Gods of the Wyrdwood by Rj Barker (opens in new tab)

I first met RJ Barker some years ago at FantasyCon in Glasgow, on an interactive panel about public speaking, which is roughly the worst possible context in which to take the measure of another writer. Public speaking panels at conventions tend to attract people who are either visibly terrified or visibly performing, and very few who manage to be neither. Barker, to his great credit, was neither. He was charismatic, larger than life, and somehow simultaneously humble; the kind of presence tha...