In answer to a question raised on Facebook yesterday:  Yes, indeed, the stories of Egil and Nix take place in the same world in which my New Dineen short stories are set.  “Huzwha?” you ask.  “What are these New Dineen short stories of which you speak?”

Well, the New Dineen short stories are Confession, The Spinner, and Stillborn, stories I’ve published previously in various venues.  Confession and The Spinner are still available in print (in the Worlds Of Their Own and Sails & Sorcery anthologies, respectively), and all three of them are included (among other stories) in Ephemera, my ebook short story collection.

The three New Dineen stories are set in different areas of the world (and in a different time period, in one case) than the Egil and Nix tales, but taken together I think they’ll give you a vibe for the setting (albeit told through a different, darker voice than you’d get from Egil or Nix, notwithstanding the shady circles in which they often move).  In any event, I hope you’ll check the stories out.

One of things you may notice if you read those stories is the apparent lack of a magic system, as such.  That’s intentional (obviously).  One of the things I enjoy about much of sword and sorcery fiction is the crazy quilt, chaotic nature of magic and its practitioners, even within the same world/city.

Think of Sanctuary, from the Thieves’ World anthologies, and how differently magic works for the likes of Lythande, Adept of the Blue Star, the Purple Mage, with his water clocks, and sad, cursed Enas Yorl.   Think of Ningauble and Sheelba from the Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser tales, think of the duo’s various magically-inclined antagonists.  It’s hard to see any kind of system, isn’t it?  I love that.  I love that magic is kept mysterious and unpredictable, its use and effects idiosyncratic to its practitioners.  That approach, done well, makes magery wondrous and inscrutable and chilling, which is very much what lots of sword and sorcery heroes must feel when facing wizards.