Black Gate

…will be ready for my once over today, and shortly thereafter off to the printer. It appears unlikely that it will be in our hands by the time of Archon, unfortunately, although John and I hope to have a mock-up with us. But it should shortly thereafter be available to all

I returned from my secret mission. You can see me in action in a picture below, fending off space aliens. Note the intent look of concentration. I’m told I look very similar when I’m writing or editing, and, indeed, that my expression was nearly identical when I proposed to my wife. You can understand, then, why she married me.

I turned 39 while I was away at Disney and Epcot. I’ve had few birthdays as pleasant, despite the crowds. My wife and kids were very sweet all day and night.

I hope soon to be back at the slush reading. John will be right there with me.

Howard

Ready yourselves for Black Gate 11, because it is almost here.

It can take a long time to take a magazine from a whole bunch of separate submissions to a coherent magazine-like shape. You have to remember that Black Gate is much thicker than most of its competition. It will be handed off to the printer very shortly now.

If you’ve grown curious about what we’re publishing now’s the time to subscribe. We’re pretty sure you’ll like what you see. John will be uploading a preview of issue 11 soon. But, really, if you like adventure fantasy, why aren’t you supporting the best source of it on the newsstands today? Here, take a look at what reviewers have said about recent issues.

After Black Gate 11 we’ll get back to the business of responding to e-mails and reading manuscripts. John and I were talking just today, and once this is all cleared away we’ll probably start having reading periods rather than being open to subs at all times. It’s my fervent hope that we’ll have all the backlog cleared away in just a few more months.

Ouch

There are a number of things I’m proud of having accomplished in my life, but one of the ones I am most pleased with is having earned a first degree black belt in Shotokan Karate. I’m now working toward my second degree. As someone who was never especially good at athletic pursuits and was always that short skinny pale kid with glasses, I used to believe the chances of me earning a black belt were about as good as the chance of me becoming an astronaut. Don’t get me wrong, I’m proud of earning my master’s degree, and it was harder to achieve than I expected, but I knew I could get that because I had been taking classes and reading and writing all my life. Studying martial arts for four years and advancing and then earning a black belt — well, I wasn’t sure I could pull that off. (Of course, once you get that black belt you realize just how much more you have to learn, but that’s another story.) I try not to go out of my way to mention it, but I suppose I do sometimes, because I’m inordinately proud of that piece of cloth.

Anyway, so yesterday I came home from a workout, wearing my karate pants and my karate t-shirt and feeling all lean and flexible, and I stopped to pick up a package in front of the house. When I stumbled on the step because the package blocked my view of the stairs and my old, old sandals snagged on something, did my cat-like ninja reflexes keep me from injury? Nay, I slammed my foot into the walk at exactly the wrong angle and collapsed on the stones as pain shot up my ankle and spread like rabid fire ants across the top of my entire foot. It hurt too much to curse, but I managed to tell my daughter to go get her mother and to tell her that I had hurt myself. Humble pie. Yes, black belts aren’t a guarantee against being clumsy. (And, incidentally, I need sandals that don’t have bottoms that are split in half.) I had to lean on my lovely wife to walk into the house. Today I am mostly well, and only limping a bit. My wife theorizes I injured a ligament, but not severely.

Secret Journey

Those of you who’ve visited the Black Gate rooftop headquarters overlooking downtown Chicago know that there are wall-to-wall oak bookshelves stuffed with rare and wonderful books, pulps, and busts of our favorite writers, editors, and a few characters from our favorite stories. I know some of you have noticed the bust of Solomon Kane along the south wall, near the bound volumes of Weird Tales and Spicy Troubador Stories, but you probably didn’t know that the Black Gate priority line is hooked through good ’ol Solomon. Today when his eyes gleamed bright I flipped up his hat to access the line, only to learn that a disaster was imminent, one that only the staff of Black Gate was capable of averting. Since John is heads-down over the magazine, I am jetting off to deal with the matter — which naturally I dare not discuss in detail — despite my recent injury. I may well be away for several days, but I will return.

