Blackguards ― Tales of Assassins, Mercenaries, and Rogues

Whether by coin or by blood... YOU WILL PAY. A fantasy anthology featuring the deadly, the worldly, and the sneaky. Blackguards consists mainly of stories in established series, and the authors range from wildly successful indie authors toNew York Times bestsellers. Featuring tales set in the worlds of Michael J. Sullivan's Riyria, David Dalglish's Dezrel, Mark Lawrence's The Broken Empire, Lian Hearn's Tales of the Otori, Mark Smylie's Sword and Barrow, Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow, Shawn Speakman's Chronicles of Annwn, Carol Berg's Sanctuary, James A. Moore's Seven Forges, Django Wexler's Shadow Campaigns, Laura Resnick's Silerian Trilogy, Peter Orullian's Vault of Heaven, Kenny Soward's GnomeSaga, Paul S. Kemp's Egil and Nix, and more! If you enjoy roguish tales of scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells, many of them set in established worlds,Blackguards is for you! Foreword by Glen Cook (Black Company) Carol Berg, "Seeds" Richard Lee Byers, "Troll Trouble" David Dalglish, "Take You Home" James Enge, "Thieves at the Gate" John Gwynne, "Better to Live than to Die" Lian Hearn, "His Kikuta Hands" Snorri Kristjansson, "A Kingdom and a Horse" Joseph Lallo, "Seeking the Shadow" Mark Lawrence, "The Secret" Tim Marquitz, "A Taste of Agony" Peter Orullian, "A Length of Cherrywood" Cat Rambo, "The Subtler Art" Laura Resnick, "Friendship" Mark Smylie, "Manhunt" Kenny Soward, "Jancy's Justice" Shawn Speakman, "The White Rose Thief" Jon Sprunk, "Sun and Steel" Anton Strout, "Scream" Michael J. Sullivan, "Professional Integrity" Django Wexler, "The First Kill" Anthony Ryan, "The Lord Collector" Paul S. Kemp, "A Better Man" James A. Moore, "What Gods Demand" Jean Rabe, "Mainon" Bradley P. Beaulieu, "Irindai" S.R. Cambridge, ""The Magus and the Betyar" Clay Sanger, "The Long Kiss".

After finding a manual typewriter in the basement of a friend's house, Michael J. Sullivan inserted a blank piece of paper and typed: It was a dark and stormy night. He was just eight years old and mimicking the greatest (or only) writer he knew at the time... Snoopy. That spark ignited a flame and the desire to fill blank pages would become a life-long obsession. As an adult, Michael spent more than ten years developing his craft by studying authors such as Stephen King, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck. During that time, he wrote thirteen novels but found no traction in publishing. He did the only sane thing he could think of (since insanity is repeating the same act but expecting a different result), he quit and vowed never to write creatively again. Michael stayed away from writing for a decade and returned to the keyboard in his forties... but with one condition: he wouldn't seek publication. Instead, he wrote a series of books that had been building in his head over his hiatus. His first reading love was fantasy, and his hope was to help foster a love of reading in his then thirteen-year-old daughter, who struggled due to severe dyslexia. After reading the third book of this series, his wife insisted the novels needed to "get out there." When Michael refused to jump back onto the query-go-round, she took over the publication tasks and has run "the business side" of his writing ever since. Michael is one of the few authors who has successfully published through all three routes: small press, self, and big five.