Monthly Archives: October 2017

The Grand Finale

Usually when my wife heads off to one of her work conferences I get a lot of work done in the hotel room but I also explore a bit. This time, while she was in Washington, I was only a few minutes walk from a Metro line, but I did hardly any exploring at all. Comes of being under deadline. I saw an awful lot of my hotel room walls and occasional glimpses of the lobby.

I did get my first ever in-person look at various Washington D.C. monuments, but only from a distance as we strolled along the capital mall on our last evening before we left, prior to going out to an awesome Peruvian/Chinese fusion restaurant.

We’re nearing the end of the Kickstarter, so if you’re wanting to see some great new sword-and-sorcery stories I hope you’ve already signed on.

You Can’t Live Forever

I’m still on assignment, writing today from a lounge in a fabulous haunted mansion. The Beatles once stayed in this very location, and it’s easy to imagine them striding confidently down the main stairs to my left, wisecracking all the way. If I hadn’t accidentally left my time dilator in Albuquerque I’d jot back and watch their entrance and listen in on the Liverpudlian humor.

In case you missed it, John O’Neill at Black Gate held an interview with me and Joseph Goodman and the Magician’s Skull himself.

You might not have seen this, though. Nerdy Jobs invited me over for a chat about my writing, the new magazine, and gaming. If you want to hear me nattering on about all those things and a few more, now’s your chance. (My wife hears me nattering on about that stuff all the time and probably won’t bother.)

Undisclosed Location

I’m writing from an undisclosed location, in the midst of a secret mission. Most of the assignment involves writing copiously every day, but I must also infiltrate fine dining establishments every evening and order the most excellent of their menu items. I’m occasionally in the company of a beautiful and wicked enchantress, but otherwise I’m ensconced in a haunted mansion, drafting prose.

As I was aware that there would be several transdimensional migrations during my journey here, I packed some old paperbacks to read. I like having short old novels to read during planar shifts. You can pack several little ones into your carry-ons, and if there are interruptions or you’re just plain tired it’s easier to keep track of short and therefore less convoluted plot lines.

First up was the first Brian Garfield western I’ve read, part of an Ace double, and incidentally the first of his six Jeremy Six novels, starring a laconic western marshall. And I have to say, after that first one I’ll be reading the rest. I’d heard he was a good writer and it seems it’s true. This was Mr. Sixgun. As with a lot of these old westerns and mysteries, don’t be deceived by the art or cover advertising. Also, like a lot of writers active in the ’60s and earlier, Garfield wrote under a bunch of pseudonyms, like the one shown here. He’s best known for the Death Wish novel and its sequels that spawned the movies.

Gaming Shelves

Last week Mormegil asked me if I had any shots of all those solitaire games I post about. I decided to take some. They’re not nearly as pretty as the shelves of books because they’re scattered over several closets. But I thought I’d share them anyway. Here’s a peak into the top and only shelf in my office closet:

Out and About

I ended up on even more panels than I’d originally signed on for at the GenCon Writer’s Symposium, and I had a great time on them all. Surely the feistiest of exchanges I was involved in was on the Mythology panel moderated by Steve Drew. My fellow panelists were Linda Robertson, Ilana C. Myer, and Anton Stout.

Anton has a cool podcast over at The Once and Future Podcast, and he was recording this panel for his program, so if you’d like, you can hear our passionate exchange about Star Trek. Yeah, I brought up Star Trek as an example of modern mythology and then Anton and I digressed a little into a discussion of what’s wrong with the new movies. Well, it was ME who talked about what was wrong with the new movies, and Anton who defended them. I held myself back, for I didn’t even get into the terrible interpretation of Captain Kirk (not the actor, whom I like, but the writers). Anyway, if you want to hear me with my dander up, you can find that discussion here, and you can likewise find all kinds of cool podcasts throughout the site, including other recorded GenCon panels, and an earlier interview Anton had with me.

Mystery Box

About twenty years ago I was idly searching for Harold Lamb books in an online used book search service. I was well enough acquainted with Lamb’s work by that point to know the titles of all of his books, so I was a little mystified when two appeared that existed in no known database.

When I contacted the seller I learned that these were one-of-a-kind books. Dr. John Drury Clark had removed a handful of pulp stories from Adventure magazine and bound them in two small hardbacks. They were being sold off by his widow.

Corwin

The Kickstarter is just booming along. I’m not sure where the influx of new pledgers came from, but their numbers really leapt forward yesterday. I’m thrilled. That’s not to say I haven’t stopped hoping we will have more readers. I KNOW that there are more fans of sword-and-sorcery out there, so I hope you’re spreading the word about Tales From the Magician’s Skull.

As I’m still out slaying monsters and spinning plates, I thought I’d follow up on a suggestion from Mick and post some pics of the new family member.

Updates

Seems like I’m just going to keep spinning those plates. Poor Bill Ward is still waiting on me to write the next comment on our long overdue Corum post. Chris Hocking may still be waiting for me to get back to writing up something for Wade Miller for our Hardboiled Monday posts, but that’s been so long forgotten that he may not remember.

Meanwhile the Kickstarter is going well and I’m busy behind the scenes working to promote it in various places. I’m also trying to revise one novel while trying to finish writing another. Also busy being that part time house/farm husband, including training a new puppy. None are impossible duties in the least, it’s just hard to do everything at once.

Since I have nothing really to report, I thought I’d fill the post today with shots of various parts of my office/library. Some of the books pictured belong to other members of the family.

And no, I haven’t read all of these, but I’ve sure read a lot of them. Some multiple times. Others are part of the TBR pile. It’s a great thing to look around the office and see all the cool stuff I’m looking forward to reading…

The Skull is Pleased

Wow, well that’s pretty cool. The magazine Kickstarter made it’s initial funding goal in less than half a day, which is fabulous. Thanks to all who joined in.

Now I hope you’ll help me spread the word. I’m certain that there are more than the 200 something people who’ve currently pledged who like sword-and-sorcery and who would be thrilled to get a magazine like this into their hands. I honestly believe there are thousands of people who would dig what we’re doing here, and I’d like to find them and sign them up so that this magazine will be a viable and ongoing concern.

If you’re aware of message boards where like-minded sword-and-sorcery fans hang out, can you drop them a line and point them towards the Kickstarter? If there’s a Cimmerian mead hall nearby, can you swing in and tell them about our mad dreams?

Make Your Pledge!

The skull has risen with the full moon! At long last the Kickstarter for the new sword-and-sorcery magazine has launched!

Visit here to pledge your shekels, and ready yourself for adventure!