Rogue Blades Entertainment’s Jason M. Waltz is one of the best editors in the adventure fantasy business. His books include the groundbreaking Writing Fantasy Heroes, Challenge! Discovery, Rage of the Behemoth, and Return of the Sword, one of the most important Sword & Sorcery anthologies of the 21st Century. But as exciting as those tomes are, what I want to talk about today are Jason’s future books — which promise to be as groundbreaking as his epic back catalog.

One of the great things about Jason is that, unlike many other editors at established publishing houses, he has open submission. That’s right — anyone can submit to one of his anthologies. And right now he has not one, not two, but three books open. The first is a swashbuckling pirates & crusaders volume, Crossbones & Crosses, and it sounds terrific. Here’s a snippet from the Submission Guidelines.

Pirates & Crusaders, ahoy! Hoist your banners, unsheathe your blades, kiss your crosses, and let’s search for booty on the seas and the sands! More of the age of steel than shot, though some rudimentary gunpowder is acceptable. NO fantastical elements! Write us your strongest swashbuckling adventures! Gritty, dangerous, and bloody, but nothing of this grimdark nihilism…

Stories should be 4k-9k words in length. Nothing either too much shorter or too much longer. Wow us with heroic storytelling!

Submissions will be open through the fall, so you have plenty of time to craft a story that will get our blood pumping. One of Jason’s other great strengths as an editor is his lightning response times — he usually gets back to you on the first 500 words of your story in the first week.

The second open volume is a fantasy/noir crossover which sounds just as interesting: Crazy Town.

Crazy Town is an anthology of hardboiled tales – crime and suspense tales; gritty, grimy, sexy, and bloody film-noir type tales with a fantastic twist. Think of the kind of stories that you would expect in Black Mask or True Detective, but with just enough speculative elements to steer toward Weird Tales or Twilight Zone territory.

We’re not looking for private-eye mages or grumpy superheroes in your local Gotham. Write your strongest, most dangerous fiction filled with dark desires and deeds, less suave and more street slang – but not gratuitous or grotesque. NO SMUT.

Speculative elements are required, though we want a variety of ideas. Bring your best tough guys and gals and let us share in their filthy lucre lives as they best the dirty, diabolical denizens of their cities.

And finally, there’s an anthology of fairy tale romance adventure, Somebody Kill the Prince!

This is fantastical romance adventure. A classical fairy-talish homage to The Princess Bride (book and movie by William Goldman). The theme to Somebody Kill the Prince! is that of diabolical machinations defeated by ‘Last Boy Scout’ good-guy/gal-ism! Write all the mostly ‘good parts’ of fun heroic family entertainment. Include authorial asides, rhyming, inconceivable conceits, memorable characters, unique creations, and most importantly, true love and loyalty. Honestly — just have fun writing good old fun stories to share with all the members of your family. Write to put a smile on the readers face!

In the true spirit of homage and theme, RBE is looking for the same number of stories as foes Fezzik says he can handle when Inigo asks, “How many could you handle?” before storming the castle in their defeat of the prince’s diabolical machinations: 10. That’s right, only 10 stories. Target total word count for the anthology is 65k, so write your stories accordingly.

All three volumes will remain open at least through the fall, with target publication dates of Christmas 2018 or later. Read the complete Submission Guidelines for each here:

Crossbones & Crosses
Crazy Town
Somebody Kill the Prince!
General Guidelines

Jason’s previous books with Rogue Blades Entertainment have included original contributions from Brandon Sanderson, Howard Andrew Jones, James Enge, E.E. Knight, Glen Cook, Paul Kearney, Jennifer Brozek, Orson Scott Card, Ian C. Esslemont, Steven Erikson, Bill Ward, Michael Ehart, Mary Rosenblum, C.L. Werner, Brian Ruckley, Andrew Offutt, Richard K. Lyon, Lois Tilton, Laura J. Underwood, Cat Rambo, Janet and Chris Morris, Alex Bledsoe, and many others.

Our previous coverage of Rogue Blades Entertainment includes:

Rogue Blades Entertainment releases Rage of the Behemoth
Rogue Blades Entertainment conjures Demons
Rogue Blades Entertainment Announces Winners of Challenge! Discovery 2010 Contest
Sale at Rogue Blades Entertainment
Just Two Months Left to Enter the Challenge! Stealth Writing Competition
Rogue Blades Entertainment Reveals the Secrets of Writing Fantasy Heroes
Teaching and Fantasy Literature: Writing Fantasy Heroes by Sarah Avery
Teaching and Fantasy Literature: More on Writing Fantasy Heroes by Sarah Avery
Lee Kemp Reviews Writing Fantasy Heroes: Powerful Advice from the Pros by Lee Kemp
James McGlothlin Reviews Writing Fantasy Heroes: Powerful Advice From the Pros by James McGlothlin
Can’t Keep a Great Buncha Folks Down by Jason M ‘RBE’ Waltz
RBE returns with a WWE-style SmackDown: Challenge! Discovery by Jason M ‘RBE’ Waltz

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