Shane Porteous - The Battle of Ebulon - A Shared Anthology

Dear Reader

I’ve always loved crossovers; the idea of characters created from two or more minds coming together in one story has always excited me. I cannot remember the first crossover story I read/watched (although an episode of Power Rangers where the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles guest starred comes to mind.) I have no doubt it has something to do with my love of manga/comic books. What you mean there is a single comic book that features both Spiderman and Batman? How could I not get excited about such a story? Crossovers enable writers to tell a unique story with familiar characters together, that a single author simply can’t do on their own.

I was suffering from a particularly bad case of writer’s vulnerability. I didn’t really have writer’s block per se, it was just I couldn’t get excited about any ideas that I came up with. Like most writers I began thinking about what I wanted to accomplish with my storytelling. Now apart from the obvious dreams of success, one of my goals was to collaborate with another author and write a crossover between our novels.

I began searching the list of independent authors whose works I admired as I began dreaming up potential ideas for a crossover. However I soon discovered the extreme difficulty in getting a crossover written. Most authors barely have time to get their own stories written let alone the time needed to write a good crossover.

At first I was disgruntled but my mind kept coming up with different crossover ideas. I soon found myself thinking about the fantasy genre as a whole. Fantasy has to be the most diverse literary genre; there are just so many sub-genres. I began thinking about the differences between the sub-genres and soon discovered the one commonality they all share, heroism. Now as you probably know heroism comes in all shapes and sizes but ultimately it comes down to heroes doing the right thing and selflessly putting themselves in dangerous situations to accomplish such a goal.

Unsurprisingly when thinking about the core of fantasy it is impossible not to think of Tolkien’s work (without a doubt the measuring stick of fantasy). While thinking about Lord of the Rings an image popped into my mind. I imagined Conan the Barbarian and David Gemmell’s Waylander fighting alongside Legolas and Gimli as they defended Helm’s Deep. Pretty cool image right?

That image sent my imagination running and it wasn’t long before I came up with the concept for this anthology. But truth be told because of my frustrating experiences with trying to get a crossover story written I wasn’t exactly hopeful about it. I posted the idea in several goodreads groups with little intention of actually creating the anthology. Sometimes it is just fun to talk about an idea even if nothing comes to fruition.

However within only a matter of days I had over a dozen excited authors eagerly asking where they could sign up for the anthology. Their enthusiasm got me excited that an anthology could actually happen. I quickly set about gathering these authors, setting up guidelines and an email address where we could all communicate and finally submit our contributions.

As I read what my fellow authors had written I was both impressed and amazed by the diversity presented to me. Almost every sub-genre of fantasy can be found within this anthology, epic, high, dark, brutal, urban, horror, paranormal and almost everything in between. If you’re expecting 15 Eragon styled entries then are you in for a surprise. We have a great array of traditional heroes, bad ass anti-heroes, urban heroines, angels, demi-gods, ancient beings, talking animals and even super heroes. Also a few authors are making their publishing debut with this anthology.

It still feels a little surreal that not only this anthology was put together but just how brilliant of an anthology it is. As strange as it sounds I feel a little like the King of Ebulon right now. While he called for aid to save his kingdom I called for aid in helping me deal with my writer’s vulnerability. Their fictional heroes just might save Ebulon (I can’t give away spoilers now can I?) but I know for sure the enthusiasm and talent of these 14 authors has cured me of my vulnerability. For that I just want to say thank you to each and every one of them.

Now the time for talk is over, the enemy is at the gate, hellbent on destroying this fascinating Kingdom. Will they succeed in conquering it? Not while our heroes have anything to say about it!

The winter was the coldest it had ever been, causing a constant chill to consume the air. The sun did its best through the thick clouds, but even its power was not enough to warm the mountainous landscape. Two warriors dressed in thick fur over full suits of armour stood side by side in a quiet little corner of the city. Both in their early thirties, one possessed a full head of black hair, while the other was completely bald. The air was cold enough on its own to transform their breath into mist, but each sucked eagerly on pipes creating mists of their own. The weed tasted pleasant yet both stood with sour expressions.

“No one is coming you know,” The full haired man said, his words were as flat as paper. He had spoken softly yet his voice seemed loud in the otherwise tense silence. For his words he got a scowled look from his bald headed companion.

“How many times are you going to say that Ulka?”

Ulka studied the face of the other man briefly; Torin was always hard to read.

“Until you accept it as fact my friend.”

Torin took a long drag from his pipe as he glanced up at the morbid sky. “We’ve known each other since we were kids and in all that time I never knew you had such an ability.”

Ulka narrowed his eyes, trying to figure out what his deep voiced friend meant. Torin knew well enough that Ulka didn’t realize what he was getting at. With his bronze eyes Torin looked to his friend. “I didn’t realize that you can see into the future, tell me are we going to see the end of today?”

Ulka made a point of taking a long drag from his pipe before he answered. “I don’t know about the future, but I have seen the present and not one word of help arriving has been uttered.”

Torin held the pipe in his teeth but spoke before inhaling. “The day is still young Ulka, besides we have no idea what is happening in other parts of Ebulon do we?”

Ulka bit his lip, sometimes Torin could be a little condescending. “That doesn’t help us now does it?” Ulka replied.

Torin shook his head and blew out more smoke. “It might, for all we know there is a whole horde of allies taking care of the enemy, we might not even have to wield our swords today.”

“You seem to have the ignorant hope of a child, Torin.”

“Better that than the cynicism of an old man,” Torin skillfully replied.

Ulka gaze ascended to the dull sky, he rarely saw the sun but had always found its glow beautiful, of all days he wished he could see it clearly today. “I just don’t see why anybody will come and help us, their worlds aren’t at stake, they have nothing to gain from coming here.”

Torin allowed the words to hang for a moment before he responded. “Let us just hope, there are enough selfless warriors in all the worlds that enough will bring aid.”

Ulka nodded, though he remained doubtful, his gaze still to the sky.

“Lieutenants!” a sharp voice called.

The two men turned to see a woman warrior, dressed similar to them.

“Yes Luvis?” Torin asked.

“The Captain wants to speak to you two immediately.”