S.E. Lindberg's Blog, page 17

GenCon_2021 Gaming Hall

This is part of a set of posts summarizing my GenCon 2021 experience:

Overview of Gen Con 2021Gaming Hall & Painting: <-- You are Herein lieu of the Writer's SymposiumDeadman's Cribbage Unboxing _______________________________________________________________Game HallThis was the first year I had time to play in the Hall!

The Night CagePlayed this in the vendor area. This one I passed on Kickstarter, but the design kept drawing me back to the booth.  It's a cooperative game for 1-5 players. I played a match with one of the designers (Chris McMahon). I played with a family, the two younger ladies were not engaged at first, but within minutes were got the rules down and managed to partner to exit the labrynth of darkness. Got a signed copy and all the extra KS goodies (neoprene matt, metal figurines for player).
Perdition's MouthI missed the original Kickstarter, but did purchase the full set via Dragon Dawn Productions. This is a dungeon crawler, cooperative, without dice. Awesome dark themes.  My son and I had finished the main campaign, however, I wanted to play in the Game Hall.  In a 3hr session, I played with four friendly strangers...and we had fun marching to our doom/
Playing Bristol 1350A game which we both backed via Kickstarter, but never got around to getting the 6+ players needed to test it out; here, we have Facade games teach us the rules.
Wyrd GamesWas on the hunt for a good ghost story game, and while roaming the Game Hall I stumbled across Vagrant Song by the makes of Malifaux. Apparently, it was in high demand, but I managed to snag a limited copy.

Cincinnati Arsenal Gaming 513CAG.comI hail from the greater Cincinnati area, but was unaware of this crew. They had a bunch of tables in the gaming hall and their mission seems to be help people play games. Super cool. They let my brother and I perform our unboxing of the prototype Dead Man's Cribbage game here. 


Kevin Fannin - Painting Miniature Class Lots of crafting classes were sold out fast. I enjoyed this 2hr crash course for introductory mini painting.

GenCon_2021 Overview

Overview of Gen Con 2021  

This is part of a set of posts summarizing my GenCon 2021 experience:

Overview of Gen Con 2021  <-- You are HereGaming Hall & Paintingin lieu of the Writer's SymposiumDeadman's Cribbage Unboxing_______________________________________________________________Overview of Gen Con 2021:Gencon 2020 was canceled due to covid; 2021's event was moved from the traditional first week in August to Sept 16-19 (i.e. out of Summer break, and into school season).Attendance dropped from ~70K attendees to ~35K. Many events were canceled, including the Writer's Conference which I usually attend (prior links: GenCon50_2017, GenCon51_2018, GenCon52_2019, GenCon53_2021); in lieu of the desired networking, I found other ways to connect (see agenda item above in the blog list)My brother and I share a passion for making games, including Dead Man's Cribbage and his economic literacy games Free Market Kids.There were fewer vendors (~1/3 less I think), and these were gifted more space between them on the floor
Gamers playing games...everywhere Pictures here are from our hotel, the downtown Embassy Suites by Hilton, which is a great place to stay with the world's most obscure entrance.
Mask and CrowdsEveryone seemed to wear their masks and keep their distance most of the time.  Short time periods of crowding occurred when the "running of the nerds" commenced entering the vendor show. The weather was beautiful, and there was plenty of opportunities to walk around outside.




Obligatory stupid poses:
Lots of loot:In addition to ~10games, I snagged this cool "DungeunMaze Blanket" to match the shower curtain already in my house (already owned, thanks to John O'Neill for the lead). 

Furniture of the future:At least three vendors were present with RPG games that play atop horizontal monitors.Several fancy game table manufacturers were present too. I was most enticed by Wyrmwood's offerings. 

GenCon_2021 Dean Man's Cribbage Unboxing

This is part of a set of posts summarizing my GenCon 2021 experience:

Overview of Gen Con 2021Gaming Hall & Paintingin lieu of the Writer's SymposiumDeadman's Cribbage Unboxing  <-- You are Here_______________________________________________________________Dead Man's Cribbage Unboxing  

This showcases the Dead Man's Cribbage game by unboxing it. Learn more about the game at: http://www.deadmanscribbage.com/ 

"Traditional Cribbage with role-playing elements, narrative design, board, and miniatures! Just pick a role (ID card) representing a face-card from the suits: Hero, Villain, Skunk, or Deadman...then play Cribbage. Choose a peg that matches your character/colored-suit. After counting your hand as normal, just obey the card for bonus pegging. Your bonuses depend on your character state (healthy or infected). These vary by character." 

Unboxing presented at the Cincinnati Arsenal Gaming table in the GenCon 2021 Game Hall. Learn more about CAG: https://513cag.com/ 
Virtual version available via the Tabletop Simulator (hosted by Steam, Link) 

Books For Beverage Program

Buy a book that I published or have a short story in...then ping me to meet up... and then receive a complimentary beverage (coffee, tea, beer, etc.).  That's the Books-For-Beverage program.
Dick Ward has been the best at this. Always fun to meet up with friends and fans.  Appreciate his support over the years. 

Sublime, Cruel Beauty, Interview with Jason Ray Carney

This interview appears in Black Gate (9/9/2021):

SUBLIME, CRUEL BEAUTY: AN INTERVIEW WITH JASON RAY CARNEY

Jason Ray Carney (aka Ayolo)

Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy FictionIt is not intuitive to seek beauty in art deemed grotesque/weird, but most authors who produce horror/fantasy actually are usually (a) serious about their craft, and (b) driven by strange muses. To help reveal divine mysteries passed through artists, this interview series engages contemporary authors on the theme of “Art & Beauty in Weird/Fantasy Fiction.” Recent guests on Black Gate  have included Darrell Schweitzer, Sebastian Jones, Charles Gramlich, Anna Smith Spark, & Carol Berg. See the full list of interviews at the end of this post. 
This one features Jason Ray Carney who is rapidly becoming everpresent across Weird Fiction and Sword & Sorcery communities (in fact you can probably corner him in the Whetstone S&S Tavern (hosted on Discord)). By day, he is a Lecturer in Popular Literature at Christopher Newport University. He is the author of the academic book, Weird Tales of Modernity (McFarland), and the fantasy anthology, Rakefire and Other Stories (Pulp Hero Press, reviewed on Black Gate). He recently edited Savage Scrolls: Thrilling Tales of Sword and Sorcery  for Pulp Hero Press and is an editor at The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies , for Whetstone: Amateur Magazine of Sword and Sorcery and for Witch House Magazine: Amateur Magazine of Cosmic Horror. Incidentally, Jason Ray Carney has also contributed here at Black Gate with a post on Robert E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn character and musings on How Sword & Sorcery Brings Us Life.
Well, as I interview you for (from?) Black Gate, I feel it obligatory to corner you about your feeling about 'Black Gates,' in particular the one mentioned in “Trigon,” a new story released in Rakefire. You seem to cast a dark light on my place of employment, even set watchers upon it. The collection indicates that black fluids are evil (whether it’s ichor or cosmic ooze). Explain:

