Dawn of LegendFiction: Our First Short Story Anthology is Published

Live today on Amazon, Kindle, and Barnes & Noble!

An anthology three years in the making...

Discover forty-three epic, humorous, ominous, whimsical, and fantastical stories curated from LegendFiction's contest finalists and honorable mentions. Immerse yourself in the worlds of:

• Fairy Tales: Old stories told with new twists, or new adventures in wry and fabled worlds.

• Mythic Tales: Epic adventure, hilarity, and ancient marvels.

• Sacred Stories: Fictional tales of martyrs, fun moments, and Christian mystics.

• Wheel of Legends: Short stories of archetypes in fiction.

• Christmas Legends: Rollicking yuletide tales of elves, Santa, and fantastic seasonal problems.

• LegendHaven: Dramatic adventure stories for the LegendHaven contest.

Hosted by LegendFiction, the fiction writing community for Christian nerds (Catholic & Orthodox authors).

Wherever possible, each author's bio is included with a link to their website. Visit them online, support them, and tell them what you loved best!

This is more than a mere giftbox of tales. You are steps away from becoming a wayfarer through world after world of imagination.

Embrace the dawn of LegendFiction.

Authors: Lorena Shannon, Max Woods, Grace Woods, Sophia Latino, Ellie Sullenberger, Victoria Randall, Tiffany Germain, Sophia Klein, Emily Howard, Jacqueline Rose, Clement Wee, Dale Smith, Dominic de Souza, Melissa Ring, Faith Woods, Joe Campbell, Gregory Woods, David Johnson, Katharine Campbell, Monta Hancock, Zephyr Thomas, Madeline Shepley, Beatrix Turajski, Grace Shroepfer

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Welcome Letter by Dominic

One evening, in a bleak midwinter, in South Carolina that doesn’t  know what a bleak midwinter is - on account of the mud and mosquitos and rain and beautiful harbor concerts - a writer was falling asleep. He was the ordinary sort of writer. Lonely, full of amazing novels begging to be written, with stacks of notes and Pinterest boards, and trials for every writing software under the sun.

And like most writers, he was a professional procrastinator. 

And it was on this night, while falling asleep, that he had an idea. 

He needed to find friends, and together they could have fun, and write things together.

He checked his bank account, and it was mostly empty. And he checked his savings, and it was mostly empty too. He was, as we said, like most writers. So he checked one last place. His own inner hoard of story ideas. That was mostly full. 

That was enough to get started.

He remembered how many times he had joined online communities to share his writing. They all loved creativity, but they were all over the place. He wanted a haven for people like him, who loved inventing legends, ludicrously dramatic and exciting stories. Blockbusters. He didn’t know if he’d ever make one himself, but he wanted to find out if he could. And he bet others out there did too.

And, since he was in love with his faith, he wanted to know how he could create stories that shared that love. He had another big problem though. Some of the people around him. They didn’t get it. They were afraid of things like magic and mayhem and jedi and dragons and superheroes and antiheroes… all the things that kept him awake for hours. He dreamed of Hogwarts and Hoth and Winterfell and Weathertop.

Parish leaders and Catholic celebrities were sure people like him were having too much fun, and not being respectable enough. He was losing the plot, and the plot was to fill pews with pewsitters.

He agreed that respectable stories were important. But so were ridiculous ones, and rollicking ones. They told him that fiction should serve the faith, to evangelize. He nodded.

But they were all of them deceived, for another folder was made. 

He crafted a manifesto, notes in a diary, hoping to understand the thoughts that rattled in his mind. Things no one else was saying. The permission to go on Grail quests and join Fellowships and help Rebellions. 

Which brings us to that evening, in midwinter.

With Christmas round the corner, he decided to start an online community. And CatholicAuthor was born, like a dragon egg in the Spine. He needed to do something, because this was about more than him. This was about all the other writers out there like him, who heard the same call from the Perilous Realm, and hungered to turn keys in imaginal doors, and ride dragons. 

CatholicAuthor hatched with a call inviting all kinds of friends to join. That first year was a round table of adventures, with contests, groups, teens, and a podcast.

