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

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

From Whetstone's Facebook:
8pm EST Jan 18th, that's tonight!

Our "Lantern Hour"--where we discuss the Intro and first two chapters of Brian Murphy's, *Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery*--starts in approximately two hours (at 8:00p EST). We use the app "Gather." Using it will requires a *free* account. It also requires this link to our "Whetstone Tavern" on "Gather." Here it is (hope to see you there!). 😊⚔📚

https://gather.town/invite?token=qq56...

the Last God, Book 1 of the Fellspyre Chronicles

Christian wrote: "I've read a few more so far and a small complaint I have is that the author isn't stated at the beginning of the piece. I'm reading the kindle version so I can't just easily flick to the table of c..."

Ah, I noticed that too about the Kindle TOC Links not having the Author's Name beside them (in REH Changed my Life). There is a TOC in the beginning...and each essay is signed at the end by the author, but totally understand. I've been reading a few out of order, and had that experience.

The contributor list is impressive.

The CROMCAST posted nine Youtube videos covering the 2021 Howard Days events.

Check them out:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Richard has his review up on the esteemed DMR blog:
https://dmrbooks.com/test-blog/2022/1...

This is great. Glad to see different aspects of the S&S community feed off each other.

A guide from Jason:

If any of y'all who've read the Rogue Blades Foundation 2021 release ROBERT E. HOWARD CHANGED MY LIFE consider it worthy of recognition, please consider nominating and recommending it for nomination in the following categories:

The Valusian - for the collection and editor as a whole
The Hyrkanian - for a particular essay and author contained therein
The Rankin - for the cover art

KEY BLIURB from https://rehfoundation.org/2022-nomina...

Thank you in advance for your support and consideration.

You do not have to currently be a member of the Robert E. Howard Foundation to send in nominees at this stage of the process. All nominees must have the name of the publication for printed works, and the internet address for works available on the internet in the nomination. Only work that was published from Jan. 1, 2021 to Dec. 31, 2021 is eligible to be nominated.

All nominations are to be sent to the following email address:

rehawardsjb ”AT” gmail ”DOT” com (replace the AT and DOT with their corresponding symbols)

Jason, thanks for advertising that. Act soon, folks! Nominations due Jan 31!

Tales from the Magician's Skull Blog Roundup, end-Dec-2021 to mid-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:

Dec 27: Appendix N Archaeology: Clark Ashton Smith by Michael Curtis
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
Gamers often point to Appendix N and decry the absence of a particular author (or three, or seven, or…), declaring Gygax’s omission of them to be a literary crime of some sort. Putting aside the unbelievable idea that gamers may complain about things for the moment, we must realize that Appendix N is not a list one can argue with. It is a catalog of all the literary influences Gygax chose to recognize as wellsprings from which Dungeons & Dragons flowed. Since it is representative of one man’s work, we can’t claim he made the error of excluding a particular author, even if we believe we can see their influence in the final product. Game design, like art, is a subjective process and one tends to see what one is inclined to see.

Dec 28: The Self-Made Mind: The Art of Clark Ashton Smith
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
Clark Ashton Smith, an untutored genius self-educated in both poetry and pulp, also turned his restless mind to art. In everything from his simple line sketches and watercolor landscapes, to his carving and sculpture, Smith demonstrates the same characteristics of baroque intricacy, imaginative grotesquery, and dark humor that are a hallmark of his writing.

Dec 29: New In The Online Store: Tales From The Magician’s Skull #0
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
This may be #0, but it’s certainly far more than zero.

Back by popular demand, resurrected from the dim corridors of lost time, it’s TFTMS #0! This special issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull was only available to Kickstarter backers — but now it’s back and available as a PDF! It’s filled with stories and articles about sword-and-sorcery fiction, and features a spectacular cover by legendary artist Ian Miller! Let’s take a look!

Jan 3: Classic Covers: J.R.R. Tolkien
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings was the book that launched a thousand trilogies, and made Tolkien’s name synonymous not just with modern fantasy fiction, but publishing mega-success. With more copies, in more languages, in more editions, than anything else in its category, and with an entire sub-industry spun out of publishing various notes, unpublished drafts, and side-excursions of its author, The Lord of the Rings remains the gold standard by which all other secondary worlds, and all other fantasy blockbusters, are judged. With covers ranging from the iconic to the iconographic, the literal to the surreal, many even featuring the art of the good Professor himself, and with editions spanning leather-bound limited-run collectibles to utterly ubiquitous mass-market paperbacks, copies of Tolkien are as ever-present and universal in the physical world of books and book collections as the tales they tell are ingrained in the imaginations of modern readers.

