Search Results for: "state of mind"

Necronomicon: The Paneling

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There’s nothing like a well-run ‘con, and veterans of the circuit know the feel of competence, from the preliminary materials and communications to the execution of the event on site. Chief character of this con? The Biltmore Graduate hotel. Still proudly wearing the Biltmore name, this fine building shares con duty with the Omni Hotel here in Providence, Rhode Island. There’s even a Time Machine. Bright and early, a strong crowd gathered for New York State of Mind: Lovecraft’s New…

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The Public Life of Sherlock Holmes: Some Personalia About Sherlock Holmes (Doyle on Holmes)

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So in our first series post, we had a LONG post on ACD’s 1923 essay – The Truth Behind Sherlock Holmes – for Collier’s The National Weekly. This week, it’s an earlier one he which wrote for The Strand. “The Adventure of the Dying Detective” ran in The Strand in December of 1913 (appearing the prior month over in America, in Collier’s). There wouldn’t be another Holmes story until September of 1917, with His Last Bow appearing in both The…

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Ten Things I Think I Think: October 2023

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A (Black) Gat in the Hand takes a week off for a somewhat Robert E. Howard-centric installment of Ten Things I Think I Think. Books, television, movies, and even a computer RPG are in the mix today. 1) Jules De Grandin is a new favorite Being a Robert E. Howard guy, I am familiar with Weird Tales – home to much of his best work, including Conan, Kull, historical fiction, and Solomon Kane, among much more. But not being into…

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Neverwhens, Where History and Fantasy Collide: Of Tudor Scum and Georgian-Gallants; an Interview with Peter McLean

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My guest this month is Peter McLean, a successful short story writer and contemporary fantasy novelist who has cast his authorially eye on more traditional fantasy, with his War for the Rose Throne, series, the first two volumes of which (Priest of Bones and Priest of Lies) are now available, and currently in development for television by Heyday Productions. For those who may not have read them (and if that’s you, go do that now, we’ll wait) here is the…

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Future Treasures: Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar

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Shveta Thakrar’s short fiction has appeared in the anthologies A Thousand Beginnings and Endings, Toil & Trouble, The Underwater Ballroom Society, and Clockwork Phoenix 5, and magazines such as Uncanny, Enchanted Living, Faerie Magazine, Mothership Zeta, Mythic Delirium, and Fantastic Stories of the Imagination. Her debut novel Star Daughter mixes Hindu mythology and contemporary fantasy into something quite original. It arrives from HarperTeen next week. Here’s the description. The daughter of a star and a mortal, Sheetal is used to keeping secrets. Pretending…

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Fantasia 2018, Days 1 and 2: Five Fingers of Death

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Fantasy’s described by fantasy: consider John Crowley’s Little, Big, a novel about a faerieland where the further in you go the bigger the land becomes. A powerful image, it echoes the way fascinations gain in depth and scope the more you explore them. How familiar experiences can become strange the more you dig deeper into them, birthing mystery, growing weird. Art and story perhaps most of all. So I am about to begin my coverage of the Fantasia International Film…

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Modular: Successful Adventuring — Or, Staying Alive & Getting the Gold

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Creighton Broadhurst is the founder and head honcho of Raging Swan Press, one of Pathfinder‘s leading third party publishers. His Shadowed Keep on the Borderlands is the spiritual successor to the old moat house in The Village of Hommlet. Creighton plays Pathfinder, but he approaches the rules-heavy game with an old school style, which is something I’ve been trying to figure out for myself. His blog features lots of lists: GM advice, player tips, favorite modules, etc.. I broke his…

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The Secret of Ventriloquism by Jon Padgett

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A lot of the reviews of this collection compare Jon Padgett to Thomas Ligotti, which is fair, since Jon Padgett has been the long-time moderator of the Thomas Ligotti fansite, ligotti.net, and one of the stories takes its title directly from a Ligotti story. But the big question that potential new readers will likely have when reading those reviews is “Who the hell is Thomas Ligotti?” So. Thomas Ligotti himself has been called a successor to H.P. Lovecraft (yeah, the…

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A Prophet Without Honor: J.G. Ballard

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After the past several months of Socratic dialogue/pie fight/drunken Hell’s Angels motorcycle-chain melee (in other words, after dozens of articles and hundreds – thousands? – of comments on the Hugo debacle, for you late arrivers), we here at Black Gate have firmly answered the nonmusical question, “What are awards good for?” In a nutshell, we have established that awards can help writers find a wider audience, they can provide a bit of financial leverage for those who win them, and…

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Things Your Writing Teacher Never Told You: Location, Location, Location! or How to Find and Maintain Your Writing Space

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In a perfect world, we could all write anywhere, anytime. But even seasoned writers sometimes have problems sitting down and starting a writing session or staying in a writing session once it’s started. While we all have these problems  – the pros find ways to get past it. Here are some suggestions on how to fight the urge to do absolutely anything but write. The causes are too numerous to deal with in a single blog post, but lets start…

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