My First Interview

Over the last several months, Jason Waltz at Rogue Blades Entertainment has been posting interviews with the authors, artists, and editors involved in Return of the Sword. It’s been great getting to know a little about everyone else who was a part of the anthology.

My interview — my first as an author — was posted today. I think it may be one of the last, if not the last, interviews because I was most likely the last one to submit answers. (I’m a terrible procrastinator, you see).

Anyway, check it out if you have a few spare moments, and stop back here to let me know if I came across as a tool, or worse, a pontificator. It’s the only way I’ll learn.

You can check out interviews with the other authors/editors/artists by scrolling down to the comments section on the Return of the Sword page, selecting the “Authors” category in the right column on the RBE home page, or perusing the RBE news archives.

Latest Library Acquisition: Salmonson’s ‘The Dark Tales’

Every once in a while, in my endless search for hard-to-find books, I come across a deal that seems too good to be true. This time, I found a copy of Jessica Amanda Salmonson’s The Dark Tales for a ridiculously low price. Only 277 copies of this hard copy collection were printed by the United Kingdom’s Sarob Press in 2002 — 225 limited edition copies (one of which I now have), and 52 deluxe/lettered editions.

The Dark Tales assembles 14 of Salmonson’s high fantasy tales “intended to be completely dark and decadent, all set in the same unpleasant world distant in place and time, inspired…by a fondness for the magazine Weird Tales in its classic period.”

It arrived in the mail today. When I opened it, the binding released a string of delicious cracks. It’s truly in pristine condition.

I’m looking forward to this one. My exposure to Salmonson’s work has been largely limited to her edited volumes and her essays. In fact, I’m quite fond of her essay Enjoying Heroic Fantasy, which I wrote about on this site as part of the Return of the Sword blog tour.

Needless to say, I’m thrilled to have found a copy of this book in such good shape, and at such a low price.

‘Magic & Mechanica’ Available for Purchase

At long last, Magic & Mechanica, an anthology by Ricasso Press and edited by Robert J. Santa and Bill Ward, has been released and is now available for purchase online. The first story I ever sold, “Knowledge and Dust,” appears in this publication, so I’m very happy it’s finally in print.

I was surprised and pleased to see that my story was among three to be mentioned in the product description:

Enter a world of piston-driven fantasy, where magic smashes headlong into the down-to-earth reality of technology and machines. From the all out war of dragon-riding sorcerers against an army of self-replicating, clockwork robots in Christopher M. Cevasco’s “Gambit,” to the discovery of an alien submersible by pirates in Christopher Heath’s Azieran tale “Savior in a Flask,” further still to Nicholas Ian Hawkins’ collision of a wizardly scholar and the newly-invented printing press that will ruin his career in “Knowledge and Dust,” you will certainly be amazed at the breathtaking imaginations of fifteen authors. Dragons, steam-powered tanks, Aztec warriors, angry gods, assassins both large and small…Magic & Mechanica is unlike any collection of fantasy you’ve ever seen.

Ricasso Press released Magic & Mechanica simultaneously with two other anthologies you should check out: Black Dragon, White Dragon, and Magistria: The Realm of the Sorcerer.

NOTE ADDED 3/6/2009:There’s an even better deal on Magic & Mechanica and other Ricasso Press titles at their online bookstore.