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New Edge Sword & Sorcery 2024

Created by Brackenbury Books

Sword & Sorcery magazine featuring short fiction, non-fiction, and gorgeous art. Made with love for the classics, and an inclusive, boundary-pushing approach to storytelling! Luxurious hardcover, classic softcover, and accessible digital formats.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Magazine Proofs and a New Book!
13 days ago – Fri, Sep 06, 2024 at 11:51:02 AM

IN SHORT

  • PROOFS: We've reached an important new stage - the Ozalid proofs! After we go through these proofs on one last proofreading, we'll send our final files to our printers, who'll begin production of the physical issues. See pics further down.

    Issues 3&4 are still available for pre-order.

IN DETAIL

Ozalid proofs are full prints of each issue that are intentionally done on very cheap paper, and left unbound.

The point of them is to have a final, physical object you can use to check for typos and make sure the layout is coming out the way it should.

Even in this format, it sure is fun to see the endsheets as a physical object!

We've also received ribbon samples to choose from for the hardcover edition's bookmarks.

...and glossy, quality loose covers to check how the colors have reproduced (much better than this quick phone pic suggests!).

And one interior art page we were unsure about... Luckily it reproduced just fine! Here's an extremely tight crop/zoom. Who this person? You'll find out when you get issue #4 of NESS.

But first I gotta pour a giant mug of tea and get to proofreading these Ozalids...


MEANWHILE
Two novellas, bound in one book.
Mongol-inspired Sword & Sorcery.
A claustrophobic, pressure-cooker siege, and a caravan striking out under an open desert sky.
Dariel Quiogue and Bryn Hammond.




I'm proud to have been working with both authors since the very beginning of NESS, in whose pages you may have read Dariel's Orhan the Snow Leopard & Bryn's Goatskin, and a year ago was very happy when they said "Yes!" to teaming up for this daring new project. Each author has written a new, 35,000 word novella featuring their star characters - I've read the manuscripts and boy have they put their backs into creating these stories!

If this book succeeds it will be a great boost toward us launching more Sword & Sorcery novella series next year. It's a length that works very well with this fast-paced genre, as Robert E. Howard proved himself in works such as People of the Black Circle, with room for greater development of plot, character, setting; yet lean enough to never outstay its welcome.

You can learn more about the book, including who the internal illustrators will be, by heading over to the campaign teaser page. As is our way, there will be great campaign exclusive benefits and you should sign up to be alerted when the campaign launches on Sept 19th so you don't miss out.

Fulfillment Schedule Update & An Unboxing Video
about 2 months ago – Mon, Jul 29, 2024 at 08:34:12 AM

IN SHORT



IN DETAIL

It looks like we'll be shipping out issues to backers around the same time as we did last year, in November.

We'd worked hard to get ahead on production this time around so we could ship much earlier, however this ended up being undone by basically two things:

  • Oliver's puppy had to have unexpected major surgery, the recovery from which was incredibly draining on his entire household in terms of time & energy. Truly, Oliver did not understand the meaning of the word "exhausted" until this nine week period came about.|

    Thankfully it's all over now, and Polly the puppy is fully recovered.

  • In short, the various mundane delays caused by none of our staff doing this for a living added up. 

It's always tempting to create timelines on the basis that Nothing Will Go Wrong, and you better believe we've learned our lesson on that!

We're still glad we worked hard to get ahead, though, since that is why we're able to ship about the same time as last year, rather than much, much later.

We can report that our progress bars are a nice, hearty wall of green at this point. Just a few contracts to sign and we're done.
We've also ordered our first set of proofs from the printer, and are optimistic we can get them the final print files in time to make the revised "Some time in November" timeline.

Thank you all for your patience. When the advance copies are in we'll share some spoiler-free pics, and when the print run is on the boat heading over from Hong Kong, we'll share its progress in a series of posts on our social media accounts.

WEE PIN UPDATE

As head of NESS, our editor & publisher was able to get his hands on a few of the new pins, leading to some new photos that show off how varied they are, and a fun unboxing video you can watch here: https://youtu.be/FaguuxYC7Sc?si=pfN_fYj9PYBPgKvW

If you'd like to add one to your pledge, you can pre-order the pins here, then we'll see that and ad it to your pledge so as to save on shipping. Done that way it's only about one extra dollar shipping in total.

