Old Moon Quarterly and Krieg

Old Moon Quarterly, Volume 5, 2023. 137 pages. Edited and arranged by Julian Barona. Cover by Derek Moore.

This is a collection of heroic fantasy short stories. Most of these tales would fall into the general Sword & Sorcery subgenre, but several of them stretch those boundaries to the breaking point. The Table of Contents consists of:

Introduction, by the editors of Old Moon. An interesting comparison between “Kull” type heroic fantasy and “Conan” type.

Together Under the Wing by Jonathan Olfert. One of the most unique heroic fantasy stories I’ve ever read. The hero is not a human or even human like. I don’t want to say more because I don’t want to give it away. But this was a powerfully memorable story.

Champions Against the Maggot King by K. H. Vaughn. A relatively traditional Sword & Sorcery tale but with tremendous world building behind it. Told in first person and present tense, but I didn’t find that either got in the way of the story. The ending haunts.

The King's Two Bodies by Joe Koch. A long poem. Very fine language.

The Origin of Boghounds by Amelia Gorman. A story of a woman and her boghound. Very nontraditional tale. Beautifully written. 

Well Met at the Gates of Hell by David K. Henrickson. Elements of this are traditional but it’s certainly presented in a unique way. A warrior dies and must face three old enemies at the gates of hell. As the battle progresses, we learn more and more about the warrior. I believe this is my favorite, although if you ask me tomorrow I might decide on another.

A Warning Agaynste Woldes by Zachary Bos. Another poem, and a most challenging one. Not written in standard English. This one bears rereading before you’ll begin to understand it.

The Skulls of Ghosts by Charles Gramlich. This is my story and is probably the most traditional Sword & Sorcery tale in the collection. It involves my series character, Krieg,  but that’s all I’ll say.

The Headsman's Melancholy by Joseph Andre Thomas. This is an out and out horror story set against a heroic fantasy backdrop. Ever since Robert E. Howard invented the Sword & Sorcery genre, there’s always been a strong element of horror in the best stories and this one doubles that quotient. I felt strongly for the main character.

A Book of Blades, Copyright 2022 by Rouges in the House Podcast: 226 pages.

A Book of Blades is subtitled “A Sword & Sorcery Anthology.” It contains 15 stories as well as a very brief introduction by Matthew John, and an Artist’s Portfolio. This is one of the most entertaining collections of S&S stories I’ve read in a long time. The quality is consistently high in every instance and I definitely give it 5 stars. Below is a listing of the stories with my brief comments about each.

“By the Sword,” by John C. Hocking: I only knew of Hocking from his Conan pastiche, Conan and the Emerald Lotus, but I’ve never read it. After reading this tale I’ll have to pick up more of Hocking’s work. A story full of blood and thunder, and with a poignant ending that strongly engaged me.

“Ghost Song,” Chuck Clark: Turkael is a young hunter of his tribe but it is he who must face a sorcerer shapeshifter. Something in this tale reminded me of the character Imaro as created by the late Charles Saunders, and that’s a fine compliment.

“Last of the Swamp Tribe,” by L.D. Whitney: There’s a bit of “Beastmaster” in this. Man and wolf face their enemies together. Greywind is the wolf and made an excellent character.

“Wanna Bet?,” by T.A. Markitan: A mage hires two warriors to help him rob a ruin, but there’s a hidden agenda. And secrets within secrets. The denouement turns on an interesting character reveal.

“The Serpent’s Heart,” by Howard Andrew Jones: A ship is wrecked by a sea monster and its crew set adrift. They are rescued by another ship, which is pursuing the monster. But of course there are secrets. The scenes aboard the “rescuing” ship are beautifully rendered and very creepy. Jones has recently had a couple of S&S books released and after this I’ll certainly pick them up.

“How They Fall,” by Angeline B. Adams and Remco van Straten: This is really a character study rather than a story, but it works because it’s very well written and also quite short. It creates a melancholy mood that grows stronger throughout.

