tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83016740691817694182024-03-05T00:40:35.313-05:00Whetstone: Amateur Magazine of Pulp Sword and SorceryUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger52125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-59397537143725530692023-12-15T15:17:00.004-05:002023-12-16T22:41:07.025-05:00Issue 8 of Whetstone Now Available!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyM1BNRS5_nSUd-KUILkMRNEF4kuf_7S8_hMicTyvHnSaVc4z7rhkCWplRvHUM-F8DAwi945SUFcW0Yp11zGmTP5EFEN-kUczjnUmY3M9C7s_jifNZGtOzvrinJn7mv45vS7_nwNTxlIN1XVsBVn1qWb77QKAfPNQ6dI3kN4pGNjyeR2WKuMy3shTg3Am/s2550/WHETSTONE%208%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyM1BNRS5_nSUd-KUILkMRNEF4kuf_7S8_hMicTyvHnSaVc4z7rhkCWplRvHUM-F8DAwi945SUFcW0Yp11zGmTP5EFEN-kUczjnUmY3M9C7s_jifNZGtOzvrinJn7mv45vS7_nwNTxlIN1XVsBVn1qWb77QKAfPNQ6dI3kN4pGNjyeR2WKuMy3shTg3Am/w414-h640/WHETSTONE%208%20cover.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Whetstone Issue 8</i> is now available for free. You can download it<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_BrKf80alHpmwYMo-dO2uFi25TgBCRwx/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">HERE (Issue 8)</span></a>.</b> This issue includes several great stories. Thanks to Chuck E. Clark (Associate Editor), Nils Hedglin, Stef McCoy Clark, and Grey Cashwell (First Readers) and all the great contributors for helping us release this issue. We hope you enjoy it! -JRC (Managing Editor)</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">You can access our previous six issues here as free PDFs:</p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://tinyurl.com/yclqo8ne" target="_blank">Issue 1</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/18qAkYSuqMQglGtoSN-22_MwRHJuV7F0l/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 2</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E5PI06Xv7RMWW1IO2VBKqHjWFMhD2toS/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 3</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JHrxR5_C6vUFiLtOuRx8ItjrcVSm33Ll/view" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 4</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dc0ubR0Ry4KWR6S8vUCK723FOBpu-hGS/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 5</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19zppVsJcmWP6deZyWuN4h_TfJW2WU_Ke/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 6</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S3jOGt5y3Mt8iRzZi19uOHd_MWuT2Zr7/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Issue 7</a></b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-52253865002312122712023-11-07T20:41:00.004-05:002023-11-07T20:44:51.776-05:00Whetstone Retrospective: B. Harlan Crawford's, "Undulations," a Tale of Revenge and Dark Sorcery<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJWJcuf561jkAGhnyQT9xoQScqU2yszO3Mz-db72L7llxwK6zxfSb2KgIRmxmR8JjC0iXgGGgKYTrCowd1Ruegu1Vwksyb0yBYtfxtJP0oIzNwZYesM_lvzP7uZD7uYridMR-OjkjLq5U5178tzZJMrhWNY6kdSe-_Bsn2kxbo4AulK2gOROVf8vUXFKla/s7013/DungeonDoor_01.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="7013" data-original-width="4962" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJWJcuf561jkAGhnyQT9xoQScqU2yszO3Mz-db72L7llxwK6zxfSb2KgIRmxmR8JjC0iXgGGgKYTrCowd1Ruegu1Vwksyb0yBYtfxtJP0oIzNwZYesM_lvzP7uZD7uYridMR-OjkjLq5U5178tzZJMrhWNY6kdSe-_Bsn2kxbo4AulK2gOROVf8vUXFKla/w283-h400/DungeonDoor_01.png" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td><td class="tr-caption"></td></tr></tbody></table><div style="text-align: center;">Art by Geraldo Marinho</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Whetstone Retrospective: B. Harlan Crawford's, "Undulations," a Tale of Revenge and Dark Sorcery</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>By Jason Ray Carney, <i>Whetstone </i>Editor-in-Chief</b></div><p style="text-align: justify;">In all the commotion involved in preparing<i> Whetstone</i> issues for publication, I rarely get to slow down and simply enjoy some of the fiction we are fortunate enough to publish. This is why I want to write a few essays, something of a retrospective, about a few great stories published in <i>Whetstone</i>.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">The first one I want to write about is "Undulations" by B. Harlan Crawford, published in <i>Whetstone 7</i>. It's an excellent sword and sorcery tale set in Ancient Greece of myth.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">First, a summary (plot spoilers throughout): King Crantor, the lord of the City-state of Epirus, has been betrayed by his chamberlain, the cowardly and traitorous Terpsion. Terpsion helped kill the bodyguards of King Crantor and his wife, the mysterious Queen Audata, who is whispered to be a witch. After committing this heinous act, Terpsion, not confident enough to rule the City-state himself, proceeds to help the warlord, Abbryas of Passaron, invade Epirus in its moment of weakness. Abbryas attacks the city with his army and very nearly conquers it, but Queen Audata and her bodyguard, the Aesir swordswoman Sigyn, prevent this. How so? Audata gets her loyal bodyguard Sigyn to behead her. How does this help, you might ask? Although it is unknown to Sigyn, this beheading is part of a dark magical ritual that will transform Queen Audata into a six-armed serpentine monster who will avenge her and her husband against Terpsion and Abbryas. Eventually, Abbryas' forces are thrown back by this horrible monster, and while pressing his attack into the city, Abbryas is violently killed by an avenging Sigyn. At the very end of the story, there is an intriguing moment where Sigyn learns of Audata's dark magic and her role in the ritual that transformed her friend into a monster.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">My summary doesn't do the story justice, and it's even more impressive that Crawford was able to tell such a compelling, multi-faceted story in under 2500 words (our hard limit). At no point in the story do you feel rushed, or that you are reading neutral exposition (although there is a lot of exposition that happens but in a seamless, dramatic way). Moreover, the form of the story is clever. It begins with a creepy and mysterious event, the beheading of a queen by her friend and bodyguard. You can't help but be confused by this inciting incident and must read on.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the rich and complex plot, Crawford is able to create a rich, immersive world of ancient myth. He intersperses his characters' dialogue with several allusions to Greek mythology and ancient Greek history. For example, characters swear by Zeus, come from recognizable locations in antiquity, and speak in an appropriate antiquated way. Here's an example: Queen Audata, transformed into a monstrous serpent, sibilantly whispers the following to Terpsion in response to his many insults (just before she crushes him): "Let [your insults] comfort you as you bargain with Charon for passage into hell." There are other references that bring the Greek mythology milieu to life. For example, Sigyn is described as a pale-skinned warrior woman of the Aesir. Audata has bargained with Hecate for her transformation. There are several more allusions skillfully embedded into the narrative, making the world feel visceral, full, and ancient.</p><p style="text-align: justify;">In addition to the plot and setting, Crawford creates intriguing characters. Even a character who isn't part of the story, the tragic King Crantor, is interesting, and he is only characterized through the narrow perspective of his hateful enemy, the traitorous Terpsion. Of Crantor, Terpsion says, "The chamberlain had long despised Crantor as an effete, henpecked tool of the scheming witch-queen Audata. That Crantor had produced no heir reinforced Terpsion’s opinion that the king was incapable of impregnating the queen due to some unknown physical shortcoming." You get a sense that Terpsion the traitor hates what he sees in Crantor, and this is outlined by the ridiculousness of the insult: nobility, heroism, and equipoise. I am not quite sure how I know, but I got the sense that Crantor was a noble king, beloved by Audata, and the fact that he was betrayed and killed by a worm like Terpsion makes the traitor even more fun to hate. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">There are other compelling character dynamics. For example, the relationship between Audata and Sigyn is very fascinating. For example, Audata feels guilt for having her beloved bodyguard participate in such a dark ritual without the Aesir's knowledge; Audata knows that by asking her friend to kill her, she is asking a lot, asking her to work against her bodyguard instincts. Later, after Audata's magic is revealed, there is an intriguing dialogue wherein Audata, transformed into a serpentine demon, apologizes to Sigyn, who, in killing Abbryas, has just avenged her and her husband. Audata's apology to Sigyn is worth quoting at length: </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>What I have done to you is unforgivable, but it is the least of my sins. I had hoped to die once my vengeance was complete, but that is not Hecate’s will. Until she allows me to die, I will remove myself from the sight of men. Remember me as I was, Sigyn, not as I am. Look upon all this as a nightmare from which you will awake to a fresh new day. Farewell!</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;">There is more I can celebrate about this story: the way characterization happens through dialog and flows indirectly through point of view, the excellent and economic descriptions of action scenes and battle, and the overall theme that the pursuit of vengeance, the poison of hate, causes us to become monsters, a lesson Audata learned. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">"Undulations" is truly an accomplishment in sword and sorcery fiction, and we were fortunate to publish it. </p><p style="text-align: justify;">You can read this excellent story for free here: <b><i><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S3jOGt5y3Mt8iRzZi19uOHd_MWuT2Zr7/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">Whetstone Issue 7</a></i>.