Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Battleborn Magazine Issues 2 and 3
Black Gate has covered the inception of Battleborn magazine as it spawned from an August 2025 crowdfunding on Indiegogo. Columnist and author Mark Rigney interviewed the champion and chief editor Sean CW Korsgaard over three segments: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.
Too much ground to recap here, but we can highlight that the goal of the magazine is to blend contemporary Sword & Sorcery with reprints of classics (beyond Robert E. Howard, there will be Michael Shea, David Drake, and even more....that we 'kane't' wait to share the identities of!)
Sean CW Korsgaard is not to be confused with the Commander of Battleborn Magazine. This character is akin to the Skull from Tales from the Magician's Skull, and he is as rough as the skeletal icon, but perhaps a bit easier on his interns. The Commander has provided his sacred guidance below.
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: The Fish in Jonah’s Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
The Fish in Jonah's Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) by Byron Leavitt
(Brain Waves Press, 2026.) Cover created by Miblart with interior illustration by the author.
The Fish in Jonah's Puddle (To Say Nothing of the Demon) is a young-adult, portal fantasy written by Byron Leavitt. It's a contemporary, cosmic-horror take on the sub-genre that was a gateway for many of us. Recall the books like A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (1962), The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (1961), The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (1950), The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum (1900), and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)?
All of the above have adult followings as much as their young adult readerships. Which portal fantasies grabbed you and helped you become addicted to fantasy?
Simulcast on Black Gate:Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#19-#23)
In August 2025, we hailed the emergence of a second Chain Story project championed by Michael A. Stackpole. This is a Sword & Sorcery-focused, contagious set of connected (“chained”) stories.
Each is:
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: There is something about Return to Silent Hill - It's Mary!
The movie Return to Silent Hill (2026) is an adaptation of the psychological horror Silent Hill 2 (SH2) video game that was rebooted by Konami under Bloober Team in 2024. This 'return' film is directed by Christophe Gans, who championed the original 2006 film (which loosely adapted the first video game released in 1999). With the resounding success of the Bloober SH2 video game reboot, fans of the horror series had hope that the movie would pack a 1-2 punch, but it has been received poorly. Why?
James Sunderland appears to be the focus since the movie opens with him driving a car to a lookout featuring Silent Hill, as would be expected from the video games (both original and release) and the Trailer. The truth is, the movie is really not about him. Also, you'll meet a ton of characters, and they will mirror characters in the game... except in the movie, they aren't really different people. So:
To deliver this sucker punch approach, Gans' production delivery had to be perfect. And it was off. I had to meticulously screen capture, crop, and dissect the movie to change my mind about the work. Why reveal spoilers here? Most of the internet already has, including Gans in his interview (links below), and, for me, the movie would have been more enjoyable knowing what I know now. What at first appears to be a big mess is actually a coherent offering. Anyway, in short, as teased by the header image, there is something about Mary.
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Reviewing Arcane Arts and Cold Steel by David C. Smith
In 2019, Pulp Hero Press published Brian Murphy's Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery, which was notably covered by David C. Smith (link to review) and John O’Neill (link) on Black Gate. O'Neill highlighted that Brian Murphy was one of the earliest contributors to Black Gate, from way back in 2012! Six years have passed since the publication of Flame and Crimson; whereas the subtitle and focus of that was a history of Sword & Sorcery (S&S), Pulp Hero Press just followed with a sequel focused on writing it, penned by David C. Smith with a foreword by John O'Neill.
This post covers the complementary book Arcane Arts and Cold Steel: Writing Sword-and-Sorcery Fiction (Pulp Hero Press 2025, 298 pages). Greg Mele recently posted a Black Gate article on how this book is The Literary Sorcerer’s Toolkit; read that to learn more about the author.
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Horrific Art – Interviewing Tim Waggoner
This Dark Muse News column continues its coverage of Beauty in Weird Fiction/Art via interviews (a series that began in 2014 on my author blog and was taken up by Black Gate in 2018). We’ve hosted authors such as Carol Berg, Anna Smith Spark, Darrell Schweitzer, CSE Cooney, Scott Oden, CS Friedman, Bryn Hammond…. and many more… the latest being Waclaw Traier.
