Month: September 2025

It’s Archon time!

It’s time for our hometown party! Archon is a neighborhood con for many of us here in the Literary Underworld, and always a great time. This year we expect to see Underlords Jim D. Gillentine, Kathy Brown, Sela Carsen/Silke Campion, Cole Lanahan, Diana Morgan, Mary Koppenhofer, Michales Joy, and perhaps some others! (Oh, and Overlord Elizabeth Donald.)

Literary Underworld will have our usual booth just to the left of the dealer’s room entrance. We have planted our flag on that spot and it is ours. This year we are premiering a few new books released over the last few months by our amazing Underlords!

Blackfire Rising by Elizabeth Donald

It was an experiment. A way to create a better soldier. Colder, more efficient. But some things shouldn’t be altered, and some creatures are best left to myth.

Sara Harvey has faced the Cold Ones again and again, losing friends and comrades in a running battle to keep the world safe from the monsters released by an experiment that should never have happened.

Because you shouldn’t have to pray to just stay dead.

 

 

 

Madam, Don’t Forget Your Sword

Do we ever think of them, the little people who make their masters larger than life? The ones tasked with the routine jobs: Picking up the laundry, packing snacks for the quest, renting the secret lair, oiling the death machine, walking the eldritch horror? The people who keep the heroine’s sword sharp and her chainmail polished—does she ever notice? What are their lives like? How did they get their jobs? There would be no story without them, but what are their stories?

Here, we present twenty-eight innovative and remarkable speculative fiction tales that reveal how the companions, sidekicks, and minions make that hero—or villain—super. Authors include Underlord Diana Morgan.

 

 

 

Vegas Run by Rachel Brune

Some debts you can’t outrun.

An unprovoked attack destroys Rick Keller’s refuge and sends him back to civilization. Adrift, alone, his past reaches out to him as the agency he escaped–and the old Soviet spook he almost didn’t–call in their debts. His choice: work with MONIKER one more time, or face the rest of his life on the run.

From the snows of the north to the sand of the Las Vegas strip, Rick finds himself enmeshed in a web of old alliances and new, as his team heads out on the trail of the latest development in the supernatural arms race. While Rick has been hiding in the north country, MONIKER has been building a supernatural army. No matter how fast or far he runs, it won’t be enough. This time when they call him in, they don’t need an agent–they’re eliminating the competition. This time, he’s going to burn them to the ground.

 

 

Marathonarium Vol. 2
Ed. by Stephen Zimmer, including Underlord Kathy Brown

The short stories within this anthology are the result of a creative journey that began on Thursday, July 18th, of 2024, on the eve of the 11th Imaginarium Convention. Writers of many styles and genres gathered together for a marathon writing session of three hours in length. All of the participants were encouraged to tell the story that they wanted to tell; there were no restrictions on genre, there was no common theme, nor were there any parameters on the voice the story had to be told in.

The stories were completed and edited in the months that followed, and the result is a group of tales that will entertain, captivate, provoke thought, stoke the imagination, thrill, and engage readers of a broad range of fiction!

Discover a highly talented group of up-and-coming writers dedicated to the craft of writing and the art of storytelling in Marathonarium II.

 

 

Weird STL, ed. by the St. Louis Writers Guild.

Eighteen short stories, poems, essays, flash fiction, and even a script that were all written by St. Louis Writers Guild members. Among them are Underlords Elizabeth Donald, Kathy Brown and Diana Morgan, each exploring the weirdness of our beloved St. Louis.

 

 

 

 

Baby Monster by John McFarland

Return with us to Ste. Odile, a cursed town indeed.

A familiar scientist is conducting a study on teeth, using participants from the women’s wing of St. Mathurin’s Home for the Insane.

A resolute woman must perform an unspeakable act to save herself from a life-ending condition.

An abandoned and crumbling orphanage hiding a horrific secret, a woman’s obsession with speaking to the dead, and her husband trying to save their son from potential murder come together in a thunderous storm of shock and terror.

Step into the end of intimate acquaintances and the beginning of tenuous relationships. Mysterious men, undaunted women, warped creatures, maddened minds, human atrocities… all await you in McFarland’s second volume of harrowing short stories, including two novelettes, published here for the first time.

“In Baby Monster, McFarland revisits the cursed town of Ste. Odile, where the darkest angels of our souls, all our souls, reside.” ~ Dacre Stoker, author of Dracul and great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker.