</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;">What do you think of this story? Share your thoughts in the <i><a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4" target="_blank"><b>Whetstone Discord.</b></a></i></p>Art by Geraldo Marinho<br /> Instagram: @oldsky.art<br />Email: geraldinho.art@gmail.com<div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-76216740601625624352023-08-04T12:39:00.011-05:002023-08-04T12:52:11.639-05:00Flash Fiction, "The Dogman," by Christopher Rowe<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">THE DOGMAN</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">1016 words</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="text-align: justify;">By Christopher Rowe</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ4_DnP-XwNG0o4hYid7nHWpc8MWFEyYtAhE-k0KBwplMKefZmihkvR_1NFdE4wKm9xAYWvett8aPREPbAm3bMGjkmxO_eYZI7gR0Qdm-XUxvMVWZ7DjPW3oeStkMyTThbmKH2MGUaYE73UkEGWZ8taA304Ui-KM_l4IHiEhV0p8Ui8MFZGYm5PrfKTLSB/s4961/PTDC0227%20sf.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4961" data-original-width="3496" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ4_DnP-XwNG0o4hYid7nHWpc8MWFEyYtAhE-k0KBwplMKefZmihkvR_1NFdE4wKm9xAYWvett8aPREPbAm3bMGjkmxO_eYZI7gR0Qdm-XUxvMVWZ7DjPW3oeStkMyTThbmKH2MGUaYE73UkEGWZ8taA304Ui-KM_l4IHiEhV0p8Ui8MFZGYm5PrfKTLSB/w283-h400/PTDC0227%20sf.png" width="283" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Art by Carlos Castilho</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">When he left his holdfast on the Heights, Dafid took along two of his wolfhounds. His wife, Calla, chose them. The twins, Job and Kit, fiercest of their litter. For a parting kiss, Calla bit his bottom lip hard enough to draw blood. “Go and get yourself killed,” she said, “and I’ll never forgive you.”</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid believed her. She was an honest woman.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It took two weeks of walking to reach the wooden stockade on the Marches where his old comrogue, the Fink, held command. Dafid approached close enough for the men on the towers to see him, but not shoot him. He sat on his heels. The dogs gamboled a bit, but settled down when he clicked his tongue.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">After a while, one of the gates opened. It might have been designed to swing on a hinge, but it had settled. It took four men to shove it through the mud while the Fink sat his saddle and watched.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Finally, the brown gelding crossed the killing ground burned around the fort. The Fink pulled reign a few yards short of where Dafid crouched scratching Kit’s ears.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid wasn’t much for talking, but the Fink was as wordless a man as had ever breathed, so he started it.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Fink,” he said.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Dogman,” said the Fink.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“You sent a bird,” said Dafid.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Did,” said the Fink.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Told you to never send a bird,” said Dafid.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Did,” said the Fink.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Calla read what was wrapped around its leg.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Always smart,” said the Fink.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid did not know how to read. The last he knew, the Fink did not know how to write.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“I was to bring a sword,” said Dafid.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Was.”<br />“Don’t have a sword anymore.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Fink looked down on him, his expression unreadable. The he drew the broadsword at his belt and tossed it over. Dafid caught it by the hilt, old reflexes kicking in.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Something you can’t do?” asked Dafid.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Fink kicked and the gelding turned. As it cantered back across the field, Dafid barely heard what his friend said. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Something I won’t.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>There had been five of them.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">T’jool the Old, the woman who found them all, rescued them all, fed them and armed them all. The </div><div style="text-align: justify;">woman they then watched slowly die as the purple wen on her neck grew big as an apple.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid, the Dogman, had been the first gathered up. Then Calla Farshot with her arrows. Then the Fink with his blades. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then Syndra.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Syndra with her demons.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">T’jool had discouraged them from pairing off, but they were young. Dafid saw that the Fink had his eye on Calla but Dafid was just that much more glib, just that much prettier a man. That’s what he told himself, anyway. Later, when he knew Calla better, Dafid knew it hadn’t been his choice.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">So. The Fink and Syndra. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It was never going to end well.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Syndra was… Calla said she was <i>voluble</i>, and then explained that that meant talking so much was an important part of her. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid wished that so much of the talking hadn’t been directed at the demons endlessly fluttering about her.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">But it was, and she talked to them more and more, and to the rest of them, even to the Fink, less and </div><div style="text-align: justify;">less. After T’jool died, she hardly talked to anyone else.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid learned some of their names in their travels. Choker. Smoke. Little Heart. They each saved his life at one time or another. Syndra was the deadliest of them, in her way. She was the softest of them, too.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When they’d done all the killing Calla could stand, they parted ways. Dafid followed Calla up to the Heights. The Fink joined the army.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Syndra went mad.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Madder and madder, it seemed. The Fink, loving her, couldn’t go and kill her.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He expected Dafid, loving her somewhat less, or somewhat differently anyway, to go and do the job.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Three villages,” said the Fink.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“You know it was her,” said Dafid. “Couldn’t be anybody else.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Couldn’t be any<i>thing</i> else,” said the Fink, and Dafid caught the change. Caught the fact that the Fink </div><div style="text-align: justify;">had strung four words together, too.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">***</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Job and Kit tracked her and treed her. <br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">When Dafid caught up, he quieted them down. Their howls disturbed him. They didn’t sound bloody. They sounded mournful.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He couldn’t see her. She had climbed high.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Syndra,” he said. “It’s me. It’s the Dogman.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">It wasn’t a voice that answered him, but <i>voices.</i> Syndra’s might have been in there, might have been one of the eight or nine or ten saying in unison, “Dogman. Not Iason? Not the Fink?”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid made a sign with his hand, directing the hounds away. Job gave him a willful look, but then broke for the edge of the woods with Kit.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“The Fink couldn’t come,” he said.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Wouldn’t,” said all those voices. “The Fink <i>wouldn’t </i>come.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Dafid shook his head and drew the sword that he’d been given. He’d not examined it closely until now, now when he needed his eyes to be looking anywhere but up in that tree. It had some words etched in the blade. He wondered what they said.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">There was a chorus of hisses. The branches trembled.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Put it away,” said the voices.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Oh,” said Dafid. He understood, then, what kind of blade the Fink had given him.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Don’t put it away,” said just one voice. One tired and frightened voice.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Then they dropped down from above and he was fighting for his life.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">***</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“You knew,” said Dafid.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Fink did not answer.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It didn’t touch the demons,” said Dafid.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Fink did not answer.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“It just…sliced her right up,” said Dafid. “Then they were gone.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Three villages,” said the Fink.