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Friday, August 28, 2026

Dark Muse News: Reviewing SOIL by James D. Mills

Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Reviewing SOIL by James D. Mills

SOIL by James D. Mills (Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing, December 2026); cover art by Henrik Karippen[/caption]

This Dark Muse News post reviews James D. Mills' soon-to-be-released, stand-alone novel SOIL (coming to BackerKit October 29, 2026; freely available for digital viewing now on Arcanist Online). Excerpts are shared to give you a feel for the style. This article also provides a tour guide for the other books in the Dusk and Dawn series.

Just this July, we covered James D. Mills' crowdfunding Backerkit campaign Mordschlag Sword and Sorcery Magazine. Besides publishing, he writes a fair amount too. His SOIL is a folk-horror fantasy firmly rooted in the soil, or spirit, of the British Isles. Sword and Sorcery fans will enjoy the elements of melee action, direct encounters with strange gods, and exploration of mystic temples. The world and culture are fleshed out, and super-infused with intense child-bearing motifs (more on that below). With a cast of 6+ protagonists, the book is a solid, dark-fantasy epic. It is the second stand-alone entry in the Dusk and Dawn series.

**In Mills' SOIL, expect the heartfelt drama of "Larkrise to Candleford" with ghost hunting, child sacrifices, werewolves, and witch trials.**

Despite the Shins being desolate and dreary, the culture within the village is very homey. As I became acquainted with the characters and the village, I was reminded of family dramas struggling to survive in pioneer/frontier settings, TV series like Little House on the Prairie or Bonanza. Being based on British geographies, Larkrise to Candleford is a more appropriate comparison (at least for the general feeling of the setting). However, the Shins are plagued with all sorts of dark fantasy monstrosities and mythic curses. Indeed, in the highland village of the Shins, every child is born into a family or onto an Old God’s dinner plate. In short, readers should expect the heartfelt drama of "Larkrise to Candleford" with ghost hunting, child sacrifices, werewolves, and witch trials.

In the highland village of the Shins, every child is born into a family or onto an Old God’s dinner plate!

Heroic Characters

So who inhabits the Shins? Key players, your tour guides, are listed below. Drama between them and the Old Gods abounds. About a third of these demonstrate extreme heroism and sacrifice. Beware, and enjoy, Mills' penchant for switching viewpoints in the first-person across various chapters. This ambitious tactic/style enables readers to experience the madness while getting to know the characters intimately.

Snorri and Gerdur Morn: Shelka's drunken father and her mother who struggles to manage their wayward daughter
Shelka Morn: A resilient girl who survives a neglectful father, Snorri
Odhun: Snorri's drinking buddy
Collin: Innkeeper and de facto father-figure to the village.
Ignar: Collin’s young apprentice cook who seeks courtship
Ithica: A gardener with a preternatural gift for growing crops in winter, but struggles to become pregnant
Hromgir: Ithica’s husband and a former "strider" (Viking-like warrior) of the Sparrow Clan
Elder Hama: A village medicine woman and seer of sorts
Byfoged Jukil: An arrogant emissary who polices the land
Visitors to the village

Baptiste Fournier (and Armelia): A fatherly mentor and his adopted daughter; both with mysterious pasts
Syr Edmund Martikov: A knight of the Black House hunting occult figures
Garland Musher: A dog sledder assisting Martikov

SOIL

The land itself, the titular soil, almost emerges as a character. If not independent and sentient, the soil in SOIL is spiritually infused. Hell, this land has a thumping heart whose pulsing beats call out to believers (victims?). So if you have organs, you may just be a character! With the backdrop of a Celtic landscape, the Arthurian legends of synergistic sovereign-nature landscapes are evoked. Instead of a King and Land being one, SOIL presents the connection between common folk and their gods, entangling their lack of fertility with the land's blight. On the positive side, when properly used in a ritual, earth can be used as a pregnancy test! The interconnectedness of life, divine pacts, and the physical manifestations of a spiritual curse are rampant. So if it has a heart, maybe it is a character.

Child, and Child-bearing, Themes

There is a "child theme" that is pervasive throughout the novel, often manifesting through characters' infertility, neglect, predation, and spiritual guardianship. Children in the story seem to represent both the community’s future and a currency (food?) for the gods. All the relationships amplify this. Whether it's Snorri Morn's abusive parenting of his daughter Shelka, or Ithica's balance of her own infertility with the land's fertility (a plentiful harvest), or the Old God (Gørde), the Draugr youths haunting the landscape, or Baptiste Fournier's obsession with raising Armelia... the whole setting is brewing with issues of legacy and parenthood.

What-to-Expect Excerpts

Gory Murders to be Solved

[male character] lay splayed out in the hay in a pool of his own blood, mounted by a pile of his own innards. His clear umber eyes stared at the ceiling. Though gutted, the rest of [him] was unharmed, save for two weeping punctures upon his neck.

Ghost Children

There was also the troubling matter of the Draugr. Baptiste had chased them off over the last several nights. The spirits haunting the troupe were not the lost warriors and elder kings of ancient epics but the spirits of children, who bore the same mark as Ithica and Shelka Morn. Unobtrusive in their dreadful appearances, Baptiste thought they meant to provide warning. For what, Baptiste could only guess. Was such a warning a threat, or an act of solidarity? The spirits walked only behind or beside the troupe. Clearly, they were not bound to the limits of physicality, and if they chose to, could block their path or cause harm to the mortals in his care...

“Be you so enthralled by my impotence!” he howled at the indifferent Draugr. “Must you mock me so?”

Wordlessly, the ethereal children raised their arms, pointing down the slope, towards the approaching interlopers. Confused and grieved, Baptiste knew not if the Draugr offered a warning or a threat....

Child-Eating, Chthonic Monstrosities

The boy was gone in a heartbeat. The Old God’s terrible, ghostly jaw unhinged and swallowed him whole. It seemed more like walking through a doorway than slipping down the God’s gullet. Snapping shut his jaws, the earth trembled with anticipation for what was to come, and the walls shuddered, as if lungs deep in the blackest depths of the Old God’s cave breathed life after eons comatose...

The Old God sighed relief, his eldritch bipedal body quivering—which I shall never look upon willingly—displacing, then morphing into his preferred form; that of a glorious stag with jagged, gilded antlers. For all things, he looked like a stag, lush tawny fur with a belly the color of eggshells, save for his eyes, which were a man’s. Whether the Old God wore those eyes in his terrible, true form, I’ll never know.

