Nothing brings me more joy than writing fiction. For this reason, I am excited to tell you about Althingi, Outland Entertainment’s newly announced Icelandic Viking game! More specifically, I am proud to tell you about the Althingi anthology I contributed a story to.
Outland Entertainment is an American publisher of games, comic books, and popular culture anthologies. Their brand is pretty badass, actually. A cowboy riding a dinosaur? I mean, come on! Why didn’t I think of that?
Focusing on fantasy, science fiction, and carefully curated historical fiction, Outland Entertainment appeals pretty strongly. But I probably would have never heard of them if it wasn’t for Althingi game creator Joshua Gillingham asking me if I’d contribute a Viking story to their anthology. I don’t think I even tried to be poker-faced about my excitement. I’d get to combine historical research, popular culture (i.e. favourite tropes), and folklore in order to create a tale of epic proportions. Obviously, I would do it.
I sent my first-person narration in on November 15th. I’m pretty happy with how it turned out and I hope the editors are too. It felt good to channel this part of my heritage as a quarter of my ancestors are the descendants of Vikings, yet I’ve written little about them.
I used Bernard Cornwell’s Last Kingdom Series and Steven Pressfield’s Gates of Fire for narration guidelines (removing contractions, using sentence structure to convey action, etc). But, as you can probably see in the photo, my story still needs to be edited!
Outland Entertainment funds projects through Kickstarter. I wasn’t familiar with what this really means until this project. People basically preorder the game and get cool swag depending on their commitment level. These “backers” collectively fund the project and make it happen. The Kickstarter site protects them and keeps everyone accountable.
If Althingi‘s Kickstarter goals are not met the project will likely be scrapped. I’ll be paid a lesser amount for my story if that happens, and it will not be published. It looks to me like they will make their goal, though. Which will be good news for Joshua Gillingham, Outland Entertainment, people who like Viking games, and all of the writers involved.
If you like Viking games or would just like to know more about Althingi click on the Kickstarter link above. You just might find yourself joining the horde! Skål.
