Swords in the Shadows

It was an age of adventure. An age of sorcery. An age of unrelenting horror. Sword and sorcery and pulp horror go hand-in-hand. Sinister enchanters working foul magic. Hideous beasts lurking in shadowy dungeons. Blasphemous elder gods uncoiling from forgotten and forbidden temples SWORDS IN THE SHADOWS features twenty-one stories with a bloody stake driven into the heart of both the horror and fantasy camps. Herein, you will find fantasy worlds, brave warriors, fabulous creatures, wondrous magic. But you will also uncover bloodcurdling chills, spine-tingling horror, and an examination of those things that truly terrify.

Mike Oliveri is a writer, martial artist, dad, motorcyclist, and cigar aficionado. Not necessarily in that order. L.C. Mortimer loves ghosts, zombies, and monsters. Her work features diverse characters who explore unexpected places and find monsters they didn't plan to meet. Mortimer especially loves any type of horror story that has a mysterious twist. Her latest series, Stay Dead, features the zombie apocalypse and agroup of cruise ship survivors. Mortimer lives in Kansas with her family. Stephen Graham Jones is the NYT bestselling author of nearly thirty novels and collections, and there's some novellas and comic books in there as well. Most recent are My Heart is a Chainsaw and The Babysitter Lives and Earthdivers. Up in February is Don't Fear the Reaper, and at some point after that, I Was a Teenage Slasher. Stephen lives and teaches in Boulder, Colorado. Justin C. Key is a speculative fiction writer and psychiatrist. His short stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Strange Horizons, and Crossed Genres. He graduated from Clarion West in 2015 and earned his MD from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai two years later. Mary SanGiovanni is an award-winning American horror and thriller writer of over a dozen novels, including The Hollower trilogy, Thrall, Chaos, The Kathy Ryan series, and others, as well as numerous novellas, short stories, comics, and non-fiction. Her work as been translated internationally. She has a Masters degree in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University, Pittsburgh, and is currently a member of The Authors Guild, The International Thriller Writers, and Penn Writers. She was a co-host on the popular podcast The Horror Show with Brian Keene and her own podcast-turned-blog on cosmic horror, Cosmic Shenanigans, and is currently a cohost of The Ghost Writers Podcast. She has the distinction of being one of the first women to speak about writing at the CIA Headquarters in Langley, VA, and offers talks and workshops onwriting around the country. Born and raised in New Jersey, she currently resides in Pennsylvania. Wile E. Young is an author who not only has a price on his head but also specializes in southern themed horror stories, both terrifying and bizarre. His novels include Catfish in the Cradle (2019), The Perfectly Fine House (2020), and the Magpie Coffin (2020). His short stories have been featured in various anthologies including the Clickers Forever (2018), Behind the Mask- Tales From the Id (2018), Corporate Cthulhu (2018) and And Hell Followed (2019). Jonathan Janz is the author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories. His work has been championed by authors like Joe R. Lansdale, Jack Ketchum, and Brian Keene; he has also been lauded by Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, and School Library Journal. His ghost story The Siren and theSpecter was selected as a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror. Additionally, his novel Children of the Dark was chosen by Booklist as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year. Jonathan's main interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children. Glenn Parris writes in the genres of sci-fi, fantasy, and medical mystery. Considered by some an expert in Afrofuturism, he is a self-described lifelong sci-fi nerd. His interest in the topic began as a tween before the term Afrofuturism was even coined. CULLEN BUNN is the writer of creator-owned comic books such as THE SIXTH GUN, HARROW COUNTY, BONE PARISH, THE DAMNED, THE EMPTY MAN, REGRESSION, THE GHOUL NEXT DOOR, and BASILISK. He has also written books such as DEADPOOL KILLS THE MARVEL UNIVERSE, UNCANNY X-MEN, and ASGARDIANS OF THE GALAXY for Marvel; SINESTRO and LOBO for DC; and SHADOWMAN and PUNK MAMBO for Valiant. Heath Amodio is the co-creator and co-writer of The Heathens (Aftershock) and the Croatoan with Cullen Bunn. He founded the TV and Film production company Hustle & Heart Films with Cullen in 2018, where they