Then the Old God bleated like a goat in heat, his knobby cervine legs tremulous as if in the midst of climax. Bowing his head, he gingerly pierced the earth with the sharp point of his longest antler and spun round to draw a circle, before scribbling yet more incomprehensible characters in the soil.

Mythic Melee

Hromgir and his kinsmen rose like revenants beneath the high noon. Teeth bared in a silent snarl, Hromgir lunged at the soldier and drove his dirk through both linen coif and warm flesh into the base of the wretch’s skull.

Seven others bounded past him, sliding dirks and game knives into throats and groins. Arvid coiled his bulging, tattooed arms round a man’s neck.

Hromgir’s prey slumped before him, dead even before the stream of steaming blood spouting from his neck spattered the snow. Hromgir drew the soldier’s broadsword, tossed the body aside, and charged barefoot over the hardpacked snow toward the Wystran scouts.

And More Melee!

Hromgir dashed to the side, his axe hovering overhead. Ramr snarled and lunged. Hromgir caught the blade on his shield, swung with his axe. Ramr withdrew his blade, parrying. Hromgir shifted his grip, capturing the chieftain’s blade under the beard of his axe.

Ramr roared, kicked Hromgir’s shield. Stumbling back a step, Hromgir’s eyes went wide as the beastly man pressed forward with a furious onslaught of savage swipes and cleaving cuts. Steel drummed on basswood, rang against iron. Hromgir retreated with every strike, hunched behind his shield. Fervent and monstrous, Ramr’s tongue sloughed from between his grinning teeth, and he threw back his arm for a high, killing cut...

Hromgir swung wildly at Ramr, who had recovered his sword, carving alternating sweeping arcs with every step. Ramr reeled, parrying and evading most, but also bearing the pain of a few glancing cuts. The chieftain strafed wide, sword held high. ... Ramr slung a brutal overhead slash, then pulled back, dropping the blade low, and thrust towards Hromgir’s belly...

Hromgir tackled the monstrous man, driving him viciously into the mud. They rolled and struggled, grasping and groping. Mounting his injured foe, Hromgir pinned the chieftain’s sword arm to the ground. Ramr pawed with his off-hand, searching for the dagger at his belt. Hromgir roared and smashed his forehead into Ramr’s nose.

Ramr cackled as blood sprayed, giggling as Hromgir beat him senseless, bloodying his fists against the chieftain’s jaw and cheeks and eyes. Ramr’s hands fell limp at his side, twitching with every blow — but his laughter never ceased. Hromgir struck him again. Once, twice, thrice, then he drew his dirk and drove it into the man’s throat with practiced precision.

Cover Artist: Story (Left to Right: Anaislalovi: "Evil Eye", W. Fraser Sandercombe:”A Feast for Pan”: Kim Holm: "Ashen Rider")

Tour Guide to the Dusk and Dawn Milieu

All entries are stand-alone tales. Read them in any order!

Story Chronology

The Evil Eye (Short Story published May 20th, 2026 as part of the Michael Stackpole Chain Story project): Gora Younger, the First Son of the Chieftain is exiled from his village in the Great Cave after vainly pursuing his betrothed, who left him to live beneath the sky. After years sealed away in the dark, Gora is summoned home to investigate a demonic presence that has taken the tribe’s best warriors and afflicted the Chieftain with a strange malady, slowly turning his flesh to stone. Diving into uncharted depths alongside a healer from a strange city, Gora must dispel a curse that has long shackled his people… and his soul.
Ashen Rider (2025, Novel): HE SAVED THE WORLD BUT DAMNED HIS FAMILY. When her mother is claimed by Death a second time, Kateryna is forced to abandon her afterlife and descend into Pandemonium—a shattered underworld shaped by pain, memory, and buried sin. To save her mother’s soul, she must join forces with her estranged father, whose devotion to a fallen goddess set this all in motion. Hunted by Morgana, the Goddess Corrupted and her chosen griffin-riders, Kateryna must journey through the shadows and confront the reality of her own dark past—because in Pandemonium, death is only the beginning.
The Dragon of Ost’safir (Short Story, published in Mordschlag Issue #0; Tarmun the Roach)
A Feast For Pan (Short Story published March 25, 2026 as part of the Michael Stackpole Chain Story project): Hromgir and Arvid of Clan Sparrow are on the run after a raid gone wrong. Braving the frozen wastes of the northern coast, they must reach the mountain pass to escape the Western riders close on their heels. Hiding from the riders, they take shelter in the depths of a strange cave, unearthing otherworldly horrors better left buried
SOIL (2026, Novel – Coming to BackerKit, September 13^th, 2026. Read freely now on Arcanist Online). SOME HUNGERS CANNOT BE SATED. The Village in the Shins sits at the edge of the known world, overlooked by the tallest Guardians and protected by something older than memory. Its people are sincere, stubborn, and slowly starving, except for Ithica, whose garden blooms through the hardest winters, whose hands coax life from frozen soil. Yet her prayers for a child of her own go unanswered year after year. When strangers arrive from the south-a pallid scholar and his beautiful apprentice, both bearing a deadly secret-the village opens its doors as it always has. But something watches from the treeline. Children wander into the frigid woods and never return. An ancient power is feeding on the land, and the most unlikely soul in the village, a fierce, lonely girl who hasn't been home in days, may be the only one who sees it clearly. Overshadowed by the sorcerous presence of an old god, haunted by the ghosts of lost and frozen children, Ithica and the Shinfolk must free themselves from an insatiable hunger.
What Lies Below (planned for 2027, Novel)

James D. Mills

James D. Mills is a writer, editor, and a wanderer. He writes Dark Fantasy and Sword & Sorcery. His main goal is to be awarded "Best Dad Ever" for 18 consecutive years by the people who matter most. After that, he wants to topple that record indefinitely. He is best known for his role as Editor-in-Chief of The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing. His Sword & Sorcery has been featured by Michael A. Stackpole’s Chain Story 2 Project. He is author of the Dark Fantasy novels, ASHEN RIDER and SOIL, which are freely available on Arcanist Online.

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Blackgate.com, regularly reviewing books, interviewing authors on ‘Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction’, and running Dark Muse News. He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (2021-2023) and the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group; he even interned for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine and is an Assistant Editor for Battleborn magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction®; short stories of these have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades (Vol. I and Vol. II), DMR’s Terra Incognita, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole’s S&S Chain Story 2 Project.

