S.E. Lindberg's Blog, page 6
June 25, 2024
Lord of a Shattered Land and The Doom of Odin: Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden deliver high-octane, anti-Roman Adventure
I just finished two Euro-Mediterranean-inspired fantasy novels, and, bychance, both feature dragons on their beautiful covers. This post showcasesboth. Scott Oden's The Doom of Oden wraps up a trilogy (GrimnirSeries) and Howard Andrew Jones' Lord of a Shattered Land beginsa five-book series (Hanuvar Chronicles). Each offer anti-Romanmyths/legends, Oden's Grimnir overtly calls out Rome (and then introduces loadsof Nordic fantasy) and HAJ's Hanuvar's primary antagonist is the Dervan Empire(obviously inspired by the Roman Empire). In the spirit of Robert E. Howard'sConan, who roamed the Euro-Mediterranan continue of Hyboria, these bothcontinue a tradition with a unique flair. These series are not to be missed!
Both are veteran authors with respect for history and historical fiction(HAJ is known for his Harold Lamb series editing and Odenfor his bibliography that includes The White Lion, The Lion ofCairo, Men of Bronze, and Memnon). Here they write sagasabout veteran protagonists. Don't expect coming-of-age stories or epic fantasy,five-character parties either. These provide the classic Sword & Sorceryapproach: the protagonists may have sidekicks, but they operate primarily ontheir own, and they are already equipped with experience/skills/power frompage-one. So the pace is fast and focused.
Both Lord of a Shattered Land and The Doom ofOdin blend history with fantasy but each provides significant doses ofmyth/sorcery, so these are not alternate history novels. Eachprotagonist is motivated by their respective family too: HAJ's Hanuvar ishuman, and since he is a displaced general managing to survive as his societyis destroyed by Derva (Rome), he operates like a secret agent going roguebehind enemy lines to rescue other stragglers and family members. Oden'sGrimnir is inhuman, more of a manifestation of Beowulf's Grendel's kin, andwhereas the first two books had Grimnir apart from his estranged family, thislast installment showcases loads of family drama (i.e., think family reunion onthe scale of Ragnarok, aka, the end of the world, with Rome hosting part of thepicnic).
This post providesbrief reviews, book blurbs, and excerpts. Read on and battle Rome and ancientGods!
Hanuvar is a fictionalized general (an incarnation of Hannibal ofCarthage) who tangles with the Roman-like Dervani who have invaded hishomeland. Expect espionage thriller sorties, gladiator battles, andsorcery-saturated climaxes in each chapter to balance all the melee. Lord ofa Shattered Land (Aug 2023) kicks off a 5 book series from Baen, followedby City of Marble and Blood (Oct 2023), and Shadow of theSmoking Mountain (Oct 2024), (#4 and #5 to be revealed later).
Hanuvar is Conan possessed by James Bond!Lord of a Shattered Land Cover Blurb
When their walls were breached at last, the people of Volanus foughtblock by block, house by house, until most fell with sword in hand. Less than athousand survivors were led away in chains.
The city’s treasuries were looted, its temples defiled, and then, to satetheir emperor’s thirst for vengeance, the mages of the Dervan Empire cursedVolanus and sowed its fields with salt. They committed only one error: thegreatest Volani general yet lived.
Against the might of a vast empire, Hanuvar had only an aging sword arm,a lifetime of wisdom… and the greatest military mind in the world, set upon asingle goal. No matter where they’d been sent, from the festering capital tothe furthest outpost of the Dervan Empire, Hanuvar would find his people. Everylast one of them. And he would set them free.
Worst of all, a magical attack had left Hanuvar with a lingering cursethat might change him forever, or lead him to an early grave…
Lord of a Shattered features fourteen episodes chronicling Hanuvar'sundercover investigations and travels. The settings and delivery arereminiscent of Richard L Tierney's Simon of Gitta (Black Gate review) whowas posed as an enemy of sorcerous Rome (the character Simon was looselymodeled after the biblical magus, and was motivated by vengeance.) Hanuvar is driven more to save his people than to cause further harm, butbloodshed follows him everywhere. HAJ's delivery is splendidly smooth, whether he is describing body horror or humorous situations--at times evoking Leiber's Lanhmar ambiance. Youlikely have seen some of his stories, since seven of the fourteenepisodes/chapters were published in similar form by reappearing here withslight editing to close out a story arc:
“The Way of Serpents,” first published in the Goodman Games Gen Con 2016 Program Guide and then reprinted in Issue "zero" of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, 2018. “Crypt of Stars,” printed in Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Issue 1, 2018. “The Second Death of Hanuvar,” printed in Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Issue 3, 2019. “A Stone’s Throw,” printed in Heroic Fiction Quarterly #40, 2019. “Course of Blood,” printed in the anthology Galactic Stew. “From the Darkness Beneath” in Terra Incognita “Shroud of Feathers” appeared in issue 6 of Tales From the Magician’s Skull.Excerpt: Vivid, clever,James-Bond-Like Melee
"His opponents were spread out, and while the circumstance was farfrom ideal, it might not get better. Hanuvar dashed from the brush and slammedthe antlered man’s head with his spear haft. This knocked his foe’s deer-hoodaskew and set him reeling drunkenly. Hanuvar closed and struck him across thethroat with the heel of his hand.
