Periklis’s Comments (group member since Sep 30, 2012)

Periklis’s comments from the Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" group.

As mentioned by William Meikle on another thread, Innsmouth Free Press has announced an upcoming anthology and looking for original stories:

"Sword and Mythos is an anthology paying professional rates (5 cents per word) looking for short fiction of up to 5,000 words which combines the pulp genres of Cthulhu Mythos and sword and sorcery. [...] This includes any element of the Cthulhu Mythos (creatures such as shoggoths, characters like the King in Yellow, locations like Leng) combined with sword and sorcery (heroic fantasy)."

They have successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign. Read more about "Sword and Mythos" submissions guidelines, here.

Rogue Blades wrote: "Complications for me exist in capability (some of my software no longer works, my last two titles were produced in a software that only exports in PDF the conversion to anything else of which has proven problematic, in some instances I can only move at the pace of others), in funds (I'm in credit card debt for what has gone before and what has not yet been produced, I've taken on a second job to assist the meeting of ends), in time (see reference to second job, add in life), and in brain power (a day job that once required no to little thought during the day and none after leaving has grown into a massive brain-drain during the day with much continued and forward-facing thinking outside its confines, most of my layout, production, and administration skills are self-taught and stagnant and my ability to relearn them has atrophied, and the joy of discovery and creation and holding a finished product has been stomped by the dullness of administration). Review the above and you'll see it's become a vicious circle that feeds upon itself until I recoil in horror and wonder how I ever reached this woeful stage...."

Thank you so much for this heartfelt response. I've been living with the recession for the last 4 years and I completely understand your situation. If there is anything that can be done in order to help RBE back on its feet (like Seth pointed out, above), please do adress me and the group.

Thank you RBE for starting this thread and thank you Seth for sharing Steve Goble's blog. As I'm slowly burning up with fever I could only focus on his excellent flash-fiction piece, INVINCIBLE. Fingers crossed for a collection of his stories to be published, soon...

Joe wrote: "Thanks, Periklis -- and the support!

"Moonstones" was an "experiment." I wanted to do a tale that was a little more humorous than the others. It's the only one written in 3rd person, though "The M..."

Thanks for commenting. So, "The Man Who Loved Puppets" has a Rashomon vibe. I think I'll be reading it next...

Gerald wrote: "Well worth getting through as are all his books!!! The Rigante series is just as good ..."

Hello Gerald and welcome to the group. I'm planning on reading White Wolf (Drenai Saga, #10),the first Skilgannon book, soon. David Gemmell was among the finest fantasy authors. It seems there is a Gemmell tribute anthology in the making, to coincide with the annual Gemmell awards.
Also, feel free to join us on the JAN/FEB anthology-themed Groupread.

Rogue Blades wrote: "RBE is, bluntly, broken - no real apparatus/structure, little to no funds or time, and a disheartened staff of one. Forgive the whine, it's not meant to solicit pity, just trying to be honest: I'm tired and worn out to the point that even a little setback knocks me off stride so easily that even desire to see more authors and titles and covers in print isn't enough. I truly am sorry, but there it is. ..."

Thank you for taking the time to update us on RBE's status. I'm really sorry to hear that. Isn't it possible through crowdfunding and/or Pod releases to have at least a digital release out every few months or twice a year?
Forgive me if I seem a little too forward with this, but I was thinking of Scott Taylor's Art of the Genre and Charles Saunder's PoD books.
Also, may I ask about RBE's covers? It seems that most of them are drawn with traditional techniques (acrylics, reminding of the great S&S anthologies of the '70s), by Didier Normand. Would you like to talk about the process of choosing each painting as a wraparound cover?
And a last question, apart from the already digital RBE books, are there any plans on digitizing all your titles?


*for anyone interested, here is a nice RBE anthology offer.

