The Kickstarter for a new sword and sorcery magazine has launched. Tales From the Magician’s Skull will be edited by Howard Andrew Jones and promises to be one of the top venues for short S&S fiction.
I’ve been excited about this ever since Howard announced it. This is a print periodical that harkens back to the days of the pulps. I’ve pledged it.
The table of contents for the first issue has been posted on the Kickstarter page. Check it out. This is gonna be fantastic.
So, way back in the 90s there was this interesting thing called Pulphouse: The Hardback 
Magazine. It was soon followed by Pulphouse Fiction Magazine. At the time I was a starving graduate student who wanted to be a writer. That last part is still true.
The hardback was a little out of my budget at the time, although I’ve got an almost complete set now, with a couple of duplicates.
I did manage to find the cash for a subscription to Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, all the way to the end. (I think I have a complete run.) I read each issue eagerly, not just for the fiction but the columns on writing. I’d met the editorial team of Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch at a science fiction convention in Dallas early in Pulphouse’s run. I paid attention to what they said about writing.
Pulphouse folded in 1996. Time marched on, and the publishing landscape changed. Rusch and Smith dipped their toes back into publishing with Fiction River, a publication regular readers of this blog know I‘m a fan of. (I’m also way behind on in my reading, but we won’t go there.)
Fiction River has been a success, as has Smith’s Monthly. Now Pulphouse is being revived, with Dean Wesley Smith as the editor and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serving as Executive Editor. They’ve launched a Kickstarter. I’ve pledged and subscribed. (My only complaint is there isn’t an option for a combined electronic and print subscription. I went with print.) Pulphouse isn’t going to be limited to a particular genre. That is something I like.
So if you like short fiction and want to see more of it, especially a variety, consider pledging.
If I could have one superpower, I think it would be the ability to split myself into multiple bodies. That way, maybe I wouldn’t be so far behind on reading, writing, and review. You know, the important stuff.
Anyway I promised Adrian Simmons, the editor of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, a review for both the previous and current issues. Both are strong issues. Continue reading
The StoryHack Kickstarter has gone live! If you want to experience some action-oriented pulp adventure, you’ll want to check this one out.
There’s an Issue 0 already out, done as a proof concept. The cover is there. As I said in yesterday’s post, I’m excited to be included in the first issue. It’s available for free during the duration of the Kickstarter campaign, just go here. And if you like the contents, please think about supporting.
I’m a day or two late on this announcement since I left town the day it was made, but StoryHack Issue 0 has gone live. The electronic version is currently $1 on Amazon. Bryce Beattie, the editor and publisher, has put it up for free on Smashwords, as well as Barnes and Noble, so Amazon should price match soon. There’s also a print version for $9.99.
I’m excited about StoryHack, and not just because I have a story in it. (I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t excited about having a story in it.) I’m encouraged by the number of startup publications with an emphasis on action and adventure. It looks like we’re about to have a renaissance of pulp sensibilities, and that’s a good thing.
StoryHack Issue 0 is free because it’s a proof of concept for a Kickstarter campaign to launch the magazine. The Kickstarter should go live in the next day or three. Get a copy, read it, and if you like what you see, pledge the Kickstarter. I’ll let you know when it launches.
There’s a Kickstarter launching soon for a new publication entitled StoryHack Action and Adventure. It’s just what the name implies. Action and adventure stories from multiple genres, all with a pulp sensibility. Bryce A. Beattie is the editor/publisher. He has put together an Issue 0 prior to the Kickstarter launching.
Here is the lineup, in alphabetical order, by first name:
You might recognize some of those names. *waves at David* Yes, that’s me, the fifth one down. I’m thrilled to be included in this anthology and am looking forward to reading the rest of the stories. You can be sure I’ll let you know more as launch date for the Kickstarter becomes available.
Hey, folks, the Chicken Fried Cthulhu Kickstarter has 25 hours left as I write this and is still a ways from funding. This is an anthology of southwestern flavored Cthulhu and Lovecraft themed stories. It’s set to premiere at the World Fantasy Convention in San Antonio this year.
If it funds. It’s from the same crew that brought you Skelos, and there’s an impressive lineup of authors listed, including Robert E. Howard and Joe Lansdale. Part of the reason the goal is so high is that the editors want to pay the authors professional rates, and that takes money.
So if you’ve been thinking about pledging, please do so. I would really like to see this project get off the ground. I am not an author in the anthology and my only connection to the project is that I’m friends with the guys putting it together. I just want to read the stories.
The good folks over at Ragnarok Publishing are running a Kickstarter for a new anthology featuring female protagonists, Hath No Fury, which ends in a few hours. They asked me to help get the word out and offered suggestions that would help to do that, including possible guest posts by some of their contributors. One of the authors with a story in the book is Bradley P. Beaulieu. His contribution features the protagonist from his current series, The Song of the Shattered Sands. I reviewed the first volume, Twelve Kings in Sharakai here.
So without further ado, here’s Brad:
I was recently at a convention—GenCon down in Indianapolis—and I was doing a short video interview where we got to talking about the state of the field and how quickly (or not) it changes. My basic take was that it’s a field, much like most of the entertainment industry at large, that’s pretty slow to change.
Why? Well, it’s complicated, but I think a lot of it boils down to how editors (and these days more and more, purchasing panels) decide what a publisher is (and isn’t) going to buy. For the purposes of this conversation, I’m just going to call these folks “editors”, but know that these days it’s almost never a single person that’s making the call, but rather a number of people, including sales, marketing, and other executives—especially if we’re talking about a hot author or property—but it all starts with the editors, so let’s be reductive for the time being. Continue reading
Jim Cornelius, who is the chief scout over at Frontier Partisans, has just launched a Kickstarter for a nonfiction book, Warriors of the Wild Lands. This is a nonfiction collection of biographical essays on scouts, adventures, and pioneers who made a lasting impact on the frontier. In the book you’ll find heroes and villains and some who are a mix of both.
Anyone interested in heroic fiction or history will want to check this one out. I suspect to a large degree I’m preaching to the choir here because I know a lot of the folks who read this blog also read Jim’s. If you’re not familiar with Frontier Partisans, you should. It’s one of the blogs I read regularly. I may not comment on every post, but there are very I don’t read (usually because I’m on the road). If you’re a writer, Frontier Partisans is a great place to find story ideas. I know, because one of Jim’s posts served as the inspiration for one of my published stories.
I’ve been looking forward to this book and have already pledged the Kickstarter.
Well, why are you still hanging around here? Go pledge!
The Skelos Kickstarter launched today. Here’s the link for those of you who wish to save time by skipping this post and going straight to pledging.
Now, why I am supporting.
And, no, it’s not because I’m a contributor. I would support this Kickstarter even if I weren’t involved at some level.
Let me rephrase that. I would support the Skelos Kickstarter even if I weren’t contributing to the first issue. Because I would be involved. As a reader, if nothing else.
Allow me to pontificate. *Climbs on soapbox* I care deeply about the fields of weird fiction and dark fantasy. They are some of my favorite genres to read in. I want to be able to read new works, and I want to see the field grow and expand. Plus I want to know what is out there that I might have missed. That’s where the reviews will come in. Continue reading