Goatskin traverses mountain, steppe and taiga with the ancient ex-shaman Ussatur, who is kept alive past his time by quartz organs that draw fuel from the stars. For a cause he’s secret about, he needs to reach the Sea of Origins. A three-horned goat goes with them, saved from the pot.

Through wreckage from the wars of Tchingis Khan—through star strike, atrocity and miracle—Goatskin leads her friend. She who fears water finds water haunts her…

You can listen to the first chapter here:

In a forgotten corner of a forgotten war, a doomed city turns to the ageless creature Lathra to break a siege's back by any means necessary.

When the citadel falls, the ancient sorceress is caged and marked for death - but does the terrible psychic machinery she's set in motion grind to a halt simply because no hand holds the reins? Isolated, hunted through a waking nightmare, no longer certain of what is real: Lathra's captors must defeat their foes, their fears, and one another to survive.

What does it cost to lock the gates of Hell?

You can listen to an opening excerpt here:

In this collection of colorful tales you will travel the unguarded lands with Morlock Ambrosius (master of all makers) and meet

... a book that destroys your world if you read it...

... a triangle of old friends with death on their minds...

… a fiery bird burning in a wintry wood…

... a city that vanishes every hundred years on the Festival of Thieves...

... a place where people sacrifice their humanity to live (in a way) as machines…

… a barbaric nation of pirates who rule the savage clouds above the Sea of Storms

… a dark road that leads all the way to the gates of death and whatever lies beyond it.

You can listen to a complete story from the collection here:

Orhan Timur returns to Ashkaristan, the site of his bloodiest, most horrific conquests, seeking allies in his struggle with the usurper Jungar. But the land itself remembers his deeds, and it is unwise to spend the night in a city one has razed, with no survivors, himself.

Even worse, Ashkaristan is ruled from the shadows by the Master of Maridshahr, a sorcerer of hidden royal lineage, who has seen in a vision that all he has built will be destroyed by Orhan's future son. The only solution: kill Orhan Timur first!

Through ruins walled in ghostly flames, in desperate, chaotic battles, and against body-hopping demon assassins, the fugitive khan must use all his cunning and prowess to survive ... In the Fields of Hell!

You can listen to an opening excerpt here:

In 1977, Dariel R. A. Quiogue was simultaneously exposed to Star Wars, Herodotus, Homer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Robert E. Howard, and his brain has never been the same since. He now writes F&SF in his spare time, flavored by his fascination for history, science, the sea, and the richness and diversity of Asian cultures. His creative motto is "Simple stories, powerfully told."

Audrey Stollings writes Gothic Sword & Sorcery and horror fiction. Her other appearances include NEW EDGE SWORD & SORCERY #5 and DARK SEA SILVER from Brackenbury Books.

She was born in Appalachia and lives in the Pacific Northwest.

James Enge lives in northwest Ohio with his life-mate and a relentless canine researcher. He teaches Latin and mythology at a medium-sized public university. His first novel (Blood of Ambrose, Pyr 2009) was shortlisted for the World Fantasy Award, and its French translation was nominated for the Prix Imaginales the following year. (No, he didn't win, but to lose alongside Ursula Le Guin is itself an honor.) His fiction has appeared in Black Gate, in F&SF, in Tales from the Magician's Skull, Old Moon Quarterly, Paula Guran's The Year's Best Fantasy, and elsewhere.

Bryn Hammond (she/her) lives in a seaside town in Australia. Goatskin sword & sorcery novellas Waste Flowers, What Rough Beast? from Brackenbury Books. Her historical fiction series Amgalant closely follows the Secret History of the Mongols, a thirteenth-century life of Chinggis Khan. Stories in ergot., New Edge Sword & Sorcery Magazine, Mordschlag. Poems in Heroic Fantasy Quarterly, Old Moon Quarterly.

Caster will illustrate maps for all four books! The above are past examples of their work.

The pledges are pretty straightforward, however there's one question we'd like to address:

Yes! But not as part of the crowdfund, which is to cover all four books' printing & labour costs. In short, it would greatly complicate things for us to offer anything other than full sets of all four novellas.

We encourage folk to take advantage of this opportunity to try out some authors which may be new to them, stories which may be a little different from classic S&S, and to get all four books ahead of everyone else, who will see them be released one at a time over the course of 2027 while our backers will get all four at once, at the very beginning of the release schedule.

Backing the crowdfund is also the only way to get the exclusives & stretch goal bonuses such as...

1) INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING DISCOUNT ($19,650)

This stretch goal covers reducing shipping costs for all backers outside the United States: $5 USD off for Canadian backers, and $10 USD off for anyone outside of North America.

Zeynep ain't much for talking. Kawtar wants to be heard at all costs.

Meet your new favorite sapphic sword & sorcery duo in four pulse-pounding tales of flashing steel, demonic forces, and stolen kisses in a sultry and dangerous desert setting!

All backers will receive a free 'zine featuring approx 17,000 words zine authored by Luana Saitta! PDF for digital backers, a risograph-printed 44 page stapled 'zine for physical backers.

3) CUSTOM DINKUSES ($24,425)
Fun to say, fun to draw! You know those symbols or lines used to mark significant breaks in the narrative on a page? That's a dinkus!

This goal unlocks custom illustrations for each novella that we'll use for dinkuses instead of a simple line.

4) MYSTERY STRETCH GOAL??? ($??,???)
If we unlock CUSTOM DINKUSES, we'll tell you what this is...

ALL PHYSICAL TIER BACKERS will receive 4x6 inch postcards of the cover art for SEAS AFIRE STARS ADROWN and LONG IS THE NIGHT.

RETURNING BACKERS will receive a 4x6 inch postcard of the cover art for THE PHOENIX & THE MAKER.  

FIRST 48 HOUR BACKERS will receive a 4x6 inch postcard of the cover art for FIELDS OF HELL.

Please take note of the estimated shipping charges, and understand shipping charges may change between the crowdfund and fulfillment.

During the fulfillment process, BackerKit will calculate any shipping that may be required when you fill out your delivery address.

Shipping costs will not be assessed and billed until then! You are only being charged for your pledge amount at this time. We hope this helps to keep the cost of shipping down due to current fluctuations in domestic and international shipping costs.

Brackenbury Books, BackerKit, and our fulfillment partners are not responsible for any VAT, duty, or customs charges any packages may incur.

Our goal is to ship some time in April 2027. Given that our printer for these books is located in the same state as our fulfillment center, we feel very confident about achieving this goal.

Thanks to everything we learned publishing our past books and magazine issues, we're confident about producing New Edge Sword & Sorcery Novellas 2026 in a timely manner, and at the high level of quality our readers have come to expect.

We've successfully funded eight campaigns across two crowdfunding platforms, with our first six fulfilled and the other two on track to be fulfilled later this year. 

 

To further mitigate risk we’ve brought on a crowdfunding & fulfillment professional, Sara McHenry (https://www.saramchenry.com), who did excellent work for us with our previous issues. Since 2013, she’s helped her clients raise over $3.5 million in crowdfunding money for their creative projects. Her specialties include setting budgets and timelines, structuring reward tiers, working with vendors, shipping logistics, and motivating the unmotivated creator.

Should any challenges arise with things we have no control over, such as supply chain issues, our backers will receive timely, detailed updates on the situation.