[Today we sit down for a quick interview with June Orchid Parker, author of the forthcoming Suplex and Sorcery. Here, Parker discusses the book itself, their writing process, and other forthcoming projects.]

Forests Haunted by Holiness: Your new novella Suplex and Sorcery: A Tale of Varika is due out soon from Brackenberry Books. First, congratulations! Second, how did the novella come about? Did you approach Brackenberry Books or did they come to you?

June Orchid Parker: Thank you, thank you. For a while in 2024, I had been kicking the idea around in the New Edge Sword & Sorcery Discord server and doing some basic outlining — deciding on the cast of characters, the plot, etc. Oliver, my editor and the head of Brackenbury Books, solicited a manuscript from me in late 2024. I ultimately delivered one in May 2025.

FHBH: Since the creation of Conan, barbarians have been a hallmark of sword and sorcery. When you set about creating Varika, what elements of that class of character — “the barbarian” — did you decide to keep? What did you decide to change, and how?

JOP: I tried to focus on Varika’s barbarian aspect in classical, historical terms — that is, as an outsider who speaks a language foreign to the nearby hegemon. I could build a solid foundation for her story by exploring her foreignness in a city she’s learned to call home. To that end, you may find aspects of her original culture recall the ancient Scythians, who lived beyond the boundaries of the Greek city-states. 

However, the barbarian in fantasy has become a sort of wild bodybuilder in animal skins, and I didn’t ignore that outright. In Varika, you’ll find a character of prodigious physical strength, covered in tattoos of bulls and flames and axes, wearing a leather outfit in the ring. She doesn’t know her way around many weapons (unlike the Conans of the S&S world), but she’s skilled in the arts she does know. So at least some aspects of her “barbarian” nature should ring familiar to modern fantasy fans.

FHBH: Suplex and Sorcery combines sword and sorcery with wrestling. Why that combination? What draws you to s&s and wrestling individually, and in what ways do they overlap?

JOP: There’s a tendency to refer to sword & sorcery as a literature of the body. This means a focus on the physicality of the characters, often including their prowess and physiques. You could say a similar thing about any sports, including professional wrestling. S&S and pro wrestling can both demonstrate the amazing upper limits of physical ability, achievable through intense exercise, steroids, and/or Stormbringer.

By why pro wrestling and not, say, mountaineering? Simply put, pro wrestling is an action-oriented storytelling medium. I know it reasonably well at this point, just as I know sword & sorcery, so finding ways to synthesize elements from each has been a fun exercise. I appreciate the grit, pacing, and fantastical mystery of your average sword & sorcery story, as well as the over-the-top excitement and hilarity of pro wrestling. I’ve found they go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

FHBH: A lot of world-building goes into creating sword and sorcery realms. What is your favorite part, and why? Is it the religion? The politics? The flora and fauna?

JOP: Since a lot of my world-building occurs during the writing of a draft, it becomes a matter of making up something plausible- or interesting-sounding on the fly. With that in mind, I have the most fun working out the details of gods and religion. You can work in a certain amount of abstraction, leave unanswered questions, think about potential schisms in practice and belief. How many ways could people give thanks to a goddess called Fury, for example? To what extent might they worship her, and why? Questions and possibilities like these are the most fun and interesting to explore.

FHBH: You have written and published novellas and short stories. Is your creative and crafting process the same for both formats? Or do you find that it changes depending on the nature and length of the story?

JOP: At this point, novellas and short stories follow similar processes of development. I will usually write a paragraph or two summarizing the premise, then make a list of the most important characters (or possibly all of the characters, if it’s a short story). From here, I have some free rein to entertain different ideas and think through certain details, before and during the writing of the first draft. I have been known to stop writing a draft and start a new one if something goes too far off-course: maybe, for example, I’m about to hit a publication’s prescribed word limit, because a certain element is derailing or overstuffing the plot. Then I have to salvage what I can and revise the story in a new word document.

FHBH: Where can readers find more Varika stories?

JOP: Suplex & Sorcery is Varika’s debut, but you should see more of her in the coming months and years. I was solicited to submit a flash story to New Edge Sword & Sorcery, and I chose to write a Varika tale called “The Wanting Mouth.” You will probably see that in one of 2026’s NESS issues. After that, I’m in the process of developing a sequel novella, tentatively titled Suplex Against Death. That could hit shelves in 2028 if all goes well.

FHBH: Which book fairs, conventions, or other events do you hope to attend in the foreseeable future?

JOP: I like to hit up cons as an average attendee, but I don’t do many: all that cool merch puts a strain on my wallet. I’ve never hosted a panel or anything like that. I am, however, supposed to do a book launch event for Suplex & Sorcery at some time in July. That will likely be my first taste of dealing with the public face-to-face as a published author. We will see how well that goes.

FHBH: What other projects are you working on?

JOP: Apart from more Varika tales, I’m working on a story called “Perishment” for NESS. This will be the sixth Astartha story chronologically, but the fourth in publication, a detail I’ll have fun discussing when the time comes. For those unaware, Astartha is the character I debuted in NESS back in issue 2, a trans woman survivor of genocide and a wandering butcher of the wicked. She has since reappeared in issues 4 and 6. My hope is to release a collection of her stories before the decade’s end. Fingers crossed.

Thank you for the lovely interview.