During the August 2017 solar eclipse, 37,814 Americans suffered temporary retinal damage from looking at the sun. Each victim had an afterimage burned into their eye that appeared when they blinked rapidly. When those runes were written down and arranged in a scroll in exact sequential order, following the path of the sun from west coast to east, they formed the text of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly #35. Pretty sweet.

Now that we have the transcription in house (and translated into English by blind precogs from the rainforests of Brazil), we can tell you that the latest issue of HFQ includes stories by Raphael Ordonez, Mary-Jean Harris, and Norman Doege, plus poetry from James Matthew Byers, Mary Soon Lee, and Karen Bovenmyer.

Here’s the complete TOC, with fiction links.

“White Rainbow and Brown Devil,” by Raphael Ordonez
Francisco Carvajal y Lopez, vagabond of the Tashyan badlands, conquistador in his own mind, emerged upon a caliche bank from thickets that sang…

“That Sleep of Death,” by Mary-Jean Harris
“There is no religion higher than Truth,” Lady Wickham spoke as she raised her lace handkerchief to her eyes. Before I could comment on the great sensibility…

“Things of Shreds and Patches,” by Norman Doege
Muffled voices and broken songs seeped like slow passion around a carved birch door. Scori, courier to the Lord-Apparent of Bremland, had ridden through…

See the complete issue here.

HFQ 35 includes story-specific artwork by Jereme Peabody, Simon Walpole, and Raphael Ordoñez. The cover, “Giant Attack,” is by Jereme Peabody.

Poems this issue are:

“The Washer at the Ford,” by James Matthew Byers
The hooded crow flew overhead, Confusion followed suit. Announcing menace, full of dread, Abiding her salute, The men below her in the field Engaged….

“Dragon Mountain,” by Mary Soon Lee
Then to the dragon mountain rode the scarred king with nine guards to shield him, closer than brothers. “What is this? Meat?” Li, captain of King…

“Fire Lover,” by Karen Bovenmyer
Do I really own you, Fire lover, woman of dragons? Gold foil on your breast…

The issue also contains reports on the various Goings On with the staff.

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is an ezine dedicated to publishing short works of heroic fantasy. It is edited by Adrian Simmons, David Farney, William Ledbetter, James Frederick William Rowe, and Barbara Barrett, and published four times a year in July, October, January, and April. Issues are posted to the website, and are completely free.

Here’s what Fletcher Vredenburgh said about issue #34 in his December Short Story Roundup.

There’s a chance each and every month that I’ll discover a story that measures up to the best of the past, and will be worthy of a place in some future anthology of great swords & sorcery tales. That’s the sort of anticipation I have when I open up a new issue of HFQ each quarter. Adrian Simmons, David Farney, William Ledbetter, James Frederick William Rowe, and Barbara Barrett are the names on the masthead, and swords & sorcery fans should thank each one of them for consistently putting out the best new S&S and with far less attention than they deserve.

Joe Bonadonna interviewed editors Adrian Simmons and David Farney for us last June. We last covered HFQ with issue 33.

Our Late January Fantasy Magazine Rack is here. See all of our recent fantasy magazine coverage here.