Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#24-#28)

Simulcast on Blackgate:Dark Muse News: Sword & Sorcery Chain Story (#24-#28)

In August 2025, we hailed the emergence of a second Chain Story project championed by Michael A. Stackpole. This is a Sword & Sorcery-focused, contagious set of connected (“chained”) stories.

Each is:

• A standalone tale
• Readable in any order
• Free to read! (for at least three months from its posting date)
• Interconnected via a theme involving a Crown

We round up groups every several weeks, but check the Chain Story website for the latest. Here we highlight the latest set of five, Episodes 24-28.

#28    Damage And Alatra In The Tower of True Love

Jason Fry (Star Wars The Last Jedi novelization) and Bryan Young (BattleTech: Ghosts of Timkovichi), working in a universe created by blockbuster LitRPG author Luke Chlimenko, have collaborated to offer a story that is both a part of the chain, with an interesting tie to the story of Tarru-Syn, and a sneak-peak at their upcoming collaboration in a new sword and sorcery world.

#27  The Krells of Tancras Moor by Michael Stackpole

A tale of revenge in pursuit of redemption.

#26  The Evil Eye by James D. Mills

A brilliant Bronze Age tale of wishes, evil, and the consequences when they are intertwined,

#25  Pigborne by Thomas Grayfson

Malion, a warrior of porcine origin, enters the Nexus Dimension with a coterie of compatriots, intent on destroying an ensorcelled sapphire before it consumes all life in his home.

#24  Duel at High Moon by Alina Lee

This is the second adventure for Rowan Grim, mystical wanderer in the Badlands—and in this tale the locale has certainly earned its name.

Previous Black Gate posts have chronicled groups of the growing chain:

• The Chain Story 2 – Sword and Sorcery – Episodes 1 – 3 (Aug 2025)
• The Chain Story 2 – Sword and Sorcery – Episodes 4 – 8  (Oct 2025)
• The Chain Story 2 – Sword and Sorcery – Episodes 9 – 13 (Nov 2025)
• The Chain Story 2 — Sword and Sorcery – Episodes 14 – 18 (Feb 2026)
• The Chain Story 2 — Sword and Sorcery — Episides 19-12 (May 2026)

 

The Chain Story:

