Heroic Fantasy Quarterly–Q55

February, named after the Roman festival of purification ‘Februa’.  Have we finally purified ourselves of the year 2020?  Let’s hope so!   We here at Heroic Fantasy Quarterly are attempting to purify ourselves of being over three weeks late in our issue updates—which may sound a bit hypocritical being that this issue is two weeks late—but we wanted to keep issue #55 up a bit longer in the interest of fairness.

Enough of our problems!  We’ve got three stories, three poems, art, audio, and news that will get your 2023 off to a great start.  Put on your adventuring gloves and let’s delve!

 

Fiction Contents:

Everyday Something Tries to Kill Me, by Todd Honeycutt.  Timo, a favored hunter of Queen, ventures high up Mount Haun and discovers sorcery afoot—and discovers he is already enmeshed in it.  A great adventure tale to start off our issue!

Jack O’ Wraiths, by Phil Emery.  Jack Whitlock is a vagabond, tramp, and wanderer—but he has a special of sniffing out bits and pieces of old powers and forgotten gods.  It can be a tough way to make a living!

The Demon Fesman, by Lynn Rushlau.  The Grand Conclave brings together all the Demon Speakers, Dark Hierophant, and recent grads—the cast and crew who maintain the tenuous relationship between the kingdom of Demial and the demons they create and use.  Novice Reigh has great plans for the future and is ready to play the game—but there are other factions who have an eye on the future on the mistakes of the past.  File this story under ‘D’ for “Don’t touch that, it’s loaded.”

 

Poetry Contents:

Found in a Hidden Cavern, by Colleen Anderson.
Crumbling ruins?  Mysterious caves?  These things are like catnip to our adventurous souls; but sometimes the treasures we seek come with warnings.

Fifteen Things to Make a Soldier Miserable, by Aidan Redwing.
Good men, bad men, some things are universal!

Death’s Hunger, by Bader M. Alsadeqi
Good men, bad men, sometimes vengeance from beyond the grave is your only option.

 

Artwork

Clearly a place like Jereme Peabody’s “Bone Island” just cries out for danger and adventure.  I mean, it is an island cover with giant bones, what were we supposed to do?

Jereme is a software engineer in the DC area and is also a freelance concept artist working mostly on video games and books.  He started his artistic career dabbling with sculpting, pencils, and even still-life oil painting.  As tablets became available, he crossed over from traditional art to digital by first digitally painting still-lifes, then through experimentation and practice, transitioned to landscapes and fantasy.

 

Tales From Around The Fire

You’ve thrilled to the adventures of Darion and Blue in past issues of HFQ, now Robert Zoltan is putting together a kickstarter for another collection of their tales—check it out:

 

You want thieves?  You want capers?  You want heists?  Yes you do!  And Mark Finn DELIVERS.  “Polite Society, the Zine for Thieves, Scoundrels, and Ne’er Do-Wells” is funding now! Back it!

 

Colleen Anderson has been a contributing poet to HFQ since the beginning, check out her collection:  I Dreamed  A World I Dreamed a World

 

Editor Adrian Simmons has a story out in issue #46 of the venerable magazine Weirdbook.  Check it out!

 

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