Heroic Fantasy Quarterly–Q27

Winter is in full swing and a five-planet alignment portends great things. And the great things portended are now at hand! Heroic Fantasy Quarterly Issue 27 comes to you with the full cargo of stories and poems, AND bonus artwork, AND a bonus story.

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Fiction Contents

Crazy Snake and the Tribute for Pachacamac, by Eric Atkisson. Comanche adventurer Crazy Snake returns to HFQ with a new tale of intrigue in the remote islands off South America. Part one of a two-part adventure. This is the third Crazy Snake tale (catch up on the first and second). “Tribute for Pachacamac” has bonus artwork by Richard Hartley.

The Coin and the Mushroom, by Gerald Warfield.  Murder and revenge come to a head in Warfield’s short story.

Four Against Olympus, by Matt Hlinak. Gods and mortals, envy and scheming! Hlnak’s story digs deep into Greek mythology and brings in all the heavy hitters for a tale of Titan[ic] proportions!

Bonus story! The Siege, The Gums, and the Blue. HFQ editor Adrian Simmons presents a tale of a boy rescued by chance, a city besieged, a dying king, and the rough net of allies keeping an implacable enemy at bay. Part one of two.

 

Poetry Contents

Role, by Scott Hutchison. Because looks really are deceiving.

Unvictorious, by Christina Sng. Because everyone needs a little hope.

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Artwork

We took one look at Brad Fraunfelter’s“Forbidden Valley” and knew we had to have it for our winter issue. Oh yeah, you were bad with your wolf-drawn sled but there is bad and there is BAD.

Brad Studied Art and Photography at State University of New York, College at New Paltz, where he received a Bachelor’s degree in “Visual Arts”. Here he studied traditional painting and photography techniques. After college he took up work in Manhattan’s Photo District where he received pivotal training as a freelance Photographer’s Assistant. One day, while working in a custom Photo Lab in NY he was offered the chance to do Retouching work for the company, and rapidly mastered the skill within a few weeks. In 1988 he was offered an illustrator position in Los Angeles, where he made the transition to digital techniques. New digital graphics programs such as Photoshop were just then taking hold.

Brad currently has his own illustration business in Los Angeles where he continues to expand his client base. Over the last 5 years he has created the covers for about 30 books, as well as posters, music album and logo. He has retouched hundreds of photos for fashion, head shots, commercial products, etc.

Brad uses sculpture, photography, digital painting, and his retouching skills all combined to create strikingly realistic, and dynamic fantasy art.

 

Goings On

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly’s Best-Of Volume One is still looming large in all of our minds. Online sales have been brisk, and we are interested to see how we can move them on the convention circuit.

David Farney: Staying on target. Staying on. Target.

Adrian Simmons: His story “Dilution Solution” is included in the Post-Old-Ones-Awakening anthology Apotheosis. He has fiction coming out from Strange Constellations, the recently resurrected Plasma Frequency and Lackington’s .

William Ledbetter:  His story “The Long Fall Up” will be in the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction’s January/February issue.  Since issue #26 he has sold four stories, a flash piece called “Piper’s Due” to Daily Science Fiction, two short stories, “Moonlet Sonata” and “Tethers,” to Baen Books for their Baen.com website. And just recently my story called “Steal From the Sun” to Alliteration Ink’s “No Shit, There I Was” anthology. I will also be a panelist at ConDFW in two weeks and will be attending the International Space Development Conference in Puerto Rico in May.

James Rowe: “The Rise of the Anti-Christ”, a comic which James had the privilege of editing, is finally available for purchase. You can buy the first issue here , the second here, and the third here . The comic details Michael, a madman stricken with the belief that he is Jesus Christ, and his messianic rise when the Devil sees fit to outfit him with proof sufficient for others to believe the same. The results are…electric.

Barbara Barrett:  If you are interested in poetry, and in getting poetry published at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, you could do yourself a favor and check out her book on the subject of Robert Howard’s Poetry (shamelessly advertised here at HFQ). And lest you think it’s all Howard all the time, she’s also delved a bit into Tolkien’s work(s). She’ll be at Windy City Pulp April 22-24 in Lombard, IL.