I just received a notification email from Lulu.com that they are having another twenty percent off sale through midnight on Monday, January 18th. To get the discount, simply use the coupon code “CABIN” when you get to the checkout.

As with Lulu’s last sale, this can really benefit fans of Robert E. Howard and other fantasy lit. For instance, the new edition of A Gent from Bear Creek is now available from Lulu. Imaro: The Naama War from Charles R. Saunders would also be eligible. For other cool books offered through Lulu.com, see here.

I just learned that the Preditors & Editors Readers Poll for 2009 is almost over. Sponsored by the Critters Writers Workshop, the purpose of the poll is, as the website puts it, to “honor print & electronic publications published during 2009.”

The main aspect of interest for myself about this poll (and I assume it would be to readers of The Cimmerian as well) is its “Fantasy & Science Fiction Short Story published in 2009…” category. Many of the stories and contestants vying for the prize have been drawn from the Rage of the Behemoth collection, which I reviewed last summer.

This contest is packed with Sword-and-Sorcery and heroic fantasy tales. One of them needs to win this thing. Several are truly excellent examples of the Sword-and-Sorcery genre and should be honored accordingly. Make your voices heard. Our favorite style of fiction is on the move and getting stronger every day. The results of this poll should reflect that.

Voting in this poll is ridiculously easy. It took me less than two minutes (after I’d decided on my selection, of course). Plus, as is noted on their “Rules” page (scroll down), there are even some cool prizes for the voters, not just the contestants.

The poll closes at midnight Thursday, January 14. Let’s make sure one of our own is accepting the award.

Over at the Official Robert E. Howard Forum, Paradox rep Jay Zetterberg proffered REH fandom the lowdown regarding the final contents of El Borak and Other Desert Adventures. This volume, due out February 2, 2010 from Del Rey/Ballantine, looks like another keeper. For those not willing or able to click over to conan.com, I reproduce the table of contents (and submit some random thoughts of my own) below.

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Over at the Publishers Weekly website, they just posted their newest batch of “Fiction Book Reviews.” The capsule reviews are wide-ranging, covering books in both the ‘mainstream’ and ‘genre’ categories. A review of El Borak and Other Desert Adventures (coming in March from Del Rey) is amongst them.

Considering how small a percentage of eligible books actually get reviewed by Publishers Weekly, this is a nine-day wonder. When one takes into account that El Borak is a collection of previously published stories, the fact that it got reviewed at all is even more startling. PW is a book trade magazine read by booksellers and librarians all over the country. The review definitely ups the chances of REH’s fiction getting a wider distribution in heretofore seldom-seen venues. This is what the unnamed reviewer had to say…

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Howard Andrew Jones, fantasy author, editor and the man who gave Harold Lamb to the twenty-first century, just put the news out over the æther that the final two volumes in Bison Books’ “Harold Lamb Library” are available for pre-order and will ship on May Day, 2010. Y’all feast your eyes on these tasty blurbs…

Swords From the Sea:

Vikings, pirates, heroes, rogues, and explorers . . . all have heard the siren call of the sea, and master storyteller Harold Lamb chronicled some of their most daring exploits. This single volume contains all of Lamb’s historical seafaring stories, drawn from rare and fragile pulp magazines. Never before collected, these short stories and novels are a treasure trove of adventure. Best known for his stirring tales of Cossacks and crusaders, Lamb was no stranger to swashbuckling, and his sea stories deliver it in buckets.

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Grab ’em while they’re hot, my gentle readers.

On Saturday, Terry Allen, REH fan extraordinaire (and honcho of the REH Comics Group) posted on the Official Robert E. Howard Forum regarding Howard’s placement in Amazon’s Top Five Fantasy Bestsellers. Learning this, I felt a rush of righteous exultation.

 For a while, I refrained from using the link Terry provided, since I didn’t figure there was much more to be learned by actually going to Amazon’s website. Eventually, however, I noticed something odd about the title of the Howard volume in question. I couldn’t recall ever seeing this title in print: The Best of Robert E. Howard Volume 1: The Shadow Kingdom.

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As some TC readers may know, acclaimed English fantasy author, Robert Holdstock, died just the other day. Over at the REHupa blog, Morgan Holmes gives his personal perspective on Holdstock’s career. Scottish fantasy author, Brian Ruckley, blogs about his deep admiration for Holdstock here.

 From all accounts, Robert Holdstock was a man who loved life and lived it to the fullest.

[redacted]

Now, just a little over two years later, this news from [redacted], over at The Robert E. Howard Foundation website…

The Robert E. Howard Foundation is pleased to announce The Collected Drawings of Robert E. Howard. This slim, 42-page volume collects all of the known artwork by our favorite Texan. All of the comics and doodles from his letters and all of the Hyborian Age maps have been collected, but that’s not all. Many previously unpublished maps for stories like “Blood of the Gods” and “Wild Water” have been cleaned up and are presented here for the first time. Also, a fantastic discovery was made in Texas last year: Robert E. Howard’s high school text book. On each of the blank pages within that book, a young Howard doodled characters from his favorite stories in Adventure magazine, 11 characters in all. There was also a loose sheet of paper folded in the book with additional drawings. All are collected here. Order today and, depending on which shipping option is chosen, it might just show up in time for Christmas.

The Collected Drawings is an 8.5 x 11, perfect-bound paperback with an introduction by Bill Cavalier. Prepared for publication by yours truly.

This sounds like a cool little package. Apparently, the REHF is going with a paperback edition from lulu.com for this volume, just as they did for the first edition of [redacted]’s [redacted]. What has me really fired up are the maps that will be reproduced. We know that REH drafted rough maps (just like Conan) for several yarns, including The Hour of the Dragon. On top of that, several of the drawings I’ve seen are quite good for an untrained artist. For complete information about this REHF project, see here.

As reported by [redacted], Paradox/CPI is engaged in a trademark dispute with Orion Publishing Group. One of Orion’s imprints is Gollancz, which company was scheduled to release Conan’s Brethren, a collection of Howard’s non-Conan adventure yarns, next month. As just posted by the book’s editor, Stephen Jones, Conan’s Brethren seems to have gotten pulled into the fight as well:

Note: As a result of a threatened lawsuit over trademark infringement, publication was pushed back until 2010. Although the page sheets were printed, only copies of the export trade paperback were bound-up, and these were not commercially distributed.

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Yesterday, Glenn Lord’s (early) birthday was celebrated in style at Tampico Seafood and Cocina Mexicana in Houston. The Cimmerian advised the REH faithful about the event several weeks ago. Now the preliminary reports are starting to trickle in on the TC ticker-tape.

Paul Herman (master of ceremonies) just posted this over on the Official Robert E. Howard Forum:

Glenn’s party went very well. Maybe 15 folks total, on a beautiful day to be sitting out of doors on the upper deck patio of a great Mexican seafood restaurant. What a group! Patrice Louinet and Fabrice Tortey from France, [redacted] from California, Dennis McHaney from Austin, Damon Sasser from Spring, TX, Crossplains Pilgrim and his blushing bride. Even a Paradox lawyer! Glenn made out like a bandit, with a very sizable sum collected (big thanks to the REHupans!, among others) to go towards rebuilding his house in Pasadena damaged by Hurricane Ike last year. Everyone stayed for hours after dinner, just talking as a group about REH. Dennis brought along some extra goodies.

I think everyone had a wonderful time, especially Glenn and his family.

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