An Age Undreamed Of: My Adventures in Hyboria

Mynovel Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God comes out this Tuesday, Oct. 27,2025. I had a blast writing this book, and I can’t wait to find out whatreaders think of it! My editor at Titan loves it, as do the folks at HeroicSignatures, who currently hold the license to produce Conan stories in comicsand prose. But the real test of a novel is when people crack the spine, openthe file on their e-reader, or hit PLAY on the audiobook, and start reading.(Yes, listening to audiobooks counts as reading, and I experience fiction quiteoften via audio.)

I first encounteredour favorite Cimmerian in Marvel Comics’ Conan the Barbarian #1 in thatancient era known as 1970. I was six years old, and I was a monster fanatic. Superheroesand adventure characters weren’t really on my radar, but the cover showed Conanbattling bat-winged humanoids, and I was sold. I kept that issue for years andread it so much that eventually the cover fell off. I have no idea whathappened to it, but I still think back on it fondly. The very first story Isubmitted for publication (when I was eighteen) was “As Good as a Rest,” and itfeatured a Conan-like barbarian named Grod who was tired of being a warrior ina fantasy realm and went to the Office of Archetype Management to see if hecould be reassigned to a different milieu. It was, of course, rejected numeroustimes and never saw print. I eventually rewrote the story (with the character nowfemale), and the new version, still titled “As Good As a Rest,” appeared in WarriorFantastic published by DAW Books in 2000. (If any of you want to read thestory, email me at twaggon1@msn.com, andI’ll send you the Word file.)

So youthink I’d have been thrilled to get the chance to write a Conan novel. But whenI had an opportunity to do so for Titan Books, I passed. I was only a casualConan fan, and so I was intimidated by the depth and complexity of the milieu thatRobert E. Howard created for his barbarian adventurer. I felt I wouldn’t beable to learn enough about the Hyborian Age and its most famous denizen to makethem come alive on the page, certainly not in time to meet the publisher’sdeadline. After a few weeks, I regretted saying no, but I figured that ship hadpassed and there was nothing I could do about it – until Titan asked again, andthis time, I was smart enough to say yes, thank Crom. So what was it like forme to write an adventure featuring one of the most iconic characters in literature?Read on!

First, I wrote a couple ofdifferent pitches for Conan adventures and sent them to my editor at Titan andthe folks at Heroic Signatures. My book was supposed to tie into The Scourgeof the Serpent comic series, but all I had to do was include the snake-godSet and Serpent-Men in the story, so I didn’t need to reference specific eventsor characters from the comics. Eventually, my editor and Heroic decided weshould combine elements of the two pitches, and once that was settled, it wastime to do my research. The following are various things I did or learnedduring that process.

Speaking of audiobooks… Iimmersed myself in Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories, listening to them on audiowhenever I was driving, taking a shower, or doing chores around the house. WhenI finished them, I started over. Eventually, I listened to stories of Howard’sother famous characters – King Kull, Solomon Kane, and Bran Mak Morn. (I listenedto a few El Borak stories, too, but not all of them.) I also listened to Conantales by John C. Hocking (City of the Dead), S.M. Stirling (Blood ofthe Serpent), and L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter (the novelization ofthe first Conan film). Up to that point, my exposure to Conan primarily hadbeen through Marvel Comics and the various films. I had a sense of Conan as apop culture character, but listening to these stories – especially Howard’s –gave me a much stronger sense of Conan’s personality and of Hyboria as a world.

· Ibought older Conan novels.Books by Andrew J. Offutt (who, along with Mike Resnick, was one of the GOH’sat the first SF con I attended in 1986), Robert Jordan, and L. Sprague de Campand Lin Carter. (I knew that the de Camp and Carter stories were considered controversialamong Howard fandom, but I still wanted to see how they handled the character.)

· Istarted reading the current Conan comics. These are published by Titan and Heroic Signatures,and this version of Conan was the same one that would appear in my novel. Ihighly recommend both the Conan the Barbarian and The Savage Sword ofConan comics. (I got a chance to meet Jim Zub, Conan comics scribe, at SanDiego Comic Con last year.)

· Iwatched S&S movies and TV series. Iwatched all the Conan films and other sword-and-sorcery films such as RedSonja, the Deathstalker series, and others. (I didn’t need torewatch Beastmaster since I’ve seen it so many times over the years.) Idid watch some episodes of the Beastmaster series, along with episodesof The Outpost, Beowulf, Xena, Into the Badlands, etc. Overall,I wanted to absorb as much of the feel of S&S as a genre as I could. (Icouldn’t get into the Conan TV series or the Conan the Adventurer cartoon,though.)