Antler-head sank to his knees, gasping for breath.
Hanuvar grasped his cheeks, pushed the severed finger through his teeth,and clamped the man’s jaw shut. “Swallow,” he ordered into his ear, the spearblade against his neck.
The man’s throat moved, he pushed at Hanuvar’s arm with shakingfingers . . . then swallowed as the spear blade pricked him."
Excerpt: Weird, Sorcerous,X-Files-Like Predicaments
"Arcella lay there, at least what was left of her. Her dress hadbeen rent down the front, and her skinless, hairless body lay wet andglistening, the lidless eyes rendered enormous. Unlike the other bodies, herinternal organs still lay in their places. The reek was overwhelming.
Even Hanuvar was stunned by the scene, for he could think of no ordinarymeans by which the woman could have screamed and then been rendered skinless inthe scant moment since they had raced to find her."
The City of Marble and Blood (already out) continues Hanuvar'sgrand adventures!
Ymir’s balls! Oden's trilogy comes to an end. This was initiated with A Gatheringof Ravens (reviewed by Flecther Vredenburgh on Black Gate)to be followed by Twilight ofthe Gods. Read those first to become a cheerleader ofGrimnir. The milieu is reminiscent of Poul Anderson’s VikingAge The Broken Sword, being full of Dane’s and Celtic faeries andNorse myths. Oden's style is more readable than that classic, but is stillsaturated with just the right amount of call-outs to geographies and history toblur the lines between fantasy and history. This is no historical fantasy, butthe foundation of history is so well played the fantasy feels “real.” Equallybalanced are the sorceries of Celtic witches, Norse deities, and Christianbeliefs. All supernatural “sides” of faith conflict here. All are presented as real,though some are being superseded. So who is the orc protagonistemployed by Scott Oden to redeem the Orc culture? He is Grimnir...Grendel’sbrother, as named by some. The lady Étaín, a servant of the Christian God, theNailed One, and unlikely companion of him describes him:
“He is called Grimnir… the last of his kind, one of the kaunar—known toyour people as fomóraig, to mine as orcnéas, and to the Northmen as skrælingar.In the time I’ve known him, he has been ever a fomenter of trouble, a murderer,and as cruel a bastard… I can vouch neither for his honesty nor his morals, ashe is bereft of both. And while he did kidnap me, threaten me with death, mockmy faith, and expose me to the hates of a forgotten world, he also saved mylife …” from A Gathering of RavensGrimnir is a monstrous, brutal bastard!
His name suits him since he might as well becarrying a flagstaff with the contemporary “Grimdark subgenre” splayed upon it.Yet his predicament and motivations are as compelling as any vigilante hero.How best to end the series other than (a) meeting Grimnir's estranged family[i.e., the paternal Bálegyr] while (b) ushering in Ragnarok? This lastinstallment takes us to mindbending travel between ancient Rome andNastrond/Yggdrasil (i.e. Nordic Otherworlds that Oden can explain better thanme). Granted Rome is only part of the landscape here; readers should expectmore time in the Nordic realms.
The Doom of Odin: A Novel (GrimnirSeries Book 3) Blurb:
To the Danes, he is skraelingr; to the English, he is orcnéas;to the Irish, he is fomoraig. He is Corpse-maker and Life-quencher,the Bringer of Night, the Son of the Wolf and Brother of the Serpent. He isGrimnir, and he is the last of his kind—the last in a long line of monsters whohave plagued humanity since the Elder Days.
Drawn from his lair by a thirst for vengeance against the Dane who slewhis brother, Grimnir emerges into a world that’s changed. A new faith hasarisen. The Old Ways are dying, and their followers retreating into theshadows; even still, Grimnir’s vengeance cannot be denied.
Taking a young Christian hostage to be his guide, Grimnir embarks on ajourney that takes him from the hinterlands of Denmark, where the wisdom of theancient dwarves has given way to madness, to the war-torn heart of southernEngland, where the spirits of the land make violence on one another. And thenceto the green shores of Ireland and the Viking stronghold of Dubhlinn, where hisenemy awaits.
But, unless Grimnir can set aside his hatreds, his dream of retributionwill come to nothing. For Dubhlinn is set to be the site of a reckoning—the OldWays versus the New—and Grimnir, the last of his kind left to plague mankind,must choose: stand with the Christian King of Ireland and see his vengeancedone or stand against him and see it slip away?
