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    Fantasy Short Stories: Issue 1
    Fantasy Short Stories: Issue 1
    Fantasy Short Stories: Issue 1
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Fantasy Short Stories: Issue 1

    By Mark Lord

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    About this ebook

    Fantasy Short Stories is a new publication established with the aim of publishing the best short stories in Heroic, Epic, and High Fantasy, and with plenty of Swords and Sorcery thrown in. Although many of our authors may be unknown to you, we aim to set high standards for publication, and to discover some great new talent in the world of fantasy fiction.

    Fantasy Short Stories will provide a safe haven for all lovers of proper fantasy – we wave garlic maces in the face of all urban vampires. If you want tales of magic, dragons and sword-play then Fantasy Short Stories is for you. We love the work of writers such as George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, Lord Dunsany, J. R. R. Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, Joe Abercrombie, Ursula Le Guin, Robin Hobb and David Gemmell, and hope that you do too.

    Fantasy Short Stories Issue 1 contains the following new and original short stories:

    'The Dying Elf’ by Mike Pielaet-Strayer: Oberon the swordsman watches a young elf die on the battlefield and tries to come to grips with his own humanity.
    ‘The Empty Dark’ by C. L. Holland: Korix and Leveri are far from home, farther than either of them could have imagined. As they search for a way back they discover it's not only children who should be afraid of the dark.
    ‘Demon Stone’ by Jake Scholl: when his kingdom and his wife are held ransom by an evil sorcerer, King Dagr goes on a quest to give the sorcerer what he wants. At what cost is Dagr willing to go to save his kingdom?
    Noeleen Kavanagh’s ‘The Pivot’: two boys who are thrown together in a chance encounter that turns their world upside down.
    ‘Sparrows Falling’ by Gretchen Tessmer: a black sorcerer and a foreign enchantress practise their arts in a castle on the borderlands. But when the lady locks herself in her tower, even the servants know something's amiss in Grendl Castle.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAlt Hist Press
    Release dateMay 1, 2012
    ISBN9781476218762
    Fantasy Short Stories: Issue 1
    Author

    Mark Lord

    Mark Lord studied Medieval Studies at the University of Birmingham and wrote his M. Phil. Thesis on Medieval Alliterative Poetry. Since then he has worked in publishing and writes historical fiction, fantasy and science fiction in his spare time.Mark is the author of the novels Hell has its Demons, The Return of the Free and numerous short stories. He is also editor of the popular Alt Hist magazine - one of the few literary magazines to focus exclusively on historical fiction and alternate history.He lives in Hertfordshire with his family.

    Read more from Mark Lord

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      Book preview

      Fantasy Short Stories - Mark Lord

      Fantasy Short Stories Issue 1

      Edited by Mark Lord

      Published by Tipping Point Publishing at Smashwords

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Copyright 2012.

      All fiction works are copyright the respective authors. All other material is copyright Mark Lord.

      Contents

      Editorial

      The Dying Elf by Mike Pielaet-Strayer

      The Empty Dark by C. L. Holland

      Demon Stone by Jake Scholl

      The Pivot by Noeleen Kavanagh

      Sparrows Falling by Gretchen Tessmer

      About Fantasy Short Stories

      Editorial

      By Mark Lord

      I would like to welcome you to the first issue of Fantasy Short Stories. If you are reading this then you have either bought a copy or are thinking of doing so, in which case thank you!

      Fantasy Short Stories is a new publication established with the aim of publishing the best short stories in Heroic, Epic, and High Fantasy, and with plenty of Swords and Sorcery thrown in. Although many of our authors may be unknown to you, we aim to set high standards for publication, and to discover some great new talent in the world of fantasy fiction.

      Fantasy Short Stories will provide a safe haven for all lovers of proper fantasy – we wave garlic maces in the face of all urban vampires. If you want tales of magic, dragons and sword-play then Fantasy Short Stories is for you. We love the work of writers such as George R. R. Martin, Michael Moorcock, Lord Dunsany, J. R. R. Tolkien, Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance, Roger Zelazny, Joe Abercrombie, Ursula Le Guin, Robin Hobb and David Gemmell, and hope that you do too.

      Fantasy Short Stories will initially be published as an eBook available for devices such as Kindle, Nook, Kobo and Sony eReaders etc. As we are a small start-up publication we can’t be certain yet about how many issues a year we will publish, so subscriptions aren’t currently available, but you will be able to purchase individual copies.

      So what’s in the first issue?

      Our first story is ‘The Dying Elf’ by Mike Pielaet-Strayer, in which Oberon the swordsman watches a young elf die on the battlefield and tries to come to grip with his own humanity.

      ‘The Empty Dark’ by C. L. Holland tells the story of Korix and Leveri, who are far from home, farther than either of them could have imagined. As they search for a way back they discover it's not only children who should be afraid of the dark.

      In ‘Demon Stone’ by Jake Scholl when his kingdom and his wife are held ransom by an evil sorcerer, King Dagr goes on a quest to give the sorcerer what he wants. At what cost is Dagr willing to go to save his kingdom?

      Noeleen Kavanagh’s ‘The Pivot’ is about two boys who are thrown together in a chance encounter that turns their world upside down.

      In ‘Sparrows Falling’ by Gretchen Tessmer a black sorcerer and a foreign enchantress practise their arts in a castle on the borderlands.  But when the lady locks herself in her tower, even the servants know something's amiss in Grendl Castle.

      I hope that you enjoy the first issue of Fantasy Short Stories. Please get in touch and let me know what you think!

      Mark Lord

      Editor of Fantasy Short Stories

      Email: fantasyss.editor@gmail.com

      Website: http://fantasyshortstories.org/

      Twitter: http://twitter.com/FantasyShorts

      The Dying Elf

      By Mike Pielaet-Strayer

      Oberon sat in the mud, head slumped beneath the weight of his helmet, and listened to the rain dance atop his battle armour. The rain fell in steaming curtains, drumming the sloppy, war-torn earth. It trickled from the heavy armour, rinsing away the blood and grime, pooling around his boots. The swordsman shifted within the uncomfortable armour and leaned his sword against his shoulder and removed his helmet. He gazed upward into the churning sky, listening to the bright knell of rain, the whispering steam. He concentrated only on these assorted noises; rain on armour, rising steam, thunder growling in the distance. He pretended not to hear the other sounds.

      He watched the sky. Already, crows had begun to amass. Whirling patches of black. Drawing nearer. Like flies. It was the stench that attracted them, Oberon knew. The raw, sour stench of battle. Of meat starting to decay. Of stiffening limbs and spilled blood and loose excrement. Shit and decay. It rose with the steam, the stench, journeying to the churning sky, drawing the crows and the flies.

      The swordsman let his head slump once more to his chest. He shut his eyes, tightly, like a scared child in the dark, not wanting to see what lay before him. The rain fell ceaselessly. All around him, as if from the muddy earth itself, were the screams of people dying.

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