This isn’t the magazine illustration, but I think it also captures the story’s atmosphere.
Issue No. 21 of Mythaxis is now out, officially dated February 18, 2018. To quote Editor Gil Williamson, this is the longest issue of Mythaxis ever with my novelette at the end, Melkart The Herdsman. I’m delighted Gil saw the possibilities in Melkart. Longer stories are always a harder sell since they of course take up space that several stories could fill instead. Curious readers aren’t to be daunted by length, however. Melkart is a quick, fun read, the written equivalent of the sword and sandal flicks I loved when I was a boy with a healthy dash of giallo creepiness for savor. Folks who often note that I tend to have unsympathetic, sometimes downright horrible protagonists can’t find anything to complain about here. Melkart is just another (Phoenician) name for Hercules and who could be more upstanding than that? The ancient wanderer, the righter of wrongs wherever they may be found. Learn what happens, peregrini, when Melkart and his herd of giant, savage cattle trespass into the realm of Eryx the Rex.