S&S Roundup #38
The Latest in Contemporary Sword & Sorcery
Friends, barbarians, countrymen, lend me your eyes… Because we’ve got a chock-full roundup this week! But first, which sword will win? Check out this video from about a year ago: Can a Bat'leth Defeat a Longsword? Then check out my marker sword!
New Releases and Projects
+ Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 8 is now available as a paperback and kindle eBook. From Parallel Universe Publications. Amazon US and Amazon UK.
+ Hurled Headlong Flaming by Matt Holder, published by Jason Ray Carney and Spiral Tower Press. Paperback only at this time! Only $8 from Amazon.
+ Savage Realms Monthly - April 2024: A collection of dark fantasy sword and sorcery short adventure stories from Literary Rebel. Only $2.99 on Kindle.
+ Check out the free PDFs for Peasant Magazine: Issue One - Oct 1, 2023 and Issue Two - May 1 2024. About ten or twelve stories per issue from editor Charles Moffat.
+ Relatively New (2022): Mad Shadows - The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser (Book 1) by Joe Bonadonna. Check out the 3 book series here on Amazon.
+ From MVmedia - “The Heretic series by Sarah Macklin is an exciting sword and soul epic fantasy about an empire thrown into turmoil because of its leader's fateful decree.” Direct from the publisher here.
And this…
Whoa! Swords & Sorcery Magazine has a new website that’s slick as heck, and Issue 147 is on the front page featuring three new tales - “The Cursed Woods” by Matthew Ilseman; “The Spectral Hunt” by Jared Kerr; and “The Bequest” by Sandra Unerman. Great job and congrats to Curtis Ellett on the update and for presenting new stories every month. Note: The zine’s submission guidelines are now here.
More Opps for Writers
Swords & Heroes E-Zine: Submission window open until June 30, 2024. Full disclosure - this is my project (Tule Fog Press) which I’ll publish here on this Substack on alternating Tuesdays. “S&S One Story at a Time.”
Hexagon Speculative Fiction open until May 7th. Guidelines here. CLOSING!
Crimson Quill Quarterly: “We will be accepting until May 15th and hope to have our decisions made one calendar week afterwards.” Closing soon!
Schlock! is now open to all submissions. For guidelines, visit here.
New Listing Here: Peasant Magazine - submission guidelines are here.
Xcrawl Insider (Goodman Games) open to subs until May 31. Hey dungeon designers, they want new monsters and new spells for their first issue.
Swords & Sorcery Magazine - new guidelines page is here.
Savage Realms Monthly has submission guidelines here. (send only first 3 pages)
BFS Horizons (British Fantasy Society) writers’ guidelines are here.
Beneath Ceaseless Skies submission guidelines here.
Antho Open Call: Dead Girls Walking (closes May 12, contributor copy)
These Markets Currently Closed - But check out their content…
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly will open for subs in July 2024.
Cirsova will be open for subs between Aug 1 & Aug 4, 2024.
New Edge Sword & Sorcery. Currently closed to subs.
Wyngraf is currently closed to subs.
Whetsone is currently closed to subs.
Old Moon Quarterly is currently closed to subs.
Broadswords and Blasters is currently closed to subs.
Fantasy Magazine; Lightspeed; and Nightmare are currently closed.
Any markets I’m missing? I know I’ve forgotten a few, my apologies!
Kool Kickstarters
+ Newly Launched: Sword & Scandal - An anthology of NSFW heroic fantasy from J. Manfred Weichsel.
+ Launching Soon: HYPERBOREA: Modulistic Terror from Jeffrey Talanian - Three new adventure modules for HYPERBOREA, the premier RPG of swords, sorcery, and weird science-fantasy.
+ The Elf With No Name #1-2: The next fantasy-western chapter! "The Elf With No Name visits Dwarfwood in the newest issue of the Magic Powder spin-off series!" From Jeff Schiller. 10 days to go.
+ Alone on the Borderland - An anthology of new, strange and weird fiction, from the dawn of the 20th century through the aftermath of the Great War. Only 5 days left.
News You Can Use…Maybe!
+ PulpFest - August 1 - 4, 2024, in Pittsburgh, PA, held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Pittsburgh – Cranberry. "Spice, Spies, Shaw, and More" at PulpFest 2024!
+ Also, check out this interview with Teel James Glenn from a few years ago - “Living the Pulp Life” from PulpFest.
+ 'Lord of the Rings,' 'Titanic' actor Bernard Hill dead at 79.
+ April Newsletter from Baen Books. Also, check out May’s contest from Baen.
+ Coming Sat, 28 September - the Innsmouth Literary Festival 24. This autumn marks the return of the Innsmouth Literary Festival. Check out the 2023 highlights video.
Pulp & Conan Corner
+ Revies of Howard Days 2023 (Part One) and Howard Days 2023 (Part Two). Also - only 7 more weeks until Howard Days 2024.
+ Review from Gary Romeo: The Conan Companion by Richard Toogood.
+ Another review from Gary Romeo: Lethal Consignment by Shaun Hamill - the newest Heroic Legends Conan e-book.
Two More Roundups
Links of Steel from DMR Books (May 5)
Sensor Sweep from Castalia House (May 6)
Podcasts & Video Podcasts
The Cromcast - New Season 19 Episode 1: Meet Poul Anderson (April 3)
Baen Free Radio Hour - BFRH 2024 05 03: Admiral and Commander, part two; and Tinker by Wen Spencer, Part 50 Video. (May 3)
Rogues in the House - The Rogues React! (Part 2, March 28) - “Our follow-up session to origin stories from some of our listeners!”
Monsters, Madness and Magic Podcast - EP#257: Ballad Of A Wet Bandit - An Interview With Daniel Stern. (May 3)
Dungeons & Damsels - “D’aakor The Fearless” (Part 2 of 2) S4E3 (April 22)
Strange Shadows - SS3 08 The Demon of the Flower (May 4)
The Worldshapers - Episode 166: Jennifer Anne Gordon – The Japanese Box and Other Stories (April 28)
Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff - Episode 597: The Copper Scroll is Real (May 3)
Faenon's Fantasy Fiction Newsletter, Saga of the Jewels.
YouTube: Jay Requard, Fantasy Author & Podcaster. Latest: Pondering The Orb uncovers Sword & Sorcery classic Flashing Swords 1!
YouTube: Skallagrim - Historical Arms and Armor. Latest videos: This Destructive Shield Test Almost Went Wrong...
YouTube: Echoes of Crom Records. Sword and Sorcery Heavy Metal, Episode 16 - The Pearls of the Vampire Queen by Michael Shea. BTW, Howie Bentley announces that this podcast is going on temporary hiatus as he finished up some musical projects.
Some Reviews and Interviews
+ Review of Howard Andrew Jones’s The City of Marble and Blood (at Cirsova).
+ Review by Richard Fisher of Neither Beg Nor Yield (at DMR Blog).
+ M.D. Jackson reviews Neither Beg Nor Yield at Dark Worlds.
+ Do you like Weird Westerns? Here’s a review of Tales from Dry Gulch.
+ Independent Author Spotlight: Stephen R. Babb (from DMR Blog).
+ The Man Behind the Madness: Up Close with Steven Shrewsbury, author of Bran Mak Morn - Red Waves of Slaughter. Q&A at Heroic Signatures.
That’s a wrap! Thanks for reading. Send any links or projects any time. And if you want to support this effort, feel free to purchase something from Tule Fog Press!
Thank you for including Sword & Scandal as a Kool Kickstarter. I am honored! When it funds, I hope you share the call for submissions!!!
Awesome roundup and still loving the writers' news! I have started subbing to some of these using your list as a reference point, so very useful, thank you. If I finish another story in time I'll try subbing one to you too! Also, if you are now including general fantasy / SFF magazines that might publish S&S and not just S&S exclusive ones, you could also add Clarkesworld, Interzone, Podcastle and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (big literary heavy hitters though I know the latter two have published S&S in the past). I've also subbed an S&S story to Fanatical Magazine recently though they may have closed as not much activity on their website lately.