S.E.’s Comments (group member since Nov 01, 2012)

S.E.’s comments from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.

Richard L. Tierney passed away this month. Let's read some Weird Detective occur or Red Sonja in his honor!

Tales From the Magician's Skull Blog Early Feb 2022 Round-Up

JAN 28 My Favorite Solomon Kane Tale: “Wings in the Night” by Robert E. Howard by Fletcher Vredenburgh
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...

“Wings in the Night” (1932), is one of Solomon Kane’s, Robert E. Howard’s swashbuckling Puritan, African adventures. In the face of darkness, he sees himself as Satan’s implacable foe. Kane’s a dour man, dedicated wholly to defeating evil and meting out justice. In two separate stories, he spends years hunting for the killers of innocents. A skilled swordsman, he has freebooted in the New World, suffered at the hand of the Inquisition, and fought vampires and cannibals in Africa. In this story, he battles great bat-winged, razor-taloned monsters.

This story is one of REH’s most visceral, and blood is spilled on every other page. Also, it’s one of my favorites. As it opens, Kane is fleeing from a band of cannibals when he discovers a devastated village and within it, a mutilated, yet still living man, tied to a stake. The village appears to have been attacked from above. One body hangs high up in a tree, impaled upon a branch. Continuing to evade his pursuers, he finds himself set upon by a winged creature with a manlike face.

FEB 4 Archiving the King’s Blade Champion: An interview with John C. Hocking by S.E. Lindberg
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...

John C. Hocking is a nigh-obsessed reader and writer of lurid pulp fictin, the author of Conan and the Emerald Lotus, “Black Starlight” serial, and their time-lost companion, Conan and the Living Plague, as well as an obedient thrall of Tales From the Magician’s Skull. Recently Black Gate reviewed John C. Hocking’s Conan Pastiche; then they cornered him to learn more about his pastiche and weird fiction muses in an interview. That post is a companion with this interview and we hope you’ll brave the Black Gate and check it out. Here we focus on Hocking’s original Archivist and King’s Blade series — now to the interview!


FEB 17 Adventures in Fiction: Andre Norton by Jim Wampler
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...

Famed fantasy and science fiction author Andre Norton was born on February 17, 1912. Join us, as we celebrate her birthday by taking a look at her works and their influences on both adventure gaming and genre fiction. Born as Alice Mary Norton in 1912, Norton started writing while she was still in high school in Cleveland, Ohio. In fact, she completed her first novel while still attending high school, though it was not published until later in 1938. Wishing to pursue writing as a career, in 1934 she had her name legally changed to Andre Alice Norton, and adopted several male-sounding pen names so as to prevent her gender from becoming an obstacle to sales in the first market she wrote for: young boys literature.

FEB 17 Adventures in Fiction: Margaret St. Clair by Michael Curtis
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...

Margaret St. Clair was born on February 17, 1911. Her work appears in Gary Gygax’s Appendix N, and is important for lending a crucial concept to the D&D game: the idea of dungeon levels. Here is Michael Curtis with more information on this important writer…

The titles and authors appearing on the Appendix N list are varied. Some are fantasy, others science fiction, and they range in time period from works contemporary to when Gygax was designing D&D to much earlier stories. While some of the Appendix N authors’ contribution to fantasy role-playing are obvious, not all lend themselves to easy discovery.

FEB 18 Ballantine Adult Fantasy: E.R. Eddison
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...

The success of The Lord of the Rings in paperback lead to a fantasy boom in publishing — and in particular a boom at Ballantine. In the wake of Tolkien’s success they turned to fellow English fantasist E.R. Eddison for more fiction in a similar vein, re-publishing both his landmark 1922 novel The Worm Ouroboros, but also the three books in his 1930s Zimiamvian Trilogy.

Joseph wrote: "Maybe it's actually book 1.25. Or 1.75."

It's kinda funny to ascribe some sort of timeline to Moorcock's writing. With his fun (but convoluted) Eternal Champion approach, he pretty much can weave any chronology he wants.

