Category Archives: Scott Cupp

RIP, Howard Andrew Jones

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Sean CW Korsgaard is reporting that Howard Andrew Jones has passed away. Howard announced he had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer late last summer. Sean also posted the image below which I am shamelessly stealing because it captiures perfectly how I feel.

I met Howard a couple of times over the years. The first time was at the World Fantasy Convention in 2006 in Austin. This was jsut before the first of the Harold Lamb anthologies he edited for Bison Books was published. He had an advanced copy that he held onto. He  didn’t let it get away from. I know bacuase I tried to talk him out of it.

It was because of this meeting that I got interested in Harold Lamb and eventually collected the entire set Howard edited.

So, thank you, Howard, for that.

More recently, we met again at Robert E. Howard Days last year. He told me life was great. He was writing and living on his farm and things couldn’t be better. I was really happy for him and told him so.

How quickly things can change.

Howard cared deeply about sword and sorcery and was a constant promoter of it. He was the inaugural editor for Tales of the Magician’s Skull. When I asked him how I could get on his list of contributors (the magazine didn’t take open submissions), he told me ownership had changed, and he was no longer the editor. I told him that sucked.

Howard was very outgoing, friendly, easy to talk to, genuinely interested in the people he spoke with.

His most recent fantasy series is the Nanuvar series. The third book came out last fall from Baen. I’ve not had a chance to read more than one or two of the Hanuvar short stories. They were great.

Howard was a talented writer who was just hitting his stride. The Hanuvar series was projected to be five books. I don’t know if Howard completed the fourth or had even started it.

The world lost a fantastic writer.

But more than that, we’ve lost an excellent human being.

My thoughts and prayers are with Howard’s famiily and friends tonight, and I’ll raise a glass shortly to his memory. I especially want to extend my condolences to John C. Hocking, who attended Robert E. Howard Days with Howard Andrew Jones this past year. Their friendship goes back years. John, I’m extremely sorry for your loss.

Obituaries: Barry N. Malzberg and George Zebrowski

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I’ve been busy, on the road, and generally distracted lately, so I missed hearing about a couple of deaths in the science fiction and fantasy community.

Barry N. Mazlberg (1939-2024) passed away on December 19 in Saddle River, New Jersey. He was an author, editior, and critic. His essays, collected Breakfast in the Ruins and The Bend in the Road are worth seeking out. Stark House Press has published a couple of collections of his science fiction as well as a series of his mystery novels.

I met Malzberg once back in the 00’s at a ConDFW. I don’t recall which year. He was a pleasant speaker and an approachable guest.

For years Malzberg cowrote a column with Mike Resnick for the SFWA Bulletin until they committed the unforgiveable crime of referring to Bea Mehaffey (an editor from the fifites) as a lady editor and said she was attractive. (She was.) Or something along those lines.

I’ve never really gotten into his science fiction, and I’m not sure why. I think I may not ahve been ready for it when I was younger.

I’ve got the book on the left, and I’ll dip into it later tonight.

The other loss was George Zebrowski (1945-2024), who died on December 20th. It’s December 27 as I’m writing this. His birthday is December 28. Zebrowski wrote space oriented fiction that, from what I understand, tended towards hard science fiction.

I’ve got some of his books but haven’t gotten to them yet. I have read  soem of his short fiction, althoug it’s been so long that I don’t recall much other than I enjoyed it enough to want to read more of his work.

He was married to science fiction author Pamela Sargent.

We at Adventures Fantastic would like to express our condolences to Barry Malzberg’s and George Zebrowski’s faimly and friends.

 

Tales from the Otherverse Now Available

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Tales From The Otherverse webTales from the Otherverse went live today.  It’s available in paper format from Amazon for $9.99 and in electronic format from Amazon and Smashwords for $3.99.

I’m excited to be included in this anthology.  The other authors are an impressive lineup.  I’ve only read Robert Vardeman’s story,  and ti was a blast.  I’m looking forward to diving into this one over the holidays.

