I've written, ad nauseam, before about how I started writing about and reviewing S&S. A decade and a half or more ago, there was a small explosion of new authors writing brand new stories. Black Gate seemed to foster the very best, including James Enge, John Fultz, and Howard Andrew Jones.
As I started writing, I interacted with Howard on his website. He wrote lively pieces on hard-boiled crime stories about as often as he did about Fritz Leiber and C.L. Moore. Occasionally, there were posts about adventure fiction. Somehow it turned out we were both reading some of Rafael Sabatini's Captain Blood at the same time. He suggested we read them all and write about them for Black Gate. It was an exciting suggestion and I'm still pleased with the results.
Over the years we corresponded several more times, usually at his initiation - I'm a poor correspondent and always feel like I'm overstepping my bounds with people I've only come to know electronically. When his Ring-Sworn trilogy came out, he asked if I would interview his son, Darian, who'd made a promotional video for the first volume, For the Killing of Kings - one of the great fantasy titles, in my opinion.
Later, when he became the editor of Tales from the Magician's Skull, he hooked me up with Bill Ward and for several years I wrote monthly book review the mag's site. It paid me a few dollars, but the real thing, was for the first time since I'd stopped my weekly column at Black Gate, I was reading S&S regularly again.
And now, when his Hanuvar books had let him reach the place where the Dabir and Asim stories should have taken him a decade ago, Howard's gone. This is a blow for S&S, but more importantly, it's a blow for his family and friends. From the eulogies written by people who knew him well, he was clearly an incredibly supportive and kind man. He will be missed.
