Morlock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

Actually the barrels are full of water. But one of them serves as a candle-stand, so…

My story “The Red Worm’s Way”–one of my personal favorites, as it shows Morlock at his surliest and drunkest–has been sold to Flashing Swords. Again. FS first bought the story when Howard A. “Indiana” Jones was the editor. When HAJ left for greener fields and blacker gates, the new editor, for reasons best known to himself, dumped my story with some others in an unedited e-book which was available briefly before the publishing company folded. When Flashing Swords came back to life, the editors set about resuscitating the anthology, adding some new stories and authors. It should appear next year as Return of the Sword. Judging from the honor roll of authors, not to mention the cover art, it looks like a venture I’ll be proud to be a part of. (Actually, I already am.)

And John O’Neill at Black Gate has bought the latest Morlock story, a lighthearted piece titled “Destroyer.” It has dragons, and a horde or so of the buglike Khroi, gigantic carnivorous spiderfolk, teenagers, a werewolf, prophecies of doom, an Orestes complex, magic, murders, and fun for the whole family, at least the ones who survive. My guiding principle on this one was “Enough! or Too much!”, I guess. “More jokes and less dismemberment” might be a good recipe for the next one–but I’m not too far into it yet, so don’t hold me to that.

About JE

James Enge is the author of the World-Fantasy-Award-nominated novel Blood of Ambrose (Pyr, April 2009). His latest book is The Wide World's End. His short fiction has appeared in Black Gate, Tales from the Magician's Skull, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and elsewhere.
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9 Responses to Morlock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels

  1. sboydtaylor says:

    “More jokes and less dismemberment”

    This is also my personal motto 😉 (joke!)

    • JE says:

      Well, there has to be a little dismemberment, for people who don’t like jokes.

      Thanks again for the link to the Blake site. As I was typing in the Blake quote I thought to myself, “I wonder what that page actually looks like?” and went to nose around the Blake archive a bit. Which is why I didn’t post the entry until 4 in the morning (local time).

  2. Glad to hear Red Worm’s found a new home, and that you sold Destroyer. Always good news when a sale is (re)made. 🙂

  3. sartorias says:

    More Morlock? Oh boy, sick as I am, now I’m glad I stayed up doing this LJ run. Yippee!

  4. hvond says:

    It’s a pleasure to add both Morlock and yourself to the antho, James!

    That “Destroyer” story sure sounds like fun, too! Congrats on the continued life with Black Gate. Merry Christmas!

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