Thursday, July 2, 2026

Dark Muse News: Blue Fire: A Jirel of Joiry Novella

Simulcast on Black Gate July 2nd 2026: Dark Muse News: Blue Fire: A Jirel of Joiry Novella

Blue Fire, a Jirel of Jory tale by Molly Tanzer (Brackenbury Books, 2026). Cover art by Saša Đurđević

In February 2025, Black Gate covered Molly Tanzer's release of "Jirel Meets Death" (published with permission from Moore's estate); and in March 2026 Black Gate's Dark Muse News covered Tanzer's next story, "Jirel in the Forest of Night." These were brought to us by Brackenbury Books, the same outfit that champions New Edge Sword & Sorcery magazine.

And now, Dark Muse News (your biweekly Black Gate blog) has coverage of Brackenbury Books' current campaign, bringing the first-ever Jirel of Joiry book-length adventure to life (crowdfunding launched June 11th, and is still ongoing).

Blue Fire begins with Jirel fighting a foe her sword cannot smite: a terrible illness nobody can explain, let alone heal. Her search for a cure takes her many miles across many worlds, encountering friends and foes familiar and frightening!

Like Alice in Wonderland with a big f***ing sword, Jirel has compelling adventures in bizarre dream-logic realms, balancing a rich emotional life with terrifying struggles against dark forces! -- boasts Brackenbury Books

Here ye, here ye. Read on to see:

A listing of the Jirel of Jory writings
Excerpts from Blue Fire
Special Perspectives from author Molly Tanzer, artist Saša Đurđević, and editor Oliver Brackenbury
Status updates on the campaign

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine – New Jirel of Joiry! Does Jirel have your axe?

“Jirel in the Forest of Night” back cover illustration by Saša Đurđević

Tour guide to the world of Jirel of Joiry

“Black God’s Kiss” (C.L. Moore, October 1934)
“Black God’s Shadow” (C.L. Moore, December 1934)
“Jirel Meets Magic” (C.L. Moore, July 1935)
“The Dark Land” (C.L. Moore, January 1936)
“Quest of the Starstone” (C.L. Moore with Henry Kuttner, November 1937)
“Hellsgarde” (C.L. Moore, April 1939)
“Jirel and the Mirror of Truth” (Molly Tanzer 2024)
“Jirel Meets Death” (Molly Tanzer 2025)
“Jirel in the Forest of Night” (Molly Tanzer 2026)
"Blue Fire" (Molly Tanzer 2026)

Blue Fire Art

Saša Đurđević did the Jirel cover for NESS Issue #3, two more Jirel back cover illustrations for Issues #5 and #9, and that great cover for Sometime Lofty Towers this time last year. Interior art will include more top-notch, black-and-white illustrations and a map from Caster Jones. Saprophial will return to do the frontispiece for the novella and, if the campaign unlocks the Double Art stretch goal, a second full-page illustration.

Interior B&W art by Saprophial from the Jirel story in issue three, "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth".

Sample map by Caster Jones. They will be doing a piece of fantasy cartography for Blue Fire; the sample here is the map they drew up for their father, Howard Andrew Jones's, Lord of a Shattered Land.[/caption]

Blue Fire Excerpt: Confronting Horror

“Who am I? Do you really not recognize me — Jirel of Joiry?”
The figure turned with agonizing slowness, revealing a face so white it was almost blinding in the darkness of the bone-pit, a whiteness so dazzling no shadows seemed to touch it. There was no real flesh upon that face, though it was not a skull — it was the face of a woman, thin and gaunt, but beautifully formed, framed by hair that was not red save in the flickering of Jirel’s candle. Her hair was black, as black as this unremembered tomb, and straight as the bones of the dead. It lay stark against her bloodless face and tumbled in long locks over the shoulders of the bleached-bone garment that hung on her narrow frame like a body from a gibbet. Jirel gasped as she felt a cold breeze that did not stir her hair. She recognized this creature. It was an enemy she had thought long since defeated — the corpse-witch of Romne!

Blue Fire Excerpt: Weird Melee

“Come now,” said the first one. “Seven on two? Those are hardly good odds. Give us what we want and we will leave you with your lives!”
Jirel spat. “You’ll be lucky to escape with yours!”
And with that, Joiry’s red lady ran at one of the strange monsters, slashing him across the chest — or rather, his face — before he could raise his club. He made a sound like a man and fell back, black blood spurting in great gouts from his strangely placed mouth. He dropped his club as he toppled over; no longer concerned with him, Jirel whirled and ran another monster through, just below what she supposed was his chin, where a man’s stomach might be.
“Wait!” wailed one of the Sons of the Giant, as Jirel bore down on him, her sword dripping. “Please!”
Jirel did not wait. Her blood was up, and there were still five more of these monsters. Seeing his pleading had no effect, the monster dropped his rock and began to run. Jirel overtook him easily and thrust her blade through his back.
Stepping on his lifeless body to withdraw her sword, Jirel whirled saw Gervase fending off the others with the knife he used for eating. Jirel was impressed he was keeping them at bay, but saw quickly that they did not seem eager to attack a man of the cloth. This did not soothe her rage — these devils might not wish to kill him, but robbing a priest and leaving him to starve was hardly more honorable.
“Have at thee, fiends!” she cried, and charged.
The monster in her sights threw up his arms at the last minute, knocking aside Jirel’s blade so it sank into the meat of his shoulder, not his face. He screamed as she yanked it back out. Before she could go in for a second strike, however, another of the band of brutes stepped in between them, holding up his hands in supplication.
“My lady, stop!” he shouted.

Molly Tanzer exclusive Black Gate blurb

Blue Fire is Jirel’s first novella-length adventure, which made writing it a bit intimidating! Not only would I need to keep up the same pacing, energy and forward motion as in my shorter Jirel stories, and do my best to keep honoring C.L. Moore and her amazing character... the truth is, I’ve never written a novella before. Not on purpose, at least!
This is probably a wild confession, as I literally just celebrated the release of my Tordotcom novella, the scifi art heist And Side by Side They Wander... but I wrote that intending it to be a novelette, and expanded it once I realized the story was too big. Same with my forthcoming folk horror novella, Ferry-Loupers. That started life as a novelette, too.
Blue Fire was different. I had a set of specific goals, aesthetic and practical. Oliver and I wanted the novella to be a potential entry point for new readers, as well as rewarding to longtime fans, and it needed to be between 30-35,000 words. It was thrilling to tackle this, though — I’ve been publishing for sixteen years, and one thing I love about this industry is there’s always something new, a challenge I’ve never encountered, a goal I’ve never considered. So I brought a bold, Jirel-like attitude to writing this project: I went at it head on, sword (keyboard?) out, fearlessly snarling. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and I think it worked... though ultimately, that’s up to the readers!