· Isearched for Internet resources. Iwanted sites that provided information about Conan’s timeline, the differentraces and gods of Hyboria, period weapons and dress, Conan’s fighting style,etc. Here are some sites I found useful:

ConanTimelines

http://www.barbariankeep.com/galen.html

https://www.conanchronology.com/the-chronology.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_chronologies

HyborianCurses

https://forum.mongoosepublishing.com/threads/hyborian-age-curses.1644/

HyborianName Generator

Creaturesfrom the Hyborian Age

https://hyboria.xoth.net/bestiary/creatures.htm

WikipediaHyborian Entry

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyborian_Age

Arms andArmor

https://hyboria.xoth.net/rules/arms_armor.htm

HyborianRaces

https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Index_of_Hyborian_People_and_Races

https://hyboria.xoth.net/races/human_races.htm

https://hyboria.xoth.net/gods/gods.htm

Zamora

https://hyboria.xoth.net/gazetteer/zamora.htm

https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Zamora

https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Zamora_(city) Description of areas of the city.

https://conan.com/locations/zamora/

https://immersive-exiles.fandom.com/wiki/Zamorian

Yezud

https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Yezud#:~:text=of%20these%20letters.-,Yezud's%20Temple%20of%20the%20Spider%20God,are%20well%20and%20truly%20indoctrinated.

City ofThieves (also called Zamora or Arenjun)

https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Zamora_(city)

· Ijoined REH and S&S discussion groups on Facebook to get a sense of whatreaders and fans expected – or didn’t want – in a Conan story. Not that Iintended to pander to the audience, but when writing tie-in fiction aboutbeloved characters, I like to be aware of readers’ expectations so I can keepthem in mind (or subvert them) as I write. Some of the groups I follow are Swords,Sorceries, and Barbarians: SlayerPosting, Swords & Sorceries: Tales ofHeroic Fantasy, The League of Swords and Sorcery, Contemporary Sword andSorcery, Sword & Sorcery Book Promotions, Barbarian Books Without Limits,and The International Robert E. Howard Fan Association. I don’t post much,though. I don’t want group members to avoid discussing my novel (andcriticizing it) due to my presence.

· Ididn’t try to mimic Howard’s writing style. I’ve seen some REH fans bemoan that tie-in writers don’twrite like Howard, but if we tried to recreate his style, it would come acrossas bad parody. Plus, we’re not writing solely for REH devotees but for anyonewho enjoys a Conan story. What readers get from a Conan tie-in is one writer’sinterpretation of Howard’s character and his world. I did my best to honorHoward and his fiction while still writing my own book.

· Howardscholars and fans define “pastiche” differently. Throughout my life, I’d only everheard the word pastiche applied to characters and stories that areslightly altered versions of the originals. For example, Philip José Farmer wrotepastiches of Tarzan (Lord Grandith) and Doc Savage (Doc Caliban). Suchpastiches allow creators the freedom to alter popular characters or explore typesof stories that could never be told about them otherwise. (Farmer’s charactersappear in his Feast Unknown series, which contains more overt sexualelements.) And both Homelander and Omniman are evil pastiches of Superman. ButREH fans call any Conan tie-in a pastiche. Wikipedia says pastiche “implies alack of originality or coherence, an imitative jumble, but with the advent ofpostmodernism, pastiche has become positively construed as a deliberate, wittyhomage or playful imitation.” Until I became familiar with REH fandom, I’dthought pastiche was only defined as the second part of the previous sentence.Now I realize that some REH fans use the first half to express a negativeattitude about non-Howard Conan tales. Which is why…

· I’mready for die-hard Howard fans to savage my novel (but I hope they’ll like it).From what I’veseen, the best I can hope for from REH fans is “It was a decent book, but ofcourse, it wasn’t REH” or “It was an okay fantasy novel, but not a trueConan story.” The worst I can expect is for my book to be excoriated as a desecrationto REH’s sacred memory and to have each mistake I made hauled out like evidenceto be presented to a hanging judge. But knowing this has (hopefully) preparedme for these types of potential reactions.

