© Cloaked Press LLC
Vision of the Reaper, a short story by Rab Foster, the pseudonym under which I write fiction of a usually sword-and-sorcerous hue, is one of the tales in a new collection called Fall into Fantasy 2023 from the publisher Cloaked Press. The story takes place in a giant wheatfield and has among its ingredients not only the titular, fearsome Reaper but also windmills, crop circles, corn dollies and pretty-much everything connected with the culture of crops and harvesting that I regard as cool. (Not scarecrows, though – I think scarecrows are overused in the fantasy genre.)
The story also introduces a character called Cranna the Crimson, about whom I hope to write more fiction in the future. She’s a swordswoman who, in addition to having to deal with the usual sword-and-sorcery fixtures of evil magicians, monstrous creatures and so on, has to deal with medieval-style male chauvinists as well. Cranna is well-equipped for this, being the sort who takes no shit from anyone.
Offering 16 stories and 343 pages of fantasy-related goodness, Fall into Fantasy 2023 is available on kindle and as a paperback here.
And of course, this gives me an excuse to link you to one of the greatest songs in American rock-music history. Guess which song.