Swords Against! Sword & Sorcery Fiction Magazine

Hey Swordlings,

I'm really really wanting to hit this audio stretch goal and bring this project home in style. And I guess Jason Sholtis really wants it too, because he offered to do a "preview" of a reading. I chose my story, not because I'm a narcissistic weirdo, but because I'm still working on right-related paperwork on the other authors' works.

Anyway, bureaucratic stuff aside, here's the first few paragraphs of Let the Heart Beat Silent Still. Note that this is *just* a rough cut with some open source sound effects thrown in, but it really gets me excited for the possibilities if we can get to this next stretch goal.

Here's some more Jason Sholtis and Trey Causey comic preview, as well.


I hope it gets you motivated, too! Share the project if you haven't. Shake down your friends! Extort your enemies! Let's get an audio version of this magazine.

https://www.mysticbull.com/post/swords-against-swordandsorcery-audio

(hosting this on my TTRPG publishing site...) 

Keep fighting! 

A little late, but I want to send out a hearty thank you to everyone as we crossed the $9500 threshold. Our creators/staff thank you, as well.

My personal goal on this whole venture (after just basic funding) was to have a sword & sorcery audio magazine. That's the next stretch goal, but it's a real stretch at $14k. How close can we get? Don't you want to listen to some heart-pumping sword & sorcery action while you pump iron at the gym or on you long boring drive to work?

Let's go! And thank you again for getting us this far.

Here's an inked preview panel from Jason's and Trey's comic and a story header illustration by David Fisher for Can These Bones Live? (story by David Carter).

Just a quick Saturday night update to say:

We're soooo close to creator/staff raises at $9500. Great job! Let's push a little further. My ultimate goal is that 14K mark so we can do an audio-book version of the magazine. Let's get some momentum for that final push.

And the creative team of Jason Sholtis and Trey Causey surprised me with a comic update over on Trey's Bluesky profile... check it out! I'm bursting... so friggin' cool.

Greetings Sword Siblings,

I have a few things bouncing around in the world. I apologize for not being more update-active. I've got a nice updated cover mockup below. Other than that, we're really hoping for this creator/staff raise at the $9,500 level. If you haven't passed us along to folks that you know that might like a new sword & sorcery magazine, please do!

In other news, I have other art coming in, which I'll share in a couple of days. The chapter-header art is really looking pretty cool.

Also, if you haven't already, be sure to back New Edge Sword & Sorcery's issues and get that sweet collaborative 'zine with stories by Bryn Hammond and Milton Davis!

Anyway, here's my dumb mockup of the cover over Rick Hershey's friggin' great illustration. Rest assured, I have professionals in the background working on an actual cover. I'm sure they're not too happy about my cut and paste job...but it's too exciting not to share.

Greetings My Sword Compadres,

I’m here to give you details on the collaborative ‘zine we’re doing with New Edge Sword and Sorcery.

First off, what’s a ‘zine?

It’s short for a short magazine. I dunno. I’m not responsible for English.

What’s cool about it is that it’s like the old Ace Doubles. What’s that mean?

It’s a book that’s two books. And you flip it to read the other one. See gif below for New Edge’s great double-edged book Walls of Shira Yulun and Waste Flowers.

Ours isn't a full book, but a 'zine with two short stories. Saddle-stitched. Monochrome cover. But, it’s going to be friggin’ cool. 

Craig Brasco will do our cover – you can see a sample of his line work below along with Gary McCluskey (he’s doing the second cover for New Edge’s side of the book!)

But who’s going to write the story?

That’s a great question. I can’t tell you who’s doing the New Edge side (that’s for Oliver’s update!)

I’m proud to announce Bryn Hammond will do our story. I’m so damned excited about that. Love, love, love her work – especially her Goatskin stories (one of which you can read in New Edge’s book shown above. She wrote Waste Flowers). It’s such a great character. She has questions, she’s afraid, she’s human… but she also picks up her weapon and fights – whether it’s a tent pole in the wheels of a chariot or her nomad wits. It’s a great honor to have Bryn in the first issue of Swords Against!

Bryn Hammond (she/her) lives in a seaside town in Australia with an enormous number of books, half of them about the steppe. She has written a Goatskin sword & sorcery novellas Waste Flowers and What Rough Beast? for Brackenbury Books. Her historical fiction series Amgalant closely follows the Secret History of the Mongols, a 13th-century life of Chinggis Khan. Voices from the Twelfth-Century Steppe is her craft essay. She has stories in ergot and New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, and poems in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Old Moon Quarterly. Catch up with Bryn at www.amgalant.com