Grimdark Battles Infused with NorseMythology
Excerpt 1:
Grimnir hacked slivers from the skrælingr’s club; over his shoulder, hesaw the shuffling kaunr—that straight-legged bastard with a beard like tarryweeds—moving into his blind side. Snarling, Grimnir deflected another blow fromthe skrælingr’s knotty club, then drove the hilt of his long-seax into theidiot’s teeth. Once. Twice. Blood spurted from the wreckage of his nose andmouth. A third blow snapped the skrælingr’s head back. The club slipped fromhis nerveless fingers. A fourth crushing blow sent him crumpling to the groundwith a broken neck.
Excerpt 2:
Grimnir never let him finish...With a serpentine hiss, the son of Bálegyrsnapped his arm forward, driving the blade of his spear into the point of thekaunr’s bearded chin. His drawn breath, meant for the boastful recitation ofhis deeds, turned into a death-rattle as the spearhead plowed through bone andteeth; it cut through the muscle of his tongue and the soft flesh of hispalate, splitting his face from jaw to brow. Blood spewed from the spear-cleftruin.
June 8, 2024
Milton Davis - Meeting a Role Model
I have a mission to meet the authors my stories share anthologies with ("selfie" tag), and for Perseid Presses' Heroika and Heroes in Hell Series, I've cornered a bunch in Chicago, Indianapolis, New Orlean, Norman OK, and now Atlanta! Beth Patterson, Charles Gramlich, Joe Bonadonna, Jack William Finley, Tom Barzcak ... and now Milton Davis!
Just ran into one of my inspirational role models for writing and publishing Milton Davis (in this case, I was in Atlanta for an American Chemical Society Green Chemistry convention...which is cool because Milton has been a formulation chemist for decades).Grateful to chat about storytelling and chemistry. Grabbed an extra signature for Changa and the Heroika Dragon Eater anthology (we both have a story in that) and on Eda Blessed II, which I was honored to provide a cover blurb for. Thanks for your time, Milton!
Blurb on the back cover for Eda Blessed 2:
"Omari Ket is a rogue warrior, not a spy, but he is as suave, cunning, and as lethal as any Secret Agent Man. ‘Agency’ is a term for the capacity of a character to act independently, and Omari is an Agency onto himself: he reports to no one. Omari is a ladies’ man in a dog-eat-dog world. If you like a cut-throat, libertine, action-oriented protagonist, then you are ‘Eda Blessed.’"Milton and I share a few table-of-contents too:Terra Incognita: Lost Worlds of Fantasy and Adventure (more info on my blog )Heroika: Skirmishers (read more on the blog post)
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May 26, 2024
Horror and Beauty in Edgar Rice Burrough's Work: An Interview with Robert Allen Lupton
Simulcast on BLACKGATE.com: HORROR AND BEAUTY IN EDGAR RICE BURROUGH’S WORK: AN INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT ALLEN LUPTON
We have an ongoing series at Black Gate on the topic of “Beauty in Weird Fiction” where we corner an author and query them about their muses and methods to make ‘repulsive things' become ‘attractive to readers.’ Previous subjects have included Darrell Schweitzer, Anna Smith Spark, Carol Berg, C.S. Friedman, John R. Fultz, and John C. Hocking (whose Conan and the Living Plague novel is finally due out this June 2024, so you should read that too to get psyched). Anyway, see the full list of interviews at the end of this post.
This interview focuses on the legendary Edgar Rice Burroughs and an aficionado of his work, Robert Allen Lupton. The latter has published an amazing 2000 articles on www.erbzine.com, the Official Edgar Rice Burroughs Tribute and Weekly Webzine Site. Robert Allen Lupton is also a writer of 200 short stories, four novels, and six collections of adventure fiction, so this forum serves as a great opportunity to learn about past and present storytelling with a touch of horror in it.
1. Tell us about your fascination for Edgar Rice Burrough's works.RAL: My father had a collection of Big Little Books, several of which were Tarzan stories. My mother had about 30 OZ books. I found both to be fascinating. I didn’t know there were Edgar Rice Burroughs novels at the time. I only knew about the films, the Jesse Marsh illustrated comic books, and those old Big Little Books. One day I found a paperback version of The Chessmen of Mars on a spinner rack in a drug store. I bought it and read it that day. I bought three more the next day. That first paperback grew into a collection of several thousand items. Burroughs, who was also a newspaper columnist and a war correspondent, wrote stories of good and evil, love and betrayal, and adventure. His heroes were heroes, his women were beautiful and brave, and his villains were villains. There was no confusion. For those who don’t know, Tarzan of the novels is a well-educated English Lord who speaks several languages. He’s not the monosyllabic creature of the movies.
