Spring Song Press has published Shards, a noblebright anthology containing twenty one original stories about hope in the shadows, redemption, and opposing the darkness.
You may have read the term grimdark while lurking around the net or heard it mentioned during roleplaying games. If you haven’t, grimdark is an amalgamation of the words grim and dark, generally used to describe poor settings and a poorer chance of survival for those in that setting. Grimdark stories might feature a hero who tries to improve the lives of those around them, but ultimately is losing a failing struggle against the darkness.
Noblebright came about as the opposite of grimdark: heroes might be morally flawed, they might not even be working for what could be considered a moral reason, but their deeds make the world around them brighter. One person can make a difference, and in these stories they do.
Spring Song Press is run by C.J. Brightley and generally looks for more noblebright stories than those that are not. All of their books are available in Kindle and in Print
We publish heroic, fantastic, beautiful, strange, heart-breaking, bittersweet, uplifting, clean, thought-provoking, weird, slipstream, magical works from talented authors both new and established. We like monsters and magic, deep, relatable characters, and imaginative worlds. We like wonder and awe, hope that breaks through despair, and mythical creatures. We like tropes turned inside out and upside down, and stories that linger with us long after we’ve read the last word.
Shards is not Spring Song’s first anthology. They have previously released Fell Beasts and Fair and Still Waters, both noblebright and both well-received on Amazon.
My story that appears in Shards is “Glass”. Two women who hunt sea glass find themselves at odds at the edge of the ocean, caught up in the desire to possess glass that one finds strangely alluring while the other is painfully familiar with their price.
Jade Black 