Black Gate Wins World Fantasy Award

Black Gate Wins World Fantasy Award

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I’ve just returned from the World Fantasy Convention in Columbus, Ohio, where I got the chance to meet up with several of our talented and far-flung contributors, including Bob Byrne, Patty Templeton, C.S.E. Cooney, Matthew Wuertz, Sarah Avery, Fred Durbin, Ellen Klages, Amal El-Mohtar, Derek Künsken, Brandon Crilly, Marie Bilodeau, David B. Coe, Jeffrey Ford, and many others.

But the highlight of the weekend — by a pretty wide margin — was receiving the World Fantasy Special Award in the Nonprofessional category. Here’s the text of the brief acceptance speech I hastily sketched out on my cell phone, just before the banquet ended.

Wow.

In 1996, I started SF Site, one of the first genre websites. It quickly grew to over 150,000 readers per month. By 1998, as the most innovative and forward-thinking publications in the genre were creating the first ground-breaking websites, we decided to do something REALLY forward-thinking: Launch a print magazine.

Black Gate lasted for 15 print issues, until 2011. In November 2008 our Managing Editor, Howard Andrew Jones, said we should revamp the magazine’s website. I was the voice of reason. “Seriously, who wants to read more than one article a month, Jones?”

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Space Colonies, Interstellar Fleets, and The Martian in the Attic: The Best of Frederik Pohl

Space Colonies, Interstellar Fleets, and The Martian in the Attic: The Best of Frederik Pohl

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The Best of Frederik Pohl-smallIn my continuing posts of Del Rey’s Classic Science Fiction Series, we now come to the third volume in the series, The Best of Frederik Pohl (1975). The introduction was done by none other than the writer and editor Lester del Rey himself (1915-1993). As with The Best of Stanley Weinbaum and The Best of Fritz Leiber, the cover art for Pohl’s volume was done by Dean Ellis (1920-2009). And as with Leiber’s volume, the author himself, Frederik Pohl (1919-2013), gives an afterword as well commenting on several of the stories within.

To call Pohl a giant of science fiction is a cliched understatement. Pohl wrote and edited science fiction for over seventy years. He won numerous awards and was editor for many years of Galaxy and If magazines. His mark on science fiction is absolutely indelible.

But, I have to admit, I had actually never read any of Pohl’s stories before this volume. So I came to The Best of Frederik Pohl with fairly neutral eyes, though expecting to read some great classic science fiction. What did I find? Let me comment on a few the stories in this volume that really struck me and then I’ll give some final overall thoughts on Pohl’s work.

The story “Happy Birthday, Dear Jesus” was a fairly on-the-nose satire against Christmas commercialism — a pretty easy target. But, surprisingly, this satire was set within the context of a love story about a department store manager seeking to marry the daughter of a very conservative missionary. Not what I was expecting. What was even more surprising was that this turned out to be a very heart-stirring little romantic tale, very unexpected given the cynical bite of the story’s overall point.

Interestingly, in retrospect, the sci-fi elements of this story seem fairly tangential now. In fact, I don’t remember exactly what the sci-fi elements in this story were. And this wasn’t the only story like this. I often found myself trying to remember exactly what made Pohl’s stories examples of science fiction. I’ll return to this point.

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Something Nasty, Something With Claws

Something Nasty, Something With Claws

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Whenever I have an idea for a story, it usually came from at least six different places, three or four or which I’ll have forgotten by the time the story is done. Let’s see how well I do this time:

I grew up in a house where bookshelves were the most important pieces of furniture, and I was happy to take advantage, but in a hidden corner of the basement was a particularly important shelf, the one where my dad kept his old 70’s science-fiction and fantasy paperbacks. Roger Zelazny, Harlan Ellison, Michael Moorcock, Gene Wolfe. Not a bad haul. In one of those books, a short story collection from Gene Wolfe, was a story called “The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories,” which is about a child reading a story featuring a villain who he later imagines (or maybe not, it’s a Gene Wolfe story) breaking the fourth wall and discussing his role as a bad guy. He talks about how he and the hero seem to hate each other, but that backstage they actually get along and understood their interdependence.