The thrall-messenger breathlessly pleaded his case, told the council his terrible tale: high in hubris, the Sorcerer Peroptoma of Dis-Penethor, Duke of Chius, seeking secrets in the stars, had opened a Black Gate, one he could not close, and now shadows poured through it, like black blood from a wound, ravening with hunger for human flesh…. Perhaps we of Gate Watch have no right to the hope we enjoy. And yet—as I gaze upon the glimmering triangle of Cajuls wrought of my impotent war trophy, a promise of Gate Watch’s future, I cannot help but recall the words of the poet: “Destruction intensifies the process that is beauty.

Colors can be pregnant with meaning. Toni Morrison, for example, wrote a whole book about whiteness and literary history: Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1992).
To your question: blackness, I think, is often associated with the night. In prehistoric and premodern times, the blackness of night probably indicated that one was away from fire, the safety of hearth and tribe. So, is it fair to say that black evokes feelings of anonymity, vulnerability, and sublimity? I think so. Gates and thresholds are also pregnant with meaning. Consider the literary symbolism of the threshold, the “holiest of holies.” It is a dangerous interzone. If you cross the threshold without permission, woe to you! So, Black (beat) Gate (beat), is a profoundly rich concept! It engages us deeply. Among other things, it suggests a threshold into anonymity and darkness.
With “Trigon,” I wasn’t (consciously) thinking of this wonderful website. But, truth be told, I have been reading Black Gate for years. Did I unconsciously cite this site? Maybe I did. The idea of a threshold that has to be guarded, a dangerous point of exchange that opens to another world of horror is so fascinating. Also fascinating is the trope of vigilant soldiers set to guard it. Regarding the ubiquity of black fluids: (nerd allusion alert): have you seen Fifth Element (1997)? There is a disturbing scene where the warmonger, Zorg, is having a conversation with a cosmic entity, and the entity somehow extracts a black ooze from Zorg’s “third eye”? Who can forget that scene? In 1997, I was a Freshman in high school. All of my D&D campaigns from that point forward featured black ooze as a kind of physical essence of evil. It shows up in my fiction too. 
 
Screenshot from the Fifth Element
Can you explain this comment from the “Trigon” narrator: “Destruction intensifies the process that is beauty”? 
 “Destruction intensifies the process that is beauty” is a paraphrase of a line from a Clark Ashton Smith poem. I will not tip my hand. It might be fun for others to track down! But I find the concept so true. One of the disturbing realizations I had as a young child was that when someone is dying you see them in a vivid way that ordinary, normal life does not allow.
As a young child, someone very close to me developed a cancer. This otherwise vital and energetic person started to lose their hair, lose weight, linger in bed; they stopped joking, they stopped laughing, they stopped moving even. As the cancer was destroying them, they were all I could think about. I remember seeing this person in their hospital bed with their eyes closed hooked up to all of the machines, and thinking to myself how much I loved them, that in their suffering this was the first time I had really seen who they were. Who they really were. 
A sad feature of our life is that we become habituated to beauty. We get used to it. It becomes invisible. But when beauty is slowly destroyed, incrementally, we see it again. It’s a cruel thing. Being Deprived of Beauty Feels CruelSticking with Rakefire, the cover depicts the witch from the first story named Mera the Cruelly Beautiful (representing the story “The Ink of the Slime Lord”). So we have a trend: beauty is cruel and destructive. Heck, in your tome Weird Tales of Modernity, Chapter Eight is literally titled “Cthulhu is beautiful.” Please clarify what Beauty is?
Edmund Burke wrote an essay titled, “A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful” (1757), and he contrasts beauty with the sublime. The sublime, for Burke, is something that is in excess of any merely human categories we mentally project onto the world to organize it, to understand it, to know it, and to manipulate it. So, for Burke, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes, and the vastness of the starry night sky are sublime, because they resist intellectual domestication and reject our human forms (and literally so in the case of natural disasters that destroy cities). Sublime things make us feel small, threatened, and anonymous. To use a wonderful Lovecraftian phrase, the sublime makes us feel “lost in time and space.” 
The beautiful, for Burke, does the opposite. The beautiful, by way of contract, affirms us and celebrates our humanity and importance. Beautiful things remind us that we are always at home in the human world and accepted. Beautiful things are like a spouse with open arms, a mother tucking in her child at night, a cozy cabin with a smoking chimney next to a stream in the woods. For Burke, the beautiful renders the world as a human creche.
To summarize: the sublime makes us feel small and anonymous; the beautiful makes us feel important, like a swaddled child or beloved spouse. So, what is cruel beauty? That’s a hard one. Cruel beauty is a beauty that keeps you at arm’s length. Mera allegorizes that to me. Cthulhu does too. Mera affirms us. I imagine Mera as knee-shakingly attractive, but she is so beautiful that she makes those who view her feel ugly, unwanted, and unworthy.
I argue that Cthulhu is beautiful in my academic book because Cthulhu confirms a conspiracy, a scientific investigation if you will: clues, data, information, and reports are collated, and the narrator of the story, Thurston (who never actually sees Cthulhu), domesticates the enigma. Cthulhu isn’t sublime, to the extent that our intelligence cannot grasp him (it); Cthulhu is beautiful. Thurston solves the mystery. “The Call of Cthulhu” is a glorious affirmation of the power of the human intellect to pierce the deepest mysteries of the cosmos! Cthulhu is beautiful! 
Do you consider any of your art beautiful? Does it scare you?
This is a hard one for me. If I hew to Burke’s vision of beauty, then I do not think I am trying to write beautiful stories. Instead, I am trying to write sublime ones. Modernity, to use Max Weber’s phrase, has “disenchanted” the world. So, a lot of what we lack in our modern lives is enchantment, mystery, a sense of the sublime. So, I think one of the main utilities of art today is to make the world strange again, to restore some of the mystery, to remind us that we are self-aware ephemeral formations of matter held in strange stasis and lost in a void. I try to do that. 
Does my work scare me? I am little ashamed of it sometimes. I realize it is awkward. It is highly theorized. It is pretentious and deliberately artful, while at the same time is participates in a pulp tradition, which is supposed to be unpretentious, just for fun, and entertaining. I know it’s weird. I write mostly as a labor of love. I am lucky to not have to rely on writing as an income stream, so I can write whatever the hell I want. Many people have told me that “One Less Hand for the Shaping of Things” made them cry. So, I’m inclined to say that story might be beautiful. 
What is this concept of Modernity, and why did it haunt/inspire you to write a thesis on it? 
Modernity is one of those concepts with a rich intellectual history, and people spill a lot of ink over it, but it is not very complicated (in my opinion): sometimes around the 1780s, the world changed. Feudalism gave way to democracy. New technologies upset how human economies and cities were organized. Religious belief waned and changed. We stopped believing (for the most part) in the supernatural. Let me cite Max Weber again: with modernity, the world became “disenchanted.” This, of course, is only part of the story. Though this story is myopic in its Eurocentrism, it is not less valid for its narrow purview. The story of modernization outside of Europe can be told, but it will be different, with maze-like branching conversations that posit multiple “modernities.” Anyway, modernity really intrigues me.
Humans have not always lived this way, seen the world this way. For the majority of our species’ history, we have been “premodern.” One of the key features of the individual experience of modernity is a shift in the way we experience time. Arguably, the premodern experience can be distinguished by an understanding of time as cyclical. In the premodern world, things do not change forever. Instead, they cycle from one state to another state and back to the original state.
With modernity, after the French Revolution, the Industrial Revolution, the Digital Revolution, and so forth, it feels like there is no going back. We humans are thrust into a new frontier forever. Shorn of superfluities, I find being modern tragic and fascinating. We are all coping with this being modern. It is very psychologically and spiritually difficult to be modern, to be uncertain about the future.
We are mammals. We have evolved to worry and to struggle to inoculate ourselves from change. Change is threatening. I think a lot of art -- science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror -- responds to this new modern consciousness of never-ending change and absolute uncertainty.

  Summoning the Unseen & ModernityI was reading a collection of Clark Ashton Smith and came across his “The Hunters From Beyond” where he explicitly calls out Baudelaire (the weird poet who coined the term “Modernity”). The story rivals HPL’s “Pickman’s Model” for focusing on accessing and documenting the unseeable, but I was floored that weird writers appear fascinated with “modernity”. Can you summon the unseen? Why do you think he called out Baudelaire? Are you inspired to do the same?

I wanted to do in sculpture what Poe and Lovecraft and Baudelaire did for literature, what Rops and Goya did in pictorial art. That was what led me into the occult, when I realized my limitations. I knew that I had to see the dwellers of the invisible worlds before I could depict them…I longed for this power of vision and representation more than anything else. And then, all at once, I found that I had the power of summoning the unseen…” -- Philip Hastane (character) CAS 1932 "Hunters from Beyond

That’s a great find! Baudelaire wrote an essay, “The Painter of Modern Life” (1863), where he defends what was a trend in the modern art of his day for painters to eschew the classical themes of premodernity for a focus on modern things like cafes, busy Parisian streets, the newest sartorial fashions, etc. . Baudelaire has a famous quote from this essay:

Modernity is the transient, the fleeting, the contingent; it is one half of art, the other being the eternal and the immovable.

Academic artists of his time liked to paint motifs from Ancient Greece, Rome, and mythology; other artists were painting other fleeting and contingent things. Baudelaire asserted that eternity and novelty are worthy of artistic treatment. Clark Ashton Smith is interesting to bring into this conversation. When Clark Ashton Smith started writing poetry, the major trend was “Modernism.”
Let me generalize a bit: when CAS was a young poet, fashionable poetry -- championed by poets like Harriett Monroe, Ezra Pound, and T.S. Eliot -- repudiated classical forms. It was called “Modernist” in the sense that it championed the modern, was an advocate or partisan for the modern.
CAS (and HPL) lamented this myopic focus on the modern. Could it be that to them the classical, the mythical, the recurring was figured as a kind of unseen or “occult”? Perhaps. Anyway, in the postwar period, there was a new buzzword, “postmodern,” and this refers to a kind of art that is less concerned with the old “classical/modern” debate and more concerned with the autonomy of the artistic enterprise, the way art is not a reflection of the world but how art has the potential to transform the world.
In other words, postmodern art is less about capturing the essence of the classical/eternal and/or the essence of the modern (i.e. reflecting the world as is), but is instead interested in transforming the world. Architecture is an essential art form for postmodernists because, unlike a painting or a poem, an edifice can literally create a kind of world we can lose ourselves in.
Think, for example, of those postmodern “cathedrals” in Vegas. I am imagining the spectacle of the Luxor or the Excalibur Casino. Or, what about something like Disney Land? These are postmodern because they are less about reflecting the world and more about creating a new world. That is what I am trying to do with my work. Postmodern literature is a thing.
Any suggestions on how writers can make weird/alien/unseeable stories accessible to readers? By definition, it seems a paradox. 
Let me answer this briefly and follow with an elaboration: strange language.
Now for elaboration: I am a big fan of strange language: older, technical, esoteric, and liturgical language. George Orwell wrote an essay about the plain style titled, “Politics and the English Language.” In that essay, he argues against complexity in language. I love Orwell but I disagree with that argument. I think a demand for a “plain style” is a demand for a mind to be juvenile and unimaginative.
The range, mutability, and elasticity of our thoughts are directly related to the diversity of words at our disposal. We think with language. With more language at hand, we think in deeper, more complex ways.
One of my favorite prose stylists is a literary critic-slash-mystic named Walter Benjamin (1892-1940). Benjamin’s writing has an almost ritual magic dimension to it. To read certain passages of Benjamin is to jettison basic foundations of genre. We wonder what we are reading. Is this philosophy? Mysticism? Poetry? Reading Benjamin is to have a spell cast over you. Consider this brief passage from an essay he wrote about the philosophy of history:

The only historian capable of fanning the spark of hope in the past is the one who is firmly convinced that even the dead will not be safe from the enemy if he is victorious.

