Blades and Seeds and Bitter Apples - Short Fiction Collection

A duel with paperclips and network cables... a paladin and assassin team... dinosaur aliens swept away by the storms... and more! After almost fifteen years, this collection of Hogarth's earliest and most eclectic fiction returns by reader request; the original four stories have been supplemented by an additional fourteen, ranging in tone from comedy to horror, and in genre from science fiction to literary fantasy. The three existing Jitesse stories are in this volume; so are the only two Tsipia-alien tales, and the single Zalitraeq piece.

An essential for the completionist, these stories illuminate the creative development of a prolific artist in her earliest years. Come meet the blade and taste the bitter apples!

Genre (setting): varied
Tags:
Rating: PG-13 for implied sexual situations and violence

Excerpt from Blades and Seeds and Bitter Apples (Introduction)

Many years ago—I think it’s almost fifteen now?—I issued the original edition of Blades and Bitter Apples, collecting four fantasy shorts for readers who wanted to learn more about some of the drawings in my gallery: “Bitter Apples,” “A Divine Consistency,” “The Copper Bodice,” and “The Blade to Your Hand.” As the years went by, I thought it was an awkward thing to have old stories of yours floating around in a collection too small for an associated paperback, and I delisted it from retailers, deciding ‘I can share those stories with patrons/subscribers.’ Which I did!

But of course, subscription content comes and goes, and organizing it is an irritation. Which is probably why so many of you asked me to re-issue Blades, so you could round out your collections of Jaguar work.

I am honored that you love even my oldest stories, in all their odd and unpolished glory, so I have heeded your request… and bettered it. This newest edition not only collects the four original stories, but adds all the non-Peltedverse/Le’enle stories I’ve offered subscribers in the past. In these pages you will now find eighteen stories in a patchwork of styles ranging from humor to horror, from literary to campy, scifi and fantasy and urban fantasy and fairy tales, all jumbled together. All of the stories I ever wrote for Jitesse, including the earliest ones where I was still deciding how to handle the setting, are included here, along with both of the existing Tsipia-alien stories and the only Zalitraeq story I ever wrote. The newest story in this volume is over ten years old; most of them are closer to twenty. One is even thirty years old this year! And I have reined in the urge to fix them. Other than typos and some grammar/punctuation issues, I’ve decided to allow this collection to serve as a peek into my artistic development, gangly limbs and adolescent awkwardness and all. To that end, I’ve prefaced each story with an introduction with context and, if possible, a date. Feel free to skip those if you prefer the unfiltered experience! And while I don’t have much finished art, I have also scattered a few here and there, mostly produced for the standalone ebook covers for the fiction released that way, long, long ago.

You will not find my Peltedverse or Le’enle stories here; those have (or will have) their own collections. But as of September 2026, this expanded edition, now named Blades and Seeds and Bitter Apples, contains all the rest of my short fiction. It’s absolutely long enough for a paperback edition! And I think it’s a lovely little thing, and I thank you all for asking for its return.

And now we begin with a dream of wine and apples….