RAL: Almost everything Burroughs wrote contained horror. The aforementioned Chessmen has creatures called Kaldanes, which are gigantic heads with spider legs and no bodies. They can control minds. ERB’s The Monster Men is a tale about a scientist who is creating the “perfect warrior” by blending humans and animals into new creatures. What could possibly go wrong?
The Moon Maid contains centaur-like creatures from the moon, the Kalkars, who dine on human flesh.
The Mastermind of Mars is the tale of a scientist who can move human brains from one body to another. The same scientist later grows undying, but poorly formed humanoids in vats. The Land That Time Forgot gives us winged creatures who prey upon human women.
Every Tarzan book has elements of horror that range from the pedestrian (being eaten by a lion), to the exotic (a tribe that butchers young women for organs to brew a portion of eternal life).
However, Ed never wrote about traditional vampires, but some stories contain blood drinkers. He covered most of the other horror bases in one story or another, but if you’d have asked him, he claimed that he wrote scientific romances, not horror. Joe Jusko illustration.
RAL: Burroughs's approach to wonder in his stories was to present the fantastic as if it were commonplace. He describes the wonders of Mars, the jungles of Pellucidar, and the dangers of Venus in detail, but he doesn’t gush about it. He describes the tailed humans and the dinosaurs that occupy the lost land of Pal-ul-don directly and succulently. The reader finds the ‘wonder’ in the novels to be believable because of their almost casual presentation. The illustration below is by Burne Hogarth.
RAL: Several hundred artists have illustrated Edgar Rice Burroughs's characters in pulp magazines, books, comics, and newspapers. I’ll mention three of them. J. Allen St. John illustrated most of the Burroughs’ novels until Ed began publishing his own work. Ed was likely the most successful self-published author in history.
Burroughs’ nephew, Studley Oldham Burroughs illustrated four of the novels and his son, John Coleman Burroughs did the art for several more. John Coleman, a lieutenant during WW2 also drew a Sunday comic strip, John Carter of Mars. The strip had the bad luck to have its first page published on the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked.
RAL: I always considered the John Carter novels to be romantic adventures, not unlike the works of Raphael Sabatini (Captain Blood) and Baroness Orzy (The Scarlett Pimpernel.) As I said earlier, every Burroughs novel has a touch of horror. In the novels, Carter and his kin have to deal with cannibalistic tribes, mind control, body theft, artificial humanoids, false religions, giants, skeleton men, and I’m sure a lot of things I’ve left out. As for beauty, Carter’s Basoomian bride, Dejah Thoris, is always described as “The Incomparable Dejah Thoris,” as though the phrase were a single word. Their daughter, Tara of Helium, and their granddaughter, Llana of Gathol, are extremely beautiful. The combination of beauty and horror is almost a cliché – especially in Hollywood. King Kong’s It Was Beauty Killed the Beast, Dracula’s brides, his victims, and even The Attack of the Fifty-Foot Woman come to mind.
It seems as though horror is more horrifying when beauty is threatened. It goes the other way as well, would we enjoy Buffy, the Vampire Slayer as much if she was 50 years old and overweight with a skin condition? No sexism, weightism, or ageism intended, just asking the question.
6. What scares you? Is there any beauty in it?"The combination of beauty and horror is almost a cliché – especially in Hollywood. King Kong’s ‘It Was Beauty Killed the Beast,” Dracula’s brides, his victims, and even “The Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman” come to mind. It seems as though horror is more horrifying when beauty is threatened." - Robert Allen Lupton
RAL: One tough question. You never know what you’re really afraid of until you have to face it. It’s easy to talk about facing the lion when you’re safe at home. Facing fears is a way of life. I taught scuba diving, flew hot air balloons for 35 years, ran marathons, climbed mountains, and worked on water towers. I’ve performed on stage and participated in politics. Was I afraid, almost always, but fear is also caution. Someone smarter than me said that courage is understanding the danger and doing it anyway.
I said all of that to say this. Are those only compensation for fear? I don’t know. Maybe. Is there any beauty in the things I listed? You bet. Sunrise from 2000 feet in the air is beautiful, the sea creatures’ silent fight for survival on a coral reef is beautifully terrifying. The reaction or non-reaction by the audience to a line uttered on stage can be gratifying and terrifying at the same time.
What am I afraid of now? I can’t say old age, because I’m there and it isn’t nearly as bad as I expected. Is it being forgotten? Well, I’ll be dead and I won’t know, will I? I have friends who’ve suffered from illnesses that either left their mind working in a non-functioning body or a body working with a non-functioning mind. Both are terrifying and I don’t see any beauty in either one.
"Is there any beauty in the things I listed? You bet. Sunrise from 2000 feet in the air is beautiful, the sea creatures’ silent fight for survival on a coral reef is beautifully terrifying. The reaction or non-reaction by the audience to a line uttered on stage can be gratifying and terrifying at the same time." - Robert Allen Lupton
RAL: Well, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I rarely find the combination of beauty and horror repulsive. The cover of a recent anthology with one of my stories might be an exception. Here it is. One more, the cover of Uncommon Evil, by Fighting Monkey Press is alluring and repulsive at the same time. The book contains my short story, “Dark Cloud Over Ladysmith” – pure horror.
