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We're closing off 2021 in style, folks.
Today I'd like to present you with the newest anthology I am a part of: Sidearm & Sorcery, a compilation of modern sword and sorcery style stories! This one has been in the works for awhile now, and I'm happy to finally present it to you today.
Edited by StoryHack's Bryce Beattie, Sidearm & Sorcery is a compilation of nine brand new adventure stories to get your blood pumping. There's something in here for everyone!
The full list of stories is as follows:
In the modern world, paranormal dangers lurk all around. When there is no chosen one to be found, no altruistic half-vampire around, and no superheros flying overhead, it's up to average people to do the business of defeating evil. They have no powers, no prophecies, and all the odds are stacked against them.
In this short story collection, regular folk find themselves up against nightmare creatures, conniving warlocks, and all manner of supernatural dangers. All set in contemporary environments. Read these nine new tales of magic and adventure today.
This anthology contains the following stories:
Flight Response by Jay Barnson
An army helicopter pilot has a harrowing experience with a mind-controlling sorcerer in Vietnam. Several years later, the sorcerer has resurfaced, but will this wild chance at revenge end in tragedy?
Small Town Sorcery by Bryce Beattie
Supernatural terrors plague a child at night, and her father doesn't seem to be concerned. What nightmare is he trying to hide?
In The Forests Of The Night by Misha Burnett
Politics. Power always brought out the politicians, looking for an angle to drive in a wedge and gain some leverage. Magic was power, money was power, and this case was dripping with both.
From the case files of Erik Rugar comes another tale of magic, mystery, and a detective who is always over his head.
La Bruja by Carlos Carrasco
A New Orleans Police Detective and an Exorcist join forces to rescue a young girl from the clutches of a demonic cult. The trail leads them into the bullet-riddled inner-city streets of the Big Easy where lives and souls are held cheap and rival gang-bangers wage a bloody race war.
Living Land by JD Cowan
After the show, a rockabilly drummer follows a girl who looks like she might be in trouble. The two are swept away into an unexplainable land, where existence turns in on itself.
Under a Mango Sun by Michael DeCarolis
An agent of Thailand's supernatural crime division must infiltrate Bangkok's seedy underbelly to get to the bottom of an enchanted animal smuggling ring, where she finds herself in over her head.
The Undying Past by Dale W. Glaser
A private investigator is coerced into tracking down the cause of a curse on an ancient manor. Will he find the answer before the curse claims his life?
Green Shadow by Jason J. McCuiston
Some New Age cults are fads. Some are nefarious. A rare few actually worship dark gods. When an Afghanistan vet is hired to bring back a runaway girl, he comes face-to-face with the latter.
Prey of the Hamadame by Mark J. Schultis
A mysterious beast is preying on factory workers. A pregnant woman's husband has disappeared. Can an outcast detective find him before it is too late?
Once again, you can find it here!
For my story, you might find a familiar description in the story blurb. A drummer of a rockabilly band? Didn't I write a story starring the bassist of a rockabilly band? Perhaps there is some relation between the two tales?
Yes, actually! They are members of the same band, Three Wolves. In fact, the third story, which features the guitarist, is due out in the upcoming Pulp Rock anthology. A bunch of weirdness seems to follow this band around as they travel. And in the third story you're about to learn something really wild about the setting this takes place in.
But not just yet!
For now I'll say Living Land is a story that I wrote in literally a single sitting. One day, I sat down, decided to push everything to the side and write this tale which had elements that had been brewing in the back of my mind for years now. It's one of the ones the most like the sort of weird tale that would have ran in the magazine back in the day.
The title might not give anything away, but Edward is a man that loves to live, to be alive, and after following a girl that looks to be in distress ends up in a world that looks to be the definition of life! But reality isn't always what we see on the surface, and the two of them have to find out just what it means to not be dead. Which place really is the Living Land of the title?
Saying more would be spoilers, but I was definitely happy to explore the drummer's personality with this one. He is very different from our previous protagonist in Black Dog Bend. Of course, that is by design. All bands are filled with people of varying personalities.
Each member of the Three Wolves is a different person with different goals. You met the bassist: a rational sort that soon finds out that rationality isn't all there is. Now meet the drummer: a wild type that learns being alive is more than the noise you make. As for the guitarist, well, you'll just have to wait on that one. I can't give that away yet! Together they travel down back roads playing shows and stumbling into trouble where there shouldn't be any at all.
These stories were more than a bit inspired by Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John tales, but also from my own interest involving the larger than life mythos Rock music has surrounded itself with since coming into its own over the decades. How much of that is nonsense based on record label hype and how much of it lives in the power of sound itself? To do that, I had to separate music from industry, and that is what the Three Wolves are.
I've been into Rock music since I was a child. Something about the energy, passion, and honesty, really spoke to me. As I got older, I realized how so much of it was corporate controlled rebellion written by poseurs trying to sell an image, but that didn't make the mythic part of modern travelling bards touring the land less interesting. If anything, it made the genuine bands stick out more. What is it that attracts us to the romantic side of this genre?
