So, hot off the presses (er, html) is the news that the Harper’s Pen winner for 2009 is John C. Hocking’s ‘The Face in the Sea,’ appearing in Black Gate #13. Now, as a finalist for the award myself, obviously John wasn’t my first choice for a win . . . but he was a close second. John is a terrific sword & sorcery author (he’s written one of the best non-Howard Conan stories in Conan and the Emerald Lotus), and Black Gate is the best and longest serving source for secondary world and heroic adventure fantasy — and a magazine I have the pleasure of being involved with as a reviewer and blogger. So, having John and BG win is like keeping the prize in the family, so to speak.
Black Gate #14 has just shipped, with a continuation of John’s story in it along with a whole bunch of other fiction and non-fiction. At 384 pages BG14 is bigger than a lot of books you might buy, and contains the cutting edge of what’s going on in the world of fantasy fiction (and a massive amount of terrific art work, like Storn Cook’s illustration for John’s tale above). So, if you want your finger on the pulse of modern fantasy — or just need a giant, perfect bound magazine to cudgel troublesome kobolds — Black Gate is what you are looking for.
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Many thanks, Bill.
Winning an award for writing a sword & sorcery short story is a weird and entirely unexpected thing.
Your tale that made the finals, The Last of His Kind, is full of grim power.
Will we see more stories set in that world?
John
Thanks for the compliment, John! Not sure if I’ll revisit that world, beyond reusing some names and concepts. Never know though.
And congrats again, it’s a great story (well, more than that, a series of stories), and I’m glad to see you and BG take the win. And I know what you mean about ‘weird and unexpected’ — a little over a week ago who knew anything about this?
Just a few knew.
Hopefully more will know now.
Bill and John, I look forward to reading more of your stories for future Harper’s Pen Awards. Looks like I’ll get to read more of Brand the Viking pretty soon.
Thanks, Jeff; and I hope to see the Harper’s Pen around for a long time to come — and hopefully some more excellent writers of, and sources for, short form adventure fantasy.