First up is a new book from Holly Chism, The Passing of the Age
As always, click on the cover for the Amazon link!
The blurb-
Once, gods and Titans went to war because humanity existed and the Titans…didn’t like that. Will, the blacksmith’s apprentice, was born long after the war’s bitter, destructive, last gasp. It left the land scarred, leaving behind the Wastes, a massive pit in the landscape, dug by poisoned magic. The old world was lost in the ashes, and survivors were left with so little that any who didn’t pull their weight (or had something someone powerful wanted) were exiled to starve in the Wastes.
Just. Like. Will.
Cast out to the Wastes because his father remarried and his stepmother had wanted her children to inherit, he turned to his master, the smith. The smith, who had held Will back to keep using his labor for free, refused to go against the rest of the village, angry though he was to lose Will’s labor. In lieu of the honestly-earned status of journeyman that would have protected Will from exile, his master gave him a bag of grave goods: a hammer (but not a good one), tongs (that were rusting to pieces), and a file (more than half worn out). And two small coins to pay the ferryman when he reached the river dividing life from death.
Will entered the wastes with the clothes on his back, inadequate grave goods, and determination to live through it, in spite of his village. And a mission given him by the Land, and by the god of the wild places, to take the knife he made with his grave goods to the very center of the Wastes. There, he will find his destiny.
Next up is John David Martin with a series of short stories, The Lost Sword and Other Stories
The blurb-
Jared Thorne: A para-human detective and his dryad wife hunting for a legendary lost sword in a multi-dimensional city.
Eysteinn Bjarnarson: A descendant of the viking who settled North America fighting to win the love of the town beauty. His only opposition? A monster of Indigenous Canadian legend and…her father.
Captain Faust of the North American Marine Corps: A descendant of one Dr. Johannes Faust who learns some deals are heriditary. But can they be re-written?
Milo “Wolfkiller” Patel: A teenage bullrider on an alien world facing the challenge of his young career.
Pawel and Tamar: Newlywed asteroid miners whose wedding cruise from the trans-Martian orbit out to the belt turns deadly.
These are the characters whose stories I have faithfully recorded for you here.
Last, but not least, another anthology from Raconteur Press, Moggie Noir: Dames, Derringers and Detectives
The blurb-
In this iteration, Moggie Noir is more than a framework, it’s a mewed.
I feel it is safe to say that we are most inspired by the creative expressions of authors who view genre notes for story calls as a guideline, and who then proceed to stretch the idea like Coney Island saltwater taffy. In this way, we have not been disappointed. The trick is to tug at the theme but still have the recognizable touches that tell the reader this is a noir story rather than a slapstick comedy or big fish story.
So, in this taffy-pulling spirit, we bring you our third Moggie Noir salvo, “Dames, Derringers, and Detectives.” This gritty set of tails will have you rooting for the good guys, hissing at some bad cats, and maybe—just maybe—you’ll see how true love can win in the end.