Suddenly, I have been illustrated …
Filed under: My Fiction/Writing
The image above, the work of artist Jim Ordolis, represents the very first time a magazine has illustrated one of my stories with a scene created specifically from that story.
How cool is that?
Thanks to Ordolis for permitting me to showcase his work here. You can see more of his stuff at his Web site.
Each panel above goes with a story in “All Possible Worlds,” issue 2. The lower panel depicts a scene from my story Two Kings in Zalzalla, a tale of politics, war and wisdom. In this scene, Perrin (the man in the nifty dress armor, which I really, really like) is confronting his father Ulbin, the aging king.
Ordolis says the editors at APW select the scenes they want depicted, then let artists decide which ones they want to illustrate. He thought my story went well with his style, and so came up with the art above. The panel depicts the Zalzallan quarters in far more detail than my story does (I tend not to dwell overmuch on such things), but there is nothing in the art that seems out of place or alien to me. I think Ordolis captured the mood of things.
And I want a suit of armor like Perrin’s.
Two Kings in Zalzalla shares some things in common with The First Casualty, a short fantasy of mine in the newest edition of Electric Spec. Both stories feature protagonists who are quite set in their beliefs, instilled from youth with words of patriotism and martial glory. Both learn the world is far more complicated than they were brought up to believe. Come to think of it, that theme plays out a lot in my Faceless Sons stories, too.
Hmmmm. Maybe I’m on to something.
You can buy “All Possible Worlds” here. LATE EDITOR’S NOTE: You won’t be able to subscribe, though; APW has announced on its web site that it is shutting down. Damn.
You can read The First Casualty right here.
– Steve
P.S. And while I’m shamelessly plugging my fiction here, let me provide links to Tell’s Choice, my historical ghost story over at “Every Day Fiction,” and to The Bloofer Lady, a horror story of mine over at “Down in the Cellar.” Both of those are decidedly different from the stories mentioned above.
Hello, and welcome to the blog of a sword-and-sorcery writer. Most of the stuff here is about writing fiction, but you'll also find some stuff about beer and Godzilla, a few bits of Zen, really short film reviews and my now-and-then rants about social injustice.Use the box below to search for topics within this blog.You also can find topics by category, using the list further down in this sidebar.
By the way, why aren’t you sharing your shameless plugs with the crit group anymore? Don’t you love us anymore????
SC … Of course, I still love you. (Even though you did kick me out of the crit group because I fell behind on crits). Anyway, I can’t access the alumni kudos thread anymore and I haven’t received a “Writer X sold this!” email in quite a while. I thought maybe you guys didn’t love me anymore …
Most of these stories that are showing up now are stories I sold a while back, so I think I did brag about all these except maybe Tell’s Choice to Every Day Fiction, which I just plain forgot to email you about about. Hmmm … now that you mention it, I think I forgot to plug The First Casualty in the crit group, too. (Since I can’t access the kudos thread, I can’t remember what I plugged and what I didn’t. Nice problem for me to have, though, huh?)
Anyway, I’ll not be so remiss in the future, assuming I sell more stories.
– Steve
Thanks for the plug, Steve!
Kicked you out? You dropped us like a rock once you hit The Big Time
Seriously, you haven’t been getting the kudos emails? Let me double-check the email address I have for you. (And you’re more than welcome back.)
Hey Steve! “Technical glitch” (i.e., my incompetency) has been corrected. Sent out your kudos.
Thanks, SC!
Very, _very_ cool on the illustrations. A shame about All Possible Worlds.
Thanks, Camille. Yea, I read about it here on Steve’s blog, also. I got my comp copy of All Possible Worlds in the mail today and it looks just gorgeous. The production values are top notch and a totally professional package. I’m really happy how they treated my work and I can’t wait to read it. I’d like to suggest to everyone if I may to go out and buy a copy and help support the small press.