I did the thing... again...
Original got taken down, fairplay. New post, orginal art.
About a year ago, I wandered by this post by u/ordomalaise. In short, it asked where the sex in S&S is? I think the subject was well answered in the post, but it planted a seed for me. I discovered The Barrow and Artesia there. And Tanith Lee.
I liked the unabashed treatment of explicit content in a S&S world. I get why earlier works shied away from such content, always skirting the edge, but eventually fading to black. Product of the times. But I struggled to find more of this more modern refusal to turn away from an integral part of human nature. And I wanted more.
I grew up near Cross Plains, so naturally I convinced myself this gave me some mystical inherited sword-and-sorcery authority. It does not. It’s mostly just dusty and boring.
but I set out anyway.
I was in the middle of running a long Conan tabletop campaign, so I surmised I had built in beta readers and I subjected those poor souls to horrible early drafts in my excitement to be adding to this storied genre. Many did not survive, but eventually we passed through the crucible and arrived at something we all enjoyed. I attempted to contrive a setting that required not fading to black as opposed to shoe-horning in sexual content. Not sure if I succeeded, but that was the goal.
So now I offer this to y'all.
It’s called Lovesmith, set in my world of Zarthuun. The protagonist, Keylai Madsong, is a wandering bard, con artist, smuggler, and occasional fool carrying a sentient sword while trying to outrun a kind of creeping madness.
Most of the story takes place in Ithara, a giant sun-worshipping ziggurat city full of cults, courtesans, hypocritical nobles, thieves, and dangerous appetites.
It leans hard into my take on:
- classic sword and sorcery
- dangerous sensuality
- weird religion
- grimy city intrigue
- expedition horror
- flawed characters making terrible choices
- Extremely Petty Wizards
Very much written in the spirit of Howard, Wagner, Moorcock, and some grimdark influence like Abercrombie.
I also included a lot of interior illustrations because I missed when fantasy books did that kind of thing.
Anyway, if that sounds like your sort of fantasy, it’s called Lovesmith: A Dark Sword and Sorcery Tale.
Mainly looking for feedback as my sample size of readers is pretty small and my players can't be unbiased anymore because they've seen it evolve over several iterations.
But I did write this and it is for sale. But if anyone wants to read it for free and doesn't have Kindle Unlimited; DM me and I'll figure out how to do a free copy. Still learning how Amazon Publishing works. (This is me trying to honor rule 5, not sure how more explicit I can be... pun intended.)
Rule 4 is no AI Art. I am in favor of keeping the sub safe from being bombarded with AI Slop. I did indeed leverage AI for my retail cover as this is a solo passion project. So here is the original sketch of the cover I did before the polish. I drew this myself in Krita and used Canva for the copy.