How strange. This could be lifted straight from the Necronomicon. But, if we subvocalize the text slowly, read it at the speed of exhalation hospitably, we might find a jewel-like insight: historians need to deploy radical compassion if they are to give people hope about the future; if we gaze into the past and only see enemies and failures who deserve contempt, how are we ever going to “fan the spark of hope,” i.e. give people a vision for something new?
I recently got a great review of my academic book (Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts), but one of the criticisms was that I rely too much on academic jargon. I can only quote Shakespeare in response to that: “Out, damned spot!” The reviewer’s critique was fair. I confess that one of my weaknesses as a writer is I am not skilled at audience modulation.
My wife says I sometimes “talk over” people, or that I have conversations with myself. When I’m feeling defensive I assert that I do not feel a “dumb down” what I say. It sometimes seems that modern-day mass media assumes people are dumb. I hate it. We are all smarter than we realize. I love my strange and exotic language. I legitimately think using it, discoursing with it, is cognitively good for us. Complex language short circuits people’s habituated uptake of words. In other words, it makes them think. 
Sword and sorcery writers like CAS, Fritz Leiber, and Jack Vance deploy bizarre and strange language. Gary Gygax did the same in his manuals (my vocabulary was leveled up from reading AD&D manuals). Bizarre language creates a unique aesthetic effect. Whatever world the language is rendering becomes bizarre, weird, and therefore enthralling. To circle back: I believe we can only “see” a tiny sliver of the world, and strange language widens the aperture of what is perceivable.
You address Clark Ashton Smith’s Artistic Form in Chapter #4 of Weird Tales of Modernity. Please comment on the differences between CAS weird-S&S vs. REH’s writing styles, and how cadence can be employed to affect beauty or horror?

My own conscious ideal has been to delude the reader into accepting an impossibility, or series of impossibilities, by means of a sort of verbal black magic, in the achievement of which I make use of prose-rhythm, metaphor, simile, tone-color, counter-point, and other stylistic resources, like a sort of incantation. – CAS 1930 (letter to HPL)

Howard’s sword and sorcery writing, to generalize, is more visceral and concrete, a kind of aestheticized violence not unlike the acoustic violence of metal music; CAS’s writing is more lyrical and evocative, dream-like and, by analogy, comparable to the trancelike tones and beats of Dungeonsynth music. Howard does something unique in his visceral rendering of violence: he pulls the reader into a raw, fleshy, organic world of the profane and shatters the verity of that world by bringing in a supernatural menace.It’s very much a combat-like move: Howard lures you into the real only to surprise you by a haymaker of unreality.
CAS does something different. If Howard’s prose can be allegorized as a form of artful violence, CAS’s fiction can be allegorized as a narcotic. You smoke up some CAS and wait for it to affect you.
For example, “The City of the Singing Flame” is a psychedelic trip. It’s so beautiful, so grotesque, a vivid singularity of experience. Like the hypnotized wanderers who are drawn to the city of the singing flame, we are enthralled by the protean, flamelike forms of CAS’s writing, and, enthralled, throw ourselves -- for good or ill -- into those worlds. I think both CAS and REH are masters of fantasy. 
You have a splendid chapter in Modernity called “The Failure of Clark Ashton Smith.” Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft are arguably more popular a hundred years after their publications, but they also addressed “Modernity”. Can you shed light on how contemporary and past audiences consume weird beauty? 
When I refer to the failure of Clark Ashton Smith, I am referring to a “beautiful failure.” CAS set out to be a modernist poet. He was rejected by the editors who curated modern poetry, and cast out of the garden, if you will. Later, when he was contacted by HPL, it seemed that the possibility that he would be a celebrated contemporary poet was nil, so he turned to writing pulp fantasy, horror, and science fiction as a way to make money. So, somewhat flippantly, I view the work CAS did after he made contact with Weird Tales as a manifestation of his failure as a contemporary poet.
Regarding the second part of this question: I teach popular literature, hang out with young people, know their interests, and so I speculate about weird readers with what I think is a modicum of legitimacy, but I also acknowledge 100% that my following unpopular opinion is merely a speculative claim: I think that today’s young readers of the unreal genres (sci-fi, fantasy, and supernatural horror) are too grounded in reality. To paraphrase William Wordsworth, “The World Is Too Much with Them.” There is a big distinction that I want to clarify: literary works reflect the world that produces them and literary works illuminate the worlds that produce them.M.H. Abrams, a literary critic of Romanticism I cherish, uses the metaphor of “the mirror and the lamp” to clarify this useful distinction. Some artworks are mirrors, like Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, in that they hold up a mirror to reality and reflect its accurately for distanced contemplation; other artworks are lamps, in that they paint their illuminating light onto the world and thereby change the way we see it.
How does this apply to audiences of weird beauty today? I think we are in a “mirror” era and we need a new “lamp” era. I dare say that the worlds rendered by writers of the unreal -- science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror -- are not the actual world. That is important. There never was a Hyborian Age. The Necronomicon cannot be checked out from the library. Even more: the unreality of unreal worlds is really their core strength.
My understanding of new audiences is that they bring a 24-hour-news-cycle mindset to their reading. It’s as if readers and writers have a tiny microphone bead in their ears whispering to them about current events as they set down to read and write about the unreal. I think we need to least significantly turn down the volume of that bead (but not turn it off).
(Disclaimer: I am not in any way saying the writers of the unreal shouldn’t treat the real in their work; I am just suggesting that a major strength -- if not the strength of the unreal genres -- is their ability to adopt a pose of autonomy from the real!). Other Dark Arts CAS was a poet, illustrator, and sculptor; many others interviewed on this topic of “Beauty in Weird Fantasy” have other artistic talents beyond writing. Do you practice other arts (necromancy counts)? If so, can we share them (i.e., images of fine or graphic art) or mp3s (of music)? If not, which artists/pieces inspire you to write?
I draw a lot, but I am not very good! I paint Warhammer miniatures. (For Sigmar! The Emperor!) One of my favorite styles of art today is high contrast black and white ink drawings. Perhaps the favorite contemporary artist is a Cleveland-based gig poster artist named Jake Kelly whose work clearly demonstrates that he is a high-level sorcerer or warlock. Check out his work. It is sublime!
Love Retrosynth music. Mitch Hunt makes gorgeous compositions. His song, “A Perfect Life,” gives me goosebumps. It is so gorgeous. I often listen to Mitch Hunt when I write. There is an animator, Morgan King, who created a short film, Exordium, in Rotoscope style. I think King is a visionary. If I could do anything as powerful as Exordium in literary form, I would count myself a success.
I cannot resist citing the sword and sorcery writers who inspire me: everyone should read David C. Smith, Charles Saunders, Howard Andrew Jones, Scott Oden, John Fultz, and Schuyler Hernstrom. They are modern masters. Art vs. the ArtistWhat are your thoughts about an artist and their work -- how separate are they? Is there a character you most identify with? “Given this quote from One Less Hand for the Shaping of Things,” I predict Ayolo may be one. If so, do you prefer your study over alien lands?

