Shotguns & Sorcery is a fantasy noir setting — think Lord of the Rings written by Raymond Chandler — I first developed as a roleplaying game setting back in 2001. It takes place in a massive city ruled over by a Dragon Emperor who protects the people from the ravenous hordes of undead monsters that mass against its walls. I’d originally licensed it to Mongoose Publishing and hoped to have it in stores in 2002.

And then my wife got pregnant with quadruplets.

That kicked Shotguns & Sorcery past the back burner, out the window, and into the backyard. Cut to ten years later. The kids are fine and healthy, and I’m ready now to dive back into that setting again — but this time as fiction.

I wrote the first Shotguns & Sorcery story last year for Robin D. Laws’s upcoming anthology The New Hero 2, from Stone Skin Press. I fell back in love with the world right away, and I returned to it for another story for Marc Tassin’s anthology Carnage & Consequences. Now I’m itching to write novels for it.

To give you a taste of the world, I’ve released that second story — Goblintown Justice — for free. Here’s the teaser text:

“Ex-adventurer Max Gibson knows he’s found trouble when he stumbles out of his favorite tavern and into a murder scene, but when he realizes that both the victim and the blood-spattered orc kneeling over her are old friends of his, it gets far worse. Arrested as an accomplice to the crime, Gibson must work fast to find out what really happened and clear his name before his still-living friend pays the ultimate price.”

Please read it, enjoy it, and get excited for what’s to come.

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Tags | dark-fantasy