Entry	Chain_Post_Date	Story (Link to Free version)	Author(s)	Abstract
28	June 24th, 2026	Damage And Alatra In The Tower of True Love	Bryan Young, Jason Fry, Luke Chmilenko	Damage and Alatra are opposites in every way. thrown together as a gladiator pair and bound by the interaction of their talents so that they can't be more than four paces apart. Together, they must navigate the perils of the Blood Crown and a dangerous world marked by brutality and sorcery. In the The Tower of True Love, they get a break from the gladiator pits and have been loaned out to protect a traveling caravan. In their travels, they stumble across a mysterious tower that could prove a vulnerability to their employ and are forced to investigate. They get far more than they bargained for when they discover the tower is cursed and they must complete a series of mystical tests to survive.
27	June 10, 2026	The Krells of Tancras Moor	Michael Stackpole	Enemies destroyed Black Morgan of Aldare’s life through deception and guile. They tricked him into shattering everything, everyone, he loved. Their only failure was in letting him live. And now he is stalking them, intent on putting an end to their evil.
26	May 27, 2026	The Evil Eye	James D. Mills	Gora Younger, the First Son of the Chieftain is exiled from his village in the Great Cave after vainly pursuing his betrothed, who left him to live beneath the sky. After years sealed away in the dark, Gora is summoned home to investigate a demonic presence that has taken the tribe’s best warriors and afflicted the Chieftain with a strange malady, slowly turning his flesh to stone. Diving into uncharted depths alongside a healer from a strange city, Gora must dispel a curse that has long shackled his people… and his soul.
25	May 27, 2026	PIGBORNE	Thomas Grayfson	Captain Malion is one of the last defenders of Genlina, an animal kingdom reduced to feral instinct by the sapphire of Tarru-Syn. As his mission into the Nexus Dimension unravels and his comrades are irrevocably transformed, he must decide what he is willing to sacrifice to reclaim his world. A grimdark animal fantasy in the spirit of Redwall, Pigborne is a brutal tale of loyalty and ruin.
24	May 13, 2026	Chain Story Project: Duel at High Moon	Alina Lee	Rowan Grim’s fearful hunger is sated, at least for a bit, so her only desire is for a hot meal, a warm bath, deep sleep and perhaps a dream. Galant’s Gultch looks like the town that can provide all that and even a little whiskey. But there are forces in the town which see her as something more than a weary traveler. They think she will sate a hunger they have. And, under the Scarlet Moon, the truth of the matter will be revealed.
23	March 25, 2026	A Feast For Pan	James D. Mills	IN THE WASTES, ALL ARE FODDER FOR PAN. In a return to the world of SOIL and Ashen Rider, Hromgir and Arvid of Clan Sparrow are on the run after a raid gone wrong. Braving the frozen wastes of the northern coast, they must reach the mountain pass to escape the Wystran riders close on their heels. Hiding from the riders, they take shelter in the depths of a strange cave, unearthing otherworldly horrors better left buried....
22	March 11, 2026	Abhartach’s Castle	Aaron Canton	A trio of student witches head off on a dangerous adventure to obtain a powerful artifact—aiming to retrieve it and keep it out of the hands of sinister forces. Unexpectedly they meet opposition in the form of a classmate they’d once all considered a friend, but who has become a most dangerous foe.
21	February 25, 2026	Into The Badlands	Alina Lee	Rowan Grim’s world is one which is long on places you don’t want to travel to, and few people return from. But what is out there draws her, and she willingly embraces the challenges which have devoured so many others.
20	February 9, 2026	The Hunt For Violet Shatterwing	Bryan Young	Now returned to Nightfall Forest, and in the company of the fox bard Ashley, Pip finds the hamlet of Riveroak ablaze. The mouse knight, his war cat, and companion race to quench the fires and hunt the leader of the crow cult, intent on putting an end to her evil.
19	January 28, 2026	Of Crowns & Consequences	Jason M. Waltz	Direk, wielder of the magickal sword Retribution, has been dispatched to destroy an old enemy at the behest of his King. In his pursuit he encounters a newly awakened power which challenges his knowledge of the world, and threatens to up end all he knows to be true.
18	January 19, 2026	The Sapphire and the Sorceress	Bryan Young	As with all good heroes, Pip does not shrink from danger and adventure. Still, there are times when it would be good to relax at home. But Pip is far from home, and is searching for a powerful sorceress who can help him on his way.
17	January 14, 2026	Terror Above Icehenge	Malcolm T. North	To reach her, however, he’ll have to venture through the Chaos Realm and, as every true hero knows if you undertake that journey lightly, it will end quickly. But Pip has no choice, and therein our adventure begins.
16	December 31, 2025	Demonfire: A Tale of Shintaro Oba	C. L. Werner	A forbidden ritual conducted in secret, bathed in blood and death enables a demon to grasp unimaginable power—the power to destroy all enemies and raise himself above all others.
15	December 24, 2025	In The Land of the Giants,	Bryan Young	A Samurai, whose duty calls for him to hunt down such a creature. A destiny he must pursue even as the world burns around him.
