Some links:

Black Gate is selling PDF versions of the magazine online and also continuing their print version. Yay!

DearAuthor: Why Amazon's Explanation is None at All.

***

I've been reading Oscar Wilde and a Game Called Murder by Gyles Brandreth, which is excellent so far. It's a murder mystery featuring Oscar Wilde, Conan Doyle, Wat Sickert, Bram Stoker, and all the usual suspects.

I also really enjoyed The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte (which I finally found in trade paper) by Laura Joh Rowland. It's very much a gothic romance, but Rowland is also really good at the action/adventure and the mystery plot. (Which if you've read her books set in feudal Japan, is not a surprise.)

First, good news for me! I've sold another story to Black Gate Magazine. It's called "Rites of Passage" and is another Giliead and Ilias story, set before the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy. (The other stories are in issues 10, 11, and 12.)

Couple of authors I remembered I wanted to recommend:

Steven Barnes. He has a book about to come out in paperback from Del Rey Great Sky Woman
The Booklist review: This prehistorical novel set in Africa introduces readers to the Ibandi, a peaceful tribe living in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro, or the Great Sky Mountain. When their lives are interrupted by invasions from a brutal neighboring tribe, it falls to two youngsters, Frog Hopping, the third son of a hunter, and T'Cori, an apprentice herb woman, to climb the Great Sky Mountain and seek help from Father Sky. Barnes does a magnificent job of thoroughly grounding his engaging characters in the practical and mystical details of daily life in ancient Africa. An adventure on a grand scale, this initial installment in a projected two-volume series cleverly sets the stage for further action and will leave readers craving more. The second part is coming out in May, according to Amazon.

Laura Joh Rowland has a long series of mystery novels set in feudal Japan that are really good. She also has a new non-series mystery The Secret Adventures of Charlotte Bronte which I'm going to order as soon as I can afford it.

I just found out that my story "Holy Places" in Black Gate #11 made the Honorable Mention list in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2008 Yay! (Like my other two stories in Black Gate, it was about Giliead and Ilias, and set before the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy.)

Just saw this at shsilver:

Black Gate magazine is now available in high-resolution digital format.

In addition to our regular print edition, Black Gate is now available for download as a high-resolution PDF. To help promote our new format, we're making the complete contents - all 224 pages - of Black Gate 12 available for download for a limited time - for free!

Black Gate 12 is available as a single download, or in two smaller sections. Both versions are suitable for printing, and require a PDF reader (such as Adobe Acrobat).

It's here at Black Gate

This issue includes my Giliead and Ilias story "Houses of the Dead," plus stories by John R. Fultz, James Enge, Constance Cooper, Todd McAulty, Ed Carmien, Howard Andrew Jones, and Charles R. Tanner. It's a great way to try out an issue of the magazine and see if you like it.

A few things:


Black Gate #12 should be shipping now. My story in it is "Houses of the Dead." It's another prequel story to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy, about Giliead and Ilias.

naominovik's Victory of Eagles is out today, which I'm going out to buy later.

Stargate: Atlantis season 4 DVDs are out today, which I can't go buy because I preordered them, which seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I have to wait for them to get here in the mail. Season 5 starts airing this Friday, so that's something else to look forward to.

Last week or so I rearranged the bibliography page on my web site, adding a list of publications by date as well as by category.

The livelongnmarry auction is still going on. Someone added up the high bids so far on July 4 and they came to over $18,000. That's a serious donation already, and the auction goes to July 15. My offer post for my autographed books is here. It's at $100.00 now, and I figure that if it goes over $125, I'll add a sixth book.

I'm still taking writing questions here and I'll answer the rest next week, when I've finished the current project, but I wanted to post about a couple of things in the meantime:

There's a preview of Black Gate #12, with art and story excerpts, including my new story "Houses of the Dead." It's a Giliead and Ilias story, set before the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy.

(The order the three Giliead and Ilias stories actually go in are 1) "Holy Places" 2) "Houses of the Dead" and 3) "Reflections." They were published out of order because, uh, I wrote them out of order.)

A note from local Texas convention in Dallas FenCon: apparently another convention started up this year with a very similar name - FedCon. FedCon folded, after taking a lot of money from attendees, and now people are confusing it with FenCon and starting rumors about it. FenCon has been going on for four years, and isn't at all associated with FedCon.

A few other things I meant to mention:


- Book rec: I saw Cassandra Chan's mysteries mentioned on arcaedia's LJ, and went and bought the first one, The Young Widow. I really enjoyed it. It's set in the contemporary UK, but does have a very Peter Wimsey/Dorothy Sayers feel, with a Scotland Yard detective and his rich dilettante friend, Phillip Bethancourt, solving mysteries. It was a very good read and didn't end at all like I expected it to. I've ordered the next two, since the local store didn't have them. Hopefully they'll get here by this weekend.


- Something else I did in court: helped older ladies turn off their cell phones. Apparently their families were big on insisting they have one but not so much with the follow-up of how to use it.


- a couple of links for Ile-Rien fans: ilerien a comm for Ile-Rien fanfic, fanart, discussion, etc. I don't read it, and it's completely fan-run. And Ile-Rien on Wikipedia. Again, this is completely a fan project.