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">***</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Here’s my Dogman come home,” said Calla. She put her hand to the torn flesh where his right eye had been.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">“Come home half blinded,” he said. “Half blinded and sorrowful.”<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">She took his face between her hands and looked at him straight. “He’s <i>home</i>,” she said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">___</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Author Bio: <i>Christopher Rowe has been a finalist for the Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy, Neukom Institute, and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. His stories have been frequently reprinted, translated into a half-dozen languages around the world, and praised by the New York Times Book Review. His short fiction was collected in Telling the Map from Small Beer Press. </i></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i>He also co-wrote the Supernormal Sleuthing Series for middle grade readers with his wife, novelist Gwenda Bond. He is a graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio, serves as a founding board member of the Lexington Writer's Room. He lives in a hundred-year-old house in Lexington, Kentucky, with his wife and their many pets. You can learn more him here: <a href="https://www.christopherrowe.net/">https://www.christopherrowe.net/</a></i></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-71267044367930148542023-08-02T12:16:00.005-05:002023-08-02T12:16:59.876-05:00Call for Submissions: Whetstone (Issue 8)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0KWTPtSoyg-wR69y3ll1bd0avGajjBSTNrUyCgRKtIT4RE3OvRDKWCCV54IEK458Qq1-1iKFCkOHcylpk2DWl7b9d0WIXvnOOqqmuZmNqdFwlD0TDO_gHYqy_R1ScDEdNhU_WGYgLBKBZIBjT-aPd1hDO-Sko-Esgd2jpZKxeQjprVfXQ_rgVnwgP1Ur/s960/whetstonelogo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="956" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid0KWTPtSoyg-wR69y3ll1bd0avGajjBSTNrUyCgRKtIT4RE3OvRDKWCCV54IEK458Qq1-1iKFCkOHcylpk2DWl7b9d0WIXvnOOqqmuZmNqdFwlD0TDO_gHYqy_R1ScDEdNhU_WGYgLBKBZIBjT-aPd1hDO-Sko-Esgd2jpZKxeQjprVfXQ_rgVnwgP1Ur/w399-h400/whetstonelogo.jpg" width="399" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;">Submissions: OPEN (Issue 8)</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">• Submission deadline: <b>Sunday, September 17th</b></span><b style="text-align: left;">, 2023, 11:59p.</b><br style="text-align: left;" /><span style="text-align: left;">• Editorial decisions: </span><b style="text-align: left;">Sunday, October 15th. E-mailed at the end of the work day.</b><br style="text-align: left;" /><span style="text-align: left;">• Publication of Issue 8: <b>Friday</b></span><b style="text-align: left;">, December 15th, 2023. Published digitally at the end of the work day.</b><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>Length</b>: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). <i><b>These limits are firm.</b> No more, no less. <b>Stories over or under the limit will not be read. </b>We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets.</i></div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><b>Style</b>: We prefer "dialog light, action heavy" fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. <i><b>Please eschew typographical emphasis and variation--e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining (there are more artful ways of rendering verbal timbre).</b></i></div><b style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"></b><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Questions? </b>Join our Discord, the <a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4" style="color: black;" target="_blank">Whetstone Tavern</a> and ask questions to the Whetstone channel there.</div><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;" /><div style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"><b><b>Publication, payment, and rights</b>: </b>Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, <i>no more</i>. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur publication, meant for showcasing emerging talent for the consideration of professional markets (which is why we kept the word count so low). In essence: <i>save your best work for higher paying markets!</i></div><p><b style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;">Submit</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;">: Proofread standard manuscripts should be sent to the publisher at</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"> </span><b style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;">spiraltowerpress@gmail.com</b><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"> as .doc or .docx attachments. Please name your file your preferred last name: "Smith.docx". Include the following subject line: "WHETSTONE: [Last Name]." Please keep cover letters brief. A story title and a one- or two-sentence bio is sufficient. </span><i style="font-family: "Courier New", Courier, FreeMono, monospace; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: justify;"> If you have sold a story as a semi-pro or pro-rate, we appreciate the support but please refrain from submitting. We particularly encourage those who have not already been published to submit.</i> </p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-62588092213529090642023-06-17T12:06:00.013-05:002023-07-16T15:44:42.003-05:00Issue 7 of Whetstone Now Available (Free)<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidezG9anQquKAwj4oyhjJ1-evRYUtqfRKGkMt2gbdOmaR-FkbnoPsOYzyx_lPn-QXgj6qEUFjpjkpWRsJD0BF9xAUOSDz7vnHrIABoWrfJpnMfr6G4lcJrNyNK5Vo6f2cWTO4SvjKFyIaru8_a7yeQRHxrAz9Q7m6z1zuxZCTAyXEqKVJ3hw9kqtcNKg/s2550/WHETSTONE%207%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidezG9anQquKAwj4oyhjJ1-evRYUtqfRKGkMt2gbdOmaR-FkbnoPsOYzyx_lPn-QXgj6qEUFjpjkpWRsJD0BF9xAUOSDz7vnHrIABoWrfJpnMfr6G4lcJrNyNK5Vo6f2cWTO4SvjKFyIaru8_a7yeQRHxrAz9Q7m6z1zuxZCTAyXEqKVJ3hw9kqtcNKg/w414-h640/WHETSTONE%207%20cover.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>Whetstone Issue 7</i> is now available for free. You can download it<span style="font-size: large;"> </span><b><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1S3jOGt5y3Mt8iRzZi19uOHd_MWuT2Zr7/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank"><span style="font-size: large;">HERE (Issue 7)</span></a>.</b> This issue includes several great stories. Thanks to Chuck Clark (Associate Editor), Luke E. Dodd (Associate Editor), Colin Goodpasture, and Grey Cashwell (First Readers) and all the great contributors for helping us release this issue. We hope you enjoy it! -JRC (Managing Editor)</div><p></p><p style="text-align: justify;">You can access our previous six issues here as free PDFs:</p><div style="text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://tinyurl.com/yclqo8ne" target="_blank">Issue 1</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/18qAkYSuqMQglGtoSN-22_MwRHJuV7F0l/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 2</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E5PI06Xv7RMWW1IO2VBKqHjWFMhD2toS/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 3</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JHrxR5_C6vUFiLtOuRx8ItjrcVSm33Ll/view" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 4</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dc0ubR0Ry4KWR6S8vUCK723FOBpu-hGS/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 5</a> <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19zppVsJcmWP6deZyWuN4h_TfJW2WU_Ke/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: left;" target="_blank">Issue 6</a></b></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-70808039345916945642023-06-15T08:52:00.001-05:002023-06-15T08:52:30.925-05:00Cover for Whetstone 7 <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Here is our cover for <i>Whetstone </i>(Issue 7), to be published as a free and open access pdf this Saturday, July 17th. Original art by Geraldo Marinho.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMMyBO4Ze4WTIKHJCdhTVFiJ0xRp8TcQudpNFZZ_L-eYTy053EKlFuzXi-5T9CyEKdAf4-4ETU4Vf8eJNhRwtqP_Trs0mizm-B9WHxn-iysedSnYWr8ZQ7qWgLhBTDlpqzDiT53bjBNg76ssn8720SIH1YNB1Q1h_0gP5RK1LPxwu5La2Pv3wUJfPjw/s2550/WHETSTONE%207%20cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjMMyBO4Ze4WTIKHJCdhTVFiJ0xRp8TcQudpNFZZ_L-eYTy053EKlFuzXi-5T9CyEKdAf4-4ETU4Vf8eJNhRwtqP_Trs0mizm-B9WHxn-iysedSnYWr8ZQ7qWgLhBTDlpqzDiT53bjBNg76ssn8720SIH1YNB1Q1h_0gP5RK1LPxwu5La2Pv3wUJfPjw/w414-h640/WHETSTONE%207%20cover.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-73452990829152087252023-06-12T12:20:00.004-05:002023-06-12T12:20:53.548-05:00Calling All Whetstone Contributors: Database of Serial S&S Characters<p style="text-align: justify;">To all <i>Whetstone </i>Contributors,</p><p style="text-align: justify;">We received this interesting e-mail from the author Christopher Rowe. Christopher is putting together a list of "currently active" sword and sorcery serialized characters. Many of you have published the adventures of active sword and sorcery serial characters in <i>Whetstone</i>. If so, you might consider contacting Christopher. His contact information can be located on his website (linked below). Here is the e-mail we received:</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Dear Editor,</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>I’m writing to let you know about a webpage I’m building to list all the “currently active” sword and sorcery series characters. You can look at what I’ve got up so far here:</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i><a href="https://swordandsorceryreviews.blogspot.com/p/contemporary-sword-and-sorcery-series.html">https://swordandsorceryreviews.blogspot.com/p/contemporary-sword-and-sorcery-series.html</a></i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>What I’m hoping is that you can forward this email to any of your writers who are currently writing series characters, asking that they write me at cvrowe@gmail.com with the following information.