Today it’s the turn of Jack Dann and Steven Paulsen(who collaborated on a story in Vol 2 ) and James Hopwood(story in Vol 2 ) to tell us about their And Then contributions.

Harold the Hero and the Talking Sword, Jack Dann and Steven Paulsen

Jack and I have been talking for a while about doing a project together when the opportunity to write a story for Clan Destine’s ‘And Then…’ anthology came up. Jack had showed his story ‘The Talking Sword’ to Lindy Cameron. She loved it, but suggested it be expanded because the brief for the anthology was for stories with two equal protagonists; and in Jack’s original story the demon sword held sway over his ‘sidekick.

So…we started talking; and before long we were not only brainstorming the further adventures of the time-travelling sword, but we were working out how we might bring its unlikely wielder, Harold the Hero, to the fore. We took our inspiration from Homer’s Odyssey and asked ourselves what would happen if the sword somehow lost all its powers. The result is ‘Harold the Hero and the Talking Sword’. It was certainly great fun to write, and we hope it will be just as much fun to read.

The Lost Loot of Lima, James Hopwood