All these and many more are waiting for you at the Literary Underworld booth at Archon this weekend! And if you can’t make it to the show, they are all available on our online store. Just click the book covers to purchase! Remember, when you shop from the Literary Underworld, you’re buying directly from authors and small presses, which pays them more than buying from Big River. Support small presses, support authors, buy Literary Underworld!

See you at Archon!

Homecoming

By Dennis R. Upkins

They say you can never go home again.  They also say home is where the heart is.

If both statements are simultaneously true, then perhaps it means that you can never return home if home is always with you. Perhaps periodically we could all use the reminder that home isn’t so much a location, but the cherished people and experiences that define us.

Said reminder came in the form of me reconnecting with my high school bestie Joshua after two decades. In doing so I’ve discovered how far I’ve come into my own. More than that, this Catholic Herald is reminded that not only is he highly favored, but since the beginning God has sent her best and brightest to bless him and his journey. Said reminders come in the form of a Starbucks date that I’m on at the time of penning this piece. Enjoying a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino and the company of a handsome silver fox, I’m reminded to appreciate some of life’s true treasures.

In order to know where you’re going, you have to retrace your steps and remember where you’ve been, how far you’ve come, and what you’ve overcome. This also applies to one’s artistry. Which brings me to a little novella of mine entitled Stranger than Fiction. As my first professional published piece of fiction, Stranger than Fiction holds sacred space for me. Not only because of the story itself, but the story behind the story.

Strangely enough, Stranger than Fiction actually came to be as a result of a challenge from author Todd McCaffrey. Some years back I was at Dragon Con with a buddy who is a huge fan of the Dragonriders of Pern series. I was curious to learn more about the series and I’m always eager to learn about an artist’s creative process.

As the panel went on, I inquired about becoming an author and what advice Mr. McCaffrey would give. He inquired whether or not I’ve begun submitting my work to publishers. I confessed I hadn’t because I was working, in art school, and was waiting for a more opportune time to pursue writing.

That’s when he explained there is no convenient season. He encouraged me to go home and start writing. He challenged me to write a short story in two to three months and begin submitting it to publishers. What I remember most is that he spoke positively with conviction and certainty that I would be published and he would hear about it, and he was so happy to see a young author at the beginning of his career.

The result of that challenge was Stranger than Fiction. Submitting the story to various markets wasn’t without its challenges. While I received the usual rejection letters, the worst came from a specific publication’s editorial assistant. Insulting both the story and my skills as a writer, the editorial assistant wanted to emphasize that this was one of the worst stories she read and I had no business being an author. Nevertheless I persisted and continued to submit my novella. My labor would ultimately pay off. Stranger than Fiction became my first official sale when it was originally released as an audio short for Sniplits. The novella would regularly be featured as story of the week during that website’s seven-year run.

More than that, I was compensated for more than twice the amount a certain other publication would have paid me. More than that, said publication went out of business.

I returned to Dragon Con the following year and gave Mr. McCaffrey a copy of Stranger than Fiction, and thanked him for igniting the spark that launched my career as a speculative fiction author.

Last year I re-released Stranger than Fiction in print for the first time, and it’s been well received by a new audience and a surprising success. The experience taught me that while betting on yourself is a scary risk, it can also result in achieving the impossible.

Achieving the impossible feels like home.

DENNIS R. UPKINS is a proud Atlanta, Ga. native. A voracious reader, a lifelong geek and a hopeless comic book addict, he knew at an early age that storytelling was his calling. In 2011, his debut novel, Hollowstone, was released by Parker Publishing. His sophomore title, West of Sunset, was also released by Parker Publishing in 2014. Upkins has also worked as a freelance artist and a digital photographer. His artwork and short stories have appeared in Drops of Crimson, Sniplits, and a number of other publications. Upkins regularly critiques and analyzes the representation and portrayal of minorities in comics and media and has served as a contributor for Ars Marginal, Black Girl Dangerous, Prism Comics, Nashville Geek Life, and Comicbook.com. In an effort to help enlighten society about the cultures of the African diaspora and promote a more accurate and positive image, Upkins launched the Black Folks Being Awesome initiative in 2013. When he’s not out saving the world and/or taking it over in his spare time, Upkins’s hobbies include drawing, modeling, acting, photography, cosplay, rollerblading, martial arts and of course writing. His website can be found here.