“The Breath of Death,” by Jason M. Waltz: Starting this story was a little jarring stylistically compared to the previous tales, and that’s because it was written in present tense. Present tense can bring immediacy to a story, and it does so here. It can also be risky at longer lengths, but Waltz judged the length just right. I was engaged. 

“Embracing Ember,” by S.E. Lindberg: Lindberg is an excellent prose stylist, and maybe my favorite one working in the fantasy field today. This is a story from his Dyscrasia universe, a fully realized but quite bizarre world. The world building is incredible but Lindberg doesn’t stint on character development either. Fully realized, but most unusual. Very much of a treat.

“The Curse of Wine,” by J.M. Clarke: Kyembe wakes up from a drunk to find that he’s been robbed. Bad idea. A short tale but very engaging.

“The Gift of Gallah,” by Matthew John: I enjoy tales of aging warriors. When they’re well done. And this one is well done. Another poignant ending.

“Crawl,” by Scott Oden: Oden is well known for the bloody action of his stories, but in this one he stretches his wings a little more. There is action, but the tale turns primarily on character and on historical resonance. It’s a kind of retelling of European history against the backdrop of Christianity’s spread. One really feels for the underdogs here.

“The Spine of Virens Imber,” by Nathaniel Webb: Shar the Spearmen is an indomitable warrior, which is not unusual in sword and sorcery. But the character is very well done and the writing strong. A fine piece.

“The City of the Screaming Pillars,” by Cora Buhlert: We have an ensemble cast here, and they’re after treasure in an abandoned city of the desert. A cursed city. Robert E. Howard strengthened his fantasy worlds by bringing in horror elements, and Buhlert mines a similar ground here to very good effect.

“Two Silvers for a Song of Blood,” by Jason Ray Carney: Carney is a fellow academic and I’ve worked with him before on The Dark Man Journal. That’s nonfiction and I haven’t previously read his fiction. Not all academics can write blood and thunder but Carney masters it and gives his “Barbarian-like” character some intriguing extra layers. Best title goes to this one as well.

“The Blood of Old Shard,” by John R. Fultz: I’ll definitely want to read more by Fultz. This was a great story to end the anthology on because it’s certainly one of the strongest tales among a grouping of strong pieces. Gnori is a great hero and, again, we have a most poignant ending that left me wanting more. A good way to end a book.

So, to finish, I truly liked every story in this book, which is not a common experience for me actually. Nothing weak here, and I recommend them all. But, the three that hit me the hardest personally were the pieces by Lindberg, Carney, and Fultz.

Review: The Lost Empire of Sol

 Here is my review of The Lost Empire of Sol anthology, which was a labor of many years and at least 2 incarnations. The initial discussion from Scott Oden regarding this project must have happened on Facebook as far back as early 2012. A facebook group for the concept/anthology was created on May 17, 2012—so, nine years ago today. A number of people were excited about the project, including me. I wrote a story a little later in 2012 for the book called “The Machineries of Mars.” I know that Tom Doolan also wrote a tale for it, because after the initial plans fell through and the stories were released back to us, both Tom and I self-published ours on Amazon. I’m not sure if other writers involved at that time completed their stories or not. If they’re reading this, they can let me know.

In 2015, the anthology stirred to life again. Since I’d self-published my original story, and the new concept was subtly different than the original, I wrote a fresh story in 2016 called “A Sandship of Mars.” Scott brought Fletcher Vredenburgh aboard as editor and cat herder for the authors, and soon most of the stories were actually completed, edited, and ready to go. Things languished for want of a publisher.

Only when Jason M. Waltz joined the group and suggested that he’d like to publish the anthology did things really start moving. However, Covid hit and various other real-world events intervened so that the work finally appeared only in April of 2021. That’s certainly the longest developmental period for any anthology I’ve ever been involved in.

The idea was for ten shared world stories, with a story for each planet (including Pluto), and for the supposed planet that used to exist where the asteroid belt is now. When I wrote “Sandship,” the background concept was that there had once been a planet-spanning human empire ruling within the solar system but that the empire had fallen. The planets were now largely isolated, although some high tech space travel remained in a few places. In other places, the planetary populations had fallen back into a kind of Sword and Planet level technology, meaning lots of sword-fighting and a little bit of advanced tech.

To make matters worse, an alien entity was invading the solar system to pick up the pieces of the old empire. My understanding was that the entity was moving slowly and employing a variety of means to try and “take over” the lost empire of Sol. I wrote a fairly small world, self-contained tale about Mars being invaded by parasites that could turn their victims essentially into zombies under their control. I was pretty happy with it.

The final book contained not only the ten stories, but an introduction, forward, prologue and epilog. Here’s the TOC (Thanks to Joe Bonadonna).

Foreword, by Fletcher Vredenburgh

Sword & Planet is the Genre We Need, by John O'Neill

Prologue, by Scott Oden

To Save Hermesia, by Joe Bonadonna & David C. Smith

The Lost Princess of Themos, by Tom Doolan

What Really Happened at the Center of the World, by Christopher M. Blanchard

A Sand-Ship of Mars, by Charles Allen Gramlich

Whispers of the Serpent, by Howard Andrew Jones

Outcasts of Jov, by Mark Finn

Written in Lightning, by Keith J. Taylor

Survivors of Ulthula, by E.E. Knight

Hunters of Ice and Sky, by David Hardy

A Gate In Darkness, by Paul R. McNamee

Epilogue, by Scott Oden

To Save Hermesia, by Joe Bonadonna & David C. Smith is set on Mercury and did a bang-up job evoking the feel—for me at least—of the early Eric John Stark stories by Leigh Brackett. Stark was born on Mercury.

The Lost Princess of Themos, by Tom Doolan is set on Venus. Although not described in detail, the world brings to mind ERB’s jungle Venus. And the lost princess, Tamarra, follows in a long line of Sword and Planet Princesses, although much younger and less experienced than ERB’s Dejah Thoris. She finds her own hidden strengths, of course.

What Really Happened at the Center of the World, by Christopher M. Blanchard is a Pellucidar inspired piece with a little Journey to the Center of the Earth vibe.

A Sand-Ship of Mars, by Charles Allen Gramlich is my entry. It’s a little bit of a Dune meets the Ice Schooner meets The Puppet Masters. I really enjoyed creating the setting for this and might some day revisit it.

Whispers of the Serpent, by Howard Andrew Jones takes place on the planet that became our modern solar system’s asteroid belt. This is the first of the tales to have more of a Space Opera feel than Sword and Planet. Given the concept of the collection, you’d expect there to be all kinds of tech levels existing in the solar system so it makes sense.

Outcasts of Jov, by Mark Finn is set on Jupiter. Another Space Operish tale. It was good to see the Great Red Spot play a role!

Written in Lightning, by Keith J. Taylor is our Saturn tale. Very much a Sword and Planet work, although our heroes come from Venus rather than Earth.

Survivors of Ulthula, by E.E. Knight brings us to Uranus, or Ulthula in this story. This one also has a Space Opera feel, maybe a kind of E. E. Doc Smith and Edmond Hamilton meets Event Horizon.

Hunters of Ice and Sky, by David Hardy brings us to Neptune. The sky cities of Star Wars and Star Trek become low tech and are melded with the tale of Moby Dick! Great setting for many adventures.

A Gate In Darkness, by Paul R. McNamee is set on lonely, lost Pluto. The airships of Barsoom and Kregen meet slow decay as portions of the planet are lost to darkness and war.

So there you have it, ten imaginative tales that remember the shared history of Sword and Planet and Space Opera but take things in new directions and work in surprising connections from other realms of literature. I highly recommend it, and not just because I have a story contained within.

The Lost Empire of Sol

I cut my teeth on Sword and Planet fiction, first reading the Barsoom stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and then the many tales by those ERB influenced, such as Gardner Fox, Alan Burt Akers (Ken Bulmer), and many others. I consider S & P to be the purest form of adventure fantasy, and I've always wanted to write my own tales in the genre.

