Sorry the blog’s been quiet! Not because nothing’s been going on… just that it’s been going on in other forums. One day I’ll get around to updating the bibliography and other pages, but in the meantime they’re like a peek back. Hard to believe the first posts are nearly 10 years old, moved here when I switched to WordPress all the way back in 2008!
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- A Book of Wisdom and Wonder: Aspects by John M. FordAspects by John M. Ford (Tor Books, April 5, 2022) John M. Ford died in 2006, not yet 50 years old. He had been publishing SF, Fantasy, poetry, games and nonfiction for some three decades, and his fiction was gaining a reputation, for originality, intricacy, beauty, and cleverness; but he was still not truly widely known. Still, novels like The Dragon Waitin […]
- A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Spicy Adventures from Robert E. Howard“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun) Last week, we followed Robert E. Howard out of our usual mean streets, and into the Shudder Pulps. Well, Two-Gun Bob is our […]
- Vintage Treasures: Life During Wartime by Lucius ShepardLife During Wartime (Bantam Spectra paperback reprint, July 1991). Cover by Mark Harrison In April 1986 Lucius Shepard published his famous novella “R&R” in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. It was the tale of young David Mingolla, an American draftee reluctantly fighting a war in a near-future Central America, where psychics predict enemy movemen […]
- GenCon Writers Symposium (Aug 2022) : R. A. Salvatore Guest of HonorGenCon Writer’s Symposium is back! Aug4-7th, 2022; Indianapolis, IN Gen Con just announced that legendary fantasy author R. A. Salvatore is the 2022 Author Guest of Honor! Thirty-four years ago, he created the character of Drizzt Do’Urden, the dark elf who has withstood the test of time to stand today as an icon in the fantasy genre. With his work in the For […]
- Goth Chick News: Midwest Haunters Bus Tour – Because Its Only 130 Days Until HalloweenI’m going to go ahead and say it, because I know you’re thinking it. Yes, its only June and yes, there are a solid four months until Halloween. But all the spooky wonderfulness that pops up in the month of October doesn’t materialize overnight. Nope, it requires months of planning, therefore making it necessary for Black Gate Photog Chris Z and I tool around […]
- Adventures in Supernatural Dystopia: The Edinburgh Nights Novels by T. L. HuchuThe Library of the Dead and Our Lady of Mysterious Ailments (Tor Books, June 2021 and April 2022) Tor Books seems to have a hit on its hands with the Edinburgh Nights novels by Zimbabwe author T. L. Huchu (who writes non-genre novels under the name Tendai Huchu). The opening book The Library of the Dead hit the bestseller lists in the US, and expectations we […]
- Random Reviews: “Sweeping the Hearthstones” by Betsy JamesBetsy James published the Seeker Chronicles trilogy of YA novels between 1989 and 2006, but didn’t publish her first short story until 2008. Three years later, in October 2011, her second short story, “Sweeping the Heathstone,” appeared as the penultimate story in the final issue of the late, lamented Realms of Fantasy. Corrie is a sixteen year old orphan wh […]
- Ellsworth’s Cinema of Swords: More o’ ZorroZorro, like the Batman, who borrowed more than a little from the adventures of the masked hero, is a perennial; Hollywood always has another reboot percolating in pre-production somewhere, and occasionally one of these makes it to the screen and the black-clad outlaw rides again. Disney’s Zorro was the definitive version from the late Fifties until the Seven […]
- Exploring the Darkness That Surrounds Us: Lies of Tenderness by Stephen VolkLies of Tenderness (PS Publishing, May 2022). Cover by Pedro Marques Lies of Tenderness Stephen Volk PS Publishing (482 pages, £25.00 in hardcover, May 1, 2022) Cover art by Pedro Marques Horror fiction comes in many shades. There’s graphic horror; splatterpunk (or whatever it’s called nowadays) full of gore, blood and other amenities; and there is a type of […]
- A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Weird Menace from Robert E. Howard“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a gun. Shortened version of Gatling Gun) My area of expertise is the hardboiled/Pi genre. But today, we’ll jump over to the ‘shudder pulps.’ In 1933, Popular Public […]
- A Book of Wisdom and Wonder: Aspects by John M. Ford
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