This year, I went to my first writer’s conference: The Realm Makers Conference. Realm Makers is a community of Christian speculative writers that meets once or twice a year. It was a great experience, and I met many wonderful people. I may share some of those experiences on this blog over the coming weeks.

During the conference between sessions whilst feeding my maw (which is a common thing for me), I exchanged stories with another gentleman. He told me of his, then I shared a synopsis of one of mine. I gave a quick blurb of soon to be launched, The Inn at the Forest’s Edge. I described it along the lines of a more classical “hero’s journey” and “coming of age” medieval fantasy novella. Interesting enough, he stated, “I assume there is a magical sword. What’s it like?” (or something similar). He seemed almost bored with the idea. (He is doing a re-write of Cinderella—no magical swords but a magic slipper, perhaps!). The question surprised me! Magic sword?

Are magical swords that common in classical fantasy fiction? I guess he imagined King Arthur and Excalibur or Sigurd and Gramr. Or maybe even Bilbo and Frodo’s Sting. Heroes with special weapons are common in myths around the world and in many fantasy stories. I shouldn’t have been surprised by the statement. Some of my future writings will have special weapons. But the fantasy fiction, The Inn at the Forest’s Edge does not. I told the man no. No magic weapons this time. In fact, swords play a small part of the story.

Does that surprise you? I love swords, as anyone who follows my social media knows. There are some swords in the story and the main character, Johann, wants to learn how to use one. But none are magical. Because this is a story about the depth of character. Finding courage. Overcoming fear. Growing into manhood. Discovering the supernatural. Now you can have all those things and a magic weapon. Sometimes a magic weapon is necessary to defeat the incredibly powerful foe, but one may still need great courage to go fight the foe.

But in this fantasy tale, Johann goes on despite knowing not what will happen, just knowing he must do the right thing, even if he is alone. Even if he has nothing special to assist him. So I hope you look forward to reading my novella when it becomes available. Sign up here for updates and enjoy a free short story, too!