Sword & Soul Roundtable with Milton J. Davis, Kirk A. Johnson and Sarah Macklin
over 1 year ago
– Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 10:48:42 AM
Please enjoy this recording of yesterday's livestream panel discussion with some Sword & Soul stalwarts who all have stories or articles in the new issues of NESS!
If all goes well, on Friday evening we'll be having a livestream "NESS FINAL DAY KICKSTARTER TELETHON" featuring the entire staff of NESS, hosted by S&S podcast host Matt John, and perhaps featuring special guests. We're still brainstorming entertainment...but a group play through of some of a D&D Romance Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel has been suggested, and of course we'd love to answer questions or otherwise converse with you guys in the chat. It'll probably begin at 7pm EST and run for an hour or two. We might do shots when certain goals are met, we'll see!
Sign up to be notified when it's about to start by going here and hitting the little button.
No matter what, we think it'll be a time for celebration. As I write this we are very close to hitting 90% funded, after a wildly good couple of days (we were at 79% first thing Friday). I know I'm a broken record but really, thank you all for backing and sharing this project. Let's see if we can get this sucker to the DOUBLE INTERIOR ART stretch goal!
Sneak Preview: Carnivora by Kirk A. Johnson
over 1 year ago
– Fri, Feb 24, 2023 at 04:32:38 AM
Kirk A. Johnson is a new-to-NESS author being the great story collection "The Obanaax: And Other Tales of Heroes and Horrors". If we fund issues #1&2, then you'll get to enjoy a new Spear & Fang tale - Sword & Sorcery in prehistoric times - by Kirk!
Here's an excerpt of an early draft of what is currently being called...
CARNIVORA
by Kirk A. Johnson (Excerpt of a work-in-progress)
Gunjur sat, picking the blood from under his nails while ignoring the laughter behind him. His warriors had been marching for three days through enemy lands while the cattle they stole mowed along in tow. These Baku warriors were a young and boisterous lot and had earned a night to unwind. And, though the thick beer passed from hand to hand, they still kept their weapons close and their sentries posted near the cattle.
It was common for the Baaku to celebrate in the land of other tribes as their legendary ferocity was known throughout the savannah. And a warm fire on a cold night was no stranger to the far-raiding tribesmen. Yet their rowdiness did little to quiet the surrounding song of bush and stream. And Gunjur had other things on his mind.
The nagging of Inari, his second wife, buzzed through his mind like a fly in the ear. “Watch the skies,” she had warned him. “I dreamed of the stars. We play at gods. I have dreamed of the True Ones. Them. I have dreamed of many far afield things. And they are wanting...”
All too often, Inari dreamt of nonsense, riddles too silly to comprehend or take seriously. Why worry about the sky when the gods of the bush were alive with surprises? Why worry about the stars when leopards stalked the night and tusk boars lurked in hidden places?
He turned his gaze to the darkness covering the savannah. Bukkiwolves barked in the distance. A lion grunted, its echo traveling further than its source would ever know. An owl hooted from a nearby acacia, and glowflies flashed among the foliage like playful stars in the brush. He smiled to himself, wondering again if his new wife was going mad. Perhaps she was always mad and just hid it well.
He looked up at a lone star, winking overhead. With a shrug, he rose from his grassy seat to make his way to a nearby shrub, waving away the glowflies. He undid his loincloth. If something is watching, it should bless me for such a sight.
After relieving himself, he joined his men, commanding four of his most trusted warriors to guard the raided cattle before taking his seat by the camping fire. The n’damas shuffled into a tight cluster, softly mooing. Gunjur allowed himself a wide grin, hiding it from the fire’s light. The fact that a mere twelve warriors had —under his command— captured thirty heads ofn'damas—calves, cows, and bulls—would ensure his place in the hierarchy.
It had been a short road for him from warrior to gayndé. He had carried out the most successful raids during the Season of Dry Rivers. He proved himself worthy to carry the hero-title. Faced with this latest show of bravado, the elders would have no other choice than to elect him as the next High Chief of the Baaku after Gombal.
He drove the butt of his spear into the ground while meditating on his future. He would be the youngest gayndé to make High Chief, younger even than his great-grandfather before him. The current High Chief, though a strong and mighty warrior, could not see beyond tomorrow. And Gunjur had grand plans for his tribe’s future; plans to overshadow his forefathers. The tales of rival tribes growing in size and wealth proved a vexing problem. Soon, he knew, the Baaku would have to once again go to war. The last time that happened, the Baaku and the tribes beyond the vale all suffered when the dry season came. That was the way of war. Even though the Baaku always came out on top, he wondered how long they could sustain that achievement without more sustainable means of survival. He would make changes to remedy this.
Trade alliances and treaties would make an enterprising addition—This would expand their territories and lift their prestige even higher than it already—
Crack.
Gunjur grabbed his spear and stalked towards the disturbance of a snapping twig. He crouched low. Arms steady. Senses focused. Spear raised, ready to thrust its oryx-horned tip into who or whatever crept out of the bush. He held his breath, hoping the intruder was a leopard.
If we fund, then you'll get to read the complete, final version of the story in issue one or two of New Edge Sword & Sorcery. Thanks so much for backing, and please keep sharing the campaign with anybody and everybody!
Sneak Preview: Sister Chaos by Bryn Hammond
over 1 year ago
– Thu, Feb 23, 2023 at 07:29:28 AM
Byrn Hammond told a marvelous tale in issue #0 of NESS, "The Grief-Note of Vultures". If we fund issues #1&2, then you'll all get to enjoy a follow-up tale featuring the same Steppe-inspired protagonist and setting.