The first publishable book I wrote was Sword and Planet. That was Swords of Talera. I wrote four others in that series, and I've also written some S & P short stories. I'd say that, in general, I've never had more fun writing anything than writing this kind of tale.

A few years back, author Scott Oden had an idea for a shared world S & P anthology set in the era of the "Lost Empire of Sol." A number of writers got a chance to choose a world of our solar system to tell a story in this connected universe. I got my choice in early, and I picked Mars! What else would I have chosen?

That book is now available for preorder at this link. This is a kindle version but there are plans for a print edition as well. I'm very excited to be part of this collection with my story, "A Sand Ship of Mars." I'm looking forward soon to reading all the other tales. 

The Best of the West, Edited by Joe R. Lansdale

The Best of the West, edited by Joe R. Lansdale, subtitled “An anthology of western writing from the western writers of America.” Doubleday & Company, 1986, 178 pages.

This is a collection of stories selected by Joe Lansdale, and including in introduction by Lansdale. Before I talk about the individual stories, I’ll give my overall viewpoint. I’d generally say I enjoyed most of the tales but the title is very misleading. A better title might have been, “Tales of a New West,” or something along those lines. Most of these tales are nowhere near  traditional westerns. Lansdale is clear in the introduction that that was what he was looking for but the title certainly would have led me to expect a different sort of collection.

Here are my thoughts on the stories:

At Yuma Crossing by Brian Garfield:  Actually set in the traditional western timeframe but a bit unusual in characterization. Overall, fairly traditional. In it, a man called the “Gringo” comes out of the desert to cross a river by ferry, but finds the ferry stranded on the far bank. He also finds an old man and woman, and a young girl who appears to be Indian. The old man is dying. The Gringo is depicted largely as an anti-hero, but he does seem to be susceptible to sympathy for the young girl. Anthologists often put their strongest tales up front and at the end. I don’t know if Lansdale intended that here but Garfield’s story was my favorite in the book.

Take a Left at Bertram by Chad Oliver: I’ve enjoyed work by Chad Oliver before. His story here is far from traditional, however, and I didn’t get a lot out of it. It’s well written and short but lacks conflict. Two men go fishing in Texas in the modern day. They are way out in the wilds and a temporal rift occurs that brings some stone age hunters together with the fishermen. Nothing happens, though, and the phenomenon disappears as fast as it came.

The Second Kit Carson by Gary Paulsen: a flash fiction piece set in the modern world. The narrator is a drunk and it’s unclear how much of what happens was real and how much he imagined. Nothing traditional in this piece. Well written, but it didn’t do much for me.

Night of the Cougar by Ardath Mayhar: This one is pretty traditional as to setting, but the hero is a woman, a mother who has to protect her child from a cougar while on the road in the dark. Lots of conflict here, lots of suspense, and some very fine writing. One of the top stories in the anthology.

Jasper Lemon’s Ba Cab Ya Larry by Lee Schultz: A poem. Only two pages. Interesting and enjoyable.

Stoned on Yellow by LoLo Westrich: Completely modern setting, with a touch of mystical seasoning. Well written, but more of a horror or magical realism tale than a western.

Making Money in Western Banking by Jeff Banks: Pretty traditional. We have a group of outlaws who are robbing banks. One has decided to quit but is persuaded to go on one last job. As you can guess, things don’t work out. A fun story, with a bit of humor.

Cutliffe Starkvogel and the Bears Who Liked TV by John Keefauver: Again, set in the modern world. I couldn’t find any connection at all to my concept of a western. If anything, it was again a kind of magical realism. A postman is the main character and is delivering hair growth liquid to a man he knows. As the stuff apparently starts working, the man goes into hiding and the postman tries to spy out what is happening. That’s where the “bears” come in, and I can’t say much more or I’d reveal the twist. This tale was perfectly well written and was probably intended to be humorous but it didn’t really work for me. Probably my least favorite in the anthology,

A Bad Cow Market by Elmer Kelton: A modern tale but with western tropes. The bottom has fallen out of the cow market and a rancher is about to give up on his dream. He is reminded, though, of how much the place means to him and finally hits on a possible way to save his ranch. This is a character study mixed with a certain amount of yearning for the simpler life. I thought it was very well written and enjoyed it.