One Final Robert E. Howard Anniversary This Year

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Cross Plains Universe
Scott A. Cupp and Joe R. Lansdale, ed.
Monkey Brain Books
296 p.
Given free to attendees of the 2006 World Fantasy Convention

In all the hubbub earlier this year about all the anniversaries related to Robert E. Howard, one seems to have been overlooked.  This year marked the fifth anniversary of the publication of Cross Plains Universe, an anthology put together to mark the Robert E. Howard centennial as well as the 30th anniversary of Lone Star Universe, an anthology of Texas writers. 

Now as anniversaries go, the fifth isn’t all that big a deal unless you forget and your wife has to remind you.  (Can I get an “Amen” from the brethren?)  Also, this book was never made for sale to the general public, at least as far as I know.  If you weren’t able to attend the 2006 World Fantasy Convention in Austin or one of the following Howard Days, where the book was made available in the gift shop, you probably haven’t seen a copy.  I’d even wager that many of you might not be aware of its existence. 

If you are able to score a copy, do so.  It’s worth your while.  A brief perusal of the contents will show you why.

After an introduction by Scott Cupp, Ardath Mayhar leads off the stories with “The Pillar in the Mist”, the tale of a young Briton who has to prove his prowess as a warrior on the moors one night.  Rick Klaw and Paul O. Miles give an interesting alternate history take on the pulps in “A Penny a Word”, while in “Slim and Swede and the Damned Dead Horse:  A Tale of Bloodson” C. Dean Anderson mixes two of Howard’s favorite genres, western and sword and sorcery.  Bradley Denton provides poetry in “The King Comes to Texas.”  Howard is resurrected from the grave in “An Excerpt from The Stone of Namirha” by Bill Crider and Charlotte Laughlin.  “Two Hearts in Zamora” by Jessica Reisman is the story of a pair of girls who find themselves in a dangerous land.  Co-editor Scott Cupp provides a weird western with “One Fang”.

l. to r., Cupp, Reasoner, Crider, Lansdale

One of Saddam Hussein’s sons meets an end not seen on the evening news in “The Bunker of the Tikriti” by Chris Nakashima-Brown.  Gene Wolfe tells the tale of “Six From Atlantis”, while Mark Finn lets us know why a Conan movie wasn’t made in the early 70s in “A Whim of Circumstance”.  James Reasoner’s contribution is a twisty El Borak story, “Wolves of the Mountains”.  The incomparable Howard Waldrop tells what happens when some seniors make a trip across the border in “Thin, on the Ground”.  Grandchildren learn about their grandmother’s encounter with a warrior king in Carrie Richerson’s “The Warrior and the King”.  Lillian Stewart Carl provides a historical adventure in “The Diamons of Golkonda” while “Prince Koindrinda Escapes” is an alternate history tale with giant apes from Jayme Lynn Blashke.

L. J. Washburn tells how a young Bob Howard helps solve a murder in Cross Plains during the oil boom with “Boomtown Bandits”.  Chris Roberson’s “The Jewel of Leystall” is an installment in his Paragaea series, and very much in the vein of Howard.  Neal Barrett, Jr. tells a tall tale in “The Heart”, while Lawrence Person explains why you don’t mess with “The Toughest Jew in the West”.  “The Sea of Grass on the Day of Wings” by Melissa Mia Hall is a meditation on Howard’s final hours.  Finally, Michael Moorcock gives us the story of Ronan the Red Archer in “The Roaming Forest”.

As you can tell, the contents of this anthology are quite varied, with stories told in the style of Howard, using new characters, characters and settings previously created by the contributors, Howard’s characters, and even Howard himself.  All of the contributors are from Texas or resided there at the time of writing, which is why some of the names may not be familiar to you. 

ABE currently shows 11 copies available with prices ranging from a steal to a gouge.  One thing to keep in mind, though, is that unsigned copies of this book are rare.  With the exception of Gene Wolfe and L.J. Washburn, all the contributors, including artist Gary Gianni, were at the WFC and participated in the mass signing, and Washburn sent signed bookmarks with her husband James Reasoner.  Before you buy a copy online, check to make sure you’re getting a signed copy.