[Ayolo’s] thoughts wandered to his wife Shemira and Chamberlain Brocoshio, who had, with clever arguments, convinced him to organize his caravan to the south… If he had any virtue as a merchant, it was due to his shrewdness. He was no swordsman or adventurer and was fully aware of the dangers that plagued the roads through Yizdra. Instead of sublime beauty of alien lands, he’d much prefer the ordinariness of his study, reading correspondence or tabulating accounts by candlelight; or better yet, the poetry of Thees…

Yes, I am Ayolo! Guilty as charged. My wife had a health scare and it threw me into a deep philosophical and existential mood. I remember looking at her (hopefully I wasn’t experiencing some sort of micro-stroke) imagining her as a fluid form. We see other people, our loved ones, and their faces seem static, carved in stone; but, the reality of metabolism and aging reminds us that from a certain temporal perspective, we are not static forms but fluid forms. We are all melting.
When someone you love is struck with a disease or a health problem, the cosmos reminds you of that in a rude way. With Ayolo, I also wanted to try to throw a normal, weak, bookish sort of person (like myself) into a Sword and Sorcery scenario. Finally, I cherished playing a druid in a long D&D campaign who had forsaken his life as a merchant to venerate nature; Ayolo’s story was his origin story.
As far as general ideas concerning the art and the artist, I defer to T.S. Eliot and his excellent essay, “Tradition and the Individual Talent.” Eliot writes, “No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for contrast and comparison, among the dead.” In other words, I believe artists are in their work, but their works are also the exuda of traditions. If JRC is in Rakefire, I hope REH, CAS, HPL, Leiber, Vance, Anderson, Moorcock, Zelazny, Smith, and Saunders (and Gygax!) are in there too.
Any future works you can share? Where do your muses plan to take you?
I am working on getting Witch House (released as this post was prepared), Whetstone 3 (also releasing), The Dark Man 12.2 done, and I have several other academic projects marinating. I am also looking forward to the consummation of a long dramatic project, an opera adaptation of Elise Wiesel’s sublime The Trial of God, for which I wrote the libretto adaptation. That is being premiered in November. This will be my first time seeing something dramatic I wrote (adapted?) for the stage on such a grand scale. I want to write a sword and sorcery novel, but I am really struggling to find the time! Interview List Regarding #Weird Beauty on Black Gate Darrel Schweitzer THE BEAUTY IN HORROR AND SADNESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH DARRELL SCHWEITZER 2018 Sebastian Jones  THE BEAUTY IN LIFE AND DEATH: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEBASTIAN JONES 2018 Charles Gramlich THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE REPELLENT: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES A. GRAMLICH   2019 Anna Smith Spark  DISGUST AND DESIRE: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA SMITH SPARK  2019 Carol Berg  ACCESSIBLE DARK FANTASY: AN INTERVIEW WITH CAROL BERG 2019 Byron Leavitt GOD, DARKNESS, & WONDER: AN INTERVIEW WITH BYRON LEAVITT 2021 Philip Emery  THE AESTHETICS OF SWORD & SORCERY: AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP EMERY  2021 C. Dean Andersson  DEAN ANDERSSON TRIBUTE INTERVIEW AND TOUR GUIDE OF HEL: BLOODSONG AND FREEDOM! (2021 repost of 2014) interviews prior 2018 (i.e., with John R. Fultz, Janet E. Morris, Richard Lee Byers, Aliya Whitely …and many more) are on S.E. Lindberg's website  S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He is also the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group. As for crafting stories, he has contributed five entries across  Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series and has an entry in the forthcoming Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies.  He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction;  short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery online magazines.

Queen of the Martian Catacombs - Review by SE

Queen of the Martian Catacombs by Leigh Brackett

S.E. rating: 5 of 5 stars

Many Sword & Sorcery readers also adore Leigh Brackett. To date, I had only read The Sword of Rhiannon which I enjoyed. As part of a group read in the GR S&S group I'm reading more.

Brackett was a prolific writer, notable known for writing part of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (Episode V). In the Queen of the Martian Catacombs, written in 1949 (~30 yrs prior Star War) you can see some overtones. "Eric John Stark" is the hunky rogue, a mercenary for hire with a heart---clearly a Han Solo figure. Women adore him, in this case, a princess causing rebellion Berild (Leia?).

The romance is heavy-handed, but the action and scenery are expertly paced. There is a ton of information provided with just the right amount of words. Even though Stark is the awesome hero you'll still feel that he is in peril, and will even feel for the characters he forms relationships with.

At ~25K words, this is more of a novelette than a novel. It is available online via the Gutenberg project, but I enjoyed the paperback; the edition I read was illustrated well.

To boot, there are splendid descriptions that are stunning (bold font is mine).

Excerpt 1:

But Berild had gone a few steps farther. With a hoarse cry, she bent over what had seemed merely a slab of stone fallen from the cliff, and Stark saw that it was a carven pillar, half buried. Now he was able to make out the mounded shape of a ruin, of which only the foundations and a few broken columns were left.

For a long while Berild stood by the pillar, her eyes closed. Stark got the uncanny feeling that she was visualizing the place as it had been, though the wall must have been dust a thousand years ago. Presently she moved. He followed her, and it was strange to see her, on the naked sand, treading the arbitrary patterns of vanished corridors.

Excerpt 2)

Stark saw it rising against the morning sky--a city of gold and marble, high on an island of rose-red coral laid bare by the vanished sea. Sinharat, the Ever-Living.

Yet it had died. As he came closer to it, plodding slowly through the sand, he saw that the place was no more than a beautiful corpse, the lovely towers broken, the roofless palaces open to the sky. Whatever life Kynon and his armies might have foisted upon Sinharat was no more than the fleeting passage of ants across the perfect bones of the dead.

This is great stuff! I'm on to Black Amazon of Mars next.

View all my reviews

A Sorcerer of Atlantis by John ShirleyS.E. rating: 4 of ...

 A Sorcerer of Atlantis by John Shirley

S.E. rating: 4 of 5 stars

Entertaining Pulp Adventure by Veteran Author

A Sorcerer of Atlantis: with A Prince in the Kingdom of Ghosts has two key parts: (1) A three-chapter novel called "A Sorcerer in Atlantis" that has been released in doses over the years, and (b) the lost-world trip : "A Prince in the Kingdom of Ghosts", which despite its second billing, I enjoyed more.

