B) July Aug 2020 David C. Smith - Oron and Attluma

[Charles]

Just finished Rhasjud' Destiny, which I really enjoyed. Started Blood Ransom and was interested to see a couple of secondary characters who remind me of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. Similar physically but much different personalities.

[Clint]

And I discovered the author’s notes in the back of The Man Who Would be King collection which answers my questions about the title story.

Group: this collection is a bit of a sampler of Mr. Smith’s writing career. It includes the Dia-Sust story I read in The Mighty Warriors, the notes for which serve as a history of the writing of.

New question for the author: “The Shadow of Dia-Sust”, although written for Bob Price’s collection appeared in this collection first. From your notes, it sounds like time passed and it looked like The Mighty Warriors might not materialize. I did not read Dia-Sust in this collection as I just read The Mighty Warriors a month ago, did you make major edits to the story between appearances?

[Clint]

I placed a review of the collection The Man Who Would be King

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[S.E., Gray Mouser (Emeritus)]

Nice review Clint. Thanks for sharing.

[David]

Clint, thanks very much for your insightful comments, and I'm pleased that you find my writing worthwhile. Let me address your questions and comments.

I can think of no higher honor for my REH biography than to sit alongside Mark's on your shelf. Thank you!

Regarding "The Man Who Would Be King," you are correct in saying that it is autobiographical with a dose of fiction. I wrote it soon after my divorce when I had taken a job as associate editor on the staff of a medical journal published at that time in Cleveland, circa 1991. As I got to know my coworkers at the lunch table, word got around that I'd written a number of novels and that at one time Stephen King and I had the same agent. This man was the famous Kirby McCauley (he was also Karl Wagner's agent). I was some years younger than both those writers, who had already established themselves, and although Kirby helped me in selling ORON and closed the deal with Ace for the Red Sonja series, he had also established himself and so suggested that I be represented by another agent whom he knew, the assumption being that the other agent would be a better fit for me at that early stage in my career. Not a problem; there were no bad feelings about this at all. But as I talked about this with my coworkers at the lunch table, I'd get poked in the ribs with the occasional, "So you had Stephen King's agent and you wound up working here. Hmmm. Stephen King...whatever happened to THAT guy?" I didn't take this personally--such are the fortunes of trying to write for a living--but I did think it'd be a good premise for a weird story, and I'd never really done anything autobiographical previously. So bits of the story are taken from my life at that period; for me, though, what I like about it are the personal reflections on writing and imagination.

Regarding "Dia-Sust," I had written it and sent it to Bob Price, but so much time went by without my hearing from him about the possible anthology, I assumed that the plan had fallen through. So I went ahead and added the story to THE MAN WHO WOULD BE KING AND OTHER STORIES. They are virtually the same, Clint; I just compared the Word docs side by side (an interesting experiment), and the differences are slight. Early at the beginning, I refer to the men in the camp as "brutal men" rather than simply "men." Otherwise, the only difference has to do with when Borin is attacked. In the version in THE MIGHTY WARRIORS, he's attacked by an archer and suffers an arrow wound. In the version in THE MAN WHO..., the attack on him is by a thrown spear. And I remember why I changed that. I shared the original version (THE MIGHTY WARRIORS) with Ted Rypel, who noted that shooting a bow at such close range would have been problematic for the attacker. My thought was, Well, that's the only weapon he had at the moment, but still, Ted had a point. So it was more logical, at such close range, for the guy to attack Borin with a spear. The two passages wind up differing by only a few lines and have no substantive effect on the story at all.

Thanks for the fine review of the anthology you added to Goodreads. I appreciate it and, once more, I'm very glad to know that you like what I've done so far. Be well.

[Clint]

@David, thank you for taking the time to reply

[S.E., Gray Mouser (Emeritus)]

FYI: I posted a version of my epic Review of Tales of Attluma combined with the Oron series guide on Blackgate... have a look and share if you are willing.

https://www.blackgate.com/2020/08/04/...

[Clint]

I finished Tales of Attluma just in time to count for the group read. I can’t say much more than Seth did at a Blackgate (good review). I was surprised by the level of horror injected. I’d definitely say more CAS inspired than REH.

[S.E., Gray Mouser (Emeritus)]

Into RPG tabletop or Miniature gaming.....and Oron?

Well David C. Smith just revealed Oron miniatures!
From: http://www.barbaricsplendor.com

From David C. Smiths Facebook Page:
"Friends, now available are these remarkable gaming pieces from Barbaric Splendor! We have Oron as he appears on the cover of The Valley of Ogrum and Queen Desdira in her murderous pose near the end of Oron, as envisioned by the great Clyde Caldwell and available in your choice of au naturel or sky clad, as the pagans say, or in the attire Mr. Caldwell gave her. Either way, she is not to be trifled with. Visit http://www.barbaricsplendor.com. Thanks to Kevin Deming at Barbaric Splendor for taking the lead on these!"

Desdira - LIMITED RESIN MASTER


Desdira, Skyclad - LIMITED RESIN MASTER


Oron