14	December 10, 2025	Blight	Katherine Monasterio	Forest Ranger Hazel Boncliff is a Green Speaker, a person with the magical ability to commune with plants. When the king summons Hazel and her assistant to the capital to heal the strange blight affecting his hunting grounds, she’s reluctant to help—least of all because he’s insisting his inexperienced secretary go along for the journey. But with a reward she can’t refuse and the blight’s effects more harrowing by the moment, she’ll take all the help she can get.
13	November 26, 2025	Ice Hawk’s Aerie,	Bryan Young	A chance meeting in the dark forest. A tale of woe and injustice. Pip Strongpaw, the last of the fabled Great Catriders, must once again wield the runed-sword Feathersbane, to end the chilling menace threatening to destroy the hamlet of Riveroak. A menace of sorcerous origins against which even the bravest of heroes may not prevail.
12	November 12, 2025	Blood for the River	Michael Stackpole	Chased into a swamp by homicidal cultists, Kellach and Serinna encounter a fire mage who saves their lives, and then leads them on an adventure that is sure to get them killed.
11	October 14, 2025	Of Nightmares & Jewels	Robert Greenberger	Something drew the mage onward, always toward the northwest, through restless evenings and dark dreams of ill portent. Yet when Jareth’s traveling companion, the swordswoman Talin, asks him why, he has no idea. And then they reached a tiny town at the edge of nowhere, wherein lurked an evil with roots sunk deep in times beyond remembering; an evil that has chosen their visit as a time to awaken.
10	October 14, 2025	The Cursed Cuff	Aaron Rosenberg	She came to them spinning a tale of woe. An army of undead lay siege to the Manor she called home. She had barely escaped and sough adventurers brave enough to free her people. But to do that Birr Blackjaw and his companions would have to wrest an ancient artifact from the hands of a cult leader who had his own army, and a hellish pet none could hope to defeat.
9	October 1, 2025	The Monastery Plot	Bryan Young	Shield Maiden and legendary sleuth Sister Agatha, accompanied by her faithful initiate, Brother Dominguez, sought to enjoy peace and quiet at  the Monastery of St. Maryam.Despite their desires, they soon find themselves investigating twin murders. Murders which become all that much more bizarre when the name Tarru-Syn turns up, and their search leads them into the very bowels of the earth, to face a foe from beyond their reality.
8	September 24, 2025	On Memories	Michael Stackpole	Dancillius Hrekt is fairly new to the world of Monster Fighting. All he wants to do is to make a good impression with his peers.  And all they want is for  him and his best friend to die.
7	September 10, 2025	The Village of Morvoss	Thomas Grayfson	In this new Kavion adventure, our tormented knight clings to the last threads of family and sanity as he navigates the mysterious Village of Morvoss. Haunted by fractured memories, he must confront the darkness around him—and within.
6	August 27, 2025	Fragment of a Sorcerous Crown	Joan Marie Verba	In this tale from the Chronicles of the Library of Sorcery, the sorcerers investigate a dangerous magical artifact of mysterious origin. Can the sorcerers uncover the truth?Sorcerer Serena is called to investigate an enormous, carnivorous plant. She finds that a mysterious magical artifact is behind the phenomenon. To find out where the artifact came from and what its properties might be, she consults the Library of Sorcery, where she uncovers the answers, but not on the Library shelves. Can the artifact be banished from the sorcerous regions before it becomes a more deathly threat?
5	August 13, 2025	Grave's Brood	S.E. Lindberg	Doktor Grave sends Brood to recover a crown from the Red Orchard, only for Brood to find it is the source of a bloody plague caused by Grave’s experiments. Facing vampiric plants and their loyal clan, Brood must confront his past and question whether he can trust Grave or escape the nightmare himself.
4	July 28, 2025	Shard of Song	Rigel Ailur	Two wizards search desperately for a way to stave off a vicious magical-musical attack before the dragons succumb.  A powerful relic ancient beyond memory calls to them, but do they dare use it?
3	July 16, 2025	Forest of the Fallen Colossus	Bryan Young	A dying robber hands Laila and Zaki a mysterious artifact in the middle of a fae-haunted wood. “Danger,” the robber manages before dying. Suddenly sister and brother find themselves safeguarding an unwanted gift—on the run for their lives in the Forest of the Fallen Colossus.
2	July 3, 2025	Death Grip	Michael Stackpole	The man hadn’t died easily.A smoking hole sat where his heart should have been. Terror twisted his features, and he clutched an emerald reeking of magick as if would somehow save him. Neryon and Magistrate-Martial Logan find themselves in a race to find the killer before he has a chance to harvest more victims. But, with the amount of power used on his first target, there was a big gulf between finding and stopping; and no guarantee he wouldn’t kill them, too.
1	July 3, 2025	Blade of the Storm Witch	Robert E. Vardeman	Her vengeance became elemental! The Conqueror-King's minion murdered her pirate husband.  The Lady Rennata was condemned to follow him into a watery grave—until wind and wave swept her to a magical blade that commands all of Nature.

