Swords & Steam Short Stories
Page 84
Washington Irving
Rip Van Winkle
(Originally Published in The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., 1819)
Washington Irving (1783–1859) was a famous American author, essayist, biographer and historian born in New York City. He was influenced by his private education and law school studies to begin writing essays for periodicals. Travelling and working all over the globe, Irving established a name for himself with his successful short stories ‘Rip Van Winkle’ and ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’. These works in particular reflected the mischievous and adventurous behaviour of his childhood. Years later, Irving lived in Spain as a US Ambassador. He returned to America towards the end of life, where he wrote several successful historical and biographical works including a five-volume biography of George Washington.
S.T. Joshi
Foreword: Swords & Steam Short Stories
S. T. Joshi is the author of The Weird Tale (1990), The Modern Weird Tale (2001), and Unutterable Horror: A History of Supernatural Fiction (2012). His award-winning biography H.P. Lovecraft: A Life (1996) was later expanded as I Am Providence: The Life and Times of H.P. Lovecraft (2010). He has prepared editions of the work of Arthur Machen, Lord Dunsany, Algernon Blackwood, M.R. James, Ambrose Bierce, Clark Ashton Smith, and other classic authors of weird fiction, as well as the anthology American Supernatural Tales (2007).
Percival Leigh
The Aerial Burglar
(Originally published in The Comic Album: A Book for Every Table, 1844)
Percival Leigh (1813–89) was an English comic writer born in Haddington. He studied medicine at St Bartholomew’s before abandoning this profession to engage in a writing career. Soon after the formation of Punch he joined its staff and contributed to it regularly until his death. As an amateur actor he also worked with Dickens in his 1845 presentation of Every Man in his Humour and his medical training allowed him to help Dickens by writing on science in layman’s terms. ‘The Aerial Burglar’ is thought to be the first ever Steampunk short story.
B.C. Matthews
The Crime of a Windcatcher
(First Publication)
B.C. Matthews hails from the rural farmlands of Northern California, where she still eats the best tomatoes grown in the world. She is published in On the Premises: Changes Issue #27, Triangulation: Lost Voices, Spark: A Creative Anthology VII and an anthology of Lovecraftian romance, Eldritch Embraces. She currently battles scientists at a laboratory by day, and finds sleep-deprived moments to tend to her reptile herd at night, leading her to pen many stories involving dragons and mad scientists. You can find her online at www.bcmatthews.blogspot.com
Angus McIntyre
War Mage
(First Publication)
Angus McIntyre was born in London and now lives in New York, where he mistreats computers for a living. He writes about spaceships, monsters, bad choices and what it means to be human. His short fiction has appeared in the anthology Mission: Tomorrow, in Black Candies magazine and on the BoingBoing website. More of his writing will appear soon in the anthology Humanity 2.0 and in the magazine Abyss & Apex. He is a graduate of the 2013 Clarion UCSD Writer’s Workshop. Find out more on his website: angus.pw.
A. Merritt
Three Lines of Old French
(Originally published in All-Story Weekly, 1919)
Abraham Merritt (1884–1943) was born in Beverly, New Jersey. A writer of science fiction as well as an inductee to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame, Merritt wrote characteristic pulp fiction themes of lost civilization, monsters and treacherous villains. Many of his short stories and novels were published in Argosy All-Story Weekly. His most famous novels are perhaps Burn Witch Burn, The Ship Ishtar and Dwellers in the Mirage. His writing was known for its excessive descriptive detail as well as the immense creativity of the alternative worlds he created.
Dan Micklethwaite
Pen Dragons
(First Publication)
Dan Micklethwaite is a freelance writer and novelist based in the north of England. His short fiction spans several genres and has featured in various international publications, including AE Science Fiction, Unsung Stories, Metaphorosis and Meerkat Press’s Love Hurts anthology. He won the Magic Oxygen 6-Word Story Competition 2015, and claimed 2nd Prize in The Short Story Competition 2015. His debut novel, The Less than Perfect Legend of Donna Creosote, was released in July 2016 through the award-winning independent publisher Bluemoose Books. For more information, follow him on Twitter @Dan_M_writer
Edward Page Mitchell
The Clock that Went Backward
(Originally published in The New York Sun, 1881)
Pioneer of the science fiction genre, American author Edward Page Mitchell (1852–1927) was a short story writer and editor for The Sun newspaper in New York. His work featured predominantly in The Sun, and most of his stories were published anonymously. His story ‘The Clock That Went Backward’, which is a contender for the first time-travel story and predates H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, was also published anonymously in The Sun and Mitchell wasn’t revealed as the author until 40 years after his death.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Unparalleled Adventure of One Hans Pfaall
(Originally published in Southern Literary Messenger, 1835)
The versatile writer Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) was born in Boston, Massachusetts. Poe is extremely well known as an influential author, poet, editor and literary critic that wrote during the American Romantic Movement. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre, and his works are famously filled with terror, mystery, death and hauntings. Some of his better-known works include his poems ‘The Raven’ and ‘Annabel Lee’, and the short stories ‘The Tell Tale Heart’ and ‘The Fall of the House of Usher’. The dark, mystifying characters of his tales have captured the public’s imagination and reflect the struggling, poverty-stricken lifestyle he lived his whole life.
Howard Pyle
The Winning of a Sword
(Originally published in Part II of The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1903)
Howard Pyle (1853–1911) was born in Wilmington, Delaware. As well as working as an author he was also a teacher and prolific illustrator. He often wrote and illustrated his own stories, and some of his notable works include The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights. The stories that captivated him were fairy tales, fables and adventure tales; and he is sometimes called the father of American illustration.
Victoria Sandbrook
Taking Care of Business
(First Publication)
Victoria Sandbrook is a fantasy writer, freelance editor, and Viable Paradise XVIII graduate. She is an avid hiker, sometimes knitter, long-form talker and initiate baker. She is often found loitering around libraries. She spends most of her days attempting to wrangle a ferocious, destructive, jubilant tiny human. Victoria, her husband and their daughter live in Brockton, Massachusetts. She reviews books and shares writerly nonsense at victoriasandbrook.com and on Twitter at @vsandbrook. This is her first publication.
Walter Scott
My Aunt Margaret’s Mirror
(Originally published in The Keepsake for 1828)
Death of the Laird’s Jock
(Originally published in The Keepsake for 1828)
Walter Scott (1771–1832) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and was a historical novelist, poet and biographer. He was fascinated by the oral traditions of the Scottish Borders and later developed an interest in German Romanticism and Gothic novels. Scott is often credited with inventing the modern historical novel, and is known for such works as Ivanhoe and Rob Roy. His first novel, Waverley, was published anonymously along with the rest of his fictional works. Those familiar with the internationally celebrated poet though, would c
ome to recognize these stories as Scott’s due to his unique narrative style.
Mary Shelley
Roger Dodsworth: The Reanimated Englishman
(Originally published in Yesterday and to-day, Cyrus Redding, 1863)
Mary Shelley (1797–1851) was born in London, England. Encouraged to write at a young age by her father, William Godwin, who was a journalist, philosopher and novelist, Shelley became an essayist, biographer, short story writer and novelist. She is famous for her horror novel Frankenstein: or The Modern Prometheus, and for being married to the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Suffering many traumatic events and widowed early on in her life, she worked hard to support herself and her son through several publications, such as her apocalyptic novel The Last Man.
