S&S updates: Scaling the walls of Venarium, and assorted essays

A couple updates from my corner of S&S fandom.

I’m psyched/pumped/jacked to announce that I was honored with the Venarium award from the Robert E. Howard Foundation, at the recent Robert E. Howard Days in Cross Plains, TX.

The Venarium is given to an emerging scholar in Robert E. Howard studies. Per the foundation, candidates must have recently begun making significant contributions to Howard scholarship through publications and/or presentations over the past few years.

I’ve been at this stuff since 2007, but really in two distinct phases. As you will see from the absence of posts from 2013-2019, I took a long “break” from blogging, writing essays, etc. to work on Flame and Crimson, and I believe the publication of the book, coupled with my recent re-investment in the blog, writing REH related material for The Dark Man, The Journal of American Culture, DMR/Goodman Games, etc., rendered me eligible. In a rare tie I shared the award with Willard M. Oliver. Congrats Will!

I’m honored, and doubly disappointed I could not be at Cross Plains to receive the award in person. I’ve already told my wife that I’m absolutely going next year, unless Russia decides to invade, or North America sinks Atlantis-like under the waves of the rising oceans. The theme next year I believe is the Weird Tales centennial (first issue 1923), which could make for some excellent panel sessions.

Congratulations to all the winners. I was particularly happy to see Jason M. Waltz win the Valusian award for his work as editor of Robert E. Howard Changed My Life, which I reviewed here on the blog, and Jason Ray Carney win the Costigan for his efforts editing Whetstone: Amateur Magazine of Pulp Sword and Sorcery. Both very worthy.

And a sincere thank you to the Robert E. Howard Foundation for hosting the awards and honoring the work of those who keep REH’s name alive.

In other news…

This week I have two essays scheduled for publication, for the two websites I presently write for.

Tomorrow I expect to see a review of Schuyler Hernstrom’s Thune’s Vision up on DMR Books. Spoiler alert: Loved it.

Friday I expect to see “Lin Carter: Enthusiast of the Fantastic” up on the site of Goodman Games/Tales from the Magician’s Skull. Carter was born this month in 1930 and passed away in 1988. My stance on him, while never close to negative, was perhaps ambivalent. It’s softened in recent years. I summarize his contributions as enthusiastic and influential editor and general spectator on the S&S scene in the 60s through the 80s, concluding that we need more Lin Carters these days.

I’ll link to both of those here when they appear.

Master of the Wind, Manowar

This was a no-brainer for Metal Friday after the passing of Ken Kelly. Much of passing and transitions in this one, solemnity and sorrow.

Fly away to a rainbow in the sky
Gold is at the end for each of us to find.
There the road begins where another one will end,
Here the four winds know who will break and who will bend
All to be the Master of the wind.

RIP Ken Kelly

When you get a Tweet from Joey DeMaio sending you off to the afterlife, you've done something right with your life, son.

RIP Ken Kelly, the man who married hard rock and metal with sword-and-sorcery. Like this, for example:

Read my tribute on the website of DMR Books.

(Other) stuff that got me into S&S: Rogues in the House leftovers

The RitH Army wants you!

Last night I guested on Rogues in the House, one of a handful of podcasts dedicated to all things sword-and-sorcery—or at least sword-and-sorcery adjacent. * The episode was on our origin stories, the events/media/incidents that set us down the path of sword-and-sorcery fandom and general lifelong nerdity.

This was my third guest appearance with the Rogues and as before, I had a blast. Co-hosts Matt John and Deane Geiken are great dudes, very easy to work with, and always run a good program. The show is up and you can listen here.

Even though we ran an hour and 38 minutes it was not enough time to cover all of the many childhood and adolescent influences that fueled my love of S&S. So, what follows is a more comprehensive list. I’m quite sure I’m missing a few, either forgotten to time or buried deep in my subconscious, driving urges I can no longer articulate. But this must suffice, for now.

These are the notes I was working off for the show so I’m leaving them as notes.

Toys including plastic medieval knights, little green army men, etc. Later Star Wars toys, D&D action figures, etc.

Saturday morning and after school cartoons particularly Thundarr the Barbarian and The Herculoids. Also Transformers, GI Joe, and of all things, the Gummi Bears (this became a running joke on the show).

Kids/adolescent books including The Hobbit, Fire-Hunter by Jim Kjelgaard, Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, Monsters by Crestwood House, Monster Tales: Vampires, Werewolves and Things. The Chronicles of Prydain/Lloyd Alexander, Dragonlance, Susan Cooper’s Over Sea and Under Stone, the Narnia books, illustrated Crusades stories, etc. In hindsight I can see how I was being inevitably steered toward sword-and-sorcery by consuming its various components; historical elements, grit and danger, monsters, tough and resourceful heroes, horror, and the weird.