That's a good point... actually, there have been several compilations over the years, so when they claim this is book 1.5, I'm curious about which "books" they mean. Book "I" (Elric of Melnibone) has three sections called books.... and according to Wikipedia (internal chronology copy and pasted below), Fortress of the Pearl is already a "1.5" book.

(I) Elric of Melniboné (1972)
Book 1, Book 2, Book 3

The Fortress of the Pearl (1989)

(II) The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976)
Book One: "Sailing To the Future"

..... more in series....

Wherever "citadel" lands, I'm okay with it.... I preordered too.

The Citadel of Forgotten Myths

More Elric in ~1yr! (release date Dec 2022 or early 2023)


https://www.simonandschuster.com/book...

From Simon & Schuster:

Elric along with his companion Moonglum return, in this prequel set within the early days of Elric’s wanderings, in order to investigate the history of Melniboné and its dragons, known as the Phroon, in this exciting new addition to the Elric Saga from World Fantasy Lifetime Achievement Award winner Michael Moorcock.

Elric is the estranged emperor of the Melnibonéan empire, struggling with his nature while desperately striving to move forward with his dying empire alongside the constant thirst of his soul-sucking sword, Stormbringer. Elric is on the hunt for the great Citadel of Forgotten Myths while traveling through the remnants of his empire with his tragic best friend Moonglum, as Elric seeks the answers to the nature of the phroon of The Young Kingdoms. Taking place between the first and second book in the Elric Saga, The Citadel of Forgotten Myths is perfect for longtime fans and those new to this epic fantasy series.

From DMR Feb15-2022:

We just got another batch of copies of the hard to find illustrated novella by David C. Smith, Engor's Sword Arm. Usually when we get copies they sell out within the day. Maybe these will last longer... maybe they won't! You won't want to miss out on this. See the link below to order.
“The most dismal sword-and-sorcery tale ever written. Absolutely essential!” —Howie K. Bentley

https://dmrbooks.com/print-books/engo...

Devrim wrote: "Great interview ! Thank you Mr. Lindberg for creating this opportunity for us readers to get some insights about this particular Conan pastiche and also raising our situational awareness regarding ..."

Devrim, great feedback. Super cool you could find a copy of Emerald in Ankara!

The IP issue is a bit complicated, especially for novels. I am no expert. Funcom owns it all now. Fredrik Malmberg is the CEO of the Cabinet group under them (which seems to have been the point of contact over Perilous Worlds and Titan Books.... and now Heroic Signatures). So there has been some continuity behind the scenes.

Recently, the Monolith board game company made a Conan game with stories written by Matt John (one rogue of several from the Rogues in the House S&S podcast). That was a recent use of the Conan IP that seemed to go well. Of course, there is the current Marvel comics too.

Anyway, there is some hope the pastiche novels will come back.

I cornered John C. Hocking in an interview about Conan pastiche on Black Gate, and we teased some info. about the Living Plague as we discussed his writing & weird muses:
https://www.blackgate.com/2022/01/29/...

Also, a companion interview focusing on his Benhus and Archivist series posted on the Skull Blog:
https://goodman-games.com/blog/2022/0...

Clint's journey for getting an Amazon review cleared is killing me.

I just heard that Richard L. Tierney passed away Feb 1st. I added an option for a memorial group read.

Check out the poll:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/8...

Gilead wrote: "Hello from Gilbert Arizona which is just west of Mordor and north of Stygia. Barsoom is a couple hours drive to the west where you stop for gas and tacos on your way to California."

Wow...representatives from Dublin, Argentina, Kuwait, and Mordor!

Clint wrote: "@Seth. I received mine today. I’m bummed I decided not to continue with print copies, but costs must be cut, budgets met and all that."

The awesome layout and premium paper gives a nice experience... but it is costly too!

The release of Tales from the Magician's Skull #7 just started, currently to Kickstarter Backers who got links to the digital copies. Print copies coming soon.

Should not be long until it is available for everyone via goodman-games.com and DriveThruRPG.com.

welcome Spidrax. I trust this group will only grow your TBR pile.

