Signing at Powells

When? 7 PM, Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
Commemorate Independence Day with a salute to all heroes!
Celebrate the holiday with a family event!
Come en masse in a rousing show of support!
What? Return of the Sword Multi-Author Event: Read, Talk, & Sign
Listen to exciting renditions of great heroic adventure!
Learn what it takes to become part of such an elite corps of authors!
Line-up to get the signatures of winning writers!
Where? Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills Blvd., Beaverton, OR
Just west of Portland, Oregon
Who? In ToC order:
Jeff Draper "The Battle of Raven Kill"
Michael Ehart "To Destroy All Flesh"
Nathan Meyer "The Hand that Holds the Crown"
Allen B. Lloyd "An Uneasy Truce in Ulam-Bator"
and I have it on good authority that the spirit of Harold Lamb "Red Hands" will also be there
Bring the kids! Take the spouse!

Get your copies of RotS signed by 4 of the authors!

What, no book!?

Order your books NOW to ensure their timely arrival!

"Il s'agit sans doute d'une des plus belles créations de la sword and sorcery moderne."

High praise from over the water from Fantasy.fr:

Cette fois ci je vais vous parler de Michael Ehart. Cet auteur préside au destinée d'une série de sword and sorcery qui comprend une petite dizaine de nouvelles. Cette série "la servante de la Manthychore" a pour cadre la Mésopotamie antique à l'époque des royaumes sumeriens et akkadiens. Son héroïne a été maudite par la Mathychore et condamnée à l'immortalité elle doit nourrir le monstre semi divin en lui procurant des corps et des âmes (généralement corrompues, les âmes, je veux dire). Le plus cher désir de Ninshi l'héroïne est d'être délivrée de sa malédiction et de retrouver son bien aimé qui est lui aussi affligé de la même charge. Au cours de ses pérégrinations, Ninshi fait la connaissance d'une jeune esclave Miri qu'elle va affranchir et adopter. Six des nouvelles de cette série ont été réunie en reccueil dont quatre précédemment publiées par le webzine Sword Review. Mais Ehart continue a conter les aventures de son héroïne notamment dans les colonnes de Flashing Swords ainsi que dans divers magazine small press. Bien que n'ayant lu que quelques unes de ces histoires, je souhaite que très prochainement un éditeur français s'y intéresse. Il s'agit sans doute d'une des plus belles créations de la sword and sorcery moderne. Michael Moorcock ne s'y est d'ailleurs pas trompé. Ehart est un de ses chouchous du moment.

My best babel fish assisted lousy translation:

"I will speak to you about Michael Ehart. This author governs the destiny of a series of sword and sorcery which includes ten short stories. This series “The Maidservant of the Manthychore” has as a framework ancient Mésopotamia at the time of the kingdoms of the Sumeriens and Akkadians. Its heroine was cursed by the Manthychore and condemned to immortality, she must feed the semi-divine monster by getting bodies and hearts to him (generally corrupted, the hearts, I want to say).
The dearest desire of Ninshi, the heroine, is to be freed of its curse and to find her lover who is also cursed. During her travels, Ninshi meets a young slave girl, Miri, whom she will frees and adopts.
Six tales of this series were joined together in order including four previously published by the webzine Sword Review. But Ehart continues to tell the adventures of its heroine, in particular in Flashing Swords and in various similar magazines. Although having read only some of these stories, I wish that very soon a French editor might be interested in it. It is undoubtedly one of most beautiful creations of the modern sword and sorcery. Michael Moorcock was not mistaken there. Ehart is one of the pets of the moment."

Love for "Jermaish the King" at the Fix

Very kind words indeed from Chris Butler in his review of issue #10 of Flashing Swords:

There is a school of thought that says that the best story in any collection should be placed as the next to last. I’m not sure I agree with this as it seems to me to be leaving it far too late, but certainly “The First Trial of Jermaish the King” by Michael Ehart is a real treat and one of the best here.

Ninshi and her adoptive daughter, Miri, are requested to travel to the aid of King Jermaish. Ninshi has a fearsome reputation, the truth to it being “much grimmer than even the songs.” She has lived forty lifetimes and has “been taken in bondage by a dreadful monster, which every few moons compelled her to lure men into the desert and kill them for it to feed upon.” Nevertheless, it seems that there is some history between Ninshi and Jermaish, and so she will help him in his time of need.

