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Dark Muse News: Mordschlag Sword and Sorcery Magazine

 Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Mordschlag Sword and Sorcery Magazine

One of the most fun, unique aspects of Goodman Games' Tales from the Magician's Skull was the blending of Sword & Sorcery with Dungeon Crawl Classics statistics for the stories.  That's a wonderful recipe that has not been reproduced, despite many super-cool S&S periodicals being available (Dark Moon Quarterly, Battleborn, New Edge S&S, Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Swords and Sorcery Magazine, Savage Realms, Swords & Sorceries: Tales of Heroic Fantasy, etc. plus loads of anthologies).

Well, this Dark Muse News post has a Press Release for The Arcanist: Fantasy Publishing's Backerkit campaign showcasing Mordschlag Magazine! Once again, S&S adventure and RPG gaming are combined. Every pocket-sized issue of Mordschlag promises new short fiction, an article analyzing the genre, and monster stat-blocks pulled straight from the tales and ready-to-play in ShadowDark RPG.

AMAZING STORIES reviews GRAVE's DAUGHTERS!

Dyscrasia Fiction™ – A Volatile Mix

https://amazingstories.com/2026/07/review-dyscrasia-graves-daughters/

Amazing Stories reviewer and best-selling author, Andrew Paul Weston, July 2026, writes:

To help you grasp the impact Lindberg strives for, think of the juxtapose, for example, offered in “Aliens” and “Event Horizon” the first time you saw what happened to the human characters portrayed in those films. That hypnotic, almost intoxicating compulsion to keep your eyes glued to the screen, despite your initial reaction to shrink back from the horrors inflicted upon them...

....The pace is hectic throughout, but Lindberg manages to prevent the heady rush of action from overwhelming the reader by successfully conveying the mindset and lifestyles of those both human or otherwise, thereby helping you identify with their struggles. The surreal, quasi-dreamlike setting helps too, as the story is as adrenaline-packed as it is laced with tension. 

So, if YOU like to mix it up by stretching your comfort zone and imagination from time to time, then why not delve into the bold and ambitious project that is Seth Lindberg’s Dyscrasia Fiction™.

 

• Ebooks/ePUBS available now globally!   
• US-centric link for Grave's Daughters on Amazon
• Amazon US Link to Dyscrasia Series 
• Paperback Global Distribution - expected by August 1st, 2026
• Audiobook, with narration from Kathy Bell Denton, expected by Dec 2026

"Magnificently weird and magnificently human," says Anna Smith Spark — Queen of Grimdark

John C. Hocking – Author of Conan: City of the Dead says: 

"S.E. Lindberg’s Graves Daughters is an insane epic that defies simple description. A touch of Clark Ashton Smith, a dusting of Jack Vance and a dab of Brian McNaughton are detectable in a fiercely distinctive, almost unclassifiable tale of darkly macabre fantasy. Profoundly strange yet understandable characters wrestle with twisted family dynamics as they strive to accomplish goals both human and inhuman while pitted against dire, horrific foes.

Mortal concerns are transposed onto the inhuman and the superhuman on a luridly vivid otherworldly stage replete with bizarre creatures, subterranean wonders, and clashes of weird sorcery. Eldritch eros and elemental powers are weapons in a chain of spectacular conflicts that build to a mythic cataclysm that threatens to melt the landscape along with the reader’s mind. A lushly sustained and baroquely surreal fable unlike any other."

Back Cover Blurb

How does a necromancer care for three risen daughters?

"To raise one family, you will sacrifice another,” Doktor Grave once espoused. Now, striving to be a father instead of a servant to gods, his teachings backfire.

As his golem-body dissolves into the land itself, a nurse with fading sight must finish his work—guiding monstrous daughters, stolen souls, and forbidden rituals toward a future that may demand more blood than anyone intended. Grave’s Daughters is a dark fantasy of legacy, devotion, and the terrible cost of love. 