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Their byline</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>The name of the character (or characters in the case of duos or whatever) name</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>One paragraph about the character—this can be pretty much anything: inspiration, plans, a character bio, whatever</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Most importantly, a list of all the stories or novels in which the character has appeared, with links to where those appearances can be read or purchased.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>For the last, I want the stories listed in order of publication. And for stories that appeared in collections, I want the individual titles, not just the collection name.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Hopefully this all makes sense, and hopefully we can together build a good resource for the community.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Sincerely,</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Christopher Rowe</i></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-13972256394169092322023-04-16T12:52:00.004-05:002023-04-16T12:53:04.831-05:00Flash Fiction: Amidst the Sleeping Castle, by Liam Q. D. Hall<i>A few days ago, we shared a Flashes of Wonder writing prompt titled "<a href="https://whetstonemag.blogspot.com/2023/04/flashes-of-wonder-prompt-rendering.html" target="_blank">Rendering Villainy through Costuming</a>." We received several responses, and our favorite came from Liam Q. D. Hall. In his piece titled "Amidst the Sleeping Castle," Liam has created a captivating character--a queen who is as inorganic and inhuman as a crystal, with sharp edges to match. To fully appreciate the effect of this story, we recommend checking out the original writing prompt that inspired it.</i><div><br /></div><div><b>Amidst the Sleeping Castle</b></div><div>By Liam Q. D. Hall</div><div><div><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The black figure’s footfalls resounded off the paving stones, echoed off the white walls of the castle, carried his arrival to the denizens. Bodies crowded the court, dressed in the colors of red, blue, and purple. They wore the emblem of citizenry in patches upon their shoulders, on brooches on their bosoms, and on buckles on their belts. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Only the soleil clad solein exile in black moved among the reposed crowd. Sighs and snores could be heard in the quietude. Some chests rose and fell, eyes flitting behind lids on sweating faces dreaming of spring while trapped in winter. Other’s stared sightless from grinning skulls, their bodies opened, the ribs white upon the clean white stone. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The Exile’s recusant blood refused to slumber under the spell. He walked through the immaculate arches and marmoreal colonnade, avoiding the sprawled bodies with ease. He approached the keep which gazed down with ridicule in its tall and slitted oculi. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">He went to the quatrefoiled door of bronze, the porter a skeleton at his post. He entered the maw, steps calling to its inhabitor. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Clack, clack, clack through the passages, the Exile wended. The light hushed like evening sunshine, silencing the grave stillness already present. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Crossed spears in stiff grips, the owners desiccated but still standing sentinel heralded the throne room.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Within sat a queen arrayed in yellow, her terrible eyes hidden beneath a hood at once ancient but opulent. Jewelry adorned her chest, great chains of platinum and gems, their luster seemingly dimmed in shade. Her arms were bare and as stark as a corpse’s. They were covered in scratches as if some unsatisfiable itch was beneath the skin. They ran to wrists covered in simple but regnant bands. She licked her cruor crusted lips as the Exile entered her hall. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">With rusted nails upon long and beautiful fingers, the gyden of the citadel gestured and her pet from beyond the throne came forth. Its scales were tarnished electrum, a paucity of xanthous beneath. Cinders were in its lambent gaze, expectation in its regard and in its taut musculature; a roar ready to blaze forth. </div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Energy built in the angsty room long unaccustomed to pregnant moments.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Welcome to the feast," the queen said as she motioned the Exile forward with ringed finger. A frisson shook his frame but he advanced, loosening the shroud upon the irregular bladed cross on his back. The hame of dubious origin fell to the cold stones. The Exile smiled, his fangs glinted. The Queen, fiendishly buttressed, stood and pulled back her hood, the red maligning stress of her eyes an apocalypse.</div></div><div><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-4431391778102681562023-04-13T09:33:00.007-05:002023-04-13T09:38:47.662-05:00Flashes of Wonder Prompt: Rendering Villainy through Costuming<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s1528/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s320/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magicks to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Flashes of Wonder" is posted irregularly. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. -JRC</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><b>Rendering Villainy through Costuming</b></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Sword and sorcery villains bear a lot of narrative weight. Memorable villains have complex personalities, their evil actions driven by specific and often contradictory motivations and psychodramas. But how can writers externalize such internal psychological elements for readers without resorting to long passages of inner monologue, a narrative technique often (though not always) precluded by sword and sorcery genre expectations? One often-overlooked tactic is costuming. Imagine a sword and sorcery villain and describe their costume in detail, using clothing, accessories, and colors to symbolize their inner psyche, i.e., to signal their motivations, their contradictory impulses. For example, maybe they wear all black to represent their cynical worldview, or they might display flashy jewelry to demonstrate their greed, or they might wear religious icons or symbols to clarify their loyalty to dark powers. Moreover, give a sense of time to their costuming; show how their appearance has evolved over time, thereby giving the reader an opportunity to reflect on their growth or descent into darkness. How does their wardrobe interact with the setting and other characters? Let the clothing speak for the villain and deepen their personality in unexpected ways.</span></span><span style="font-family: courier;"> 300-500 words.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>Note: We are interested in publishing a flash fiction responses to Flashes of Wonder prompts. If interested, please e-mail spiraltowerpress@gmail.com with the subject line, "Flashes of Wonder."</i> </span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="http://facebook.com/whetstonemag/" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Facebook.</b></a></div><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Discord.</b></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on </span><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">Twitter</a>.</b></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">Sword and Sorcery </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on <b><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SwordandSorcery/">Reddit</a>.</b></span></span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-90931342926083149442023-01-16T11:31:00.003-05:002023-01-16T11:38:57.094-05:00Call for Submissions for Whetstone (Issue 7)<p> <span style="text-align: justify;">Submissions: OPEN (Issue 7)</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">• Submission deadline: <b>Friday, March 31st</b></span><b style="text-align: left;">, 2023, 11:59p.</b><br style="text-align: left;" /><span style="text-align: left;">• Editorial decisions: </span><b style="text-align: left;">Sunday, May 7th.</b><br style="text-align: left;" /><span style="text-align: left;">• Publication of Issue 7: <b>Friday</b></span><b style="text-align: left;">, June 17th, 2023.</b><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>Special Guest Editor for Issue 7: Dr. Nicole Emmelhainz</b> is Associate Professor of Composition and Rhetoric at Christopher Newport University, where she also directs the Alice F. Randall Writing Center and serves as Writing Program Administer. She received her MA in English from Ball State University, her MA in Creative Writing Poetry from Ohio University, and her PhD in Writing History and Theory from Case Western Reserve University. She is the co-editor for<i> The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies</i> and has presented widely on elements of pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, and feminism.</div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Length</b>: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). <i>These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Style</b>: We prefer "dialog light, action heavy" fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. <i><b>Please eschew typographical emphasis and variation--e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining (there are more artful ways of rendering verbal timbre).</b></i></div><b></b><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><b>Publication, payment, and rights</b>: </b>Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, <i>no more</i>. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur publication, meant for showcasing emerging talent for the consideration of professional markets (which is why we kept the word count so low). In essence: <i>save your best work for higher paying markets!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Submit</b>: Proofread standard manuscripts should be sent to the publisher at <b>spiraltowerpress@gmail.com</b> as .doc or .docx attachments. Include the following subject line: "WHETSTONE: [Last Name]." Please keep cover letters brief. A story title and a one- or two-sentence bio is sufficient.<i> If you have sold a story as a semi-pro or pro-rate, we appreciate the support but please refrain from submitting. </i><i>We particularly encourage those who have not already been published to submit.</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Managing Editor: Managing Editor: <b>Jason Ray Carney </b>is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. He is the co-editor of the academic journal <a href="https://www.thedarkmanjournal.org/"><b>The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies</b></a> and the area chair of the <a href="https://pcaaca.org/area/pulp-studies"><b>"Pulp Studies" section of the Popular Culture Association</b></a>. He serves as the Academic Coordinator for the <a href="https://pcaaca.org/area/pulp-studies"><b>Robert E. Howard Foundation</b></a>. He is the author of <b>Weird Tales of Modernity </b>(McFarland Press) and <b>Rakefire and Other Stories</b> (Pulp Hero Press).</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><div>Associate Editor: <b>Chuck E. Clark</b> lives in Southern Wisconsin with his wife and four children. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Political Science degree, apprenticed as a jeweler, joined the navy, and now fixes laser microscopes. He has been published in <b>Whetstone</b> and The August Derleth Society's newsletter, <b>Sage of Sac Prairie</b>. He loves collecting rocks, books, and whiskey.</div><div><br /></div><div>Associate Editor: <b>Luke E. Dodd </b>is a scientist, devourer of music, and collector of hobbies. He is one of the three hosts of <a href="http://www.thecromcast.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><b>The Cromcast</b></a>, a podcast dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard and other weird fiction. He lives in Kentucky with his wife and son.</div><div><br /></div><div>First Reader: <b>Chase A. Folmar </b><span style="text-align: left;">is a writer of all forms of speculative fiction, particularly in the vein of weird fantasy and horror. The central philosophy behind much of his work can be expressed most eloquently by weird fiction author Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote, “Only the impossible has any real charm; the possible has been vulgarized by happening too often.” A graduate of English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Asheville, he currently lives in Virginia with his wife and their horde of rescued pets. You can find all of his writings and other works on his website, <a href="http://www.chaseafolmar.com.">www.chaseafolmar.com.</a></span></div><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: right;">Updated 1/15/2023<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSD1BCb5Q9kFSmN04Bpu-fVKLkB8votZoa8kN8tlw7ewg8BdmV_yCqkinNr9uZFiWDkQZiEADnRuAyF6GpofL1Nei0t2bWPSs_eATK2w69TmLNUzQwwHzDYoG4Pyib81z31DrmGiy5XyJ/s1600/Whetstone+Promises.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1137" data-original-width="1600" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWSD1BCb5Q9kFSmN04Bpu-fVKLkB8votZoa8kN8tlw7ewg8BdmV_yCqkinNr9uZFiWDkQZiEADnRuAyF6GpofL1Nei0t2bWPSs_eATK2w69TmLNUzQwwHzDYoG4Pyib81z31DrmGiy5XyJ/s640/Whetstone+Promises.jpg" width="640" /></a></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-88986803310823153672022-12-16T13:20:00.006-05:002023-01-01T21:04:52.424-05:00Whetstone Issue 6 Now Available!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8tazlFWxJb3hd5xmv-vT_Xg4WZ_Vmr56d7fouY0ecqQBaVO2kJL5z4YM27ege3_ZlEBKYfwThodirsqWMdnFpZyNFocvU-yZmln7TAGbgIPqmVWeOY715K4K0tyhGbfg9ev0NkSE3xy5Eez4QkGKpzJBYUMLgZuM3dDOvsveTNkAdbcwEdt61o5Zyw/s2550/WHETSTONE%206%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI8tazlFWxJb3hd5xmv-vT_Xg4WZ_Vmr56d7fouY0ecqQBaVO2kJL5z4YM27ege3_ZlEBKYfwThodirsqWMdnFpZyNFocvU-yZmln7TAGbgIPqmVWeOY715K4K0tyhGbfg9ev0NkSE3xy5Eez4QkGKpzJBYUMLgZuM3dDOvsveTNkAdbcwEdt61o5Zyw/w414-h640/WHETSTONE%206%20cover.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><p><span>Whetstone Issue 6 is now available for free. You can download it </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/19zppVsJcmWP6deZyWuN4h_TfJW2WU_Ke/view?usp=sharing"><b><span style="font-size: large;">HERE</span></b></a><span>. This issue includes several great stories. Thanks to Chuck Clark (Associate Editor), Luke E. Dodd (Associate Editor), Nicole Emmelhainz and Grey Cashwell (First Readers) and all the great contributors for helping us release this issue. </span><i>We hope you enjoy it! </i><span>-JRC (Managing Editor)</span></p></span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-91286573771117678342022-11-15T21:16:00.002-05:002022-11-15T21:18:19.936-05:00Cover for Whetstone Issue 6 (Winter 2022)<p>Issue 6 (Winter 2022) will be published on Friday, December 16th, 2022. Here is the cover that is illustrated by the talented Maegan LeMay. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKggRUWwfy6xH_5UbdmSpIz1jJ6vy-fnrw36299C-czigXoXfP_QZ5Zhb3HPfneLYT6EqK6_9EaoGqOg0AdD2Jn8DYivFs5xQCstgEQrR61uafU9hmFKAqjzaAQ5rJaZ-u0i6743NhGJaztc_nBOeHxkL-nv7hzRpcUbASWN-kwWHkFogy-j_g3XmYkw/s2550/WHETSTONE%206%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKggRUWwfy6xH_5UbdmSpIz1jJ6vy-fnrw36299C-czigXoXfP_QZ5Zhb3HPfneLYT6EqK6_9EaoGqOg0AdD2Jn8DYivFs5xQCstgEQrR61uafU9hmFKAqjzaAQ5rJaZ-u0i6743NhGJaztc_nBOeHxkL-nv7hzRpcUbASWN-kwWHkFogy-j_g3XmYkw/w414-h640/WHETSTONE%206%20cover.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-78373542400220148692022-08-12T11:22:00.004-05:002022-08-12T11:22:54.251-05:00Flashes of Wonder Prompt: The Reversal<p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s1528/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s320/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magicks to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Flashes of Wonder" is posted irregularly. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. -JRC</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: courier;">Reversals</span></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCrG5euJJUgkUDET_yzcbXlQd-PJ4TxLwOi24p61ujnmnJeaMhF50Di4zQR3QYypjGoTOJaoqs2Wo5UqfrJhxBYB1c6_OsyQhSvyN3LgtoX6LajnZO199-GhMFdCTS3OhaFY6jl-on2GTjILMNbAWENDLZaBjxtAb_aT5oImh36EAlXVpULlzuO7vvw/s1024/unnamed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpCrG5euJJUgkUDET_yzcbXlQd-PJ4TxLwOi24p61ujnmnJeaMhF50Di4zQR3QYypjGoTOJaoqs2Wo5UqfrJhxBYB1c6_OsyQhSvyN3LgtoX6LajnZO199-GhMFdCTS3OhaFY6jl-on2GTjILMNbAWENDLZaBjxtAb_aT5oImh36EAlXVpULlzuO7vvw/s320/unnamed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Sword and sorcery plots are exciting. They are linguistic devices engineered to increase our pulse and respiration and to trigger the release of certain hormones: adrenaline, cortisol, dopamine, and more. They are most exciting at their climax point, their point of highest <i>unresolved </i>emotional tension. What do we mean by <i>unresolved</i>? Great climaxes are interesting because they involve protagonists we care about whose fates are yet to be decided. And climaxes are interesting because the stakes are so high. Almost always climaxes result in a <i>transformation</i>, of the protagonist, of the world, of the reader. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Directly proceeding the climax is what we call the <i>resolution</i>, the narrative events that allow the pent up emotional tension to be dispersed. In endocrinological terms, certain hormones like adrenaline, cortisol, and dopamine are neutralized by resolutions. But there is a unique plot device deployed by some storytellers: <i>the reversal</i>. The reversal comes just after the resolution. Whatever happened in the climax--success, failure, or transformation--is swiftly, and often dramatically, reversed. This tool of the reversal is useful because it can extend the tension and set up an even more intense climax. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Using the visual prompt of the sorcerer's tower provided above, write a 500 word scene that involves a protagonist resolving a conflict, and then render a reversal that reverses that resolution and sets up an even more intense climax.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="http://facebook.com/whetstonemag/" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Facebook.</b></a></div><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Discord.</b></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on </span><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">Twitter</a>.</b></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">Sword and Sorcery </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on <b><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SwordandSorcery/">Reddit</a>.</b></span></span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-18768596899051581962022-07-12T16:45:00.005-05:002022-08-12T11:04:05.966-05:00Flashes of Wonder Prompt: The Oval and the Nova<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s1528/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s320/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p> </p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magics to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Flashes of Wonder" is posted irregularly. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. -JRC</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: courier;">The Enigmatic Oval Room</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><i>There is an oval-shaped room. The floor is a seamless marble slab. Embedded in the marble slab are esoteric designs rendered in tiny threads of precious metal that glint and sparkle in the light. When anyone walks into this room, they are beset by vertigo, nausea, and a terrible sense of wrongness. If anyone lingers in the room, they get ear ringing, headaches, and bleeding from the nose and eyes; if they are foolish enough to linger, their skin becomes as wax and they melt and eventually disappear, evaporating like morning mist. If one listens closely, several sibilant whispers can be heard speaking in the room in tongues unknown.