Last week Pulp Hero Press released the long-delayed anthology Lin Carter’s Flashing Swords #6. A controversy over editor Robert M. Price’s introduction erupted almost immediately, and the book was de-listed and deleted. I believe most readers of the DMR Blog are aware of the details, but for those who are not, here’s a brief summary. The majority of Price’s introduction was a diatribe against feminists and had little to do with the stories in the book. A good number of people were upset by it, including many of the authors. Some even said Price’s introduction made them sick to their stomachs. Others expressed their disapproval less dramatically. Pulp Hero Press requested that Price either rewrite or remove the intro, and when he refused, the book was de-listed. If you haven’t read Price’s introduction and would like to judge it for yourself, it was posted in its entirety at Legends of Men.

But the question remains, what will happen to the stories that were in it? Price plans to self-publish a revised version of Flashing Swords #6 once he finds replacements for the stories that were withdrawn. (He asked me if DMR Books wanted to publish it; I declined.) Only four stories remain from the original lineup: “Varla and the Mad Magician” by Glen Usher and Steve Lines, “Bellico and the Tower of Mouths” by Richard Toogood, and both of Price’s stories, “Immortals of Lemuria” and “The Emerald Tablet.”

Meanwhile, Pulp Hero Press has tapped Jason Ray Carney (of Whetstone fame) to edit a new anthology entitled Savage Scrolls, which will include three stories that were slated for FS6: “The Tower in the Crimson Mist” by Adrian Cole and two by Steve Dilks, “The Lion of Valentia” and “Tale of Uncrowned Kings.” Savage Scrolls will also include a new story by David C. Smith, among other contributors. The tentative release date is November 15th.

Four stories, those by Paul R. McNamee, Cliff Biggers, Charles R. Rutledge, and Frank Schildiner, are still unaccounted for. Presumably they will be submitted to other anthologies or periodicals.

What of my story, “A Twisted Branch of Yggdrasil”? I’d always planned to include it in a collection of my own stories. It’s something I’d had in mind for a long time, in fact. When planning my release schedule at the beginning of the year, I had penciled it in for the fall, probably November. I was told by Bob McLain from Pulp Hero Press that Flashing Swords #6 would come out in the spring, and we had agreed that I would wait at least six months before reprinting “Twisted Branch,” so I thought that would be plenty of time. March came and went without FS6. So did April. At this point I was considering withdrawing it, since I wanted to release my collection relatively soon. In early May I was told that FS6 would be released within two weeks, if not sooner. Two more months went by before a release date of July 20th was finalized. It actually came out on July 29th, and then it was gone in a flash. All that waiting for nothing.

However, there’s a bright side to all this. Now I don’t have to wait six months to release my collection! Necromancy in Nilztiria will be available in next month, and the cover illustration (which you can see to the left) is based upon “A Twisted Branch of Yggdrasil.” In this tale, the Norseman Hrolfgar and the Atlantean Deltor have been drawn through the labyrinths of time and space to the world of Nilztiria by a sorceress, who commands them to slay her enemy, Xaarxool the Necromancer. But as you can see this is no easy task, for Xaarxool has giant skeletons to defend him.

“A Twisted Branch of Yggdrasil” is the first of thirteen stories that will appear in Necromancy in Nilztiria. Nilztiria is a world of adventure and strangeness, peopled by lusty heroes and callous villains. If you enjoy sword-and-sorcery stories with the emphasis on sorcery and a touch of gallows humor, you will certainly want to read Necromancy in Nilztiria. Look for it in September.