Pearl of Fire, Dreams of Steel Table of Contents

Here's the lineup for my forthcoming (October 27) collection of short fantasy stories, from Book View Cafe. Many, but not all, of these stories made their first appearances in the anthology series Sword & Sorceress, many of them under my former name, Deborah Wheeler. For some, this is the first time they've been reprinted anywhere and the original volumes are hard to find. One of the things I love about epublishing is the opportunity to keep gems from the past available to today's readers. 

Bread and Arrows

A Hunter of the Celadon Plains

Storm God

Nor Iron Bars A Cage

Poisoned Dreams

Silverblade

The Sorceress’s Apprentice

Fireweb

Under the Skin

Our Lady of the Toads

Pearl of Fire

Pearl of Tears

Dragon Amber

The Casket of Brass

The Hero of Abarxia

Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel Cover Reveal

On October 27 -- that's next Tuesday -- Book View Cafe will release my latest short story collection, Pearls of Fire, Dreams of Steel. I've drawn together short fantasy fiction from over the (many) years of my professional career, choosing stories that still delight me. Here is the cover, designed by Amy Sterling Casil (and I'll post the ToC in just a bit):

What do you think?

BVC's bookstore doesn't permit pre-orders, alas, but I will remind you as the day arrives!

Azkhantian Tales - More Ebook editions

My short story collection, Azkhantian Tales is now available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. (And from Book View Cafe, the original publisher!)

Across the Azkhantian steppe, warrior women ride to battle against foes both human and supernatural. From the world of The Seven-Petaled Shield come four fantasy tales, originally published in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Sword & Sorceress.


Prophecy links a mother and daughter in an unbreakable bond.
A young woman defies tradition to become a shaman.
When twins are magically divided, the survivor searches for the other half of her soul.
A warrior woman discovers that to wield a magical blade dishonorably carries a heavy price.

This collection includes a previously-unpublished Introduction.Only $1.99!

All Sorts of Great News

... some about my work, others just plain delicious. This week's round-up:

The latest Sword and Sorceress, just released, includes my story, "Pearl of Tears." It's a companion piece or reflection of "Pearl of Fire" from S & S XXII. The narrator, and the consequences of her actions, wouldn't leave me alone. The anthology is available in ebook and print editions from the usual places.

From Book View Cafe, a delicious and awesomely wonderful anthology of "author's favorite" stories (edited by me and Pati Nagle). "From the fantasy and science fiction of our roots to steampunk, romance, historical and mainstream; from humor to life’s hardest challenges, across the spectrum from light to dark. Stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, Vonda N. McIntyre, Marion Zimmer Bradley, and many more." Here's the link to order it or download a sample story. The Table of Contents:

New Story Up!

"A Wolf In The Fold," one of my early Sword & Sorceress stories, is up for your reading pleasure. Click "Read A Story" or go here:

Enjoy!

Sword & Sorceress 26 Interview

Jonathan Moeller interviews me on my story, "The Seal Hunt," in the forthcoming Sword & Sorceress 26. I talk about epublishing, whether it's good for readers as well as writers, and a bunch of other cool stuff.

“The Seal Hunt” came from the same utterly unworkable attempt-at-a-novel that “The Casket of Brass” (S & S 24) did. Each one then underwent quite a lot of re-working so that it could stand on its own. In the process, my heroine, Tabitha, really took shape. I’ve never written a character quite like her, a sort of fantasy-world/scholar/Sherlock Holmes who uses keen observation and rapier intelligence to solve mysteries. I’d pit her wits against any evil sorcerer!

Here's the whole thing: http://www.jonathanmoeller.com/writer/?p=1518

Wearing Many Hats

As writers, we wear a variety of hats (that is to say, perform a variety of jobs in the course of creating and selling a story). I usually simplify these down to three: artist, editor, and marketer. Some might also find "artist" better divided into writer + musician + painter + costume designer, or prose-writer + poet.

As we form communities with other writers, we learn how to perform critical/editorial jobs for one another. If this works well, the experience helps sharpen our skills with regard to our own work. Much of the time, someone else's "fresh eyes" offer insights we have not found on our own, yet this arena is still very much an exchange of time and energy and skill among peers. We're learning together, and helping one another improve.

The Story Behind the Story: "The Casket of Brass"

I'm in the process of epublishing a series of short fiction pieces that have appeared in the Norilana editions of Sword & Sorceress. Whyfor? For one thing, the distribution of any small-publisher POD edition is extremely limited. I love these stories, and hope you will, too. I hope that reading about how I came to write them will pique your interest. You can find them on my shelf at Book View Cafe (and can download them from there for your Kindle or Nook), or on the 400/pound/g/o/r/i/l/l/a amazon or Barnes & Noble (links on the slideshow to the left). Here's the first, with more to come.

"The Casket of Brass" began years ago, after Jaydium and Northlight, but before I began working with Marion on a Darkover collaboration. I wanted to try novel-length fantasy, and I started playing around with some images from The Arabian Nights. Not, you must understand, the real Arabian Nights, full of very grisly stuff, but the Arabian Nights of my childhood. As watered-down as those stories were, they offered deliciously exotic adventures, not to mention wonderful language. The image of a statue, part marble and part living man, is very much in keeping with those dream-like stories.

Heroic Fantasy According To Deborah

Two thoughts collided in a snowy wood...

One, the notion of heroic fantasy, arose from a brief exchange with Cynthia Ward on Facebook. She'd pointed to an article by Howard Andrew Jones on the definition of "sword and sorcery." The article takes a historical perspective, with quotes and references to such distinguished figures as Fritz Leiber, L. Sprague de Camp, Robert E. Howard. Lin Carter describes "a story...which pits a stalwart warrior in direct conflict with the forces of supernatural evil." Yep, sounds like Conan the Infinitely Sequelized. Adventure-horror-bulging muscles-brass bikinis. (By the way, I'm not interested in arguing about the exact definition or whether the author is right. I'm happy to concede to greater erudition on the subject. It may well be that the best way to describe the subgenre is historically, but I don't see any benefit in playing "my definition is better than yours.")

By these measures, however, I have never written a sword and sorcery story, yet my work has appeared in just about every volume of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress. I've featured swordswomen, wise women, sorceresses of many different types, even ordinary characters with extraordinary wit going up against greater might/magic. I wonder whether those anthologies are really "sword and sorcery" or just happened to have a similar title-theme, and what Marion's role was in shaping them the way she did. Marion said she specifically did not want stories featuring "Conan in drag." She wanted stories of physical courage, of magic and wonder and adventure, with strong women characters.

Something New on "Read A Story"

This month's story is "Poisoned Dreams," from Sword & Sorceress XI. It's one of my darker, more twisted tales, with an embittered, crippled fay and a princess willing to do anything, pay any price, to earn her father's love. Click "Read A Story." Enjoy!

Accidental Communities in Writing

I've been working on a story for the next Sword and Sorceress and thinking about the special pleasure of re-visiting the anthology series. My first professional sale was to the very first  volume (1984, DAW) and began my relationship to Marion as my editor. For a time, the celebrations of those two events overshadowed more quiet aspects. That anthology contained stories by writers who'd already established themselves, but for others, this was either a first sale or close enough. Thus began a very special fellowship of those of us who got our start in publishing by appearing together in Marion's anthology. Many of my writerly friendships began with "Hi, I'm Deborah. We both had stories in Sword and Sorceress," as if that were a secret hand-shake.There is no secret hand-shake, but there are ways of opening a conversation (especially if the next part is, "and I loved your story!")