 

---

S.E. Lindberg is a Managing Editor at Black Gate, regularly reviewing books and interviewing authors on the topic of “Beauty & Art in Weird-Fantasy Fiction.” He has taken lead roles organizing the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium (chairing it in 2023), is the lead moderator of the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery Group, and was an intern for Tales from the Magician’s Skull magazine. As for crafting stories, he has contributed eight entries across Perseid Press’s Heroes in Hell and Heroika series, and has an entry in Weirdbook Annual #3: Zombies. He independently publishes novels under the banner Dyscrasia Fiction; short stories of Dyscrasia Fiction have appeared in Whetstone Amateur S&S Magazine, Swords & Sorcery online magazine, Rogues In the House Podcast’s A Book of Blades Vol I & II, DMR’s Terra Incognita, the 9th issue of Tales From the Magician’s Skull, Savage Realms Magazine, and Michael Stackpole’s S&S Chain Story 2 Project. 

 

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.

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)

 

---

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.

 

Dark Muse News: The Legend of Top-Shelf Books Open Mic

 Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: The Legend of Top-Shelf Books Open Mic

Ever hear of the legend of Top Shelf Books? Gene Wolfe did!

I first heard about the legendary Top Shelf Books from four people who had frequented that mythical venue. However, they were not together when they mentioned the place, and the interval between tellings was years and across many locations. What I eventually learned was that it was a used book shop that hosted open-mic readings for writers. The “open-mic” writer’s group ran from ~2007-2013, in Top Shelf Books in Palatine, Illinois. It was uncanny that Top Shelf kept creeping into conversations, so I had to find out the history and then share it! Here are those who introduced me to the legend.

2015: Author Joe Bonadonna was the first. Back in 2015, he had reviewed my first novel and, by serendipity, we both joined forces as Perseid Press contributors for Heroika and Heroes in Hell, sharing six volumes; we even jointly wrote a story for Monsters in Hell. I adore Joe’s Dorgo the Dowser (Mad Shadows) books and interviewed him in 2022. Several times over the last decade, he mentioned Top Shelf.

2016: Chief editor of Black Gate, John O’Neill, was another Top Shelfer. I met John in person at the 2016 World Fantasy Convention, the same year and event in which Black Gate won the World Fantasy Special Award.  I began contributing to Black Gate in 2018, with one of my lead articles being coverage of Todd McAulty’s Robots of Gotham (spoiler alert: Todd McAulty is a pseudonym for John O’Neill). In 2019, at a Gen Con event with John and Howard Andrew Jones, I heard about the editing opportunity at Black Gate that led to becoming the Managing Editor.

2012 – 2022: David C. Smith’s Oron and Red Sonja books were hot topics in the Goodreads Sword & Sorcery group that I led for a decade. In fact, one of my better-cited Black Gate articles evolved from reading his work: Tales of Attluma: Review and Oron Series Tour Guide. Of course, David is still very active and just released his perspective on writing Sword & Sorcery in 2026 with Dark Muse News: Reviewing Arcane Arts and Cold Steel.

2021-2023: While leading the Gen Con Writers symposium and moderating panels, I met C.S.E. Cooney (Claire), a lead champion of Top Shelf. C. S. E. Cooney is a two-time World Fantasy Award-winning author: first, for Bone Swans: Stories (2016), and most recently for Saint Death’s Daughter (2023); she also has a 2011 Rhysling Award! Before this recognition, she was helping other authors. Ha! She actually revealed all the secrets back in 2011, before I was Black Gate reader: Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community.

