Search Results for: Darrell Schweitzer

A Modest Little Magazine: Whispers edited by Stuart David Schiff

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Assorted issues of Whispers, 1973-87. Issues #1, 2, 4, 9, 13-14, 15-17, 17-18, 19-20, and the final issue, 23-24.Covers by Tim Kirk (1,3), Stephen Fabian (2,9,13-24,23-24), John Stewart (13-15,16-17), and Kevin Eugene Johnson (19-20) When I started Black Gate magazine, I drew inspiration from small press magazines of the 70s, 80s and 90s that I deeply admired. It was a a fairly short list, but it included W. Paul Ganley’s Weirdbook, the Terminus Weird Tales edited by George H. Scithers,…

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God, Darkness, & Wonder: An Interview with Byron Leavitt

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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.  These interviews engage contemporary authors & artists 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. This one features Byron Leavitt, novelist and…

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Underground Bazaars, Generation Ships, and the Mountains of Madness: November/December Print SF Magazines

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Covers by Kurt Huggins, Eldar Zakirov, and David A. Hardy Things have finally settled down in the magazine section of my local Barnes & Noble, and my favorite print magazines are reliably showing up again. I have to say, I’m relieved they all survived the chaos — in distribution, the market, and to their readers — caused by the pandemic. Magazines are fragile things at the best times, and fiction magazines particularly so. Having said that, the recent issues are…

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Strange Plants, Ruined Cities, and the Dangers of Antarctic Exploration: Weirdbook #43

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Cover by Fotolia It was a pleasure to get the latest issue of Weirdbook in the mail last month. Sadly, as has become almost routine, editor Doug Draa devotes much of his heartfelt editorial to eulogizing a lost contributor, in this case the talented author Joseph S. Pulver. (Though in the process he did misspell Pulver’s name, something also fairly routine for Weirdbook. A spellchecker would have caught the mistake, and the ones in the next few sentences. Amateur editing is part…

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A Delicious Mixed Bag of Dark Fiction: Apostles of the Weird, edited by ST Joshi

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Apostles of the Weird PS Publishing (337 pages, £25/$33 in hardcover, March 1, 2020) Cover by John Coulthart Weird fiction is an umbrella term that applies to a number of literary genres such as horror, fantasy, science fiction and so on. Editor ST Joshi has assembled a new anthology of weird fiction keeping in mind the various shades which constitute the “weird,” and leaving the contributors free to develop plots and outcomes as they please. The result is a collection…

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Heroic Fantasy Quarterly 44 Now Available

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Issue banner by Rengin Tumer The ancient druids used to use gigantic standing stones to precisely chart the passing of the seasons. Me, I have a more accurate and satisfying method. I rely on the mystical and inexorable cosmic cycle that gives birth to a new issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, every quarter, without fail. HFQ 44 is a special treat as it contains a complete story by our very own Greg Mele, whose most recent article for Black Gate,…

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Rogue Blades Presents: What Would Your Hero Say to You?

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When I started out as a writer of fiction in the late 1980s, one of my favorite magazines was Weird Tales. Over the next decade or so, I submitted a half dozen stories to Weird Tales, none of which were ever accepted for publication. Still, even though none of my tales ever landed there, I learned a lot from the letters I received from one of the editors, George H. Scithers. Perhaps you’ve heard of Mr. Scithers. If not, surely…

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The Case of the Missing Magazines

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Every month for roughly the past 40 years I’ve made a pilgrimage to the nearest newsstand to purchase my favorite fiction magazines. The newsstands have changed over the years, and the mix of magazines has too. But it’s a tradition I’ve come to cherish. Well, this is a time of broken traditions. All the local bookstores are closed (not that there were many to begin with), and I find myself at a loss. New issues of Asimov’s SF, Analog, and The Magazine of…

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Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Good News in Three Acts

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Act I — A Year In Review Heroic Fantasy Quarterly punches well above its weight in the Tangent Online 2019 Recommended Reading List with SEVEN stories. Don’t want to search through their list? I got ya! “Then, Stars” by Michael Meyerhofer (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #41, 8/19) “Echo of the Siren” by Richard Zwicker (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #42, 11/19) “A Stone’s Throw” by Howard Andrew Jones, (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #40, 5/19) “Trail of Ashes” by Caleb Williams (Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #40, 5/19)…

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The Best in Modern Sword & Sorcery: The Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Volume 3

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Cover by Zoltan Heroic Fantasy Quarterly has been published, like clockwork, every quarter since June 2009. And every eight issues, like clockwork, the editors of HFQ assemble a Best of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly volume, as a way to celebrate another milestone and promote their worthy magazine. These books are top-notch examples of modern sword & sorcery (and I’m not just saying that because I was invited to write the introduction for Volume I.) In his review of Volume I, Fletcher Vredenburgh…

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