RAL: Never thought directly about that, but yes. I write a lot of females coming–of–age and facing the bad guy stories. There’s beauty in overcoming the obstacles and/or the monsters and winning. I started using female protagonists because I’d read that women buy more books, but I soon discovered that female characters were more interesting to write about. Robert E. Howard had some beautiful women characters. Right now, I enjoy novels by Patricia Briggs, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Kim Harrison, perfect examples of beauty and the beast, or sometimes beauty is the beast.
RAL: There are so many. I mentioned Sabatini and Orzy earlier. H. G. Wells and Jules Verne make the list. So do Robert E. Howard, Mark Twain, L. Frank Baum, John Sanford, Arthur Conan Doyle, Mike Resnick, Robert Heinlein, Stephen King, Anne McCaffrey, Bram Stoker, Philip Jose Farmer, and Frank Herbert. I never cared for anything by Lovecraft, but I enjoy Frank Belknap Long, August Derleth, Ramsey Campbell, and Clark Aston Smith.
10. Any current or future endeavors we can pitch?
RAL: Yes, my newest novelette was just released in paperback, hardcover, Ebook, and audio. “The Misadventures of Ssorak: An Alien Warlord on Earth”
SSarok conquered his own world, a world ruled by violence and strength, a world where might makes right, and bored with his success, traveled to Earth seeking new challenges and literally, a new world to conquer. All he knows about Earth is what he read in Shakespeare's play, but the world changed since the Bard wrote Hamlet. Ssarok hadn't counted a society of rules, media, fragmented governments, protest groups, and lawyers. Especially lawyers. A planet where you can't just kill people was a whole new world. And the money thing, that was different. Survival of the fittest may still apply, but how can you tell when the rules keep changing. He has to adapt or go home.
The next anthology, The Trouble with Time, is time-travel-themed. Submissions open on June 1, 2024. Send them to westmesapress@gmail.com . 3000 to 5000 words. No rape, no child abuse, and if you hurt any dogs, we’ll find out where you live and hunt you down.
My next short story collection, “In Restless Dreams,” is scheduled for October of this year. This cover is a work in progress.
Robert Allen Lupton
Robert Allen Lupton is retired and lives in New Mexico where he was a commercial hot air balloon pilot. Robert runs and writes every day, but not necessarily in that order. Over 200 of his short stories have been published in various anthologies, magazines, and online magazines. He has four novels in print, Foxborn, Dragonborn, Dejanna of the Double Star, and The Misadventures of Ssarok, An Alien Warlord on Earth. He’s edited three anthologies, Feral, It Takes a Forest, Are You A Robot?, and Witch Wizard Warlock. He has six short story collections, Running Into Trouble, Through A Wine Glass Darkly, Strong Spirits, Hello Darkness, Visons Softly Creeping, and The Marvin Chronicles. All eleven books are available from Amazon. Over 2000 of his Edgar Rice Burroughs-themed drabbles and articles are located on www.erbzine.com
Like or follow him on Facebook, Amazon, Author Blog, Twitter/X.
#Weird Beauty Interviews on Black GateDarrel Schweitzer THE BEAUTY IN HORROR AND SADNESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH DARRELL SCHWEITZER 2018Sebastian Jones THE BEAUTY IN LIFE AND DEATH: AN INTERVIEW WITH SEBASTIAN JONES 2018Charles Gramlich THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE REPELLENT: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHARLES A. GRAMLICH 2019Anna Smith Spark DISGUST AND DESIRE: AN INTERVIEW WITH ANNA SMITH SPARK 2019Carol Berg ACCESSIBLE DARK FANTASY: AN INTERVIEW WITH CAROL BERG 2019Byron Leavitt GOD, DARKNESS, & WONDER: AN INTERVIEW WITH BYRON LEAVITT 2021Philip Emery THE AESTHETICS OF SWORD & SORCERY: AN INTERVIEW WITH PHILIP EMERY 2021C. Dean Andersson DEAN ANDERSSON TRIBUTE INTERVIEW AND TOUR GUIDE OF HEL: BLOODSONG AND FREEDOM! (2021 repost of 2014)Jason Ray Carney SUBLIME, CRUEL BEAUTY: AN INTERVIEW WITH JASON RAY CARNEY (2021)Stephen Leigh IMMORTAL MUSE BY STEPHEN LEIGH: REVIEW, INTERVIEW, AND PRELUDE TO A SECRET CHAPTER (2021)John C. Hocking BEAUTIFUL PLAGUES: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN C. HOCKING (2022)Matt Stern BEAUTIFUL AND REPULSIVE BUTTERFLIES: AN INTERVIEW WITH M. STERN (2022)Joe Bonadonna MAKING WEIRD FICTION FUN: GRILLING DORGO THE DOWSER! 2022C.S. Friedman. BEAUTY AND NIGHTMARES ON ALIENS WORLDS: INTERVIEWING C. S. FRIEDMAN 2023John R Fultz BEAUTIFUL DARK WORLDS: AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN R. FULTZ (reboot of 2017 interview)John R Fultz, THE REVELATIONS OF ZANG BY JOHN R. FULTZ: READ THE FOREWORD AND INTERVIEW
(2023)Robert Allen Lupton (2024) You are here. 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 and an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I and Vol II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, and the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull.