These four all mentioned Top Shelf books to me across the last decade in disparate venues! Cripes, I kept saying: “Wait, you were there too?” Now, I feel like a want-to-be member trying to sign up after the show is over. Truthfully, I feel blessed to have met these folks. Their desire to better their craft while helping others is contagious and top-notch.

Top Shelf Books is closed now, but take heed. These visitors were largely meeting at Top Shelf before their writing careers/recognition took off, and they have all been actively helping other authors continuously for decades! Their infectious gratitude and creativity still spread.

Writer’s groups can very well be fun, providing camaraderie and legendary donuts. Let us learn from these role models and from their time at Top Shelf.

Time to re-read CSE’s “Writers’ Nights, Open Mics, Literary Soirees: The Importance of Community.”

Top Shelf Books Open Mic: where John O’Neill first heard the rough drafts of Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney’s SAINT DEATH’S DAUGHTER, Patty Templeton’s THERE IS NO LOVELY END, Dennis Depcik’s WOULDN’T IT BE SOMETHING, Jeffrey Westhoff’s THE BOY WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, Brendan Detzner’s WEIRD STORIES trilogy, and wonderful new stories by Gene Wolfe, Michael Penkas, Tina Jens, Joe Bonadonna, David C. Smith, and many others. Behind the counter (bottom right), doing God’s work selling books, is the one and only Claire Cooney, who masterminded it all with Katie Redding.

First, a note from Top Shelf Owner Katie Redding

If anyone was a “mastermind” behind our literary salon, it was Claire. We met at Harper College in January of 2022 in an anthropology class.  We hit things off immediately, and things developed from there.  My main role was to operate the business and I wanted to support artists. I can’t take much more credit than that.  I guess I am the person who said, “YES, we can do that.”

The Top Shelf Years, by C. S. E. Cooney

I met Katie in a Native American anthropology class while completing my Gen Eds at Harper Community college in 2002. She mentioned that her mom owned a used bookstore in Palatine. I don’t think she believed me when I enthusiastically screamed how I’d always wanted to work at a bookstore! A used bookstore particularly! I think she got that a lot.

But I showed up for the interview and was hired. I’d worked at Crown Book previously, so I at least had some experience. When I moved to Chicago the next year to attend Columbia College Chicago for Fiction Writing and Acting, Katie mentioned that no one who ever moved to Chicago comes back to work in the Northwest suburbs. But I kept returning, every Saturday, to work at least one day a week throughout my college career, and to help run our once-a-month open mics as well.

I graduated in 2006, and Katie opened a second store in Chicago, just a few blocks from where I lived, called Kate the Great’s Book Emporium. It became a beacon for the arts. My co-manager J9 Vaughn and I, along with Katie, hosted art galleries, new plays festivals, open mics, poetry nights, concerts — the gamut. It was a wonderful place and certainly honed our hosting skills. Alas, Kate the Great’s Book Emporium never brought in as much foot traffic as we wished, and Katie had to close it after a few years.

Happily, the closing of Kate’s marked my return to Top Shelf Books! I started reverse-commuting back to the suburbs, and running more events there. I loved every minute of working hip-deep in dusty books, and meeting readers every day. These last three years, from 2008-2011 were when the open mics really started happening with greater regularity. We began to pull in people who used to attend Kate the Great’s events, as well as horror writing friends from Twilight Tales, a weekly reading series run by Tina Jens.

My friend and mentor, Gene Wolfe, who lived a few miles away in Barrington, IL, sometimes came to our events with his wonderful wife Rosemary, and would read from whatever short story or novel he happened to be working on.

In that time, John O’Neill would read, chapter by chapter, as he wrote The Robots of Gotham under his (then SUPER SECRET) pseudonym, Todd McAulty. I’d read from early drafts of Saint Death’s Daughter (in those days titled Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer), or sometimes recite poetry.

