…you have to avoid falling into the rabbit hole of long debates where you can’t let something stand
Me: I’m stuck. What kind of sentries would the bad guys set up?
DS Baker (a former soldier): Hang on…
Two minutes later we’re talking face-to-face across the Atlantic. I love the 21st century!
Yes, there are good reasons for a writer to stay on social media.
Well not all the time — and yes you have to avoid falling into the rabbit hole of long debates where you can’t let something stand. However, if you are a writer, then my experience is that properly curated social media is your friend.
I’m not talking about marketing, though it does help to have a wide circle of friendly people who are on your wavelength so might — not that you are entitled to this in any way — give your books a try.
Red Sonja first appeared in the pages of Conan the Barbarian back in the 1970s. Her distinct red hair, iconic chain mail bikini, and total indifference to absurdity quickly made her a fan-favorite. She next appeared in a string of solo adventures for Marvel Feature before getting promoted to her own series. Unfortunately, stories about a woman in a bikini fighting psychedelic monsters just became too silly and sexist as the She-Devil with a Sword made her way into the 1980s. A few years back, some hack wrote a bunch of articles for Black Gate about the glory days of Red Sonja, lamenting that she would never again be as crazy or as fun as she was in her 70s heyday.
Never say never.
Amy Chu and Carlos Gomez are heading up a new Red Sonja series in 2017 and, as a sort of pre-holiday treat, they’re offering a sixteen-page intro story at the super-low price of 25 damned cents. That’s cheaper than a lot of the original Red Sonja issues ran and I’m pretty sure they’re losing money due to printing costs alone. But they’re hoping that potential new readers will risk a quarter on a story that motivates them to stick around for the regular series. Will this gambit pay off? Time will tell.
The issue starts off with a splash page of Red Sonja running up a crumbling stairway, sword drawn in either hand, threatening a Godzilla-sized demon. It’s a badass introduction to our heroine. Or it would be, except for the fact that our first view of the She-Devil with a Sword is an upskirt shot. And Sonja’s not wearing panties. And that’s why I won’t be including panel shots with this review.
Ack! Time is running out for you to win one of the two copies of The Watcher at the Door: The Early Kuttner, Volume Two we’re giving away. And trust us, you really want this book. The latest archival quality hardcover from Haffner Press is a massive collection of 30 early weird fantasy tales by Henry Kuttner, and we’ve been awaiting this gorgeous book for a long, long time. We first gave you a sneak peek back in April 2015.
The Watcher at the Door is the second volume in a three-volume “Early Kuttner” set collecting many of Kuttner’s earliest stories, most of which have never been reprinted. The first volume, Terror in the House, was released way back in 2010.
How do you enter? Simplicity itself. Just submit the title of an imaginary weird fantasy story. The most compelling titles — as selected by a crack team of Black Gate judges — will be entered into a drawing. We’ll draw two names from that list, and the two winners will receive a free copy of The Watcher at the Door, complements of Haffner Press and Black Gate magazine.
How hard is that? One submission per person, please. Winners will be contacted by e-mail, so use a real e-mail address maybe. All submissions must be sent to john@blackgate.com, with the subject line The Watcher at the Door, or something obvious like that so I don’t randomly delete it.
All entries become the property of New Epoch Press. No purchase necessary. Must be 12 or older. Decisions of the judges (capricious as they may be) are final. Sorry, US only. Not valid where prohibited by law.
The Watcher at the Door: The Early Kuttner, Volume Two is 700 pages in high-quality hardcover format, with an introduction by Dr. Garyn G. Roberts and a foreword by Robert A. Madle. It is edited by Stephen Haffner, and was published October 28, 2016. The cover price is $45. Cover art is by Jon Arfstrom. See the complete TOC here. The book is available directly from Haffner Press.
Future Treasures: The Twenty Sided Sorceress, Volume Two: Boss Fight, by Annie Bellet
I love omnibus volumes. I did a series on them a while back, looking at inexpensive paperback omnibus (omnibi?) volumes from C.J. Cherryh, Andre Norton, Murray Leinster, James H. Schmitz, Steven Brust, Jack Vance, and others.
But omnibus novel collections aren’t just for classic writers — oh, no. Saga Press is putting the format to good use collecting Annie Belett’s bestselling fantasy series The Twenty Sided Sorceress, which originally appeared from a small press. The first volume, Level Grind, was published in October; the second, Boss Fight, arrives next month and collects three more novels: Heartache, Thicker Than Blood, and Magic to the Bone. Separated from her friends, their fates unknown, and without her magic, Jade must stop fighting on Samir’s terms or else her next battle will be her last.
Level up. Or die.
Jade Crow and her friends faced their worst enemy, her ex-boyfriend Samir, the most powerful sorcerer in the world, and they now lie defeated, and flung across the wilderness.