On arrival at the city of Ikizepe, Ninshi and Miri learn that a terrible killing force is loose in the city. Any woman who has not given birth to a child is at risk of being viciously killed. Ninshi formulates a plan to discover the killer or killers. The trail has twists and turns, a terrific fight with a genuinely scary creature (no stock werewolves or zombies here), and a convincing motivation for the killings. This is excellent work by Ehart, with memorable characters and sure-footed plotting. It is a murder mystery, of course. But also a terrific fantasy adventure.

The entire issue is good reading, and with Flashing Swords it is important to remember that the print version is only available for a limited time, so scoot over and get yours!

"Without Napier" illustrated for interview

My story "Without Napier" was so well recieved that EDF interviewed me. The interview is here:

Many of our readers singled out Michael Ehart’s Without Napier as one of the best stories that we’ve published so far, and sent it soaring up EDF’s “Top Stories” list. Not surprisingly, the story placed as April’s most-read story. Michael graciously agreed to be interviewed, and we’ve included it below.

They also commissioned an outstanding illustration from Lindsay Joy. I have to say, it perfectly captures the feel of Yardi's grief and puzzlement at his change in position with the death of Napier. Once again, I am blessed by an artist who captures exactly the right moment and mood of a story.

Like a duck

Sometimes when it seems like nothing is happening on the suface, my little web feet are paddling like mad. Tons of things going on and coming up, including one of my personal career goals, a signing at Powell's Books in Beaverton on July 1st at 7PM with fellow RotS writers Allen Lloyd, Jeff Draper and Nathan Meyer.
Here's the map:

Also, sometime in the next few days an interview at Every Day Fiction. I'll link that when it is up, but my story "Without Napier" was the most viewed of the month, and your votes pushed it into the top 25 list there. If you haven't read it, give it a peek!
And even more good stuff to announce later in the month!

"The First Trial of Jermaish the King" up at Flashing Swords

Flashing Swords #10 is up. Some really good fiction this time, including another "Servant" story--- "The First Trial of Jermaish the King" --- Those who have read the book know all about Jermaish. It's funny, I get more mail about him than any onther character except Ninshi and Miri. I suspect there are a great many women who have known a man like Jermaish, and strangely most of the letters and emails have encouraged me to put him in another story and then kill him off.
Wel, then, Jermaish is back...

Great review of Return of the Sword at the Fix

Some very kind words from Janice Clark :

Ninshi does not enjoy killing, but she does what she must and is very good at it. One would expect, given the nature of her servitude, that she would by now have grown bitter and cynical. Yet she shows far more compassion than the priests, who will do nothing to aid another if there’s no profit in it for them. Ehart likes to weave biblical references into his stories—besides the references to Noah and the Ark, I see a hint of the parable of the Good Samaritan in this one. Nicely done.

Thanks for the kind words, Janice!

Just Back from the Nebulas

and boy are my arms tired.

I am worn out, but I will have a full report in a day or so.

In the meantime some highlights were:

The incredible thunderstorm Friday night, viewed through the 15 story glass lobby of the Omni hotel in Austin.

A two-hour BS session with Joe R. Lansdale and others in the bar.

Mike Moorcock's speech, about the struggle through the years to make SF/Fantasy respectible--- his line about the mainstream critics thinking SF geeks had slide-rules for genitals had people falling out of chairs.

Doing the live blog, an honor I have had before but still is a great thrill.

Looking down during the live blog at the entree in front of me to find a 2 pound slab of steak--- Texas, baby, Texas.

Spending a very pleasant couple of private hours chatting with Mike and Linda Moorcock in their room just after he arrived, about mutual friends and shared interests, and complaining about the restaurants in our respective home-towns.

And after the ceremony helping Joe Landsdale clear a path through the crowd so Mike and Linda could get his wheelchair through, rear guard provided by John Picacio. We made our way to the largest table in the room, and sat to chat. To my left was John Picacio, with Boxcar Sanford and Kirryn Eis-- two of Michael's friends next to him, and then across the table from me Mike. Sanford is a musician and all-around good guy and Kirryn is a high-risk armed body guard-- a real-life woman of action. To my right was Joe Lansdale's daughter, a blond stunner whose impending marriage is the source of great wailing and gnashing of teeth by heart-broken young men throughout Texas, and next to her Joe. We were soon joined by Walter Jon Williams, and shortly by Michael Chabon. At this point I realized that no one would ever believe me when I told them who I was talking about writing with (believe me, I was not doing a lot of talking, there was far too much accumulated wisdom at that table for me to waste a moment doing anything but listening---) I told John Picacio that I felt like the world was a tuxedo and I was a pair of brown shoes, and at that moment a compact fellow wearing a black leather hat appeared to congratulate Mike and shake hands all around. Steven Brust was a bonus for all, as he seldom appears at such events, and was the final straw. I kept my James Bond cool, but it was a near thing :)

Breakfast lunch and dinners with many old friends and a few new ones--- Vera Nazarian, Lee Martindale, Peter Heck, Jane Jewell, Robin Baily, John Moore, Elisabeth Moon, Diane Turnchek, Sean Fodera, a very funny conversation about boxed wine labling with Joe Haldeman, and a crowd of others to be named later when I am less beat-up.

