I’m on the Cromcast

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First, I need to apologize to Josh, Jon, and Luke for failing to mention in my report on Howard Days 2018 that they had interviewed me.  I plead fatigue and lack of sleep.  Age had nothing to do with it, really.

I’d also like to thank them for having me on the show.  It was great to visit with them in front of a microphone.  The episode went live the day I left on an extended trip, which is why I’m just not mentioning it.  Again, apologies for the delay in promoting it, guys.

For those of you who don’t know, the Cromcast is a podcast focusing on weird fiction.  It’s one you’ll want to listen to.

Over the weekend, the Cromcasters discussed amongst themselves how they thought Howard Days was going and interviewed a number of people.  In addition to me, they also talked with David J. West, Ty Johnston, Jason Waltz, Mark Finn, Indy Cavalier, Jeff Shanks, and Rusty Burke, just to name a few.  This episode is two hours long.  I come in at 11:18.  But don’t check it out just to hear me.  All of the guests, along with the hosts, have something interesting to say.

Listen to it here.  You’ll be glad you did.

Summer Slump

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While the dog days of summer may not have officially started, as far as I’m concerned they’ve been here since the second week of May.  That was when we started hitting triple digit temperatures on a fairly consistent basis.

The temperatures may be one reason I really haven’t felt like writing anything.  Or even reading.  The heat can be pretty draining.  Or maybe I’m just getting old.  There have been one or two reviews, a report on Howard Days, and a tribute to Harlan Ellison.  I’ve hardly done any fiction writing, even though I’ve had more time than I did in the spring.

OTOH, my time hasn’t been nearly as structured as when classes are in session.  I’ve done a lot of traveling:  Austin for the State Solo and Ensemble Competition, Howard Days, a week in Dallas for my son’s trumpet camp (those tweets about the BDSM convention showing up at the hotel we were in weren’t jokes, in spite of the humorous wording), and I just got back from a weekend in Cloudcroft, NM.

Classes start Tuesday, so I’ll be back into a routine, like it or not.  (That would be not, but I need the money.)  So I’m hoping I’ll be more productive by the end of the week.  At least you know I’m not dead yet.

RIP, Harlan Ellison (1934-2018)

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The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Harlan Ellison has died.  Initial reports are that Ellison died unexpectedly in his sleep.

Ellison was a much loved and much loathed figure in the science fiction and fantasy field.  I’ll not try to list all of his award-winning work.  Others will do that far better than I can.

I met Harlan only once, at an Aggiecon in the early 2000s.  He was everything I’d heard he was.

Harlan had pretty much stopped writing after he had a stroke a few years ago.  A Kickstarter last year (which I pledged) is going to be bringing a lot of his work back into print.

Adventures Fantastic would like to extend condolences to Harlan’s widow Susan as well Harlan’s many friends and fans.

I really don’t know what else to say.  Harlan’s life was too big to be summed up in a blog post.  I picked up duplicate copies of several of his books last week when I was in Dallas.  I’ll read one this evening and raise a glass in his memory.

Report on Robert E. Howard Days 2018

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This past weekend, Howardians made their annual pilgrimage to Cross Plains. The emphasis this year was on Howard’s fans.

I was afraid the weather was going to be horrendous.  The temperatures were forecast to be around 105F.  Fortunately, things didn’t get that bad, although on Saturday they got close.  The thunderstorms that rolled in Thursday night helped to cool things off.

(l.to r.) Ty Johnston, Jason M. Waltz, your intrepid blogger, David J. West

The highlight of the weekend for me was meeting some folks I’ve been friends with online but not met in person. I knew David J. West was going to be there, but I hadn’t know Jason M. Waltz and Ty Johnston would be attending.  Jason is the editor and publisher of Rogue Blades Entertainment. He’s recently retired and plans to reinvigorate RBE.  Ty is an author who has written some terrific fantasy (start here). They all had a great time and want to come back. These are some great guys who fit right in. (Jason moved to Texas earlier this year, so I expect out paths will cross again soon.)

Indy Cavalier giving his GoH speech.

Friday was the usual day for postal cancellations, hot dog lunch, and panels.  The banquet Friday night was held in the gymnasium of First Baptist Church.  We’d outgrown the Community Center.  The Staghorn Cafe catered the chicken fried steak dinner. As usual, it was delicious. I only spent $15 dollars at the silent auction this year.  For the last few years I’ve been spending less money, probably because I’ve either gotten everything I want or I can’t afford it.  Bill “Indy” Cavalier was the GoH. His speech was entitled “Robert E. Howard Saved My Life”, and was about the impact REH had on his life during some rocky times.

One of the big items of interest this year was the excavation of the cellar.  Jeff Shanks is an archaeologist with the National Park Service. The Howard House in on the National Register of Historic Places, which places it under National Park jurisdiction.  The cellar was excavated earlier this spring.

Jeff Shanks (far center) discusses the excavation of the cellar.

Jeff gave a tour of the cellar, meaning he stood outside the tape along with everyone else and discussed the process of the excavation. The plan as I understand it is to preserve the cellar and try to figure out a way to keep it visible for future visitors. Until that happens, it will be covered back up.  Volunteers filled in the cellar Sunday.  You could see where the pressure from the dirt was causing the walls to begin to curve inward.

