And then of course all of your best laid plans go hawry.
A few months back I backed the Kickstarter for the launch of a new magazine, called Skelos.
And you either catch the title reference, or you are on the wrong blog, and there’s no use for me to try and explain.
The complete title is Skelos – The Journal of Weird Fiction and Dark Fantasy, and my backer digital copy of #1 arrived last night – and all my plans went hiwire.
Of course I had to start reading it straight away, despite the fact that it was night and it’s a PDF – the epub and mobi version will be delivered later on – and it’s not the most convenient format for digital reading.
Anyway – Skelos #1 is 160 pages of fantasy/sword & sorcery goodness, and you get a list of the contributors on the back cover above.
Under the Gustave Doré cover, we find:
- Seven short stories – including a R.E. Howard unpublished draft.
- Two novelettes.
- Six poems.
- Two essays – one connected with the R.E. Howard story draft.
- A brace of features and editorials.
- A ton of great illustrations.
The quality of the offering is impressive – I won’t single out a story or an essay or a poem, the general level is very high.
So impressed I was by the overall quality of Skelos, that I decided steps should be taken to lower such quality, and fast – so I pitched this morning two pieces to the editors, a short story and an essay1.
Writing those pieces, should they be accepted, would of course further tangle up my schedule. But I really don’t care.
But let’s see what happens. For sure, I’d love to have my name in this beautiful magazine.
In the meantime, go out there, and check out Skelos – you will thank me later.
- because one needs to be thorough, in these cases. ↩
Karavansara 
29 August 2016 at 23:09
Skelos 1 is just the tip of the iceberg, Davide!
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30 August 2016 at 00:21
I hope so!
The first issue has been enough to get me in a frenzied state 🙂
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1 September 2016 at 05:58
Davide, you are one impressive feller. I think I can say this already, what with your being a palaeontologist AND Orientalist. Might I ask you to watch for NAMELESS CULTS from Deuce Richardson and me? SKELOS BOOKS is interested in publishing it — maybe late this year or early next. The career of Friedrich von Junzt, Robert E. Howard’s early 19th century eccentric scholar, is detailed therein. And he travelled across Russia to Mongolia on his last epic journey. The Far East! Strictly from a pulp viewpoint, but it might interest you nevertheless. And best wishes for every project you take on!
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1 September 2016 at 08:43
Keith, I saw the ad for Nameless Cults and I am eagerly waiting for it. Von Junzt is a character that always fascinated me.
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2 September 2016 at 05:48
Thanks! I hope you won’t be disappointed. If you are it’ll be my fault and none of Deuce Richardson’s — his work on this one has been consistently terrific. And I was chuffed to see a section on the St. Petersburg Institute of Oriental Manuscripts on your site. I’ve had von Junzt stopping there in the 1830s on his way to Mongolia, and meeting Frahn, the first Director. Not giving too much away, he checks out the Oriental books and manuscripts Russia purchased from Rousseau, the French Consul at Aleppo, and among them there is nothing less than Al Azif, the Necronomicon in the original Arabic, very likely the last one left. And very likely the same one that appears in Clark Ashton Smith’s “The Return of the Sorcerer”.
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2 September 2016 at 07:57
One can’t be disappointed by von Junzt.
Maybe driven completely raving mad, yes, but disappointed, never 😀
And now I am **really** eager to read your book.
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