Adrian Cole - Who has the eighth story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the eighth writer included in the anthology: Adrian Cole:

Closing this volume is Adrian Cole’s “A Confusion of Renegades”. Adrian Cole is a native of and lives in North Devon, England and has been in nearly every volume of Swords & Sorceries. In a career which spans 50 years of publication in 2024, Adrian has had some three dozen novels published and close on 200 short stories. He works in several genres, including Heroic Fantasy, Sword & Sorcery, Horror, SF, Mythos and supernatural crime. He has appeared in a number of Year’s Best anthologies and in 2015 his Nick Nightmare Investigates won the prestigious British Fantasy Award for best collection.

His latest published work is Germanicus. Lord of Eagles (DMR, US), the second in his epic War on Rome trilogy, set in an alternative Romano/ Celtic Europe in the days of Rome’s emperors.

Further new works that have appeared recently include a reprinting of his Sword and Planet saga, The Dream Lords, a compendium volume of the initial three volumes with new material, and a new volume, the sequel, Dream Lords: Legacy, both books from Cirsova Press, US. His Elak of Atlantis stories, which bring back into print Henry Kuttner’s celebrated Sword & Sorcery Atlantean king, have been collected and published with new material in a trilogy from Parallel Universe Publications, each illustrated by Jim Pitts: Elak – Warrior of Atlantis, Elak – King of Atlantis, and Elak – Sea Hawks of Atlantis.

 

Jay Litwicki - Who has the seventh story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the seventh writer included in the anthology: Jay Litwicki:

Jay Litwicki is a long-time resident of the American Southwest, currently living in the mountains of Northern Arizona. “I’m at the end of a 33-year career as a public school educator and administrator. In that time I taught History, Language Arts, and Theatre in grades 7-12 as well as 10 years as a Head of School. Over the years I’ve written during school holidays, primarily short fiction inspired by the classic fantasy, swords and sorcery, and science fiction authors I read and loved as a youth. I’ve had a handful of such tales placed in small presses over the years. I will be retiring in the summer of 2025 and look forward to starting a new chapter in my life and embarking on a full-time writing career. I can be found at @jaylitwicki.bsky.social

 

 

Gregory D. Mele - Who has the sixth story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the sixth writer included in the anthology: Gregory D. Mele:

“The Salt of Tilantokka” is Gregory D. Mele’s first story in Swords & Sorceries. Gregory tells us that he has had a passion for sword & sorcery and historical fiction for most of his life. An early love of dinosaurs led him to dragons, and from dragons… well, the rest should be obvious. From Robin Hood to Conan, Elric to Aragorn, Captain Blood to King Arthur, if there were swords being swung, he was probably reading it. His fiction has largely been set in Bronze Age-meets-Mesoamerican setting of Azatlán and includes three story cycles: heroic adventure following the exile Sarrumos Koródu, occult detective fiction from the “Journals of Ométl Five-Rabbit” and dark fantasy involving tales of those who bargain with the Azatláni Otherworld, and what results. His stories have appeared in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Whetstone, Schlock Webzine and Tales from the Magician’s Skull as well as the anthologies We Who Are About to Die (Rogue Blades, 2022) and Die By the Sword (DMR Books, 2023).

Outside of the world of fiction, Greg’s been a journalist and tech writer, and since the early 1990s has been one of the early and leading researchers in reconstructing Historical European Martial Arts, having published a number of translations on medieval Italian combat arts. He co-founded the Chicago Swordplay Guild in 1999, which remains one of the largest “HEMA” organizations in North America. He lives with his family, a collection of sword, armour and far-too-many books, in the suburbs of Chicago.

 

Robert Mammone - Who has the fifth story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

 

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the fifth writer included in the anthology: Robert Mammone:

Author of “Bad Moon Rising”, Robert Mammone was first published in 1989. “I've written widely in horror, science fiction and fantasy. I've been published in Doctor Who Magazine, had horror audio stories released by Pseudopod.org, seen several books published based on the Doctor Who character, Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart from Candy Jar Books, and recently a slew of sword and sorcery tales from places like DMR Books and Sword and Sorcery Magazine. As an Australian, I am especially proud to have a story in the recent anthology about deadly Australian fauna, Killer Creatures Down Under, as well as numerous other collections, including my own, Your Evil is My Good. When I'm not crunching numbers at a major Australian bank, or podcasting as co-host of 42 to Doomsday, I'm in the garden, pondering my next story.”

 

Phil Emery - Who has the fourth story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

 

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the fourth writer included in the anthology: Phil Emery:

Phil Emery’s last story in Swords & Sorceries was in volume 7. His work has been published in the UK, USA, Europe and Canada since the seventies. A novel, Necromantra, was published in 2005 by Immanion Press, and reissued in a revised second edition in 2015. Various stories have been published in US and UK fantasy anthologies and another novel-length fantasy, The Shadow Cycles was published in 2011.  Besides two collections of short stories and verse, The Celt in the Machine and Arabesques from the Edge of Time, and a collection of gothic monologues, his most recent appearances were in the much anticipated Neither Beg Nor Yield and a poem in Dark Horizons. He currently has a couple of stories scheduled in Phantasmagoria and Penumbric. He and Ead Brown were interviewed a while ago on my blog davidandrewriley.blogspot.com as two of the contributors for Neither Beg Nor Yield.

 

Virgo Kevonté - Who has the third story in Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10

 

From my Introduction to Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy Volume 10 (to be published in May) here are details of the third writer included in the anthology: Virgo Kevonté:

Newcomer Virgo Kevonté joins us with “Death Abandoned”. He tells us that he currently eats, writes, and works in Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia “where inner city graffiti is written by and appropriate for children of all ages.” His work can be found in Analog Science Fiction and Fact Magazine and New Myths. He has a couple novels looking for a home. Find out more about him at virgokevonte.com.