Jan 7: A Kind of Elvish Craft: Quotations from The Lord of the Rings
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
“To make a Secondary World . . . commanding Secondary Belief, will probably require labor and thought, and will certainly demand a special skill, a kind of elvish craft. Few attempt such difficult tasks. But when they are attempted and in any degree accomplished then we have a rare achievement of Art: indeed narrative art, story-making in its primary and most potent mode.” — J.R.R. Tolkien, “On Fairy-Stories”

J.R.R. Tolkien’s seminal lecture/essay “On Fairy-Stories” is nothing short of a manifesto of his art, and a spiritedly reasoned elaboration of his Theory of Story — specifically Fairy-Stories, or tales of the Land of Faërie.

Jan 11: Reading About Robert E. Howard
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2022/...
It’s safe to say Robert E. Howard has passionate fans. And this passion goes beyond buying stacks of books and old comics and limited edition resin sculptures, beyond pilgrimages to Cross Plains or Valeria cosplay, beyond, even, mimeographing ‘zines in their basement or writing fiction inspired by Howard’s example. For you see, Howard’s fans have dared to set their sandalled feet upon the tumbled jeweled thrones of literary criticism, and they’ve been trampling such thrones for decades. Here’s a look at just some of what they’ve been saying.

I adore prequels.....as long as they shed new light on a mystery-unknown perspective. Length depends on your muse or market.

Joseph wrote: "Finished Legends and decided to carry on with Legends II, which I haven't read before. The first story is by Robin Hobb, set in her Elderlings world, and it..."

Epic review for a collection of epics. I admit being intrigued by Ursula Le Guin's and Raymond Feist's contributions.

...and @Richard, kudos for highlighting Savage Realms. They weren't on my radar until you gave them some press.

GO ROGUE!: ROGUES IN THE HOUSE, THE ULTIMATE SWORD & SORCERY PODCAST
spotlighted on Black Gate ...LINK=
https://www.blackgate.com/2022/01/02/...




Rogues in the House
In 1934, Weird Tales magazine published Robert E. Howard’s Conan story “Rogues in the House.” Bob Byrne covered the story on Black Gate as part of his “Hither Came Conan” series.

Just a few years ago, in late 2018, Sword & Sorcery enthusiasts and content creators forged Rogues in the House – the Ultimate S&S Podcast (the link is a portal page to multiple listening Apps). This post spotlights it because it is more than just a source of perspectives. The crew genuinely wants to support a growing community. Their roundtable discussions always start with the “Bazaar of the Bizarre” round table, in which the cast shares recent events or learning opportunities (the session a call out to Fritz Leiber’s 1963 Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser story of the same name).

Beyond luring in S&S authors like Howard Andrew Jones, Scott Oden, John R. Fultz, and Jason Ray Carney, they’ve got guests covering Movies, Video/Board Games, and Art. We embed three selections here:

1 )Morgan King and Phil Gelatt creators of the movie The Spine of Night
2) Peter D. Adkison, founder and first CEO of Wizards of the Coast (1993–2001) and owner of GenCon (the world’s largest board game convention).
3) Sara Frazetta, granddaughter of the fantasy master painter, an artist herself, and CEO of Frazetta Girls

Here's my review of Blood on the Blade.
(noting again that Richard already covered this with journalistic excellence.)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I admit that Shrewsbury's “Knock the Hell Out of You” story had some tropes that I don't enjoy much anymore (tavern scenes and overpowered protagonists)...but his Gorias La Gaul character (and daughter Roan) intrigued me the most. I find myself wondering about them. And apparently, more books/work covers them.

Also D.M. Ritzlin's "More Blood" and Paul R. McNamee's Polynesian “The Island of Shadows” stood out to me.

Richard wrote: "I started early, I suppose, I recently finished Swords and Sorceries Vol. 3 and Blood on the Blade which were both good anthologies. My reviews are up for anyone to see. I have also picked up my ac..."

Here's the link to Richard's epic review of Blood on the Blade.
--> https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I'm about to write my review...but it is tough to contribute more than that review.

Founder of Games Workshop, part of the crew to bring D&D to Europe... to be knighted!


https://www.ukgamesexpo.co.uk/content...

copied from : http://paralleluniversepublications.b...



Submissions for Swords & Sorceries Volume 4 open next year from the 1st April until 31st May

Payment is £25 per story regardless of length, plus a contributor's copy. The book will be published as a paperback and ebook. If a hardcover version is published we will pay an additional £25. Contributors can also buy extra copies of the book through us at cost price.

Please send your submissions as attachments (doc or docx) to:


paralleluniversepublications@gmx.co.uk


You can send in more than one submission, but we will not accept more than one story per writer.

