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My name is R.T. Kaelin. I am an indie fantasy author and a long time, mostly lurking Kossack. To date, I have written and published two epic fantasy novels (both of which have an average 4.6/5 star rating at Amazon and have hovered in the top 100 bestselling for Historical Fantasy) as well as over a dozen short stories. I am in the process of selecting an agent so I am not sure how much longer the ‘indie’ modifier will apply.
In the days immediately following Hurricane Sandy, it was impossible to escape the horrific, heart-wrenching images coming out of the northeast. I watched the coverage and knew I wanted to help. But how?
Again, I’m indie, which basically means I have a ‘real’ day job, one that I cannot abandon to physically go and help those in need. I have a family. Food needs to go on the table, mortgage needs paid, and so on. I thought about giving money as I have in the past after other disasters, but that somehow seemed inadequate. “Sorry your home is gone. Here’s fifty dollars.” I wanted to do more.
Then, inspiration struck. The idea started off as many do, small and flimsily constructed. Simply put, it was, “Hey, I wonder if I could get some authors to donate a short story so I could put together an anthology and donate the proceeds to the relief efforts?”
To gauge interest, I sent a quick email to a collection of about twenty authors with whom I have come to know in the past couple years. Their response was an emphatic yes.
They emailed friends and acquaintances and, soon, messages began flooding my inbox. Within a week, I had thirty committed authors, a couple of editors, and an illustrator all volunteering their efforts. A week later, I had forty authors. And more than a few of the names in the ‘From’ spot made my eyes open wide.
For one: Robert Silverberg.
Yup. The Robert Silverberg. You know, the Hugo and Nebula Award winner and inductee to the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.
Oh, and Marion Zimmer Bradley, author of Mists of Avalon and Locus Award winner. She is…what’s a word for bigger than a legend? Whatever it is, she’s that. The MZB Literary Trust contacted me and offered to donate one of her stories.
And then there was Elizabeth Bear. And Michael J. Sullivan, Mark Lawrence, Bradley P. Beaulieu, Philip Athans, Adrian Tchaikovsky, andâoh, heck, join me below the orange nebula for the full list along with more details.
• Stephen D. Sullivan
• Rick Novy
• Jean Rabe
• Maxwell Alexander Drake
• SM Blooding
• Erik Scott de Bie
• Alex Bledsoe
• Elisabeth Waters
• R.T. Kaelin
• Ari Marmell
• Matt Bone
• Sarah Hans
• Rob Rogers
• Jaym Gates
• C.S. Marks
• C.J. Henderson
• Marian Allen
• Bryan Young
• Donald Bingle
• Janine Spendlove
• T.L. Gray
• Miya Kressin
• Steven Saus
• Addie King
• Rob Knipe
• Vicki Johnson-Steger
• Tracy Chowdhury
• Doris Stever
The anthology guidelines were simple: the story could be of any genre, but must follow the theme of “Triumph Over Tragedy,” which also happens to be the name of the collection, and be mostly family friendly (do not include any of George Carlin’s Seven Words You Can’t Say on TV). Granted, there is a heavy weighting of sci-fi/fantasy authors here, but only because of who knows who.
The cover.
As things got rolling, and it became apparent this was no longer a small effort, I set up a donation page at IndieGoGo.
To date, we've raised close to $1100. That campaign will continue to take donations until the end of the year at which point the anthology (hopefully) will be ready and will go on sale. We have non-exclusive rights to all the stories for 180 days at which point, the book comes down.
I and two other editors have been busy reading and editing the stories as they come in. Each is unique, well-written, and a welcome addition to the anthology. To be honest, I’m having a tough time deciding on story order. Regardless, by the time this thing is done, I expect it to be close to 200k words. In case you are not aware, that’s a pretty big book. Most novels are in the 130k-150k range. (Mine are 250k. But, then again, I write epic fantasy).
So, if you like short stories, consider chipping in. Or pass this along to someone who might be interested. You will not be disappointed.