May 11, 2024
2024 Gen Con Writers Symposium Programming - S.E. Schedule
2024 Gen Con Writers Symposium (GCWS) Programming (Aug 1-4) was just unveiled, so you can add events to your wishlist for purchasing (which opens Sunday May 19th). Check out the broader details on my last post and Black Gate.com (see the end of this post for key registration links for each track). The GCWS website has even more to offer.
This post focuses on my schedule:
Genre Panels with S.E.Writing the Beautiful Nasty Saturday 3:00 PM EDT
[this feeds into my BlackGate/com interview series on "Beauty in Weird/Horror Fiction"]. Join our panel of experts as they explore writing scary or repulsive matters in attractive and beautiful ways within the complex realms of horror. Featuring: S.E. Lindberg, Akis Linardos, C. S. E. Cooney, Jason Ray Carney, Jeri "Red" Shepherd
Sword & Sorcery for Contemporary Audiences Friday10:00 AM EDT
Join our panel of writers as they discuss Sword & Sorcery for a modern world: what does it look like, what could it look like, and what's out there to devour. Featuring: S.E. Lindberg, Dedren Snead, Howard Andrew Jones, Jason Ray Carney, Sarah Sharp
Pulp Fiction for Contemporary Audiences Friday 11:00 AM EDT
Join our panel of writers as they discuss pulp fiction for a modern world: what does it look like, what could it look like, and what's out there to devour. Featuring: S.E. Lindberg, Gini Koch, Howard Andrew Jones, Jason Ray Carney, Richard Lee Byers
Join our panel of authors as writer and host S.E. Lindberg asks each about the inspirations and challenges behind their new books, games, and works. This fun experience back from last year by request!
(Session A) Thurs 12:00 PM EDT Annye Driscoll (Maker Fishmeal), Briana Lawrence, Gini Koch
(Session B) Thursday 1:00 PM EDT J.D. Blackrose, Lyndsie Manusos,Chris A. Jackson
(Session C) Thursday2:00 PM EDT Howard Andrew Jones, J. B. Garner,Matt Forbeck
(Session D) Thursday3:00 PM EDT Karen Menzel, Dedren Snead, SarahHans
(Session E) Friday12:00 PM EDT E.D.E. Bell, Gregory A. Wilson,Jesse J. Holland
(Session F) Friday1:00 PM EDT Anthony W. Eichenlaub, BryanYoung, Jennifer Brozek
(Session G) Friday2:00 PM EDT Cat Rambo, Erin M. Evans, KwameMbalia
Writers' Symposium 2024 Programming
If you have already purchased your ticket to Gen Con, you can now select which events you would like to attend. Our Gen Con Writers’ Symposium events are designed for writers, but everyone is welcome, and we hope you will consider our events. The opportunity to hear the perspective of writers of games, roleplaying, books, multimedia – we think is core fandom. We are offering over 170 events, including ~80 free panels, ~60 classes (workshops), >20 signings, and special and interactive Events (like an open mic poetry event, a D&D session and Meet & Greet with the authors).
Download the Full Program in PDF here (link).
Interested in a specific topic? Sign up for them all, as many will fill up quickly! Prefiltered GenCon-Registration Links for each track (hashtags) are below:
#gcws – All our events
#writing – Nuts and bolts of the craft
#editing – Perspectives on editing work, designed for writers
#worldbuilding – Crafting the space for your words
#writerlife – About being a writer, as a person
#genre – Discussion on specific genres
#career – Managing business elements of writing over time
#videogames – Topics related to digital games
#tabletop – Topics related to tabletop gaming
#poetry – Topics related to speculative poetry
#visual – Graphic writing
#tech – Technical tools related to writing
#publishing – Topics related to publishing
#nonfiction – Topics related to nonfiction
#marketing – Promoting your work
#classroom – Instructor-led, classroom-type events
#event – Featured GCWS events
#qna – Question & Answer (Q&A) events
#signing – Signing opportunities
#interaction – Interactive opportunities
#experience – An immersive experience with writers
May 7, 2024
Gen Con Writers' Symposium 2024 Special Guests and Programming
Gen Con Writers' Symposium
This post announces our 2024 Special Guests and the reveals the Program. May 19th is the official registration day, but attendees can wishlist their events now!