First let's cover the author. To do that, I'll borrow from Douglas Draa who edited the 2020 release of Weirdbook #42: Special John Shirley Issue (~11 stories, including bits of those in this collection). Here's how Draa introduced John Shirley (who has written with several pen names):

“Seriously, Mr. Shirley is the recipient of multiple Bram Stoker and Locus Awards. He has won the International Horror Guild Award twice (along with 6 nominations). He has written two albums for Blue Oyster Cult, the original draft for The Crow, and been nominated for an Emmy for his work on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Oh! And he’s also scripted for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine!” – Douglass Draa Intro to WeirdBook #42

A Sorcerer of Atlantis Publication History. This three-chapter novel has been published piecemeal. If you are looking for more Snoori and Brimm stories, they will probably be coming, but understand that the previous incarnations are essentially duplicated.

1) Jul 4, 2017, Swords Against Darkness, edited by Paula Guran
    I. The Swords of Her Heart (by John Balestra)

1+2) Feb 26, 2020, Weirdbook #42: Special John Shirley Issue contains an entry called "Swords of Atlantis" which is really:
    I. The Swords of Her Heart
    II. Swords for the King

1+2+3) Jun 15, 2021, A Sorcerer of Atlantis: with A Prince in the Kingdom of Ghosts. With few changes, like the renaming of the Poseidon priest 'Mestor' to 'Nestor', we get a new chapter plus the previous two:
    I. The Swords of Her Heart
    II. Swords for the King
    III. The Destiny of Atlantis


Without spoiling, the ending hints at another adventure set in Latina, Roma. That makes sense, since that would build on the strengths of this light-hearted read (focused on Atlantis to this point). The core milieu builds on tensions between Greek and Roman myths/history, namely between the sea-god Poseidon and the fire-appreciating Vulcanus. The call-outs to Roman and Greek gods are usually interesting (minotaurs, necropolises, volcano tubes under Atlantis) but are sometimes heavy-handed (Romulus and Remus make an unnecessary cameo).

The key strength is the fun environments, battle, and varied creatures. My favorites were the "Uncertain" demon trapped inside the Cold Heart of Jupiter and the demon "Zirrish." Expect lots of crypt walking and speaking with ghosts. That said, A Sorcerer of Atlantis is more comedic than immersive. The protagonist is Brimm the Savant, who is not only a suave barbarian but a competent magician. He’s both warrior (with his piercer sword) and mage so he can summon demons to do his bidding (like kill his enemies) if he can remember the spells. There is plenty of grand fights, but you’ll never feel like Brimm is actually in danger. Snoori is his foil, a compatriot who has a knack for escalating trouble. Romance is over-the-top melodromatic, with two royal women Selinn and Maitha fawning over Brimm. The first chapter reads like Fritz Leiber's Lankhmar series, with a fun duo fighting Lovecraftian horrors with swords & magic. The later chapters introduce a bunch of characters and enlarged the party such that it assumes more of an epic fantasy feel (classic S&S focuses on one hero).

Conflict? Brimm and Snoori are ostensibly after gold or honor (or something to pass the time). Thanks to Snoori's brilliant ideas, and Brimm going along with them, they are really causing troubles and then trying to fix them. Yep, most of their actions are damage control. Ultimately, Brimm's journey is really a coming-of-age story of a wanderlust dude who learns that he desires to protect others (Atlantis). It all starts with Cleito, and her presence and power extend through all three chapters.

And there, in an old palace [in Atlantis], awaits the beauteous Cleito, a princess who has offered ten bushels of gold to any ten men who will become the Swords of her Heart: the champions who will destroy a minor demon.” - Chapter 1

A Prince in the Kingdom of Ghosts:This entry is not Sword & Sorcery, but it is pulpy adventure that likely will satisfy the same readers. The light-hearted tone of Shirley pervades this story too. The protagonist Kerrin lives in contemporary times as a gem cutter, but is suddenly drug to a different world, one that promises to reveal the mystery of his father's sudden death (which happened when Kerrin was a teen). Kerrin's plight is more interesting than Brimm, and the weird descriptions a tad weirder (and more impactful) than the Atlantis adventure (which had decent settings actually). Anyway, here's two excerpts of the experience:

1) Kerrin looked over his shoulder at the palace... The gardens encircling the palace were varicolored, with enormous purple blossoms and vines with butter yellow blooms; then came a stand of trees with jade-like foliage. Along the edges of the avenue were nodding, diaphanous growths, some fifty feet high; translucent and drooping, their branches subtly moved of their own volition like the arms of sleepy Hawaiian dancers, slowly shifting gigantic translucent leaves. Light from the sparkling moon refracted by the broad lens-like leaves shattered into primary colors that fluxed with secretive dynamism. It made Kerrin think of an effect from light striking an inclusion deep within a polished diamond. As the phaeton trundled along, the light from the growths served as streetlamps, illuminating the road and an exquisitely serene pond of orange night-blooming waterlilies and golden lotuses, coming up on their left. The bordering lilies were artfully counterbalanced by swans, now easing toward their nests in the reeds. A small herd of deer cropped grass along the farther shore of the pond. Kerrin felt called, summoned by the light softly pulsing in the limpid water; by the living serenity of the place. He wanted to leave the phaeton and go to the pond, to sit in contemplation of it.

2) Illuminated by shafts of red light coming through the translucent stone at the peak of Bald Mountain was a squirming aggregation of ghosts. Specters in various stages of incarnation struggled like hundreds of white moths caught in transparent glue. They were fixed in a kind aspic of decaying caro spiritus—the source of the rancid odor underlying the smell of dead bats. Nearly three hundred spirits seemed entombed at Kerrin’s feet, in a putrefied melding of souls. Their faces were contorted with anguish, lined with misery, pinched by fear; their mouths were open in endless outcry. There were spirit countenances that had been Caucasian, African, Asian, Latino, Middle Eastern, all united by a cruel compression, a crushing constraint within their bonds. Kerrin could make out rag-ends of arms and legs, but not a complete body in the lot. Most of the fragmented ghosts were groaning, wailing, calling out in various languages for assistance.

View all my reviews

Sept-Oct Groupreads - Brackett and Andersson

 

The Swords & Sorcery Group on Goodreads

This announces our next two month group reads. All are welcome to join us:

Sept-Oct Groupreads
A) Leigh Brackett - link to discussion, focus on the Skaith series
B) C. Dean Andersson - link to discussion, memorial tribute focus on Hel


Banner Credits
"The Reavers of Skaith" cover art by Chris Achilleos 1985 (Leigh Brackett)
"Hounds of Skaith" cover art by James Ryman 2008 (Leigh Brackett)
"Warrior Witch of Hel" cover art by Boris Vallejo 1985 (C.Dean Andersson writing as Asa Drake)

Exalted Blasphemies - Fan Made Expansion for Deep Madness Boardgame

This is a portal page to a variety of other posts, all regarding my immersion into the Depp Madness universe. Phil Blake, an (the?) uber fan of Deep Madness (Diemension Games), painter of miniatures, and game addict had a vision: make playable scenarios for all the epic monsters" from the Kickstarter Campaign who did not get a proper one. 