 

Bastien Lecouffe Deharme - Blind Lemon Rendezvous

2026 - The Blind Lemon - Rendezvous #2

Meeting up with Bastien Lecouffe Deharme is an honor and a blast. We talked about creating art, Philip K. Dick and related tattoos, Retrocity, a new commission (another Dyscrasia Book), Gen Con, a future interview for Black Gate, music... 

This time I gave him a signed copy of something, the print copy of Graves' Daughters. Also gave him a T-Shirt.

 

2025 - The Blind Lemon - Rendezvous #1

Signing my copy of the BL8D Art book

Bastien signing a canvas print of his illustration for the Grave's Daughters book.

This parking garage has a mind of its own. Tough to leave without solving the puzzle of the gate.

Dark Muse News: Blue Fire: A Jirel of Joiry Novella

Simulcast on Black Gate July 2nd 2026: Dark Muse News: Blue Fire: A Jirel of Joiry Novella

Blue Fire, a Jirel of Jory tale by Molly Tanzer (Brackenbury Books, 2026). Cover art by Saša Đurđević

In February 2025, Black Gate covered Molly Tanzer's release of "Jirel Meets Death" (published with permission from Moore's estate); and in March 2026 Black Gate's Dark Muse News covered Tanzer's next story, "Jirel in the Forest of Night." These were brought to us by Brackenbury Books, the same outfit that champions New Edge Sword & Sorcery magazine.

And now, Dark Muse News (your biweekly Black Gate blog) has coverage of Brackenbury Books' current campaign, bringing the first-ever Jirel of Joiry book-length adventure to life (crowdfunding launched June 11th, and is still ongoing).

Blue Fire begins with Jirel fighting a foe her sword cannot smite: a terrible illness nobody can explain, let alone heal. Her search for a cure takes her many miles across many worlds, encountering friends and foes familiar and frightening!

Like Alice in Wonderland with a big f***ing sword, Jirel has compelling adventures in bizarre dream-logic realms, balancing a rich emotional life with terrifying struggles against dark forces!  -- boasts Brackenbury Books

Here ye, here ye. Read on to see:

• A listing of the Jirel of Jory writings
• Excerpts from Blue Fire
• Special Perspectives from author Molly Tanzer, artist Saša Đurđević, and editor Oliver Brackenbury
• Status updates on the campaign

New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine – New Jirel of Joiry!  Does Jirel have your axe?

“Jirel in the Forest of Night” back cover illustration by Saša Đurđević

Tour guide to the world of Jirel of Joiry

• “Black God’s Kiss” (C.L. Moore, October 1934)
• “Black God’s Shadow” (C.L. Moore, December 1934)
• “Jirel Meets Magic” (C.L. Moore, July 1935)
• “The Dark Land” (C.L. Moore, January 1936)
• “Quest of the Starstone” (C.L. Moore with Henry Kuttner, November 1937)
• “Hellsgarde” (C.L. Moore, April 1939)
• “Jirel and the Mirror of Truth” (Molly Tanzer 2024)
• “Jirel Meets Death” (Molly Tanzer 2025)
• “Jirel in the Forest of Night” (Molly Tanzer 2026)
• "Blue Fire" (Molly Tanzer 2026)

Blue Fire Art

Saša Đurđević did the Jirel cover for NESS Issue #3, two more Jirel back cover illustrations for Issues #5 and #9, and that great cover for Sometime Lofty Towers this time last year. Interior art will include more top-notch, black-and-white illustrations and a map from Caster Jones. Saprophial will return to do the frontispiece for the novella and, if the campaign unlocks the Double Art stretch goal, a second full-page illustration.

 Interior B&W art by Saprophial from the Jirel story in issue three, "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth".

 Sample map by Caster Jones. They will be doing a piece of fantasy cartography for Blue Fire; the sample here is the map they drew up for their father, Howard Andrew Jones's, Lord of a Shattered Land.[/caption]

Blue Fire Excerpt: Confronting Horror

“Who am I? Do you really not recognize me — Jirel of Joiry?”

