Greetings My Sword Compadres,

I’m here to give you details on the collaborative ‘zine we’re doing with New Edge Sword and Sorcery.

First off, what’s a ‘zine?

It’s short for a short magazine. I dunno. I’m not responsible for English.

What’s cool about it is that it’s like the old Ace Doubles. What’s that mean?

It’s a book that’s two books. And you flip it to read the other one. See gif below for New Edge’s great double-edged book Walls of Shira Yulun and Waste Flowers.

Ours isn't a full book, but a 'zine with two short stories. Saddle-stitched. Monochrome cover. But, it’s going to be friggin’ cool. 

Craig Brasco will do our cover – you can see a sample of his line work below along with Gary McCluskey (he’s doing the second cover for New Edge’s side of the book!)

But who’s going to write the story?

That’s a great question. I can’t tell you who’s doing the New Edge side (that’s for Oliver’s update!)

I’m proud to announce Bryn Hammond will do our story. I’m so damned excited about that. Love, love, love her work – especially her Goatskin stories (one of which you can read in New Edge’s book shown above. She wrote Waste Flowers). It’s such a great character. She has questions, she’s afraid, she’s human… but she also picks up her weapon and fights – whether it’s a tent pole in the wheels of a chariot or her nomad wits. It’s a great honor to have Bryn in the first issue of Swords Against!

Bryn Hammond (she/her) lives in a seaside town in Australia with an enormous number of books, half of them about the steppe. She has written a Goatskin sword & sorcery novellas Waste Flowers and What Rough Beast? for Brackenbury Books. Her historical fiction series Amgalant closely follows the Secret History of the Mongols, a 13th-century life of Chinggis Khan. Voices from the Twelfth-Century Steppe is her craft essay. She has stories in ergot and New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, and poems in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly and Old Moon Quarterly. Catch up with Bryn at www.amgalant.com