Now we corner author Tim Waggoner, who has published over sixty novels and eight collections of short stories. He’s a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award, a two-time winner of the Scribe Award, and he’s been a finalist for the Shirley Jackson Award and the Splatterpunk Award. He’s also a full-time tenured professor who teaches creative writing and composition at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
Waggoner has been getting a lot of press, and an award, for his novelization of the Terrifier movies that feature the serial killer named Art. You'll learn more about that in this interview. Check out the juxtaposition of Art (the Terrifier on the Left, for clarity) and Tim Waggoner (innocent author on the Right). What wonderful hats they have!
Simulcast on Black Gate.com
Dark Muse News: New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Issues #8, 9, & 10
Cover Artists Cover #8 - Jimmy Makepeace Cover #9 - Plastiboo Cover #10 - Matej Kollár
Black Gate has been tracking the inception and growth of New Edge Sword & Sorcery (NESS) mgazine, starting with Micheal Harrington’s 2022 interview with Oliver Brackenbury (champion and editor of NESS), through 2023 with NESS’s first two magazine releases (also Greg Mele’s review of #1), and then into 2024 with NESS’s first book “Beating Heart and Battle Axes and its two-novella combo book Double-Edged Sword & Sorcery, and then in 2025 we covered NESS‘s publication of a NEW Jirel of Joiry tale! (2025) and we interviewed one of their key New Edge authors, Bryn Hammond.
The campaign to fund and expand them ends just days after this posting (March 14th )! Hurry now to Backerkit to get some exclusives like a poster featuring live models in full S&S costume, discounted back issues, and a cover art postcard; also, backing unlocks more interior art and bumps author payments. If you miss out, or want some of the prior rewards from previous crowdfunding, get back issues and other NESS offerings in their shop, noting that print copies often have limited print runs.
So what is in the next three issues? We asked Oliver Brackenbury that, and his answer is below. And we had a feeling Jirel of Joiry would return, and we asked Molly Tanzer to provide a bit of perspective on the heroine.
Simulcast on Blackgate.com: Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#14-#18)
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Reviewing Conan – Spawn of the Serpent God by Tim Waggoner
Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God by Tim Waggoner (Titan Books, October 28, 2025). Cover artist unknown
Titan Books is on a roll, publishing Conan novels in quick succession: S. M. Stirling's Blood of the Serpent (2022), John C. Hocking's City of the Dead (2024), James Lovegrove's Cult of the Obsidian Moon (2024), Tim Lebbon's Songs of the Slain (2025), and Tim Waggoner's Spawn of the Serpent God (2025). And their 2026 schedule promises more with John Langan's The Brides of Crom.
Here we delve into Tim Waggoner's Spawn of the Serpent God. He's a Bram Stoker Award-winning author known for horror and media tie-in fiction. Recently, he was honored for his Terrifier #2: The Official Movie Novelization with a Scribe Award for Best Adapted Novel from the International Association of Media Tie-in Writers. With approval from movie writer and director Damien Leone, Waggoner had doubled the size of the hack-and-slash script by adding lore and characterization (I plan to interview Tim Waggoner about this for Black Gate's Beauty in Weird/Horror series). Anyway, Waggoner's knack for tie-ins and deepening characters is demonstrated again in Conan: Spawn of the Serpentas he highlights the dangers of Zamora.
Welcome to more Dark Muse News. This post reviews Anna Smith Spark's first book of the series The Making of This World: Ruined. The sequel, A Sword of Gold and Ruin, was recently published in October, 2025.
Anna Smith Spark is known as the Queen of Grimdark, a moniker she acquired with her Empires of Dust series. You can expect the same poetic brutality here. Her style and approach are very unique but are reminiscent of Tanith Lee. Literary wording may keep you distanced as a reader, but the raw emotion expressed throughout is so real that it makes the fantasy feel real, too. We interviewed Anna Smith Spark in 2019 - Disgust and Desire as part of our Beauty in Weird Fiction series, where she revealed all sorts of muses and inspirations. That year, we hosted a Q&A Session at Gen Con; there, she, John O'Neill, and I showed off our footwear (link); Anna's footwear won hands down!
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Affirmations and Exploits of a 50+ Year Old Miniature Gamer
Warhammer Quest: Dark Water
For this round of Dark Muse News, we'll be seeking affirmations.