The figure turned with agonizing slowness, revealing a face so white it was almost blinding in the darkness of the bone-pit, a whiteness so dazzling no shadows seemed to touch it. There was no real flesh upon that face, though it was not a skull — it was the face of a woman, thin and gaunt, but beautifully formed, framed by hair that was not red save in the flickering of Jirel’s candle. Her hair was black, as black as this unremembered tomb, and straight as the bones of the dead. It lay stark against her bloodless face and tumbled in long locks over the shoulders of the bleached-bone garment that hung on her narrow frame like a body from a gibbet. Jirel gasped as she felt a cold breeze that did not stir her hair. She recognized this creature. It was an enemy she had thought long since defeated — the corpse-witch of Romne!

Blue Fire Excerpt: Weird Melee

“Come now,” said the first one. “Seven on two? Those are hardly good odds. Give us what we want and we will leave you with your lives!”

Jirel spat. “You’ll be lucky to escape with yours!”

And with that, Joiry’s red lady ran at one of the strange monsters, slashing him across the chest — or rather, his face — before he could raise his club. He made a sound like a man and fell back, black blood spurting in great gouts from his strangely placed mouth. He dropped his club as he toppled over; no longer concerned with him, Jirel whirled and ran another monster through, just below what she supposed was his chin, where a man’s stomach might be.

“Wait!” wailed one of the Sons of the Giant, as Jirel bore down on him, her sword dripping. “Please!”

Jirel did not wait. Her blood was up, and there were still five more of these monsters. Seeing his pleading had no effect, the monster dropped his rock and began to run. Jirel overtook him easily and thrust her blade through his back.

Stepping on his lifeless body to withdraw her sword, Jirel whirled saw Gervase fending off the others with the knife he used for eating. Jirel was impressed he was keeping them at bay, but saw quickly that they did not seem eager to attack a man of the cloth. This did not soothe her rage — these devils might not wish to kill him, but robbing a priest and leaving him to starve was hardly more honorable.

“Have at thee, fiends!” she cried, and charged.

The monster in her sights threw up his arms at the last minute, knocking aside Jirel’s blade so it sank into the meat of his shoulder, not his face. He screamed as she yanked it back out. Before she could go in for a second strike, however, another of the band of brutes stepped in between them, holding up his hands in supplication.

“My lady, stop!” he shouted.

Molly Tanzer exclusive Black Gate blurb

Blue Fire is Jirel’s first novella-length adventure, which made writing it a bit intimidating! Not only would I need to keep up the same pacing, energy and forward motion as in my shorter Jirel stories, and do my best to keep honoring C.L. Moore and her amazing character... the truth is, I’ve never written a novella before. Not on purpose, at least!

This is probably a wild confession, as I literally just celebrated the release of my Tordotcom novella, the scifi art heist And Side by Side They Wander... but I wrote that intending it to be a novelette, and expanded it once I realized the story was too big. Same with my forthcoming folk horror novella, Ferry-Loupers. That started life as a novelette, too.

Blue Fire was different. I had a set of specific goals, aesthetic and practical. Oliver and I wanted the novella to be a potential entry point for new readers, as well as rewarding to longtime fans, and it needed to be between 30-35,000 words. It was thrilling to tackle this, though — I’ve been publishing for sixteen years, and one thing I love about this industry is there’s always something new, a challenge I’ve never encountered, a goal I’ve never considered. So I brought a bold, Jirel-like attitude to writing this project: I went at it head on, sword (keyboard?) out, fearlessly snarling. It was a hell of a lot of fun, and I think it worked... though ultimately, that’s up to the readers!