Samir had trained Jade to be a sorceress, to mold her in his image, until she rejected him and escaped here to Wylde. Jade must stop fighting on Samir’s terms or else her next battle will be her last. Leveled up and wiser, Jade stands a chance this time, if she follows the true calling of her power, and changes the playing field. Everything has been leading up to this… Roll for initiative!
This is the omnibus of the next three volumes in the USA Today bestselling fantasy series, Heartache; Thicker Than Blood; Magic to the Bone, collected together for the first time in print.
The Twenty Sided Sorceress, Volume Two: Boss Fight will be published by Saga Press on January 3, 2017. It is 397 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $15.99 in trade paperback.The cover is by Chris McGrath.
A few months back I spent almost $40 on eBay to acquire two dozen Monsters on the Prowl comics — late 60s and early 70s Marvel monster titles featuring the imaginative work of Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, and the entire Marvel bullpen at the height of their creative powers.
It was an impulse buy for sure — not the first I’ve done on eBay, and I strongly suspect it won’t be the last — and I half-expected I’d regret it almost immediately. Or at least, as soon at the package arrived. But the opposite happened. The moment I held those beautiful old artifacts in my hands, I did feel regret. But not the way I expected.
My immediate thought was, Why didn’t I bid on a lot more of these?
TJ doubling The Toxic Avenger (photo by Robert Griffith)
The Poison Apple is a new semi-regular Black Gate column. Interviewer Elizabeth Crowens will be talking with atypical authors with unusual backgrounds or passions in the speculative fiction arena, and sharing their stories here.
The first “victim” to take a bite out of the Poison Apple is Teel James Glenn, known to most as T.J. Glenn, winner of the 2012 Pulp Ark Best Author of the Year, Epic eBook award finalist, P&E winner, Best Thriller Novel, Best Steampunk Short, multiple finalist for Best Fantasy short stories, author of the bestselling Exceptionalsseries, the Maxi/Moxie series, the Dr. Shadows series, the Renfairiesseries, stunt double and fight choreographer, and more.
Crowens: T.J., you seem to be living the dream of what Oscar Wilde would call art imitating life, being pretty much an action fantasy character day in and day out — a cross between Errol Flynn and Qui-Gon Jinn with a touch of James Bond villain thrown in. What attracted you to this world?
T.J.: When I was a kid I wanted to write comic books, draw them and then play the character. Here I am fifty years later, and I’ve sort of done it. I’ve never been able to completely separate them. Sometimes I do full renderings of the rooms my characters live in. I always do physical portraits of them. Often I conceive a character visually and work backwards from there. I’m a better writer because I’m a fight choreographer; I’m a better fight choreographer because I’m an actor; I’m a better actor, because I’m a writer. It all morphs together for me.
Over at Tangent Online, reviewer Kevin P Hallett demonstrates a knack for producing tantalizing three-sentence descriptions for each of the original pieces in the latest issue of Grimdark magazine.
“The Law of the Harvest” by Tim Waggoner
This horror fantasy short story is set in a world where the new power has expelled the old gods from the Dominion. Torvan is a harrower, sworn to find and kill any of these fallen gods that still live. He enters a poor village, where one of the Fallen is living off the people who scratch out a life there…
“The Bed of the Crimson King” by Filip Wiltgren
The Crimson King rose from a simple farm boy to become the hero who defeated the witches in this short fantasy. Now, in his elder years, he yearns for the simpler life of his youth. But a surviving witch is planning her revenge…
“Pre-emptive Revenge” by Rob J. Hayes
“Pre-emptive Revenge” is a short fantasy set in a medieval land. Betrim’s wife will rule this land; but first, all the members of the ruling Jogaren clan must die. Betrim has laid siege to a city and trapped a Jogaren family inside…
The issue also has fiction by Peter Orullian and Teresa Frohock.
The latest issue went on sale October 1. Here’s the complete Table of Contents.
Earlier this year I promised myself I would finally finish all the volumes in P.C. Hodgell’s Kencyrath series so far. I did that yesterday, with my completion of The Sea of Time (2014). I’m really enjoying the series and book 7 is a blast. Regular readers will be shocked to read my one complaint: it’s too short. Before I explain that, let me fill you in on the book and tell you all about its good points.
First, one more time, the setup:
Thirty thousand years ago, Perimal Darkling began to devour the series of parallel universes called the Chain of Creation. To fight against it, the Three-Faced God forged three separate races into one: feline-like Arrin-Ken to serve as judges; heavily-muscled Kendar to serve as soldiers and craftsmen; fine-featured humanoid Highborn to rule them. For 27,000 years, the Kencyrath fought a losing battle, one universe after another falling to the darkness. Three thousand years ago, the High Lord Gerridon, fearful of death, betrayed his people to Perimal Darkling in exchange for immortality. Fleeing yet again, the Kencyrath landed on the world of Rathilien. Since then, they haven’t heard from their god and Perimal Darkling has seemed satisfied to lurk at the edges of their new home. Monotheists trapped on an alien world with many gods, the Kencyrath have had to struggle to make a life on Rathilien.