My time at Top Shelf Books ended when I packed everything up and moved to Westerly, Rhode Island, which I’d visited once as a child and kept meaning to return to. It was the best and wisest move I’d ever made, even though it was the middle of a recession, and I was moving to a town where I had no job and few prospects. Though it was the adventure of a lifetime, and opened so many doors to me I could not at the time imagine, I will always regard my time at Top Shelf Books as formative. It was my favorite retail job I’ve ever worked, and certainly one of the most vibrant reading and writing communities I’ve ever been a part of. I’ll be grateful forever.

Gene Wolfe and his wife, Rosemary, at Top Shelf Books

Gene Wolfe

As C.S.E. Cooney revealed, Gene Wolfe (yes, one of the Grand Masters of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, SFWA!) would sometimes attend Top Shelf Books. C.S.E. Cooney interviewed Gene Wolfe in 2010 for Black Gate where he provided writerly advice and explained the evolution of the New Sun series. John O’Neill explains the legend.

Interesting footnote to these photos, and the saga of Top Shelf. Rosemary had dementia, and Gene was her primary caregiver. He used to bring her to conventions with him, but that gradually became more challenging. One day, he was talking to his friend Rory at church, asking if he knew anyone who could help. Rory suggested his daughter, who eventually came to work for Gene, helping him and Rosemary travel to conventions. Over the years she got to meet and dine with numerous writers and publishers, including more than a few who offered writing advice and helped nudge her toward a stellar writing career. That hard-working young woman? None other than your friend and mine, C.S.E. Cooney…

In Gene Wolfe’s foreword, “Introducing C. S. E. Cooney” for her Bone Swans book, he detailed their fascinating relationship, and more amazingly, he described Top Shelf books! BTW, my daughter Erin Lindberg, who is a bibliophile and was studying Claire’s work because I was drafting this article, found this wonderful excerpt from Gene Wolfe (2015).

Picture me sitting in a small used-book shop with a banana cream pie on my lap. The young man reading at the lectern has given us a short-story that is certainly publishable and has now launched upon one that is not. We have had the poetry that suggests a poor article in Reader’s Digest cut up into uneven lengths, and the heart-wrenching personal memoir of the sister of a soldier killed overseas. And others. You know.

The readers are kept in order by Claire Cooney, a startling young blonde with a smile capable of lighting up a good-sized theater. At last she reads herself, a poem that rhymes and scans and grabs you from the opening line. The hero is a disfigured corpse floating down a city sewer, and it is funny when it is not horrible. (And sometimes when it is). She chants it, and her voice is clear and musical. I couldn’t be prouder of her if I were her father.

Reflections from John O’Neill

In November 2007, I attended the World Fantasy Convention in Saratoga Springs, New York. There I met two young women from Chicago, Claire Suzanne Elizabeth Cooney and Katie Redding, who ran Top Shelf Books in Palatine. They invited me to join their small monthly reading group that met once a month.

The Top Shelf Open Mic evenings changed my life. It featured some enormously talented writers – including Gene Wolfe, Tina Jens, Michael Penkas, Joe Bonadonna, David C. Smith, Brendan Detzner, Dennis Depcik, and Patty Templeton. And of course, C.S.E. Cooney herself, who would later win a World Fantasy Award for the book she workshopped at our gatherings, Saint Death’s Daughter.

At the time I was writing and publishing short stories in Black Gate under the name Todd McAulty, but the support and encouragement I received at Top Shelf gave me the courage I needed to try something much more ambitious. I started working on a series of stories set in a near-future Chicago after a robot apocalypse, which eventually became my first novel The Robots of Gotham. I wrote the first chapters in hotels while traveling for business, and read them out loud every month to the welcoming and enthusiastic attendees at Top Shelf.

If it wasn’t for Claire, who emailed me relentlessly until I finally came to my first Top Shelf Open Mic, and who was an incredibly astute and supportive listener, Robots would not exist. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude for that, and for much more. Claire eventually became our first website editor at Black Gate, and many of the talented folks I met at Top Shelf – including Michael Penkas, Joe Bonadonna, and Patty Templeton – became regular bloggers for us.

