“Behind the Scenes with Skull & Friends”

Saturday 2/27 at 10AM EST. ~1 hour. 
 “Behind the Scenes with Skull & Friends.” 

UPDATE: Seth earned his title of "Dread Cymist" (chemist)

...reposted from Goodman Games website.

Join us Saturday, February 27 at 10:00 am EST on Goodman Games Official Twitch Channel

"The exalted Skull, lord of all things sword & sorcery, has sent a selection of his minions and interns to satiate the mortal desire for sword & sorcery discussion while they breathlessly await issue #6 of his magazine of superlative greatness.

Join Chief Editorial Minion and interns #12, 34, and 657 to learn more about the ongoing open call for sword & sorcery fiction, tips and tricks for writing great fiction, and just a good discussion of what books we’ve been reading. Intern #78 will fill in if any other interns meet their demise prior to screen time."

Q&A with Anna Smith Spark - GenCon2019 Writer's Symposium

This May, 2019 I had the pleasure of interviewing Anna Spark Smith for BlackGate.com: Disgust and Desire: An Interview with Anna Smith Spark. Among the dark fantasy crowd, she is known as the Queen of Grimdark. The David Gemmell Awards shortlisted her The Court of Broken Knives. The sequel The Tower of Living and Dying continued the Empires of Dust trilogy (Harper Voyager US/ Orbit US/Can). The last installment called The House of Sacrifice is available Aug 13th! That's now.

Fortuitously, she was invited to the GenCon Writer's Symposium; GenCon is the world's largest tabletop gaming convention, this year luring >70,000 guests to Indianapolis, IN. I volunteer for that symposium and was granted a panel slot to extend the interview live. Thanks to Melanie Meadors and Kelly Swails for working the program and running a splendid symposium.

Despite well attend sessions throughout the convention, by the time 5pm rolled around Friday, our Q&A drew an intimate crowd (~10). We opened with a reading of her famous introductory chapter to The Court of Broken Knives. The notion of doing a reading was a bit impromptu, so we hadn't a tripod, a professional video recorder, or ability to tune-out the other sessions (thanks to audience member Dirk for stepping up to film). Anna Smith Spark graced us with reading the entire chapter (~10min), which left the room wanting her to just read for the full hour. See insert video. Her reading of the same chapter at a Goth City Festival 2018 is also on You Tube and is breathtaking.

Before I could even finish this post, new fan Michael Farrell found the YouTube recording and posted in the commentary: "this was the highlight of my Gen Con." Mine too. Also in the audience was John O'Neill, founder and editor of Blackgate.com (and Gotham Robot enthusiast). It was surreal to have him present along with Anna Smith Spark; we continued discussions over dinner. 

BTW, Anna Smith Spark is known for outrageous footwear, and she did not disappoint. Friday, she blessed us with the dragon shoes. 

More video snippets of the session may emerge as I decompress from an intense convention, but for now please listen in... read our interview Disgust and Desire: An Interview with Anna Smith Spark., and check out her series!

World Fantasy Convention 2016 Wrap Up - ARTIST-WRITER PANEL

World Fantasy Convention 2016 - S. E. Lindberg Summaries:

• Author Readings
• Weird Fiction - Darrell Schweitzer and Book Haul

• The Eternally Difficult (but Fascinating) Writers Panel

• Sword and Sorcery Panel
• John O'Neill: "My one true love" Black Gate, Dyscrasia, & Sword-n-Sorcery
• Writer-Artist Panel <== you are here

The Fantasy Writer-Artist : 

THURSDAY 9PM   DELAWARE CD 

Jerome Stueart, Charles Vess, Sally Wiener Grotta(moderator), Brenda Carr , Seth Lindberg 

Abstract: We can think of numerous examples of fantasy writers (novelists or short story writers) who were also accomplished painters or illustrators – from Mervyn Peake to Janny Wurts. How does working in one medium affect work in the other? We hope to hear from active contemporary writer-artists on this panel, not just talk about them.

Sally Grotta moderated. She's a photographer and writer, who also has an interest in sustaining artisan skills via her American Hands project ("...an ongoing photographic study by Sally Wiener Grotta, who is creating narrative portraits of traditional artisans, such as a blacksmith, quilting bee, spinner, glass blower, weaver, tatting lacemaker, papermaker and so forth." I was captivated by her work in progress call "Dream a Little World" in which people can make the substance of their dreams tangible. Really looking forward to that being published.

Sally Grotta reads WIP "Dream a Little World"

Charles Vess is an accomplished illustrator known for his drawings of fae and Gaimne's Sandman. He is currently tackling ~60 works to match a Ursula Le Guin Earthsea omnibus (both trilogies). He has been hard at work drawing dragons to her approval. After the white-washing of her characters in the TV adaptation of Earthsea, in which Ursula responded publicly, Charles attempts to clarify her vision with a black Ged.

Black Ged

Jerome Stueart hails from nearby Dayton OH. He authored and illustrated The Angels of Our Better Beasts ( ChiZine Publications).  In the dealer's room, he drew personalized beasts for any visitor (I grabbed a Polar Bear and mysterious Fox). 

 "I got a lot of love from fantasy writers and fans, and people who enjoyed the little extra Beasties that I drew for them.  It really helps you connect with someone when they describe their Beast to you, and you draw their imagination to life.... you bond.  I felt like I was in Family the whole time I was there.  I met a lot of new people, reacquainted myself with relationships, and felt very welcomed there.  I couldn't ask for a better weekend or con!" - Jerome Stueart 2016

Brenda Carr recently had her story "Gret" published in the Blackguard's Blacklist companion (I had backed the kickstart for the anthology and really enjoyed it.) Gret is wonderful story tracing the origins of a witch. The narrative voice is authentic and beautifully conveys a child's view of dark reality as she is haunted & chased by evil entities (from her sorcerer ancestors to pirates). Gret's learned from her mom that 3 L's  are needed to survive: Location, Lissome tongue, and Lightning touch (thievery).  Gret will be appearing in a few works in progress. Here is a snippet:

"The day Mam died, that sodding bag of dead man's piss knocked me over my tender young pate and threw me into the orlop of a pirate ship. I'd just turned thirteen.