While I can't listen to groups like Nirvana without retching these days, I can listen to the Meat Puppets or the Replacements, bands attempting to connect with something deeper than empty nihilism or fashion trends in an attempt to forge a bond with the audience. They share something with us, and we take it inside for ourselves.
You're always sharing part of yourself through art, which works better when you have something to share aside from slogans, rote nihilism, or prepackaged politics. You can share a lot in a two and half minute song.
Even more when you realize how much of the genre either explores the romantic side of life and up to the decay of modernity. It's quite the spread. And they do it in such a simple way which allows the initial impact to stick with you even as you get older and wiser.
For example, who would have thought a bunch of ignorant hopeless case teenagers could write songs that effectively skewer the emptiness of the city while also managing to make the audience move and sing along at the same time? It's powerful stuff that shouldn't just be shrugged off. This isn't a medium one can just ignore.
One of the bands that inspired Three Wolves
We'll get some ID, everything is swell
C'mon down, c'mon what the hell
I know it's better than TV, there ain't a whole lot to see
When you're hangin' downtown
Wait, date? No, I can't go
I gotta stick around and watch my show
I know it's better than TV, and there's a whole lot to see
When you're hangin' downtown
Bus stop
Pimps and whores
Liquor stores
Seventh Street
Sixth Street
Bus stop
Bus stop
Bus stop
Bus stop
Anyway, I ain't got no place else to go
Bus stop
Bus stop
Bus stop
Bus stop
We'll get some ID, everything is swell
Downtown, c'mon what the hell
I know it's better than TV, and there's a whole lot to see
When you're hangin' downtown
The song sounds like one of those typical Rock pieces about why TV is bad, but going out and partying is great. Until you get to that breakdown/solo. What is wonderful about hanging downtown? Turns out it's nothing. You might as well stay home and watch TV since it's effectively just as worthless as mindlessly indulging in vice is. But the band manages to do this while retaining rock n roll's biting sound and high energy. It truly is music for guys.
On the other hand, I've also grown more fascinated with the genre's origin points as I've gotten older. As Rock has traveled further from its roots, much like adventure fiction has, it has lost not only its testosterone, but its morality and bearings. The genre as it is now is dead because it hit a wall spurred on by the endless push for Progress at the expense of songwriting. Now, it's all the same early 21st century sounds recycled endlessly, usually with ironic tongue implanted in cheek or obnoxious one-sided, and one dimensional, political screeds.
The only sounds you'll see coming from the genre these days are the same rehashed ones again and again. How many times can you lift from Radiohead or New Order, anyway? And what even are they singing about? Insular psychosis or bland good guy/bad guy political sloganeering. They have nothing left to say beyond empty tropes. They have nothing left to say because they dislike the very source and origins of their own genre.
Rock n roll was built on blues, country, and gospel, three Average Joe Christian forms of music made for the common man to give them hope and inspiration to get through the day. Essentially really coming into its own in the 1950s, it was around 1957 when the freakish concoction known as Rockabilly (originally an insult, because of course it would be) emerged out of the American South to construct a unique combination of rhythm and blues and hard driving fun that the record industry has been trying to make sense of for over half a century since.
This music was made for community get together and fun: socializing. And this flies in the face of the weaponization the industry wanted from the genre. They turned party music into psychosis treatment, and that's why no one cares anymore.
Genre roots: from 1949!
It was only when Brian Setzer and his band the Stray Cats came around in the 1980s that the genre was able to claim its spot as valid by the critique class, who even then would insult it as "warmed over Gene Vincent" and other silliness. This critic group would never understand that good songwriting will always trump "originality" or whatever they're calling the newest Thom Yorke palette swap these days. But even back in the day, being original wasn't enough for Rockabilly: it wasn't saying anything, man. It didn't matter if it was new or people liked it.
But it was saying anything--literally anything. Rockabilly is guy music distilled. It's about girls, cars, hanging out with the boys, having fun, and just celebrating life, even God. It is the core of what makes Rock music so good. It is a celebration of life.
That's what makes it the bedrock of the genre, and why it should be more appreciated by the industry. It is everything about the roots or Rock taken to its base. Without it, your favorite band and song would not exist, because it forms the backbone of that sound.
And that's what I wanted to touch on in these stories. I wanted to bring this energy into a world that appreciates everything except the little things. Where everything is going wrong, a little light can come from anywhere: even a bunch of goobers playing old music that went extinct ages ago. Because why not? As long as it lifts you up, it works.
The main inspiration for Three Wolves
I'll talk a bit more about it when the next story in this series releases with Pulp Rock. For now, I'll just say that it's been a joy to write these and I hope you enjoy them as much as I did when thinking them up. They were a lot of fun to write.
But aside from my Living Land, there are eight other off the wall adventure tales in Sidearm & Sorcery, so be sure to check it out for yourself! It's a ride, I'll tell you.
As for when the physical edition will be out, I do not know yet. It should be on the way in the very near future. I will update when that happens. For now, I am just thrilled that this anthology is finally out the door for everyone to read. It's been a long time coming.
Anyway, that is all for me from 2021! The next time we speak it will be 2022, a whole new year of possibilities.
Have a safe New Years and I will see you next time!
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