Land of the Lost TV show.

Comics: Savage Sword of Conan, and other direct S&S titles (color CtB, Arak Son of Thunder, occasional issue of Heavy Metal). Also John Carter of Mars, Weird War, and Tarzan.

The comics led me to the Conan Saga Lancer paperbacks with their Frazetta covers.

Time Life Enchanted World series.

Adolescent films including Rankin-Bass Hobbit, Clash of the Titans, Dragonslayer, Krull, The Dark Crystal. Even something like Goonies, for the spirit of adventure and treasure-seeking it evoked in me.

These films inevitably led to more adult movies: Conan the Barbarian (1982), Heavy Metal animated, Excalibur, LadyHawke, The Terminator, Blade Runner.

Tabletop gaming: Tom Moldvay basic D&D (D&D in general, but this edition specifically). White Dwarf magazine, which had fiction, entertaining articles, and great artwork. Artwork in general was to be prized, prior to the internet. It sparked ideas for gaming, and my imagination in general. I later migrated to other RPGs including Runequest, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, etc. And Wargaming (Wooden Ships and Iron Men, Axis and Allies, etc.)

Computer games: Atari, which led to the early CRPGs (Bard’s Tale, Wizardry, Wizard’s Crown)

Heavy metal and its associated imagery (Iron Maiden, Manowar, Judas Priest)

Halloween—I dressed up as a viking one year, a knight another. My favorite holiday, still is.

Stephen King, including the likes of The Stand, Cycle of the Werewolf, the Long Walk, Salem’s Lot, Eyes of the Dragon, etc.

* I also recommend the likes of The Appendix N Podcast, So I'm Writing a Novel, The Cromcast, and the Dark Crusade for their coverage of sword-and-sorcery material.

Metal Friday: Nativity in Black

"Everybody knows that Black Sabbath started everything and almost 
every single thing that people are playing today has already been done by Black Sabbath.
They wrote every single good riff... ever." -- Rob Zombie

I’ll admit it: As a young heavy metal devotee I was not much of a Black Sabbath fan. That’s not strong enough: I was probably a couple degrees removed from scorn of the legendary British metal act, a stance born out of ignorance.

When I started listening to heavy metal in the late 1980s, Sabbath was no longer “in.” Far from it. Iron Maiden? They were in. American thrash bands like Anthrax, Megadeth, and especially Metallica, yeah, definitely in. Sabbath in comparison seemed like old fogies and has-beens; next to “Disposable Heroes,” the likes of “Iron Man” felt pretty, well, disposable. 

By that time Ozzy had long been booted from the band, Dio had departed for an illustrious solo career, and the band was far past its peak. After taking a brief hiatus in the mid-80s, Sabbath brought in Tony Martin as lead vocalist and released The Eternal Idol (1987) and Headless Cross (1989). Both albums were met with indifference by heavy metal magazines and Headbangers Ball. Probably not unfairly, either. They were out of step with the metal scene at the time.

Now, I knew the name Black Sabbath carried legendary status among metal die-hards, and I liked a couple of their songs well enough. But, I was not on the bandwagon. I just didn’t know enough of their classic songs, and lacked an understanding of their incalculable contributions, or the awesomeness of hits like “Into the Void,” “Fairies Wear Boots” and “Symptom of the Universe.” Keep in mind this was the pre-internet era, and so exploring their catalog via Spotify or Youtube was not an option. Even had I wanted to listen to Sabbath, I didn’t own any of their tapes (yes, I said tapes damnit). I had minimal income and buying their back catalog was difficult, and had minimal appeal for my thrash and Maiden obsessed self.

But something occurred in 1994 that changed my perception of the band, forever. Ironically it was not a Black Sabbath album, but a Sabbath tribute album. I’m talking about the appearance of Nativity in Black.

I don’t know what prompted me to buy this album; by then I had more disposable income and I think I may have read a good review in Kerrang or somewhere else. It may have been that I was a huge fan of the artists featured on the album, including the likes of Biohazard, White Zombie, Sepultura, and of course Bruce Dickinson. Regardless, I’m glad I bought it.

By then I had graduated to CDs, and immediately realized upon first spin of this new-fangled shiny disc that the album rocked. Hard. Nativity in Black is a classic. I love Sepultura’s cover of “Symptom of the Universe,” Bruce ripping through “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” and Type O Negative’s downbeat, doom-laden version of “Black Sabbath.” I was very pleasantly surprised to learn that the mysterious Bullring Brummies, who covered “The Wizard,” was fronted by none other than Rob Halford. Oh, and Geezer Butler and Bill Ward were also part of this undercover band, formed solely to play one song on the album.