The first book of each series, The Kobalos Trilogy and the The Sword of Bayne series, is offered for free on Amazon/ Kindle store:

City of Rogues: Book I of The Kobalos Trilogy

Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne

Steve wrote: "Continuing with "Return of the Sword," I just finished Ty Johnston's "Deep in the Land of the Ice and Snow."

This is a story designed primarily to illuminate the character of Belgad, a prominent ..."

I'm two stories behind, as I'm about to read "What Heroes Leave Behind". So, for anyone who's enjoyed Ty Johnston's story, which book should be next, The Kobalos Trilogy or The Sword of Bayne series?

For anyone interested, there is an offer on Kindle for the first book in each series.

"The Dragonphoenix Chronicles : Indomitable", is a film based on a local (Greek) Sword & Sorcery/ Dark fantasy comic book. It's an independent production, almost exclusively crowdfunded. Here is the plot synopsis from the official website:

"Ιn an Age of Darkness,the mighty Dragonphoenix Empire rules the World of Elebros with an iron fist.​ Dragar,a mighty warrior from the North,is a slave,taking part in brutal pit fights for the pleasure of the Empire's noblemen.His body is there,but his mind is back at his homeland and the wife he left behind.​
Dragar manages to escape captivity and takes hostage the daughter of a General,the spoiled Valeria.The General sets up a manhunt to bring back his daughter.
​The way back home will be filled with dangers and difficulties for Dragar and the spoiled Valeria.Dragar will have to face the past,the present and the dark future which lies ahead but he shall be... Indomitable."

Watch the: First teaser (with English captions) and Photo gallery. Also, listen to the film's full theme.

Follow Indomitable on: Facebook (with early concept art) and Twitter

According to Imdb, the film is to be released in early 2014.

For anyone interested in purchasing any Sword Noir RPG products, there was this announcement yesterday:

" In two weeks, most of our products are going to increase in price. If you’ve been thinking about buying something, you’ve got two weeks to do it before the price increases. "

There is this digital bundle on RPG now, for $5.77, if anyone is interested.

Morgan wrote: "Greetings: I have been a reader of sword and sorcery for about 33 years or so. I have an unfinished history of the genre written. Need to get that wrapped up. My specialty is old sword and sorcery-..."

Greetings Morgan, thank you for joining us.
I have tried tracking down information about the genre and its history in the discussion thread, About Sword & Sorcery. Of course nothing too obscure can be found there, the sources being Black Gate (where I noticed an article by Howard Andrew Jones where your scholarly skills are highlighted) and the now defunct swordandsorcery.org.
Please feel free to start a new topic in that folder, presenting and/or discussing your findings and insights on the genre's "lost treasures".
That said, I sincerely wish you will publish your book in the near future.

*update: I have added a couple of books on the group's Bookshelf. Feel free to add a book that is missing (this thread is about the Bookshelf).

Forrest wrote: ""Moonstones" is a little too "cutesy" for my tastes, but I can see the point about stylistic similarities with hardboiled fiction. Still, I'd like to see someone do for S&S what Fatale does for Cth..."

"Moonstones" is lighter in tone than the rest of the Dorgo stories (collected in Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser). It probably pays homage more to the noir film of the '40s. It's like The Big Sleep film in contrast to Chandler's book. The eponymous story in Joe Bonadonna's collection, "Mad Shadows", plays with the tropes of noir fiction exacly like you describe in your review of Fatale.
Have you tried Black Kiss? Chaykin tries to do to crime comics what Jim Thompson did to crime books.

Rogue Blades wrote: "Don't forget Scott Andrews' ezine. A wee bit more pretentious then Black Gate, yet it really has a strong and steadily growing history of offering some very fine reading. Not so much the pulpy adve..."

Thank you for mentioning BCS.
I noticed their genre-related stories when Lou Anders mentioned two S&S podcasts from BSC on his Facebook: Worth of Crows and the Dark Fantasy, How the Wicker Knight Would Not Move.
Also Paul Parks' Lord Yamada stories (collected in the recent, Yamada Monogatari: Demon Hunter) are Sword & Sorcery in an Oriental setting.
Here is their Website and Facebook.