The photo on the right shows some of the items recovered from the cellar.  The helmet is a baseball helmet. The jar in the front left still has its content intact. A number of jars were recovered that survived being buried.  Jeff was asking us what we thought.  The most popular response was pinto beans.  I thought it looked more like some type of vegetable soup.  There were some things in the jar that looked to me like corn.  Jeff said they also had jars with peach pits, so he knew whoever had stored the jars had been canning peaches.  The contents of the cellar will be discussed in a report for the Parks Service.  Jeff joked that it will probably be the most read archaeological report from the Service.

Bobby Derie makes a point to Dierk Gunther during the Solomon Kane panel.

This year marked the 90th anniversary of Solomon Kane.  I was eating lunch at the Stag Horn on Friday and missed the birthday cake. But I had a great time with friends old and new and wouldn’t trade it for the cake.  (I didn’t need the sugar anyway.)

(l. to r.) Scott Cupp, James Reasoner, David Hardy, Jason Carney, and Mark Finn discuss what it takes to go From Fan to Pro

The panels, both the fan oriented and the academic papers were good.  I missed part of the Foundation Awards.  I stepped out of the room for a few minutes to return a call from my wife.  Congratulations to the winners.

The barbeque on the grounds of the Howard House was excellent as always. It was followed by the poetry reading. People said goodnight and in many cases goodbye.  The usual informal breakfast was Sunday and the 2018 Howard Days came to a close. From what I understand, it was a success, with a higher than usual attendance.

I’m looking forward to next year.

The Rogue Blades gang displays their invisible blades.

Those Lazy Hazy Crazy Days of Summer

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No, I’m not referring to the song.  Just an update on what you can expect to see here at the ol’ blog.

First, I had attempted to read the nominees for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award.  This goes to best first fantasy novel. I’ve read two (reviewed here and here).  I’m almost finished with Kings of the Wyld.  I’ll review it.  I decided a few days ago that it would be insane to try and push myself to finish the remaining two.  I have copies and will read/review them at some point in the future.  Right now I want to focus on shorter fiction as well as getting back to reading more Jack Williamson.

I also want to read some Robert E. Howard.  Howard Days starts in less than a week.  I’m really looking forward to it, even though I think there have been more triple digit temperature days in the last few weeks than not.

I’m not teaching Summer I, so I should have a more flexible schedule.  That means I can get some writing done.  That’s all I’ll say about that for now.

What are the rest of you up this summer.

I’ve Been a Baaad Boy

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My son and I went to Scarborough Renaissance Faire a couple of weeks ago.  It’s in Waxahatchie, which is south of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.  (Lou Antonelli assures me that “Waxahatchie” means “where the buffalo poop”.)  Since we came in from the west, I stopped at a couple of Half Price Books, one in Burleson and one in Fort Worth.

This past weekend my son was competing at the State Solo and Ensemble contest in Austin.  Austin has five Half Price Books.  I managed to hit four of them, two on the way in and two when I left.  (I didn’t ride on the bus this year and went to visit family when I left, so I went out a different way than I came in.)

I bought more than you see here, a lot more.  (Don’t tell my wife.)  There were plenty of DAW paperbacks with the yellow covers to be had. Unfortunately none were the Lin Carter The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories or the Karl Edward Wagner The Year’s Best Horror Stories.  That was probably a bit too much to hope for.  I’ve got all of Carter’s volumes, but I’m missing some of Wagner’s.  Although speaking of Wagner…

Looky what I found.

Paperbacks weren’t the only things I looked at.  While I was primarily looking for pulpy paperbacks, especially DAW titles, I did peruse the hardcovers and trade paperbacks at all the stores.  There were a few nice finds there, as well, the best of which you can see in the photo on the right.  The title on the lower right is an anthology containing stories by Wagner, Joseph Payne Brennan, and David Morrell.  I have a mass market paperback of this one, but they don’t show up often, so I grabbed the trade paper edition.  The silver book at the upper right is Masques II.  The book in the middle on the left is The Soft Whisper of the Dead by Charles L. Grant.  Next to it is The Definitive Best of the Horror Show.

I’m not going to be buying many books for the next few months, at least not once Howard Days is over.  My son is going to a trumpet camp where he’ll be staying in a hotel in Dallas later in the summer.  I’ll be staying with him and driving him to camp.  During the day, I’ll be at the hotel working on revising lab manuals.  Dallas and the surrounding suburbs have plenty of good used book stores.  I promise to be good.

Now to figure out where I’m going to put all of these…

Tethering a Mage

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The Tethered Mage
Melissa Caruso
Paperback $12.08, ebook $4.99
(Prices are current at the time the review is posted and are subject to change.)

The Tethered Mage is the second Gemmell Morningstar Award finalist I’m reviewing.  You can find the first review, for The Court of Broken Knives, here.  (For some reason, the two finalists I didn’t already have copies of when the final ballot was announced were the two I read first.  Oh, yeah, because I  bought electronic copies and could read them on my phone in spare minutes.)

I decided to read The Tethered Mage second because I thought based on what little I knew about it, it would be the one least likely to hold my interest.  I’m very glad to say that wasn’t the case at all.  Continue reading →

Entering The Court of Broken Knives

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The Court of Broken Knives
Anna Smith Spark
Hardcover $14.22 paperback $10.87 ebook $4.99
(Prices current at the time of posting and subject to change)

I had intended to write this review two weeks ago when I finished the book, but I was overtaken by final exams and the usual end of the semester stuff.

The Court of Broken Knives is a finalist for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award.  I usually try (emphasis on “try”) to read these nominees because they are first novels.  The Legend Award nominees tend to be books in series I’m not current on.

But I digress.  Anna Spark Smith’s Twitter handle is queen of grimdark.  I won’t argue it.  This is a very dark book.  Continue reading →