Gen Con is the largest tabletop gaming convention in North America. In 2023, they welcomed over 70,000 unique visitors and offered over 19,000 events. By its nature, Gen Con attracts a large number of attendees who enjoy speculative fiction across formats. Gen Con 2024 will be held August 1-4 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Gen Con Writers’ Symposium is a semi-independent event hosted by Gen Con. It’s focused on writers of games and speculative fiction of all experience levels, but with as much fun and interest for gamers, readers, and fans. All registration is handled through the Gen Con website. In the past 28 years, the Writers’ Symposium has grown from a small set of panels over a day or two of the convention to one of the largest convention-hosted writing tracks in North America, offering hundreds of hours of programming from 70+ authors, editors, agents, and publishers to nearly 3000 unique visitors per year on average. We’ll be on the second floor of the Indianapolis Downtown Marriott (i.e., not the adjacent JW Marriott ). Head to our event at 350 W Maryland St, Indianapolis, IN 46225. The Black Gate Convention report for last year's symposium gives a good flavor of what to expect, and the planning committee's website at genconwriters.org has all the details.
Writers' Symposium 2024 Special GuestsThere are ~70 presenters and we have two special guests:
Linda D. Addison is the author of five award-winning collections, including How To Recognize A Demon Has Become Your Friend, recipient of the HWA Lifetime Achievement Award and SFPA Grand Master of Fantastic Poetry. Her site: www.LindaAddisonWriter.com
Mikki Kendall is the author of bestselling Hood Feminism, and Amazons, Abolitionists, and Activists, with A. D’Amico. She’s written for TIME, the New York Times, The Guardian, the Washington Post, Essence, Vogue, The Boston Globe, and NBC.
Writers' Symposium 2024 Programming
If you have already purchased your ticket to Gen Con, you can now select which events you would like to attend. Our Gen Con Writers’ Symposium events are designed for writers, but everyone is welcome, and we hope you will consider our events. The opportunity to hear the perspective of writers of games, roleplaying, books, multimedia – we think is core fandom. We are offering over 170 events, including ~80 free panels, ~60 classes (workshops), >20 signings, and special and interactive Events (like an open mic poetry event, a D&D session and Meet & Greet with the authors).
Download the Full Program in PDF here.
Interested in a specific topic? Sign up for them all, as many will fill up quickly! Prefiltered GenCon-Registration Links for each track is below:
#gcws – All our events
#writing – Nuts and bolts of the craft
#editing – Perspectives on editing work, designed for writers
#worldbuilding – Crafting the space for your words
#writerlife – About being a writer, as a person
#genre – Discussion on specific genres
#career – Managing business elements of writing over time
#videogames – Topics related to digital games
#tabletop – Topics related to tabletop gaming
#poetry – Topics related to speculative poetry
#visual – Graphic writing
#tech – Technical tools related to writing
#publishing – Topics related to publishing
#nonfiction – Topics related to nonfiction
#marketing – Promoting your work
#classroom – Instructor-led, classroom-type events
#event – Featured GCWS events
#qna – Question & Answer (Q&A) events
#signing – Signing opportunities
#interaction – Interactive opportunities
#experience – An immersive experience with writers
February 18, 2024
Lovers in Hell - Book Tour and Giveaway
**On Sale for Only $2.99 until the end of the month!** Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads
Lovers in Hell
A Heroes in Hell Anthology
by Janet Morris
Genre: Dark Fantasy Anthology
Only fools fall in love, and hell is filled with fools. Our damned lovers include: Christopher Marlowe and Will Shakespeare, Napoleon and Wellington, Orpheus and Eurydice, Hatshepsut and Senenmut, Abelard and Heloise, Helen and Penelope, Saint Teresa and Satan's Reaper, Madge Kendall and the Elephant Man, and more . . . -- all of whom pay a hellish price for indulging their affections.
Shakespeare said "To be wise and love exceeds man's might," and in Lovers in Hell, the damned in hell exceed all bounds as they search for their true loves, punish the perfidious, and avoid getting caught up in Satan's snares. In ten stories of misery and madness, hell's most loveless seek to slake the thirst that can never be quenched, and find true love amid the lies of ages.