Fletcher wrote: "I pulled Swords Against Darkness IV out of the anthology stack. I've only read the introduction so far. It opens with an Charles Saunders "Imaro" story and ends with my favorite Manly Wade Wellma..."

Great pick. I will probably follow my Groupread choice of Return of the Sword with Swords Against Darkness IV or Heroic Fantasy, in early February.

Rogue Blades wrote: "First - thanks for placing this where it belongs (should I delete the original misplaced post?)..."

It's quite alright, really.
Thanks again for this offer!
Here's the Facebook link for Rogue Blades Entertainment.
I'm tempted to ask about RBE's future and the anthologies planned until it ceased publication, like the Assassins and Roar of the Crowd anthologies, but that is a topic for another thread, if you can and wish to talk about it of course...

Paizo, the company behind the Pathfinder RPG, has been releasing Sword & Sorcery "flavoured" short story/ serials, on-line, for free.
I became aware of those short stories from an SF Signal podcast with Ari Marmell, where he mentions his, "post-apocalyptic, almost Mad Max", "Hell or High Water".
Among the fine roster of authors are, veteran Robert E. Vardeman with his "Plow and Sword", Howard Andrew Jones with his "The Walkers from the Crypt", a short serial starring Elyana (the protagonist of his Pathfinder novel, Plague of Shadows) and (group favorite) author Bill Ward with "The Box".

See the complete list of available stories, here.

Phil wrote: "Downloaded! System-wise Barbarians of Lemuria has worked well for me, but the setting could be interesting."

Haven't tried Barbarians of Lemuria. Heard a lot of good things about the simplicity of its combat system though...

...or an alchemical twist on Hardboiled-detective stories.
Sword Noir is the term, author, Fraser Ronald coined to describe his S&S RPG: Sword Noir: A Role-playing Game of Hardboiled Sword & Sorcery. In his Black Gate article, Ronald notes:

"Let’s unpack the definition. First off, the characters — both those of the player’s and those run by the gamemaster—have questionable morals.[...] Early sword & sorcery — or S&S — shared many stylistic similarities to hardboiled fiction — which we’ll just call noir for short — but both the intersections and the differences helped to inform the concept of sword noir.[...] The rules for combat in Sword Noir are such that a lucky hit by even the weakest of opponents can lay a character out. And the gods help you if you are outnumbered. This is certainly not the world of Conan or Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser."

Alex Bledsoe's "Eddie LaCrosse", Joe Bonadonna's "Dorgo the Dowser" series, Glen Cook's Garrett, P.I. series, Steven Brust's "Vlad Taltos" series, could be considered Sword Noir fiction.

As a fiction sampler, read the "Dorgo the Dowser" tale, "The Moonstones of Sor Lunarum” by Joe Bonadonna available for free on Black Gate.

Rogue Blades wrote: "Still making my way through all the threads, so apologies if this is misplaced - S.E./Periklis, please re-direct as appropriate.

However, just wished all to know that RBE holds all the remaining s..."

A great bargain. Since we can't move comments between folders, I have created a topic in the Promotions, Deals & New Releases folder.

From Rogue Blades Entertainment comes this very intriguing offer:

"Just wished all to know that RBE holds all the remaining stock of the Pitch-Black anthology Sages & Swords: Heroic Fantasy Anthology; in addition, RBE also has the only inventory of the limited edition Rage of the Behemoth covers - full wrap arounds for each of the five slices on the store cover.

As such, and with the desire to share the wealth of heroic S&S adventure present in both titles, RBE will offer a combo price of $15 for 1 copy of each (RotB and S&S), plus USPO Priority Shipping ... so $20 for continental US gets 2 awesome titles delivered within 3 days anywhere in the lower 48!"