So there I was, cotched and away out there on blue water. 

Now, that was a real bad location. No silver-tongued happiness was gonna save my cherry. A little main no more, I'd begun on the road to the witch I am.

Isk, the captain was no true Corsair. Pirates ain't. Pirates'll rut with a post if there ain't no goats aboard, and the goats breathe easy if there's girls." 

World Fantasy Convention 2016 Wrap Up - DIFFICULT FANTASY

World Fantasy Convention 2016 - S. E. Lindberg Summaries:

• Author Readings
• Weird Fiction - Darrell Schweitzer and Book Haul

• The Eternally Difficult (but Fascinating) Writers Panel <== you are here

• Sword and Sorcery Panel
• John O'Neill: "My one true love" Black Gate, Dyscrasia, & Sword-n-Sorcery
• Writer-Artist Panel

The Eternally Difficult (but Fascinating) Writers  (that was the topic, not a characterization of the panelists :)   ) 

: SATURDAY : 10 AM UNION AB

Seth E. Lindberg (moderator), Kathleen Ann Goonan, Gary K. Wolfe, Janeen Webb, Robert Knowlton

Abstract: The writers who will never be popular but who will never fade away. It has been suggested that at least one person a year will read David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus with great fascination from now until the end of time. But he will never be popular. Clark Ashton Smith’s prose style repels some and enchants others, but we know he will never sell millions of copies. We don’t mean just neglected writers. What about the “difficult” writers? Does James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (a dream fantasy of sorts) fall into this category? What is the place for difficult prose styles or ideas which can only reach the few and never the many?

The panel was thoroughly well-read and well recognized.  Kathleen Ann Goonan has been nominated for the Nebula Award and author of NY Times Best Seller (Queen City Jazz), and won a John Campbell Memorial Award for Science Fiction. Gary Wolfe  has been reviewing speculative fiction for decades including for Locus magazine (since 1991) and even the Chicago Tribune. Janeen Webb hails from Australia known for her contribution to Dreaming Down Under (1999 WFC award winner for anthologies), and several Sinbad novels ~2000-2003 . Lastly, Robert S. Knowlton (aka Bob Hadji, Robert S. Hadji) editor of Borderlands and author and critic of various weird/horror fiction since the 1970's.

Framing the discussion was Brian McNaughton's Throne of Bones (a WFC 1998 award winner). This enabled us to discuss controlling the information flow (and distance from clarity) to a reader via (a) dense prose, (b) auxiliary material maps (or lack of them), (c) increasing accessibility via the spoken spoken word (and audio books), and a litany of authors/books identified as cryptic yet fun:

• Sacred Fount - Henry James 1901
• Clark Ashton Smith
• Dhalgren by Samuel Delany 1975
• House of Leaves, Mark Danielewski 2000
• Virginia Woolf ~ 1890-1940
• Red Shift, Alan Garner 2011
• A Voyage to Arcturus David Lindsay 1920
• Finnegans Wake, James Joyce 1939
• The House on the Borderland, William Hope Hodgson 1908
• Gormenghast novels (Titus Groan / Gormenghast / Titus Alone), Mervyn Peake ~1950
• Robert Coover 
• V, Thomas Pynchon 1963
• William Morris  ~late 1800's
• Lord Dunsany ~1900  
• E. H. Visiak

A Challenge from Darrell Schweitzer, program coordinator: Have you Read James Joyce's Finnegans Wake? How can you prove that?

Favorite unscripted moment: Janeen Webb recited, from memory, the beginning to E R Eddison's Mistress of Mistresses. Her voice and tenor were beautiful and it sounded like a blend of poetry and song. Her point being that many of these works are more easily understood, and enjoyed, if read aloud.

World Fantasy Convention 2016 Panels and Moderating

World Fantasy Convention 2016 Columbus OH Oct 27-30

S.E. Lindberg - Panels and Moderating

Getting ready to head north to Columbus for the 2016 World Fantasy Convention. Looking forward to buying used books, talking to experienced authors, editors, and illustrators.  Should be fun. This will be the first time I join a panel... and I have the honor of moderating one too!  

The Fantasy Writer-Artist : THURSDAY 9PM   DELAWARE CD

We can think of numerous examples of fantasy writers (novelists or short story writers) who were also accomplished painters or illustrators – from Mervyn Peake to Janny Wurts. How does working in one medium affect work in the other? We hope to hear from active contemporary writer-artists on this panel, not just talk about them.
Brenda Carre, Sally Grotta (m), Seth Lindberg, Jerome Stueart, Charles Vess

The Eternally Difficult (but Fascinating) Writers : SATURDAY : 10 AM UNION AB

The writers who will never be popular but who will never fade away. It has been suggested that at least one person a year will read David Lindsay’s A Voyage to Arcturus with great fascination from now until the end of time. But he will never be popular. Clark Ashton Smith’s prose style repels some and enchants others, but we know he will never sell millions of copies. We don’t mean just neglected writers. What about the “difficult” writers? Does James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (a dream fantasy of sorts) fall into this category? What is the place for difficult prose styles or ideas which can only reach the few and never the many?

Robert Knowlton, Seth E. Lindberg (m), Gary K. Wolfe, Janeen Webb, Kathleen Ann Goonan