“This anthology is the winning epitome of my career whether another reader sees it or not.” – Jason M Waltz

Jason M Waltz is well known amongst adventure fiction readers, especially the Swords & Sorcery crowd. With his Rogue Blades Entertainment and associated Foundation, he’s brought us the epic Return of the Sword (BG review) and then Rage of the Behemoth, and Demons.  He’s edited/published a variety of other anthologies with themes of Weird Noir, Pirates, and Sword & Planet with Last Empire of Sol (BG review), and splendid nonfiction like Writing Fantasy Heroes (BG review) and recently Robert E. Howard Changed My Life (BG review). Jason M Waltz has contributed a number of Black Gate posts too (link). While I write this, Waltz just got a story published in Whetstone S&S Magazine #7 that caps the set with an emotive tale, both heroic and tragic.

Waltz is a wizard at crafting Introductions to anthologies (his and those published by others); they usually evoke a call to arms to be heroic. He consistently makes me feel like a hero just by reading the forewords.

Today he broadcasts exciting news. Prepare for another Sword and Sorcery extravaganza this fall called Neither Beg Nor Yield (NBNY)!  Jason M Walts calls for our aid to make this a reality via a Kickstarter campaign scheduled to run August 22 through Sept 19th. Sixteen authors are already engaged, and their identities are being revealed as teasers via various venues.

This post reveals 2 more of the 16 Vanguard Authors!

If stretch goals are reached there is interior art with the possibility to add a 17th pro and open an 18th slot for backers to submit for.  If submissions open up, stories would be due by 10/19 with an announcement of acceptance on the Day of Might 10/23.

Sign up now on Kickstarter to be notified of NBNY’s launch.

Click here!

Words from Jason M Waltz’s NBNY Press Release

Background on NBNY: If you’ve had the opportunity to read the foreword to Perry’s Swords & Heroes, that is my motivation to end my publishing career with a wallop of power. Writing, rewriting, and rereading that over a few weeks pumped me up to the extreme and essentially forced me to emphatically define my interpretation of S&S. I have long felt a growing angst about the ongoing disputes of the definition of Sword & Sorcery – a definition that to me has grown far too convoluted and frankly cumbersome.

Once, decades ago, I was of the restrictive mindset that S&S had to be a particular this or that, more in the mold of Conan than not. Yet even then, I did not recognize several prominent characters as truly S&S protagonists despite popular belief to the contrary. I felt right in my convictions yet also felt it somehow inconclusive, felt that something was absent, a missing link scratching at my thoughts for years. I have also totally believed that there is a direct line from the vast majority of today’s entertainment (of any variety) to S&S and thus Howard. Then a few years ago it hit me that S&S is purely – and simply – an attitude, an attitude of its author’s storytelling for certain, but specifically the attitude of its protagonist.

Once I recognized that, everything clicked for me. Of course, a story that holds all of Jones’ 4 ingredients and Murphy’s 7 parameters should be a S&S tale – but it is not a guarantee, for there are many that are not. And I don’t think that’s purely opinion; it’s demonstrable truth to me. If the protagonist does not have the requisite Attitude – I don’t care how many of those items can be checked off, it ain’t a S&S tale. And that is not a negative: It can be a perfectly spectacular heroic fantasy story I won’t argue one whit about; label it S&S and I will.

On the other hand, a story that on the surface barely touches upon the ‘sacred 11’ can be one of the best ever told S&S tales of all time so long as that protagonist holds true to the spirit, the Attitude, of S&S. This is what I want to deliver, to emphatically declare, with Neither Beg Nor Yield: the truest form of powerful S&S storytelling must be more than its atmosphere and accoutrements. It must be an attitude. Once I knew what I wanted to say, all the names of the writers of my experience who could deliver exactly what I wanted myself and the world to read came instantly to mind. Seriously. Not a struggle. I loved my list, but to be certain, I poured over all the anthologies and magazines/zines of the last 20 years that I have or have access to, replayed dozens of conversations, communications, critiques, and characters I’ve loved; searched every written thing I could recall. I found many stories and names I recalled fondly…but my choices did not change.

That is simply amazing to me. 23ish years of this publishing, reading, editing, and writing life and I clearly recalled everyone who wrote what I wanted — unintentionally and unknowingly retained for striking that just-right chord of my S&S soul.

Then came the most difficult challenge of all: getting all of them to join me. And they did. And so for me, this anthology is the winning epitome of my career whether another reader sees it or not.

– Jason M Waltz

 

Revelation: See Here Two More of the Sixteen Vanguard Authors

Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of numerous novels and short pieces. He has won numerous awards in horror, crime, Western, comics, Science Fiction and Fantasy. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife and esteemed dog, Rudy. Find him on his Facebook fan page, Twitter, and www.joerlansdale.com.  Don’t forget he wrote the Conan and the Songs of the Dead graphic novel.  Joe Lansdale appears in the recently Kickstarted Swords in the Shadows; his new character reappears in NBNY.

Nathan Meyer

Nathan Meyer is a professional writer with over 25 books published in the media tie-in, work-for-hire, and ghostwriting fields. He read Robert E Howard way too young and it’s been a defining experience in his career. Nathan Meyer was in Return of the Sword and he also wrote some great stories in the old Flashing Swords ezine era, many he sold as singles on Amazon.

Sign up now on Kickstarter to be notified of NBNY’s launch.

Click here!

 

 

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S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He is also the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group and an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed six entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies  He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades, DMR’s Terra Incognita, and the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull.