About SwordandSorcery.org

SwordandSorcery.org is dedicated to the study of fiction written in three genres: sword and sorcery, planetary romance, and swashbuckling historicals.

We hope that you enjoy your visit. Please feel free to join our ongoing conversations, or to post any feedback or thoughts at our discussion forum.

Is there something you'd like to see? An article or review you'd like to write? Let us know.

Howard Andrew Jones

About Flashing Swords

We are told that before the days of computers and television, radios and electric lights, even before candle and book, our ancestors gathered to share stories.

The greatest of these tales have been preserved in legend and literature, but too often we forget that they were once lively and new, that once blind Homer plucked his harp before an audience rapt with wonder, an audience uncertain of what would happen next.

It is easy enough to picture the firelight throwing shadows on the cave wall, or flickering in the hearth or campfire, listeners straining toward the figure who sat or stood near the flames, perhaps a harp or lute or some other instrument to hand.

These storytellers spoke of heroes and terrible dooms, shining kingdoms and darkest treachery. They painted pictures with their speech, transporting listeners to the sites of bloody battlefields, the council rooms of kings, the lairs of monsters and witches.

Here we are far removed from those old fires, but not so far from the storytellers themselves. Their spiritual descendants still walk among us. This is their hall, and all who come to hear tell of brave deeds and far-off things are welcome to gather and read their words. Flashing Swords will be the home of stories old and new, from masters and newcomers united in vision. Lend them your ears and stay and bask in our fellowship. Peruse the growing library of information at our host site, Sword and Sorcery. Post your thoughts in our forum. And, if you wish, raise your own voice in story.

--Howard Andrew Jones