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

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

I never heard of Kavin's World,Zorachus, or Tark and the Golden Tide. I love learning about these. Fow now, I reading Brak The Barbarian for the Clonan discussion, which is decent so far.

or

Welcome Lee, I think you fit well here. Lurk or chat as you see fit.

Rob, speaking of other media, I think it imperative that all members watch a video on the bad movie clones of DeathStalker. They had awesome covers by Boris Vallejo, but were the worst of all clones. I watch this review a couple times a year and find it hilarious therapy. Better than the movies themsevles.

I have the movie review embedded on my blog: Sword & Sorcery Movie Trends

A direct link is:
http://cinemassacre.com/2010/03/13/de...

Grimdark magazine looking for volunteers:

http://grimdarkmagazine.com/pages/opp...

Opportunities at GdM

Social Media Marketer

Grimdark Magazine is looking for someone to help out with the management of our social media. This person will take over the day-to-day running of GdM's Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest to increase our social media presence. The social media marketer will:

engage GdM's audience
source relevant material online
post/re-post/share/re-tweet etc daily on topics, images, and polls to do with grimdark. The Editor will initially maintain control of the marketing posts for issue releases and competitions
be provided with a small budget for targeted campaigns.
Our preference is for the Social Media Marketer to have some sort of a marketing background, either through job experience and/or schooling (current or past). However, passion for grimdark and and intricate knowledge of engaging customers on our chosen social media platforms is a foot in the door.

As with all positions at GdM (including the Editor), this is a volunteer role.

If you think this could be you, send me a short pitch on yourself: adrian@grimdarkmagazine.com



Article/Review Writer/

Grimdark Magazine is looking for an article and review writer. This person's primary responsibility will be coming up with article and review content for both the Grimdark Magazine publication and the Grimdark Magazine blog. The article/review writer will:

research topics for articles based around the grimdark genre
create articles on an ongoing basis (2 a quarter for the blog and 2 a quarter for each issue)
write reviews of grimdark fiction novels, movies and video games. ARCs will be provided in either hard copy or Kindle where available from publishers
Our preference is to have an article writer with a few previous publications, but this is not mandatory.

As with all positions at GdM, this is a volunteer role.

If you think this could be you, send me a short pitch on yourself and a sample of your work: adrian@grimdarkmagazine.com

Joseph wrote: "My write-in: Elak of Atlantis by Henry Kuttner."

I like Elak, but haven't read the others to vote for/against. I've read most of REH of course... so if a newby-Clonan-reader wanted to choose only one clonan to read...which one should it be?

For instance, I have Brak the Barbarian and Kothar of the Magic Sword. But not much time, One better than the other?
(To Joe's point, I guess I also have Elak of Atlantis)

Sword & Sorceress Guidelines
Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress Call: http://www.mzbworks.com/guidelines.htm

Guidelines: Stories should be the type generally referred to as "sword and sorcery" and must have a strong female protagonist whom the reader will care about. See Sword & Sorceress 22, Sword & Sorceress 23, Sword & Sorceress 24, Sword & Sorceress 25, Sword & Sorceress 26, Sword & Sorceress 27, and Sword & Sorceress 28 (or S&S 1-20) for examples. We do not want stories with explicit sex, gratuitous violence, or profanity. We are NOT a market for poetry. We are willing to consider stories set in modern times (urban fantasy), but we won't buy more than one or two of those for the anthology. We always want something short and funny for the last story.

No reprints. No simultaneous submissions.

With regard to multiple submissions, do not submit more than one story at a time. If we've rejected your first one, you may send one more, as long as it's before the deadline. We have occasionally bought someone's second submission. We have never bought a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, or eighth submission. If you send us two stories, and we don't hold either of them, wait until next year to try again. Please do not re-submit stories we have already rejected (including stories rejected in previous years).

If you have not previously sold to Sword & Sorceress, please read "What is a Short Story?" and "Why Did my Story Get Rejected?" before submitting to us.

Please do not explain or describe your story in the e-mail (cover letter). If your story can't stand on its own, fix the story.

Reading period: Saturday, April 18 to Friday, May 15, 2015. Stories received before or after this period will be deleted unread.
Response time is expected to follow MZB's traditional standards: you should hear within a week if we're holding your story for the final line-up or rejecting it.

Deadline: May 15, 2015.

Length: up to 9,000 words, with preference given to shorter stories. The longer a story is, the better it has to be. Long stories should be submitted early in the reading period.

Formatting and Submission:

Format with one-inch margins on all four sides of page.
Please do not use a header or footer.

Your legal name, full mailing address, and email address must be in the upper left corner, single spaced.
Skip two lines, center the text, then put the title, with your name (or byline) on the next line. We're not going to be as rigid as MZB was about pen names, but we expect them to be reasonable, rather than cute.

The rest of the manuscript should be single-spaced, with the first line of each paragraph indented 1/2 inch.
If you need to indicate a break, put "#" on a line by itself, centered.
Do not underline; use italics instead. Do not use bold face. We prefer Courier New font, size 12.

Word count will be determined by our word processor; that way it will be the same for everyone.

