Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts It appears we might be getting King Conan after all. Heroic Signatures made the announcement in its newsletter, and it looks authoritative—or as authoritative as it gets in the volatile, fickle world of movie-making. I don’t actually want to talk about that right now, though I’m sure I’ll have much more to say later. I do want to talk about negativity. Jim Zub, writer of the current Conan comic, posted the news with enthusiasm on his Facebook page....
12 days ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Interesting fact: Ronnie James Dio was raised in New York, but born in Portsmouth, NH. Less than 30 miles/30 minutes from my home, practically my backyard. I’m tickled to live so close to the birthplace of arguably the greatest voice in heavy metal history. A man of whom Bruce Dickinson once said, “He was the world’s shortest singer apart from me, but he sang his ass off, and sang rings around me, and always will.” Pretty high praise coming from...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts I am behind--behind! on everything I want to read. Resigned to the fact that I shall never read everything I want to before I perish. Maybe Plato was right, I shall be born again … and therefore have another life in which to reduce my TBR. But I don’t want to stake my future on that possibility. What if I were to be reincarnated before the invention of the printing press? So I’ll just keep chipping away. I didn’t get much reading in over the Memorial...
26 days ago • 3 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Here we go, another issue of Arcane Arts. Today I’m bringing you the usual dose: sword-and-sorcery, heavy metal memoir updates, and three videos I find interesting—and suspect you might as well. Howard on fire... Revisiting Queen of the Black Coast My reading tends to follow a stress-relax pattern. I alternate between non-fiction and fiction, difficult works of fiction I feel obligated to read followed by page-turning adventure in which I just want...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts I don’t sail, but here’s something all sailors know: You can’t steer directly into the wind. To get where you want to go you have to zigzag. Tack one way until you start getting off course, then tack in the other direction. Eventually you reach your destination. Life is like that too. You can’t just plow ahead into the storm without swamping your craft. Balance is the answer. This is one of a very few hard-earned bits of wisdom that’s stuck with me,...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts What is best in life? Arcane Arts, your weekly dose of sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal. Two things I find best in life, at least. Let’s get to it. Heavy metal memoir: It’s crunch time A professional editor is worth his/her weight in gold. But be prepared to be humbled by their work. Earlier this year I contracted an editor to edit my heavy metal memoir work in progress. Not a copyedit, but a line edit for flow, voice, and readability. And for his...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts I have a day job that has nothing to do with weird fiction, sword-and-sorcery, or heavy metal. I work for a healthcare consulting company creating all their marketing and branding. I can’t complain: It pays the bills. I am a “somebody” in that space. I have a large following on LinkedIn, host a healthcare podcast, and started an association almost 20 years ago that people still flock to today—all of which puts me in the limelight. I might even call...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts This was a particularly grim New England winter. The heavy snowfall and intense cold are gone, but the bitter, clammy dampness hung on… and on. I’ve spent too many days inside, looking at my phone and a world on fire. I’m in need of renewal, physical and spiritual. Grail shaped, if I can find it. I took a recent draught from that cup: Joseph Campbell’s Romance of the Grail, which I recently finished. And wrote about here on the blog. I half composed...
2 months ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts Arcane: From the Latin arcānus. Known or knowable only to a few people: Secret. Mysterious, obscure. Welcome to another issue of Arcane Arts. Its mystery stems from its unpredictable contents, even to me, its master alchemist. This week I discuss James Bond, the secrets of the Holy Grail, and lessons from a life of blogging. How do they all relate to each other? They probably don't, but you must read the signs. Enjoy the strange brew that is issue...
3 months ago • 3 min read