· ThingsI learned about Conan from Howard’s stories that I didn’t know (or didn’trealize) before. 1)Conan has a chivalrous streak, likely due more to pulp fiction’sconventions in the 1920’s than specific characterization on Howard’s part.Conan often finds himself coming to the aid of a woman (a beautiful and sexyone, of course), but he doesn’t make any kind of move on her. The women aren’talways helpless, pretty things, though. They often have a core of steel inthem, and of course, Howard created two of the best warrior women characters inS&S, Bêlit and Valeria, the former who is Conan’s lover and the latter whois a respected colleague. Fairly progressive for Howard’s time. 2) There wasracism in the stories to various degrees, but it was only blatant in a couple oftales. More often, Conan was the object of racism because so-called civilizedHyborian citizens often viewed him as a semi-intelligent brute because he camefrom Cimmeria. 3) Conan got drunk often and was kidnapped/imprisoned whileinebriated. I suppose this was Howard’s way of giving his character a weakness,ala Superman’s kryptonite. 4) Conan isn’t a hero. He’s an adventurer, and aboveall, a survivor, with a huge appetite for life. His motivations are usuallyselfish, but he lives in a world where altruism can get you killed. I prefer tothink of him as self-focused. He does have his own moral code, however, whichbasically boils down to “Don’t fuck with me, and I won’t fuck with you.” Itdoesn’t take a lot to get him to tackle a threat to others, though, especiallyif that threat pisses him off in some way. 5) Conan isn’t as dour as he’s oftenportrayed in tie-in novels, comics, and film. Howard famously describes him as aman of “gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth.” 6) Conan wears clothes andarmor more than in the comics, where he’s always portrayed as running around onlyin a fur loincloth and fur boots. 7) Conan has a talent for picking up languages.8) Conan is more fearful of magic than he seems to be in non-REH Conan stories.

· Hyboriais as much a character in Conan stories as the Cimmerian. Once I understood this, I had thekey to writing Conan fiction (at least, the key I needed). This is why, in myopinion, the tales of REH’s other famous adventure characters – while enjoyable– are inferior to Conan’s stories. He lives in a richer, more developed milieu.Literary writers often say that a setting should be as much a character in astory as the people. In Conan tales, Hyboria is a character of equal importanceto the Cimmerian. It’s what he lives to explore and enjoy, as well as being hismain adversary, the thing he must battle to prove himself worthy of survival. Ina way, it’s his one true love and his most implacable foe.

· Conan was in the Avengers? In 1978, I read Marvel’s What If?#13: “What if Conan the Barbarian Walked the Earth Today?” written by Conan comicsscribe Roy Thomas. In the story, Conan is magically transported to 1978, has anadventure, and eventually returns to his own time. I liked the story wellenough, but without Hyboria, it just wasn’t the same. Decades later, Conan endedup in modern times once more and joined the Avengers for a time. I wasn’treading comics then, but I kept tabs on what was happening in the industry, andI thought this was a fun idea, but Conan was too much of a loner to join a teamfor long, and without Hyboria, I doubted his character would be very effective.But what do I know? Like I said, I didn’t read those comics.

· WheneverI write fiction about an established character or world, I like to address thewhy of things, and I did in this book. Why does Conan have wanderlust when the rest of hispeople don’t seem to? Why does he wear his hair long? Why is he clean-shavenuntil later in his life when he becomes King of Aquilonia? Why does he go aboutshirtless and wearing only a loincloth so often? If he’s truly an amoralwarrior out for his own pleasure, why doesn’t he rape women? Why is he so afraidof magic? What happened to the Tower that fell in “The Tower of the Elephant”?Why is there less magic in the world during Conan’s time than there was in KingKull’s? Which is it – Zamora or Arenjun? I addressed all these questions – and more– in my book. I figured my editor and the folks at Heroic Signatures would askme to take out any details I created that they thought didn’t work, but I gotto keep them all!

· Whydid I depict Set as female in my novel? Because the comic book folks were referring to Set asfemale in their The Scourge of the Serpent series, and they asked me todo the same in my story. But they wanted me to mention that gods can appear indifferent aspects, including different genders, for readers who prefer FatherSet to Mother Set.

· Ismy story canon? It’sbest not to worry about stuff like “canon” when reading stories about along-running character like Conan. Think of it as my story based on Howard’swork. It does feature connections to a number of different REH stories, though.

