Unlike the previous post, this one is legit.
My essay on why “Beyond the Black River” is the best Conan story went live at Black Gate earlier today. And just for the record, “J.” is not my middle initial.
Workers doing repairs at the Robert E. Howard House in Cross Plains made a startling discovery last week. While replacing a portion of an outer wall damaged in a thunderstorm, they found an envelope containing an unknown manuscript.
The manuscript is a rough draft of a Conan story, making it the second novel length Conan yarn. According to those who have read the manuscript, Conan is robbing a tomb in Stygia when he runs into the sorcerer Thoth-Amon. They are both after an amulet sacred to the snake god Set. During the ensuing battle, Thoth-amon casts a spell on Conan that hurls him millennia into the future. The spell causes Conan to lose his memory. He wanders Africa, having various adventures, until he runs into Solomon Kane. With Kane’s help, he returns to the Hyborian Age and defeats Thoth-Amon.
Reaction among Robert E. Howard scholars has been varied. Rusty Burke says this is the best thing by Howard he has ever read. Bill “Indy” Cavalier says the discovery will be a game-changer in Robert E. Howard studies. Mark Finn was speechless. Speaking by phone from France, Patrice Louinet could only babble excitedly in French. Jeff Shanks began writing a grant proposal for further archaeological work at the Howard House. Dave Hardy, on the other hand, is convinced the manuscript is a forgery and has hired retired ADA John Bullard to investigate. A special edition of The Cromcast will be devoted to the manuscript in the near future.
It is with a heavy heart I share with you the press release I received earlier today regarding the closing of the Gemmell Awards.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GEMMELL AWARDS TO CLOSE AFTER TEN YEARS
Over the last decade, the David Gemmell Awards For Fantasy have honoured the best in fantasy fiction and artwork as chosen by the readers. With a roll of honour taking in current genre luminaries such as John Gwynne, Robin Hobb, Mark Lawrence, Peter Newman, Brandon Sanderson, Andrezj Sapkowski, Brent Weeks and many more, with all of these winners chosen by a public vote, the awards have brought focus to some of the most exciting books, authors and artists in recent times.
Unfortunately, after ten years, the Gemmell Awards will draw to a close with immediate effect. With a lack of suitable volunteers to take on current committee roles, and insufficient manpower to deliver the wide range of tasks involved, the present team has been left with no choice but to wind up the awards.
The remaining members of the team would like to thank everyone who has supported the awards, including the publishers that have worked with us, our past committee members and volunteers, all the authors and artists who have offered their support, the events and venues who have hosted our ceremonies, everyone who has ever voted on the awards over the last decade and all the fans who have helped share and spread the word on the awards.
Departing Gemmell Awards Chair Stan Nicholls said: ‘This is a decision that has not been taken lightly, and indeed is one that myself and my committee members make with a heavy heart. It was always important to us to do things to a high standard, and in the current situation I don’t think that we could deliver something befitting the reputation the Gemmell Awards has. I hope that the awards will be remembered for the good work they have done in supporting and championing the cause of fantasy fiction over the last ten years, and that we’ve left a legacy behind that people can look at fondly in years to come.’
The Amazon Smile program is a way to donate to your favorite charities when purchasing items from Amazon. The Robert E. Howard Foundation is now one of the available charities to which you can contribute. All you have to do is add it to you list of charities. It only takes a couple of clicks. You can access smile from your Amazon account. I’ve added the Foundation to my account.
There was a post on a major genre blog a few days ago that rankled a bit when I read it. I’m not going to link to it because I don’t want anyone to think I’m attacking the author. I’m not. I’d never heard of this person, although a search showed they had written some reviews I hadn’t bothered to read, mainly because the books they were reviewing were either not of interest to me or were in my TBR pile and I didn’t want to deal with spoilers. To put it another way, I don’t know the author of the post, I bear the author no ill will, and I have no interest in personal attacks on the author.
Attacks on the author’s ideas, though, well, that’s another thing all together. Continue reading
Steve Tompkins (b. 1960) passed away on this date, March 23, ten years ago, i.e., 2009. He was a leading scholar in Robert E. Howard studies, but his interests extended beyond Howard to fantasy in general. He was Managing Editor of the now defunct The Cimmerian blog at the time of his death. That being the case, I’m sure he influenced me, indirectly if not directly. I was a regular reader of The Cimmerian in those days, although I didn’t always pay close attention to who wrote what. It was the closure of The Cimmerian that motivated me to start blogging myself. I simply couldn’t find anything similar on the web.
I don’t know if I ever met Mr. Tompkins. I may have at either Howard Days or the 2006 World Fantasy Convention. Steve was there. Regardless, his writing lives on as does his memory. Howard Andrew Jones and Scott Oden have both posted tributes today.
The following are links to some of Steve’s writings (thanks to Deuce Richardson for the links):
I went camping. At an RV park on the north side of town. My brother-in-law loaned us a camper, which was a good thing as there was a trench down the middle of the hall. Continue reading
Novalyne Price Ellis was born on this day (March 9) in 1908. She passed away in 1999 on March 30. Novalyne was the author of One Who Walked Alone, a memoir of her relationship with Robert E. Howard during the last two years of his life. It was based on her diary.
Novalyne Price moved to Cross Plains to teach English in 1934, She soon met Robert E. Howard, and a tempestuous relationship started. They had broken up by the summer of 1936, and Novalyne had left Cross Plains to attend graduate school in Louisiana. She was there when she got the news of Robert’s death.
She wrote One Who Walked Alone as a rebuttal to L. Sprague de Camp’s biography of Howard, Dark Valley Destiny. If you’ve not read her book, you should. It’s one of the main sources of information we have about Bob.
The book was filmed in the mid-1990s and starred Vincent D’Onofrio as Robert and Renee Zellweger as Novalyne.
If you’re on the mailing list for Haffner Press, you got this in your inbox a little while ago. If you aren’t and are a Manly Wade Wellman fan, you’ll want to see this.
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| In This Issue: | March 7, 2019 | |
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Manly Wade Wellman |
Manly Wade Wellman’s
“Not All a Dream”
A 32-page chapbook shipping
exclusively with preordered copies of:
THE COMPLETE
JOHN THE BALLADEER Two 600+ page Smythe-sewn Hardcovers Cover art by Raymond Swanland Release Date: October 31, 2019
Novels |
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William F. Nolan
William F. Nolan was born this day (March 6) in 1928. Best known as the coauthor of Logan’s Run, Nolan is, AFAIK, the last living member of what became known as the California School or California Group. Other members included but were not limited to Ray Bradbury, Charles Beaumont, Charles E. Fritch, Richard Matheson, and Nolan’s collaborator on Logan’s Run, George Clayton Johnson.
I enjoyed Logan’s Run when I was a kid, and I’ve got the two sequels Nolan wrote somewhere around the house. I’ve not read Johnson’s sequel.
But what i enjoy most about Nolan’s work are his short stories. They tend to have a bite to them. It’s been a while since I read any. I’m going to try to work one in some time today if I can. Just as soon as I finish the Henry S. Whitehead story I started yesterday.
