Interview with Sean CW Korsgaard

Sean CW Korsgaard is a U.S. Army veteran, award-winning freelance journalist, author, editor, and publicist who has worked with Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Baen Books, and Writers of the Future, and recently became the editor of Anvil and Battleborn magazines. His first anthology, Worlds Long Lost, was released in December 2022, as was his debut short story, “Black Box.” He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and child, along with, depending on who you ask, either far too many or far too few books.

PW: Tell us about your new venture.

SK: So, the new venture!

Howard Andrew Jones and I conceived Battleborn shortly after Tales of the Magician's Skull was sold to new ownership, in part wondering how to improve upon the concept, in part wondering how to get a magazine under more stable footing. Though launch was delayed because of his death, what you see now with Battleborn is that same concept brought to life. The magazine 70k words an issue of cutting-edge sword-and-sorcery and heroic fantasy, with a focus on character-driven storytelling and hard knuckle action. Each issue will have some classic genre reprints, and our first two include a Michael Shea and David Drake story that have both been out of print for decades. We will also have around 10k words of non-fiction, ranging from genre history to book reviews, and even a comic that pays homage to Jack Vance and 2000AD. Through our crowdfunder, we hope to launch with three issues in 2026, and be able to pay if not pro-rates, close to it. We're also planning on rolling out audiobooks, merchandise, comics and even a line of reprints as resources allow, to keep the magazine more sustainable, and do so under a profit sharing agreement with the authors.

Our first issue is fully funded as of last week, our second is about halfway there, and we have well over a month to raise all we can to see Battleborn take to the frontlines of fantasy next year in bold fashion.

Another final touch you may appreciate: from first issue to final, Howard's name will be on our masthead as Editor Emeritus, a standard and role model for all who seek to submit to the magazine that, I hope, shall help carry on his spirit and love of this genre.

PW: So tell me a bit about the new authors you are looking to write pieces for, and how their work matches up with the genre reprints you are doing at the same time.

SK: We started with the authors who are well known in sword-and-sorcery - guys like John C. Hocking, James Enge, CL Werner, ones who have the well-earned reputations within the genre and are known by sword-and-sorcery buffs. Anyone familiar with Howard's tenure at Tales of the Magician's Skull should see a lot of old favorites among the ranks at Battleborn. Likewise, a lot of familiar heroes to genre fans - Werner's Shintaro Oba, Robert Rhodes' Gabriela de Quetar, Steven L. Shrewsbury's Rogan to name a few.

Then I went gunning for a few big names, with some outside draw - Michael Stackpole has a story in a setting very much inspired by Roger Zelazny, and Christopher Ruocchio will prove as adept at sword-and-sorcery as he has space opera. Speaking with a few others about the future, too - one author who might not make it in the first three issues (they're under deadline for their next novel with Tor) came to me with a wild idea for a setting I can't wait to showcase in a future issue.

The indies will prove to be the big wildcards for a lot of readers. Schyler Hernstrom has been a mainstay of small press sword-and-sorcery, and he's pulling double duty with a comic strip in the magazine, and a perfect introduction to his work, a novella that I feel is sword-and-sorcery's answer to Le Guin's Omelas quandary. Alyssa Hazel may be our biggest surprise - she's an expecting mother who handsells her self-published books at conventions, primarily horror and science fiction. I saw her reading Clarke Ashton Smith and asked if she had ever taken a stab at sword-and-sorcery, and her story Battleborn is her first - and given she turned in a gripping tale of a warrior with a Mongolian death worm on her heels that blew me away, no doubt the first of many more.

As for those reprints, I started with one key metric: A list of classic authors and stories, and compared them to how long they've been out of print. Our first two, Pearls of the Vampire Queen by Michael Shea and The Mantichore by David Drake, have both been out of print for decades, and Battleborn will be the first time either will appear in digital or audio form!

If all goes well and we fund to the level we need to, all remaining space will be going to an open submission period in October - we're looking at 50-60k words up for grabs split across three issues, and as excited as I am to showcase the authors and fiction we have already, THAT is something I'm looking even more forward to, knock on wood.

PW: I see on the crowdfunding page that additional artwork is part of the stretch goals, should the campaign succeed. Tell me about the importance for you of including artwork in sword and sorcery stories.

SK: Artwork is fundamental to the sword-and-sorcery subgenre - how many people were first turned into reading Conan and Elric by Frank Frazetta and Michael Whelan long before they knew the names of Robert E. Howard or Michael Moorcock?

It's also by far the most expensive part of the production process, I don't mind telling you. In spite of that, every story in Battleborn with have a black-and-white interior illustration. Two, if we hit that stretch goals.

I also wish to emphasize something here: AI Art will NEVER appear in Battleborn.

PW: That's great to hear about AI art being verboten. So what is it like to edit sword and sorcery, be it a reprint or new, in this day and age where sword and sorcery has a lot of competition from other fantasy sub-genres?

SK: Truthfully, I find it wonderfully refreshing. I've edited a LOT of fiction, from military science fiction to cozy fantasy, but getting to work in my favorite genre, sword-and-sorcery, is incredibly rewarding.

Even within sword-and-sorcery fandom, the approach we are taking with Battleborn involves a specific focus that maybe our contemporaries might not. For example, given the action-oriented focus of our fiction, I am giving special care to editing all the combat, that it feels tactile, authentic and exhilarating.

And that competition from other fantasy subgenres is part of why its so exciting - romantasy and LitRPG are having thier moment, but there's undeniably also an appetite and a market for more traditional heroic fantasy.

PW: So what feeds your brain lately in the heroic fantasy space, besides the fine works you plan on bringing to the public with Battleborn?

SK: So I read a lot of things at any given time, but lately? Scott Oden's new collection is wonderful, and I'm reading Elizabeth Bear's novel The Folded Sky for a review in Analog. Analog has been especially wonderful because it means I'm still reading science fiction, as opposed to fantasy entirely.

The big thing has been re-reading a ton of the sword-and-sorcery classics. There is another project I was working on with Howard - do remind me to read you in on that sometime - which means I have had to read if not the entire body of work of close to two dozen authors, close to it. I'm making my way through David Gemmell at the moment, he really was a master at staging his action scenes.

That has been one of the best parts of doing a deep dive like this - project or not, it has been highly educational, each of those authors has a unique touch or lesson to take away from their work.

PW: What else do you want readers to know about Battleborn, and where can they support it?

SK: For writers and artists? I want to be a fair dealer, cut you in where I can, and create the kind of magazine you will puff up with pride to have your work featured in.

For the industry types? I am sure there will some stumbles and some growing pains along the way, but I hope to do my best to create the kind of magazine worthy of being included in the company of such worthy outlets, from Analog to Clarkesworld.

For sword-and-sorcery fans? I hope in time that you trust our logo to strand for everything that you love in our subgenre, two-fisted action, and hardfighting heroes facing fearful odds, and with each issue, you feel that same rush you did the first time you picked up your first Conan or Elric paperback.

PW: Excellent. Where can readers find out more, and support the campaign?

SK: Our crowdfund is right here - we are a few hundred shy of guaranteeing digital releases of three issues next year, and at 10k and 15k, physical releases for two and three as well!

Longterm? battlebornmagazine.com, as well as everywhere fine books and magazines are sold.


Thank you, Sean!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.