Anthology Feature!
I am thrilled to announce that a story of mine is featured in the anthology Witches Save the World: Covens, Cauldrons, and Curses Gone Right.
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The Witch, the King, the Sword, and the Monster is not only the final story in the anthology, a huge honor, but was also one of the few chosen to have an illustration commissioned! Behold!
I am beyond grateful for this recognition and to be involved in this project. To have such an incredible artist read my story and create this unbelievable interpretation is like, one of the coolest things that’s ever happened in my writing journey.
I haven’t read the entire anthology yet, but I’ve been very impressed by everything I have.
My story is a 25-pager about… The Witch, the King, the Sword, and the Monster. That’s the best title I could come up with. I worked the story furiously during the weeks before my second daughter was born, and I’m really proud of it.
The legs. The arms. The hands and the grabbing. The mouths screaming terrible cries…
If you like it, check out the accompanying volume: Hags, Harridans, and Hexes Gone Right.
The witch is a complex figure. Hero? Villain? Victim? Practitioner of a nearly-forgotten faith or just misunderstood? An elder who should be respected but is instead reviled? Or the member of an oppressed ethnic or sexual minority?
Witches of every sort appear in these anthologies. In some tales and poems, the witch embodies the primal forces of balance and karmic retribution, or they act in support of social justice, defending those who cannot protect themselves. Or they act in defense of Nature, calling to heel the corrupt governments and corporations that would strip the world in the name of power and profit. Or they are caretakers of their communities, mending minds and bodies, sometimes at the cost of their own freedom or even their own lives.
These are witches who do what must be done, because someone has to save the world.
[Content Warnings: harm to children and animals, environmental destruction, references to sexual assault, political and religious oppression, violence, gore. Not appropriate for children.]
<3
ZSmith
PS: I am still completely blown away by the illustration. HOW COOL IS THAT