Peaches by Lenore Carroll: A cute tale. Fairly traditional in setting. A buffalo hunter comes to town with a hankering for peaches only to find out that the local madam has bought all the canned peaches up for herself and her girls. The hunter has to do some quick thinking to try and get his share of the peaches. I enjoyed it. A fun tale.

Judas and Jesus by Thomas Sullivan:  Another fairly traditional tale. We have the trope of the world weary gunfighter who happens to have his guns named Judas and Jesus. He rides into another town only to be confronted by a little kid who wants to chance him but doesn’t have a gun. Some very fine descriptive writing here and an emotional ending that I liked a lot.

Sallie C. by Neal Barrett, Jr.: I’ve much enjoyed many of Neal Barrett’s books. This particularly story is not a favorite for me, however. It’s mostly a kind of reveal story, with a certain amount of “almost” magical realism in it. There’s not a lot of conflict but some. Well written but I personally didn’t find a lot of payoff in the ending.

The Nighthawk Rides by William F. Nolan: This was one of the more interesting tales in the book, but very traditional in the sense that it’s basically a “Zorro” story told with a different character in a different setting. It’s also written as a teleplay rather than in traditional prose. Nolan mentions in the introduction to the story that it came about when he was asked to create a teleplay for a Zorro type TV series. It was never produced, though, and you’ll get a laugh out of why. Anyway, I liked this story quite a bit. One of my favorites in the collection.

The Bandit by Loren D. Estleman: An old outlaw gets out of prison and tells his story to a newspaper man while he’s waiting for a train. The setting is largely modern although the story within the story takes place in the past with a robbery gone wrong. Think “The Great Northfield Minnesota Raid.” Well written, as you’d expect. There was a real lack of tension since the events being told about happened long ago in the story. However, the ending twist is the reason why the tale was told in that fashion. Enjoyable but not one of the strongest tales in the collection in my opinion.

Heroika: Dragon Eaters Review

Heroika 1: Dragon Eaters, Edited by Janet Morris

I first became familiar with Janet Morris through her stories in the Thieves’ World Series. Morris generally wrote my favorite stories throughout that series, and when her characters from there, “Tempus” and “Niko,” appeared in several spinoff novels I also read and enjoyed those. So, when I heard of a new fantasy anthology edited by Morris, I quickly picked it up.

In Heroika: Dragon Eaters, Morris has put together seventeen short stories that all feature dragons and some aspect of dragon consumption. There are all manner of tales here, including many that use the kind of fantasy setting one might imagine, as well as others set during the Civil War, in the swamps of Louisiana, on a modern earth, and in a post-apocalyptic world.

This is a big book, chock full of stories. I read the kindle version but the paperback is apparently 436 pages. That means plenty of bang for the buck. The stories are also uniformly well done. The biggest names are Janet and Chris Morris, who have two pieces in the book. Most of the other writers are not household names but are definitely experienced and talented writers. I’d read and enjoyed material by such authors as S. E. Lindberg, Walter Rhein, and Mark Finn, and had heard of some of the others although their writing was new to me. I’m not going to do a detailed review of the stories because I don’t want to give things away. Here are some capsule comments about things that I found particularly memorable.

“The First Dragon Eater,” by Janet and Chris Morris has an interesting structure that reminds one of the ancient Eddas.

“Legacy of the Great Dragon” by S. E. Lindberg is set in an ancient Egypt where the gods are real. Great atmosphere and characters in this one.

“Bring Your Rage,” by Janet and Chris Morris has some beautiful writing in it: “When I first saw Rhesos, he came riding a horse white as sunlight, a black dog at its heels…” Also very interesting characters.