REVEAL: Rainbow Metal Battle-Axe Pins!
3 months ago – Wed, Jun 26, 2024 at 06:08:56 AM

We very much appreciate those who took a chance on our rainbow metal battle-axe pin when all we had to show was this mock-up image:


Now the manufacturer has just completed our order of pins and, before packing them up to ship to our fulfillment site, they sent us a picture.



And you can watch a very short video clip here (sorry, can't embed video in updates) that shows off how the colors shift with the light.

Pins will be shipped along with orders, and can still be pre-ordered here: https://newedge2024.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders/611564

We hope you'll share pictures of your own pins out in the wild!

REVEAL: Hardcover Endsheet Design
3 months ago – Fri, Jun 07, 2024 at 10:21:39 AM

Those of you getting issues #3&4 in hardcover will see the marvelous upgrade that is our new, original endsheet design!

If you're seeing this update but haven't backed us, don't worry! The hardcovers of issue 3&4 are still available for pre-order: https://newedge2024.backerkit.com/hosted_preorders#store

Now, here's a fun preview graphic made by the designer, Babe & Oak:



This toss surface pattern utilizes a mix of visual motifs that we felt evoked Sword & Sorcery while riffing on our battle-axe logo in a recognizable way.

You'll notice certain motifs in the design are white and others are red. This is because red & white are the two main design colors for issue three:

This means that in the endsheet design for issue four, those motifs will be yellow & purple because....

You get the idea! In future issues we'll keep tweaking the colors slightly to match the cover designs in just the same way, making every issue's endsheet design unique.

Meanwhile NESS production proceeds apace, and we'd love for folk to check out & share our first ever book, BEATING HEARTS & BATTLE-AXES: https://www.backerkit.com/c/projects/brackenbooks/beating-hearts-battle-axes

Progress Report, and Our First Ever Book!
4 months ago – Tue, May 21, 2024 at 07:09:16 AM

Hey everybody!

IN SHORT

  • Production of issues #3 and #4 is thundering along nicely. So far there have been no big delays, and we will keep you appraised of the situation if this changes.

  • We are publishing our first book, and you can now sign up to be alerted when the crowdfund launches. The sign-up, or "landing", page will tell you more about this exciting anthology!
    https://www.backerkit.com/call_to_action/5532acc9-ad76-4409-921b-5aa4d4443aa1/landing

IN DETAIL

Progress on issues three and four continues apace. We are miles ahead of where we were with last year's issues at this time! Below is a screencap of our Excel spreadsheet progress bars, pushing across from left to right. The names of authors (above) and artists (below) have been cropped so as not to shame anybody.

We continue to do our best to make our goal of "Summer 2024", and will keep you all updated if there is a delay in shipping out the finished issues.

We had to navigate some challenges recently, such as one author dropping out unexpectedly, however we took the opportunity there to do our first open submissions call. This was for seven pieces of 850 word flash fiction - one to go in the sticker story at the back of issue three, the other six to be printed within the issue as one, scrolling set of six stories.

The author's and their stories are as follows:

STICKER STORY: The Barber of Rem Um, by Andrew Whelan 

And, in no particular order.. 

THE SIX: 
  • Against the Witch-Prince of Emdal, by W.O. Balmer
  • The War-God's Hound, by Samantha Rich 
  • Of Cabbages and Stone, by Timaeus Bloom
  • The Ferryman's Price, by Melissa Burlock
  • Sister Soldier, by R.L. Summerling
  • High Water, by James A. Estes

This submission process was very enjoyable, in no small part thanks to our valiant volunteer slush readers, and has left our editor considering opening up a slot or two (or more?) in our 2025 issues for open submissions. We'll let know what's happening there as soon as we know!

Meanwhile we are proud to announce...


This anthology of six spicy Sword & Sorcery tales with a romantic relationship at their heart will be the first book put out by the people behind New Edge Sword & Sorcery magazine!

Our editor has been sitting on this idea since April 2023, let it slip a little in an interview or two earlier this year while promoting NESS, and is happy to finally, officially announce it now.

Publishing moves slowly, but you should move quickly to check out the landing page for full cover art, who's our interior illustrator, what formats it's available in, and more!