Tales from the Magician's Skull Blog Roundup, mid to end-Jan 2022
BLOG = https://goodman-games.com/tftms/
Skull Champion of the Fifth Order, Bill Ward, continues to marshal his army of articles! Here is the latest headlines (linked) with blurbs:

JAN 26 Adventures in Fiction: Philip Jose Farmer by Jeff Goad
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Today we are celebrating the birthday of Philip José Farmer. While he isn’t around to celebrate this day with us, his books are still here inspiring writers and game designers as they have for decades past.
Farmer found early acclaim in the pulps, winning the Hugo in 1953 for Best New SF Author only a year after the publication of his first tale in Startling Stories. He continued writing for Startling Stories where his work would be found beside that of other Appendix N luminaries like Jack Vance and Fletcher Pratt. Other early works can be found in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, a publication that features a letter to the editor from Gary Gygax himself in the August 1963 issue.
Farmer’s first novel, The Green Odyssey, was published by Ballantine Books in 1957 and was the start of a prolific output of novels for Ballantine Books, Ace Paperbacks, and other publishing houses. He released 15 novels in the 1960s then topped that with another 23 in the 1970s!

JAN 25 Classic Covers: The Savage Sword of Conan
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
How do you skirt a restrictive comics code and make visual Conan stories with the requisite blood-pumping grittiness that is integral to Howard’s adventures? You make a magazine of course! Already popular in his initial comic book incarnation of Conan the Barbarian, Marvel introduced the more adult-oriented The Savage Sword of Conan in 1974, quickly achieving a wide circulation and, thanks to writer and editor Roy Thomas’ legendary first 60 issue run, eventual cult classic status. Savage Sword featured straight Howard adaptations, pastiche, and original stories, and included more than just Conan tales but adventures from other popular Howard characters such as Solomon Kane, Bran Mak Morn, and King Kull.

JAN 23 The Best Of The Conan Pastiche Novels by Howard Andrew Jones
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
If I didn’t love the writing of Robert E. Howard I would probably never have bothered with any Conan pastiche. As a matter of fact, those Conan novels on store shelves in the ’70s and ’80s made me so skeptical of Conan that I didn’t try Robert E. Howard’s fiction until years later. I wrongly assumed that because the series looked cheap and mass-produced that Howard’s writing would sound that way. (Robert E. Howard, of course, had nothing to do with the mass marketing of his character, having been dead for decades before that marketing was carried out by other hands.)
You can fit the sum total of all the Conan that Howard wrote (including some fragments and rejected stories) into one large hardback. That’s not a lot of fiction about such a great character, and so for decades, people have been trying to create new tales of adventure starring Conan, mostly because they wanted MORE!

JAN 22 Adventures in Fiction: Robert E. Howard
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
There may not be a more iconic character in fantasy—and particularly sword and sorcery—fiction than Conan the Barbarian. From his first appearance in Weird Tales back in 1932, the character has influenced how we see any iconic sword-wielding hero. And for that, we can thank Robert E. Howard.
Over the years a number of posts on our site have been focused on Mr. Howard and his impact not just on literature, but also on the world of role-playing games. All of those posts can be found under our Adventures in Fiction banner, but we want to give you direct links to a trio of our favorites, as well as the post included here. So, after reading below, be sure to go give a look at Films of High Adventure: Robert E. Howard, Real Life Adventures – The Robert E. Howard House, and Gen Con Videos, Part 1: Gaming in the Spirit of Robert E. Howard.

JAN 21 It Was a Dark and Silly Night – A Look at John Bellairs’ The Face in the Frost
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Whimsy and suspense don’t generally mesh all that well together, for they tend to swing toward opposite poles of reader engagement. Whimsy tickles the intellect, relying on novel juxtapositions and a great deal of textual playfulness – it’s cute, it’s precise, and most often it resides in a place of certainty and safety. Suspense – or more accurately in the case of John Bellairs’ 1969 debut novel The Face in the Frost, dread – is instead the assassin slipping past the intellect to knife that deepest part of the hind-brain, or perhaps its better to say its the cold, rhythmic pounding of subtle waves of suggestion that periodically climax in the massive erosive collapse of the shoreline of a reader’s composure. This horror effect absolutely requires a sort of visceral engagement with the material, a thorough Secondary Belief just like with fantasy – the kind of thing that jokey anachronisms, deliberate wordplay, and humorous allusions would seem to undermine at every turn. But Bellairs manages the trick of juggling these disparate elements with the sure confidence of a natural storyteller in a concise, captivating way that rarely places a foot wrong and never comes close to overstaying its welcome.