Now, the power of the Three-Faced God seems to be reappearing. The Kencyrath believe that only the Tyr-ridan, three Highborn reflecting the three aspects of their god — destroyer, preserver, and creator — will be able to defeat Perimal Darkling. Jame, raised in the heart of Perimal Darkling, is fated to be the Regonereth: That-Which-Destroys.
At the end of the previous book, Honor’s Paradox, series heroine, Jame, had survived all the tests and trials thrown at her by the curriculum and her enemies at the Kencyrath military academy, and was promoted to second year cadet. The Sea of Time opens with Jame arriving at the Southern Host. The Host is the main force of Kencyrath soldiers, hired out to the wealthy city of Kothifir.
Crow Shine is the debut horror collection from Australian dark fantasy writer Alan Baxter. I’ve never heard of Baxter, but the book is generating a lot of buzz from people I have heard of, like Nathan Ballingrud, who called it “A sweeping collection of horror and dark fantasy stories, packed with misfits and devils, repentant fathers and clockwork miracles.” On his website, Baxter talks about a little about the book.
It’s no news to regular readers here what a fan I am of short stories. Ever since I was about 11 years old and picked up a Roald Dahl book called Switch Bitch, expecting something like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Danny the Champion of the World and got… well, I got my mind blown. I think the short story and novella are a unique art form, one that is incredibly hard to do well, entirely different from novels, but one that is utterly captivating… So to be in a position now where a publisher as respected as Ticonderoga are publishing a book collecting the best of my own short stories? My mind is blown again. It’s amazing. Crow Shine will contain nineteen short stories and novellas, and is named after one of the three stories original to this collection. The other sixteen are drawn across many years of my yarns exploring the dark weird fantastic that I love so much.
Baxter’s short fiction has been published in F&SF, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Postscripts, Daily Science Fiction, Midnight Echo, Pseudopod, and in more than twenty anthologies. He is the author of the dark fantasy trilogy, Bound, Obsidian, and Abduction (the Alex Caine series) from by HarperVoyager, and the dark urban fantasy novels RealmShift and MageSign from Gryphonwood Press.
Crow Shine was published by Ticonderoga Publications on November 11, 2016. It is 296 pages, priced at $29.99 in hardcover, $22.99 in trade paperback, and $4.99 for the digital edition. I don’t know who did the excellent cover, but I’m trying to find out.
Explore the Dark Side of Dreams in Nightmare’s Realm: New Tales of the Weird & Fantastic
Dark Regions Press is offering a deluxe signed limited edition hardcover edition of their upcoming anthology Nightmare’s Realm: New Tales of the Weird & Fantastic, edited by S. T. Joshi. It contains original fiction from Ramsey Campbell, Steve Rasnic Tem, John Langan, Simon Strantzas, John Shirley, Darrell Schweitzer, Gemma Files, and many others, all focusing on the theme of dreams and nightmares.
The striking cover artwork is by Samuel Araya (click the image at right for a bigger version). The limited edition is well out of my price range at $150, but there’s a trade paperback and digital edition promised for early next year as well.
Dreams and nightmares — what Ambrose Bierce called “visions of the night” — are the basis of some of the greatest weird fiction in literary history. The unruly images that torment us in sleep are usually dispelled by the coming of day — but can they be dismissed so easily? Do nightmares have some impalpable reality that can affect our daily lives, the lives of those around us, and perhaps the very fabric of the universe?
This volume contains seventeen original stories by some of the leading contemporary writers of weird fiction. Each tale probes the relation of nightmares to the real world, and to the human mind, in ways that are baffling, intriguing, terrifying, and poignant. Are we dreaming or are we awake? Can dreams gain a kind of quasi-reality and affect the workings of the real world? Can technology enhance or even create a dream-realm?
All all-star cast has contributed stories long and short … David Barker … Jason V Brock … Ramsey Campbell … Gemma Files … Richard Gavin … Caitlín R. Kiernan … Nancy Kilpatrick … John Langan … Reggie Oliver … W. H. Pugmire … Darrell Schweitzer … John Shirley … Simon Strantzas … Steve Rasnic Tem … Jonathan Thomas … Donald Tyson … Stephen Woodworth … The volume is edited by S. T. Joshi, a leading critic and anthologist of weird fiction.
Who can say that the nightmare is merely a wisp of fancy engendered by our own minds? After all, it was Edgar Allan Poe who said: “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.”