· Ilove writing S&S. Ioriginally started out wanting to be a fantasy novelist, although I wrote shortstories in various genres. I wrote some novels for Wizards of the Coast, and Ipublished an original fantasy novel called Godfire with Five Star Presssome years ago. (They published it as two volumes: Godfire: The Orchard ofDreams and Godfire: Heart’s Wound…and they forgot to mention that thefirst book was only part one of a longer story, which confused the hell out ofreaders.) I enjoy writing both fantasy and action, and S&S is the perfectfusion of the two. I hope to start writing original S&S, at the short storylevel if nothing else, as soon as I can carve out some time in my writing schedule.

· Conanis (almost) in the public domain. TheConan stories are in the public domain in Europe. In the U.S., only the firstpublished Conan story, “The Hour of the Dragon,” is. The rest of the storieswill be in the public domain in a few more years. Right now, you can writefiction based only on those elements that appear in “The Hour of the Dragon.” Andbecause of trademark issues, you can’t use the name Conan on the coverof your book. The one self-published Conan novel I own is titled The Scionsof Ymir, written by David L. Irick. Expect to see more self-published Conanbooks over the course of the next several years. Who knows? Maybe you’ll writeone yourself.

· WouldI write more Conan stories? Funnyyou should ask…After I finished my novel, my editor at Titan asked if I’d beinterested in writing a short story featuring an REH character for their ebook-onlyHeroic Legends series. I did another Conan story, which comes out onJan. 27th, and is currently available for preorder at Amazon andB&N. You can find more details about it below. Would I write another Conannovel? If Titan offers me another contract to do so, I’ll jump at it.

That’sthe low-down on writing Conan: Spawn of the Serpent God. It was awonderful experience creatively, and it left me with a greater appreciation forREH and his work, as well as Sword and Sorcery in general – especially thatwritten by modern authors. Even if you don’t think of yourself as a Conan fan,I hope you’ll give Spawn of the Serpent God a try and that you’ll enjoyreading it as much as I did writing it!

DEPARTMENTOF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION

Conan:Spawn of the Serpent God isOut This Week

My Conanthe Barbarian novel, Spawn of the Serpent God, comes out this Tuesday,October 28th. The novel ties into the comic book event Scourge ofthe Serpent Men. You won’t have to read the comics to understand my book,and vice versa. I had a blast writing it, and I can’t wait for people to readit!

You canfind various preorder links – hardcover, ebook, and audio – for my novel at theTitan Books site: https://titanbooks.com/72365-conan-spawn-of-the-serpent-god/

Synopsis

InZamora, the city of thieves, Conan meets Valja, a thrill-seeking thief. Sheentices him to join

her on aheist, where they steal a golden statuette of Ishtar, said to contain thegoddess herself.

Afterkilling a dozen guards and failing to escape, the pair are saved by priestessesof Mitra. But

Conanknows that nothing is free.

Thepriestesses have need of their skills. They have waged war against Set, god ofchaos and

serpents,who demands constant sacrifice from his subjects and massacred thousands of his

followers.Yet they are no match for Uzzeran, a powerful sorcerer, who has been performing

unspeakableexperiments on humans in the name of Set. To defeat Uzzeran, they will need a

legendarywarrior on their side. They need Conan the Barbarian.

Conan:Marked for Death Available for Preorder

Titanalso publishes an ebook-only series of short stories starring various Robert E.Howard characters called The Heroic Legends Series. I got to write Conan again,although this time at much shorter length. But since most of the Cimmerian’soriginal appearances were in short form, writing this tale felt more like whatwriting adventure fiction in the classic days of the pulp magazines must havebeen like.

Markedfor Death will bereleased on January 27th, 2026, for only $1.99 at both Amazon andBarnes and Noble.

Synopsis

Wounded,thirsty, and stranded in the desert after a job gone bad, Conan is desperate.To make it out alive, he bands together with his fellow surviving mercenaries.

Conantrusts none of them, and the feeling is mutual. Fine. Everyone knows where theystand. But when a cursed treasure is discovered, distrust turns to suspicion.Conan knows enough about dark magic to leave well enough alone, but will greedget the better of his new “friends”?

Kindle: https://tinyurl.com/c8mt6krj

Barnesand Noble ebook: https://tinyurl.com/2wyxtpz8

SCHEDULEDAPPEARANCES

2026

SuperstarsWriting Seminar. Feb. 4-5. Colorado Springs, Colorado.

AkronBook Fest. March 7. Akron, Ohio.

StokerCon.June 4-7. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Into theSprings Writers Workshop. August 7-9. Yellow Springs, Ohio.

WHERETO FIND ME ONLINE

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Website:www.timwaggoner.com

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