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A (Black) Gat in the Hand: Richard Deming’s Manville Moon
“You’re the second guy I’ve met within hours who seems to think a gat in the hand means a world by the tail.” – Phillip Marlowe in Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep (Gat — Prohibition Era term for a...
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An Essential Purchase: The Weird Tales Boys by Stephen Jones
The Weird Tales Boys (PS Publishing, September 2023). Cover by Les Edwards How could I not purchase The Weird Tales Boys, by Stephen Jones? It focuses on the three authors whose work has most inspired...
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Neverwhens: Ancient Civilizations Topple and the Age of Heroes ends in the...
Seriously, how many D&D encounters did this one scene inspire? (Jason and the Argonauts, 1963) I sincerely doubt any Black Gate reader needs an education in who Ray Harryhausen was or why his...
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Necronomicon Coming
Not the book of cosmically horrible… stuff, we’ll say “stuff” and let that be that, shall we? Not the Necronomicon of dread lore and Lovecraftian literary shenanigans. No, Necronomicon, as in a ‘con,...
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Goth Chick News: Bring on the Retro, 16-Bit Games Are Coming Back
RetroRealms – Halloween Gameplay Screenshot There is almost nothing I love better than a thunder-stormy Sunday afternoon spent playing video games. These days, those hours are spent in my souped-up...
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Necronomicon Report: They Stir
Opening ceremonies, featuring our emissaries from space and the sea With organ and dance, in august surroundings (in August, no less), we celebrated the sixth Necronomicon’s beginning here in...
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A to Z Review: “Cronus,” by Marianne Puxley
Just as Avis Pabel only published one science fiction story, so, too, did Marianne Puxley. Puxley’s only sf short story, “Cronus,” appeared in the May 1989 issue of Interzone. Rhea and Tyrrell area...
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Necronomicon: The Paneling
There’s nothing like a well-run ‘con, and veterans of the circuit know the feel of competence, from the preliminary materials and communications to the execution of the event on site. Chief character...
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Necronomicon Saturday: All the Funs
The glorious Vendor Hall at Necronomicon As Necronomicon enters the full adult stage of its four day life, wee Thursday toddlerdom and energetic Friday late-teens giving way to brawny,...
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New Treasures: Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea (Bramble, May 7, 2024). Cover by Irene Huang I had a few bucks in my pocket during my last trip to Barnes & Noble last week, and came home with some magazines and...
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Necronomicon: Sunday, Sundayyyyy
The sleepers wake: attendees start the fourth day of Necronomicon In the usual life cycle of a con, Sundays range from DOA — they expired sometime in the dark of night and when the sun rises all one...
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What I’ve Been Listening To: August, 2024
A (Black) Gat in the Hand takes another week off, as I’ve continued listening to audiobooks daily. Last month I talked about some of my Audible choices. Whether I’m working, writing, driving, or trying...
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Not Fade Away: The Cemetery of Untold Stories by Julia Alvarez
The Cemetery of Untold Stories (Algonquin Books, April 2, 2024). Cover artist unknown We live our life telling a story Of what we’ve said and done But lately you caused me to worry That you’re...
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Margaret Hamilton: Wicked Forever
She’ll get you, my pretty! The marketing blitz for the upcoming two-part film version of the 2003 stage version of Gregory Maguire’s 1995 novel Wicked (itself a “reimagining” of L. Frank Baum’s seminal...
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A Red Desert World, Full of Mystery: Old Mars, edited by George R.R. Martin &...
Old Mars (Bantam Books, October 8, 2013). Cover by Stephen Youll This isn’t a Sword & Planet collection per se but is likely to prove interesting to readers of S&P. It’s a big book, 548 pages...
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A to Z Reviews: “The Spring of Dongke Temple,” by Qitongren
Qitongren offers a mix of fantasy and fairy tale with “The Spring of Dongke Temple.” Originally published in Chinese in 2007, it was translated by Liu Jue in 2019 for publication in the anthology of...
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Goth Chick News: The Chicago Fan Expo Kind of Blew Our Minds
It’s not often that Black Gate Photog Chris Z and I experience sensory overload at a convention, so this is likely a first. Last weekend, August 16-18, Chicago played host to the Fan Expo in its third...
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Janet Morris, May 25, 1946 – August 10, 2024
High Couch of Silistra (Bantam Books, May 1977) and The Golden Sword (Baen, November 1984). Covers by Boris Vallejo and Victoria Poyser Just after I put up my first Harold Lamb post I found out that...
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What I’ve Been Listening To: August (II) 2024
I posted last week about several audiobooks I’ve been listening to. Audiobooks totally fit in with my lifestyle (to the extent I have one). I can listen to them while working, driving, writing, falling...
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The (New) Crow – It’s a No From Me
Good afterevenmorn! Well, it turns out that a new version of the film The Crow was released last week. Touted not as a remake of the 1994 gothic masterpiece, but a re-adaptation of the original...
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