I received the news Thursday afternoon that Howard A. Jones had passed the night before. I was expecting this the past couple months after hearing Howard had a terminal case of glioblastoma cancer in the brain.

It was late 1997 or early 1998 that Howard Jones had contacted me. I was the Official Editor of the Robert E. Howard United Press Association at the time. Periodically someone would contact me on how to get their pastiche Conan novel sold or how to get on the syndicated Conan T. V. show which was showing at the time. I never saw that show.

I received an e-mail from Howard who introduced himself and told me that he wanted to be to Harold Lamb what Glenn Lord was to Robert E. Howard. Glenn Lord was the agent for the Robert E. Howard copyright holders for around 28 years. Those Zebra and Ace non-Conan Robert E. Howard paperback collections. Glenn Lord was the agent who made the deals. He was a breath of fresh air.

Thus began a decades long friendship with Howard. We discussed fantasy fiction and historical novels we liked. We discovered new authors through each other. He seemed to like Fritz Leiber more than Robert E. Howard when I first knew him. We both tracked down old obscure hardbacks of historical fiction from the pulps. I seemed to like Arthur D. Howden Smith more than he did. Despite that, he had a copy of the first Grey Maiden story by Smith and sent me a photocopy of it. He also lent me a bound set of pulp stories including Arthur Gilchrist Brodeur’s “He Rules Who Can,” Joseph Ivers Lawrence “Swords on the Northern Sea,” and a Sargasso Sea story by F. van Wyck Mason.

He got Harold Lamb’s fiction back into print with University of Nebraska’s Bison Books. Before this, there were two collections of Harold Lamb’s cossack stories from the 1960s. Bison Books produced eight large volumes of Harold Lamb’s fiction from both the pulp and slick magazines. Howard organized them in a logical manner. We had discussed at one time of co-editing a volume of sword & sorcery fiction covering the early and middle years as an introductory volume to new readers.

At the same time, he was the fiction editor for Black Gate magazine. He championed getting new sword & sorcery fiction published. Sword & sorcery had been banished by the big publishers (for probably ideological reasons) but Howard knew there was a desire for it.

We met in person for the first time at Pulp-Con in Dayton, Ohio. John C. Hocking had come with him. We all piled into my Chevy Tracker to check out the strange little town of Fairborn, Ohio which is just outside of Dayton.

All this time, Howard was also writing fiction for the small press. He had a historical fantasy series set in the 9^th Century A.D. Abassid Caliph. I remember warning him not have Arabs weilding scimitars. They still used straight swords at the time. Howard knew that.

There was an interesting twist of fate. I had gotten in touch with writer Scott Oden who had two historical novels published. Scott sent me a box of his novel Men of Bronze to hand out at Windy City Pulp & Paperback Show. I gave Howard a copy. He in turn got in touch with Scott Oden who in turn got Howard in touch with his publisher. Howard got a deal for a Chronicle of Sand and Sword novel. This was the beginning of his professional writing career. He sent me a copy of The Desert of Souls when it was published.

He wrote four Pathfinder novels. I liked Plague of Shadows which I thought really moved. He also edited the very well produced Tales From the Magician’s Skull. I have reviewed some of the issues here. Skull was running a series by him of a fantasticated Hannibal as Hanuvar. He was able to get a deal with Baen Books for a five volumes chronicling Hanuvar. I have reviewed the first two here.

More recently, Howard turned me on to the writer Marvin Albert. I have reviewed the Albert novels written as by Ian MacAllister here. He just did not read fantasy but had read quite a few of the old Gold Medal paperbacks including both crime and westerns.

It was a jolt when I heard about five months ago that Howard had a brain tumor. I knew the prognosis for glioblastoma was grim but still held out hope for a miracle. Howard was a great guy. You will see that consistently said far and wide. Some will mourn the books not written. I mourn the loss of a friend.