Hey hey! This is exciting — my first short story publication in many years appeared last week in Lightspeed magazine! The story is “The Ambient Intelligence,” and it’s free to read online. It’s published under the name Todd McAulty, the name all my stories appeared under in Black Gate magazine all those years ago. Here’s what John Joseph Adams said about the story in his editorial for the October issue: Welcome to Lightspeed’s 125th issue! Do you love power armor? Do you love…
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The Moon and Mars have fascinated science fiction writers for generations, although I thought the era of classic Mars and Moon anthologies was over. But it turns out that’s not the case. At least not while editor Mike Ashley is on the job, anyway. Lost Mars: The Golden Age of the Red Planet, which collects pulp-era tales (and pre pulp-era tales) from Wonder Stories, Amazing Stories, Astounding, and Worlds of If, was published in April 2018. Its sister anthology Moonrise:…
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A few years ago Black Gate asked “Is the Original SF and Fantasy Paperback Anthology Series Dead?” Those were dark, dark days, and I don’t like to think of them. They’re over now. Science fiction was rescued from a barren wasteland of paperback sameness by the one publisher who had a decent shot: Solaris. They did it by taking a chance on a paperback anthology series that has become one of the most acclaimed and celebrated of the past few decades: Jonathan Strahan’s…
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Andrew Liptak at The Verge has dipped into the thundering production pipelines at America’s publishing houses for the month of June, and returned with a secret list of the 13 very best science fiction and fantasy books — including novels by Paul Tremblay, Yoon Ha Lee, Peter Watts, Katie Williams, Alex White, Rob Boffard, Melissa F. Olson, and Black Gate‘s own Todd McAuty. Many bothans died to bring us this information. Use it wisely. The Robots of Gotham by Todd McAulty (John Joseph…
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208 pages, $9.95 On Sale February 2003 Edited by John O’Neill Published by New Epoch Press Cover Art by Chris Pepper (Illustrating “Two-Skins” by Shawn L. Johnson) Interior Art by Chris Pepper, Bernie Mireault, Denis Rodier, Greg Faillace, Chuck Lukacs, and Gregory Price ISSUE SOLD OUT! FICTION “The Mourning Trees” by Peadar O Guilin The deadly mourning trees were a remnant of a sorcerous war, and now one clutched Moya’s only son. “Stand at Llieva” by Joseph A. McCullough V In…
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The first few issues of Black Gate magazine have seen rave reviews from some of the most respected publications in the industry, including Locus, Interzone, SF Site, and many others. Here are some brief excerpts from some of the highlights. Where possible, links to the complete review are provided. Year’s Best Volumes The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #14 2003 Edition Edited by Stephen Jones Even Weird Tales wasn’t as good looking as Black Gate: Adventures in Fantasy Literature….
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Last year, I did a three-part series on Steve Hockensmith’s terrific Holmes on the Range series. This essay, a comprehensive chronology, and a Q&A which Steve kindly did with me, represent the deepest dive anyone has done on these fun books. Since then, two novels (and a short story) in a spin-off series about the Double-A Western Detective Agency, came out. As well as one Old Red short story. I’m (yet again) listening to the Holmes on the Range audiobooks…
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It’s that time again. I can sense casual Black Gate users getting complacent, so here is a new movie watch-a-thon project. This time, based on my recent experience with The Substance, I’m going to be unearthing flicks that deal with transformation; Jekyll and Hyde riffs, body horror, self-made monsters. Bear with me as it’s often difficult to find films I haven’t seen before, but with perseverance and nightly prayer I’m sure I can get to the finish line in a…
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The Curse (Trans World Entertainment, September 11, 1987) and In the Tall Grass (Netflix, October 4, 2019) Yes, a new watch-a-thon, featuring me, a hopeless procrastinator, plumbing the depths of cinematic misery for your entertainment. This time around, I will be watching Lovecraftian and Lovecraftian-adjacent films, and as usual they must be films I’ve never seen before (which makes the task trickier and bound for disaster). If you don’t know anything about Lovecraft’s writings, cosmic horror, the Mythos, or Cthulhu,…
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50 films that I dug up on Tubi. Enjoy! Hellbenders (2012) I really should have saved this for later, for my exorcism watch-a-thon What Possessed You, but the mere thought of not watching a Clancy Brown movie kicked off my hives. Hellbenders is an unholy romp written and directed by J.T. Petty (who brought us The Burrowers, among others) based on the graphic novel of the same name. It concerns a secret order of multi denominational priests who are trained…
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