Howard

Valentine’s Resolve

For the last few years I usually get to see my friends Eric Knight and his wife Chats on or around the 4th of July. At our old house we had a magnificent view of the local municipal fireworks from the highest hill in the city; from our new place we don’t have a view of much of anything (the one drawback about living here) although we can hear people sounding off firecrackers late into the night for several days before and after. (As an aside, I’ve never really gotten the point of firing off huge amounts of firecrackers. I loves me the pretty lights, but I just don’t get the joy of purposefully creating a bunch of loud noise.)

Anyway, it’s always a pleasure to see Eric and Chats; not only is it the one time a year that our local role-playing group indulges in a college-style marathon gaming session, they’re good people and we enjoy their company. This year, instead of welcoming them into our home on the holiday I’m welcoming Eric’s new book into the home.

Yep, there it is, and danged if it isn’t the best novel of David Valentine yet. Number six if you’re counting. These aren’t your sister’s vampire novels where the vampire is really just a troubled soul aching to make love to the woman who really understands him. Nah, forget that. These are like WWII French resistance movies crossed with the setting from the Road Warrior, with the part of the Nazis played by life-sucking aliens. Action and more action, great settings, compelling characters, monstrous villains, heroism… It’s great stuff, well-plotted and with plenty of surprising turns.

I’ve known Eric since a little before these books were launched by ROC, and this success couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy. It’s heartening to see someone you know rise in stature and publish well-received book after well-received book. Eric’s earned this success by hard work, perseverance, study, and natural talent, now honed to a sharp edge. He is firmly committed to passing on all that he has learned about writing, both in courses taught at a local college, and through insightful articles online, not to mention in person should you happen to be in the neighborhood. And he’s a loyal friend; one you can trust to tell you the straight truth and one who’s got your back, for he always stands up for what, and who, he believes in. He’s a class act and deserves all that good he’s earned.

So get out and by that book already!

Black Gate Updates

I’m turning over the rest of the non-fiction today, and John has nearly everything else layed out.

I’ve been receiving queries about submissions. Right now we’re both taking a break from subs so we can get the magazine out. We’ll resume reading submissions in a just a week or so. I can’t predict how many more months it will take, but certainly before year’s end we’ll have worked through every submission, and when we re-open for subs we’ll never let this sort of backup take place again. We’re sorry about the delayed responses and ask you to be patient with us for just a little bit longer. 

Howard

First, I seem to have missed an interesting series of posts Martha Wells had on writing. Fortunately they’re all still available, and she’s once again asking for writing questions, so the posts will continue. I just found a nice mini-essay on doling out backstory while moving action forward. You can find it here, on Martha’s blog.

Second, you may have noticed that it’s been quiet around here. That’s the sound of issue 11 being worked upon, and me pushing through as much e-slush as I can before I finally finish a game review of a new Traveller package for issue 11 of Black Gate. All I have left are a few longer stories. I don’t know how John does it, but as I’m reading through subs and come upon REALLY long ones — 10k and longer — try a few paragraphs and they have any promise… I’m afraid I put those longer stories at the bottom of the pile. That’s probably not fair of me, but when I have only a limited amount of time available each day for slush, and we’re running behind, I prefer to read as many stories as I can rather than spending all of that time on a single tale. Right now I’ve only got ONE big one left. After issue 11 I have approximately 60-70  subs to go; the last stories turned in before we closed to submissions.

Third, regular readers know that I’m a huge fan of Leigh Brackett and that I’ve been reading my children Brackett tales this summer. I mentioned Haffner press as an excellent source of her work, and there will shortly be another, Paizo, which will ALSO be publishing a number of other classic sword and planet tales under their Planet Stories imprint. I’m most looking forward to having a complete collection of Kuttner’s Elak stories, which they’ll be publishing come fall. I tracked them down the hard way one-by-one, but others deserve easier access, and Kuttner’s in need of rediscovery because of these and many other works. He was writing Ray  Bradbury style stories before Bradbury was. Henry Kuttner and Catherine Moore are two favorites of mine, and coincidentally were best friends with Brackett and her husband Edmond Hamilton. Anyway, I like the sound of this imprint’s plans and will be watching them.

Back to regularly scheduled programming…

Howard