Search Results for: adrian cole

Ancient Astronauts, the Thing in the Pond, and the Cobweb Queen: The Weirdbook Annual #2: Cthulhu

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Weirdbook‘s editor Doug Draa explains the rationale behind the magazine’s new line of Annuals in his editorial this issue. We here at Weirdbook decided to do a yearly themed fifth issue. An annual if you will. Last year’s theme was “Witches” and it turned out to be one of our most popular issues to date. After much soul searching it was decided that this year’s theme would be the ever popular “Cthulhu Mythos”… even after more than 9 decades, Mr….

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Fantasy Tales

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In 1972, the British Fantasy Society began giving out the August Derleth Fantasy Awards for best novel as voted on by their members. In 1976. The name of the awards was changed to the British Fantasy Award, although the August Derleth Award was still the name for the Best Novel Award. A category for Best Small Press was created in 1977 and has continue to be awarded, although it is now given for Independent Press. The award’s first winner was…

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The Golden Age of Science Fiction: Fantasy Newsletter

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The Balrog Award, often referred to as the coveted Balrog Award, was created by Jonathan Bacon and first conceived in issue 10/11 of his Fantasy Crossroads fanzine in 1977 and actually announced in the final issue, where he also proposed the Smitty Awards for fantasy poetry. The awards were presented for the first time at Fool-Con II at the Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas on April 1, 1979. The awards were never taken particularly seriously, even by…

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Mark Finn on the Future of Skelos Magazine

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Skelos magazine, launched as a result of a terrifically successful Kickstarter in 2016, is one of the best new magazines of weird fantasy on the market. Editors Mark Finn, Chris Gruber, and Jeffrey Shanks produced three of the first four promised issues — all of which look fabulous, and were well reviewed. But the fourth, originally cover-dated Summer 2017, has yet to appear, and after a year of delays and virtually no communication from the editors, there’s been a lot of open speculation…

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A Year of Weirdbook

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Not all that long ago, Douglass Draa was the Online Editor for Weird Tales, maintaining a lively Facebook presence and posting numerous highly readable articles on the website (which, sadly, have now been removed.) Although the magazine has essentially been dead since 2014, Doug kept the Weird Tales name alive as best he could, and I frequently found myself wondering what someone with that much energy could do with more editorial control. We found out in 2015 when the much-loved…

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Douglas Draa’s What October Brings is a Lovecraftian Celebration of Halloween

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Halloween and Lovecraft. Two great things that belong together. And Weirdbook editor Douglas Draa is the man to make it happen. His new anthology What October Brings is a handsome collection of original stories by Adrian Cole, Storm Constantine, Tim Curran, Cody Goodfellow, Nancy Holder, Brian M. Sammons, John Shirley, Lucy A. Snyder, Chet Williamson, Black Gate writer Darrell Schweitzer, and many others — all packaged under a gorgeous cover by Italian artist Daniele Serra. It’s from UK publisher Celaeno Press,…

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New Treasures: The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories edited by Stephen Jones

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I love these Mammoth anthologies. Because they’re mammoth! You can curl up with them for an entire weekend. Or use them as a stepladder to get to those dishes in the top cupboard. They have countless uses around the house. Stephen Jones’ latest, The Mammoth Book of Halloween Stories, arrived earlier this month, and it looks like an essential fall purchase. It’s 528 pages of new and reprint stories from Ramsey Campbell, Steve Rasnic Tem, Joe R. Lansdale, Helen Marshall,…

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March Short Story Roundup: Part 2

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The past month saw a bumper crop of new short fiction arrive in my mailboxes, digital and physical. This time out, I looked at Cirsova #7, Swords and Sorcery Magazine #74, and the bonus story I forgot to read for my review of Tales from the Magician’s Skull. I love Cirsova. When it first appeared two years ago, I was impressed with what I saw, and ended my review of its first issue with these words: If this is what the…

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The Late March Fantasy Magazine Rack

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The big magazine news in March is the arrival of the first issue of the most exciting new adventure fantasy periodical in years — Tales From the Magician’s Skull, edited by our very own Howard Andrew Jones and packed with writers and characters familiar to readers of Black Gate, including a brand new Morlock tale by James Enge, a Gaunt and Bone story from Chris Willrich, a graveyard fable from John C. Hocking, “There Was an Old Fat Spider” by C….

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The March Fantasy Magazine Rack

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It’s a bonanza of print this month… all the titles above are print magazines, with the exception of Kaleidotrope (top row, second from right), which is new to the list. Kaleidotrope was a recommendation from Rich Horton; I’d never heard of it, but it featured prominently in Rich’s 2018 Hugo Recs list, so I thought I would check it out this month. Rich is right — it’s a very impressive magazine, with brand new fiction by Mari Ness, Octavia Cade, and…

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