I’ve heard from a few regular blog visitors wondering where I’ve been. I wish I could say that I was off digging through Black Gate stuff, or that I was in the throes of a creative muse, but the truth is I just haven’t been very good company lately and I haven’t felt like subjecting myself on anyone, much less recording any compaints or whines for posterity. Fortunately, friends seem to have radar about such things. One of my very best called yesterday and lifted my spirits without even knowing I needed it.

On to some good stuff. I am excited about the cover of issue 12. Here it is, from the masterful Bruce Pennington.

John is just about done cramming in the stories, and I’m pretty excited about those as well. We’ll have 7000 more words than we had even last issue. Here’s what you can expect:

• More Morlock from James Enge.
• More Giliead and Elias from Martha Wells.
• More adventures from Ed Carmien.
• We dragged Todd McCaulty out of his cave and got him to finish another story, and you’ll find it within as well.
• And hey, there I am, with another story John bought from me before I joined the staff.
• John Fultz and Constance Cooper haven’t appeared in Black Gate before, and we’re excited to be introducing you to their work.
• We have a classic reprint, as well, the final Tumithak story from Charles R. Tanner, which completes Tumithak’s entire run. “Reprint” is a bit of a stretch here, because this one never actually appeared in a magazine before.

As usual, we’ll have articles, book reviews, and game reviews. I hope you’ll pick up a copy (and read it!) and that when you do so you can spread the word!

Lastly, I’ve been meaning to point visitors here to James Van Pelt’s latest series of posts on writing, if you haven’t yet seen them. Really good stuff. My link starts you on the first one. There’s three or four, interspersed with other entries that, while NOT about writing, are still worth reading.

I’ll get back here in a few days.

Warm Regards,
Howard