(With humblest apologies to Jack Vance.) The Feast of Regrets — held annually, biannually, or at irregular intervals at Boumergarth, the four-towered castle of Ildefonse the Preceptor — was in full swing. The bloated red sun had limited its worrisome eructations to nothing more than a polite belch or two during the last month and… Continue reading A Dying Earth Feast
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Beowulf: Part of a Healthy Root System.
I have read Beowulf a couple of times, but it has been some years since my last visit to Heorot. I picked up a copy of Seamus Heaney’s translation a week or so ago and plunged right back into the feasting and carnage and recounting of raids, counter raids, and giving of gifts. It remains… Continue reading Beowulf: Part of a Healthy Root System.
The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 4. Plus Savage Journal Entry 43.
At Howard Days 2023 I picked up a copy of Lin Carter Presents The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 4. I have the first volume, so the two make a nice pair on my shelf. Carter’s introduction is, characteristically, informative and interesting. He demonstrates once again the astonishing depth and volume of his reading. “But how… Continue reading The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories 4. Plus Savage Journal Entry 43.
A Thanksgiving Repeat. Plus Savage Journal Entry 19.
The web log has been traveling. MBW, the HA, and I just returned to my fastness in the outskirts of Houston from spending Thanksgiving with my sister in Nebraska. Accordingly the web log will be broadcasting a repeat instead of new programing. Also, the next entry in Magnus Stoneslayer’s diary. But first, the obligatory self-promotion.… Continue reading A Thanksgiving Repeat. Plus Savage Journal Entry 19.
The Mega-Post. Resurrected Post.
March 1, 2020 The Mega-Post When you have more than one thing to write about but little to link the subjects, start with a bombastic title. Don’t leave the best for last. Or do. I don’t know, it’s confusing. How about this? Boss: Falchion’s Company Book One is now an audio book. That’s pretty good… Continue reading The Mega-Post. Resurrected Post.
Fore! Resurrected Post.
July 14, 2019 Fore! It is a commonplace that golf serves in multiple ways as a metaphor for life. Let me mention some of these metaphors and lessons of the links. Life is a trudge through a series of frustrations and disappointments that ultimately must end in weariness. Each shot may be likened to a… Continue reading Fore! Resurrected Post.
State of the Website, Updated. Resurrected (and Remarkably Apposite) Post.
February 1, 2015 State of the Website, Updated We’re into the second week of my website deciding to shit the bed. The hosting site believed it was caused by some sort of disagreement between the WordPress theme and one or more plug-ins. I don’t know. It’s all a big mystery to me, described in a… Continue reading State of the Website, Updated. Resurrected (and Remarkably Apposite) Post.
Flashing Swords #3. Pack Your Bags.
I have a number of well-worn anthologies on my shelves. It has been said that shorter fiction is the proper length for Swords-and-Sorcery. Maybe so. At least in an anthology the reader has access to multiple imagined worlds in a single volume instead of the single world of a novel. I thought I’d investigate this… Continue reading Flashing Swords #3. Pack Your Bags.
Where There’s Smoke…
You may have noticed that the West Coast is on fire. I certainly have. My house has been blanketed by an apocalyptic miasma for days. At least the color has shifted, from a Martian orange, to powdered-urine yellow, to what it is now, a sort of dry white fog. One of the major fires reached… Continue reading Where There’s Smoke…