Iron Age for Christmas

Periapsis Press Releases Holiday Short Stories

Christmas is the perfect opportunity for #IronAge stories to shine. What genre is more steeped in messaging and emotive storytelling than Holiday Fiction? Our creatives should reclaim it with our commitment to entertainment and fun, combined with our rejection of post-modernism which allows a genuine treatment of virtues and faith.


This December, we published Periapsis Christmas 2, an anthology of six fantasy and adventure short stories that embrace the Christmas season in precisely this spirit! Here is a sneak peek of the fun included:




“Fear Not”: a tongue-in-cheek tale about a choirmaster who needs a miracle and gets more than he bargained for! By Frederick Gero Heimbach, author of The Devil’s Dictum.


“Protector’s Gift”: a dark fantasy in which an ordinary man is pitted against an evil Sword of the Gods—and meets a Narnia-esque Father Christmas. By Blake Carpenter, author of Deathbringer.


“The Shelter Most High”: a Christmas tale both spooky and strange. By William Jeffrey Rankin, author of “The Fairy Tree” in last year’s anthology as well as Invocations of the Submortal.


“Ember Knight”: a driving, “punching demons” romp in the snow. By Jonathan Shuerger and featuring two of the characters from his Shades of Black series.


“Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence”: familiar mythological characters fight demonic cryptids. By Kaylena Radcliff, author of “Grandpa Got Run Over by a Bane Deer” in last year’s anthology as well as Mouse.


“Whiteout”: a group of children go up against a nightmare storm of mythological proportions. By Isaac Anderson, author of The Garden Maze.




Like our anthology last year, each of these stories was written by an author I’ve reviewed on Periapsis Press. All of my reviews are positive because I only recommend what I like, so I encourage you to try the other stories that these authors have written!


We will be hosting a livestream with the authors of the anthology on Monday, Dec 11th at 9:30pm central. We would love to see you in the chat with any questions you have for us! For those interested, David and I also discussed the “behind the scenes” details of publishing this anthology in this video.


So grab a copy of Periapsis Christmas 2 today and see how the Iron Age celebrates Christmas!