</i></span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Darko Suvin, a theorist of distinctively speculative fiction (i.e. science fiction, fantasy, and supernatural horror), developed the concept of "novum" in his famous monograph, <i>Metamorphoses of Science Fiction </i>(Yal UP, 1979). Suvin's "novum" are a fictional objects or entities that signal to the reader that the virtual world they are reading about is not constrained by established physical laws of known science. The unreal laws that govern this unreal world are different and mysterious. Accordingly, for Suvin, in much speculative fiction, "novum" cause a powerful artistic effect called "cognitive estrangement," a unique habit of mind, a form of intense intellectual hospitality that--and most importantly so--<i>permits</i> authors and readers to connect and harmonize over the hitherto unimaginable, e.g. bizarre plot hooks and conflicts that characters must respond to and sometimes (often) resolve through action. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">We offer the "oval room" (described above) as one of those "nova," as defined by Suvin. Using the "novum" of the enigmatic room above, write a sword and sorcery flash fiction of 400-800 words where a protagonist's desires are contradicted or impeded by the room and where that conflict is eventually resolved. In other words, write a story about how this room is encountered, how it throws up a roadblock to a character's pressing desire, and how that roadblock is overcome (or not) by that character.</span></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="http://facebook.com/whetstonemag/" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Facebook.</b></a></div><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Discord.</b></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on </span><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">Twitter</a>.</b></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">Sword and Sorcery </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on <b><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SwordandSorcery/">Reddit</a>.</b></span></span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-72383393987972148802022-07-09T12:56:00.005-05:002022-07-09T12:57:06.806-05:00Whetstone 6 Call for Submissions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuuuZRzRIDJR1DN3RcV8XxemAhbH0O2d08eSaTOPTeRnygu6uqXUQmo8nq3GH12_QYHQYtqg84-GnKmxgYRrXbY60VtUvVcP4KI4ymo_Ls7egswBvDsMxV9LQNtXLiLZr5p9dO2Mo1CrcAy5KFqS_ud8-Bn8GOR2AF5KpY4To_8EuVd7Y5PTep9QOt2A=s1912" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="1912" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuuuZRzRIDJR1DN3RcV8XxemAhbH0O2d08eSaTOPTeRnygu6uqXUQmo8nq3GH12_QYHQYtqg84-GnKmxgYRrXbY60VtUvVcP4KI4ymo_Ls7egswBvDsMxV9LQNtXLiLZr5p9dO2Mo1CrcAy5KFqS_ud8-Bn8GOR2AF5KpY4To_8EuVd7Y5PTep9QOt2A=w400-h205" width="400" /></a></div><p> </p><p style="text-align: center;"><b>CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS / WHETSTONE / Issue 6 (Winter 2022)</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>WHETSTONE</b> is an award-winning amateur magazine that seeks to discover, inspire, and publish emerging authors who are enthusiastic about the tradition of “pulp sword and sorcery.” Writers in this tradition include (but are not limited to) the following: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner, David C. Smith, and many more. “Pulp sword and sorcery” emphasizes active protagonists, supernatural menaces, and preindustrial (mostly ancient and medieval) settings. Some “pulp sword and sorcery” straddles the line between historical and fantasy fiction; at Whetstone, however, we emphatically prefer “secondary world settings,” other worlds liberated from the necessity of historical accuracy. Published by Spiral Tower Press.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Managing Editor</b>: Dr. Jason Ray Carney is a lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. He is the co-editor of the academic journal <i>The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies</i> and the area chair of the "Pulp Studies" section of the Popular Culture Association. He serves as the Academic Coordinator for the Robert E. Howard Foundation. He is the author of <i>Rakefire and Other Stories</i> (Pulp Hero Press).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Associate Editor:</b> Chuck E. Clark lives in Southern Wisconsin with his wife and four children. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Political Science degree, apprenticed as a jeweler, joined the navy, and now fixes laser microscopes. He has been published in<i> Whetstone</i> and The August Derleth Society's newsletter, <i>Sage of Sac Prairie</i>. He loves collecting rocks, books, and whiskey.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Associate Editor:</b> Luke E. Dodd is a scientist, devourer of music, and collector of hobbies. He is one of the three hosts of <i>The Cromcast</i>, a podcast dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard and other weird fiction. He lives in Kentucky with his wife and son.</p><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Submissions: </b>OPEN (Issue 6)<br /><b>• Submission deadline:</b> Monday, September 12th, 2022, 11:59p.<br /><b>• Editorial decisions:</b> Sunday, October 23rd, 2022.<br /><b>• Publication of Issue 5: </b>Friday, December 16th, 2022.</div><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Length: </b>We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less. Stories over or under the limit will not be read. We mean it, friends! <i>This limit serves two functions: (1) the limit is an artistic challenge. It takes skill to tell a compressed, punchy story. (2) We are an amateur publication and only pay a token honorarium, so save your longer works for better paying markets.</i></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Style:</b> We prefer “dialog light, action heavy” fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity. Please avoid typographical emphasis and variation--e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Publication, payment, and rights:</b> Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, no more. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur publication, meant for showcasing emerging talent for the consideration of professional markets (which is why we kept the word count so low). In essence: save your best work for higher paying markets!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Submit: </b>Proofread standard manuscripts should be sent to the publisher at <b>spiraltowerpress@gmail.com</b> as .doc or .docx attachments. Include the following subject line: "WHETSTONE: [Last Name]." Please keep cover letters brief. A story title and a one- or two-sentence bio is sufficient.</p><div><b>More info: </b><br />Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">https://twitter.com/SorceryWs</a><br />Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/whetstonemag">https://www.facebook.com/whetstonemag</a><br />Discord: <a href="https://discord.gg/h2RryjPuFf">https://discord.gg/h2RryjPuFf</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-34448806924969706442022-07-06T11:38:00.002-05:002022-07-06T11:39:22.829-05:00The Familiar's Four Gems, a Miscellany (Issue 8)<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5b5iS9GdJzulri5eODC3Zqt0Y_y1Q43gCsx439asSr1B4JBdhu2e6sIsyswaq3Lz-qvYKouDvMK1aJlRiprEtc-tsrXL-tKWVf1B1oLfujNuUZzQKrTTCjfu4KcCv1o8GCm7rqb7uuho/s1600/familiarhorizontal.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="1223" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB5b5iS9GdJzulri5eODC3Zqt0Y_y1Q43gCsx439asSr1B4JBdhu2e6sIsyswaq3Lz-qvYKouDvMK1aJlRiprEtc-tsrXL-tKWVf1B1oLfujNuUZzQKrTTCjfu4KcCv1o8GCm7rqb7uuho/s640/familiarhorizontal.jpg" width="640" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>SPITTLEDRUM, the Four-eyed Demon, has scoured the internet for new eyes: four sword-and-sorcery gems! </i>Illustration provided by <a href="https://twitter.com/spevna?lang=en">Mustafa Bekir</a>.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i>"The Familiar's Four Gems will be posted intermittently. It is a curated list of old and new digital resources for amateur sword and sorcery writers and readers; it will occasionally provide short reviews where appropriate. If you have something you would like to include, contact us. -JRC</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Rakehell Magazine</b>: <a href="https://rakehellmagazine.com/about/" target="_blank">Issue 1 Now Available</a>: "Rakehell: a modern magazine of swashbuckling adventure! Rakehell hearkens back to the classic adventure heroes of yesteryear, like Robin Hood, the Three Musketeers, and Horatio Hornblower. We love today’s fictional rogues; Locke Lamora, Inigo Montoya, and Indiana Jones would all fit in here."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>So I'm Writing a Novel</b> (Podcast, Ep. 44): <a href="https://soimwritinganovel.com/2022/07/04/ep-44-interview-with-david-c-smith-part-one/" target="_blank">Interview with David C. Smith (Part 1)</a>: Interview with sword and sorcery author, David C. Smith, author of <i>Oron</i>, <i>Tales of Attluma</i>, <i>Sometime Lofty Towers</i>, and many more.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Cromcast</b> (Podcast):<b> </b><a href="http://thecromcast.blogspot.com/2022/06/howard-days-2022-part-3-glenn-lord.html">Howard Days 2022 - The Glenn Lord Symposium</a>:<b> </b>"Hile, Cromrades! For this episode, we present another recording from Howard Days 2022! This recording from Friday, June 10th includes academic papers delivered by Drs. Dierk Guenther, Gabriel Mamola, and James McGlothlin. The panel is moderated by Dr. Jason Ray Carney."