Heroic Fantasy Quarterly–Q35
Although Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is an international affair, its physical headquareters are in Central Oklahoma, and it has been full-on winter here in central Oklahoma! A weird kind of winter, too, cold, but no snow or sleet or anything. Just the cold, and the wind and the threat that any little spark will light up all that dry grass. HFQ issue #35 is the spark to light up your coldest winter! We are coming at you with three stories, three poems, artwork, and are unveiling our new venture—audio!
Speaking of ventures, our last venture, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Best-of Volume 2, is now available in ebook format!
Fiction Contents
White Rainbow and Brown Devil , by Raphael Ordoñez. Vagabond Conquistador Francisco Carvajal is back! On his way to find the mythic Painted Canyons, Carvajal must face the Demon of Knives and certain horrible truths about his own past, in an adventure preceding his last exploit–part two of our Central American Triple-Crossover–and following close upon the heels of his first outing in “Heart of Tashyas.”
That Sleep of Death , by Mary-Jean Harris. Edwin Galbraith, member in good standing of the Order for Investigations into Curious Metaphysical Phenomena finds himself tasked with infiltrating the Theosophical Society of Canterbury to discover the truth behind odd occurrences and mysterious disappearances. Secret cults! Occult powers! “That Sleep of Death” will sweep you into the 19th Century, tails and top hat and all!
Things of Shreds and Patches, by Norman Doege. The life of a courier to the Lord-Apparent is not without its adventures. Delivering a cryptic missive to a prince of the Hill Tribes draws Scori the Courier and Lord Kervan into a web of political intrigue and danger.
Poetry Contents
Washer at the Ford, by James Byers. A grim goddess of the Celts does her grisly work in this excellent poem.
Dragon Mountain, by Mary Soon Lee. King Xau and his trusted Captain Li answer a mysterious summons. This is a poem from her Sign of the Dragon Cycle. Others that HFQ have run include Seventeenth Lesson and Inheritance.
Fire Lover, by Karen Bovenmyer. You want dragons, you get them in this excellent poem of dueling, fire and love. Ms. Bovenmeyer is a narrator for the horror podcast Pseudopod and she brings those skills to HFQ, starting with the audio version of “Fire Lover”. We look forward to reading, and hearing, more from her in the future!
Artwork
Jereme Peabody continues his series of interconnected banners for us, building on Issue #34’s “Journey’s Beginning” with Issue 35’s “Giant Attack”. You knew that getting through those mountains was going to be a challenge!
Jereme is a software engineer in the DC area and is also a freelance concept artist working mostly on video games and books. He started his artistic career dabbling with sculpting, pencils, and even still-life oil painting. As tablets became available, he crossed over from traditional art to digital by first digitally painting still-lifes, then through experimentation and practice, transitioned to landscapes and fantasy.
Simon Walpole did quite a bit of work of us in the Best-of Volume 2, and he now graces our electronic pages with an illustration for Mary Soon Lee’s “Dragon Mountain”.
Once again, Raphael Ordoñez brings Francisco Carjaval to life in “White Rainbow and Brown Devil”.
Goings On
David Farney: David stays on target. Stays. On. Target.
Adrian Simmons: Adrian’s story “Who Will Ride the Spirit Horse” was published at Strange Constellations, and he continued his bronze-age fantasy stories with “A Prince of the Oschel, the Otherworld, and the Hinge of an Age” at Andromeda Spacways Inflight Magazine. He will also have work forthcoming at Giganatosaurus, and will be a guest at ConDFW in Fort Worth, Texas, in February. His quartro-decadal-review contines at Black Gate with a review of the November 1969 issue of Worlds of If.
James Rowe: Sadly, James hasn’t had much time in the last few months for too much literary activity due to picking up extra teaching time with an ethics class over at the Fashion Institute of Technology and teaching a brand new class on Critical Thinking over at his main professorin’ gig at Baruch College. Nevertheless, Songs of Eretz did publish “The Dream of Defeat” in December and “Cloudy Morning” in November. He also spoke at the 2018 Night of Philosophy and Ideas. The latter has at least some connection with heroic fantasy, as though he didn’t mention any sword swinging barbarians or bone crunching monsters, it was on promises to the dead, which sounds suspiciously like valuing the virtue of oath keeping.
Jennifer Faulk: Please welcome our new Sub-Editor Jennifer Faulk. She joined the HFQ in January 2018.
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