Update on my collection of Welgar stories: Welgar the Cursed

Image of Welgar used in Swords & Heroes

 

Work is progressing on a collection of my Welgar stories, Welgar the Cursed. My publisher recently sent me some first drafts of the cover artwork for my approval.

Hopefully the book will be available soon. 

 

The collection features six stories which detail the ongoing problems that my mercenary character has to endure, opening with Ossani the Healer and the Beautiful Homunculus. This is followed by The Dark Priestdom, Welgar the Cursed, Mask of a Mad God, The Forbidden City of Cyramon and, finally, Emerging from Their Twilit Realms.

Another sword and sorcery tale finished

 

Just finished what I hope are the final touches to a new sword and sorcery tale, tentatively titled Lies and Treachery.

It's quite a long story (11,100 words) and is my third involving a northern mercenary called Horbeck. He first appears in an as yet unpublished tale called The Unhappy Inquisitor, in which he is a secondary character. The second is in The Demon from Another World, in which this time he is the main character. This is to be published at the end of October in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from Treeshaker Books. 

From the opening paragraph of Lies and Treachery:

"It was less than a day since the four mercenaries on their stolen camels reached the end of the Great Desert. Scorched by the sun, they were a desperate-looking band of men. Horbeck, their erstwhile leader, was a huge Northerner, fully a head taller than any of the others, his plaited beard and long hair bleached almost white and filled with dust. The scarred mail beneath his leather jerkin showed through rents in the badly worn garment. Like all the others he wore a plain, much dented steel helmet. The other northerner, Brud, was slightly shorter but built to the same hardy proportions, with a notched battle-axe swinging from his saddle. Back in his homeland he would usually have had the severed heads of those he had vanquished hung alongside it but in more civilised lands he had been persuaded to forgo this touch of vanity. Asnar, a Josanian archer with a sharply-pointed blue-black beard in need of a trim, wore lacquered leather armour, though its colours had been dulled and the bright designs on his broad breastplate were barely discernible. A scimitar hung in a gaudy sheath across his back. Completing their disreputable quartet, Bolbo, a balding Kossanian with a savage scar on one cheek, was the oldest of their group - and a poor rider of camels. Even after weeks of travel across the desert he clung onto his mount with steely desperation, his teeth gritted. His scarlet tunic had been drained of all but the faintest hint of colour by the sun while the old steel breastplate beneath was scored and dented from all the blows inflicted on it over the years."

The Storyteller of Koss is reprinted in this month's Schlock! Webzine

My sword and sorcery story The Storyteller of Koss, first published in Dustin Bilyk's Summer of Sci-fi & Fantasy is reprinted in the October issue of Schlock! Webzine, which is available now as an ebook and paperback. 

Kickstarter Project - Anthologies of the Damned

I have an interest in this kickstarter project as I have a 8000 word sword and sorcery yarn in Anthology of the Damned - Necromoirrium called The Demon from Another World.

I have been struck by the sheer enthusuasm and energy of those behind this project and wish them well.

Treeshaker Books

 

 

 

 

Three stories to be reprinted in October

It looks like I'll have three of my stories reprinted in October.

These are:

The Storyteller of Koss, which originally appeared in Summer of SciFi & Fantasy in 2022 edited by Dustin Bilyk. This will now be in the October issue of Schlock! Webzine edited by Gavin Chappell. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An Oddity, which was only published for the first time this year in Schlock! Webzine, January issue, edited by Gavin Chappell, will now be in Strange Aeon 2024 edited by M. Keaton in the States. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very old story of mine, Terror on the Moors, will be in The Complete World of Horror Volume 2. This will be a facsimile of issues 4, 5 and 6 of the 1970s magazine, World of Horror, which is now being reprinted in hardcover by Confessions Press. My story was in issue 6, illustrated by Jim Pitts.

Another new fantasy story finished - Ossani's Apprentice

Although the title might change by the time I send this story out for consideration by potential markets I have now completed another new fantasy tale. This one stands at 4,600 words and is called Ossani's Apprentice. It's a sequel to a couple of other stories, Emerging from Their Twilit Realms and The Moneylender of Oriaska, neither of which has so far been published.  

An Oddity to be published in Strange Aeon 2024

My Medusa-themed story An Oddity, which appeared in the January issue of Schlock! Webzine, is now scheduled to be reprinted in an American anthology, Strange Aeon 2024. I was emailed the final proofs today, which had just a couple of minor edits, all to the good. I am looking forward to this story being published again later this year, probably next month.

