A single-author anthology unified by theme rather than setting is unusual. I’m sure someone else has done it, but I’m not aware of any. The reason I’m doing it is simple: I like stories about magic-users, and I noticed I’d written several and decided to go for a collection. <\/p>\n
I’m submitting these stories out to magazines and anthologies, in the hope of getting as many as possible published before I do the collection. It’s a kind of social proof thing. The downside of that is that I’ll have to wait for the rights to revert, and that sometimes takes a year from the date of publication, so the book is unlikely to be published before late 2015 (more likely early 2016). <\/p>\n
Given that I’m planning 13 stories, and my stories average about 3000 words, it’s probably going to have a total wordcount around 40,000, unless I find a story that needs to be longer.<\/p>\n
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<\/dt>\n- seanmcgrath<\/a> \/ Foter<\/a> \/ Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic (CC BY 2.0)<\/a><\/span><\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n
So far I’ve written four stories which are out on submission, and which cover Necromancer (“Axe Stone: Svart Detective”), Sorcerer (“Family Curse”), Wizard (“Alix and the Dragon”, though I may write another wizard story and substitute it), and Alchemist (“Lock and Key”). I have another one in beta (“Mail-Order Witch”), and a sixth story partially written (no title as yet; it’s about a thaumaturge). The settings include a mashup of a sword-and-sorcery city with Damon Runyon’s noirish 1930s New York; a city that could possibly be Edwardian London; a secondary-world dukedom; a sword-and-sorceryish place with similarities to the Crusader kingdom of Outremer; and more-or-less contemporary Alaska.<\/p>\n
The rest of the stories will cover Mage, Shaman, Adept, Illusionist, Warlock, Theurgist and Enchantress, unless I have better ideas, which is always likely.<\/p>\n
The tone of the stories I’ve written so far generally includes some humour, though that’s not always the case (the sorcerer story is pretty serious, and more like an old-style Weird Tale of the 1930s). That’s not to say that they don’t also include drama involving love and\/or death. <\/p>\n
I’ll be sure to post about any of the stories that get accepted for publication elsewhere, so you can pick them up if you want to get in early, and it’s likely that one or more of them will end up as bonus content for members of my mailing list<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve been working on this one for a little while now, but I decided it’s time to announce it on my blog. Makers of Magic will be a single-author themed anthology, thirteen stories in twelve settings (two Gryphon Clerks ones), … Continue reading