I’ve been a mite busy lately, and it’s possible I’ve let some stuff fall through the cracks. The one I just realized I’d failed to make a fuss about was the release of the first ever fantasy anthology to include one of my stories, Neverland’s Library! It’s time to set that right.
Fans may at this point notice that I tend to associate myself with killer covers.
Roger Bellini asked if I was interested in contributing a story to his anthology ages ago, and I decided it was worth giving a try since until then I’d never really kept any of my stories short. The closest I came was Jade which overshot my intended story length by a factor of five or so. What I came up with was a story called The Stump and The Spire. It is a story of rediscovery (which is the theme of the anthology), involving a young boy and girl learning a bit about the history of their world. Their world, by the way, is the same one from The Book of Deacon, roughly in the same era as Jade. So for those of you who are desperate for the teeniest little taste of a new Book of Deacon story, Neverland’s Library is the place to get it.
More importantly, though, I’m lucky enough to share the book with nineteen gifted authors that put my own storytelling to shame! I’ve included the full lineup below. There are some remarkable folks on the list, and also me! Not only that, but I’m lucky enough to be working with some of them again on a future anthology which also includes a Book of Deacon tale. (See! I didn’t forget about my main series!)
Mark Lawrence – Deception
J.M. Martin – Shadow Dust
Brian Staveley – Dead Ox Falls
Tim Marquitz – Redemption at Knife’s Edge
Jeffrey J. Mariotte & Marsheila Rockwell – A Soul in the Hand
Kenny Soward – The Machine
Betsy Dornbusch – Season of the Soulless
Stephen McQuiggan – Redfern’s Slipper
Keith Gouveia – Fire Walker
Jeff Salyards – The Height of our Fathers
William Meikle – The Last Magician
Ian Creasey – Restoring the Magic
Mercedes M. Yardley – Charlotte and the Demon Who Swam Through the Grass
Peter Rawlik – On the Far Side of the Apocalypse
Joseph R. Lallo – The Stump and the Spire
Teresa Frohock – Love, Crystal, and Stone
Don Webb – The Tune from Long, Long Ago
R.S. Belcher – An Equity in Dust
Marie Brennan – Centuries of Kings
Miles Cameron – Renaissance
There have been precious few reviews of this anthology so far, but those that have surfaced are singing its praises. If you like fantastic stories about rediscovery and magic, I think you’ll want to give this anthology a try. And I’m not just saying that because I want to get rich, since I’ve already been paid for this and won’t make another dime no matter how many they sell. I just think it’s a great set of stories.
Thanks for reading!