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>The Las Angeles Review of Books</b>: <a href="https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/reading-sword-and-sorcery-to-make-the-present-less-real/" target="_blank">Reading Sword-and-Sorcery to Make the Present Less Real</a>: "CAN WE JUSTIFY reading fiction to make the present less real? In our modern attempts to defend the practical value of fiction reading, have we overlooked how the practice provides a valuable form of understimulation, an inoculation against an illness-inducing reality?"</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div><b>WHETSTONE </b>on <a href="http://facebook.com/whetstonemag/"><b>Facebook.</b></a><br /><b>WHETSTONE </b>on <a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4"><b>Discord.</b></a><br /><b>WHETSTONE </b>on <b><a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">Twitter</a>.</b></div><div><b>SPIRAL TOWER PRESS </b>on <b><a href="https://twitter.com/SpiralPress">Twitter</a></b>.</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-37762633022423057502022-06-07T15:20:00.007-05:002022-06-08T20:45:50.594-05:00Whetstone Issue 5 Now Available!<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvLC67CxxAvzuUv8Z10D5sjoxJFR3M1KSvLftmz0YKzObNygxdJpBNOsvhVGoRG42fNSVQylzUx9ssg6EP7-qAhKvyEGFwCRkoCdXCvIPMK8lXY-MdcM2_1r4HDNkmdCoexGMxK4OrluBAzuM4zKcGqiAfsBvjAggmIRSgJWwFb8fDsnCFvyw-dm5eg/s2550/WHETSTONE%205%20cover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2550" data-original-width="1650" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyvLC67CxxAvzuUv8Z10D5sjoxJFR3M1KSvLftmz0YKzObNygxdJpBNOsvhVGoRG42fNSVQylzUx9ssg6EP7-qAhKvyEGFwCRkoCdXCvIPMK8lXY-MdcM2_1r4HDNkmdCoexGMxK4OrluBAzuM4zKcGqiAfsBvjAggmIRSgJWwFb8fDsnCFvyw-dm5eg/w414-h640/WHETSTONE%205%20cover.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><span style="text-align: justify;"><div style="font-style: italic;"><i style="text-align: justify;"><br /></i></div>Because the editors will be traveling to Howard Days in Cross Plains, Texas this weekend to celebrate the life and work of Robert E. Howard, we decided to release </span><i style="text-align: justify;">Whetstone </i><span style="text-align: justify;">Issue 5 a few days early. You can download it </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dc0ubR0Ry4KWR6S8vUCK723FOBpu-hGS/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">HERE</span></b></a><span style="text-align: justify;">. This issue includes several great stories. Thanks to Chuck Clark (Associate Editor), Luke E. Dodd (Associate Editor), and all the great contributors for helping us release this issue. </span><i style="text-align: justify;">We hope you enjoy it! </i><span style="text-align: justify;">-JRC (Managing Editor)</span><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-52013082026686521342021-12-30T10:54:00.015-05:002021-12-30T10:57:17.581-05:00Submissions Open for Whetstone Issue 5<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuuuZRzRIDJR1DN3RcV8XxemAhbH0O2d08eSaTOPTeRnygu6uqXUQmo8nq3GH12_QYHQYtqg84-GnKmxgYRrXbY60VtUvVcP4KI4ymo_Ls7egswBvDsMxV9LQNtXLiLZr5p9dO2Mo1CrcAy5KFqS_ud8-Bn8GOR2AF5KpY4To_8EuVd7Y5PTep9QOt2A=s1912" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="1912" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiuuuZRzRIDJR1DN3RcV8XxemAhbH0O2d08eSaTOPTeRnygu6uqXUQmo8nq3GH12_QYHQYtqg84-GnKmxgYRrXbY60VtUvVcP4KI4ymo_Ls7egswBvDsMxV9LQNtXLiLZr5p9dO2Mo1CrcAy5KFqS_ud8-Bn8GOR2AF5KpY4To_8EuVd7Y5PTep9QOt2A=w400-h205" width="400" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><b>CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS / WHETSTONE / Issue 5 (Spring 2022)</b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>WHETSTONE</b> is an amateur magazine that seeks to discover, inspire, and publish emerging authors who are enthusiastic about the tradition of “pulp sword and sorcery.” Writers in this tradition include (but are not limited to) the following: Robert E. Howard, Fritz Leiber, Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock, Karl Edward Wagner, David C. Smith, and many more. “Pulp sword and sorcery” emphasizes active protagonists, supernatural menaces, and preindustrial (mostly ancient and medieval) settings. Some “pulp sword and sorcery” straddles the line between historical and fantasy fiction; at Whetstone, however, we emphatically prefer “secondary world settings,” other worlds liberated from the necessity of historical accuracy. Published by Spiral Tower Press.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Managing Editor</b>: Dr. Jason Ray Carney is a lecturer in the Department of English of Christopher Newport University in Newport News, Virginia. He is the co-editor of the academic journal <i>The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies</i> and the area chair of the "Pulp Studies" section of the Popular Culture Association. He serves as the Academic Coordinator for the Robert E. Howard Foundation. He is the author of <i>Rakefire and Other Stories</i> (Pulp Hero Press).</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Associate Editor:</b> Chuck E. Clark lives in Southern Wisconsin with his wife and four children. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Political Science degree, apprenticed as a jeweler, joined the navy, and now fixes laser microscopes. He has been published in<i> Whetstone</i> and The August Derleth Society's newsletter, <i>Sage of Sac Prairie</i>. He loves collecting rocks, books, and whiskey.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Associate Editor:</b> Luke E. Dodd is a scientist, devourer of music, and collector of hobbies. He is one of the three hosts of <i>The Cromcast</i>, a podcast dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard and other weird fiction. He lives in Kentucky with his wife and son.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Length:</b> We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Style: </b>We prefer “dialog light, action heavy” fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity.</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Publication, payment, and rights:</b> Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, no more. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur publication, meant for showcasing emerging talent for the consideration of professional markets (which is why we kept the word count so low). In essence: save your best work for higher paying markets!</p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b>Submit:</b> Proofread standard manuscripts should be sent to the publisher at spiraltowerpress@gmail.com as .doc or .docx attachments. Include the following subject line: "WHETSTONE: [Last Name]." Please keep cover letters brief. A story title and a one- or two-sentence bio is sufficient.</p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Dates: </b></div><div style="text-align: justify;">•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Submission deadline for issue 5: Sunday, March 27th, 2022, 11:59p.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Editorial decisions: Sunday, May 1st, 2022.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">•<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Publication of Issue 5: Friday, June 10th, 2022.</div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>More info: </b><br />Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">https://twitter.com/SorceryWs</a><br />Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/whetstonemag">https://www.facebook.com/whetstonemag</a><br />Discord: <a href="https://discord.gg/h2RryjPuFf">https://discord.gg/h2RryjPuFf</a></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-39823893968561196102021-12-03T16:26:00.003-05:002021-12-03T16:28:13.753-05:00Whetstone Issue 4 Now Available!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCI4bQ-EXkS9rOvJSul-a9AYjRvcp_jBvh5IkdhtZ9eE7AvDh_JF12A9_jCX7pxYqJYR3G6Napc1a1TgdUM-YNBdb1CjiXHwMFxu6RRqJQroz3q-xu1NOACld2yurD8xC71bJxDBG6pb9xXg9bRMh6AIX3M3deRwT7pOvT-cwN41eobFScRjobN9DptA=s2048" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1325" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjCI4bQ-EXkS9rOvJSul-a9AYjRvcp_jBvh5IkdhtZ9eE7AvDh_JF12A9_jCX7pxYqJYR3G6Napc1a1TgdUM-YNBdb1CjiXHwMFxu6RRqJQroz3q-xu1NOACld2yurD8xC71bJxDBG6pb9xXg9bRMh6AIX3M3deRwT7pOvT-cwN41eobFScRjobN9DptA=w414-h640" width="414" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i style="text-align: justify;">Whetstone </i><span style="text-align: justify;">Issue 4 is now available. You can download it </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1JHrxR5_C6vUFiLtOuRx8ItjrcVSm33Ll/view?usp=sharing" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">HERE</span></b></a><span style="text-align: justify;">. This issue includes several great stories. Thanks to Chuck E. Clark (Associate Editor), Luke E. Dodd (Associate Editor), and all the great contributors for helping us release this issue. </span><i style="text-align: justify;">We hope you enjoy it!</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-72804729347373348492021-10-26T08:55:00.002-05:002021-10-26T08:55:51.599-05:00Cover for Issue 4. Art by Jake Kelly.<p>This is the cover art for Issue 4. The art is by Jake Kelly. More information about his work can be found <a href="https://jakekellyart.bigcartel.com/">HERE</a>. Issue 4 will be published on Friday, December 3rd, 2021.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFKRbJIjTrEIeklNmUFgWZTqR4oe_WGN49qjPlOJpDe42dBDIYPRaZ94m9Zzp-0vCpo-Z3m2JcwHmD12fGC4N0fCzSqZPihrKgMNAPHTSjZ4hYrM0JwY7TWZJzQcxAtmJcjAIyvpci5TxdBqNfMZy8ghDv3kay3PWXfp98DPSt2WiTd5WeiIpgA838GQ=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1325" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjFKRbJIjTrEIeklNmUFgWZTqR4oe_WGN49qjPlOJpDe42dBDIYPRaZ94m9Zzp-0vCpo-Z3m2JcwHmD12fGC4N0fCzSqZPihrKgMNAPHTSjZ4hYrM0JwY7TWZJzQcxAtmJcjAIyvpci5TxdBqNfMZy8ghDv3kay3PWXfp98DPSt2WiTd5WeiIpgA838GQ=w414-h640" width="414" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-53661261359012859672021-09-12T08:25:00.005-05:002021-09-18T20:29:08.064-05:00Submission deadline for Issue 4.