Katie eventually sold Top Shelf Books in 2011, and it closed shortly thereafter. Claire moved to Rhode Island at the same time. The Open Mic carried on for a while, booking space in libraries and police stations, but it didn’t last long without a permanent home — or Katie and Claire behind the scenes. I miss it very much. To this day, when struggling writers ask for advice, I tell them the same thing: find a supportive writer’s group. If you’re very lucky, and find one that supports and energizes you the way the Top Shelf Open Mic did for so many of us, the results can be magical.

TOP (Left to Right): Lindsey Dayton (at podium), unknown, unknown, J9 Vaughn, Karin Thogersen, Sarah Detzner, Cynthia Glasson, Patty Templeton, John O’Neill.  BOTTOM: Joe Bonadonna reading from Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser (circa  2011)

Joe Bonadonna: BOOKS, DONUTS, SNACKETY SNACKS & THE TOP SHELF SCRIBBLERS

I can’t recall the exact year when friend and fellow author David C. Smith took me to Top Shelf Books in Palatine, Illinois for a “browse and buy.” Katie Redding’s mother was the owner and manager at that time. Anyway, Dave’s wife, Janine, was working next door at the art supply store and she tuned us in to Top Shelf. At that time the bookstore had an adjacent room, Kindred Spirits, an arts-and-crafts store that sold a varietyof gift items and some antiques, where I often purchased some cool items. Sadly, Kindred Spirts closed, and the entrance leading from Top Shelf into the shop was walled off to allow for a small tea room that operated for some time.

Anyway, Top Shelf remained a favorite haunt for Dave and me. Memory fails me as to when we learned of the writer’s group that met there every second Thursday of the month, but in late 2010, Dave brought me there and introduced me to many of the regulars. At first, I was just spectator, and Dave was reading from his previously published works, as well as works in progress, such as Coven House and the revised, new edition of his trilogy, The Fall of the First World. Eventually, when my first novel — Mad Shadows: The Weird Tales of Dorgo the Dowser — was published in 2011, I finally joined in and read excerpts from it, and later I’d read from my current works-in-progress.

Author Claire (C.S.E.) Cooney ran the show in those days and delighted us with excerpts from her World Fantasy Award Winning, Bone Swans. Then she moved on and Janelle Bada took over and remained our ringmaster until Top Shelf closed permanently. After that, she searched for other places where we could meet, such as the Palatine Police Department (true) and then the Palatine Public Library. Sadly, we could not find a suitable meeting place and the group disbanded, although many would continue to meet in downtown Chicago and even Oak Park, if memory serves me.

Top Shelf holds a special place in our hearts and in our memories. I made many friends and associates there, and pigged out on all the great snacks everyone brought to the monthly gatherings, especially Spunky Dunkers Donuts, courtesy of John O’Neill, who would then read excerpts from his novel, the terrific The Robots of Gotham. (I eventually became a contributor for Black Gate magazine.) Besides John, Dave Smith, Brendan Detzner (The Orphan Fleet), Janelle Bada, and Jeanine (J9) Vaughn entertaining us from their works-in-progress, there was also Michael Penkas, whose weird and wild short stories were worthy of the original Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. Patty Templeton read from her wonderful, There Is No Lovely End. Jeffrey Westhoff read from his then work-in-progress, The Boy Who Knew Too Much, and Tina Jens introduced us to her The Blues Ain’t Nothin’: Tales of the Lonesome Blues Pub.

The Top Shelf Books Open Mic Writers’ Group: This photo was taken by John, I believe. It’s not at Top Shelf. It’s either at the Palatine Library or the Palatine Police Department (we weren’t arrested for disturbing the peace; it was simply a small meeting room in the department’s new building). STANDING LEFT TO RIGHT: Janelle Bada (nee McHugh), then Dennis Depcik (author of Wouldn’t It Be Something), Karin Thogersen, Shawna Flavell, the lady with red hair and blue scarf is Patty Templeton (author of There Is No Lovely End). The woman with a white stocking cap and a leather jacket is Katie Redding. The tall guy behind Katie is Brendan Detzner (author of The Orphan Fleet). Seated is Joe Bonadonna. By the door in the back is David C. Smith,  the lady in the wolf-head hat is Julie Barnett (Mike Penkas’s “better half”), beside Michael Penkas (author of Mistress Bunny and the Cancelled Client). Lastly, Jeffrey Westhoff (author of The Boy Who Knew Too Much).