Keith has the first few photos up at North American, here:

Join the Nebula Awards live chat with Michael Ehart and Lee Martindale this Saturday!

Just like being there, only not as good!
Join hosts Michael Ehart and Lee Martindale as they preside over the sff.net live chat of the 2008 Nebula Awards. Chat room opens Saturday April 26th at 6:30PM Central near the cash bar and continues through the finish of the awards ceremony at 10:00 PM.
Martindale and Ehart hosted a similar chat at the 2005 Nebula Awards in Chicago, and though demand has been high, this has been the first opportunity to reprise what many people felt was the very finest and most entertaining live major writing awards chat that evening, anywhere on the web.
Cheer as your favorite author takes home the lucite!
Cry as Michael Moorcock's lifestory is inaccurately recalled!
Gasp at our description of this year's version of.... the Dress!

Just go to http://irc.sff.net/ and upload the chat engine--- just takes a second and you too can enjoy the 2008 Nebula Award ceremony--- in your underwear if you like. We promise we won't tell!

Ghost of Nebulas past

Mike Resnick is a very approachable guy. He saved my life once--- I was 13 and trapped with my mother and two younger sisters for the summer in a unkown town with no friends and miles and miles from the library. I walked to the corner grocer, who had a small paperback rack. There, under a stack of romance novels and westerns, right on the bottom row, was a fly-specked and shop-worn copy of "Goddess of Ganymede"--- I plunked down my 35 cents, and dashed home, hiding from my mother as best I could the lurid cover. I read it at least six times that summer.
When I told this story to Mike, he cried "I was only 16! It was a pastiche!" a reaction driven, no doubt by stern demands for an explaination for such derivitive stuff. Well, his career survived, and thanks to the slim, derivitive volume written by a 16 year old, so did I :)

"Bloodshed and pathos, my friends."

Kind words from Wes Lambert:


“To Destroy All Flesh,” by Michael Ehart: Further compelling adventures of Ninshi, from The Servant of the Manthycore. If you like heroic fantasy—and I’m assuming you do, if you’re giving this review the time of day—then I highly recommend Mr. Ehart’s book. Bloodshed and pathos, my friends.


Oh, and a review of the rest of Return of the Sword here: http://staroad.blogspot.com/2008/04/return-of-sword.html

"To Destroy All Flesh" gets some love

Very kind review from Brian Hitchcock of "To Destroy All Flesh" from The Return of the Sword:

This story has a lot of humanity in it. That's the best word for it. From the agonizing deaths to the moral question at its core, this story looks at the human costs of the magic, mayhem and pure human malice that make up heroic fiction. The hero, Ninshi, is Ehart's titular hero from the novel Servant of the Manthycore. In this tale, a group of mountain bandits stand between her and the herb she must have to free herself from the Manthycore's arcane shackles.

Thank you Brian!

Everything you were afraid to know about Michael Ehart...

R. Schuyler Devin was kind enough to ask a few questions and post my answers as a part of his 6 Sided Q&A--- the entire interview is here.

He has kind things to say about my book, too, so give him a hit and check it out!

"Memorable Characters" up at The Book Connection

As a part of the promo for Return of the Sword, The Book Connection has posted a small article I wrote on Creating Memorable Characters--

Most new writers understand this, but many make the mistake of confusing a character with a bunch of character traits. Deciding that your detective walks with a limp, has a deep southern accent, has a peculiar scar on his forehead and drives a 1957 Vovlo sedan does not make him real to the reader. That might be a start, but unless there are real reasons for each of these things, they will remain what they are; a bunch of random things decided at a whim.

The rest of the article is here.

