Gate 14 is massive, topping out at 384 pages …  this massive collection of fiction shows why, even with their irregular publishing schedule, Black Gate is one of the most popular magazines (print or online) available today.

The issue includes a Morlock novella from James Enge, and new fiction from John C. Hocking, Michael Jasper & Jay Lake, Pete Butler, Robert J Howe, Martin Owton, Chris Braak, Matthew David Surridge,  and much more — including an 8-page Knights of the Dinner Table strip!

The complete Table of Contents, with artwork and brief story excerpts, is here, and you can read the complete reviews from Grasping for the Wind and Locus Online here.

Order the magazine on our Subscription page here.

Cover art by the great Bruce Pennington.