Search Results for: Darrell Schweitzer

Vintage Treasures: Swords Against Darkness edited by Andrew J. Offutt

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Swords Against Darkness (Zebra Books, February 1977). Cover  by Frank Frazetta Sword Against Darkness was a seminal five-volume sword & sorcery anthology series edited by Andrew J. Offutt in the late seventies (1977-79). It published original fantasy by some of the biggest names of the era, including Andre Norton, Tanith Lee, Keith Taylor, Charles de Lint, Charles R. Saunders, Orson Scott Card, Simon R. Green, David C. Smith, Robert E. Vardeman, Darrell Schweitzer, Diana L. Paxson, and many others. The…

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Beautiful and Repulsive Butterflies: An Interview with M. Stern

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We have an ongoing series on Black Gate discussing “Beauty in Weird Fiction.” We corner authors to tap their minds about their muses and ways to make ‘repulsive’ things ‘attractive to readers.’  Recent guests on Black Gate have included Darrell Schweitzer, Anna Smith Spark, & Carol Berg, Stephen Leigh, Jason Ray Carney, and John C. Hocking. See the full list of interviews at the end of this post. This one covers emerging author M. Stern who writes weird/horror fiction and sci-fi. He…

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Upon the Passing of Giants: Richard L. Tierney, August 7, 1936 – February 1, 2022

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Richard L. Tierney It was not long ago that I wrote an obituary here for Charles R. Saunders, the father of Sword & Soul and a man who showed the possibilities of sword & sorcery/heroic fantasy in non-European settings. Now, I must poor libations for another who took a genre’s flickering torch and in his own, and very different way, showed how to keep it burning. Richard Louis Tierney (7 August 1936 – 1 Feb 2022) was an American writer,…

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Were-Antelopes, Haunted Cabins, and the Horror of Retail: The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII (1979), edited by Gerald W. Page

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The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII (DAW, July 1979). Cover by Michael Whelan The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII was the seventh volume in DAW’s Year’s Best Horror Stories, published in 1979. This was the fourth and final installment edited by horror author and editor Gerald W. Page (1939–). Given the strength of his anthologies, I doubt that Page was let go; but I don’t know why this was his last. Perhaps he returned to his own writing….

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Beautiful Plagues: An Interview with John C. Hocking

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To help reveal the muses that inspire weird fiction and horror writers, this interview series engages contemporary authors on the theme of “Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction.” Recent guests on Black Gate broaching this topic have included Darrell Schweitzer, Sebastian Jones, Charles Gramlich, Anna Smith Spark, & Carol Berg, Stephen Leigh, Jason Ray Carney. See the full list of interviews at the end of this post. Today we corner John C. Hocking whose Conan pastiche we reviewed a few months ago. John C. Hocking is…

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The Big 50! Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Issue #50

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Heroic Fantasy Quarterly’s big 50th issue hit the world in early November and we’ve already had two rounds of great reviews! Tangent Online delves into our five fiction works, then Quick Sip Reviews follows it up reviewing both fiction and poetry The pieces range but do manage a pretty good thematic cohesion, with issues of inheritance and theft being front and center in almost all of them. This might take the shape of a Shakespearean tragedy, an uncle usurping a…

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Immortal Muse by Stephen Leigh: Review, Interview, and Prelude to a Secret Chapter

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Stephen Leigh is a Cincinnati-based, award-winning writer of science fiction and fantasy, with thirty novels and nearly sixty short stories published. He has also published fantasy under the pseudonym S.L. Farrell. He has been a frequent contributor to the Hugo-nominated shared-world series Wild Cards, edited by George R.R. Martin. Stephen taught creative writing for twenty years at Northern Kentucky University, and has recently retired (but not from writing). His most recent novels have been Amid The Crowd Of Stars, the SunPath duology of A Fading…

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Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies: Available now!

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Wildside Press, ‎ 295 pages. ISBN 978-1479463312 (US Amazon prices: $3.99 Kindle/ $15.00 Paperback/  $29.99 Hardcover) Zombies! Available now for your Halloween needs! In 2015, Douglas Draa resurrected Weirdbook with issue #31 (the weird fiction magazine had been dormant since 1997). Fast forward to 2021, and issue #44 is now available. In addition to the core issues, there are themed anthologies spawning. Annual #1 Witches came out in 2017; and Annual #2: Cthulhu appeared in 2019 (discussed on Black Gate). This…

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Sublime, Cruel Beauty: An Interview with Jason Ray Carney

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Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction It is not intuitive to seek beauty in art deemed grotesque/weird, but most authors who produce horror/fantasy actually are usually (a) serious about their craft, and (b) driven by strange muses. To help reveal divine mysteries passed through artists, this interview series engages contemporary authors on the theme of “Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction.” Recent guests on Black Gate have included Darrell Schweitzer, Sebastian Jones, Charles Gramlich, Anna Smith Spark, & Carol Berg. See the full list of interviews at…

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The Aesthetics of Sword & Sorcery: An Interview with Philip Emery

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The Shadow Cycles by Philip Emery (Immanion Press, August 2011) This continues our interviews on “Beauty in Weird Fiction” with previous topics being: THE BEAUTY IN HORROR AND SADNESS: AN INTERVIEW with DARRELL SCHWEITZER THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE REPELLENT: AN INTERVIEW with CHARLES A. GRAMLICH DISGUST AND DESIRE: AN INTERVIEW with ANNA SMITH SPARK ACCESSIBLE DARK FANTASY: AN INTERVIEW with CAROL BERG GOD, DARKNESS, & WONDER: AN INTERVIEW with BYRON LEAVITT Are you haunted, perhaps obsessed, with Sword & Sorcery?…

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