W. H. Horner, Editor profile picture

W. H. Horner, Editor

Artists use lies to tell the truth.

About Me

What can I say? How does one sum up their existence in a paragraph or two?

I'm an editor/publisher, writer, vegetarian, and student of Tai Chi and Haidong Gumdo.

I may seem quiet, but I'll surprise you if you give me a chance. I may seem straight-laced, but again, I'll surprise you. I'm spiritual, but I haven't stepped foot in a church in years. I tend to wear my heart on my sleeve. It's been a long time since I thought the world was black and white.

Life is too short and fragile to play games with the lives and emotions of others. I try to live my life with honesty, justice, honor, and a sense of humor.

Shameless self-promotion:

Fantasy books by Fantasist Enterprises:

Sails & Sorcery: Tales Nautical Fantasy
Mermaids. Pirates. Flying ships. Creatures from the deep. Magic beyond your wildest dreams.

The sea is a dangerous and wonderful realm. It calls to many, promising riches, adventure, or freedom. But just as there are beautiful and remarkable treasures to be found upon and below the waves, do not underestimate the dangers hidden within its depths.

So polish your cutlass and prepare your spells for what awaits. Embark upon a journey across leagues of unimaginable adventure. Ride the waves to mystery and magic.

Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy: Humorous Tales of Swords & Sorcery

Evil emperors. Powerful curses. Crazed were-gibbons?

Some heroes need to polish their derring-do, while some villains require the know-how of advice columnists to be truly evil. Some magicians should never be left alone with their spells, and some gods aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be. It’s a veritable chorus line of worthless warriors, simpleton sorcerers, and hapless henchmen.

The life of an adventurer isn’t all piles of treasure and damsels in distress, but there are sights to see, quests to complete, and jokes around every corner. So grab your giant axe, vorpal sword, or mystical grimoire—if you are of a mind—and prepare to meet your destiny with a smile on your face.

Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy features 24 stories that will tickle your funny bone while quenching your thirst for adventure.

Modern Magic: Tales of Fantasy and Horror
Magic surrounds us. It is the stuff of creation. The Enlightenment did not kill it with science, nor did the Industrial Revolution extinguish its usefulness with mechanation. And whether mankind is aware of it or not, this timeless power continues to have a hand in the fate of mortals.There are things that logic and reason cannot explain, and there are beings that have never been captured or catalogued. Elves may feel cramped in the big city, but they can get by. As the wild lands disappear, werewolves may have to be a bit more careful, but they still find time to hunt. And devils and demons still prey upon the souls of the wicked and the unwary.Features stories by Elaine Cunningham and John Passarella. Introduction by Kelley Armstrong.
Cloaked in Shadow: Dark Tales of Elves
Elves arent always creatures of the light. Some elves thrive in the darkness, stalking their unwary victims for their own twisted pleasure. Sometimes they hunt and kill for the mere thrill. Sometimes their motives are beyond all human understanding.Inside this anthology you will find elven assassins, kidnappers, and conspirators. You will find elves who are reaching from beyond the grave and those who are throwing away the heritage of their wood-addled brethren. And you will find human beings who are struggling to survive as they find themselves caught up in the games that Sidhe play.Features stories by Elaine Cunningham and K.D. Wentworth. Introduction by Drew Hayes.
Fantastical Visions III
From heroic to tragic, light to dark, fanciful to painfully real, these stories explore the many facets of the fantasy genre.An aging wizardess learns more than she expected as she hunts down the last dragon in "The Singing Dragon," while a woman gets more than she expected from a mysterious plant in "Always Greener on the Other Side." A demoness who has seen the error of her ways must still pay the price in "Blood of the Blade," and a boy's coping mechanism comes to chilling life in "Paper Shadows."All these and more, FV III contains fourteen illustrated tales of and wonder.
Fantasy art by Fantasist Enterprises:Click the art or the artist's name to view more.Art by Stephanie Pui-Mun Law from the Fantastical Visions III anthology.
Art by David Seidman from the Modern Magic anthology.
Editing Services :
I love working with authors to help them bring out the best elements in their stories while smoothing out problem spots. I cannot, however, guarantee that my services will result in your story being published. Acquisitions are made based on the personal tastes of editors and upon their knowledge of the market, which is ever-shifting. One editorial pass will not always catch all errors or fix all problems. Sometimes it requires several passes to get a manuscript (or ms. for short) totally up to speed.I am prepared to work with stories of all lengths and genres, though my specialty lies in the realms of fantasy fiction."Over the years Ive worked with very good editors at major houses and Id easily place William Horner among the best. His energy and enthusiasm are remarkable, and Ive never had a more meticulous copyedit."-- Elaine Cunningham , New York Times bestselling author of Shadows in the Darkness

My Interests

writing, reading, martial arts (Tai Chi and Haidong Gumdo, currently), Korean culture and literature, listening to music, dancing, singing, vegetarianism, yoga, movies, theatre, art, having deep discussions, having idiotic discussions, history--esp. ancient and old world, religions and mythology, walks in "nature-ish" places, actingSince there's not a place for it, here are some of my favorite artists: Aubrey Beardsley, Hieronymus Bosch, Brom, Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Clyde Caldwell, Edward Gorey, The Hildebrandts, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Alan Lee, Ariel Olivetti, Keith Parkinson, r k post, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, David Seidman, J. W. Waterhouse, Michael Whelan, Leinil Francis Yu

I'd like to meet:

Fellow artists, especially writers of fantasy and horror fiction. Film makers, musicians, comic book authors and artists, anyone I might be able to cook up some crazy project with. Besides all of that, I'm always interested in folks who are are just a little off from normal. Normal people scare and sicken me.