Links to Tanzer books: And Side by Side They Wander and Speculative historical mystery novella Ferry-Loupers

Saša Đurđević – Jirel of Joiry Sketches

Saša Đurđević - Artist Perspective in His Own Words

When I was first approached by the good folk over at New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine at the end of 2023 to illustrate the cover of issue 3 for the return of Jirel of Joiry with the story "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth" which was to be written by Molly Tanzer, I had only heard of this character for the first time, maybe just a couple of months before that.
Naturally, I was really excited about having the opportunity to work on such a classic character and I immediately picked up a collection of all the Jirel stories and read through them as I was working on the cover. The cover signifies Jirel's return after a long time, so we wanted to have her against a stark white background staring the viewer down. One suggestion by Oliver was to really emphasize her gold/amber eyes and almost lionine-like mane of fiery hair, which I was really on board with since it was an excellent way of visually separating her from the more well-known character of Red Sonja (who probably owes her existance to Jirel).
I also really wanted to work off the descriptions of Jirel's outfit in "Black Gods Kiss," her Roman greaves, simple tunic and a hauberk over it. Other than that, the rest of the elements I went with were to evoke a classic Fantasy look, something more magical and whimsical rather than grim. The red cloak, the chunky leather gloves and gold accessories all evoke that feeling for me. A lot of artists like to innovate and over-design their characters, but I think you can get great designs by working onto existing tropes. Jirel here evokes a classic fairy tale hero with a flowing red cape and mail armor, but her choice of leg armor and her fiery hair set her apart.
Since this first cover, I have worked on a couple of illustrations for the back of two New Edge issues that featured Jirel stories written by Molly Tanzer, "Jirel Meets Death" and "Jirel in the Forest of Night."
Most recently I had the pleasure of Illustrating the cover for the very first Jirel novella titled Blue Fire, written by Molly. This story brings back Thevin, Jirel's rogue friend, and a new character as well, which is why we wanted to feature all three of them on the cover, a classic S&S style composition with a blue flame framing the background and the title. My goal with the flame was to keep it as more of a graphic shape rather than render it realistically, and I think it will look delectable when readers get to gaze at their physical copies of the book.
I am grateful to have this opportunity to draw and paint the lady of Joiry. Magazines like New Edge are a real beacon to us artists in these times.

Oliver Brackenbury Reflection

My first conversations with the Moore estate were a little over three years ago and I'm very proud to have reached this point in relatively little time, working with them & Molly to help raise the profile of a classic S&S character. Between a third new story in our magazine, Blue Fire and the upcoming Penguin Random House collection of the classic Moore tales, 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for Jirel of Joiry!

Crowdfunding Updates:

Blue Fire funded in 21 hours and since then has unlocked all kinds of upgrades for its readers, including:

ART: A second full page illustration by Saprophial, back cover art by Saša Đurđević, as well as chapter heading illustrations and a custom dinkus, and a one page bonus Jirel comic in the back of the book, illustrated by Clade Mirya
COLOR: Spray color edges, whose color backers get to vote on
MORE AFFORDABLE SHIPPING: Discounted shipping for backers outside the United States

The final stretch goal, currently being worked toward, shares Blue Fire's success with the people who made it possible; a pay bonus for the author & artists!

Also, note that all paperbacks readers get through the crowdfund will be signed by Molly Tanzer!

Does Jirel have your axe? (Link to Backerkit)

S.E. Lindberg is Blackgate.com’s Managing Editor, regularly reviewing books, interviewing authors, and running Dark Muse News. He has led the Gen Con Writers' Symposium and the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group; even interned for Tales from the Magician’s Skull, and is Assistant Editor for Battleborn. He contributed eight stories across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell & Heroika and an entry for Weirdbook’s Zombies. He independently publishes Dyscrasia Fiction®, stories of which have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery magazines, A Book of Blades (Vol. I and Vol. II), DMR’s Terra Incognita, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole's Chain Story 2 Project.

Sunday, September 22, 2024

Archiving the King’s Blade Champion: An Interview with John C. Hocking

Archiving the King’s Blade Champion: An Interview with John C. Hocking

Originally posted Feb 4, 2022 on Goodman-Games website

Written by S.E. Lindberg

Archiving the King’s Blade Champion: An Interview with John C. Hocking by Seth Lindberg

John C. Hocking is a nigh-obsessed reader and writer of lurid pulp fiction, the author of Conan and the Emerald Lotus, “Black Starlight” serial, and their time-lost companion, Conan and the Living Plague, as well as an obedient thrall of Tales From the Magician’s Skull. Recently Black Gate reviewed John C. Hocking’s Conan Pastiche; then they cornered him to learn more about his pastiche and weird fiction muses in an interview. That post is a companion with this interview and we hope you’ll brave the Black Gate and check it out.

Here we focus on Hocking’s original Archivist and King’s Blade series — now to the interview!

You’ve had six [now seven! — ed.] Benhus tales (The King’s Blade series) that appeared in each of the Tales From the Magician Skull magazines. The first one appeared in 2019, and is called “The Crystal Sickle’s Harvest: From the World of the Archivist.”. Tell us more about the Archivist series and how it informs the King’s Blade.

John C. Hocking: The Archivist stories take place in the same world, the same city, as those about Benhus. They just occur 12 or 15 years later. The Archivist sprang from my desire to keep writing sword and sorcery but step away from using a mythic warrior character like Conan.

Hocking’s King’s Blade Series in Tales From the Magician’s Skull by issue number:

I. “The Crystal Sickle’s Harvest”
II. “Trial by Scarab”
III. Tyrant’s Bane”
IV. “Guardian of the Broken Gem”
V. “In the Corridors of the Crow” *read the preview*
VI. “Calicask’s Woman”
VII. “The Gift of a Poison Necklace” *read the preview*

The Archivist series these seem difficult to track down. Any comment about readers with OCD/completionism that desire to read these?

JCH: Right now, there are 8 stories about the Archivist and his friend Lucella:

‘A Night in the Archives’ appeared in the Flashing Swords ezine Vol1-#2. available online
‘Web of Pale Venom’ appeared in Flashing Swords #3 and was recently reprinted in Goodman Games ‘Cubicles of the Skull’. available online
‘The Lost Path Between the Worlds’ appeared in the Flashing Swords ezine #4 . available online
‘A River Through Darkness & Light’ appeared in Black Gate #15 (last print issue of BG).
‘Vestments of Pestilence’ was featured, and available for reading on Black Gate.
‘Pawns in a House of Ghosts’ appeared in Skelos #3.
‘With a Poet’s Eyes’ appeared in Weirdbook #38.
“From a Prison of Blackened Bone’ is awaiting publication by Weirdbook.

