Steve Dilks's story from Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 1 reprinted in A Book of Blades II

‘The Horror from the Stars’ by Steve Dilks, which was first published in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 1 has been republished in A Book of Blades II by the people behind the Rogues in the House Podcast.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW - STEVE DILKS

 

David A. Riley: Steve, you’ve been prominent in the swords and sorcery genre for some time now, not only as a writer but as editor and publisher with your own imprint Carnelian Press, through which you brought out two fanzines, The Hyborian Gazette and Twilight Echoes – Tales of Swords & Dark Magic. Which came first, the writing or the publishing, and can you give us a rundown on your career so far?

Steve Dilks: With the fanzines, I just wanted to get something up and running really. The whole REH community was getting pretty boring to me. I wanted to get out of the whole debate, argument and counter argument thing and put something creative out there. I saw a lot of talent lurking in the peripheries, and I wanted a place to express that; a place where I could shout; “Come and look at what these guys are doing!” A lot of great artists and writers ended up getting involved. On that front, The Hyborian Gazette was a real success. It attracted a lot of interest, but it was too much for me to keep up with the demand. I decided to stop doing it, mostly for my own sanity. I was printing it by hand in my bedsit and taking trips to the Post Office everyday but making zero money. Twilight Echoes was an off-shoot where I planned to showcase new talent in the sword & sorcery genre. The idea and execution were great, but it flopped. No one bought it and the whole s-&-s scene exploded a couple of years later anyway with much better realized products.

 

As for my own writing, that was already there. My first proper sale was in 2019 when Weirdbook published my SF story, ‘The Idols of Xan’. I’m currently wrapping up a novelette for Jason M Waltz’ swan-song anthology, Neither Beg Nor Yield, which should be out sometime early next year.

DAR: Which other writers have been the biggest influences on your own sword and sorcery stories?

SD: Ok, I’ll come clean. I’m influenced by all of them! Even the bad ones! Why not? Sometimes it’s just a mesh of everything and nothing. Even other genres!

DAR: Like many sword and sorcery writers your stories have a number of continuing characters, like Bohun of Damzullah. Do you think this is an important feature and something readers prefer?  

SD: For me, it’s a fun thing to do and those who like the Bohun stories enjoy reading them. There’s just something fun about the serial format, following a character on a journey through a pre-classical world, exploring strange cities and hostile landscapes.

DAR: What are your feelings about sword and sorcery novels? These are not common, and some people feel the genre is better suited to the short story and novelette formats. Robert E. Howard only completed one Conan novel. Do you think you would ever venture into attempting one yourself?

SD: I’m actually writing a short s-&-s novel at the moment. I’ve never quite got why people think they’re not common. There are literally hundreds. I could do you a top ten list of my favourites right now! The only reason sword & sorcery was written in shorter formats was because they initially started in the pulps which catered for the short-story market. But even then there were exceptions. A. Merritt’s The Ship of Ishtar, for instance, was published in 1924 and Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword came out in 1954. There have been thousands of sword-&-sorcery novels since the ‘60s. Michael Moorcock wrote a fair few— The Eternal Champion, the Elric, Corum and Hawkmoon books. So did L. Sprague de Camp. Lin Carter did a series or two as did John Jakes and Gardner F. Fox. Then there were Karl Edward Wagner’s Kane novels, David C. Smith’s Oron, James Silke’s Death Dealer series…

DAR: Do you ever worry what constitutes a true sword and sorcery story or are you flexible in your attitude to the genre? Some people seem highly interested in laying down rules and lists of what’s needed to qualify as such. Does this bother you at all?

SD: Nope. If a story is well written it doesn’t need to worry about any of these things.

DAR: Print on demand and the increase in indie publishers has obviously had a big impact on the genre in recent years, with magazines like Savage Realms Monthly and the increased number of anthologies that seem to pop up with impressive frequency at the moment, as, of course, have online magazines such as Swords & Sorcery Monthly, not to mention eBooks – and, more recently, audio as well. Do you sometimes fear we could face an eventual glut of the market and that today’s apparent popularity might result in tomorrow’s boredom?

SD: Absolutely. It will happen, and go the same way the whole Cthulhu obsession did a few years ago. But as Lovecraft himself once wrote— ‘That is not dead which can eternal lie…’

DR: Where do you see the genre going next? Do you expect to see it shrink once more or, because of the proliferation of POD and indie presses, do you see it soldiering on? After all, without a reliance on the big publishers anymore, so long as there is a substantial enough core of fans out there to keep the genre alive, it will remain so. If so, who will be the next giants as such in the genre. In its golden age there were the likes of Robert E. Howard and Clark Ashton Smith, followed by Henry Kuttner, Fritz Leiber, C. L. Moore, Michael Moorcock and a handful of others.  Who do you see as today’s? Or is there instead a vast proliferation of names too numerous to mention?

