Dark Thresholds

"The Gargoyle," a short psychological horror story I did with artist Shom Bhuiya will be appearing in Dark Thresholds #1: Beyond Fear and the Unknown from Panday Studio. The anthology will feature the talents of writers Ron Fortier, AT Nelson, Jon Hook, Victoria Pagac, and Ulf Imwiehe; art by Thomas Floyd, Dario Carrasco Jr, Gerald Garcia, TG Sangalang, Ryan Sergeant, and Shom Bhuiya, with inking assists from Todd Swain, Ed Eargle, and Stacie Ponder; plus lettering by Jim 'KEP!' Keplinger & Jeof Vita, and a Gargoyle-inspired cover painted by Phillip Neundorf -- generally good company to keep!

The Erehwyna Destiny

It always bothered me in books like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when the kids would have an adventure that fulfilled some preset destiny. Afterall, if they're destined to do it anyway, where does the heroism come in? Is it merely a matter of embracing destiny in a vaguely Kierkegaardian Either/Or sort of way, or is there a little free will mixed in with the determinism, and it isn't what the kids do that matters, but rather the manner in which they bring about their preset destiny that counts?

Naked Canadians

Memento Mori, an 8-page short story courtesy of John Rogers, Tom Fowler, and Pamela Rambo, from BOOM! Studios. (Warning: much skin-eating on the other side of the link).

Bacefolus Presents: Lost & Found

Why aren't there more comics for kids, darnnit? (Granted, there are a few great kid-friendly comics right now, like Stardust Kid, Lions, Tigers, and Bears, and Lullaby -- but why not, y'know, even more?)

Click right here for a preview of Bacefolus Presents: Lost & Found, by Sven Dyson, Andy Genen, Becky Kieliszenski, and Richard Nelson.

Welcome to Urbis Faerie

Here's a peek at yet another comic project I'm involved with: Urbis Faerie. I don't want to say too much about it just yet, but you can check out the first panel above, courtesy of Martin Marazzo (pencils), Carolina Cesare (inks), and Robt Snyder (colours).

Jane's West

A few images from this project have been showing up online, so I guess it's safe to post about it.

Jane's West was created by myself and artist Dario Carrasco, Jr (actually, Dario created Jane, her look, the general plot, and almost all of the characters. I just give them the pretty, pretty words):

"Join U.S. Marshal Jane West on a romp through the wild frontier in search of a group of slavers targeting young women and calling themselves the Bush Boys. Along for the ride are allies both trusted and uncertain, enemies recognized and disguised, and bullet-riddled mayhem... at the hands of the most famous Marshal of them all!"

Inker extraordinaire Todd Swain has posted a few images to his DeviantArt gallery: have a look.

Mother Nixon

Over on his LiveJournal, artist Ben Templesmith takes us through the process of making a page of Fell, a wicked new series he is doing with Warren Ellis.

What's particularly interesting to me is how a single page (the first page of issue #2), even before any captions or dialogue are added, can so completely communicate the world of Snowtown. Just a few panels and we're there.

Venturesome Motes

Here's a page from an international adventure maybe sci-fi submission package I'm working on with some cool French guys, Chris Malgrain and Pierre Minne. You can see more over at Chris' forum.

Son's Ray

If you've seen me post about his stories on NightShade or other boards, you'll know that I think Ray Vukcevich is the bee's knees. (No, better than the bee's knees -- Ray is the entire bee. Not the stinger, though. Or the guts). Even his shopping list is cool!

So anyway, I'm rather excited by the Table of Contents for the first issue of Son and Foe, which features not only a new short by Mr. Vukcevich, but one also by me. Interestingly, I wrote the S&F story, "When the Great Clod Belches," in late July 2004, shortly after reading Ray's collection, Meet Me in the Moon Room. The story bears Ray's influence in that discovering his writing opened my eyes as to what could be attempted in the short story format, and challenged me to shake my own writing up a little, and be a bit more ambitious. ("The Coming Years of Good," a story slated for publication in On Spec, was written the same week, and bears the same influence).

The only down side to having Ray Vukcevich actually appear in the same magazine as one of the tales by me that he inspired, is that his story is likely to be so much better than mine!

TechnoTags: writing, stories, fiction

Dead God Living

Ironically perhaps, The Dead God's Destiny is now live at Flashing Swords (read the prologue right here):

Jack Nimble sealed his lips and tried not to breathe the green dust raining from the chisel he tapped against the ceiling. Illuminated by a glimmer wand, the dust looked appetizing to Jack. A man from the wizard coast had given him a piece of green candy once, and Jack, remembering the taste, longed to feel the dust dissolving in his saliva. If he gave in to the bizarre temptation, however, it might make him cough -- and if Phillipé, the Platypus, had been delayed, making noise could prove very dangerous...

Related posts: Dead God's Puppet Show, Dead God's Prologue, Sword with your Sorcery?, Garluss, Elf-Help Press Release
Technorati Tags: fantasy, fiction, platypus

Sword with your Sorcery?

When I first started writing fiction (almost five years ago!) I wrote a lot of Sword & Sorcery (think Moorcock's Elric, Leiber's Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser stories, or Howard's Conan). I've focused mostly on more literary forms of speculative fiction for the last year or so, but I think it might be time for me to pick up a sword (or pen... or keyboard...) again.

In the meantime, I'm taking stock of my S&S legacy thus far:

"The Metal Mages" in Magistria: Realm of the Sorceror, " "Eye, Urreal" in Kings of the Night II, "Headlong Into Hatred" in Kings of the Night III, and a few stories that have yet to appear, including the three (or four) headed for Flashing Swords.