Save your document as an .rtf file (rich text format or interchange format, depending on what your computer calls it). E-mail as it as an attachment to . The subject line should be "SS30, your last name, story title" (e.g.: SS30, Bradley, Dark Intruder) -- we don't want submissions caught in the spam filter.

Rights purchased: first rights, non-exclusive eBook and audio book rights.Payment: 6 cents per word as an advance against a pro rata share of royalties and foreign or other sales.

To stir the pot a bit, I create a poll for fun.
which clonan is the best clone of conan?
Feel welcome to write-in additional clones...

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

Clonans and Obscure Books are the May-June topics of interest. Time to dig through your bookshelves and used bookstores to find forgotten treasures...and re-evaluate the Clonan craze.
1) Clonan Topic-Link
2) Obscure Book-Link




May June 2015 Groupreads: Clonans and Obscure Books
Masthead Banner cover art credits (Left to Right):
Frazetta 1969 cover: Thongor Against the Gods by Lin Carter
Frazetta 1968 cover: Brak the Barbarian by John Jakes
Jeff Jones 1969 cover: Kothar Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner F. Fox

Looks like it is time to evaluate the ~1970's emergence of Conan-clones: like Thongor Against the Godsby Lin Carter...Brak the Barbarian by John Jakes...or Kothar Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner F. Fox.

Unearth some arcana! Dig up some seemingly forgotten treasures and share with others. A few years ago a discussion got a group to rediscover Campbells' Ryre character.

https://www.facebook.com/StrangerComics, posts this Orc announcement:

"You like Orcs?A sneak peek look at some early O.G pencils for our new book MORKA MOA by Art Director Darrell May. Sebastian A. Jones will join Darrell in adding the words. Sheldon Mitchell will ink and color. This is ‪#‎Asunda‬."

https://www.facebook.com/StrangerComi...

A facebook group called
OPEN CALL: SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY & PULP MARKETS
has short story opportunities all the time:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/44010...

Grimdark Facebook folk claim author/S&S-group-member Scott Oden freelance edits sometimes:
https://scottoden.wordpress.com/

Finally started rereading The Worm Ouroboros. Took a few pages to get back into E.R. Eddison's style. It has long paragraphs, Shakespeare-like intelligence, and an abundance of description.

Greg wrote: "Joseph wrote: "Greg wrote: "Charles wrote: "Egads!"

LOL Maybe one could make a Goodreads challenge out of that list...."

The ironic thing is that the Straub book isn't even on that list -- its ti..."

Oh, I see a Shadowland groupread forming now....

Just finished Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser

This was an entertaining mash-up of film-noir, horror, and sword-and-sorcery. Fans of the ‪‎X-files‬, ‪‎Supernatural‬, or ‪‎Grim‬ will devour this. Link to review

My current-reading list is still huge, and unfortunately has no orcs or goblins in them (to help with the groupread).

Katrina wrote: "It sounds fascinating and it's on my TBR list:)"

And your The Doom of Undal is on mine, probably for the same reason. You seem to read/write a similar mix of fantasy/myth based on alchemy.

Spawn of Dyscrasia is now available as an audio book, narrated by Kathy Bell Denton who has a splendid voice reminiscent of the female narrator of Ralph Bakshi's 1977 movie Wizards (Susan Tyrrell). Kathy Denton has a creepy, English accent perfect for dark fairy tales and reinforces the character of Helen well. Check out the samples on Audible.com or Audiobook on Amazon.

Complimentary Review Copies! Review copies of all forms are available (Audible, Kindle, and Paperback). For files or promotional codes, just contact me via reply or Private Message...or Facebook.

Lords of Dyscrasia is being narrated by Thomas B. Hackett, and should be released Spring 2015.

Another Cynthia Ward facebook post of interest, that I reshare here:
Posted 3-16-2015
http://robotcowgirl.com/sword-sorcery/

New anthology Sword and Sorcery - http://robotcowgirl.com/sword-sorcery/ - seeks what it says. "Breathe new life into Sword and Sorcery. Give it a twist, but be sure your story has a central speculative twist; we’re not looking for historical fiction or sword-and-sandal tales. Stories should be between 3,000 and 8,000 words. Preference will be given to tales which imbue Sword and Sorcery with diversity, humanism, and complexity. On acceptance, payment will be US$50 per story." Deadline is unclear. Click through for further info - AND you have to click through on that page to get full guidelines, just so you know....

Spawn of Dyscrasia is now available as an audio book, narrated by Kathy Bell Denton who has a splendid voice reminiscent of the female narrator of Ralph Bakshi's 1977 movie Wizards (Susan Tyrrell). Kathy Denton has a creepy, English accent perfect for dark fairy tales and reinforces the character of Helen well. Check out the samples on Audible.com or Audiobook on Amazon.

Complimentary Review Copies! Review copies of all forms are available (Audible, Kindle, and Paperback). For files or promotional codes, just contact me via reply or Private Message...or Facebook.

Lords of Dyscrasia is being narrated by Thomas B. Hackett, and should be released Spring 2015.

Dyscrasia Fiction on Facebook

Dyscrasia Fiction on youtube

S E Lindberg Author Blog