I’ve been reviewing each issue of Heroic Fantasy Quarterly as it comes out (which you can read here and here), and have been really impressed with both the quality and the variety of the offerings on display. This time around I have the pleasant task of announcing my own inclusion in the issue, with a story called ‘The Last of His Kind.’ It was a tale that was once slated for the sadly defunct Flashing Swords, and it’s great feeling to see it make the cut at one of the few markets for adventure fantasy left to writers of short fiction.
Issue three does not include poetry, but it does include another fine piece of art work, this time from artist Ling Yun.
The issue opens with my own piece, ‘The Last of His Kind.’ It’s the tale of an aging dragonkiller journeying through an unfamiliar desert land in search of the fabled Glasswyrm. On the way he is joined by a local boy, and the two must elude pursuit from a trio of assassins and a worker of spells and find their way to the dragon’s lair — but everything is not as it seems. I’d tell you how wonderful the story is, but that would hardly be impartial, so instead I’ll just say I feel as if the piece has found its perfect home at last.
Josh Wolf’s ‘Dead in the Water’ moves things from the desert to the swamps of Albion in the time of Camelot. An Arthurian-infused piece featuring some familiar — and unfamiliar — characters from the Grail legends, the story deals with a mission gone wrong in the territory of the Fey. Wolf’s blending of mythological elements and those of a modern thriller is nicely done, and his Fey are something out of a deranged Fairy Tale. Madness and magic abound, it’s great stuff.
R. Michael Burns’ piece, ‘Shadows From Firelight’ moves us East, into the realm of the Samurai. In protecting the daughter of his daimyo, the Samurai Hokagé must travel to do battle with the demonic Tengu King. A really great sense of place permeates this story, and Japanese myth and culture is used to good effect. Actually, I remember reading this story a few years ago as slush reader for Pitch Black, where I was favorably impressed (alas, none of the stories I read for PB were to see print, as the press closed before launching its chapbook line). I was glad to see this story found a good home at last, and doubly glad to have a piece alongside it.
The guys at HFQ continue to move from strength to strength — I’m eagerly looking forward to their fourth installment, which will mean of course that they’ve brought out a year’s worth of stories. A notable addition to this issue is the inclusion of donation buttons beneath each story, so readers have an opportunity to support their favorite pieces. And I think by focusing on a steady output of a small number of higher-quality, meatier tales, HFQ might have hit on a lasting long-term publication strategy — I certainly hope so, as this is a zine I’d like to see around for along time.
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I’ve got to agree, it is a consistently good read and I look forward to each new issue. I do wonder, though, about your thoughts on the online quarterly magazine strategy versus a venue that offers its content more often, even if there is less of it.
Well, I think either way might be viable, so long as the zine keeps its focus. It seems a high content zine needs to focus on post frequency, like a blog, rather than coming out with discreet issues that dump a lot of words out at once (in my opinion).
I like what both HFQ and BCS are doing, though obviously BCS is a little closer to the frequency model. I think, so long as a pub is consistent, if it presents each issue in easily digested (and tasty) chunks like this it’ll do better than bigger online issues that people may not read all of. I think HFQ is better paying three authors 100 dollars each per issue than twelve authors 25 bucks apiece — and I think the consistency and quality plus the smaller size seem to work really well. Of course, that’s more for the guys at HFQ to answer definitively, I just know as a reader and writer this seems to work really well for me.