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Black Gate Online Fiction: Pathfinder Tales: King of Chaos by Dave Gross

Black Gate Online Fiction: Pathfinder Tales: King of Chaos by Dave Gross

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Pathfinder Tales King of Chaos-smallBlack Gate is very pleased to offer an exclusive first look at the latest Pathfinder Tales novel by Dave Gross, the acclaimed author of Prince of Wolves, Master of Devils, and Queen of Thorns.

After a century of imprisonment, demons have broken free of the wardstones surrounding the Worldwound. As fiends flood south into civilized lands, Count Varian Jeggare and his hellspawn bodyguard Radovan must search through the ruins of a fallen nation for the blasphemous text that opened the gate to the Abyss in the first place-and which might hold the key to closing it. In order to succeed, however, the heroes will need to join forces with pious crusaders, barbaric local warriors, and even one of the legendary god callers. It’s a race against time as the companions fight their way across a broken land, facing off against fiends, monsters, and a vampire intent on becoming the god of blood-but will unearthing the dangerous book save the world, or destroy it completely? From best-selling author Dave Gross comes a new adventure set against the backdrop of the Wrath of the Righteous Adventure Path in the award-winning world of the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Dave Gross is the former editor of Dragon, Star Wars Insider, and Amazing Stories. His adventures of Radovan and Count Jeggare include the Pathfinder Tales novels Prince of Wolves and Master of Devils, as well as many novellas and short stories available at Paizo.com. His last novel for Paizo was the acclaimed Queen of Thorns.

We previously reviewed the Pathfinder Tales novels Death’s Heretic by James L. Sutter, Master of Devils by Dave Gross, and Howard Andrew Jones’s Plague of Shadows, and introduced you to BG Contributing Editor Bill Ward’s Pathfinder Tales story “The Box, and “The Walkers from the Crypt” by Howard Andrew Jones. We recently covered the game releases Ultimate Campaign, Fey Revisited, and Chronicles of the Righteous.

Pathfinder Tales: King of Chaos is published by Paizo Publishing and is part of their Pathfinder Tales Subscription. It is a 400-page mass market paperback available for $9.99 ($6.99 ePub and PDF). “The Watchtower,” the complete first chapter of King of Chaos, is presented here at Black Gate.

Read Chapter One of King of Chaos here.

New Treasures: Knights of the Dinner Table #200

New Treasures: Knights of the Dinner Table #200

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Knights of the Dinner Table 200-smallI am thrilled to report that Kenzer & Company, publishers of the fine Hackmaster and Aces & Eights role playing games, have published the 200th issue of the world’s best gaming comic, Knights of the Dinner Table.

Knights of the Dinner Table is written and drawn by my friend Jolly R. Blackburn, with editorial assistance by his talented wife Barbara. If Jolly’s name is familiar, it may be because of last Saturday’s appreciation of his earlier publication, the much-missed role-playing magazine, Shadis, where KoDT first appeared. Or you may remember the last time I shone a spotlight on KoDT, with issue #191 last September. Or maybe you’re a fan of the KoDT spin-off The Java Joint, which appeared in every issue of the print version of Black Gate, and was finally collected (with one new strip) last April. Or perhaps you’re simply a fan of KoDT all on your own, and don’t need me telling you how brilliant it is.

The first issue of Knights of the Dinner Table appeared from AEG in the summer of 1994. With issue five it switched to its current publishers Kenzer & Company, and it has appeared regularly ever since.

I don’t think I need to tell you what an incredible accomplishment it is for a comic to reach the 200 mark in today’s market — especially with the same creator at the helm. It is, in fact, an almost unparalleled achievement (the only comparable example I’ve been able to come up with is Dave Sim’s Cerebus). To reach issue 200 under any circumstances is an amazing achievement for an independent comic.

I wrote a book review column in the back of Knights of the Dinner Table for four years, starting in the late 90s (the incredible series of coincidences that lead to that happy state of affairs are related in my introduction to the collected Java Joint). I got to meet and game with Jolly, Dave Kenzer, Steve Johansson, Brian Jelke, Barbara Blackburn, and the entire KenzerCo gang — and let me tell you, I wouldn’t trade that experience for anything.

But it’s my contributions to and relationship with KoDT that I’m most proud of during that era. KoDT has survived not simply because it occupies a unique niche in the gaming community, but because it is a singularly brilliant work from a uniquely talented creator. If you haven’t tried it yet, the massive issue 200 is a great place to come on board.

KoDT #200 was published July 2013 by Kenzer & Company. It is $8.99 for a 96-page black & white comic. The cover is by Larry Elmore; more details and order instructions are here, or try the free online strips.

