Return of the Sword…Returns!

Editor and Publisher Jason Waltz has recently announced the release of the second edition of Return of the Sword under the new Rogue Blades Productions imprint.  Originally published by Flashing Swords Press, Return of the Sword is a great anthology of heroic fantasy adventure fiction featuring the genre’s well-known, up-and-coming, and brand new authors alike.   (I have a story in there, too.)

Go ahead and order a copy.  It’s also available on Amazon.com.

Waltz has tweaked the format and layout a bit to better suit his exceptional editorial tastes, the Rogue Blades Entertainment brand, and his long-term plan for a series of anthologies.  In fact, next up is Rage of the Behemoth, slated for June 2009, and it’s already sporting some fantastic authors.

Count on more good things from RBE!

Why Should We Care about History? Just Ask C.S. Lewis

I find myself reading a lot of history.  Why, you ask?  Well, I simply enjoy it (at least enough to make it my second major–along with journalism and mass communication–in college).  Yep, I’m a history nerd.  It’s okay–I embrace it.  And I can probably smoke you in Trivial Pursuit because of it.

But there’s another reason I study so much history that I could never quite articulate properly.  Then I came across this quotation from C.S. Lewis.  He nailed it:

Most of all, perhaps, we need intimate knowledge of the past. Not that the past has any magic about it, but because we cannot study the future, and yet, need something to set against the present, to remind us that the basic assumptions have been quite different in different periods and that much which seems certain to the uneducated is merely temporary fashion. A man who has lived in many places is not likely to be deceived by the local errors of his native village: the scholar has lived in many times and is therefore in some degree immune from the great cataract of nonsense that pours from the press and the microphone of his own age.

Well said.  And I think I can paraphrase this statement for today’s audience: the study of history provides one with an excellent and objective bullshit filter, a tool that is very much needed in an age in which the methods of spreading bullshit grow more numerous and effective by the day.

So read up everyone.  It’s your duty to be a nerd.

Story Selected for EDF ‘Best of’ Anthology

I just found out the that the editors over at Every Day Fiction have selected my story The Weald Maiden’s Will as part of their forthcoming print anthology, The Best of Every Day Fiction 2008.  What an honor!

Looks like they’re hoping to publish it by December in both hardcover and paperback.  I’ll post more details when they’re available.

Good News from Ricasso Press

Looks like my story “Knowledge and Dust” will finally see print.  Just got word from Rob Santa at Ricasso Press that he found a printer to work with, so Magic & Mechanica and a couple of other anthologies will soon be available for purchase.  Here’s what he had to say:

Well, progress was made, though not exactly what i wanted to do. The irony of it all is I was trying not to take this approach, but if I’d had, everything for Ricasso Press would have been on book shelves in about a week.

I already related my tale of woe with a local printer who I wanted to give some business, and he let me down. I then contacted an online printer with very good rates that, after two months, still hadn’t provided me with a draft copy. Sigh.

So i went through Lulu. I had a very specific pricepoint in mind for my books, and using Lulu means I either change the price (not very likely) or run a lower return on investment. But it will have exposure through a site that’s already set up. My own website will have other materials (such as e-books and perhaps audio versions) plus, of course, access to the Lulu bookstore.

In short, the printing work is done. I should have books in hand in a few days.

Thanks for the patience everyone.

This is good news–I think these will be some quality anthos.  I’ll post more details here when I get them.

UPDATE 10/15/2008: It appears the printer Ricasso is going with will in fact be LSI, not Lulu.  This is good: LSI is tied to Amazon.com, so the anthology will have a presence there, and the press did a great job with Return of the Sword.

Propaganda or Perspective?: The Personal Viewpoints of SF Authors

Lou Anders of Pyr Books has started a great conversation about sci fi authors inserting their own viewpoints into their writing.  Is this just preachy, heavy-handed, and a blight on sci fi literature, or is this just representative of the grand diversity of thought and opinion among sci fi authors?  (I would argue this question applies to fantasy fiction, as well–which is why I post about it here–and the discussion, I see, has extended into that realm.)

I’m inclined to agree with Anders’ take on it all.  To find out what that take is, I encourage everyone to head over to his blog, Bowing to the Future, and take a look at the post, titled Science Fiction Belongs to the World, as well as the subsequent comments.

I will add that, although I tend to lean to the left, there have been a couple of occasions when an in-your-face leftist rant inserted into a piece of fantasy fiction did, for me, tarnish the work as a whole–not because I disagreed, but because it was so unsubtle.  Did I perceive it to be propaganda?  Maybe.

Update from Ricasso Press

My story, “Knowledge and Dust,” was accepted a while back for Magic & Mechanica, an anthology edited by Bill Ward and Robert J. Santa of Ricasso Press. Ricasso is putting out several anthologies simultaneously with the launch of the press, and Santa just issued another update on these projects at SFReader.com:

My local printer basically defaulted on the project after me pouring tons of time and effort into giving a small businessman a shot. I am working with an online printer right now and will have copies in hand shortly (“shortly” is as accurate as I can be right now).

As clearly as I can say it, the project is not dead only woefully delayed. I understand when projects take long times to wrap up they tend to disappear. That is not the case here. Authors and prospective readers have been inhumanly patient, and I thank you for it. Where the light at the end of the tunnel turned out to be an oncoming train before, the light this time is an actual exit.

“Knowledge and Dust” is the first story I ever sold, so I’m hoping everything works out for the best.

Black Gate Issue 12…for Free

Those of you who’ve heard me talk about the magazine Black Gate, now is the time to check it out. The publishers, in their wisdom and desire to draw in more readers, have made a free copy of issue 12 available for download.

If you like heroic fantasy, high fantasy, sword-and-sorcery, or any fantasy literature with a focus on adventure, this is a great opportunity to experience it in the short form. I can’t recommend it enough.

A First Draft Complete

Finally finished the first draft of a story I’ve been working on since January.  What a long road.  Now I have some serious editing to do.

Morlock to be Novelized

James Enge has graced the pages of Black Gate, Flashing Swords, and Every Day Fiction with his tales of the crooked, cantankerous, bibulous wizard named Morlock Ambrosious.  I even had the privilege of sharing the table of contents with Enge in The Return of the Sword. I simply love his Morlock stories. And now there will be more, much more.

Enge recently sold two Morlock novels to Pyr Books, a rapidly rising publisher of science fiction and fantasy with works from authors like Michael Moorcock, Mike Resnick, Charles Coleman Finlay, Joe Abercrombie, Alan Dean Foster, Gardner Dozois, and Jack Dann, among others.  According to the SFScope announcement, the first Morlock installment is slated for the first half of 2009, and I cannot wait.

Review at Black Gate

There’s a pretty flattering review of The Return of the Sword and “What Heroes Leave Behind” up at Black Gate magazine’s website.  Made me smile big.