Here's an excerpt of an early draft of what is currently being called...
Sister Chaos
by Bryn Hammond (Excerpt of a work-in-progress)
Disembowelled
by a spear called Pear in Flower.
This woman enthralls
our Reign of Peace and Harmony:
Sister Chaos.
Perversely, the king of the Scarlet Jacket bandits had become a cult among the scholar-
gentry, such that they circulated poems upon her in the polite teahouses of the capital Irighaya
– often poems that questioned themselves as to why a bloody ex-peasant bandit held persons
of their erudition, elegant manners and attainments under an unhealthy spell of fascination.
Goatskin Duzmut too knew the disadvantages of popularity, although her tale was told
in street entertainments, not in salons, by actors who were as low in rank as she, nevertheless
whose comedy sketches poking fun at authorities or petty gods amused the respectable
classes in towns like Fattimbet and Khara Khoto.
Fame was already a problem for both of them, when the Scarlet Jackets’ king
enormously exacerbated hers by the murder of an eminent scholar on the road. She killed him
in his coach with her spear Pear in Flower, and left a pressed pear flower pinned to the body’s
lapel as her signature to claim the deed.
“I am led from a boast to another boast, from a feat to another feat,” Angaj-Duzmut
lilted into the wind. Grass blew, flickering light, on every side to the horizon.
“A line from a song? It has a melancholy air.”
“It is the complaint of a hero who has to keep up his reputation or outdo himself, in an
escalating sequence until he meets the thing that is too much for him. Do you not find, Goose,
that a legend is as hounding as it is gratifying?”
They were walking by remote ways to escape the pursuit, Angaj-Duzmut – known as
Goatskin for her outfit, stitched hide with the hair on, the daily wear of her goat nomad
people but rough and wild to settled folk – and the bandit king who collected names like
trophies. Foe and friend called her Qi Miao, that in Han meant a marvel. In the bandits’
marshes she possessed the title of the Wild Goose Utszu, for gangs in that sanctuary went by
waterbird aliases and every leader, a dozen or two dozen, was an ‘utszu’ in mockery of the
one and only Utzsu on his throne in the royal city Halachar. ‘Sister Chaos’ had caught on as
her latest.
“These reflections, Duzzy, after my highest-profile kill?” An arm curled around her
cherished spear, which she never relinquished to their camel. “I can go higher.”
If we fund, then you'll get to read the complete, final version of the story in issue one or two of New Edge Sword & Sorcery. Thanks so much for backing, and please keep sharing the campaign with anybody and everybody!
Sneak Preview: Neurodivergence in Sword & Sorcery
over 1 year ago
– Wed, Feb 22, 2023 at 01:21:28 PM
Jon Olfert has written for us a great non-fiction essay about those of us who think a little differently, how that has been portrayed in Sword & Sorcery, and some exciting possibilities for exploring neurodivergence in future S&S tales!
Please enjoy this one page preview of the current draft:
Neurodivergence in Sword & Sorcery
By Jonathan Olfert
Do you bestride the world sullen-eyed, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth? Do you find yourself unsettled and on edge -- so to speak -- when authorities demand obedience to empty convention? Do you feel alien but not lesser, both isolated and empowered by fundamental differences in your mind, heart, and perspective?
Congratulations! You may be neurodivergent. Have a seat by the fire, friend; let's talk.
Once upon a time, in the early 20th century, madness was a staple of tales we still hold dear. Madness: an invasive, infectious irrationality that rendered the madman uncannily not-quite-human. Blame the cursed amulet or the evil book, yes? I see a persistent fascination without the vocabulary, the toolbox, to explore it. Consider how often the Cimmerian Himself is spoken of as prone to madness, a slide into irrational passion without sense of proportion.
These days we have other words. Gaze upon a quick introduction to the lexicon of our spellbook.
Neurodiversity, per autistic psychiatrist Judy Singer, refers to the human race's near-infinite variation in perspective. Our brains work in many, many different ways. There is no normal. There are, however, neurological minorities, and necessary work around representation and understanding.
Neurodivergent is an even newer term, but just as common these days. Autistic activist Kassiane Assumasu coined it as inclusively as possible: ADHD, learning disabilities, epilepsy, mental illnesses, or any number of other conditions that change how we perceive and interact with the world, with or without a specific diagnosis. By some data I've seen, as many as one in eight people consider themselves neurodivergent once the term is explained. It's a big tent by design.
Being neurodivergent, I've often found that when I want to read about people like me, I need to write it myself. And sword-and-sorcery turns out to be a perfect fit.
If we fund, then you'll get to read the complete, final version of the essay in issue one or two of New Edge Sword & Sorcery. Thanks so much for backing, and please keep sharing the campaign with anybody and everybody!
FAQ: Will shipping charge at the end of the Kickstarter or when the book ships?
almost 2 years ago
– Tue, Feb 21, 2023 at 09:33:35 AM
Thanks to Backerkit, shipping will be charged separately from the Kickstarter, about a month before we ship. Our goal is to ship in the Fall of this year.
This way you get to pay in two nicely spaced installments.
This has been coming up elsewhere, so I thought an update might be a good idea just to make sure everyone's aware.
Meanwhile we hit 75% funding on Sunday! Thanks again to you all for backing and sharing this campaign.
