News of Great Sadness

CW: critical illness.

I have had this news recently. What you read here is the announcement crafted by Howard, his wife Shannon, and their friend Mark.

I know there is grief across the world, for so many awful reasons. And this is another awfulness: my friend is dying.

Perhaps he is your friend too. Or perhaps you have read his novels, or his reviews on Black Gate Magazine. For my part, Howard Andrew Jones has been my friend and colleague for going on twenty years.

We saw him last month at GenCon. We ate dinner with him. We laughed and caught up in person, after too many years of just phone or zoom. We talked about creating new monsters to fight, in this fantasy-novel business of ours of fighting monsters.

I am glad we broke bread, and played the poet game, and left each other laughing. That’s all the gladness I have right now, because the rest is grief. And gratitude, that our mutual friends are acting as a bridge between Howard’s nearest and dearest, and the rest of us who are sending him so much, so much love.