I imagine I’ll eventually try to assemble a collection of all the Archivist yarns. I’d like to add a few more entries before then, though. I outlined a novel about the character but can’t say if I’ll ever write it.

Can you compare/contrast the Archivist with Lucella & Benhus?

JCH: The Archivist is an unlikely hero, a more cerebral and self-absorbed character than most you’d see in Sword & Sorcery. His ability to fill a heroic role in the dangerous environment of a S&S tale is boosted by his connection to the lady soldier, Lucella. Although the Archivist is unselfconsciously brave when the occasion calls for it and can throw a mean dagger, Lucella is the real fighter of the two. Odd as it may sound, Lucella’s attitude toward violence, and how fighting affects her, are as realistic as anything in my work, as I patterned it after the only people I’ve known who really, truly loved a serious fight. The Archivist is wry and often pre-occupied, but a thoroughly decent fellow with a strong sense of justice. Lucella is more pragmatic but tends to follow his lead. I find the relationship between the Archivist and Lucella more satisfying than much of my work. The two basically combine to form one functional hero.

The Benhus character is an attempt to create a Sword & Sorcery character in the mold of hardboiled crime fiction. He lacks the experience, knowledge, skill set and sense of justice that the Archivist and Lucella bring to the table. Benhus is very young, but tough, determined and possessed of few scruples, especially when it comes to self-preservation. His occasionally callous behavior can be alienating to readers not expecting it. The fact that the guy is in so far over his head, is so isolated from any substantial assistance or understanding, that he is surrounded by people vastly more powerful and better informed than he is, that he must watch his every step to avoid losing his position or his life—I hope all this leads readers to identify with the guy, even if they might find him a less than delightful dinner companion.

Juxtaposing the Archivist and Lucella with Benhus was great fun. For anyone who might care to know, the Archivist encounters an older and more seasoned Benhus in ‘Pawns in a House of Ghosts’.

Let’s focus on Benhus now. In the TFTMS 2021 Kickstarter updates & interviews, you revealed that his name was a tribute to Ben Haas. He was a writer who wrote westerns under several pseudonyms [(1926 – 1977) aka John Benteen, Thorne Douglas, Richard Meade)]. Please expand on Ben Haas, and how Benhus may embody some aspect of his writing/characters?

JCH: I admire the work of Benjamin Leopold Haas as one of the most polished and seemingly effortless pulp writers of the 1970’s. He spun formula men’s adventure fiction into gold over and over and over again. If I’ve tried to adopt anything from his writing style it would be a ceaseless forward movement and a steady, zero-padding approach to storytelling. But one of the things I admire most about his work is the one I will never even be able to approach—his remarkable coupling of prolificity and solid, satisfying storytelling.

Each of the TFTMS issues come with illustrations. Can you comment on these depictions?

I. Jennel Jaquays: I wrote a whole essay for the first Tales from the Magician’s Skull Kickstarter about how happy I was to have Jaquays illustrate one of my stories. That is one elegant image.
II. Russ Nicholson: This one explodes off the page. One of the most spectacular single page monster images I’ve seen, and I was delighted to have it attached to my story.
III. Matthew Ray: I loved the tight depiction of the three main characters (four if you include their undead foe). That’s a particularly good King Numar Flavius right there.
IV. Samuel Dillon: Lushly detailed, almost pointillist, illustration captures a good likeness of Benhus.
V. Doug Kovacs: This one startled me because it’s such a serious attempt to illustrate a specific scene from the story and do so with as much accurate detail as possible. The artist even gets Zehra’s tattered hand restraints.
VI. Jennel Jaquays: Lucky me—a second Jaquays illustration. I worked hard to make the creatures in the Wall of Demons as nasty as I could. The artist made them nastier than I imagined. That white eel/serpent horror is ingeniously disgusting.

And each story, true to TFTMS form, comes with DCC stats (thanks to Terry Olson). What are your thoughts on gamifying your world? Have you had the pleasure of reenacting a story?

I. Crystal Sickle Wraith (creature) & Nobleman’s Comfort (wand)
II. Great mud scarab…knockout powder, message vial= (magic item)
III. Blind sight (spell), nobleman’s comfort (more wand abilities), Silver risen (a spell?), Tyrantsbane dagger (weapon)
IV. Nobleman’s Comfort (wand, even more abilities) and Scimitar Nemesis (creature weapon)
V. Carapaced Mauler (creature)
VI. Gray Umbra Guardian (creature)

JCH: I haven’t been in a real RPG in 20 years, so I’m not really qualified to comment intelligently on the stats. But I’m delighted with the idea that fragments of the stories appearing in The Skull might find their way into gamers’ adventures. I wish the Skull had a space where anyone who saw any of our statted creations showing up in a game could tell us how it went.

Generally, S&S spawned in the short story form, and characters did not necessarily develop (i.e., as much as they may in a novel). The Benhus short stories are stand-alone episodes, but there is definite progression of character (especially with the titular “king” of the King’s Blade branding, issues #3 and #5 ramped up the relationship). Do you have a long-term vision for a collection/novel?

JCH: Yes and no. I want to keep telling an unspooling, chronological series of stories about Benhus. I have plenty of ideas for what happens to the character and how it affects him and those around him. In his near future I’ve plotted a story that could probably be presented as a novel but will more likely be broken into shorter narratives that I’ll submit piecemeal to Tales From the Magician’s Skull. Writing a novel is such a difficult, sustained and uncertain effort that I’m more comfortable wrestling with short fiction these days.

Be sure to check out the companion interview on Black Gate to learn more about Hocking’s Conan pastiche and weird fiction influences. And for the the latest story in the King’s Blade series, be sure to pre-order a copy of (the soon to be released) Tales From the Magician’s Skull Issue 7!

