Sunday 30 May 2010

Sale! - The Grief of the Bond-Maid

Some good news! - My short story The Grief of the Bond-Maid has been accepted for publication in the upcoming Storm Moon Press anthology Cast the Cards, and will be on sale for Hallowe'en this year!

Storm Moon Press is a LGBT imprint and the rules for this anthology were: 1) it had to be a romance; 2) it couldn't be a straight het couple; and ... 3) it had to be themed on one of the Major Arcana of the Tarot. I ended up setting my story in Viking-era Norway, so it's actually themed around the Runes too, and my heroine is a shaman-witch ... (There is no such thing as overkill, is there?) The Grief of the Bond-Maid is a gritty magical fantasy about a slave woman who falls in with a hot m/m couple and begs their help killing off her owner, who is particularly nasty rune-priest of Odin.

I loved writing this story. It was a joy to be able to pull out all the magical stops instead of just writing "realistic" contemporary erotica. And although I worked for years on a living-history Viking site, this is the first time I've put any of that stuff into a story. Wierd, huh?

So anyway, I'm pleased as Punch!

10 comments:

Jo said...

Hurray for that, and I'll be queuing up to read it.

ArrowOfAdonis said...

Me too! Can't wait to read it!

:)

Janine Ashbless said...

Thanks guys! I way over wrote on this one - had the most difficult time lopping it down to the word max without losing all the period detail OR the sex. Or the crazy magic stuff! It's long short story, but it could have so easily been a novella...
:-)

Danielle said...

ah..congrats..sound slike a tarot-bag of wonders!!!

Fulani said...

Sounds excellent - very imaginative setting, and you're right, there is no such thing as overkill!

Janine Ashbless said...

I thought not, Fulani!
;-)

And yes, Danielle, I'm really interested in seeing the other stories in the collection too. Was there a massive fight over who got "The Lovers," I wonder?

Liz said...

Sounds great!! Am I allowed to ask which card you picked?

Janine Ashbless said...

I picked "The Hanged Man," Liz. If you know your Norse mythology, it ties into the Odin thing.

Liz said...

Inspired! Can't wait to read it. Thanks for answering :) (I know some Norse mythology, mostly thanks to the Sandman & Lucifer comics!)

Janine Ashbless said...

Go Gaiman! He's a mine of obscure mythological references.