Vintage Treasures: The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan

Vintage Treasures: The Shapes of Midnight by Joseph Payne Brennan

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The Shapes of Midnight-smallJoseph Payne Brennan isn’t discussed much these days. He died over twenty years ago, in 1990, the same year his last book was released, The Adventures of Lucius Leffing, the fourth volume featuring his Carnacki-like occult detective.

Brennan wrote only two novels. But he is mostly remembered for his classic horror stories, published in Weird Tales, Whispers, Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, and over 200 horror anthologies. His most famous story, “Slime,” featuring a sinister new form of protoplasmic life which emerges from the ocean, was originally published in the March 1953 issue of Weird Tales and has been reprinted more than fifty times. It has influenced countless horror stories ever since, from the Steve McQueen film The Blob (which Brennan successfully sued for copyright infringement) to Stephen King’s famous short story, “The Raft,” which also features a horrific killer protoplasm in a lake.

Brennan’s imagination wasn’t limited to primordial monsters, however. One of his most acclaimed short stories, “Canavan’s Back Yard,” imagines an overgrown lot so twisted and mazelike that most who venture into it never return.

Brennan isn’t someone I discovered in the magazines. In fact, up until this week, I was pretty sure I’d never read anything by him at all. He’s been mentioned a few times here on the Black Gate blog, most recently in Douglas Draa’s review of Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural, and in the discussion surrounding Robert E. Howard’s The People of the Black Circle.

But I’d been curious about his 1980 paperback collection, The Shapes of Midnight, containing both “Slime” and “Canavan’s Back Yard,” and my interest was heightened by the comments Doug Draa made on my People of the Black Circle article. So I became determined to get a copy, and in June I finally succeeded.

It’s a slender volume, just 176 pages, containing a dozen stories. The enthusiastic introduction is by a young horror writer who burst on the scene just six years earlier, with a successful horror novel titled Carrie. Here’s what Stephen King had to say about Joseph Payne Brennan, taken from his introduction to The Shapes of Midnight.

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Celebrate the Sword & Sorcery Tradition of David Gemmell with Legends

Celebrate the Sword & Sorcery Tradition of David Gemmell with Legends

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Legends Stories in Honour of David Gemmell-smallWe’ve been reporting on the David Gemmell Legend Award for the past four summers. It’s usually awarded in July and last year it went to The Wise Man’s Fear by Patrick Rothfuss.

There have been some changes this year, however. The big one is that the award has been moved to be part of the World Fantasy Convention, which happens every Halloween.

More interesting to heroic fantasy fans, however, is the impending release of Legends: Stories in Honour of David Gemmell, a new tribute anthology to be be launched October 31st, during the Gemmell Awards Ceremony at WFC.

Legends is being produced partly as a fund-raiser for the awards and is an anthology of original stories written in the tradition of David Gemmell. It is edited by Ian Whates, who proved his editorial acumen with the fine SF anthologies, Solaris Rising and Solaris Rising 2, and will be published by NewCon Press in the UK.

Determined warriors, hideous creatures, wicked sorceries, tricksy villains and cunning lovers abound as fantasy’s finest imaginations do their best… and their worst. James Barclay reveals the origins of The Raven, Adrian Tchaikovsky unveils new aspects of the realm of the Apt, Tanith Lee, Joe Abercrombie, Storm Constantine, Stan Nicholls, Juliet E McKenna and more weave their magic as only they can.

Steel yourself, throw caution to the wind, and dare to enter the realm of Legends.

Here’s the complete contents.

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The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in July

The Top 50 Black Gate Posts in July

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James FrenkelYou folks certainly have diverse interests.

The top article on the Black Gate blog last month was on the departure of senior editor James Frenkel from Tor, which I think reveals a healthy interest in publishing and the state of the industry. Good for you. Our second most popular post was Howard Andrew Jones’s enthusiastic report on the fan-made show Star Trek Continues, which demonstrates your excellent taste in television programming, followed by a detailed report on using a 40-year old board game to enhance your enjoyment of a 39-year old role playing game. I’m not sure exactly what that reveals about you, but I want you to know, it makes me very proud.

Foz Meadow’s essay on approaching fantasy by avoiding the classics was also in our Top Five articles, followed by Joe Bonnadonna’s review of the new anthology Dreamers in Hell.