But my favorite song on Nativity in Black has to go to “Children of the Grave” by White Zombie. If this doesn’t get you headbanging I don’t know what will. It’s a killer cover. Rob Zombie and co. amp up the pace (and bass) to add an additional layer of heaviness, add in snippets of newscaster reports of the Manson murders, and change a few key words ("love" is changed to "hell" in one verse) which lends the song a far more sinister air than the original.

Needless to say this album kindled my interest in Sabbath and led to me exploring their back catalog. And the rest is history.

Here is the aforementioned “Children of the Grave.” Give it a listen and see if you agree if it earns the killer status I've accorded it.

Seven weeks off Facebook, a few observations

Fuck I don’t miss that noise.

If you want to get more done—write more, read more, have more meaningful relationships, enjoy a better focus and healthier mindset—get off the platform.

I am posting far more here on The Silver Key, because I have suddenly found more hours in the day.

I am reading more books, with more attention.

I am calling and talking to friends more often.

I am writing up a storm on LinkedIn, actual thoughtful business content.

I don’t need to read other people’s hot takes on gun control/no gun control, abortion/not abortion, Trump/never Trump. As if what you write on these topics will ever change anyone’s mind. They won’t. Better off pissing into a headwind; at least you only piss on yourself.

There is room for all these conversations. They should be had. But not everyone needs to have an opinion on every issue. 

Most people haven’t figured this out, so I’ll say it again: You don’t need to have an opinion on everything. You can remain silent, and think, and admit you don’t know, rather than spew shit on Facebook, and demonstrate your ignorance to the world.

If you believe in a cause, great! Act. Get involved. Do something beyond hot takes on social media, that vanish into the ether. And then follow the media's lead and move on to the next "outrage." Remember all the outrage about masking/not masking? 

I don’t want to sound smug about my decision (that’s how I viewed people who made these breaks, outwardly and loudly, in the past. Which is why I just deleted my account without fanfare). But I’m glad I made it, unequivocally. And I think you should at least consider the same, a short break even, see what happens.

Time is our only non-renewable resource, and social media platforms ravenously eat your time, which you’ll never get back. Engaging in nonsense, blood-pressure raising discussions is one way Facebook eats your life. But passive scrolling, and “likes,” which is what Facebook/Instagram/TikTok, etc. encourages, eats up your time in an insidious fashion, far more than you know. 

Companies are monetizing you, selling your data. If you’re not paying for something, odds are you’re the product, not the customer.

I may still get back on, someday, but if it happens it will be for a targeted, specific reason. 

For now, for anyone wondering, seven weeks later I’m still off. And have confirmed, you don’t need that shit. 

S&S-related updates and news

A roundup of stuff happening in my favorite subgenre.

I won’t be going to Cross Plains, TX for Howard Days after all. I was leaning heavily in that direction, but several factors have converged to derail my trip. Starting a new job, after I had already pre-booked a week of vacation in June, was probably the biggest. That, coupled with family matters including college expenses and the estimated cost of the trip, plus some parental issues, caused me to put it off. A real bummer because there are several folks in the S&S/Howard communities attending this year that I’d love to meet, and of course it means another year on the planet not having visited the hallowed Howard homestead. It will still happen, someday, and soon.

Speaking of Howard, the Collected Letters of Robert E. Howard, vol. 2, is now available for pre-order by the Robert E. Howard Foundation. I will be picking this up. The Foundation sold out of a first printing years ago and my collection of Howard letters is incomplete.

The Whetstone Discord S&S group continues to foster and promote new authors, and I realize I need to check out a couple of recent releases. These include the likes of Hag of the Hills by JTT Rider. I love my old S&S but I’m trying to support new material when it comes out, too.

This week I received an email from Ingram Spark, which appears to be Pilum Press’s printing outfit, stating that Thune’s Vision has been received for printing. As I’ve stated before Schuyler Hernstrom is (in my non-exhaustive experience) the most exciting and talented new voice to hit the S&S scene. Really looking forward to this volume, which I recently backed on Kickstarter.

Flame and Crimson has been reviewed by Darrell Schweitzer in Dead Reckonings #31 (Hippocampus Press). I have not read the review but will be. I admit with some guilt that I have not done much of anything on Schweitzer here on the blog or elsewhere, despite the fact that he’s a talented writer and critic whom I’ve enjoyed (I recently re-read his “The Hag” in Swords Against Darkness III, which was pretty terrific).

I recently subscribed to Thews You Can Use, which you can find in my blogroll at right. This is the name we all wish we had thought of for our own S&S newsletters.

I still haven’t seen The Northman (#failure). I recently went to view it on On Demand and a single viewing was priced at $19.95. Are you kidding me? I’d possibly buy a DVD or Blue Ray disc at that price, but not digital vaporware. Still, looking forward to watching this soon. I’ve been assiduously ducking spoilers including a recent episode of Rogues in the House with Sara Frazetta on the film.