An Oddity was first published in Schlock! Webzine in January 2024. I was especially pleased with the cover illustration of a particular painting by the brilliant Sixteenth Century Italian artist Caravaggio as my story is about a Gorgon's head.

Another new Sword and Sorcery tale finished: The Ghoul-Catcher

Five days after my last story, I've finished the first draft of a new sword and sorcery tale: The Ghoul-Catcher.

8,800 words long, though it may end up a little shorter by the time I've finished editing it. On the other hand it might not.

New sword and sorcery story finished: Emerging from Their Twilit Realms

Just finished a new fantasy story called Emerging from Their Twilit Realms at 4000 words, another instalment in my ongoing saga about Welgar the Cursed, a character who, I must admit, I treat very badly. Now I need to psyche up to start another, knowing that from next month I won't be able to get any writing of my own done while I'm reading submissions for Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 9.

Two more stories to be reprinted next year in brand new anthology

It now appears that two of my oldest stories are set to be reprinted next year in a brand new anthology. I can't say anything more about the project yet as the publisher has still to announce it in public, but I hope to be able to give further details soon.

Visit Fungosia accepted for publication

I don't know what anyone else's experience has been with submissions sent off a long time ago into seeming oblivion, only to resurface unexpectedly with an acceptance years later, but I had one this week.

 

I submitted a very short humorous science fiction story called Visit Fungosia in October 2019. Never hearing back about it I eventually wrote it off as rejected - till this week, when I learned the editor wished to include it in the next issue of his magazine if it was still available.

 

To be honest, I put this story to one side and had more or less forgotten all about it, so, yes, it is still available.

 

I still find it hard to believe that after nearly five years it was still in the slush pile and has finally made it.

 

More details later when I've exchanged contracts, etc.  

(This also marks my tenth story acceptance this year so far.)

My science fiction tale Floating Free is in the September issue of Schlock! Webzine

 

My science fiction tale Floating Free is in the September issue of Schlock! Webzine. 

amazon.co.uk

The Demon from Another World

I spent some time yesterday doing a last minute proofread of my sword and sorcery tale The Demon from Another World which will appear soon in Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium from Treeshaker Books.

 

I would add that this is not a collection of S&S stories but dark horror. It just happens, I suppose, my yarn is particularly graphic, inspired as it is by John Carpenter's The Thing.

 

Here are its opening lines:

 

It crashed through the clouds in the dead of night, lighting up the sky as if it were day. The high-pitched scream that accompanied it was as if a thousand dragons (if such creatures even existed, which most people doubted) were being slaughtered in agony. Down it hurtled, cleaving the clouds and leaving behind a searingly bright trail that gradually dispersed an untold distance behind it.

When it crashed the earth shook far and wide, and those who were awakened by its reverberations thanked whatever gods they had it was nowhere near where they lived, before trying to return to sleep again. For most it was a fitful night.

 

It landed in the endless wastes of the Great Desert, instantly turning a wide circle of sand scores of miles across into rough, filmy, strange-looking glass beneath whose brittle surface lay treacherous chasms.

 

Gradually, whatever was buried at its core began to cool.

 

It cooled for years.

 

                                                                            *

 

They were a scurrilous bunch of mercenaries, broken by defeat, penniless, most of them covered in wounds, some of which festered and would lead to death in the next few days, and what supplies they had were almost gone. Worse still, they were being hunted.

 

After weeks of riding their dromedaries across dunes that stretched for as far as they could see still their shaman warned them when he used his powers of divination the squadron of Hessurian riders was still on their trail, only days behind them now...

My published sword and sorcery stories so far

Here's a list of all the sword and sorcery stories published so far under my name:

A Grim God's Revenge - Mythic #14, 2017

Baal the Necromancer - Mythic #17, 2021

The God in the Keep - Swords & Sorcery Magazine #118, 2021

The Storyteller of Koss - Summer of Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 2022

The Carpetmaker of Arana - Savage Realms Monthly #12, 2022

The Dark Priestdom - Savage Realms Monthly #19, 2023

Welgar the Cursed - Swords and Heroes, 2023

The Forbidden City of Cyramon - Swords & Heroes, 2024

In the Temple of the Snake - Crimson Quill Quarterly #3, 2024

The Demon from Another World - Anthology of the Damned: Necromoirrium, 2024

Essayan's Terrible Machineries of War - Crimson Quill Quarterly #5, 2025

Plus two under a pseudonym:

Sorceries in Assabarr, 2023 - Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 7, 2023

The Troupe, 2024 - Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8, 2024