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Future Treasures: What the #@&% Is That? edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen

Future Treasures: What the #@&% Is That? edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen

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what-the-is-that-smallWhat’s the deal with all these fabulous Saga anthologies? Where are they all coming from?

First there’s The Starlit Wood: New Fairy Tales, edited by Dominik Parisien and Navah Wolfe, which arrived just last week. If you love fairy tales (and who doesn’t?), it’s the most important and high profile anthology in years.

But as much as I love fairy tales, my heart truly belongs to monster movies, and tales of strange and nasty creatures. John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen understand that, and their gift to readers like me is What the #@&% Is That?, a glorious collection of brand new monster tales by some of the top writers in the field. It arrives in trade paper from Saga Press next week.

Fear of the unknown — it is the essence of the best horror stories, the need to know what monstrous vision you’re beholding and the underlying terror that you just might find out. Now, twenty authors have gathered to ask — and maybe answer — a question worthy of almost any horror tale: “What the #@&% is that?”Join these masters of suspense as they take you to where the shadows grow long, and that which lurks at the corner of your vision is all too real.

Includes stories by Laird Barron, Amanda Downum, Scott Sigler, Simon R. Green, Desirina Boskovich, Isabel Yap, Maria Dahvana Headley, Christopher Golden, John Langan, D. Thomas Minton, Seanan McGuire, Grady Hendrix, Jonathan Maberry, Gemma Files, Nancy Holder, Adam-Troy Castro, Terence Taylor, Tim Pratt, An Owomoyela & Rachel Swirsky, and Alan Dean Foster.

What the #@&% Is That? will be published by Saga Press on November 1, 2016. It is 368 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback and $7.99 in the digital edition.

Cover Reveal: Damnation by Peter McLean

Cover Reveal: Damnation by Peter McLean

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Drake, the first novel in Peter McLean’s new series, was published in January. The highly-anticipated second novel, Dominion, will be released on November 2nd in the US, and November 4 in the UK and the rest of the world. Here’s what I said about Drake late last year.

Peter McLean’s first novel will be released in paperback by Angry Robot in early January, and it sounds pretty darn good.

Don’t believe me? Drake features a hitman who owes a gambling debt to a demon, his faithful magical accomplice The Burned Man (an imprisoned archdemon), the Furies of Greek myth, an (almost) fallen angel named Trixie, and oh, yeah. Lucifer. Dave Hutchinson calls it “a gritty, grungy, funny, sweary noir thriller with added demons. Don Drake is a wonderful creation.” I told you it sounded good. Drake is the opening installment in a new series titled The Burned Man.

Black Gate is very proud to present an exclusive cover reveal for the third novel, Damnation, scheduled to appear on May 2 of next year. See below for additional details of the book, and a high-res pic of the cover.

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My Top Ten Novel-to-Movie Adaptations

My Top Ten Novel-to-Movie Adaptations

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3-musketeers-posterLast time I was having a look at William Goldman, both his screen and novel writing. You can see the whole post here, but for my review of my top ten movie adaptations, I’d like to repeat what Goldman says about writing screenplays:

Here is one of the main rules of adaptation: you cannot be literally faithful to the source material.

Here’s another that critics never get: you should not be literally faithful to the source material. It is in a different form, a form that does not have the camera.

Here is the most important rule of adaptation: you must be totally faithful to the intention of the source material.

— from Which Lie Did I Tell?

In another spot, and I’m paraphrasing here, because now I can’t find the quotation, he tells us how a book has maybe 400 pages, and a screenplay has around 135 pages, and not full pages at that, so what do you think happens between one version and the other?

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Black Gate’s Closet: Gourdgeous Pumpkin Clothes

Black Gate’s Closet: Gourdgeous Pumpkin Clothes

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Hear ye, hear ye, THE GREAT PUMPKIN COMETH!

To please the Orange Overlord it is requested that you stock yer wardrobe in her minions.

Worried that you don’t have enough Halloweenery to gladden the Frightening Foreman? Panic not, inhabitants of the Hocus Pocus. Here be a starter list of gourd garb to grab goodwill.