For those not familiar, Kickstarter enables Diemension Games to crowdfund a cosmic-horror dungeon crawler; extra monsters (i.e. bosses) were designed as miniatures as stretch goals (bonuses). However, so many Epic Monsters were funded, they were birthed without scenarios to play them. Of course, the bosses could be inserted into existing scenarios, but they did get specific scenarios designed for them!

Phil Blake championed the fan community to get a team together, and I played a small part: writing intro stories for two Epic Monsters scenarios to fill the gap. Many others helped Phil Blake, and he has been gracious in communicating thanks to all. This post reveals how to access the entire expansion. My stories can be read in the other two posts revealed today:

Exalted Blasphemies Fan-Made Expansion for Deep Madness <-- You  are here
Hunger Pains (for Omega Ravenous Epic Monster) Story
Dimension Sickness (for Dimension Rift Epic Monster) Story
Deep Madness - Scenario Guide, Interview & Book ReviewAs it turns out, I have already worked with Phil Blake to create the Deep Madness scenario guide (Scenario Guides version 8, link): How many scenarios are there across all the official expansions? Where does one start? How does the story develop...and which ones feature your favorite epic monster? The guide has it all.
Alas, my OCD extended further in the past. I had already cornered Deep Madness writer Byron Leavitt for a Black Gate magazine interview.  This goes into his creative process, his cancer challenges, and his work with the Diemension Games team. Also, I reviewed his Deep Madness inspired novel Shattered Seas.

Here's how to access and print the entire Exalted Blasphemies ExpansionI'm simply reposting the instructions Phil Blake came up with. Generally, if you are a fan of the game (or plan to become one) you are invited to join the Deep Madness Fans on Facebook ... and secondarily the Board Game Geek community. In both places, you'll find all the scenario guides and expansions. 

Just want to print a PDF yourself at home? Grab the PDF here: 

Facebook File Link to Expansion Info BGG Link to Expansion Info
Want to print a hardcover via Lulu?  Follow Phil's instructions :

Interior Art for Lulu Printing  /  Cover for Lulu Printing

This is the Interior content of Exalted Blasphemies, designed for use for professional printing in hardback. You will also require the separate cover file that can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DeepMadnessFans/permalink/4338224872867510 Instructions on how to get it professionally printed are found further below: Exalted Blasphemies is a fan-made expansion for Deep Madness, focussed around granting specific scenarios for the Epic monsters that where available as paid add-ons during the KS campaigns. I hope people in turn get more life out of these epic monsters and enjoy the selection of diverse scenarios and stories contained within this free expansion, and the greatest reward would be seeing photos of people playing the scenarios or commenting on the stories. Hardcover Printing Instructions for LuluSince this is a free, fan-made book, I am not morally or legally allowed to set up a print on demand distribution. Which means you will need to set up an account with a print on demand company and upload files for printing (for personal use only). The directions I list below are for the company Lulu, but you are free to use any print on demand company you choose. Go to lulu.com and create an account.2. Under the CREATE tab, click the PRINT BOOKS option.3. Click the button START YOUR PRINT BOOK4. Enter your login credentials5. In the START YOUR PROJECT section, choose PRINT BOOK6. In the SELECT YOUR GOAL section, choose PRINT YOUR BOOK. (Do NOT select Publish your book for sale on Amazon. You will get sued. )7. In the BOOK DETAILS section, enter a project title of your choice. I recommend Exalted Blasphemies. Enter a language and CATEGORY, which is required.8.Click the DESIGN YOUR PROJECT button at the bottom of the page to proceed to the Design page9. In the INTERIOR FILE UPLOAD section, upload the file named "Exalted Blasphemies Interior Final PDF" 10. Wait for the file to upload and normalize. This can take a few minutes. Be patient and get yourself a cold beverage.11. When the upload finishes, you will see some warnings. Like most warnings in life, feel free to ignore these.In the BOOK SPECIFICATIONS section, the BOOK SIZE AND PAGE COUNT should already be pre-filled at US letter and 34 pages, respectively.12. In the INTERIOR COLOR section, choose COLOR PREMIUM for the best quality color.13.In the PAPER TYPE section, choose 80# COATED WHITE for the best paper quality.14. In the BOOK BINDING section, choose HARDCOVER. Feel free to choose a different binding if that floats your boat.15. In the COVER FINISH section, choose GLOSSY or MATTE, your choice. 16. Wait a moment for the PRINT COST to load. For me it was almost £12. This is a printing fee for Lulu, and I do not receive a penny of this, nor does Diemension Games. 17.In the DESIGN YOUR COVER section, make sure the UPLOAD COVER FILE option is selected.Upload the file named "Cover Exalted Blasphemies PDF"After a minute, the PREVIEW will load. This preview will give you a basic idea of what the book will be like, but it is just a preview and not super-high quality. (note the final picture of Forsaken does not show on the preview but will still print.)18.When you are ready, click the REVIEW BOOK link at the bottom.19.This brings you to a page where you can review the final specifications. Click the checkbox next to CONFIRM BOOK SPECIFICATIONS AND FILES20.Click the ADD TO CART button when it becomes enabled21.Click the CART icon at the top of the page and make the purchase. The shipping for me was around £3.50, but of course that will vary depending where you are located. (Also keep an eye out for discount codes on the home page.)22. Feel free to print a copy for yourself or your friends, but DO NOT PRINT COPIES FOR SALE.Note: The hardback book you receive from Lulu will not be perfect. There might be alignment issues with the binding, scratches, the interior margins might be tight, and the endsheets will be a boring white. That being said, it will still kick ass!A massive thanks goes to Fabio Faletti for his many, many hours (and so many edits) to make this document as graphically pleasing as possible. Just don't mention the Forsaken. Seth Lindberg and Saamm Dean Dean for contributing their artistic talent to provide additional stories and share that burden as well as additional proof reading.Oscar Bok and Mark Turner for their time in playtesting these horrific scenarios to make sure things played smoothly, made sense and asking all those great questions.and also to Byron Leavitt and the rest of the DM team for generally providing support, sharing files and keeping the community engaged.lastly credit to Ken Meyri whom paved the way in organising fan made content to be professionally printed, and whose instructions to achieve this I shamelessly stole.