SD:  So long as the stories are good and the writers, editors and publishers are true to their craft there will always be readers. Those that will make a name for themselves in the genre will be those that can also write beyond it. All the writers you just mentioned are known for other things. Believe it or not, Howard’s biggest success in his lifetime were his humuorous western stories featuring Breckenridge Elkins—which everyone should read by the way. Kuttner was a diverse hand who worked in SF, horror and fantasy. Leiber won the Hugo Award for The Big Time and wrote critically acclaimed horror like Conjure Wife and A Spectre is Haunting Texas. Moorcock edited New Worlds and wrote The Dancers at the End of Time, A Cure for Cancer and Gloriana. A genre is only as healthy as the stimulus behind it. 

 

For more information about books by or including stories by Steve Dilks use the following links:

Steve Dilks UK

Steve Dilks USA

 

For information and news across the swords and sorcery genre join the

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Group  

Author Interview: Eadwine Brown & Phil Emery re Neither Beg Nor Yield edited by Jason M Waltz

I have had the privilege of hosting a debate between two swords and sorcery writers appearing in Jason M Waltz’s forthcoming anthology Neither Beg Nor Yield: Eadwine Brown and Phil Emery, discussing what constitutes a genuine sword and sorcery story - something which is bound to continue for some time to come.

To access the pdf of this interview please click on the following link: Interview between Eadwine Brown and Phil Emery or alternatively OneDrive Access to the Interview

 

First review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6

Contributor Craig Herbertson recently posted this review of Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6:

Off we ride again into other worlds and other times. David A. Riley brings us the sixth volume in the Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy series of anthologies. First up is Dev Agarwal who in “The Land of the Dead”, continues the tale of the Stone Snake and Princess Irene. There is a Moorcockian feel as we enter in and out of dreamscapes. There are great images; I was particularly taken by the Hall of Clocks. I am a sucker for description and Agarwal delivers.

In “The House of Bones” Carson Ray recalls his hero, Knox, whose lopsided grin insouciantly smiles on one and all, particularly when he is cutting one and all into little pieces. Knox springs to life from the pages and his protagonists are colourful, particularly Doctor Grim who is mainly coloured an evil black. A hint of Jack Vance emerges in the use of bones as furniture. Ray has built, with similar invention and craft ,a story that has five stars written all over it.

In “Threnody of Ghosts” The Corlaar Banshees surround the city of Demaghor. Zain, commander of the mercenaries hired to protect the castle, orders the arbalests to fire. Might as well shout at the wind. It’s a story with a poetic thread, poetically told, beginning in an elegant whorehouse and ending in an ethereal mist. Top marks.

My story, Wardark and the Siren Queen, returns to the world of Gobeln and Gauntspider and the quest for a Warlock’s tomb, a quest interrupted by the dismal prospect of a watery death.

Lyndon Perry’s “Otrim” is all about rites of passage. The young boys of the tribe need to make a kill to become men. Tzedron has made his first kill. Otrim is keen to follow in his footsteps. Cozum’ll apparently isn’t. Breathing in magical air offers a vision of the future and it’s not very promising. This is followed by “Gods, Men, and Nephilim”, David Dubrow’s third story in the Swords and Sorceries series and he brings new, vivid characters to the game – Abelia Agelastus Priestes of Tiberinus, Emmer-Yahad of Enoch. While Perry’s “Otrim” is very tribal, Dubrow is very Graeco-Roman. Although neither mode is my particular favourite in the genre (there’s a certain restraint in the use of magic) they are both consistent, polished and well told.

In Scott Mcloskey’s ‘The Golden Witch of Adzekgar’ an aspiring, and somewhat privileged witch, elects to resurrect a champion of the Ysir whose appellation Blood of Ten thousand should have been taken as a hint. This is up with my favourites. From first to last scene you are in the world.

“Raiding the Graveyard of Lost Ships”. Tais Teng, whose haunting illustration accompanies his tale, entertains again with a relaxed and easy prose which makes the unbelievable seem quite believable and the terror almost palatable.

Veteran Andrew Darlington treats us with a longer story. I’ve always been an admirer of Darlington’s imagery which, like malt whiskey only appears better with age. I wish this tale of the immortal Addsiduo Sicarious (or his host) would quietly transmogrify into a novel: Another favourite.

“Those Who Wear Their White Hair Proudly” by Lauren C. Teffeau was first published in 2017 and is only one of Lauren’s impressive bibliography: Sidika is no longer her father’s child, other purposes will guide her life. She doesn’t like it and it’s not going to be easy.

In “Trials for Treasure” Harry Elliot’s splendid prose reads like the Welsh author Kenneth Morris who remains in my top five fantasy authors. What more can I say,

Finally, there’s a reason that Adrian Cole has a story in every volume for the series and “God of the Dreaming Isles” is a pleasant reminder.

Again, the strength is in the variety. There are no duds. And, like a child in a sweet shop, you’ll find it difficult to pick your favourite. But this time I’ll go for “The House of Bones” by Carson Ray. Knox is a stand-out sword and sorcery hero and I can’t wait for his next adventure.

 

Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 6 is available as a paperback and ebook (kindle)

 

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