The Rest of the Year

Happy Halloween.  I'd hoped to post a few more mini-reviews of Cemetery Dance's 13 Days of Halloween, but you know what they say about the best laid plans.

And speaking of plans, I thought I'd lay out my plans for the rest of the year.  I'm in the middle of David Tallerman's Crown Thief, having passed the halfway point last night.  After that it will probably be Black God's War by Moses Siregar III.  I've got several Angry Robot eARCs I'd downloaded in the summer before I realized I'd be moving.  I'm going to try to get to them, but not before I've read The Dead of Winter by Lee Collins.  I've got several anthologies and a Pathfinder novel an agent sent me, plus a handful of other books I've agreed to review.  More than enough to keep me busy.  I'll be traveling for work in a couple of weeks, just a quick trip to Houston and back, so I should be able to get plenty of reading done on the plane and during my layover in Dallas.

That's on top of the things I've bought just because they're what I want to read, not because someone asked me to.  Or to put it another way, I'm not going to be accepting any new books to review until after the first of next year, with one or two exceptions.  If I've promised to review your book, I will.  I won't guarantee a date the review will go up, but I will get to it as soon as I can.

Also, I've decided not to participate in NaNoWriMo this year.  I want to ramp up my own fiction writing, and things are starting to settle into a enough of a routine that I think I can.  I doubt I can hit the 50k mark for NaNoWriMo and still meet some other obligations, but I am trying to get some things finished. 

The deciding factor for not doing NaNoWriMo was a Seekret Project I've become involved with.  I'm not at liberty to discuss it yet, but I can say it will involve a number of other people and be fairly high profile.  I'll post an announcement when I get the green light.  That should be within the next few weeks.

Anyway, that's how things are shaping up for the rest of the year and probably into next year.

Another Halloween Treat

"A Little Halloween Talk"
Joe R. Lansdale
Cemetery Dance
ebook, $0.99

Here's another little treat from Cemetery Dance's 13 Days of Halloween.  It's not one you want to share with the kiddies.

This one concerns a tryst in a graveyard that goes horribly wrong with the lady's man interrupts her with his best friend.

I won't give any more details away.  If you've ever read Lansdale, you know he can write in some of the most compelling voices in modern fiction.  This story is no exception.  The narrator tells his story in a laid back style that you know from the first page isn't going to end well.  The reader is pulled in by his down home drawl.  Even though I was reading, not listening to an audiobook, I could still hear the guy's voice as I read. 

The plot is something out of EC Comics, something that should come as no surprise if you've read Lansdale.  This is a good thing, in case you were wondering.  I've read four or five of these Halloween shorts, and this one is easily my favorite so far.  Do yourself a favor and check it out.

A Halloween Treat

"Pumpkin"
Bill Pronizini
Cemetery Dance
various ebpub editions , $0.99

Cemetery Dance has been publishing Halloween themed short stories on weekdays for the last couple of weeks and will continue to do so until Halloween.  It's part of a promotion called 13 Days of Halloween. I'll be taking a look at some of them, randomly selected.

These are all short stories, so I won't go into too much detail.  In this one, Amanda Sutter and her husband run a pumpkin farm in California.  One day one of the field hands discovers that there's something wrong with one of the pumpkins...

Pronzini is one of my favorites.  While he's never to my knowledge written any heroic fantasy, he does occasionally venture from the mystery/crime fields to dip his toes in the waters of dark fantasy and horror.  I wish he would more often.  Although I have to admit that Pronzini is one of those writers whose work I would read regardless of genre.  In my opinion he's that good. 

This story isn't his most gripping, but it's still worth a read, especially the last page or two.  Pronzini isn't one to go for the gross-out.  Instead, he prefers the quiet buildup.  And he's good with the twist at the end.  This story fits that bill quite well.

It's short, only about 10 pages long, but worth the price.  If you're in the mood for a Halloween treat with a little trick at the end, check it out.

Everything Old is Still Old

My head is still reeling from the announcement that Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to revise his role as Conan.  Al Harron has covered this more eloquently than I can, so I'll defer you to his remarks. 

Instead, I want to take a slightly different approach and say this:  Really, Hollywood?  Really?  This is the best you can do?  Trot out an actor who is too old for the role, to play a character who was never anywhere near that old in any of the stories Howard wrote.

What you have here, ladies and gentlemen, aliens and Old Ones, is a perfect case of why box office reciets in general are dropping.  Hollywood can't do anything but recycle itself.  A more appropriate metaphor would probably be breed with itself.  We all know what sort of thing results from that, which is a good description of what Hollywood tends to churn out rather than coming up with something original.

At least take a fresh script (preferably written by someone who will be faithful to more than the "spirit" of Howard's most famous creation) and keep Jason Mamoa.  He fits the description of Conan much better than the Governator does.

I suppose that's too much to hope for, as is this being a sick (and scary, very scary) Halloween joke.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got to go burn incense to the gods of Development Hell.  Much incense.

The Next Big Thing Blog Chain

I was chained to this by David J. West, author of Heroes of the Fallen and numerous short stories, including one in the forthcoming Space Eldritch.

What is the working title of your book?

I'm not actively working on any novels at the moment, although I have a couple in different degrees of completion I hope to finish/polish after the first of the year.  In addition to some stand-alone short stories (science fiction and fantasy), there are two series I'm working on, both fantasy.  The epic fantasy series doesn't have a working title at the moment.  The sword and sorcery series is The Chronicles of Roderik and Prince Balthar.  That's the one getting most of my attention right now.

Where did the idea come from for the book series?

I don't recall what gave me the initial idea for the characters.  There was a comment on the Black Gate blog a couple of years ago in a post about a fantasy magazine that shall remain unnamed.  The magazine had folded, and in one of the comments, someone said this particular publication didn't have enough tomb robbing heroes.  Now I really enjoy a good tomb robbing.  Somehow I came up with the idea of a prince and his squire who were into a little cemetery burglary.  The only reason they would do this (that I could think of) was the prince is under a curse to murder his father, something he desperately wants to avoid doing.  So he and his squire are voluntarily exiled from their home until curse can be broken.  The court sorcerer is trying to find a way to break the curse, and it often involves having our heroes liberate certain items from their eternal resting places, usually at great risk to themselves.  The stories are written from the squire Rodrik's point of view, and all of the ones I've worked on so far start with the words "The Chronicle of" in the title.  Rogue Blades Entertainment was accepting some submissions about this time, and I wrote the first story in the series.  Jason Waltz liked it enough to buy it for the Assassins anthology.  I've placed a second story in the series with him, and I've got four more I need to finish, plus a two more to plot and write.

What genre does the series fall under?

Sword and sorcery, definitely.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

 I have no idea.  I see so few movies these days, I'm not familiar with many of the younger actors.  The characters are both young men, so most of the actors I'm familiar with are too old for those roles.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of your series?

An exiled prince and his faithful squire travel their world seeking to break a family curse while there's still time.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Self-published.  I'm not convinced agents bring enough value to the table in the current publishing climate to justify 15% of the earnings for the number of years they want to receive commissions.  Since everything I've written in this series so far is either short story or novelette length, I will try to place them in top markets.  If I'm not able to, I'll put them up myself.  And of course, I'll collect them and publish them in bundles.

How long did it take to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first story took a couple of weeks working in the evenings when I didn't have other commitments.  The others have been stop and go, except for the second I finished.  It's been accepted, although I have no idea when it will see print.  That one had a deadline and took a week or two once I got past a couple of false starts.  The others are longer, so they've been start and stop affairs.

What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

Who or what inspired you to write this series?

This may be cheating, but I'm going to combine the answers to the two previous questions since the works to which I would compare these stories are also some of the main inspirations.  First, I'm a huge fan of Robert E. Howard's Hyborean Age.  I love how he mixed and matched different historical periods in an imaginary fantasy setting.  I also love how the stories are mostly episodic in nature and for the most part can be read in any order.  The setting of The Chronicles draws a lot on that template, although the world isn't a carbon copy of the Hyborean Age.  On the other hand, there have been so many imitations that I didn't want to create another Clonan.  I wanted a civilized hero or heroes who were forced to act at times in, if not uncivilized ways, at least ways that wouldn't meet with civilization's approval.  There's probably a little Fafherd and the Grey Mouser in the inspiration somewhere, although I've not read that series in years, and there are more F&GM stories I haven't read yet than there are ones I have.  I also try to read across multiple genres, so you can see the influence of Arthur Conan Doyle in the structure.  Roderik is Watson to Balthar's Holmes, in that Balthar is supposedly the hero whose exploits are detailed by his faithful companion.

What else about your book series might pique your readers' interest?

This series is intended to be fun.  I've griped at times about how many authors seem to be writing with a political or social agenda, at least judging by their blogs and tweets.  While I certainly don't begrudge these authors their right to say whatever they like in their works, I maintain that the primary purpose of fiction is to tell an entertaining story, not convert me to your way of thinking.  With that in mind, I want to write some things that people will enjoy reading, hopefully to the point they want to read more. 

I'm also using this series as an opportunity to challenge and stretch myself as a fiction writer.  It would be very easy to get stuck in a rut and write formula stories, so I'm trying to do something different with each installment or to work on some technique.  For instance, the story I'm trying to finish in time to submit to a market by the end of the year focuses entirely on Roderik.  He and Balthar are in serious trouble, and Balthar has been taken out of commission.  Getting them out alive is all on Rodrik's shoulders.  He doesn't have much to work with or much time, either.  There's also a market coming open after the first of the year  The story I've got in mind for it isn't told by Roderik (or Balthar), although he and Balthar are central to everything that happens.

Now I have to chain people to this thing, so...I'm going to I'm going to list several authors whose work I enjoy and want to read more of:

Joshua P. Simon
Ty Johnston
J. M Martin
Mark Finn

Haunted by the Bone Tree

The Bone Tree
Christopher Fulbright
Bad Moon Books
trade paper, 99 p, $17.95
ebook, $3.99 Kindle Nook 

This novella, short though it is, is one of the best ghost stories I've read in quite a while.  It's also a good coming of age story.   Set in a small town south of Dallas in 1978, it's the story of two friends, one white, one black, who discover that there are worse things hunting in the night than the difficulties they face by day.

Kevin, the narrator, is best friends with Bobby.  This is a good thing, although it's not always easy.  Bobby's skin is the wrong color in this small town, and to make matters worse, his father died a few years ago.  Bobby's mother struggles to make ends meet.

The boys find solace in their tree house, which looks down on a creek.  One afternoon, while sharing comics, they see a younger boy, Tommy, being chased down the creek.  What's chasing him is something out of a nightmare.  At least that's what Tommy claims.  They decide to walk Tommy home, past the old cemetery and around a white, dead tree they call the bone tree.  On the way home, they discover that Tommy was not only telling the truth, but that he didn't know the whole truth.

A Visit to Orangefield on Hallow's Eve

Hallow's Eve
Al Sarrantonio
mass market paperback, Leisure, 2004
Kindle edition $3.99

Al Sarrantonio's work had been favorably compared to that of Ray Bradbury.  I suspect part (but not all) of the reason is that like Bradbury, much of Sarrantonio's work deals with October in general and Halloween in particular.

And a great deal of that work is set in the fictional town of Orangefield, self-proclaimed Pumpkin Capital of the World.  Hallow's Eve is the second volume of a trilogy.  The first volume, Orangefield, was published as limited edition by a small press, and as far as I know, never had a mass market edition. 

You don't need to have read that volume to enjoy this one, however.  I didn't have any trouble keeping up with the story, although I knew enough about the events in that novel and previous short stories to recognize some of the references. 

Steel and Sorrow Delivers

Steel and Sorrow:  Book Two of the Blood and Tears Trilogy
Joshua P. Simon
Trade Paper, $14.95
ebook $3.99 Kindle Nook Smashwords

Joshua P. Simon set himself a high standard with his premier novel, Rise and Fall (reviewed here).  He maintains that high standard in his second novel. 

I'm going to avoid giving too many details about the story so that I don't give away either of the twists at the end of the previous book.  (They were great twists, too.)  The story takes place the next year.  The civil war in Cadonia continues, with rebel nobles trying to wrest the throne from Queen Elyse.  The Hell Patrol and a few loyal nobles are all that stand between her and the traitors, but the mercenaries have their own wounds to deal with, not all of them physical.  On the continent of Hesh, Tobin continues his war of conquest, unaware that a beautiful snake shares his bed.

A Couple of Halloween Themed Anthologies

Halloween
Paula Guran, ed.
Prime Books
trade paper, 480 p., $14.95
ebook, $6.99 Kindle, Nook

This one came out last year, and I've only read a few of the stories in it.  Nor do I plan to read all of them, at least not this year.  I'll take my time with this one and spread it out over several years.  In other words, this is more of an FYI post than a full-on review.  However, I've been impressed enough by the contents so far to feel I should bring this one to your attention.

First of all, this is a reprint anthology, and there is one difference between the print and electronic editions.  That's the inclusion of Ray Bradbury's "The Halloween Game", which isn't in the electronic edition.  Now if you recall, I have a very high regard for Bradbury, but I wish he hadn't been so stubborn about electronic rights. "The Halloween Game" is a story that deserves to be in this book.

Even without Bradbury's contribution, the table of contents is impressive.  The stories I've read include "Night Out" by Tina Rath and "On a Dark October" by Joe Lansdale.  Both are worth the read.  I''ll dip into this one again, at least to reread "Hornets" by Al Sarrantonio, which takes place in his fictional town of Orangefield.  I've just started reading one of the Orangefield novels, and it makes reference to the events in "Hornets".

October Dreams
Richard Chizmar and Robert Morrish, ed.
Roc
trade paper, 656 p., oop, various prices second hand

This one came out ten years ago (I think there was an earlier limited edition), and it's been almost that long since I read it.  It contains a mix of memoir, reprint, and what at the time was new.  I don't remember all of the stories well enough to try to do a full review, but this is one anthology I intend to revisit, something that doesn't happen with much of what I read.  I probably won't get to it this year since the library is still in a state of disarray since the move, but I recommend this book if you come across a copy or want to order it online.   It's got some great stories in it.  Like Halloween, this is another anthology that's perfect for dipping into on a evening when there's a nip in the air and you're not sure if the sound you hear is a branch scraping against the window in the wind or something else.

Burroughs' Respone to Ackerman

I became aware of an interesting thing on the web today, although it's been up for about a year and a half.  It came across my Twitter feed, and now I can't find who sent it.  Apologies for lack of acknowledgement.  Anyway, this link is to a site showing correspondence between Edgar Rice Burroughs and a 14 year of fan named Forrest J. Ackerman.  (Yes, that Forrest J. Ackerman.)  I think Burroughs hits the nail on the head in his reply to Ackerman's letter.  Especially when he says

No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, of its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature

There's a reason Burroughs is still read after 100 years and so many bestsellers are forgotten.  Too many people, in academia or with agendas to promote, seem to have forgotten that.  

Shamus Awards Announced

I realize that P.I. fiction doesn't overlap much with S&S, but I do know the readerships of the two genres do to some extent.  With that in mind, I thought I'd pass along a link to this year's winners (as well as nominees) of the Shamus Awards.  These awards are given each year by the Private Eye Writers of America.  The list can be found here.  Scroll up to see winners and nominees from previous years.

And congratulations to all the nominees, especially the winners.

Beneath Ceaseless Skies Celebrates Another Anniversary

Beneath Ceaseless Skies celebrates its fourth anniversary this month.  To mark the occasion, the current issue (105) is a double issue, with the first and third stories available now and the second and fourth on October 11.  But of course if you have a subscription, you already have all the stories, hint, hint.

Let's take a look at them, shall we?

Black Gate's First Online Fiction, is, Well, Strong out of the Gate

Yes, for those of you who are counting, that makes three posts this week that start with bad puns.  (The other two are here and here.)  I'll stop sooner or later.  It's just been that kind of week.

But you aren't here to read my excuses.  You want to know about Black Gate's new online fiction   There will be a new story (which could be a novel excerpt) posted every Sunday for free.  Details are here at Black Gate. 

The first story went up this past Sunday.  The story is "The Duelist" by Jason E. Thummel.  (That's his picture below, swiped from the Black Gate website.) I've had so many things going on and so much good short fiction to review this week that I'm just now getting to this one.  The question is, was it worth the wait?

The Premier Issue of Nightmare Magazine is so Good It's Scary

Yes, I'm starting another review with another bad pun.  As I said previously, some things just have to be done.

Nightmare Magazine is the new online venture from John Joseph Adams, through Creeping Hemlock Press.  Whereas Lightspeed focuses on science fiction and fantasy, Nightmare will feature new and reprint horror and dark fantasy, with interviews, nonfiction, and artist spotlights thrown into the mix. 

Funded by a Kickstarter campaign, Nightmare is out of the gates and running, having gone live on October 1.  If the quality holds, it will definitely be worth the money I spent to support it.  Supporters got their electronic copies the same day the magazine went live, or I would have posted a review in advance.

While current plans are to publish two new and two reprint stories a month, the first issue has four new stories, an editorial by Adams, a column by R. J. Sevin, Author Spotlights in which the authors discuss their stories, and part one of an interview with Peter Straub.  Cover artist Jeff Simpson is the featured artist in this issue's Artist Spotlight.

Since this blog tends to be fiction oriented, let's take a look at John Joseph Adams' selections, shall we?

A Sneak Peek at Eclipse Online: K. J. Parker's "One Little Room and Everywhere"

Over the last few years, Nightshade Books has published four volumes of an anthology series titled Eclipse, edited by Jonathan Strahan.  Now that series is going online, with new stories published on the second and fourth Mondays of every month.  (The press release says first and fourth, but an email from the editor to me said second and fourth.  Since the premier is on October 8, I'm inclined to go with the second and fourth.) 

Anyway, Mr. Strahan was kind enough to send me advance copies of the two stories he'll be publishing in October.  One is a science fiction by Christopher Rowe which I've reviewed over at Futures Past and Present, and the other is a fantasy by K. J. Parker, the subject of this review. These are short stories, so the review aren't going to be as long as the ones I write for novels.

"One Little Room and Everywhere" is just one more reminder why I (and you) should read K. J. Parker. I've not read any novels by this author, but based on the quality of the short fiction I've read, I need to fix that.

This is the story of a man cast out from a school of magic because he doesn't  have the talent to become an adept.  It's told in first person, and our narrator isn't entirely reliable.  At least I consider any narrator who has the habit of insisting it wasn't his fault or making excuses to be unreliable.

Our "hero" doesn't have the highest scruples.  Knowing he will eventually be kicked out of school (nicely, of course), he sneaks into the library and steals some forbidden Forms, what are essentially spells that involve astrally projecting into a tower and entering certain rooms.  This allows himself to set up business as a painter of icons when he leaves the school.  Iconography is highly restricted in this society, which has a Renaissance feel to it, and there are only certain icons that can be painted.  He soon becomes quite successful at it, and his icons begin to fetch high prices.

Of course, such success isn't without it's unforeseen costs...

What I liked about this story was the narrator's voice, and the fact that he's an admitted thief and cheat, and can we really believe everything he tells us?  Parker uses hints and subtleties to great effect.  The story is lushly written, but not in an overblown way.  Rather the style is reminiscent of the time in which it's set.   The prose flows along, and like the last several short pieces I've read by Parker, I hated to reach the end.

With the story and it's companion, Strahan has set the bar high on his initial choices to launch Eclipse Online.  He's going to have his work cut out for him to keep the quality this high.  If I were a betting man, I would lay my money on his being able to do it.  Check this publication out.  It's going to be good, and I'll be surprised if the stories we see here don't pick up some award nominations as well as a few awards.

And the Winner Is...

This one was tough.  There were some good  excellent entries in my Giveaway Contest for a copy of James Enge's This Crooked Way.  I understand now why so many people do random selections to determine the winners in these types of things.  Everyone who entered is to be commended  for their imagination.

And the winner is...Charles Gramlich.  I wrestled with this for quite a while, but in the end, Charles won out on the basis of the detail of his entry. Charles please send me an email with a mailing address, and I'll get the book to you right away.

All of the entries were outstanding, and this was a tough decision for me to make.  Which is as it should be.

Thank you, everyone, who entered.  And again, my apologies for the typo and confusion over the end date, especially to Martin Holm, who missed the deadline because he was traveling.  He knowingly put in a great entry after the contest closed, and I appreciate his taking part.

October

Well another page on the calendar had turned, and I'm more behind than ever.  Some things never change.  Here's what I've got on the plate for October.  First, sometime tomorrow, I'll announce the winner of the James Enge book giveaway.  I've got a dentist appointment in the morning along with my son, followed by a three hour class, so it might be later in the day before that announcement goes up.

The next novel on the agenda is Steel and Sorrow by Joshua P. Simon.  I'll probably start it sometime this weekend.  I'll refrain from saying what novel is after that; I'm going to play it by ear.  I've got several I'm going to read this month, but I haven't decided on the final order.

There are a couple of items that are seasonal in nature that I want to sprinkle in the mix, so I'm not going to lock myself down to any particular sequence.

One thing I am going to read a great deal of over the next few months is short fiction.  In the next week, I want to review the premier issue of Nightmare magazine (I'm about a third of the way through now, and it's great), the new fiction being posted on Black Gate, the anniversary double sized issue of Beneath Ceaseless Skies (it's not live as of this writing, but I have a subscription and have already downloaded it), plus the inaugural stories in Eclipse Online.  Jonathan Strahan was kind enough to send me advance copies of the first two stories, and I'll be reading those over the next day or two.  Plus I have a number of anthologies and single author collections sitting on the shelves I've been wanting to finish.

That's plenty to keep me busy.