Sometimes there were book discussions and Q&A sessions, but never any harsh criticism that I recall. These evenings proved to be helpful, constructive, and even enlightening. It was a great group of people and those Thursday nights were made of pure magic.

There were also other forms of entertainment: Sally Tibbets would read poems from her favorite poets. Her daughter, Cynthia Glasson, would sing and play her ukelele. Julie Barnett (Mike Penkas’s gal), belonged to a choral group — The Sweet Adelines — and still does, I believe — and she would touch our emotions with many a song. I think Katie Redding also read from some of her favorite authors.

I remember meeting Arminzerella Smith, the late author Gene Wolfe, and a couple of guys named Dave, whose last names I, unfortunately, cannot recall. I did not meet Jason Waltz at Top Shelf but at Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention (the exact year escapes me.) Also, while I had already exchanged a few emails with the late master of heroic fantasy, Howard Andrew Jones, we did not meet at Top Shelf but at the Windy City Pulp and Paperback Convention in 2011, where we exchanged copies of our first novels; we met again at Chicon 7 in 2012, I think it was.

Those were halcyon nights, for sure and we all wish they could have gone on forever. I miss the people, the conversations, the readings, the smell of old, used books, the variety of used books… and of course I miss all those great Snackety Snacks . . . especially the donuts.

David C. Smith

Joe recalls far more folks who used to attend the Top Shelf readings than I do, so I’m confident he has that part handled for you. The famous Patty Templeton! Mike Penkas! Howard Andrew Jones came by one time! Others!

My recollection is that they were held once a month on — the second Thursday of the month? John usually brought in two boxes of Spunky Dunkers donuts, famous here around Palatine and the general northwest environs of Chitown, which made John a very special member of our loose association. That and his robots.

I miss those evenings, miss them, miss them, miss them! Every time Janine and I drive past that plaza (we are close by) and see the building with part of a private school since having taken over the building, damn, I swear out loud.

I found two photos of myself, attached. There’s a group photo that I was sure I had somewhere, but now I can’t find it, *grrrr.* I even checked the old thumb drives I have in the filing cabinet drawer here. Nada.

[Editor’s sidebar: don’t worry, David, the others had you covered]

But look at those overloaded bookshelves behind me in both of those snapshots. An honest-to-God real live used-book store made for loafing and smiling in.

Now, Black Gate readers, it is time to soiree!

Start more legends!

S.E. Lindberg Knighted an Honor To-Shelfer by Joe Bonadonna!

 

Dark Muse News: Battleborn Magazine Issues 2 and 3

Simulcast on Black Gate: Dark Muse News: Battleborn Magazine Issues 2 and 3

[LEFT] Battleborn issue #1 (cover art by Samuel Dillon); [CENTER] Interior Art for "Jaguar's Children" by Greg Mele (artist Babeto Daroz); [RIGHT] art for Lee Patton's "Temple of the River King."

Black Gate has covered the inception of Battleborn magazine as it spawned from an August 2025 crowdfunding on Indiegogo. Columnist and author Mark Rigney interviewed the champion and chief editor Sean CW Korsgaard over three segments: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

Too much ground to recap here, but we can highlight that the goal of the magazine is to blend contemporary Sword & Sorcery with reprints of classics (beyond Robert E. Howard, there will be Michael Shea, David Drake, and even more....that we 'kane't' wait to share the identities of!)

Sean CW Korsgaard is not to be confused with the Commander of Battleborn Magazine. This character is akin to the Skull from Tales from the Magician's Skull, and he is as rough as the skeletal icon, but perhaps a bit easier on his interns. The Commander has provided his sacred guidance below.