Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.
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Arcane Arts: Dispatches From The Silver Key
Published about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Dispatches from the silver key
Arcane Arts
My jam is reading and writing, analyzing art, and sharing cool things. But today I'm not doing these things. Instead I’m neck-deep in production, the mechanics of creating and publishing a book.
On Sunday I spent +/- 6 hours importing and formatting text. And then another couple hours Monday. Not fun, but necessary.
And rewarding in its own way.
Growing Up Metal has migrated from .docx files on my One Drive to formatted chapters in the Reedy publishing platform. There is something inspiring about seeing chapter titles with a proper headline template applied, and text that’s not arial in proper paragraph breaks with a formal, print-ready look. I’m looking at something that approximates the layout of a real book, not an unfinished draft on a personal computer.
But there’s more to do. Always more to do.
I have to create the copyright page and some back matter. I’m including a few photographs from various stages of my heavy metal life. These need to be reasonably placed and imported into a collage template, for which I’m using a program called Canva.
Then I’ll be exporting the book and purchasing an ISBN number as I prepare for publishing on Amazon.
You might call today’s issue the Arcane Arts of self-publishing.
Because this is all so tedious and technical I’m balancing it out with a cover countdown. Here are some unused designs from the cover designer, and a little about why I didn’t pick them.
A bit too clever by half... I liked the Spinal Tap allusion but it took me a while to realize those were my ages on the dial, as covered in the book.
This was clean and sharp and I liked it... but I don't play the guitar and this sort of implies that. My daughter Hannah said the same.
I almost went with this one! Love the concept, one I had suggested, but I ultimately opened door no. 4.
I shall reveal the final cover next issue.
All heavy metal, all the time
It's going to be a very metal September.
I’m going to see Iron Maiden twice next month: Saturday Sept. 5 at the Sports Illustrated Stadium in Harrison, New Jersey, then Wednesday, Sept. 9 at the TD Garden in Boston.
I’ve seen Maiden a lot. At least 13 times, possibly more. They are IMO either the best heavy metal band of all-time or second to Judas Priest, flip a coin.
I never miss them when they tour. Typically I only see them once but I have a friend in New Jersey and another in MA who both wanted to go. I couldn’t let either down. And, to paraphrase “Somewhere in Time,” Time is Not On Maiden’s Side. This might be their last go-round.
Expect some type of review and maybe a few pics in an upcoming issue.
Full Whitesnake concert
Algorithms are designed to keep our attention fixed on our gleaming screens and so usually work. Sometimes they overdeliver. YouTube fed me an upload of an entire Whitesnake concert recorded on August 12, 1984 in Tokorozawa, Japan. I clicked. And wound up watching the entire one hour and four-minute performance.
This was akin to stepping back in time, into the former half of the 80s. I would have been 11 and not a metalhead in August 1984. This show was prior to Whitesnake’s smash-hit self-titled 1987 solo album so you get songs you wouldn’t ordinarily hear. They’re rawer and less polished then you might expect, if you’ve only see the Whitesnake of “In the Still of the Night,” but no less excellent. David Coverdale and co. sound great here.
Metal Party planning
I’m hosting a heavy metal themed party at my house on Sept. 19, featuring a live band in my living room. I must have the metal memoir done by then so I can give away a few copies and maybe create the best book trailer ever. I recently confirmed the time the band, Wildside, will be playing: 7:30-10 p.m.
Yes, I’m half nuts for doing this.
Ron Finn, lead singer of Wildside, with whom I've been exchanging emails about setup times, in my living room.
White was a lifelong fan who followed his enthusiasms wherever they led him—and they led him to some fascinating places. He published his first fanzine at the age of 15, and in 1968 he won the Hugo award for Best Fan Writer. He went to fan cons, organized fan cons, and was the guest of honor at fan cons. His love of music led him to become a jazz critic, and his love of science fiction and comics led him to become a novelist. He was the editor of the science fiction magazine Amazing Stories for almost ten years and of Heavy Metal for a year. Wherever it led him, fandom remained an important part of his life.
Here’s a prior piece I wrote on Fantastic for DMR Books, "A Fantastic Chapter for Conan and Sword-and-Sorcery." White (editor of Fantastic from June 1969-January 1979) returned the magazine’s focus to original fiction, with a renewed emphasis on sword-and-sorcery.
Sword-and-sorcery and heavy metal are among a small handful of my great passions. I write about these and other related topics on my blog, The Silver Key (https://thesilverkey.blogspot.com/). Flame and Crimson: A History of Sword-and-Sorcery (2020, Pulp Hero Press) is my first book. I'm working on a second book, a heavy metal memoir.
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Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts This week’s issue is a grab-bag of oddness. Hopefully you find something interesting in it. Which reminds me, I should probably say something about the purpose and direction of this newsletter (if it has one). I’d probably be better off sticking to one thing. Cultivating an audience and giving them lots what they want. I’m sure I dragged my Flame and Crimson audience over and they landed here expecting more of the same. I offer some...
Dispatches from the silver key Arcane Arts September 19, 2026 was the best Metal Party yet. And in all likelihood, the last. Like all previous parties—especially ones involving a live band, of which this was the third—hosting this event is a LOT of work. Securing a busy touring band. Pre-party hype. Buying food and drinks. 80s metal outfit selection. Moving furniture downstairs to clear the way for equipment. Parking cars on the street. Alerting the neighbors. Prepping a speech, on and on....