Music:

Alanis, Audioslave, Bare Naked Ladies, Better Than Ezra, Breaking Benjamin, Bright Eyes, Butterfly Boucher, Chevelle, Coldplay, Cruxshadows, Damien Rice, Dashboard Confessional, David Gray, DMB, Ellis Paul, Enya, Finch, Foo Fighters, Incubus, Jason Mraz, The Killers, Lacuna Coil, Linkin Park, Loreena McKennit, Lostprophets, Muse, My Chemical Romance, Queens of the Stoneage, Rage Against the Machine, Snow Patrol, Switchfoot, System of a Down, Three Days Grace, U2, Unwritten Law, Soundtracks (the more epic the better--good for writing to)

Movies:

12 Monkeys, Adaptation, Being John Malkovich, Broken Flowers, Cube, A Christmas Story, Dark Crystal, Fight Club, Garden State, Gladiator, Godfather I and II (not III, though . . . "Daddy!!!" . . . shudder), Goonies, Grosse Pointe Blank, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, Heat, Hellboy, High Fidelity, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Labyrinth, Ladyhawke, Lord of the Rings, Lost in Translation, Princess Mononoke, The Royal Tenenbaums, Serenity, Shaun of the Dead, Signs, Sunshine of the Eternally Spotless Mind, The Usual Suspects, The Village, Walk the Line

Television:

Arrested Development, BSG (the new one), Daybreak, Family Guy, Firefly (damn you, FOX!!), Heroes, LOST, Robot Chicken

Books:

Bag of Bones, Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy, Cloaked in Shadow, Clockwork Orange, Death of the Necromancer, The Deathgate Cycle, Dune, Game of Thrones, Ishmael, Lolita, Long Walk, Modern Magic, My Name is Asher Lev, Perdido Street Station, The Picture of Dorian Grey, Rhapsody, Sails & Sorcery, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Wizardry & Wild Romance, The Woman Warrior, The Runelords SeriesAuthors: David Eddings, Elaine Cunningham, Frank Herbert, George R. R. Martin, Jacqueline Carey, Paul S. Kemp, R. A. Salvatore, Shakespeare, Stephen Lawhead, etc., etc.Comic Books / Graphic Novels: DMZ, Ghost Rider, Girls, Moon Knight, The Punisher, Walking Dead, Wolverine, from time to time the various X-Men books, anything by Neil Gaiman

Heroes:

Frank Herbert, Shakespeare, Neil Gaiman

My Blog

Amazon’s New POD Policy

In case you haven’t heard, Amazon is up to something that is going to make things harder for a lot of independent presses and self-published authors.The long and the short of it is . . . at some...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Wed, 09 Apr 2008 07:07:00 PST

FE and I Need Your Help

When I started Fantasist Enterprises almost ten years ago, I had three major goals in mind: 1) Create new markets for short fantasy fiction. 2) Help re-grow the popularity of the short story as a lite...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:39:00 PST

SAILS & SORCERY: Evolution of a Book Cover

Here's a chance to get a sneak peak into the process that artist Julie Dillon and I used to come up with the cover for SAILS & SORCERY. Julie had read about half of the 28 stories in the book when...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Sun, 21 Oct 2007 09:22:00 PST

Check out this event: Double Book Release Party

Hosted By: Fantasist Enterprises / Between BooksWhen: Saturday Aug 11, 2007 at 1:00 PMWhere: Between Books2703 Philadelphia PikeClaymont, DE 19703United StatesDescription:Fantasist Enterprises / Be...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Wed, 08 Aug 2007 05:35:00 PST

New Anthology Guidelines (East Asian Fantasy)

Paper Blossoms, Sharpened Steel:Tales of Fantasy from the Far East The anthology will feature roughly twenty-five short stories between 3,000 and 9,000 words. We are looking for stories of fantasy in...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Tue, 31 Jul 2007 08:31:00 PST

My Latest Anthology: Humorous Fantasy

Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy: Humorous Tales of Swords & Sorceryis now available!Retail: $17.00 " Direct Price: $13.60276 Pages " 29 IllustrationsTrade Paperback " 6" x 9"ISBN 13: ...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Mon, 14 May 2007 02:22:00 PST

Off to the Nebulas

I will be attending the SFWA's Nebula Awards Weekend on May 11th and 12th, and will be available at the genre workshop from 1:00  2:00 PM on Friday and will appear on the Publisher's Summit from 1:00...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Wed, 09 May 2007 03:39:00 PST

Don't lose the discipline to daydream!

So, I've been very busy for the past couple of years, working on building my press, freelance editing, and working the occasional hours at a part time job. It's a period of time in my life that seems ...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Sun, 22 Apr 2007 12:23:00 PST

R.I.P. Drew Hayes

A couple of days ago, I read online that Drew Hayes, creator of the comic book series Poison Elves, died in his hometown of Bellingham, Washington, after suffering a heart attack brought on by complic...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Wed, 28 Mar 2007 09:22:00 PST

GenCon Indy next week

Author Christe M. Callabro ("Kin of the Blood" from Cloaked in Shadow and "Swan Dive" from Modern Magic) and I will be at GenCon Indianapolis next week, August 10-13 in the Authors Alley. Well be sign...
Posted by W. H. Horner, Editor on Sun, 06 Aug 2006 07:23:00 PST