- And Black Gate #12 should be out soon, with "Houses of the Dead," another Giliead and Ilias prequel story.

Got my copies of Black Gate #11 today! (It was probably there earlier but this was the first day I dragged myself out to the post office.) I'm really happy with how "Holy Places" turned out, so I hope people enjoy it.

Oh, and they're also having an individual back issue sale on their web site, with all the previous issues available.

Wanted to point out Black Gate #11 is about to be mailed out. My story is "Holy Places" about how Giliead and Ilias (from The Wizard Hunters etc.) first met. The magazine is also showing up in more bookstores, which I know because I found Black Gate #10 in the Hastings in Bryan.

And book rec: I just started reading the "Inspector Chen" books by Liz Williams and am really enjoying them. They're set in Singapore of the near future, but in a world where the mythology is real, so human detective Inspector Chen also has to deal with demons, gods, Celestial Warriors, and so on. The first one is Snake Agent and I think the third and most recent is Precious Dragon.

Just saw that Black Gate #11 is at the printer and there's a preview of the issue here. My story is "Holy Places," which is another Giliead and Ilias story, a prequel to the Fall of Ile-Rien trilogy (The Wizard Hunters, The Ships of Air, The Gate of Gods), and it's about how Giliead and Ilias first met. They've posted an excerpt from it here.

The cover is also gorgeous.

ETA: This is the Giliead and Ilias story I most proud of. It was also going to be the first couple of chapters of the novel that is not to be. The story that's going to be in Black Gate #12 was also from that novel, plus the one I still need to finish up and send in.


In news of other people's books, eldritchhobbit announced the publication of Past Watchful Dragons: Fantasy and Faith in the World of C.S. Lewis

Excellent reviews of the stories in Black Gate #10 here at Tangent by Sherwood Smith. On "Reflections" Good action, characterization, imagination, and resolution are part of Wells's toolkit, and this story is no exception. Yay!


hjpatience asked: Who killed Tremaine's mother? Was it any of Nicholas's enemies from D of the N?

It wasn't anyone mentioned in Death of the Necromancer. It was someone new, basically trying to make a name for himself, and he picked the wrong person to do it with.


Still taking writing questions, general or specific, here.

From jamesenge, there's a new LJ for Black Gate: bg_editor


Issue #10 which has my first Giliead and Ilias story, "Reflections," should be out soon. "Holy Places" should be in #11 and "Houses of the Dead" in #12.


Here's the cover:




ETA: Oh, just saw Rich Horton included Wolf Night in his list of "Best Online SF/F of 2006." Here's the article.

People had been asking about where to find Black Gate Magazine, and it looks like you can order a subscription through Amazon , though you can't get individual issues. Though I will have Giliead and Ilias stories in the next three issues, "Reflections" in #10, "Holy Places" in #11, and "Houses of the Dead" in #12. Some SF/F bookstores also carry it.

Just updated my web site with the cover and description for Stargate Atlantis: Entanglement. The publisher is saying it's at the printer and should be available in March. (Link to the big version of the image.)

ETA: Just grabbed this from jamesenge: The preview of Black Gate #10 is up. Publication date is March 18. The preview for my story is here: Reflections. Note: that's not the entire story and I don't think they'll post the whole thing online at all. The art is by Storn Cook, whose site is here.

My sinuses say the ice storm is nearly here.


Another question:


hikkup asked Something that sprung to mind as I am revelling my way through the Fall of Ile-Rien again:

You've written prequel Giliead and Ilias novellas - are there any plans for any sequel snippets?

Not so far. I don't have any specific plans not to, I've just been working on other things, and nothing has come to mind yet.

(I've done three Giliead and Ilias prequels to the Fall of Ile-Rien books, two novellas and one short story, all for Black Gate Magazine. The short story will be in issue #10, the first novella in #11, next in #12. When number #10 comes out, I'll post about it and where you can find it. (I'm pretty sure Clarkesworld Books carries it, for one example.)


Also - do you have favourite characters in your novels as you write them?

Yes, very much so. In the Fall of Ile-Rien books, I really enjoyed writing Tremaine Valiarde, Ilias, Reynard Morane (who was also a favorite in The Death of the Necromancer). Though I'm happy with Nicholas Valiarde as a character and what I've done with him, he's always a huge bitch to write, so I wouldn't really call him a favorite. He's like the serial killer who lives in the back of my brain, and it always takes a lot of effort to pry him out. (Some days less than others.) There are characters who seem to just step into the book fully realized and ready to go, and those are usually my favorites.



Untitled Book, still not jinxed, knock on wood:




Still taking questions here.

I'm back home, very tired. Still catching up on email, behind on everything. Oh, I sold another short story to Black Gate. It's a Gil and Ilias story, called "Houses of the Dead." So I should have a story in the next three issues, 10, 11, and 12.

Also, I got invited to the Utopiales Festival in Nantes, France, this November, and they've offered to pay airfare, hotel, etc, so...yes, free trip to France, I'm so there, and it sounds like a great convention. Unfortunately, it means I can't go to World Fantasy in Austin, as they're the same weekend.