I'm older than the typical kid who plays with toy-soldier figurines (well, I'm over 50) and love to play with plastic figurines. If you are like me, and need affirmations on occasion that it is okay to be a kid still (and perhaps even okay to spend a load of hobby money on boutique board games), then this post is for you. We'll highlight H.G. Wells, Peter Cushing, and delve into preparing for Warhammer Quest: Darkwater. This confesses my obsession with miniature board games that include miniatures; my collection includes shelves of asylum horror crawlers [yes, it's a whole subgenre, and this blog will cover them] and traditional dungeon crawlers. The post overviews the evolution of some dungeon crawlers.
Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Saluting Goth Chick and Interviewing Waclaw Traier of War Claw Games
Happy New Year!
This emerging blog salutes Sue Granquist, who contributed every other Thursday championing Goth Chick News in this very time slot. Sue Granquist contributed 741 articles over 16 years here on Black Gate with a special focus on horror movies and conventions (the longest-running column in Black Gate history). Sadly, she passed away in November 2025. John O'Neill penned a moving tribute: Goth Chick, January 13, 1966 – November 18, 2025. The outpouring of comments there is a testament to her influence.
In short, 2025 was a sad year for Black Gate champions, marked also by the passing of Howard Andrew Jones last January and Rodger Turner in June. I imagine them bolstering Black Gate (especially John O'Neill) from beyond, as force ghosts and role models. Peace to those who fell before us.
Going forward, as a tribute to Sue's moniker "Goth Chick News" and the need to report on dark fantasy, I'll be bringing you "Dark Muse News."
Simulcast on Black Gate: Doom Pilgrim! – War Claw’s Solo Card-Game-Book
Narrative game books steered my interest into dark fantasy reading and playing. The 1980s phenomenon of Fighting Fantasy gamebooks championed blending RPG elements into the choose-your-own-adventure genre. Although these persist in 2025 (in releases, digital versions, several tabletop games... all susceptible to reviews here soon), the last decade has enabled new forms of narrative, choose-your-own-adventure solo games.
This post highlights DOOM PILGRIM, a narrative-card-game-book by War Claw Games. The company is based in the Czech Republic. Most of their lineup has Print-to-Play options in addition to physical copies (produced by US-based manufacturer, The Game Crafter).
Released in 2022 as a physical and print-and-play game, Doom Pilgrim was awarded "Best Small Game of the Year" from the solo-dungeon-crawler guru Daniel from Dungeon Dive (see also his his Doom Pilgrim tutorial). In short, it is a superbly elegant, beautiful game. Doom Pilgrim has several expansions available now, with more on the way. Also, these proven game mechanics have evolved into Arthurian Legend, Sci-Fi, and weird horror games.
To be simulcast on Black Gate: The Chain Story 2 – Sword and Sorcery – Episodes 9-13
This August, we hailed the emergence of a second Chain Story project championed by Michael A. Stackpole. This is a Sword & Sorcery-focused, contagious set of connected ("chained") stories. Each is....
Stories will be released every few weeks, so check the Chain Story website. We have guides to Episodes 1-3 and Episodes 4-8, and this post introduces Episodes 9-13!
The north porch of St. Edward's Church in Stow on the Wold, Gloucestershire, is home to a wooden door which looks like something from a fairy story. Indeed, rumour has it that the door was the inspiration behind J.R.R. Tolkien's J. R. R. Tolkien's Doors of Durin, the west gate of Moria that appears in a scene in the The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.The door is made of dark wood with studded panels, and it has an old oil lamp hanging above it. The door is quite small, and it is said that only a hobbit could fit through it.Tolkien was known to visit the area while he studied at, and later became a professor at, Oxford University (Merton College). Much as we'd love to believe that the door was instrumental in the creation of the Doors or Durin, the claims have never been authenticated.The north porch of the church was built about 300 years ago and young yew saplings were planted to enhance its entrance. Today these trees are now part of the architraves for the door and make this one of the most photographed doors in the Cotswolds!St Edward's Church is just a short walk from the Market Square and the magical yew tree door and stained glass windows are well worth visiting.
Narrated by Moose Matson
Quench Your Thirst for Savage Sword and Sorcery Action Adventure!
The masters of sword and sorcery fiction might be dead but just because Robert E. Howard is no longer penning Conan tales doesn't mean you have to go without your fix of axe-wielding barbarians, lusty wenches and evil wizards! Literary Rebel is proud to bring you a whole new crop of monthly fantasy fiction by talented new authors.
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Fans of Robert E. Howard, Lin Carter, Clark Ashton Smith, and Karl Edward Wagner will love this new fantasy fiction adventure magazine.
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