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

Hocking Understand this S&S kind of Stuff - City of the Dead released

Most of this content was simulcast on Black Gate June 25, 2024:

CONAN: CITY OF THE DEAD, JOHN C. HOCKING’S LIVING PLAGUE IS ALIVE INSIDE

CONAN City of the Dead, by John C. Hocking (2024, Titan Books. 507p)[/caption]

It’s June of 2024, and Titan Books has just delivered John C. Hocking’s City of the Dead which contains both Conan and the Emerald Lotus (1995, TOR) and its follow-up Conan and the Living Plague—a book lost in the limbo of publishing craziness for ~two decades! Hocking also wrote a bridging novella set in between these two novels called “Black Starlight” (serialized across Conan comics in 2019, and provided assembled as an eBook in 2023 as Conan: Black Starlight: The Heroic Legends Series). Since Titan Books & Heroic Signatures had the rights to publish and print “Black Starlight” separately, it seems like a lost opportunity to have it absent from City of the Dead, but fans are just glad to finally see the Living Plague in print, it is tough to whine about that.

Conan fans will be purchasing City of the Dead in a frenzy since they are familiar with Hocking’s style and its heroic journey

Want to know what the fuss is all about? This post is all about John C. Hocking’s Conan pastiche. It consolidates my reviews from Emerald Lotus and Black Starlight and highlights from my interview-with-Hocking and pre-review of Living Plague (that post contained informational, but distanced comments, about the book since the manuscript was still not available to all… at the time, I was blessed with one of the sacred Perilous World copies by Hocking to read). Read this and you'll have all the excerpts and context needed to lure you into the City of the Dead.

Sorcery Against Ceaser (and Scroll of Thoth byt Ricjard L. Tierney ; Review by S.E.

RICHARD L. TIERNEY’S SORCERY AGAINST CAESER; REVIEW AND TOUR GUIDE OF SIMON OF GITTA’S SICA & SORCERY!

Original Post: Sunday, April 10, 2022 SELindberg on Black Gate

Sorcery Against Caesar: The Complete Simon of Gitta Short Stories (cover art by Steven Gilberts) Pickman’s Press, 2020, 405pages.

Greg Mele recently paid tribute to Richard L. Tierney at Black Gate. That memorial post covers the author’s life and bibliography very well, so check that out; Tierney co-authored books with David C. Smith will be echoed here. The Goodreads S&S group is hosting a two-month group read of his work presently (March-April 2022), which spurred me to read Scroll of Thoth; Simon Magus and the Great Old Ones.

That book lingered way too long on my shelf. It was packaged as horror influenced by history, with a mage protagonist; however, having read it now, I argue that it is more Fantasy than Horror or Historical Fiction. If assigning genre categories floats your boat, then Sword & Sorcery is more accurate.

As the post title indicates with “Sica and Sorcery,” Simon often fights with a Thracian long-dagger/short-sword called a sica, and evil sorcery abounds. With cover art by H. E. Fassel (below), Scroll of Thoth has all twelve Tierney-written, short stories tracking Simon of Gitta with comprehensive essays from Robert M Price for each; he covers both the actual history drawn from, as well as the Lovecraftian and Howardian (REH) mythos call-outs. The collection was published by Chaosium in 1997 and inspired (or augmented) their Call of Cthulhu role-playing game; in 2009, the Cthulhu Invictus campaign (6^th ed) released, and that, in turn, spawned a 2015 collection of similar “Sica and Sorcery” (Tierney did not contribute, but Robert M. Price did).

With Sorcery Against Caesar: The Complete Simon of Gitta Short Stories (cover art above by Steven Gilberts, Pickman’s Press 2020), readers are treated to all 12 stories and essays in Scroll of Thoth (with an abridged version of the introduction), plus 4 more tales that are pastiche or co-authored tales (also with contextual essays). Pickman’s Press also released a novel-length Simon of Gitta adventure penned by Tierney called Drums of Chaos (originally published in 2008, available now with cover art by Zach McCain, published 2021), which would have been too big to include with the short stories. In short, both Sorcery Against Caesar and Drums of Chaos are available in print and electronic form. This review covers the short stories, but Drums of Chaos is included in the tour guide below. According to the essays by Price, even more Simon of Gitta stories were planned but, unfortunately, are left in limbo.

Sorcery Against Caesar: The Complete Simon of Gitta Short Stories, official blurb:

A REBEL AGAINST ROME.

Simon of Gitta, an escaped slave turned magician, roves the Roman Empire battling dark magic and demons, all the while pursued by Caesar’s soldiers. Join Simon as he flees across the ancient world evading cultists and Legionaries, outwitting sorcerers and Centurions, and fighting gladiators and gods, even the deities of the Cthulhu Mythos. Yet all these foes cannot prepare him for his greatest challenge: the pursuit of his lost soul-mate Helen, a love so deep even death can’t stand in its way for long.

Who is Simon of Gitta?

For the non-history and non-religious folk, Simon is actually a biblical character. The Christian Bible’s Acts of the Apostle presents him as a Samaritan magus. Tierney presents Simon similarly, a mage hailing from Tyre (modern-day Lebanon), but has his heroic origins emerge from being an enslaved gladiator. Essentially, Tierney rebranded Simon as genuinely as Karl Edward Wagner did the biblical Cain (with his Kane tales); in fact, Tierney emphasized this by having the characters meet in the “The Blade of the Slayer” story.

Having excelled at fighting, Tierney’s Simon is skilled at the sica and hand-to-hand combat. The first tale “The Sword of Spartacus” has him escaping the pits and starting his studies as a mage. Frankly, he casts few spells himself. He does ally with many other active mages (his mentors), and he applies his knowledge of the arts frequently (low-level actions like casting illusions and enhancing disguises, letting his companions do the heavy spellcasting). Even though a mage describes his character well, he is much more of a rogue gladiator/fighter. Simon’s companions are more sorcery-focused and include the mages Dositheus and Menophar, and even a raven named Carbo.

“…I studied the arts of the mages at Persepolis, but before that I was trained as a gladiator — sold into the profession by the Romans, who slew my parents in Samaria because they could not pay the taxes imposed on them by a corrupt regime. I escaped, after two years of fighting for my life — of spilling blood for the Roman mob —!” The character Simon explains

Simon is completely fascinated with two goals: (1) seeking revenge against Rome, and (2) seeking out his love named Helen. The villains are usually Roman Emperors like Tiberius, Claudius, and Gaius (aka Caligula), or they are subordinates or Senators seeking more power. The antagonists are constantly summoning eldritch gods with grand rituals that are completely over the top, and wonderful (we are talking’ coliseums full of sacrifices’ and ‘mating rituals with Star Gods’!). As Simon ventures, he learns his True Spirit has existed beyond/before his current life and that he is always paired with the same female companion who also pervades time; this approach reminded me of Michael Moorcock’s Eternal Champion with a love interest. Even though each short story is stand-alone, these two themes persist across all.