The complete Top 50 Black Gate posts in July were:

  1. James Frenkel Leaves Tor
  2. Star Trek Lives
  3. The Secret Supplement: Greyhawk, Gygax, and Outdoor Survival
  4. Challenging the Classics: Questioning the Immutable Hallmarks of Genre
  5. Giving the Devil his Due: A Review of Dreamers in Hell
  6. “A Great Place to let Your Imagination Run Wild”: Joe Bonadonna Reviews Rogues in Hell
  7. The Doom that came to Kickstarter
  8. Hi yo Silver Awayzzzzzz: The Lone Ranger Defeats Insomnia
  9. Readercon 24: A Most Readerconnish Miscellany
  10. Vintage Treasures: The Best of Robert Bloch

     

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Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part Six

Blogging Dan Barry’s Flash Gordon, Part Six

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FlashGordon1_original55_d__0_FlashGordon1950sTVStarringStev“The Lost Continent” by Dan Barry was serialized by King Features Syndicate from October 26, 1953 to March 20, 1954. This is the story where Dan Barry finally realized his potential and would serve as the model for his best work on the strip over the next four decades. His art and plotting are reminiscent of the classic original work by Alex Raymond and rank alongside Al Williamson’s later work as the most faithful interpretations of Raymond’s unique style.

The story gets underway with Flash, Dale, and Zarkov enjoying a deep sea fishing trip in the West Indies when they are caught in a hurricane. Their yacht strikes a bathysphere in the storm and is washed ashore with it on the island of Bimini. A panel on the bathysphere opens and Flash, Dale, and Zarkov enter to find a pair of Neanderthals who quickly suffocate in the open air. The dying Neanderthals manage to speak a few words in their strange language and Zarkov makes out “Poseidon” and concludes they hail from the legendary capitol of the lost continent of Atlantis.

Dale discovers a cache of gold coins in the flooring while Zarkov discovers a recording machine that translates thoughts. The device translates the Atlan language into several different languages including English through which they learn the Neanderthals were on a mission to flood the markets of the surface world with the cache of gold in order to destroy the world economy to pave the way for an invasion. The trio resolves to pilot the bathysphere down to Atlantis to sabotage their plan after giving the Neanderthals a proper burial on Bimini.

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Goth Chick News: New Indy Horror 36 Saints and Interview with Star Frank Gonzalez — Plus Free Swag

Goth Chick News: New Indy Horror 36 Saints and Interview with Star Frank Gonzalez — Plus Free Swag

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image002As always, this year’s Chicago Comic Con had no shortage of material and believe me, it was difficult to know where to look first. But the best discovery is when I meet up with the creators of indy films – twice as nice when the films are in my favorite genre.

Indy film folks are hungry and passionate without all the Hollywood jadedness that eventually comes with one or two big box office hits. They put love into every detail of their creations and their enthusiasm is infectious, so I was particularly excited to meet Joey Dedio; actor and producer of the soon-to-be-released horror thriller 36 Saints.

As he explains the premise, you can tell Dedio is psyched about every aspect of this film and his excitement is palpable.

According to the kabbalah teaching, at any given time there are at least 36 holy persons in the world. These holy people are hidden; nobody knows who they are and they themselves are not aware of their role. For the sake of these 36 hidden saints, God preserves the world even if the rest of humanity has degenerated to the level of total barbarism.

36 Saints is like if the movie Seven met The Da Vinci Code. New York’s Police Headquarters is confronted with the horror of a serial murderer whose targets appear to be group of students. Weaving myth, legend and Biblical stories together, this film is filled with suspense while officials try to find the killer before it is too late and more people are killed.

As enthusiastic as Dedio is about the film, he’s clearly thrilled with one of the film’s stars, Frank Gonzales (aka “Franky G”). So when it came time to find out more about 36 Saints, Dedio deferred to Gonzales, which was fine with me considering Gonzales’s horror cred was pretty substantial.

So everyone, meet Franky G – Franky G, this is everyone.

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New Treasures: The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen

New Treasures: The Black Fire Concerto by Mike Allen

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The Black Fire Concerto-smallMike Allen is scary talented.

After ten years of editing Black Gate magazine, I respect anyone who grapples with the logistical nightmare of producing a nationally-distributed print journal, and does it on a semi-regular schedule. Mike edits two and he makes it look easy: the acclaimed fantasy anthology series Clockwork Phoenix (four volumes so far) and the fabulous poetry journal Mythic Delirium.

Mike is also a very talented writer in his own right, with a Nebula nomination under his belt for his 2009 short story “The Button Bin” and his first collection of short fiction, The Button Bin And Other Horrors, forthcoming from Dagan Books. Long time BG readers will also remember his massive three-part Monstrous Post on Monsters, one of the most popular blog series we’ve run in the past few years.

See what I mean about talent? If Mike admitted he also plays bass for The Civil Wars on weekends, I wouldn’t be at all surprised.

Which is why we were so intrigued when we heard that Mike was working on his first dark fantasy novel. The book was edited by our own C.S.E. Cooney, who demonstrated an unerring ability to spot talent as Website Editor for Black Gate from 2010 to 2012 — and whose own rare writing gifts are on display in her recent books, How to Flirt in Faerieland & Other Wild Rhymes and Jack o’ the Hills.

I read Mike’s book in draft last year and was wowed. He has created a singular feat of the imagination, a world of shape-shifters, ghouls, and worse things, where two young women with a very unique form of magic may be the only hope against a sorceress of untold power.

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Gallowglas, Hester, Wagner & Coe: Four Authors Sound Off on the Writing Life of a Midlister

Gallowglas, Hester, Wagner & Coe: Four Authors Sound Off on the Writing Life of a Midlister

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Children of Amarid-smallJuly 2013 was a month of firsts for me. A book of mine went out of print. A Kickstarter project I launched to fund an interactive e-book died a miserable, unnoticed death. I received my first ever fan art. And on the practical side, the sales numbers for my fantasy novel Dreamwielder got a great boost thanks to its selection as a Barnes & Noble Nook First Look pick, leading to my first ever proper royalty check — not a huge chunk of change, but enough to turn down freelance work and focus solely on my own writing for a few weeks. (Although I still ended up paying my health insurance bill late!)

It’s not exactly the glamorous lifestyle most people think of when they think of a published writer, even an “emerging” author like myself; but it’s one I’ve worked hard for, and one I’m proud of because I know I’ve finally joined the ranks of the SFF author community.

While authors like George R.R. Martin and Neil Gaiman dominate the fantasy bestsellers list and rake in the riches of TV and movie adaptations, the truth is most fantasy authors live a life closer to mine, a life of small successes, financial uncertainty, and near anonymity.

“One of the biggest misconceptions is that writers — all successful, published writers — are rich,” says David B. Coe, a fantasy author who has published over a dozen novels, including two new historical urban fantasy novels under the pseudonym D. B. Jackson. “For most of us, success in today’s market means continuing to be published by a reputable house.”

Coe broke into the fantasy world with his first novel, Children of Amarid, back in 1997, right when the publishing world was about to be turned on its head. “When I started out, I would get oohs and ahhs from people when I mentioned that I had a webpage,” Coe recalls. “Now there are domestic cats with better webpages than mine.”

Since then, the Internet and new technology like e-readers and print-on-demand have irreversibly changed the publishing landscape. Ebook sales skyrocketed. Self-publishing became an accepted alternative for authors to reach a mass audience. In order to adapt and stay competitive, big publishing houses merged with one another and tightened their belts. The days of big advances and promotional budgets for midlister authors is long gone.

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The Top 20 Black Gate Fiction Posts in July

The Top 20 Black Gate Fiction Posts in July

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bones-of-the-old-onesA bit of a shake-up at the top of the fiction charts this month, as our exclusive excerpt from Howard Andrew Jones’ second Dabir and Asim novel, The Bones of the Old Ones, reclaimed the top spot from Martha Wells’ Nebula nominee The Death of the Necromancer. Coming up close behind were Joe Bonadonna’s perennially popular sword & sorcery tale “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” and E.E. Knight’s thrilling Blue Pilgrim story, “The Terror in the Vale.”

Three of Aaron Bradford Starr’s Gallery Hunter tales made the list this month, including the epic 35,000-word novella “The Sealord’s Successor,” which Tangent Online called “The real deal…  It put me in mind of Fritz Leiber’s Fafhrd and Gray Mouser.”

Also making the list were exciting stories by Jamie McEwan, Judith Berman, Ryan Harvey, David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna, Vera Nazarian, Jason E. Thummel, Gregory Bierly, Robert Rhodes, Emily Mah, Michael Penkas, Mary Catelli, and Vaughn Heppner.

If you haven’t sampled the adventure fantasy stories offered through our new Black Gate Online Fiction line, you’re missing out. Every week, we present an original short story or novella from the best writers in the industry, all completely free. Here are the Top Twenty most-read stories in July:

  1. An excerpt from The Bones of the Old Ones, by Howard Andrew Jones
  2. The Death of the Necromancer, a complete novel by Martha Wells
  3. “The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum,” by Joe Bonadonna
  4. “The Terror in the Vale,” by E.E. Knight
  5. “The Sealord’s Successor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
  6. “The Highwater Harbor,” by Aaron Bradford Starr
  7. “Falling Castles,” by Jamie McEwan
  8. “The Poison Well,” by Judith Berman
  9. “The Sorrowless Thief,” by Ryan Harvey
  10. An excerpt from The Waters of Darkness, by David C. Smith and Joe Bonadonna

     

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