“Aquila of Oyos,” by Walter Rhein features the Dragon’s point-of-view, and has a nice twist featuring a second dragon.

“The Wyght Wyrm,” by Cas Peace takes us to the age of Stonehenge and the Druids. Great setting.

“The Old Man on a Mountain,” by Jack William Finley features an aging warrior on his last dragon hunt. You really feel a lot of empathy for this character and his suffering.

“Of Blood and Scales,” by A. L. Butcher. I liked the concept of the “bloodsister.”

“Night Stalkers,” by Travis Ludvigson takes place in the time of Charlemagne and features Roland in a “northern thing” adventure.

“Forged,” by Tom Barczak features a nice surprise before you see the dragon.

“The Rhyme of the Dragon Queen,” by JP Wilder has a great cadre of heroes and rogues, including Spera, an excellent female character.

“The Dragon’s Horde,” by Joe Bonadonna. There’s a lot of creativity in this tale and a very interesting twist on who the villains are.

“Wawindaji Joka,” by Milton Davis. Great character conflict in this one. Jimbia is an excellent character and shows some interesting development.

“Against the Sky Tomb of the Earth Kings” by M. Harold Page wins for best title. Great inventiveness and action here.

“Red Rain,” by William Hiles. Here we have a dragon appearing during the Civil War, and Union and Confederates must join forces against it. A lot of emotional intensity in this one and I’d have to say it was my favorite piece in the anthology.

“La Betaille,” by Beth W. Patterson featured the youngest hero and I loved the details of the swamplands and the people who live there.

“Arctic Rage,” by Bruce Durham features a kind of “Alien” and “The Thing” riff in a post-apocalyptic world.

“Sic Semper Draconis,” by Mark Finn was full of action. Reminded me a bit of David Drake. 

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Louisiana Inklings

 

My critique group calls itself the “Inklings,” or, specifically, the “Louisiana Inklings.”  We meet every Thursday at one of the St. Tammany library branches. I’ve been a member for several years and those who have hung with the group during that time have really developed into fine writers. There’s a lot of talent and a lot of diversity in the group.  We have poets, novelists, memoir writers, short story writers, and me, the weird one. (Well, there’s also, Mike, who is somewhat of a weird one too.)

On January 4^th of 2012, I pitched an idea to the group. I’d be willing to edit a collection of the writings from members of the group and publish it through Razored Zen Press for the Kindle and Nook.  I suggested calling the resulting anthology, Louisiana Inklings: A Literary Sampler.  All submissions to the anthology were required to have gone through the critique group review at least once, and then would, or could at least, be subjected to further editing from me. There was a lot of enthusiasm for the project and over the next six months or so I collected a number of submissions. These went through varied levels of editing, and everyone was very cooperative, even though in some cases I asked for pretty major changes.

By mid-July I had all the pieces in place and began the final process of turning the thing into an ebook. After a few long days, including two that involved about ten hours each at the keyboard, the work was tested, retested, retested again, and ready for uploading. I started the upload July 29/30, and it went live on the 31^st on both Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  Today I’m making the official announcement of it here.  The cover, from a photograph by the incomparable Lana Gramlich, is below. 

I don’t know if I would have even thought of the idea if it weren’t for a fine writer named Del Stone, Jr.  Years ago, I was in an online writing group founded by Del, and he edited a group anthology in which I had a story called “Thief of Eyes.”  That anthology was a horror anthology called The Parasitorium: Terrors Within.  Although the idea to edit my own anthology probably first saw the gleam of life then, Louisiana Inklings is a very, very different kind of collection. It’s a literary/mainstream anthology. There are a couple of stories that might be considered genre fiction, none by me, but most of what we have are poems, memoirs, and stories that examine the real or realistic lives of human beings, in many cases people from southern Louisiana. There’s over 40,000 words of material.

For those of you who have read my stuff, I want to be clear that my pieces in this book are not genre fiction.  No “Finest Cut” or “Harvest of War” here.  In fact, they’re probably not much like anything you might have read from me before. One is a kind of pseudo-memoir, a mental trip back to the home I grew up in. Another is an essay about my son, and a third is a poem about someone who, one day, without any provocation that I could discern, decided to stick a sword in my back.

