Black Gate to Launch Sister Magazine
Rumors about our new venture have been spreading for weeks, and it’s time that John and I finally came clean. Next month we’ll be launching a call for submissions to our new, bi-monthly sister magazine, Spicy Troubadour.
John and I have been getting letters for years asking for more stories about bards, minstrels, and troubadours in adventurous situations and exotic positions, and we finally decided to bow to public demand. We didn’t want to change the core makeup of the fiction within Black Gate, hence Spicy Troubadour.
Heading up the new venture will be Managing Editor John C. Hocking, author of Conan and the Emerald Lotus, recent recipient of the Harper’s Pen Award, and owner of the largest collection of troubadour 8-tracks and antique, clashing-legged lederhosen in all of Michigan.
While the primary thrust of the magazine will be stories about medieval music makers, to broaden appeal, Spicy Troubadour will also print comic Viking stories, and urban fantasies featuring vampires with talking cats.
We look forward to reading your submissions! Further details will be posted as the launch date nears.
I can’t wait to submit. Are you accepting erotic fantasy stories about troubadours? I have one called “Troubadour with a Pompadour.” It’s set in Memphis, Egypt, and is about a randy bard named Elvisenpaaten.
Hocking will be the final arbiter, of course, but this sounds perfect.I think if you can work in a vampire, particularly one with a talking cat, you’re set.
Excited to see this, as my story ‘I Am Bardacus!’ should fit right in. I’ll have to send it along to John just as soon as I’m back from this morris dancing convention. Granted, ‘Bardacus!’ may not be spicy enough, but I think its autobiographical nature lends it some power that makes for a compelling read. Just glad to see a venue for these sorts of tales springing up at last.
Plus it has a viking cat in it, so that’s two tics in the win column.
This sounds promising… could the Viking cat be vampiric?
Well, I hate to give away the ending, but the talking cat at the end is the goddess Priscilla-Bast. I’m not Set, but Set does make an appearance as the investigative vampire journalist Geraldo Riveramose.
Am now cranking Ella Fitzgerald’s “AT LAST”
Uhm, has anybody noticed today’s date? Just pointing it out. You know, in case a newcomer wandered in here.
And I do like the use of the old pulp term “Spicy.” I would also like to see sister magazines called Spicy Black Gate or Dime Black Gate or Thrilling Black Gate.
The viking cat in my story is more of a psychic vampire, you know, he’s always asking for money, showing up unannounced to while you’re eating dinner, telling you how bad his day is when you’ve got good news, that sort of thing.
Ryan, why not just Spicy Gate?
Bill, the description of your psychic vampire cat cracked me up.
Spicy Gate sounds like a political scandal or the porn sequel to Heaven’s Gate.
I think it’s important to come clean that Howard and I had a prolonged disagreement about the title. I still feel the new venture should be called “SAUCY Troubadour,” but I ultimately bowed to Howard’s will.
Other than that, Howard and I are in complete agreement. Really can’t wait to read more submissions of Troubadours in “exotic positions.” You know what I’m talking about.
John
At last, at last.
At last!
My fevered vision of a magazine, a great and glorious magazine, devoted exclusively to tempestuous tales of torrid troubadours!
Write and submit, if you think you have the right stuff, if you imagine you possess the raw literary moxie required to capture the ineluctable essence of those mighty minstrels of yore, whose lutes laid down licks that melted maiden’s hearts as readily as they crushed asunder the courage and resolve of their darkling foes!
Spicy Troubador Tales Lives! Ahah-hah-hah-hah-ah-ha-ha-ha-eh-uh-urgh-cough-cough-cough…
Seriously though, I’d really like to see some poetry, preferably in the epic form. Think Spenser’s Faerie Queen crossed with Robert Leslie Bellem’s Dan Turner. Mickey Spillane collaborating with Thomas Malory while on a three day bender.
And don’t forget the talking vampire cats. Extra points if the cat can sing and play the lute.
My first thought was, “Do I have any stories that fit these criteria?” And then I Topeka’d “holidays beginning in April”.
That Topeka! It gives everything away.
John
April Fools!
If you did it as a one-shot, I’d love to submit some stuff, though. I’ve actually done a webcomic in the past that’s fantasy and has risque elements I’m looking to re-launch…
This was a joke? But I’ve already written 17,000 words!!!
You’ve written 17,000 words?
Excellent!
Are any of them verbs?
We like stories driven by ACTION!