SWORD & SORCERYE YS AN AWESOME GENRE. Thys ys a great crowdefunde

Yes, but for our 2027 issues! That will be during the entire month of August and our guidelines are unlikely to change, so you can check them out here: newedgeswordandsorcery.com/submissions/

I originally clicked through for the reference to curse tablets, but: "As an exercise, have your characters turn their pockets out... how does what they carry reflect on their personality?"

AHHHH SWORD AND SORCERY - I LOVE THIS GENRE. THIS IS GREAT. I want to see more in the S&S genre. Shorts, novellas, novelettes, novels. ALL OF THEM. And more diverse backgrounds and cool ass different ideas.

One of our editors has some fiction AND non-fiction in this one! If you liked "The Feast of Saint Ottmer," Contra Amatores Mundi, or his Warhammer stories, you'll probably like this story too. Back the magazine and get cool stuff!

The other half of the early agriculture shitpost canon:

I keep hearing from friends getting confused/caught up in bookclub promotion scams and wasting time because of them. IME, a book club doesn't need to contact you to choose your book for their club. Any book club that contacts me, from a group I don't already know, wanting anything more then to say-

Must say I'm especially enthusiastic for this year's @newedgeswordmag.bsky.social issues. Multiple reasons for this.

The problem with bluesky is that everyone wants to talk about AI all the time and no one is ever talking about Mongolian folk music

I'm too slow on the social media. Excited to announce that Swords Against! and my buddies over at New Edge Sword & Sorcery are teaming up for out crowdfunding efforts. We both launch tomorrow at 8am Eastern! Come to the party. www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti... www.backerkit.com/call_to_acti...

Lost in all of this is the original intention of this project: A regular/monthly Sword & Sorcery Newsletter with reviews and essays and reporting on cool stuff about that weirdest of fantasy genres. It's all shilling atm, but I swear it'll get there: newsletter.swordsagainst.com

New Goatskin story by the inimitable historian of Mongolia and spinner of steppe stories @brynhammond.bsky.social. This among many other goodies.

👇 that's my Goatskin 👇

Google Maps explorer moment: I just saw a dead seagull in the video for someone's Google Maps review.

👉 Word to the wise: If you want a copy of NESS #1 in softcover, pounce on the crowdfund because going by last year...we will almost certainly sell out.😮 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

If you were a member of Worldcon 2025 or are a member of Worldcon 2026, you could nominate “What Lies and Threats” (April, Speculative Insight) for Best Related Work or “A Grumble of Goddesses” (Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet, December) for Best Short Story, if the fancy took you.

Now I'm wondering how many big names from the Age of Exploration were simply creative at dodging household responsibilities.

⚔️Sword & Sorcery is a great genre for art fans. Born in a magazine called Weird Tales, it's always had a strong tradition of dynamic, out-there art being paired with its titanic tales!🎨 & 🖌️We carry on this tradition by filling NESS with incredible illustrations! 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

⚔️Sword & Sorcery protagonists are rarely Chosen Ones, royalty, or otherwise. They're always outsiders, just trying survive in a harsh world. Relatable!⚔️ & 📜We're increasing the magazine's pagecount and upgrading its paper to something more textured!📜 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

⚔️1 Like = 1 Reason to Love Sword & Sorcery🧙‍♀️ (✨and 1 Reason to be excited about the NESS 2026 crowdfund!📚) 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Any time is a good time to subscribe to Speculative Insight - AUD30/year gets you an extra dozen essays, AND the 6-monthly ebooks with exclusive content! It's just over USD21, and GBP15! Subscribe now and get the Dec 2025 ebook as a bonus... www.speculativeinsight.com/subs

So I'm catching up on reading some @typebarmagazine.bsky.social articles, and the opening of this piece on the human body in cyberpunk goes way harder than I anticipated.

Without downloading any new pics describe your gender

bane voice: you merely adopted "coping with rejection sensitivity", I was born in it

And if you still want stories about wizard schools anyway: Did y'all know that Ursula K. Le Guin had the wizard school idea first and also wasn't a brain-rotten billionaire monster? Anyway, do read June's work.

You want to read this. A unique & beautiful example of the gnarly empathy genre.

5th century Visigothic warlord:

Actually, you should read my sword and sorcery tales instead (most of them are free and they absolutely rip ass) + they have trans heroines luanawrites.carrd.co

Carved in Stone is a comprehensive setting guide for early medieval Pictish society, and as such my work on it was wide and varied and included illustrating real artifacts, speculative penannular brooch designs, and even the animals that would have inhabited their world.

That sign doesn’t bother him because he can’t read

I will forever be on team "the past is more metal than we think"

Discord is already starting to walk things back a little, so people should keep doing what they're doing (cancel Nitro, leave feedback/criticism, direct contact through support tickets/phone/email/etc)

Tonight, we're back to Sickos™ cinema, this time with The Holy Mountain (1973). I've heard things, but only so much, so let's see how this one tests me. Incidentally, we seemingly have another movie About Religion today, though this time I'm reasonably optimistic that it'll actually be good.

Who do the winning medals belong to: country or empire?

Are they spiritual opposites? Foils to one another?

Jack Duffy attaches a respirator to his bagpipes to play through tear gas. “I always play it whenever the police retreat because it's like, ‘You fucking ran while we stayed,’” he says. The full story: lataco.com/protest-bagp... By Julianne Le

Writers:

Let's just say if film writers keep coming up with material like this, scholars among us like @arobertswrites.com can have full-time jobs as history of religion consultants. Annoying, perhaps tedious jobs, but still.

It's loads of busywork at work today, so I'm squeezing Black Death (2010) into my movie marathon. This has Sean Bean in it, so thete should be at least one good performance, and I'm in the mood for some grunge medieval (or probably faux-medieval) cinema anyway.

What's interesting in the replies and quotes here is that there are evidently quite a number of conservative artists of note, but they're overwhelmingly of that milder, merely old fashioned type. Exceedingly fewer are hardcore reactionaries or avowed fascists.

I'm trying! I'm trying!! kyr-1066.itch.io/a-series-of-...

Well, this is rather timely. Here's a groovy piece by a Tuareg band from the Sahara:

Previously

My email to [email protected] is sent Let the backlash be swift and unrelenting

We're fully funded and we're adding stretch goals! We're already getting close to the first one, which adds a new adventure to the zine!

Cover detail from the forthcoming Clark Ashton Smith themed dungeon synth project Arcanist, inspired by the dying earth of Zothique . More info soon.

Choose your fighter

⚔️WELCOME BACK DANIEL VEGA!⚔️ @thecodexnoirmatic.bsky.social will have new illustrations in this year's issues. Go here to see more cool art, gaze upon mighty crowdfund exclusives, and sign up to be alerted on launch day 👉 www.backerkit.com/c/projects/b...

Heavy stuff, and much to say about the exploitativeness of the entertainment industry (and fans). Lessons we would've done well to have collectively remembered. But also: I'm a tad surprised directors kept trying to make mind-bendy psychological thrillers for a good while after this came out.