About

Heroic Fantasy Quarterly is an ezine dedicated to publishing short works of heroic fantasy. More than that, through both prose and poetry we hope to hearken back to an older age of storytelling — an age when a story well told enthralled audiences. Traits of great oral storytelling survive the ages to influence treasures of literature, the pulps, radio plays, late-night game sessions, and now Heroic Fantasy Quarterly.

Our favorite storytellers, a few ancient and a few not, deliver action, reaction, and repercussion — and rarely divulge the thought processes that guide a character. These storytellers know that sometimes an audience just wants to see what happens next, that sometimes it’s more interesting to watch a person open a box than to hear about why he or she decided to open it in the first place.

Here’s a little more, then, about what you’ll find inside the HFQ box . . .

As our name suggests, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly isn’t limited to stories about swordsmen or far-traveling adventurers; it’s also about fantastical lands and magicks and creatures — both friend and foe — which together make heroic fantasy tales memorable and distinct from other sorts of stories.

But the tales at HFQ share another quality no less important than any other: our prose starts fast, with an emphasis on action.  Be it an exchange of blows or insults, the spurring-on of steed, or the application of poultices to wounds, things happen and happen quickly in the pages of HFQ.

So if you like some sorcery with your sword and the prospect of blood with your poetry, bookmark us (or subscribe via RSS) and look for new issues at the first of August, November, February, and May.

Want to cut to the chase and see the best of the best of what we have to offer?  We make it easy with our Best-of Anthologies, just click on the cover!:

 

 

 

Heroic Fantasy was founded in 2009 by David Farney and Adrian Simmons.  Through the years we’ve relied on several great sub-editors to help us out!  Our 2023 cadre includes James Patrick Rowe, Neill Baker,  Eric de Roulet and Heather Wilke.

Neil Baker runs April Moon Books with annoying irregularity, and his last publication, The Call of Poohthulhu, did very well, thank you.   Neil writes short fiction, claims he is writing a novel, and lives in Ottawa surrounded by family and cats.

Eric de Roulet is an aspiring author of horror-tinged fantasy and fantasy-tinged horror; by day, he’s an interdisciplinary social studies PhD student who previously taught English abroad. He considers himself a second-generation S&S reader, having been raised in a household reasonably well versed in Howard and Moorcock’s works. He also writes literature/film analyses and nonfiction articles about worldbuilding, including an upcoming article in Worldbuilding Magazine.