Zach Shephard
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Djinn
(Originally appeared in Intergalactic Medicine Show #42, 2014)
Zach Shephard lives in Enumclaw, Washington, where he occasionally writes fantasy stories based entirely on stupid puns. His fiction has appeared in places like Galaxy’s Edge, Intergalactic Medicine Show, Weird Tales and the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology series. He never would have started writing if not for Roger Zelazny, and he hasn’t washed any part of his body since being in the same room as Neil Gaiman. For a complete list of his published stories, check out zachshephard.com
Amy Sisson
Dressing Mr. Featherbottom
(Originally Published in Robotica, 2015)
Amy Sisson is a writer, reviewer and librarian currently living in Houston, Texas. Previously, her short stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Lady Churchill’s Rosebud Wristlet and several licensed Star Trek anthologies from Pocket Books. In January 2015, she began working on a goal to read at least one short story every day of the year, and to date has read over two million words of short fiction. She blogs about her favorite stories each month at amysisson.com
Robert Louis Stevenson
The Touchstone
(Originally published in Fables, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1896)
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. He became a well-known novelist, poet and travel writer, publishing the famous works Treasure Island, Kidnapped and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. All of his works were highly admired by many other artists, as he was a literary celebrity during his lifetime. Travelling a lot for health reasons and because of his family’s business, Stevenson ended up writing many of his journeys into his stories and wrote works mainly related to children’s literature and the horror genre.
Brian Trent
Vortaal Hunt
(First Publication)
Brian Trent’s dark fantasy and science-fiction work appears in a wide array of publications including Analog, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Cosmos, Daily Science Fiction, Nature, Apex, Galaxy’s Edge, Pseudopod, Escape Pod and numerous year’s best anthologies. His story ‘Shortcuts’ appears in Flame Tree Publishing’s Science Fiction Short Stories. His literary influences are varied, and his interests include technology, classical history, and sociology – particularly the interplay between all three. Trent lives in New England, where he is a novelist, poet, and screenwriter. He can be found online at www.briantrent.com
Jules Verne
A Drama in the Air
(Originally published in Musée des Familles, 1851)
Master Zacharius
(Originally published in Musée des Familles, 1854)
Jules Verne (1828–1905) was born in Nantes, France. As a novelist, poet and playwright, he wrote adventure novels and had a big impact on the science fiction genre, as well as providig inspiration for later Steampunk authors. Along with H.G. Wells, Verne is considered to be one of the founding fathers of science fiction. His most famous adventure novels formed the series Voyages Extraordinaires, and include Journey to the Centre of the Earth and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. His stories continue to be popular today, and Verne ranks as the most translated science fiction author to date, with his works often reprinted and adapted for film.
FLAME TREE PUBLISHING
New & Classic Writing
Flame Tree’s Gothic Fantasy books offer a carefully curated series of new titles, each with combinations of original and classic writing:
Chilling Horror Short Stories
Chilling Ghost Short Stories
Science Fiction Short Stories
Murder Mayhem Short Stories
Crime & Mystery Short Stories
Swords & Steam Short Stories
Dystopia Utopia Short Stories
Supernatural Horror Short Stories
Lost Worlds Short Stories
Time Travel Short Stories
Heroic Fantasy Short Stories
Pirates & Ghosts Short Stories
Agents & Spies Short Stories
Endless Apocalypse Short Stories
Alien Invasion Short Stories
Lost Souls Short Stories
Robots & Artificial Intelligence Short Stories
Companion titles offering rich collections of classic literature include:
H.G. Wells Short Stories
Lovecraft Short Stories
Sherlock Holmes Collection
Edgar Allan Poe Collection
Mary Shelley Horror Stories
Bram Stoker Horror Stories
Celtic Myths & Tales
Greek Myths & Tales
Norse Myths & Tales
Available from all good bookstores, wordwide, and online at:
flametreepublishing.com
For our books, calendars, blog and latest special offers please see:
blog.flametreepublishing.com
Introducing our new fiction list:
FLAME TREE PRESS | FICTION WITHOUT FRONTIERS
Award-Winning Authors & Original Voices
Horror, Crime, Science Fiction & Fantasy
flametreepress.com