The contests were the greatest fun. He knighted some of his writing friends as mentors, and they helped him judge amazing story entries from other authors. 

They were all interested at the idea that it was fine to follow their excitement. More than fine. It was something they  needed to do seriously. And if their friends around them didn’t get it, maybe… that was fine too. Maybe they needed to learn how to make a thousand pots before trying to make a perfect amphora. Maybe we need to write a hundred fun stories to get ready to write something really meaningful. 

In that first year, the teens and grown ups lived in separate communities. So the founder started up Pennon, a magazine filled with stories and art, and mostly gave it away to everyone. He created three, packed with tips and tales and updates. 

In the second year, the volume of stories coming in helped him realize something new. Every author wants the chance to write with friends, share their work, and be seen. Perhaps have a chance to reach new readers. So he did two things; he launched a website called Worlds, a place where authors could publish their stories and enter contests. And at the same time, he merged the two communities into one, and called it LegendFiction.

We were cooking with dragon fire now. 

Within a few months, they all decided to launch LegendHaven, an online convention determined to scare the pearl-clutchers, and send out beacons to all dragon-loving, fiction-writing, lightsaber-wielding writers out there. 

A year later, they did it again with a second convention, widened their community to welcome Orthodox authors, and started focusing on the next thing every author wants: publication.

But he had a problem. The Pennons were impossible to design alone, and the Worlds website was too hard to hold up. Plus, they now had a single, central community. So, sad that those offshoots hadn’t worked, the founding author shut them down. He scheduled regular, weekly and morning meetings for writers to get together. 

But he needed a new idea. Something that would inspire authors to join contests, and get published, and help their chances of getting noticed by readers and publishers.

And then, on another bleak midwinter - although by now he really needs to stop describing it that way - he had a new idea.

You’re holding it in your hands. Hopefully, the first of many.

The dragon finally emerged from the shell, shook out its wings, glinted with new scales, and reached for the sky.

The writer was happier. His savings weren’t any fuller, but his heart was. He had made a whole host of new friends, from completely unexpected places. He had started writing again. And more importantly, he could tap into a community of authors who were deadset on creating legendary worlds full of fun and fantasy and fiction. 

This is LegendFiction, and it’s here to stay.

To pay back all the incredible effort and storytelling that writers had shared, he scoured all the past contests, partnered up with a mentor friend, and turned those tales into an anthology.

What you’ll read in these pages are the chronicles of quests, contests that teens and adults from all over the world joined. Some of them are truly excellent, and some are fast on their way. 

These pages hold a list of seven contests, ranging from fairy tales to hero stories to Christmas adventures. The finalists are printed first, usually followed by second and third place, and then honorable mentions included.

You’re going to meet all kinds of authors, and their stories are windows into worlds. Worlds without end, really. That’s why we’ve included links to everyone’s websites, so that readers can tap the links and discover more of their work. 

The title Dawn of LegendFiction is filled with Pennons and Worlds. A pennon is a banner, or a quill. Our quills can  be banners, writing doorways to other realms, realms that bubble up and open like the Wood between the Worlds.

There’s a lot more to say, and the founding of this fellowship is still beginning.

LegendFiction is a rebellion, and a haven. Together, we take care of each other. And who knows? We may not change the world, but we may change our world. And after a few more years, and a few more stories, we’ll find ourselves crossing through a wardrobe and onto dragonback.

It's a dangerous business, opening a door and acting on a dream. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off, or by what…

I hope this is a fantastic tribute to the authors who show up and write every day or every week. They hope to  teach themselves to be better writers. 

And the only way to do that is to write.

Welcome to Dawn of LegendFiction.

Dominic de Souza
Founder

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Every book you buy - and share with friends (and your grandmothers!) helps LegendFiction create more books, ignite more adventures, and launch more quests together.

All the proceeds from this anthology goes to three places:

1. Pay our layout designer for crafting the stories together into a physical book/ebook

2. Create a budget for offering contest finalists a monetary prize

3. Help LegendFiction pay for software costs

So buy a book for yourself and for a friend!

May the lore be with you!
This is the way!