Overdue is an anthology that has been a long time in coming—to the point that I was a very different person in a very different life when I wrote "Wholly Holy." But not so different that I'm not still extremely proud of it. Of course, it helps that the people at 18thWall know what I love and how to get an interesting story out of me.

This anthology combines Jon Black's Bel Nemeton and MH Norris's All the Petty Myths, and invites in a lot of new-to-both-universes writers (myself included) along the way. The key conceit is books: books that have been lost to time or are believed to not even be real. That was our brief for these stories. It had to involve a book (either of real or manufactured legend) and the quest to find them.

Me, I picked a real-fake book. And I once again leaned into my love of all things Arthurian, in particular my love of anything involving Sir Perceval. (Readers of Shadows Over Avalon, also from 18thWall, will be familiar with my story "The Maze Will Come to Me" on that front.) "Wholly Holy" was actually written first, but I'm kind of pleased that the two stories have landed so close to each other.

The book in question is Kyot's Parsifal, which (sadly) probably doesn't exist. But what if it did? Wolfram von Eschenbach, in a desperate bid to avoid looking like he ripped off Chretien de Troyes, claimed that the two of them were both inspired by this piece of writing. A piece of writing that was based on very true things, in turn implying that the story of the Holy Grail was very true. It was a fascinating prospect, because simply assuming that Kyot's Parsifal is the tip of a huge, terrifying iceberg. If it's real, then the Grail Kings are real. The lineages of said Grail Kings are real. Somewhere out there is the vessel from the Last Supper. And a book falling into the wrong hands could change the world as we know it.

Without giving too much away, because I would very much like you to buy and read this book, this very literal Grail Quest falls into lap of someone who's not especially interested: Faye Lundgren, who's currently busy culling her late father's collection of books and was never as into Arthurian legend and lore as he was. Writing a hero who refuses the call at pretty much every turn was a challenge, but it was a challenge I wanted... partly because, as someone who's deeply into this stuff, I wanted to write someone a little less like myself. I'll save more musings on that for my eventual interview on the 18thWall blog. Regardless, it was a challenge I enjoyed.

Another challenge came when fitting this story into the worlds of Black and Norris's books. I needed to make a few tweaks to make sure my Grail quest didn't stomp all over theirs, but the result was a lot of fun and (I think) made for a much cooler story.

You can buy Overdue now in a variety of formats, and I'd love it if you would. Tell your friends, support indie publishers, and do let me know what you think!