Style

Sorcery Against Caesar really is a splendid mashup of history from Ancient Roman times, with lore from Judaism, Zoroastrianism, polytheistic Etruscan & Egyptian religions, and more… all equally weighted with Lovecraftian Mythos, Robert E, Howard’s Hyborian Age history, and even lore from David C. Smith’s Attluma cycle. For most readers, there will be instances in which determining which gods are based on historical deities or fictional ones will be difficult (for me it started right away with the summoning of Tuchulcha in the first story; that daemon is based on Etruscan myths, not a Lovecraftian Elder). Like Lovecraft, Tierney reinforces a pseudo-real mythos by referencing faux books like the Necronomicon with reverence; here we have the Sapientia Magorum written by Ostanes, the titular Scroll of Thoth, and the Tomb Texts of Ani.

For the Howard fans, you will enjoy entire stories that build on Conan’s first story “The Phoenix on the Sword.” Both the Ring of Set mentioned therein as well as the Phoenix on the Sword get full stories; also for the Kull of Atlantis fans, delight in the “The Dragons of Mons Fractus” tale that features Pontius Pilate exhibiting Vlad the Impaler vibes along with Valusian serpent people. “The Scroll of Thoth” reinforces the Pain Lords from the Red Sonja Books (co-authored by Tierney and David C. Smith).

Even though there is a ton of sorcery, most of it is redirected toward evil Emperors, Simon usually is not the sorcerer. He is a fighter who hangs out with friendly sorcerers while taking down the evil ones. The fight scenes and action reminded me of Howard’s action-packed Sword & Sorcery. Anyway, don’t expect dry history or old-style, meandering pre-pulp gothic horror. Expect (a) bloody melee, (b) fantastical sorcery, and (c) links to Howardian and other fictional mythos. Excerpts below the Tour Guide reinforce these.

Roman-inspired adventure by Chaosium and related Call of Cthulhu content

Table of Contents (and Chronological Tour Guide of Simon’s Tales)

* content in Sorcery Against Ceaser (i.e., not in Scroll of Thoth). All stories by Richard L. Tierney unless noted.

“Sword of the Avatar” Introduction (by Robert M. Price); the unabridged version is in The Scroll of Thoth.
“The Sword of Spartacus” first published in Swords Against Darkness #3 (Zebra Books, 1978).
“The Fire of Mazda” first published in Orion’s Child #1 (May-June 1984).
“The Seed of the Star-God” first published in Crypt of Cthulhu #24 (Lammas 1984).
“The Blade of the Slayer first published in Pulse-Pounding Adventure Stories #1 (December 1986).
* “The Throne of Achamoth” by Richard L. Tierney & Robert M. Price, first published in Weirdbook #21 (Autumn 1985).

Drums of Chaos is a separate novel-length, Simon of Gitta adventure by Tierney (originally published in 2008, available now via Pickman’s Press 2021, 415pages) that occurs chronologically after “The Throne of Achamoth.” Here’s the blurb (cover below):

CAN A HANDFUL OF HEROES STOP AN APOCALYPSE CENTURIES IN THE MAKING?

Escaped gladiator-slave Simon of Gitta returns to Judea — during the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth — on a mission to avenge the deaths of his parents, seeking revenge in blood against the Roman officials who committed the murders and sold Simon into slavery. But as Simon travels the Holy Lands with his mentor Dositheus and their students Menander and llione, they gradually become entangled in a complex occult plot designed to call down a monstrous alien entity to herald a new aeon on Earth. The mysterious time traveler John Taggart (from Tierney’s The Winds of Zarr) also becomes involved with Simon as their separate quests converge toward a common goal of saving all life on Earth from extinction.

But can a handful of travelers really thwart a covert scheme backed by the power of the Roman Empire? As the apocalyptic supernatural events slowly unfold, Simon and his allies are in a race against time to prevent the devastation of the world. Using mystery cults and early Christian Gnosticism as his vehicle, with meticulously researched Roman history and Biblical scholarship, this is author Richard Tierney’s magnum opus: an epic Lovecraftian alternate history dark fantasy novel that features Tierney’s most famous characters, Simon of Gitta and John Taggart. This novel will appeal to fans of historical fantasy and sword & sorcery fiction in the vein of Robert E. Howard, and the elements of cosmic horror and the Cthulhu Mythos will satisfy many fans of H.P. Lovecraft.

* “The Emerald Tablet” by Robert M. Price; first published in Strange Sorcery #24, Rainfall Books (August 2017).
“The Soul of Kephri” first published in Space & Time #66 (Summer 1984).
“The Ring of Set” first published in Swords Against Darkness #1 (Zebra Books, 1977).
“The Worm of Urakhu” first published in Weirdbook #23 (December 1988).
“The Curse of the Crocodile” first published in Crypt of Cthulhu #47 (Roodmas 1987).
“The Treasure of Horemkhu” first published in Pulse-Pounding Adventure Stories #2 (December 1987).
* “The Secret of Nephren-Ka” by Robert Price, published first in The Mighty Warriors (Ulthar Press, 2018).
“The Scroll of Thoth” first published in Swords Against Darkness #2 (Zebra Books, 1977).
“The Dragons of Mons Fractus” first published in Weirdbook #19 (Spring 1984).
* “The Wedding of Sheila-Na-Gog” by Richard L. Tierney & Glenn Rahman, first published in Crypt of Cthulhu #29 (Candlemas 1985).
“The Pillars of Melkarth Vengeance Quest” first published in Space & Time #78 (Summer 1990).
* “Vengeance Quest” poem, originally published in The Cimmerian #7 (October 2004).

More Simon of Gitta from Tierney?

Robert M. Price writes in the essay for “The Pillars of Melkarth” this context hinting at an unpublished, but already written, novel, and several other tales that likely were never finished:

Readers may notice a large time lapse between the events of “The Pillars of Melkarth” (spring equinox, A.D. 50) and those of the previous story set in A.D. 42. This is because those years were taken up with the events of the novels Path of the Dragon (forthcoming from Pickman’s Press) in A.D. 42 and The Gardens of Lucullus (Sidecar Preservation Society, 2001) in A.D. 48. Other stories were planned during this time period as well. Richard Tierney intended some German adventures in A.D. 46 – 47, as well as entertaining another collaboration with Glenn Rahman on a pair of novels set on the western Roman frontier, one centered on the Claudian invasion of Britain, the other involving the Picts in Scotland. Sadly, none of these stories were ever written — yet.

