Heroic Fantasy Quarterly–Q32
Heroic Fantasy Quarterly helped get 2017 off to a good start, and we continue the trend with issue 32. Three stories, two poems, bonus artwork, and a bonus story!
But before we get to the meat of issue 32, we need to unveil a dramatic turn of events. At Heroic Fantasy Quarterly we have a lot of pride. We promised ourselves we wouldn’t be one of those sites constantly knocking on your social media door, helm in hand begging for change. When we put out our first best-of in November of 2015, it was hoped that the best-of anthologies would be a yearly thing. That has turned out not to be the case; which is why we are coming to you, our readers, fans and supporters, to help us bridge the funding gap through our Best-of Volume 2 Kickstarter campaign.
That’s right! We are hopping on the crowdfunding train. With a basic $500 goal, and a set of intuitive stretch-goals, we figure this’ll be easier than cleaning out that lair of Kobolds back in ’87. Click on our kickstarter ad on the right and be part of the action!
Onto the issue!
Fiction Contents
The Death of All We Are, by Liz Colter. An alum of HFQ, Liz returns with an outstanding story about magic and the prices to be paid to make the magic work.
Seraph, by Ian McHugh. The Wyrding Wars have littered the world with dangerous magic, and as people struggle to make a living, creatures of the Before time have their own agendas.
The Enemy’s True Name, by Mark Silcox. A mage has risen in the south to frenzy the people there to make war upon their northern neighbors. A retired soldier takes the mission to find this Black Sorcerer, and the races against this own past.
Bonus Story! Hard Crossing at Luhimnov Ford, by Adrian Simmons. It is back to a fantasy bronze-age for this story of dueling, pride, and trying one’s best to stick. To. The. Plan.
Poetry Contents
Nightforest, by Andrew Stockton. There are dangerous paths that must be tread, paths both inside and out.
Northman’s Daughter, by Joshua Hampton. HFQ alum Joshua Hampton is back with a remarkable twist on red-handed Viking revenge.
Artwork
That lair of kobolds back in ’86? It was tougher than it looked because they had orc allies. And to honor their valiant struggle, we present Orc Shaman by Mark Molchan. Mark Molchan is an illustrator based out of Portland, Oregon. Inspired by the comic book artists and illustrators of the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, he has produced gallery work, murals, illustrations, portraits, and landscapes.
He’s been published in Spectrum Fantastica Art annual and the Infected by Art annual, where his work won bronze in the digital category, and 5th in the Grand Prize Winner.
He has created artwork for The Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim, and Tomb Raider Reborn IP’s for the official Bethesda and Square Enix stores, as well as working with Jon Schindehette for the ArtOrder© brand.
His latest piece, “The Return” was nominated for a Chelsey Award in 2016. Currently mark is working on his first children’s book, painting murals for the local schools, and designing posters for the Classical Ballet Academy in Portland.
Check out more of his work at his website.
Raphael Ordoñez brings “The Enemy’s True Name” to life. Raphael Ordoñez is a mildly autistic writer and circuit-riding college professor residing in the southwest Texas hinterlands. His short stories have appeared in several magazines, and his paleozoic adventure fantasy novels, Dragonfly and The King of Nightspore’s Crown, the first two in a planned tetralogy, are available from Hythloday House. He blogs about fantasy, writing, art, and logic at Cosmic Antipodes, and his story “Heart of Tayshyas” (with his own illustration) was published in HFQ #31.
Miguel Santos is back with the artwork for “Seraph”. His illustrations at HFQ can be found in “Seven Moves on an Ordrulk Board” and “Spatha Stercae“.
Goings On
David Farney: David’s been working behind the scenes on the kickstarter and herding the cats necessary to power the Best-Of Volume II.
Adrian Simmons: Adrian’s been multi-tasking like there is no tomorrow. He’s got stories coming out in 2017 at Strange Constellations.
William Ledbetter: Since issue 31, William’s novelette “The Long Fall Up” was nominated as a 2017 Nebula Award finalist, winners will be announced on May 20th at the Nebula Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. His story “Tethers” will be included in “The Year’s Best Military and Adventure SF“ from Baen Books, which can now be pre-ordered and will be available everywhere in June of this year. His flash story “Where Everybody Knows Your Name“ is available to read for free at Daily Science Fiction. Two of his stories will be featured at the “Art & Words“ show at Art on the Boulevard in Fort Worth, on October 7th.
James Rowe: You may well know James more for his poetry and fiction, but in his professional life he is a philosopher. Upcoming in the Summer, 2017 volume of the peer-reviewed journal The Philosophical Forum, you will be able to read his “Time and Change”. In this paper, he proposes that time and change are not identical, but rather that time is what makes change possible (by allowing for multiple moments in which change can occur), though were no changes to ever occur in a given universe, there would necessarily be no time. On the poetic front, you can find his recent poetry at Songs of Eretz Poetry Review as part of his continuing tenure as a frequent contributor, including “Introspection” and “Water-Tight Soul”.
Barbara Barrett: Speaking of heroic, Barbara was in need of an open-heart surgery that would hit both the Aortic and Mitral valves. A surgery so complicated that she had to go on a QUEST to find a surgeon crazy enough to do it. March 26, 2017 she went under the knife and made her saving throw, made a constitution check and lives to edit another day!
SKELOS ISSUE 2.
SKELOS issue 2 came out in the middle of the run of HFQ #31, so we are doing our bit to boost the signal for a brother-in-arms.
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