Issue 7 of Whetstone Now Available (Free)

 

Whetstone Issue 7 is now available for free. You can download it HERE (Issue 7). 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)

You can access our previous six issues here as free PDFs:

Issue 1 Issue 2 Issue 3 Issue 4 Issue 5 Issue 6

Cover for Whetstone 7

Here is our cover for Whetstone (Issue 7), to be published as a free and open access pdf this Saturday, July 17th. Original art by Geraldo Marinho.

Calling All Whetstone Contributors: Database of Serial S&S Characters

To all Whetstone Contributors,

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 Whetstone. 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:

Dear Editor,

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:

https://swordandsorceryreviews.blogspot.com/p/contemporary-sword-and-sorcery-series.html

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.

Their byline

The name of the character (or characters in the case of duos or whatever) name

One paragraph about the character—this can be pretty much anything: inspiration, plans, a character bio, whatever

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.

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.

Hopefully this all makes sense, and hopefully we can together build a good resource for the community.

Sincerely,

Christopher Rowe

Flash Fiction: Amidst the Sleeping Castle, by Liam Q. D. Hall

A few days ago, we shared a Flashes of Wonder writing prompt titled "Rendering Villainy through Costuming." 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.

Amidst the Sleeping Castle

By Liam Q. D. Hall

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. 

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. 

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.  

He went to the quatrefoiled door of bronze, the porter a skeleton at his post. He entered the maw, steps calling to its inhabitor. 

Clack, clack, clack through the passages, the Exile wended. The light hushed like evening sunshine, silencing the grave stillness already present. 

Crossed spears in stiff grips, the owners desiccated but still standing sentinel heralded the throne room.

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. 

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.  

Energy built in the angsty room long unaccustomed to pregnant moments.

"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.

Flashes of Wonder Prompt: Rendering Villainy through Costuming

UKA THE UNDYING, the zombie sorcerer, is experimenting with flashes of dark magicks to blast the minds of bards! Illustration provided by Mustafa Bekir.

"Flashes of Wonder" is posted irregularly. It will feature a sword and sorcery flash fiction prompt. -JRC

Rendering Villainy through Costuming

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. 300-500 words.

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." 

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Call for Submissions for Whetstone (Issue 7)

 Submissions: OPEN (Issue 7)

• Submission deadline: Friday, March 31st, 2023, 11:59p.
• Editorial decisions: Sunday, May 7th.
• Publication of Issue 7: Friday, June 17th, 2023.

Special Guest Editor for Issue 7: Dr. Nicole Emmelhainz 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 The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies and has presented widely on elements of pulp fiction, sword and sorcery, and feminism.

Length: 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! 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.

Style: 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 eschew typographical emphasis and variation--e.g. bolding, italicizing, underlining (there are more artful ways of rendering verbal timbre).

Publication, payment, and rights: 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!

Submit: 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. 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.

Managing Editor: Managing Editor: Jason Ray Carney 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 The Dark Man: Journal of Robert E. Howard and Pulp Studies 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 Weird Tales of Modernity (McFarland Press) and Rakefire and Other Stories (Pulp Hero Press).

Associate Editor: 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 Whetstone and The August Derleth Society's newsletter, Sage of Sac Prairie. He loves collecting rocks, books, and whiskey.

Associate Editor: Luke E. Dodd is a scientist, devourer of music, and collector of hobbies. He is one of the three hosts of The Cromcast, a podcast dedicated to the works of Robert E. Howard and other weird fiction. He lives in Kentucky with his wife and son.

First Reader: Chase A. Folmar 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, www.chaseafolmar.com.

Updated 1/15/2023

Whetstone Issue 6 Now Available!

 

Whetstone Issue 6 is now available for free. You can download it HERE. 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. We hope you enjoy it! -JRC (Managing Editor)