If you want to get a feel for what the collection is about, you can use the “Look Inside” feature at Amazon, or the “Read Instantly” feature at Barnes and Noble. 

I do hope you’ll check it out at least, because there are some talented and thoughtful people in this collection. I’m proud of them.

Take care.

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Beat to a Pulp: Q & A

Elaine Ash, who edited the new Beat to a Pulp anthology alongside David Cranmer, will be guesting on my blog in the next week or so. She’ll be here to answer questions about putting together anthologies in general, and BTAP Round 1 in particular. I have a few questions I plan to ask her, but I’m soliciting input from everyone who visits as to what additional questions they might like to see answered. Here’s your chance to pick the brain of an editor. You can leave your question in the comments section here, or email me at kainja at Hotmail dot com (You all know how to translate that, I believe). Or you can just drop by on the day that Elaine is here and ask your questions directly. I’ll post again as soon as we establish that date.

Here are the questions I’ve already lined up for that day:

1. Can you give us some of your selection criteria for the anthology? How did you choose the stories that you did?

2. You and David Cranmer edited this book together. How did you divide up the duties? Did you butt heads over anything?

3. What makes a story hard or easy to edit?

4. The anthology has an awesome cover. How did that come about?

End of questions:

Now, if you have any burning questions you’d like to toss into the ring, please do so. Elaine volunteered for this, after all!
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News of the Day

Well I received a nice bit of recognition over on The Rising Blogger. My post "A Dream of Fire" was named "Post of the Day." That's pretty cool. Seems like a lot of folks liked that piece, and all I had to do to get it was have a sleep. I like working that way.

In other news of the day I have on hand four anthologies now with works from my fellow bloggers. The first one I got was Weirdly with Bernita Harris's wonderful story “Stonechild” in it. The other three are listed below. So far I’ve just read the stories of my blogleagues.

1. Black Sails: Tales of Pirate Fantasy, which contains a story by David Hardy called "Black Curse of the Noose." Dave is a fellow REHupan, and his blog is called "Fire and Sword" and is linked to this blog through my link to REHupa. Dave’s tale involves a curse, as you might guess from the title, and follows an old pirate who tells a tale of woe. All I can say is, be careful what you fear.

2. Werewolves: Dead Moon Rising, which contains a tale called “The Beast of Bava Pass” by Christopher Mills of Atomic Pulp fame. Christopher’s story is full of atmosphere and some neat twists. The action is deftly handled.

3. High Seas Cthulhu, which contains stories by several of our fellow blog travelers. Stewart Sternberg has a story here called “The Others.” There are many interesting elements in this story, which I don’t want to give away. I might describe it as Long Black Schooner meets Nightmare on Elm Street meets “The Shadow over Innsmouth.” I really found the main character here, one Avery Tressler, interesting and wouldn’t mind seeing more about him. This collection also contains “The Bedlamite” by Ferrel Moore. I love this title, and the tale lives up to it. A nice mixture of realism and fantasy in a Cthulhu Mythos world. There is also a tale by blogleague William Jones, who edited the book. The tale is “Depth of Darkness,” and involves an ancient stone dredged from the bottom of the sea. This piece is really nicely written with plenty of shivery elements.

High Seas Cthulhu actually contains stories by a bunch of other folks I know or know of. Lee Clark Zumpe, Darrell Schweitzer, Stephen Mark Rainey, C. J. Henderson all have stories here. The biggest name is Alan Dean foster. And in a twist of interesting fate, since I started reading this collection last night, Gerard Houarner has a story here called “The Stars, In Their Dreaming.” Why is this a twist of fate you ask? Because Gerard Houarner was the name signed to that rejection note I mentioned yesterday for the story “Love in the Time of Cybersex.” His story is quite good and reminded me a bit of “The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym.” Small world, ain’t it.