Drums of Chaos (cover art by Zach McCain) Pickman’s Press, 2021

Excerpts. Expect:

A) Lots of “Sick” Sica Melee

Simon roared and struck out; his fist cracked sharply against the face of the nearest guard, who flopped to the cobbles without a cry. Quick as a panther he crouched and whirled, barely in time to avoid a murderous blow from a second guard’s staff; his sharp-bladed sica, already in hand, shore through the guard’s neck as Simon completed his whirl, and the man went down with a dying gurgle.

and…

The door was only large enough for two abreast and Simon met the first two with steel, expertly parrying, slashing, stabbing. One collapsed mortally wounded from a sword-thrust in the guts; the other leaped back, suddenly fearful, but was pushed forward again by the surging mob — to die instantly on the point of the sica. Simon howled with mad rage, swinging and thrusting; a bludgeon glanced heavily off his left shoulder and a knife-point nicked his flank, but three more of his enemies went down with blood gushing. A pike ripped his tunic and gashed the side of his ribcage; he roared and smote in return, cleaving a snarling face with his sword. Fierce exultation suddenly filled him; if he must die, this was how he preferred it, fighting and slaying Romans to the very end —

B) Unraveling Emperor Plans to Meddle with Cosmic Sorcery

“I think I know what you learned. Tiberius’ purge of his enemies is no secret, and Carbo recently brought me another message from Senator Junius, who has been recalled from exile in Lesbos to house arrest in Rome. The senator told me about Prodikos and his daughters, and I have learned much more here in Ephesos.”

Simon stopped eating. “What have you learned of Prodikos?”

“Much, Simon, but mainly that in this city renowned for its sorcerers, he is the most powerful and feared of them all.”

A serving-girl entered with an amphora of wine, and Dositheus ceased speaking. When she had gone Simon filled his goblet. “Go on,” he said.

“Prodikos had several children by various slave women, but all were sons save Helen and Ilione. These sons he long ago sold into slavery, but his daughters he kept — for an evil purpose, as it turns out. Simon, it is no mere incestuous lust that drives Prodikos. He means to force Ilione to join with him in a monstrous ritual that shall release forces this world has not seen since it emerged from the last great darkness of the All-Night.”…

… “The rite of the Impregnation and the Slaying — an act of sympathetic magic that shall cause the seed of the Star-god to unite with the Great Mother, thereby generating a horrendous spawn that will overwhelm this world.”

Simon gripped his goblet tensely. His scalp tingled as he recalled reading of just such a black ritual in the Sapientia Magorum of the ancient Persian magus Ostanes. “Gods of Hades! How could the girl’s own father even think of such perverse madness —?”

Dositheus drew a deep breath. ‘‘He may no longer be her true father, Simon. Have you not read of Sakkuth, King of Night, and his evil Master?”

Simon felt the tingling extend down his spine. Sakkuth the King, servitor of Kaiwan the Star-god — both evil beings cursed by the ancient prophets yet still furtively worshipped by sorcerers in his own native Samaria…

“The wizards of Acheron and Stygia and even older civilization cycles knew them by other names,” Dositheus went on. “To the nations of primal Attluma they were Kossuth and Assatur. It is said that every thousand years Sakkuth attempts to destroy civilization, and that he succeeds unless powerful magic is used to stop him. It was he who plunged the world into the All-Night after the Atlantean and Hyborian cataclysms. And to initiate such times, his master Kaiwan, who dwells amid the stars near the Eye of Taurus, sends to earth his seed to unite with the Great Mother, thereby enabling her to spawn the Thousand Abominations that will overwhelm the world.”

C) An Abundance of R.E. Howard Hyborian Age References

Instantly the sword hilt in his hands shrilled with a supernatural energy, and a blade of golden light sprang forth — a blade that must, Simon somehow knew, be equal in length to the sword blade when it was first wielded ages ago by the Aquilonian King!

“The Phoenix!” gasped Nephere, falling to his knees. “The soul of civilization — the hope of mankind…”

The great bird — if bird it was — had wheeled about and was now settling down, flapping its wide and glittering pinions, coming to rest atop the ancient pyramidal stone behind the flaming altar. It perched there and folded its wings, gazing down upon the flames where — so Nephere had said — its parent had just been cremated.

Simon could only stare in awe. He suddenly realized that he had never known true beauty before. He had seen vast mountain landscapes that had taken his breath away, and many fire-emblazoned sunsets, and had known a number of beautiful women — even one that had shared with him and the fallen gods his own soul-nature. But never, until now, had he felt the presence of the very Soul of Beauty.

Yet, despite the mood that was upon him, despite the lingering chords of celestial music in his heart, he could still see actual, objective features of the being. It was about the size and shape of a large eagle, and this fact had doubtless formed the basis of the legends that had surrounded it. But it was no bird, Simon knew — nor any creature of earth or its environs. Those scales or feathers, gleaming like a thousand luminous gems, only slightly resembled the scales or feathers of earthly creatures; that gently curved bill, glowing like translucent pearl, only resembled something between the beaks of ibis and eagle; the golden spray of filaments about its head and throat only resembled the inferior crowns and gorgets of earthly kings and queens. And the great eyes, round and limpid and swirling with obscure colors, bright with transcendent life and supermundane intelligence — these resembled nothing he had ever seen…

Richard L. Tierney

Richard L. Tierney (1936 – 2022) was a poet, author, and editor of adventure fiction, mainly in the realm of dark fantasy. Since his mid-teens, he had been both a fan and scholar of H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, Clark Ashton Smith, and other great names from the pulp fiction era. In 2010, he was nominated for the Science Fiction Poetry Association’s Grandmaster Award. In 1961, Tierney earned a degree in Entomology (Iowa State College) and served for many years with the U.S. Forest Service in several of the western states and Alaska. A haunter of archaeological ruins by instinct, he had traveled widely, especially in Mexico, Central, and South America. Many of the ideas and images that he employed in his stories were inspired by his extensive travels. His major works include Collected Poems (1981, Arkham House), The House of the Toad (1993, Fedogan and Bremer), Sorcery Against Caesar: The Complete Simon of Gitta Short Stories (Pickman’s Press, 2020), The Drums of Chaos (2008, Mythos Books, 2021 Pickman’s Press), and Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror (2010, reprint 2021, P’rea Press).

Friday, February 4, 2022

Tour Guide of John C. Hocking's Archivist Series

Originally posted on the Tales of the Magician's Skull Blog: Archiving the King’s Blade Champion: An interview with John C. Hocking

Saved here for redundant archiving!