So where is S&S going? Joining a discussion

If you aren't regularly visiting SFReader, you might want to give them a try. Some very interesting discussions there, from folks at a variety of experience. This topic has been going on for several weeks at my forum there. You might want to take a look---

Its not like an Andy Hardy movie-- "Hey Pablo, let's throw us a new movement! I'm thinking we can call it Cubism... you in?" We can self examine until we disappear into our own navels, but the truth is we all need to be taking chances and thrashing away as we write what we write. For me it means leaving behind many tropes that seem fuzzy. I find it very unlikely that you will see me writing anything with elves, dwarves, half-anythings, Dark Lords, farmboys of destiny, a "noble" nobility, or using the word "mage" or using any setting that seems even vaguely "jolly old England" or some twice removed derivitive.

I want fantasy that kicks my butt, that has me standing in the backyard looking at the stars with tears on my face and my heart thumping, like The Ship of Ishtar did to me when I was 11 years old. I want stories about heroes, who will do what ordinary men wouldn't or couldn't, who do what they must and pay the price, where the last man standing tells the tale of his fallen comrades, and weeps because he failed to join them. I want the moral ambiguity of poor choices and the fight every step since to rectify them or die in the attempt. I want a hero who, like Conan, will grab the girl and let the jewels fall, but curse into his cups every night that follows for the missed treasure. I don't want to read about pure, knighly Elves--- I want Long John Silver with a cutlass in one hand and the other outstretched, asking me as a true shipmate to sign articles and come aboard.

I write fantasy about big, dreadful, human choices, and that is what I want to read. The heroes I want to read about wave as the Farmboy of Destiny rides off to face the Dread Lord of Despair, far away in the Dark Lands, and while FoD is saving the world sleeps with his girlfriend, absconds with Parish Library fund, and fast-talks his way into the Bandits Local 410 and, after stealing an election via 2 slit throats and a stuffed ballot-box, becomes the Bandit Cheif in time to lead them to save the village from the marauding Huns so that FoD has something to come back and look down upon.
Or through greed and ignorance, give up any chance of happiness and instead wanders bitterly looking only for hope or an end to pain, blighted and alone, until some small thing allows them to find redemption, not for themselves but for others, in some small way.

The difference between King and the spatterpunks was that King forgot to make it hurt. Same for the Cyberpunks--- Gibson remembered that the real thing that unites us is not wonder or hope, but the universality of shared tragedy. It has to hurt, somewhere. Your characters must need to be at a point where some true human pain is revealed, and through that examination of the human condition, some answer given, while acknowledging the fact that when the story is done, there was a price paid by the characters as well as the reader.

"Without Napier" in top 25 at EDF

Check it out! And thanks to everyone who read, commented, or voted!

"Without Napier" up at Every Day Fiction

I had so much fun writing this French Noir pastiche. Please check it out, I think you'll like it!
http://www.everydayfiction.com/without-napier-by-michael-ehart/#comments

More Nebula photos from the dawn of time

This scruffy looking guy was allowed a shot as MC that year--- I remember him writing a comic book or something--- he seemed harmless enough. I hope he manages to find some sort of success as a writer.

More Nebulas past

Here are a couple of guys who are both great to hang out with, and as you can see they have been hitting the caffiene pretty hard. Mike Moscoe Shepard had a short that was up for the Neb that year--- I see Mike around a lot, and often share panels with him. He is a fixture of NW conventions, and just an all around great guy to hang out with. His Kris Longknife stories just keep getting better and better.

Gardner Dozois is another great conversationalist. Gardner sent me one of my favorite rejections, over 20 years ago. It was so kind, and so careful that it made me re-read the story and I realized that if I were to send this out to other editors, I would be blighting my writing career for decades to come. I drove a stake through the blamed things heart, and buried it at midnight at a crossroads wreathed in garlic.

Gardner has never bought a story from me, I am guessing just on the basis of that one dreadful piece of writing I sent him, even though I have fixed his computer for him a few times.

Counting Down to the Nebulas

I am thrilled to be going to this years Nebulas in Austin--- especially since Michael Moorcock, who was kind enough to write the foreword to The Servant of the Manthycore is being honored as Grandmaster--- plus my good friend Lee Martindale may very well be a presenter and we are reprising our stint from 2005 as official Live Bloggers of the ceremony, plus Vera Nazarian, who was kind enogh to write a blurb for Servant is up for a well-deserved Nebula award.

In celebration I am posting some photos of the last Nebulas I attended, in 2005. I'd post from the year before, in Seattle, but I can't find the photos :)

Let's start with my favorite, me with Janis Ian and Anne McCaffery. Anne was being honored as GM that year.