My good friend Alex Ness invited me to contribute a story to a short story collection he assembled. Hunt the Winterlands is a shared-world anthology of dark fantasy set in a world where an ancient curse has shrouded the land in eternal winter. Just the type of thing you’d expect a poet from Minnesota to come up with.
Or perhaps I should let Alex himself explain:
Long ago in distant lands, a great explosion struck the heart of the Daggar Mountain range, causing every race and city, as well as nearly all animal and plant life, to collapse.
Seven-hundred years later there are very few who dare venture to the Winterlands. The Elves massed a great evacuation going eastward across the ocean, and the dwarves tunneled their way underground in a ten-year mass effort called the great migration. The humans by and large tried to adapt but couldn’t. Some left, others starved, a scant few continue to persevere.
The main population of the Winterlands is now large clans of Orcs and Goblins who eat flesh of any they find, including other such races as themselves.
The Winterlands are a cold and desolate place, but those creatures and races with a keen mind and strong will are able to find a way to survive.
Hunt the Winterlands is a dark fantasy anthology featuring bone-chilling tales from Nichole Porter, Kurt Wilcken, Nate Barlow, Josh Brown, Gina Wood, Michael May, Alex Ness, Joe Monks, and Marc N. Kleinhenz. Cover by Scott P. Vaughn
Something to curl up by the fire with when snow is drifting over your driveway and the bitterkalt howls outside your window. Better bring an extra blanket.
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