Although we prefer original stories we are prepared to consider reprints. Just inform us where and when it was previously published.

You can send in simultaneous submissions, but please let us know at once if your story is accepted elsewhere.

There is no limit on the size of submissions.

All rejections and acceptances will be sent out by email at the end of the first week in June. Please don't enquire about your submission before then.

Your story should be sent as an attachment, headed:

"Submission - Swords & Sorceries 4"

Sweet, John C. is here!

Via Google searching, I grabbed an image of the original Tor publication back-cover blurb from a 2013 blog review. (http://davycrockettsalmanack.blogspot...)

Whetstone #5 is open to submissions:
https://whetstonemag.blogspot.com/202...

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS / WHETSTONE / Issue 5 (Spring 2022)

WHETSTONE is an amateur magazine that seeks to discover, inspire, and publish emerging authors who are enthusiastic about the tradition of “pulp sword and sorcery.” Writers in this tradition include (but are not limited to) the following: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner, David C. Smith, and many more. “Pulp sword and sorcery” emphasizes active protagonists, supernatural menaces, and preindustrial (mostly ancient and medieval) settings. Some “pulp sword and sorcery” straddles the line between historical and fantasy fiction; at Whetstone, however, we emphatically prefer “secondary world settings,” other worlds liberated from the necessity of historical accuracy. Published by Spiral Tower Press.

Managing Editor: Dr. Jason Ray Carney is a lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. He is the co-editor of the academic journal The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies and the area chair of the "Pulp Studies" section of the Popular Culture Association. He serves as the Academic Coordinator for the Robert E. Howard Foundation. He is the author of Rakefire and Other Stories (Pulp Hero Press).

Associate Editor: Chuck E. Clark lives in Southern Wisconsin with his wife and four children. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Political Science degree, apprenticed as a jeweler, joined the navy, and now fixes laser microscopes. He has been published in Whetstone and The August Derleth Society's newsletter, Sage of Sac Prairie. He loves collecting rocks, books, and whiskey.

Associate Editor: Luke E. Dodd is a scientist, devourer of music, and collector of hobbies. He is one of the three hosts of The Cromcast, a podcast dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard and other weird fiction. He lives in Kentucky with his wife and son.

Length: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less.

Style: We prefer “dialog light, action heavy” fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity.

Publication, payment, and rights: Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, no more. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur publication, meant for showcasing emerging talent for the consideration of professional markets (which is why we kept the word count so low). In essence: save your best work for higher paying markets!

Submit: Proofread standard manuscripts should be sent to the publisher at spiraltowerpress@gmail.com as .doc or .docx attachments. Include the following subject line: "WHETSTONE: [Last Name]." Please keep cover letters brief. A story title and a one- or two-sentence bio is sufficient.

Dates:
• Submission deadline for issue 5: Sunday, March 27th, 2022, 11:59p.
• Editorial decisions: Sunday, May 1st, 2022.
• Publication of Issue 5: Friday, June 10th, 2022.

More info:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SorceryWs
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whetstonemag
Discord: https://discord.gg/h2RryjPuFf

Devrim wrote: "Today I finished reading Conan and the Emerald Lotus. Adventures like this are the reason I am in love with Conan. Also being a Lovecraft universe fan, I am pleased to see story woven with elements..."

Damn good eyes you have, Devrim! I had simply cut and pasted that blurb.

BTW, that blurb is actually the official on the back of the book too! So the error has propagated from Tor. Eh gads.

The blurb indicates that "One wizard is bad. Two wizards are a disaster".... but this book has three! That's even worse! They kinda spoiled a bit of the intrigue by simplifying the conflict to 2 wizards.

Anyway, thanks for the call-out! I will consider how to fix/update my review with a note.

Tales from the Magician’s Skull Blog - Dec 14th - 24th Roundup
Bill Ward champions this at : https://goodman-games.com/tftms/



Dec 24 Adventures in Fiction: Fritz Leiber By Michael Curtis
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
We’ve talked a lot about Fritz Leiber, whose birthday we’re celebrating today, over the last few years. Leiber, born December 24th, 1910, is most widely known among gamers as the man responsible for the fantastic Fafhrd and Gray Mouser stories. In the years running up to DCC Lankhmar, a lot of ink has been spilled discussing Leiber’s most famous creation. Today, however, we’re going to examine some of Leiber’s other work and see how we can apply it to our games—especially DCC Lankhmar.

