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?

A Review of the Warrior Women in Black Gate

Black Gate No. 15

New Epoch Press, $18.95

I wrote a post about Bud Webster's column on Tom Reamy a couple of days after receiving the magazine in the mail, but since then I've been busy with other projects to read much of the fiction in the current issue of Black Gate.  On the flights home from my meeting last week, I made sure to rectify that omission.  Since it looks as though Black Gate will be an annual publication now, I've decided rather than read it all at once, I'm going to ration it.  That way the wait for the next issue won't be so interminable.

This issue has as its theme Warrior Women.  The stunning cover by Donato Giancola kinda makes the point.  Eight of the twenty-one stories (not counting the excerpt from The Desert of Souls by Howard Andrew Jones) are part of this theme and have their own separate table of contents.  They're scattered throughout the volume rather than having their own section.  I'm not sure what I make of that editorial decision, considering most issues with special themes I've seen tend to group the themed stories together, although I have no problem with Mr. O'Neill arranging them this way.  He's also taken a pretty broad definition of warrior woman, including stories with characters that don't fit the image of the woman on the cover.  Let's take a quick look at them, shall we?

New Challenge Writing Competition at Rogue Blades

Rogue Blades announced its 2011 Challenge Writing competition this morning.  This year's theme is Stealth.  Judges are author Mary Rosenblum, Black Gate editor John O'Neill, and cover artist Storn Cook.  That's the cover over on the right. 

There's a $10 entry fee, which is more than reasonable.  Rouge Blades will begin accepting submissions in 15 days, so that should give all of us time to get something ready.  I'm intending to submit.  There's a minimum of 30 entries needed for this project to go forward.  The stories can be any genre, so long as there's a heroic element. 

Here's our chance to make sure there's good heroic, adventure oriented stories to read.  Let's inundate the judges and make their job hard by having to agonize over choosing form an avalanche of great stories. 

Odds and Ends

Between allergies, taxes, and trying to finish my upcoming column for Home of Heroics, I'm a little behind in getting some things up that I've been working on.  It might be next week before anything substantial is posted since I'll be traveling over the weekend starting tomorrow.  In the meantime, check out the new material at Home of Heroics if you aren't already doing so.  Yesterday's guest column was by John O'Neill, publisher of Black Gate, in which he talked about how Scholastic Books got him hooked on science fiction and fantasy.  It brought back memories for me, because I used to read those books as well.  My son is now starting to read them, and I'm looking forward to what he's going to be bringing home.

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who's visited Adventures Fantastic, especially in the last couple of weeks.  Traffic seems to be picking up, and I appreciate your interest, support, and comments.  I've got some cool things planned for the next couple of months, including a two-part interview with Robert E. Howard scholar Mark Finn, some Long Looks at Short Fiction, a review of Jasper Kent's Thirteen Years Later, a look at Henry Kuttner's Prince Raynor stories, and some more Kull.  So stick around.  It's only gonna get better.

Dianna Wynne Jones (1934-2011)

Diana Wynne Jones, British fantasy author, has died of lung cancer.  John O'Neill was written a eulogy on the Black Gate website.  Since I can't improve on it, I suggest you read it here.  Jones wrote a variety of books, from YA to adult, but my favorite is still The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, a tour guide of a generic land one might encounter in a fantasy novel.  It's one of the best books on how (not) to write fantasy that I've ever read, and hilariously funny as well.