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CIlmerPGF4zz531AM2fPgLPH9nUugEanaJ2ToKB_QoccdZOljPV5NyrwJEvcGeRFc8x1O3h1amQMBcVlDg45NsS2CglFNYvLwiMEYXT3lBF_yUWKk8j4jybdV2bSRQdpwJg4OSXlRenw/s1041/Submissions.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1041" data-original-width="961" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0CIlmerPGF4zz531AM2fPgLPH9nUugEanaJ2ToKB_QoccdZOljPV5NyrwJEvcGeRFc8x1O3h1amQMBcVlDg45NsS2CglFNYvLwiMEYXT3lBF_yUWKk8j4jybdV2bSRQdpwJg4OSXlRenw/w590-h640/Submissions.png" width="590" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-62256132155775523532021-09-10T06:56:00.005-05:002021-09-10T10:36:48.011-05:00Cover Art for Issue 4 by Jake Kelly<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUz4P0icNjMBxy8VHuSnJ9_qIurUul4QzA1d7irzKSqjI8Jx7UwtnsJOe1gm2eN37eoi1zQXNRZHB3QKOu9GPFJahuIYu6NU66XtqAIIKPNweyok9d1u1Z-UWU3WI4yGHZwhWH4jZXmxVH/s2048/unicorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1324" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUz4P0icNjMBxy8VHuSnJ9_qIurUul4QzA1d7irzKSqjI8Jx7UwtnsJOe1gm2eN37eoi1zQXNRZHB3QKOu9GPFJahuIYu6NU66XtqAIIKPNweyok9d1u1Z-UWU3WI4yGHZwhWH4jZXmxVH/w414-h640/unicorn.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-80348719449687096812021-07-07T09:28:00.003-05:002021-10-17T11:08:42.882-05:00Submissions Open (Issue 4)Submissions are open for Whetstone (Issue 4). <i>Please note our contact information changed</i>.<div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6ITlM7-sOykRkf5xLfoDA9g-xwXpJbe0IORaVXasP-PTJ-7_k87diq4-1cWyS8XY-oFtpCVmKfa8wtVpWP8fDXUoBwu-p8jvSoQ0QH0iGM3ZuZcYPH07sCEQjh4O-p332qSuNtvjeN6m/s960/whetstonelogo.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="956" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq6ITlM7-sOykRkf5xLfoDA9g-xwXpJbe0IORaVXasP-PTJ-7_k87diq4-1cWyS8XY-oFtpCVmKfa8wtVpWP8fDXUoBwu-p8jvSoQ0QH0iGM3ZuZcYPH07sCEQjh4O-p332qSuNtvjeN6m/s320/whetstonelogo.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div><br /></div><div><span style="text-align: justify;">Submissions: OPEN (Issue 4)</span></div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="text-align: left;">• Submission deadline for issue 3: </span><b style="text-align: left;">Sunday, September 12th, 2021, 11:59p.</b><br style="text-align: left;" /><span style="text-align: left;">• Editorial decisions: </span><b style="text-align: left;">Sunday, October 17th, 2021.</b><br style="text-align: left;" /><span style="text-align: left;">• Publication of Issue 4: </span><b style="text-align: left;">Friday, December 3rd, 2021.</b><br /><div><br /></div></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Length</b>: We prefer short, compressed stories that are nevertheless complete and cohesive narratives (1500 to 2500 words). These limits are firm. No more, no less.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Style</b>: We prefer “dialog light, action heavy” fiction with vivid imagery that is unselfconsciously literary but nevertheless takes joy in an occasional old word that gives the breath of antiquity.</div><b></b><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><b><b>Publication, payment, and rights</b>: </b>Issues will be published as .pdf files. If work is selected for publication in WHETSTONE, authors will (1) be paid an honorarium of $10 and (2) will be asked to provide, by contract, "First North American Serial Rights." In our opinion, this means that copyright is NOT transferred. All copyright stays with you, the writer; however, you will have sold/transferred a form of "exclusive use rights" called "First North American Serial Rights" (FNASR). This is the right to publish your unpublished work for the first time, and ONLY the first time, <i>no more</i>. The important thing to remember is that some professional publications may ask for FNASR upon acceptance of a specific work; you are not legally permitted to provide those for that specific work after publication in WHETSTONE, for you have already rendered their use to us. In other words, once you publish a work in WHETSTONE, that works' associated FNASR have been sold/transferred. You CAN publish your previously published work elsewhere as a reprint but only as long as that publication does not require FNASR. This is a long way of saying that WHETSTONE is an amateur publication, meant for showcasing emerging talent for the consideration of professional markets (which is why we kept the word count so low). In essence: <i>save your best work for higher paying markets!</i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b>Submit</b>: Proofread standard manuscripts should be sent to the publisher at <b>spiraltowerpress@gmail.com</b> as .doc or .docx attachments. Include the following subject line: "WHETSTONE: [Last Name]." Please keep cover letters brief. A story title and a one- or two-sentence bio is sufficient.</div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-9543860874082392052021-06-11T16:37:00.014-05:002021-06-13T16:38:38.458-05:00Whetstone Issue 3 Now Available!<p style="text-align: justify;"><i>Whetstone </i>Issue 3 is now available. You can download it <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E5PI06Xv7RMWW1IO2VBKqHjWFMhD2toS/view?usp=sharing"><b><span style="font-size: large;">HERE</span></b></a>. This issue includes several great stories. Thanks to Chuck Clark (Associate Editor), Jace Phelps (First Reader), and all the great contributors for helping us release this issue. <i>We hope you enjoy it!</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2TsVnpdE3Va3KiLFtS9yQ0nOgF_BmfXO9lLDiZcLA0Mr8glINwnJtUzAvs7ebDDOtiU_V7ivohwvSPXZeeC0bKTDZ0uGukXvSjByjJJqeRtc5IKFgGqzkL75HEkWAyzfvAXXUm7-H3pIL/s2048/0001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1325" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2TsVnpdE3Va3KiLFtS9yQ0nOgF_BmfXO9lLDiZcLA0Mr8glINwnJtUzAvs7ebDDOtiU_V7ivohwvSPXZeeC0bKTDZ0uGukXvSjByjJJqeRtc5IKFgGqzkL75HEkWAyzfvAXXUm7-H3pIL/w414-h640/0001.jpg" width="414" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8301674069181769418.post-69591720909015191272021-01-12T09:38:00.004-05:002021-01-12T09:39:11.385-05:00Flashes of Wonder Prompt: Setting as Character Contrast<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s1528/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1528" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUyoUUyp9B7lOoD-Mx6sCE4kRjW0NbuJhYpIMXXypOgk1NsnzbSSVMEm8ptYS5vzugw75b4Peq2xb53H2v3zzCzfXc8DuuUef0Afq2eQMYP152uaVmsNTIfVerW9NaJqav7Y3b_A3FbKQ-/s320/Flashes+of+Wonder.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magics to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">"Flashes of Wonder" is posted irregularly. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. -JRC</span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-family: courier;">Setting as Character Contrast</span></b></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Vivid setting in sword and sorcery can bear thematic weight. A swamp can suggest sorrow and decay. A desert can evoke hopelessness and austerity. A verdant jungle can bring to mind sensuous vitality. Indeed, "setting" can almost become "character" in sword and sorcery. </span></p><p style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Consider Robert E. Howard's famous description of Cimmeria, Conan's homeland, as rendered in poem "Cimmeria."</span></p><i><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Vista on vista marching, hills on hills,</span></i></div><span style="font-family: courier;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Slope beyond slope, each dark with sullen trees,</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Our gaunt land lay. So when a man climbed up</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">A rugged peak and gazed, his shaded eye</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Saw but the endless vista - hill on hill,</span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: courier;">Slope beyond slope, each hooded like its brothers.</span></i></div></span></i><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">The colorless and monotonous land that Conan abandons to begin his life of adventure in the various vibrant kingdoms of the Hyborian Age adds a imporant dimension to his character. Could it be that Conan is uniquely Conan because he is a Cimmerian, a mirthful man fleeing a sorrowful and sad landscape?</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;">Write a sword and sorcery flash fiction that uses setting to contrast a character. For example, write about a just warrior in a lawless slum, a pious monastic in a sensuous temple of profligacy, a sage scholar in a barbarous, illiterate frontier. Focus on "extreme close-up" details: flora, fauna, matter, dynamic activity. 400 words.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: courier;"><br /></span></div><div><div><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="http://facebook.com/whetstonemag/" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Facebook.</b></a></div><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; font-family: courier;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; font-family: courier;">on </span><a href="https://discord.gg/ezEMRD4" style="font-family: courier;"><b>Discord.</b></a></div><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">WHETSTONE </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on </span><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;"><a href="https://twitter.com/SorceryWs">Twitter</a>.</b></div></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span face="Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: courier; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b style="color: black; white-space: normal;">Sword and Sorcery </b><span style="color: black; white-space: normal;">on <b><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/SwordandSorcery/">Reddit</a>.</b></span></span></span></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com