Dec 21 Classic Covers: Michael MoorcockBy Bill Ward
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
With more than a half-century of prolific, diverse, and wonderfully inventive writing in everything from classic sword-and-sorcery to surreal alternate history to sword-and-planet pastiche to counter culture lit fic, Michael Moorcock has seen more editions of his work than you can shake a demon-possessed sword at. And while Moorcock freely hops from genre to sub-genre to whatever-he-feels-like, he seems to have inspired a similar variety of artistic interpretations of his work, sometimes very at-odds with traditional branding, and at others pitch perfect examples of publishing trends. As wild and inventive as his fiction, the following mad collage of images just scratches the surface of the wide array of covers that have helped Moorcock’s books leap from the shelf and into the hands of eager readers since the 1960s.

Dec 20 Adventures in Fiction: Zenith the Albino By Terry Olson
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
Many of us come to Gygax’s Appendix N to explore the works that inspired both the D&D of our youth and our favorite fantasy RPGs of today. We read these literary progenitors for both insight and inspiration, and we begin to recognize their themes, plot-twists, villains, and heroes being adapted and personalized by today’s authors. But the writers whom Gary Gygax read were not writing in a vacuum. Surely they were adapting and personalizing the themes, plot-twists, villains, and heroes that they were reading. Who inspired them? Answering this question by reading further back in D&D’s ancestral chain, by going “back to the roots of the genre as deeply as possible” (as Moorcock puts it), is what we call “Appendix N Archaeology.”

Dec 19 Brian Murphy’s Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery By Bill Ward
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
In Flame and Crimson (2019) Brian Murphy has crafted no less than the first book length history of the sword-and-sorcery genre, from its origins and antecedents right down to its reflection in the popular culture of the present day. It is a work both indispensable and long overdue, one that fills a gap in our collective bookshelves while establishing an academic and historical baseline for discussion of sword-and-sorcery going forward. But Murphy also accomplishes the most difficult task of all, balancing the need for critical rigor with readability, and the result is a book that not only provides a compelling and comprehensive view of its subject, but is also as fun to read and impossible to put down as the classic stories referenced in its pages.

Dec 18 Adventures in Fiction: Michael Moorcock By Terry Olson
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
On the 18th of December, we celebrate the birthday of Michael Moorcock—a big writer with big ideas (regardless of what he thought a handful of decades ago). It’s difficult to rank Moorcock’s diverse achievements in terms of importance or influence. He’s impacted gaming through his Elric stories, he’s been a prolific writer of the Eternal Champion and Multiverse themes, he’s been an influential editor that helped change (dare I say, “improve”) the face of Science Fiction, he’s written comics, and he’s written lyrics for and performed with major rock bands! Perhaps most important of all, he’s inspired generations of great writers, such as Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Thomas Pynchon.

Dec 18 Adventures in Fiction: Sterling E. Lanier By Jim Wampler
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
Yesterday was the 93rd anniversary of the birth of Sterling E. Lanier. He wasn’t just a favorite author of E. Gary Gygax, nor was he merely a cited influence on both the Dungeons & Dragons and Gamma World role playing games. For those things alone he would still be notable and of interest to role playing gamers everywhere. Sterling E. Lanier was the quintessential polymath. His personal interests ranged from skin-diving and boating to bird watching and conservation causes. He was also a naval and military history buff.

Dec 17 The Mad Dream Dies: Karl Edward Wagner’s Bloodstone By Bill Ward
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
Aliens, lost civilizations, superscience vs. sorcery, perilous expeditions, a warrior maid, sentient crystalline entities, virgin sacrificing witches, bandits, ambushes, teleportation, a magic ring, cosmic visions, possession, a conjured tsunami, desperate battles, a jungle-shrouded city, cross and double-cross, devolved frogmen, a field tracheotomy, wall-leveling green lightning bolts, a world-threatening power, amphibian-crewed hydrofoils, lost tomes brimming with secret knowledge, a reconfigured semi-solid army of the elder dead, and an immortal juggernaut of a man at the lonely center of it all – it’s Bloodstone!

Dec 14 Heroic Fantasy Quarterly’s 50th Issue By Bill Ward
https://goodman-games.com/tftms/2021/...
The Skull and his various minions, flunkies, lieutenants, and, yes, even interns would like to send a hearty congratulations to our sword-brothers over at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, on the occasion of their 50th issue! Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is an online magazine specializing in adventure fantasy of all kinds, from eponymous tales of heroism and epic fantasy, to sword-and-sorcery, dark fantasy, and skulldugging daring-do. If you love Tales From the Magician’s Skull, you’re sure to thrill to our mighty sister publication, who have been in the game for over a decade of consistently excellent fantasy publishing!

Mark your calendar, and get on Gather (it's a live chat interface) on Jan. 18th to discuss Brian Murphy 's S&S book Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery