"Sand and Steel" is coming... No, really!!

Well...It's November, and still no "Sand and Steel" anthology. This is due to a few different factors:

For one thing, I've been hard at work editing a story that is soon to appear in an upcoming magazine (ironically, another Siloh story). Collaborating with an editor has been stressful work (good work, but stressful!) and has taken up a good bit of my time and creative energy. I've learned a lot in the process, and I can't wait for the mag to come out so more people can experience Siloh's adventures for themselves. Look forward to that post when it finally happens!

Secondly, I'm still slowly making progress on book one of Gladius (by thunder, it will be finished!). It's a much bigger project than anything else I've tackled since I first started publishing stories. As such, it's a labor of love, and those naturally take the most time to complete.

Thirdly, I've also been grinding away at some other stories and submitting them to various other publications - both print and digital. There are tons of folks out there accepting short fiction stories, and, as an indie writer fighting for recognition, I'm more than happy to submit my material to any magazine or website that I feel is worth my time.

Finally, I've decided to go a different direction with "Sand and Steel". Though the book will still focus heavily on our burly, treasure hunting mercenary Siloh, I've chosen to only include two of his stories in the anthology. You see, I still have a bunch of other unrelated fantasy stories sitting around in my hard drive, gathering dust (so to speak). These are stories that have either been rejected by publishers or were simply personal projects of mine. I've decided to retool those other stories, package them together with the two Siloh stories, and take what was effectively a Siloh fix-up novel and publish it independently as a true, old-fashioned, sword-and-sorcery anthology, the likes of which would make proud the heroic fantasy masters of old.

(Or so I hope they'd be.)

Working cover for "Sand and Steel"

In this way, I hope to not only put some more Siloh adventures out there, but also some of my other ideas. There's a good mix of themes and characters involved, but all of them are fast-paced, bloody, and pulpy. Though I'd love to have the whole thing edited and ready to go by the end of November, only time will tell. In the end, I hope each and every one of the stories will spark some excitement and (more than anything) inspire the readers to check out older material by the pulp fantasy writers who inspired me.

Wish me luck, folks. A writer's work is never done!