Black Gate

Every time I call Howard, he’s writing. He’s typing while we’re talking. He denies it, but I can hear the keyboard in the background. I think he wrote his first novel while waiting in line at the DMV. The man is the hardest working writer in the business.

Two weeks ago I called up to ask if he remembered that Edison Marshall Hercules novel he mentioned to me a while back (he did — Earth Giant), and while we were talking he wrote an entire short story. “Bells for the Dead.” If I hadn’t distracted him, it probably would have turned into a novel. The man drives me crazy.

Anyway, the story is now online at Paizo, as part of their free Pathfinder Tales library — which already includes BG Contributing Editor Bill Ward’s story “The Box,” and an earlier tale from Howard, “The Walkers from the Crypt” (which he wrote while waiting for a red light to change).

“Bells For the Dead” features the gunslinging bounty hunter Lisette from Howard’s new novel Stalking the Beast, in a brand new adventure. It will be published in four parts at Paizo.com. Read the first installment here.

Interested in winning a free copy of Stalking the Beast? Enter our contest! Just tell us your favorite sword & sorcery tale in one paragraph or less, and win one of five copies, compliments of Paizo. Full details here.

Howard’s previous Pathfinder book was Plague of Shadows, released in 2011. His most recent novel was The Bones of the Old Ones.

Interested in more Pathfinder goodness? Black Gate can hook you up. Check out the latest right here — including the first chapters of Dave Gross’s novels King of Chaos and Queen of Thorns, and our review of Tim Pratt’s Liar’s Blade.

The young warrior Lod, last seen here in “The Oracle of Gog” (Black Gate 15), “The Pit Slave,” and “The Serpent of Thep” returns in a fast-paced tale of giants in the earth… and a crypt that holds a terrible secret.

“What’s that?” whispered Herrek.

Lod almost missed it because he expected a giant to rise up out of the earth. Then he saw whiteness out of place with the bulrushes and the green grass. The whiteness was low, planted in the soil. The horses clopped closer, enough to give them a full view of a skeleton stretched upon the ground. It wasn’t an ordinary skeleton, but near fifteen feet from skull to sole, the skeleton of a giant, a son of Jotnar!

Lod drew rein, and in a jingle of harnesses and a rattle of wood, the team and chariot came to a halt. The skeleton brought home the grim reality of these steppes. Here prowled Nephilim, those with supernatural powers.

“Stay alert,” said Herrek, jumping off the chariot.

SF Site called Lod “a cross between Conan and Elric of Melniboné,” and Louis West at Tangent Online called “The Pit Slave” “classic sword & fantasy.”

Vaughn Heppner has written Amazon best sellers such as Star Soldier, Invasion: Alaska, and People of the Ark. His new SF novel, Assault Troopers, is hitting the top of some Amazon SF categories and Alien Honor, the latest in his Doom Star universe, will be released on November 26.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by David C. Smith, David Evan Harris, Janet Morris and Chris Morris, John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Peadar Ó Guilín, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, and many others, is here.

“Draugr Stonemaker” is a complete 8,400-word novelette of sword & sorcery offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

Black Gate is very pleased to offer our readers an exclusive excerpt from Dark Muse, the new noir thriller from David C. Smith.

Jack Mathis, a bright young book editor in Chicago, has found the next great American writer. Yet this anonymous genius is inspired to create in the darkest way imaginable: he picks his victims carefully, murders them gruesomely, then gives them new life in the best stories Jack has ever read.

The writer knows all about Jack. All about his wife. Knows everything. He has more stories in mind, too. Jack wants them. What is he willing to do to get them?

David C. Smith is the author of twenty-two novels, primarily in the sword-and-sorcery, horror, and suspense genres, including The Witch of the Indies (1977), Oron (1978), The Sorcerer’s Shadow (1978), and The West is Dying (1983).

David is the co-author, with Joe Bonnadonna, of Waters of Darkness, also available from Damnation Books. Read a free excerpt here.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by David Evan Harris, Janet Morris and Chris Morris, John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Peadar Ó Guilín, Vaughn Heppner, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, and many others, is here.

Dark Muse was published by Damnation Books on December 1, 2012. It is 206 pages and currently available in trade paperback for $17.99, and $5.95 for the digital version.

Read a complete sample chapter of Dark Muse here.

David Evan Harris, author of the acclaimed stories “The Mudslinger” and “Seeker of Fortune,” returns to our pages with the tale of a daring confrontation between the dread Baron Weller and a mysterious assassin known as Arland, “The Gentle Sleeper.”

“You are Arland,” the Baron continued. “First Elder of the House of Elementals in the Kingdom of Corland.”

“You are mistaken, my lord,” said Arland.

“Marraine described you perfectly,” said the Baron. “From your height, to the tangled hair. She claimed you were much stronger than you looked.”

“My name is Edward,” said Arland. “I am a fabric merchant.”

“You are an assassin,” said the Baron casually. “The Gentle Sleeper, they call you. A man of little magical strength but with perfect control, who can stop the air from reaching a man’s lungs. You’ve come to kill me, I expect. And I expect you realize by now that you have failed, and that an unpleasant death will begin for you quite shortly.” The Baron leaned back in his chair, holding the bell against his chest.

“Does this mean you don’t want me to find you some clothing?” Arland asked.

Grasping For the Wind called “The Mudslinger” “An epic fantasy… I look forward to more” and Tangent Online called “Seeker of Fortune” “Exceptional. A must read.”

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Janet Morris and Chris Morris, John C. Hocking, Michael Shea, Peadar Ó Guilín, Vaughn Heppner, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, and many others, is here.

“The Gentle Sleeper” is a complete 5,000-word short story of adventure fantasy. It is offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.

John C. Hocking returns to the pages of Black Gate after too long an absence, with another exciting tale of the Archivist and his friend Lucella.

Sevron Glauco turned with a swirl of his fine cloak, and we followed him out of guard tower 47 into the nighted city of Frekore, wondering where we were going and what a daughter of the Royal House wanted with two such as us.

“She’s broken house arrest in defiance of the King,” I said softly.

“Yes,” said Lucella, sounding unaccountably cheerful, “which makes us her accomplices in treason.”

“Gods and demons,” I swore. “What is it with you?”

Sherwood Smith at SF Site had this to say about “A River Through Darkness and Light,” the fourth Archivist tale, when it appeared in Black Gate 15:

Lucella, a tough warrior woman, and the first-person narrator Archivist, have history together, as they travel in search of a hidden stash of ancient scrolls, accompanied by a scholar and an old soldier. Unfortunately, they are chased by bandits bent on vengeance… and then there’s the demon…

I think of Hocking’s stories as characteristic of Black Gate: a strong blend of the old sword and sorcery action and mood, but with modern attention to character development, especially of the women… this story is a promising opening to the issue.

The complete catalog of Black Gate Online Fiction, including stories by Michael Shea, Ryan Harvey, Peadar Ó Guilín, Dave Gross, Vaughn Heppner, Aaron Bradford Starr, Martha Wells, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, E.E. Knight, C.S.E. Cooney, Howard Andrew Jones, and many others, is here.

“Vestments of Pestilence” is a complete 10,000-word novelette of sword & sorcery. It is offered at no cost.

Read the complete story here.