This campaign funds Seers in a Broken Season, a Stone Age sword-and-sorcery novella by Jonathan Olfert, starring the mighty mammoth, Walks-like-a-Rockslide. 

This book will contain approximately 33,000 words of fiction, a traditional hand-painted full cover artwork by esteemed fantasy artist Brian LeBlanc, and (uniquely for Old Moon’s campaigns), it is already fully written, edited, and laid out! That means printing can (barring any stretch goals we meet) begin immediately after the campaign concludes. 

Speaking of printing; the novella itself will be available in two formats:

Stretch goals for each edition include black-and-white illustrations by Old Moon veteran, Simon Underwood, and a map of Walks-like-a-Rockslide’s world. 

Walks-like-a-Rockslide is a Stone Age sword-and-sorcery character created by Jonathan Olfert, first appearing in Old Moon Quarterly Volume 5.

Walks-like-a-Rockslide is a mammoth of the Blue Ochre People, in those years before the long ice covers the world once more. He is a warrior, proud and mighty; sometimes brash, sometimes compassionate, often ill-tempered. He has slain giants; he has redeemed cannibals. 

-Herman Melville

In SEERS IN A BROKEN SEASON, Walks-like-a-Rockslide, blade-tusked hero of the Blue Ochre People, flees the creeping ice, seeking the sweet grasslands for the mammoths of his herd. But after discovering the gnaw-marked bones of one of the Deep People, he finds himself embroiled in a war of revenge against the cannibal whalers of the shore. The specter of his grandmother—sorceress and matriarch of the mammoths—haunts him. Honor, and fury, and (on occasion) even compassion compel him. Will he whet his tusks upon the whalers? Or will he, like the Deep People, fill their bellies? 

Jonathan Olfert is a Canadian author of speculative fiction. He has written two tales of Walks-like-a-Rockslide already, both published in Old Moon Quarterly magazine. He’s published over 50 stories, including his critically acclaimed Churchlands cycle, in award-winning magazines such as Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Analog, Lightspeed, and elsewhere. His work has appeared three times in the Year’s Best Canadian Science Fiction & Fantasy anthology series.

Brian LeBlanc is an acclaimed artist in the tradition of classic fantasy covers; his previous work includes the cover for John R. Fultz’s sword-and-sorcery collection Worlds Beyond Worlds, and Schuyler Hernstrom’s The Eye of Sounnu. His works are hand-painted oil on canvas.

Our stretch goal artists include Simon Underwood, whose work has appeared in publications by Old Moon Quarterly, Ancient Sage Games, New Edge, and others, as well as a full-page black-and-white map of Walks-like-a-Rockslide's world (or at least, the part of it we see in the novella).

The pledge levels for the digital edition and the paperback edition should be quite self-explanatory (the paperback edition also includes the digital files, though), but we have a few bundles that might appeal to our esteemed readers:

This stretch goal unlocks a full page black-and-white illustration by Simon Underwood.

This stretch goal unlocks a black-and-white map of Walks-like-a-Rockslide's world.

This stretch goal unlocks a discount in shipping costs for all backers outside the United States: $5 off for Canadian backers, and $10 off for anyone outside of North America.

This stretch goal unlocks a second full page black-and-white illustration by Simon Underwood.

Every backer at the physical tier will receive a custom bookplate sticker signed by Jonathan Olfert. 

We’re partnering with James D. Mills at The Arcanist Literary Magazine and Rogues in the House podcast for this crowdfunding campaign. That means anyone who backs both our novella and The Arcanist’s magazine campaign will get a free flipzine containing brand-new stories by Jonathan Olfert and James D. Mills. 

Early Backers

Every backer at the physical tier in the first 48 hours will receive an exclusive 2x6 inch bookmark featuring Brian LeBlanc's cover art.

We are aiming for a fulfillment in Q4 2026.

During the fulfillment process, BackerKit will calculate any shipping that may be required when you fill out your delivery address.

Shipping costs will not be assessed and billed until then! You are only being charged for your pledge amount at this time. We hope this helps to keep the cost of shipping down due to current fluctuations in domestic and international shipping costs.

To further keep shipping costs down, we will be shipping both issues together. Back issues purchased through our Add-Ons will also be shipped with those two new issues for the same reason.

US: $10

Canada: $25

International: $40

Thanks to everything we learned publishing our past issues, we're confident about producing this novella in a timely manner, and at the high level of quality our readers have come to expect.

We've successfully funded our previous campaign for 2023, and delivered those issues (despite some setbacks with authors and printing) in 2024. We funded our second campaign (by 157%!) in 2025, and are in the process of delivering it (after some other unavoidable authorial delays) in 2026. For this campaign, we have some advantages: there is only one author; the story is already completely written, edited, and laid out for print; the art (barring any stretch goals) is already complete. Quite literally, all we must do is send the file to our printers, print them, and deliver them.

 

To further mitigate risk, we’ve brought on a crowdfunding and fulfillment professional, Sara McHenry (https://www.saramchenry.com), who did excellent work for us with our previous campaigns. Since 2013, she’s helped her clients raise over $3.5 million in crowdfunding money for their creative projects. Her specialties include setting budgets and timelines, structuring reward tiers, working with vendors, shipping logistics, and motivating the unmotivated creator.

Should any challenges arise with things we have no control over, such as supply chain issues, our backers will receive timely, detailed updates on the situation.