Exalted Blashphemies - Fan Made Expansion for Deep Madness Boardgame

This is a portal page to a variety of other posts, all regarding my immersion into the Depp Madness universe. Phil Blake, an (the?) uber fan of Deep Madness (Diemension Games), painter of miniatures, and game addict had a vision: make playable scenarios for all the epic monsters" from the Kickstarter Campaign who did not get a proper one. 

For those not familiar, Kickstarter enables Diemension Games to crowdfund a cosmic-horror dungeon crawler; extra monsters (i.e. bosses) were designed as miniatures as stretch goals (bonuses). However, so many Epic Monsters were funded, they were birthed without scenarios to play them. Of course, the bosses could be inserted into existing scenarios, but they did get specific scenarios designed for them!

Phil Blake championed the fan community to get a team together, and I played a small part: writing intro stories for two Epic Monsters scenarios to fill the gap. Many others helped Phil Blake, and he has been gracious in communicating thanks to all. This post reveals how to access the entire expansion. My stories can be read in the other two posts revealed today:

Exalted Blasphemies Fan-Made Expansion for Deep Madness <-- You  are here
Hunger Pains (for Omega Ravenous Epic Monster) Story
Dimension Sickness (for Dimension Rift Epic Monster) Story
Deep Madness - Scenario Guide, Interview & Book ReviewAs it turns out, I have already worked with Phil Blake to create the Deep Madness scenario guide (Scenario Guides version 8, link): How many scenarios are there across all the official expansions? Where does one start? How does the story develop...and which ones feature your favorite epic monster? The guide has it all.
Alas, my OCD extended further in the past. I had already cornered Deep Madness writer Byron Leavitt for a Black Gate magazine interview.  This goes into his creative process, his cancer challenges, and his work with the Diemension Games team. Also, I reviewed his Deep Madness inspired novel Shattered Seas.

Here's how to access and print the entire Exalted Blasphemies ExpansionI'm simply reposting the instructions Phil Blake came up with. Generally, if you are a fan of the game (or plan to become one) you are invited to join the Deep Madness Fans on Facebook ... and secondarily the Board Game Geek community. In both places, you'll find all the scenario guides and expansions. 

Just want to print a PDF yourself at home? Grab the PDF here: 

Facebook File Link to Expansion Info BGG Link to Expansion Info
Want to print a hardcover via Lulu?  Follow Phil's instructions :

Interior Art for Lulu Printing  /  Cover for Lulu Printing

This is the Interior content of Exalted Blasphemies, designed for use for professional printing in hardback. You will also require the separate cover file that can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/DeepMadnessFans/permalink/4338224872867510 Instructions on how to get it professionally printed are found further below: Exalted Blasphemies is a fan-made expansion for Deep Madness, focussed around granting specific scenarios for the Epic monsters that where available as paid add-ons during the KS campaigns. I hope people in turn get more life out of these epic monsters and enjoy the selection of diverse scenarios and stories contained within this free expansion, and the greatest reward would be seeing photos of people playing the scenarios or commenting on the stories. Hardcover Printing Instructions for LuluSince this is a free, fan-made book, I am not morally or legally allowed to set up a print on demand distribution. Which means you will need to set up an account with a print on demand company and upload files for printing (for personal use only). The directions I list below are for the company Lulu, but you are free to use any print on demand company you choose. Go to lulu.com and create an account.2. Under the CREATE tab, click the PRINT BOOKS option.3. Click the button START YOUR PRINT BOOK4. Enter your login credentials5. In the START YOUR PROJECT section, choose PRINT BOOK6. In the SELECT YOUR GOAL section, choose PRINT YOUR BOOK. (Do NOT select Publish your book for sale on Amazon. You will get sued. )7. In the BOOK DETAILS section, enter a project title of your choice. I recommend Exalted Blasphemies. Enter a language and CATEGORY, which is required.8.Click the DESIGN YOUR PROJECT button at the bottom of the page to proceed to the Design page9. In the INTERIOR FILE UPLOAD section, upload the file named "Exalted Blasphemies Interior Final PDF" 10. Wait for the file to upload and normalize. This can take a few minutes. Be patient and get yourself a cold beverage.11. When the upload finishes, you will see some warnings. Like most warnings in life, feel free to ignore these.In the BOOK SPECIFICATIONS section, the BOOK SIZE AND PAGE COUNT should already be pre-filled at US letter and 34 pages, respectively.12. In the INTERIOR COLOR section, choose COLOR PREMIUM for the best quality color.13.In the PAPER TYPE section, choose 80# COATED WHITE for the best paper quality.14. In the BOOK BINDING section, choose HARDCOVER. Feel free to choose a different binding if that floats your boat.15. In the COVER FINISH section, choose GLOSSY or MATTE, your choice. 16. Wait a moment for the PRINT COST to load. For me it was almost £12. This is a printing fee for Lulu, and I do not receive a penny of this, nor does Diemension Games. 17.In the DESIGN YOUR COVER section, make sure the UPLOAD COVER FILE option is selected.Upload the file named "Cover Exalted Blasphemies PDF"After a minute, the PREVIEW will load. This preview will give you a basic idea of what the book will be like, but it is just a preview and not super-high quality. (note the final picture of Forsaken does not show on the preview but will still print.)18.When you are ready, click the REVIEW BOOK link at the bottom.19.This brings you to a page where you can review the final specifications. Click the checkbox next to CONFIRM BOOK SPECIFICATIONS AND FILES20.Click the ADD TO CART button when it becomes enabled21.Click the CART icon at the top of the page and make the purchase. The shipping for me was around £3.50, but of course that will vary depending where you are located. (Also keep an eye out for discount codes on the home page.)22. Feel free to print a copy for yourself or your friends, but DO NOT PRINT COPIES FOR SALE.Note: The hardback book you receive from Lulu will not be perfect. There might be alignment issues with the binding, scratches, the interior margins might be tight, and the endsheets will be a boring white. That being said, it will still kick ass!A massive thanks goes to Fabio Faletti for his many, many hours (and so many edits) to make this document as graphically pleasing as possible. Just don't mention the Forsaken. Seth Lindberg and Saamm Dean Dean for contributing their artistic talent to provide additional stories and share that burden as well as additional proof reading.Oscar Bok and Mark Turner for their time in playtesting these horrific scenarios to make sure things played smoothly, made sense and asking all those great questions.and also to Byron Leavitt and the rest of the DM team for generally providing support, sharing files and keeping the community engaged.lastly credit to Ken Meyri whom paved the way in organising fan made content to be professionally printed, and whose instructions to achieve this I shamelessly stole.