  1. For those of you that wish Flashdance was just a wee bit more autumnal:

flashdance-pumpkin-shirt

Get your shoulder shimmy on, here.

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The Love Witch Opens in New York City

The Love Witch Opens in New York City

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The Love WitchLast July, I was lucky enough to see Anna Biller’s film The Love Witch at Montreal’s Fantasia International Film Festival. After screening there and at various other festivals, it opens today in New York, with more cities to follow. Here’s how I described it back in August:

The Love Witch is a mix of horror, satire, and melodrama which follows Elaine (Samantha Robinson), a witch and murderess, as she moves to a new home and seeks love. Unfortunately for the men she desires, she’s both unforgiving and possessed of high standards. Any sign of weakness or emotional neediness is a sign of her partner’s unfitness, which she puts to an end both swift and fatal. Will Elaine finally find the man of her dreams? Or will her interest in Richard (Robert Seeley), the husband of her friend Trish (Laura Waddell), bring about her downfall?

I was tremendously impressed with it. As I wrote:

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Goth Chick News: Why, Universal Studios? Why?

Goth Chick News: Why, Universal Studios? Why?

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In the midst of my favorite time of year, I must hang my head and sigh over the undeniable fact that Universal Studios plans to continue its reboot vendetta against its own iconic monster catalog.

This, in spite of the proverbial box office stake being driven straight through the heart of Dracula Untold back in 2014.

Never heard of it? Nope, and you probably never will after this.

Still, to date we have pseudo-confirmations of everything but The Mummy, which has a confirmed release date of June 9, 2017.

  • The Mummy (2017), starring Tom Cruise and Sofia Boutella
  • Untitled Invisible Man film (TBA), starring Johnny Depp
  • Untitled Wolf Man film (TBA)
  • Untitled Creature from the Black Lagoon film (TBA)
  • Untitled Bride of Frankenstein film (TBA)
  • Untitled Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (rumored), starring Russell Crowe
  • Untitled Frankenstein film (rumored), starring Javier Bardem

Why you ask?  Or at least that is what I ask as I mix up another pumpkin spice martini.  I mean, its one thing for Hollywood to be bereft of any novel ideas, and quite another to mess with classics of this magnitude.

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Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of JG Ballard

Vintage Treasures: The Best Science Fiction of JG Ballard

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On September 3rd of this year, I attended the 2016 Chicagoland Pulpfest. It’s a friendly gathering of Chicago area pulp fans and science fiction readers, held ever year at Doug Ellis’ house in Barrington Hills. I’d been hoping for an excuse to get out to Doug’s house for the last four years, ever since he invited me to dig through the massive — and I do mean massive — collection of paperbacks in his garage, originally belonging to famous editor Martin H. Greenberg.

Doug and Bob Weinberg had acquired the collection from Marty’s family shortly after his death, and Doug was looking for a buyer for the paperbacks. I wrote about my first encounter with Marty’s incredible collection (and acquiring a small portion of it) at the 2012 Windy City Pulp & Paper show. The sheer scale of the collection defeated me then, but I was spoiling for a re-match, and Doug’s invitation to dig into it during the party was just too tempting to resist.

Well, I tried to be social (honestly I did), but the lure of thousands of vintage paperbacks in the garage was just too strong. After a few hours I wandered away from the party and soon found myself elbow deep in boxes, happily sorting through an incredible selection of books — including some I’d been searching for for decades. Virtually all were in fabulous, like-new condition, and it wasn’t long before other book enthusiasts joined me.  Soon enough it seemed like the party had moved into the garage, as one after another most of the boxes were opened and we collectively cooed over the contents.

I walked away with nearly 300 paperbacks (which I bought from Doug for a criminally bargain price), including numerous treasures. Of course, I wasn’t the only one to make fabulous finds. I saw copies of The Best of Clifford Simak, a complete set of Wild Card volumes, and numerous vintage Lovecraft collections dug out of boxes and gleefully set aside by my fellow book prospectors. But for me the big regret of the evening, the one that got away, was The Best Science Fiction of JG Ballard, a 1977 Futura paperback that I didn’t even know existed until I saw it pulled out of a box in Doug’s garage.

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