Includes:
Never Doubt I Love – Janet Morris and Chris Morris
Love Interrupted – Nancy Asire
Lovers Sans Phalli – S. E. Lindberg
Fume of Sighs – Janet Morris and Chris Morris
Calamity – Michael E. Dellert
Love Triangle – Michael H. Hanson
A Hand of Four Queens – A. L. Butcher
Devil’s Trull – Andrew P. Weston
Withering Blights – Joe Bonadonna
Wrath of Love – Janet Morris and Chris Morris
Excerpt from Hell Gate – Andrew P. Weston
**On Sale for Only $2.99 until the end of the month!**
Amazon * Bookbub * Goodreads
February 17, 2024
Charles Gramlich of The Swords and Planet League highlights Dyscrasia Fiction
Author Charles Gramlich just posted a Dyscrasia Fiction highlight in the Facebook Group: The Swords & Planet League on Feb 17, 2024Link to post (click here)
One of the most unique voices working in Sword & Sorcery today is S. E. Lindberg. I met Seth a few years back and we’ve corresponded frequently as well as running into each other at such sites as Black Gate and Goodreads. Lindberg has put together a unique setting for what he calls “Dyscrasia Fiction.” Dyscrasia means “a bad mixture of liquids,” which is related to the Greek concept of the four “humors” of Blood, Phlegm, Black Bile, and Yellow Bile. In Dyscrasia fiction, these humors are sources of magical power and often soul and body corrupting influences.
The three novels available now are Lords of Dyscrasia (2011), Spawn of Dyscrasia (2014), and Helen’s Daimones (2017). Although Helen’s Daimones was the most recently published, Lindberg suggests new readers start with it since it sets the tone for the other books. Wherever you start, though, you’ll find a combination of beautiful language and powerful imagination. These works are hallucinogenic, dream-like, full of wraiths and apparitions—and sometimes horrors. Ideas and images pile one on top of another with an intensity that is far from common in fantasy literature. I admire the author’s ability to maintain that intensity throughout his works; his world-building never stumbles, and the result is a unique fantasy vision that rises to the level of art. A word about the covers for these books. The first was created by Lindberg himself, who also has other artistic skills in addition to writing. Spawn of Dyscrasia has an amazing cover by Ken Kelly, and Helen’s Daimones has a great cover by Daniel Landerman.There are also a number of short stories tied to the Dyscrasia setting. For more information, check out Seth’s webpage at: https://www.selindberg.com/p/about-s-e-lindberg.html or his facebook page https://www.facebook.com/DyscrasiaFictionFebruary 15, 2024
Gen Con 2024
The GenCon Writers' Symposium is getting ready for 2024 (click to go to the main website)
I'm on the committee, but not chairing as I did in 2023. The team just announced the guest list and special guests Linda D Addison and Mikki Kendall
Gen Con 2024 will be held August 1-4 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
We’ll be on the second floor of the Indianapolis Downtown Marriott (i.e., not the adjacent JW Marriott ). Head to our event at the Indianapolis Downtown Marriott @ 350 W Maryland St, Indianapolis, IN 46225.
The Gen Con Writers’ Symposium is a semi-independent event hosted by Gen Con and intended for both new and experienced writers of speculative fiction. All registration is handled through the Gen Con website.
February 12, 2024
WFC 2010 - Reflections on Convention Attendance and Networking
McKiernan was a draw for me to attend World Fantasy Convention 2010 in Columbus OH (I had seen him in WFC1996). Also, a draw for me was S.T. Joshi, writer of weird fiction and nonfiction. I tracked him down to sign a copy of Atheism; he was walking with Darrell Schweister in the vendor room. At that time I didn't know who Darrell was. It was years later when I learned to love his weird fiction (he eventually ran the programming for WFC 2016 and got me to moderate a few panels, and I interviewed him too in 2018)
I discovered Howard Andrew Jones here as he talked on a panel about Black Gate Magazine. He got me hooked on it, but it ironically was nearest the end of its print era. I got HAJ to sign a copy of Issue 15 2011 when I met him at GenCon 2017. HAJ encouraged me to get involved with the GenCon Writers Symposium (I volunteered since then, even chairing the event in 2023) and interned with HAJ's Tales from the Magician's Skull. Via GenCon and several connections with John O'Neil and HAJ, I took on an editing role at the Black Gate website in 2019.
John R. Fultz was there, but I didn't know him at the time. Fast forward to 2024 and I'd write a foreword to his re-release of The Revelations of Zang. Found some recordings of his panels (here)
At the time I was beginning to look for markets for my Dyscrasia Fiction worked. I was eyeing ChiZine Publications and EDGE -Tesseracts; the latter invited me to hear readings from their authors.
Michael Stackpole and Dennis L. McKiernan
S.T. Joshi 
EDGE and Tesseracts reading
February 11, 2024
WFC 1996 - Selfie with Dennis L. McKiernan
Reflecting on my first literary convention, the 1996 World Fantasy Convention.
I was able to have Dennis McKiernan sign my copy of The Dark Tide (Book #1 of the Iron Tower Trilogy). I'd get to meet him again in Columbus OH at the WFC 2010, where he spent a good portion of his life.
The Alan Lee covers really drew me into that series, as well as the Foul Folks, especially the Ghuls. I read that series before Toliens Lord of the Rings (which inspired McKiernan to write his work).