Links to Tanzer books: And Side by Side They Wander  and  Speculative historical mystery novella Ferry-Loupers

 Saša Đurđević – Jirel of Joiry Sketches

Saša Đurđević - Artist Perspective in His Own Words

When I was first approached by the good folk over at New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine at the end of 2023 to illustrate the cover of issue 3 for the return of Jirel of Joiry with the story "Jirel and the Mirror of Truth" which was to be written by Molly Tanzer, I had only heard of this character for the first time, maybe just a couple of months before that.

Naturally, I was really excited about having the opportunity to work on such a classic character and I immediately picked up a collection of all the Jirel stories and read through them as I was working on the cover. The cover signifies Jirel's return after a long time, so we wanted to have her against a stark white background staring the viewer down. One suggestion by Oliver was to really emphasize her gold/amber eyes and almost lionine-like mane of fiery hair, which I was really on board with since it was an excellent way of visually separating her from the more well-known  character of Red Sonja (who probably owes her existance to Jirel).

I also really wanted to work off the descriptions of Jirel's outfit in "Black Gods Kiss," her Roman  greaves, simple tunic and a hauberk over it. Other than that, the rest of the elements I went with were to evoke a classic Fantasy look, something more magical and whimsical rather than grim. The red cloak, the  chunky leather gloves and gold accessories all evoke that feeling for me. A lot of artists like to innovate and over-design their characters, but I think you can get great designs by working onto existing tropes. Jirel here evokes a classic fairy tale hero with a flowing red cape and mail armor, but her choice of leg armor and her fiery hair set her apart.

Since this first cover, I have worked on a couple of illustrations for the back of two New Edge issues that featured Jirel stories written by Molly Tanzer, "Jirel Meets Death" and "Jirel in the Forest of Night."

Most recently I had the pleasure of Illustrating the cover for the very first Jirel novella titled Blue Fire, written by Molly. This story brings back Thevin, Jirel's rogue friend, and a new character as well, which is why we wanted to feature all three of them on the cover, a classic S&S style composition with a blue flame framing the background and the title. My goal with the flame was to keep it as more of a graphic shape rather than render it realistically, and I think it will look delectable when readers get to gaze at their physical copies of the book.

I am grateful to have this opportunity to draw and paint the lady of Joiry. Magazines like New Edge are a real beacon to us artists in these times.

Oliver Brackenbury Reflection

My first conversations with the Moore estate were a little over three years ago and I'm very proud to have reached this point in relatively little time, working with them & Molly to help raise the profile of a classic S&S character. Between a third new story in our magazine, Blue Fire and the upcoming Penguin Random House collection of the classic Moore tales, 2026 is shaping up to be a great year for Jirel of Joiry!

Crowdfunding Updates:

Blue Fire funded in 21 hours and since then has unlocked all kinds of upgrades for its readers, including:

• ART: A second full page illustration by Saprophial, back cover art by Saša Đurđević, as well as chapter heading illustrations and a custom dinkus, and a one page bonus Jirel comic in the back of the book, illustrated by Clade Mirya
• COLOR: Spray color edges, whose color backers get to vote on
• MORE AFFORDABLE SHIPPING: Discounted shipping for backers outside the United States

The final stretch goal, currently being worked toward, shares Blue Fire's success with the people who made it possible; a pay bonus for the author & artists!

Also, note that all paperbacks readers get through the crowdfund will be signed by Molly Tanzer!

 Does Jirel have your axe? (Link to Backerkit)

 

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S.E. Lindberg is Blackgate.com’s Managing Editor, regularly reviewing books, interviewing authors, and running Dark Muse News. He has led the Gen Con Writers' Symposium and the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group; even interned for Tales from the Magician’s Skull, and is Assistant Editor for Battleborn. He contributed eight stories across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell & Heroika and an entry for Weirdbook’s Zombies. He independently publishes Dyscrasia Fiction®, stories of which have appeared in Whetstone and Swords & Sorcery magazines, A Book of Blades (Vol. I and Vol. II), DMR’s Terra Incognita, Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole's Chain Story 2 Project.