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Old Moon Quarterly: The Dark Fantasy Magazine

Created by Old Moon Publishing

An independent magazine of dark fantasy and sword and sorcery, illuminated in the style of a Renaissance woodcut, featuring grim tales inspired by Robert E. Howard, Tanith Lee, and Arthurian myth.

Latest Updates from Our Project:

Production Update!
10 months ago – Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 01:20:55 PM

Hello dear backers,

Production continues apace, and on schedule. 
  • Our submission window concluded on the 7th, and it was our largest yet: over 600 submissions! 
    • We've narrowed everything down to about 18 stories: we believe by the end of the week, we'll have the final selections made. 
    • We have, in fact, sent out our first acceptance letters! Perhaps the most exciting part for us (and for the authors too, we imagine). 
  • The stories commissioned for the BackerKit campaign itself are progressing on schedule: we have the first ones in hand, in fact. 
  • We have the majority of the art for both issues completed. Still to come is the cover for Issue 10 (the Arthurian issue), and some of the interior art for the non-commissioned stories (achieved as part of our stretch goals: thank you, backers!)

To wit: a glimpse at some of said completed art!



As we reach more of the production milestones, we'll be sure to keep everyone in the loop. 

Once again: thank you all for your help, and your support. 

Sincerely,

The Editors at Old Moon

157% funded! Many stretch goals slain! Visions of the future
11 months ago – Mon, Jul 07, 2025 at 06:40:38 AM

Hello one and all!

First off: thank you all so very, very much for your support. 157% funded is incredible, and we can honestly say we are flabbergasted (gobsmacked, even) by this level of support. These issues will be our coolest, most metal ones yet. And, for what it's worth, our issues which pay the most for both authors and artists! We hit TWO stretch goals, and came within a hairsbreadth of hitting a third. That means MORE ART and MORE PAY for our authors. Our original plan was to have illuminations and such on every page, as well as artwork for the four commissioned stories by E. Catherine Tobler, John Langan, R.L. Summerling, and James Enge. Now every story will have its own artpiece (and some might get more than one). All of our authors will receive nine cents a word. That may not sound like a lot, and we suppose in the long run it isn't. But that makes us the highest paying sword and sorcery magazine in the biz, and one of the highest paying SFF magazines in the world (at least for these two issues). That makes us really happy. And we could only do it because of you all. So once again: thank you.

Now, as for making the thing itself! We have much of the art already. Most of the rest is already in-progress. Our commissioned authors are writing their stories, and we're holding a submission window for the rest of our stories currently. That will run to August 7th. Our goal is to have all art and stories finalized by the autumn. We want the ebook editions of 9 and 10 available in January, and the print editions shortly thereafter. The schedule may flex a bit depending on when our authors and artists deliver their finished work to us. We'll keep everyone updated as things progress!

Sincerely,

Caitlyn, Graham, and Julian

100% funded! Onward to MORE ART!
11 months ago – Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 01:31:01 PM

WE HAVE FUNDED!


A hearty thank you to everyone who has backed us thus far, and everyone who spread the word about us! Without you, this would not be possible, and we deeply, deeply appreciate your support.

We're on our way to our first stretch goal now: more art!

It's also worth noting (for surely some of you are authors!) that we open for submissions on July 7th. We'll be accepting stories up to 10,000 words in length, and we pay 8 cents a word, USD. We'll be accepting poetry too.

In a very short while (after we cease dancing our skeletal little feet off), we will be sending out mass emails to our authors and artists with a production schedule, check-in times, and so on and so forth. Which means you all will be hearing very soon about production updates!

Once again: thank you. And onward!

Sincerely,

Caitlyn, Graham, and Julian

P.S. if you want to support another worthy cause, check out David C. Smith's Sometimes Lofty Towers. It's a really excellent, short sword-and-sorcery novel about the frontier, lawlessness, and the price of violence. Highly recommended, and only $200 away from funding!


90% Reached! Last call for Tuckerizations and Short Story Edits! (and a small art teaser)
11 months ago – Wed, Jul 02, 2025 at 07:01:03 AM

Hello one and all!

We're here: the last days of a dying earth our crowdfunding campaign. We're currently sitting at 92% with 5 days left on the docket, and things are looking good! But we don't want to rest on our laurels. We want to get you, the reader, the best magazine possible. That means hitting some of our stretch goals. The first of which is, as you might remember, more art!

To that end: we still have a few of our "limited" offers left, ONE Moonlit Blade tier and SIX Short Story Editing tiers.
The Moonlit Blade tier gets your name in the magazine (or the name of your choosing: we aren't saying you should buy it just to have some dire fore of yore executed in humorous fashion by one of your favorite authors...but we're not not saying that, either), as well as physical and digital copies of Issues 9 and 10.

The Short Story editing tier gets you the physical/digital copies as well as a comprehensive and professional edit for one of your own short stories. If you aren't a writer yourself, but you know/love one (we should all love at least one writer), purchasing them a professional story edit can make for a lovely gift. The magazines you get with it are lovely on their own as well!

If all of these pledges were to be purchased, we'd blow past our funding goal and be well on our way to hitting that first stretch goal, the coveted more art.

Speaking of MORE ART, we do have a bit of a teaser, from the mind (and pen) of Mark Jarrell: the pre-inked sketches for more of his illuminations, which will so lovingly decorate the pages of these next issues! We don't want to give away too much, but we couldn't resist giving a glimpse of what-shall-be:



If you're like us, then you can never resist a good flail. Nor a good lantern!

Well, that's all for now. To those of you who have backed us already, we say (with the very deepest and heartfelt gratitude): thank you. To those of you who are thinking of backing us, we say: please do! And if you're still on the fence, check out some of the stories we've posted for free on our website, here and here and here and elsewhere! And worry not: there shall be, perhaps, one final story intruding upon us later today...

Thank you, and hail the old moon!

Sincerely,

Caitlyn, Graham, and Julian.

70% reached! And a free story for backers!
12 months ago – Wed, Jun 18, 2025 at 02:28:20 PM

Hello dear backers!

We've officially breached 70%! We're very excited, and very thankful, for all the support you've shown us thus far. In case you haven't seen it yet, you can hear (and see!) some of our exuberance over on Youtube. Liam Hall, of Liam's Lyceum, recently interviewed Julian and Graham about Old Moon on his channel. Hear them talk inspiration, writing preferences, favorite stories, and the wide, wonderful world of translation. You can check the video out here.

And, if you're a backer, you will note that we have something special this week: a free story from the archives! That's right: in the spirit of Arthurian largesse, we've included one of our previous Arthurian stories here in fun, slightly ornamented, pdf. It is "Galatine," by Alexander Atreya, Told from the perspective of Gawain's sword, the eponymous Galatine, it's a short (but lovely) read that combines two of our favorite things: sentient swords, and darker takes on Arthurian knights. It was originally published in Old Moon Quarterly 8. Let us know what you think!