JAN 20 Adventures in Fiction: Abraham Merritt by James Maliszewski
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Of all the literary influences on D&D and DCC RPG, Abraham Merritt is perhaps the “most-influential of the least-known.” His work is rarely read in this modern time, yet he is named by Gary Gygax as one of “the most immediate influences on AD&D. Today, on January 20, 2020, the 136th anniversary of his birth, we provide a little more insight into this little-read but well-deserving author. You can also learn about all the Appendix N authors by listening to the Appendix N Book Club. For Merritt in particular, his most famous work, The Moon Pool, was recently covered in a special session on the Appendix N Podcast in which Joseph Goodman participated.

JAN 19 Appendix N Archaeology: Edgar Allan Poe by Bradley K McDevitt
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Ok, class, before we start… let’s have a show of hands. Who here thinks about reading Edgar Allan Poe and gets traumatic flashbacks to seventh-grade English?
I thought so. Having the father of the modern horror story force-fed us tends to have that effect, as opposed to other lesser writers like Lovecraft, Howard, or Tolkien, all of whom we had to discover on our own.
Poe was the first successful writer to pen stories intended with no purpose but to ensure the reader would not have pleasant dreams that night. I dare anyone suffering from claustrophobia to go back and read A Cask of Amontillado or The Black Cat and then sleep with the lights off. Go ahead, I double-dog dare you.

JAN 18 Adventures in Fiction: John Bellairs by Ngo Vinh-Hoi
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
John Anthony Bellairs was born on January 17th, 1938 in Marshall, Michigan, which he described as “full of strange and enormous old houses, and the place must have worked on [his] imagination.” A shy and overweight child, he “would walk back and forth between [his] home and Catholic school and have medieval fantasies featuring [himself] as the hero.” He found refuge in books, excelling in college as an English major and even appearing on an episode of the TV quiz show G.E. College Bowl in 1959, where he recited the General Prologue to the Canterbury Tales in fluent Middle English. After getting his Master’s degree Bellairs taught English at several colleges across the midwest before taking time off in 1967 when he moved to Bristol, England, for a year to concentrate on his fiction writing. Many years later a fan asked Bellairs about his time in England only to have him reply “I lived for a year in Bristol [England], and it was the most miserable year of my life.” Bellairs’s misery was everyone else’s good fortune though, as this is when he wrote The Face in the Frost.

JAN 14 Where to Start With Robert E. Howard
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) was a giant and a father to giants, his literary creations so potent that they have informed popular culture and permeated mass consciousness down to the present day. But their very ubiquity can obscure and deceive – if two people strike up a conversation about Conan, are they actually talking about the same Conan? What’s going on with all of these other writers penning stories of Howard’s heroes, and do they need to be read in order? Out of the dozens of reprints and collections over the years, just where do you actually start?

March-April Groupread Topic Poll
Write-in more options (the Your Choice entry), or vote on the ones listed.

Usually, the top two topics get a two-month spotlight.

Link:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Oliver, your editing approach should work for a lot of people. I learned some tricks from your podcast already. I hope folks connect with you.

Oliver wrote: "http://soimwritinganovel.com/2022/01/...
🥋 AND NOW, MATT JOHN STEPS INTO THE OCTAGON🥊
As Nat kindly let me discuss his work that was..."

Wonderful moving episode. Really covers writing from its raw core.

hey Phil! new Morlock appears in every issue of Tales from the Magician’s skull. I recently hunted down the six Ambrosius novels. I think they are out of print. I wonder if they'll have digital versions for you.

The Joy of Erudition wrote: "I've missed the past few group reads, but this time I'm reading Savage Realms: Monthly Tales of sword and sorcery."

Welcome back Joy!