During the successful Fireside Magazine Year 2 Kickstarter, which I helped fund with my extreme (hrm…) generosity and, more importantly, unquenchable thirst for words and stories of all sorts, I made a promise. This happened in the middle of the night, and I said something like this:
If Fireside Magazine gets funded I’ll write a short story and give away for free. It’ll be about a guy with a sword.
At the time I had no idea what that meant, but for some reason “a guy with a sword” felt right. I might’ve been tired, slightly drunk, or both. We’ll never know because I have a lousy memory.
Time flies, reality’s a bitch, and shit gets in the way, but here we are and here’s the promised short story. It’s called My Name Is Estam and ended up being the first of three short stories that I’ve decided to write. Part two and three are outlined but I don’t expect to get started with them until late next week at the earliest.
Anyway, My Name Is Estam is indeed about a guy with a sword. I wrote the first 3,000 words that night Fireside Magazine got funded, and when I thought I was done I realized that I wanted to keep telling the story. So I did, and in the end My Name Is Estam clocks in at just over 9,000 words. I gave it an edit pass, put some of my beta readers on it, and when it seemed to fly I passed it onwards to my excellent editor Brian, who got it back to me promptly.
Then the poor story sat on my hard drive, since I just didn’t have the time to complete the edits, export all the necessary files, and write this bloody post so that I could offer the promised short story to y’all. Yeah, I suck sometimes, I know.
Enough flavor text, here’s My Name Is Estam, a 9,000+ word short story about a guy with a sword. For free, in whatever format you fancy. Enjoy.
Download links (small file sizes):
- My Name Is Estam in ePub format (great for iOS)
- My Name Is Estam in mobi format (for Kindle)
- My Name Is Estam in PDF format (last resort)
- The complete package in ZIP format
I’d love to hear what you think of My Name Is Estam, so don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m @tdh on Twitter, @tdh on App.net, and there’s even a Facebook page that focuses on my writing if that’s your thing.
Oh, and do pass this thing along to anyone you think would like it. Thank you, and enjoy.