Dispatches from the silver key

Arcane Arts

It’s time. This week I begin formatting the manuscript of Growing Up Metal, the next step on the path to publication on Amazon. Having never done this I’m feeling the usual trepidation of the unknown. But I’m committed.

Write, publish, and market is the reality of authorship in the 21^st century.

I knew pretty early on I was going to go the self-publishing route. Last year I sent a half-dozen formal inquires (proposals, synopsis, sample chapter, etc.) to specialty publishers and imprints and did not receive a reply. The lack of response did not surprise me. I’m far from convinced there is an audience for the memoir of an average joe who grew up a heavy metal fan, circa high school in 1987 up through my early 40s. I am incredibly passionate about the music and lived a moderately interesting life in an interesting period of history … but I’m not exactly Vince Neil or Rob Halford.

I never set foot on a heavy metal stage, though I saw plenty from the crowd.

The fact is I wrote the thing because I had no choice. The idea gripped me and never let go. I believe in the work; writing it has been cathartic and transformative. So here I am, on the verge of sharing it. Possibly with an echo chamber but that is also the reality of authorship in the 21^st century. Thousands of books are published every day and readership is in decline.

Writers write anyway.

Let’s do this!

Enge’s enchanting entry in OMQ

James Enge is a good contemporary sword-and-sorcery writer. I knew this already, but my feelings were reconfirmed while reading Old Moon Quarterly #9, a special Arthurian themed issue that got me to back the latest Kickstarter. Enge’s “Undying” leads off the issue, a tale of Merlin and Nimue that left me enchanted.

Those who only know Merlin from his turn as an absent-minded, bespectacled tutor in T.H. White’s The Once and Future King see him here as he was in the old stories: Mischievous, lusty. His wandering eye lights on a beautiful female and he falls into a trap set by the sorceress Medea. In just 18 pages Enge inhabits the wizard and brings him to life in a great little story that feels magical and weird, laced with humor and a little pathos.

It should come as no surprise Enge is at home with the character; for years he’s been writing stories of the sorcerer Molock Ambrosius and his official character chronology offers the following: “According to Dwarvish tradition Morlock’s parents were Merlin Ambrosius and Nimue Viviana.”

Matt Holder’s “To Human Sucklings” is another well-written entry with a disturbing twist I didn’t see coming. The writing in the volume in general is artful (heavy on the alliteration) and evocative, and the subject matter unsettling and challenging. Not every story works but overall I'm enjoying the issue. I’m nearly finished.

A few thoughts on The Odyssey

You might recall I saw The Odyssey last week with my daughter. I had a grand time overall—the time together, the food (smuggled Chick-Fil-A), the experience of the film. Which was deeply immersive, nearly 3 hours that flew. The visuals and sound were overwhelming. I rarely get to the movies these days and this was one to see on the big screen.

Christoper Nolan did not set out to make The Odyssey but create his own spin for a modern audience. As a result it is not The Odyssey of Homer, but one director’s adaptation. My feelings on this are mixed. I will say Nolan has raised plenty of conversation about a very old story, part of our shared cultural heritage.

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There has been so much said about the film that I think I’ll just point the way to another review. I started following the fantasy critic Adam Roberts after he wrote one of the most insightful book reviews I’ve ever read, a compare/contrast of Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Children of Hurin, both released in 2007. Over on his Substack, Roberts writes:

DMR goes Renegade on my wallet

DMR Books is one of the earliest and (still) best publishers of new sword-and-sorcery and well thought-out reprints of classic material. I own more titles from DMR than any other modern publisher—at least 13, glancing over at my shelf. This includes the excellent anthologies Renegade Swords I and II.

Renegade Swords I is heavier on the 1930s, with stories from Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith and A. Merritt. Renegade Swords II leans harder into the 70s and 80s with stories by David Drake, Keith Taylor, and Michael Moorcock dominating the TOC.

Somehow I never purchased Renegade Swords III, but it looks like I’ll have to get a forthcoming no. IV (sigh, and probably III, too, my completionist self demands it). Editor Dave Ritzlin has been dropping the author lineup in an ongoing series of posts and its pretty impressive. Keith Taylor, Robert Bloch, Lee Brackett, a rare Moorcock story.​

I’m reminded I still need to pick up Walpurgis Witcheries, DMR’s celebration of Walpurgisnacht, a Christian festival begun in the Middle Ages with much earlier pre-Christian origins. A time when witches come out to play … the first stirrings of fall?

The Dark Man in all of us

Did you know Stephen King wrote a poem called "The Dark Man" back in 1969 while a student at The University of Maine? It’s an atmospheric little shocker you can read here.​

Its yet another strange resonance with Robert E. Howard. Probably a coincidence as its nothing like Howard’s short story of the same name.

Except that both concern outsiders.

All writers of the dark are outsiders. And we all drink from the same deep, ancient pool of myth.