I’ve been waiting for this anthology since I first heard about it from Nick Sharps and Tim Marquitz. The Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters anthology is the brainchild of J. M. Martin and Nick Sharps. Yesterday the kickstarter project for Kaiju Rising went live and it’s already more than 30% funded. Here’s what the anthology is primarily about:

Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters is a collection of 19 stories focused around the theme of strange creatures in the vein of Pacific Rim, Godzilla, Cloverfield, and more. The anthology will open with a foreword by a New York Times bestselling author, and close with an afterword by an author who has the highest selling Kaiju novel in the United States since the old Godzilla books—and perhaps even more than those. 

From New York Times bestsellers to indie darlings the authors involved are perfectly suited for writing such larger than life stories. Kaiju Rising: Age of Monsters will honor that proud tradition, while exploring new and exciting ways to experience Kaiju.

Here’s what the anthology has to offer in terms of its talented roster (in random order):
 - A foreword by Jonathan Mayberry
 - An afterword by Jeremy Robinson
 - Peter Clines
- Larry Correia 
- David Annandale
- James Lovegrove 
- Erin Hoffman 
- James Maxey
- Jaym Gates
- Timothy W. Long 
- Mike MacLean 
- Natania Barron
- Joshua Reynolds
- Clint Lee Werner
- Jonathan Wood 
- Gini Koch (J.C. Koch)
- Paul Genesse 
- Edward M. Erdelac 
- Samuel Sattin 
- Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam 
- Peter Rawlik 

Check out all the extras and stretch goals on the official kickstarter page and get involved at the earliest.

Also here’s a mini Q&A with Nick Sharps, one of the editors and the dude who along with Joe Martin was instrumental for this fab anthology:

Q] Can you tell us how the inception of Kaiju Rising came to occur? 

NS: After watching Pacific Rim in 3D the third time I got the itch. About once a week I come up with some grand idea that I set aside and forget by the start of the following week. This time around I jokingly told Joe Martin of Nine Worlds Media - let's assemble a Kaiju-themed anthology! Joe went on to contact our mutual friend Tim, author of the Demon Squad series and editor of the Fading Light anthology and Manifesto: UF. From there it just sort of snowballed into its current incarnation.

Q] How did you and Tim go about selecting the authors for this anthology? 

NS: Joe and Tim pretty much gave me free reign to select authors at will. The two made some great suggestions along the way - Timothy Long and Edward Erdelac among them - but for the most part I was happy to headhunt. It started with the big name authors - those authors I didn't really expect to acquire but just had to try for. I'm proud to announce that Correia and Clines are among that list. From there it was just about finding authors I knew would be up to the challenge of writing kaiju fiction and put their own spin on it.

Q] With two editors involved, I'm sure readers are curious as to how you both work and so can you give us a glimpse of the process? 

NS: Tim is the alpha editor macho supreme. He has experience with this sort of thing, so I'll largely be deferring to him. I'm not ashamed to admit that my piece of the editing will be mainly content related. If there is one thing I have experience with it's critiquing stories for plot/character/style. We'll be tackling individual stories and then getting together to work on the order and flow of the anthology as a whole.

The awesome thing about working with such professional authors is that there's not nearly as much work to do as we might have with a fresher bunch.

Q] So what can readers expect from this amazing collection and what should they be looking forward to according to you? 

NS: Readers can expect an anthology of monstrous proportions. That's what we set out to deliver and I will go toe-to-toe with Godzilla himself to ensure that's what readers get. So far three authors have submitted stories and each one has blown me away. James Lovegrove wrote the single most English story I've ever read - all you anglophiles will fall in love with Big Ben. Edward Erdelac wrote an incredible weird western wuxia kaiju piece that is just dripping period detail - and features one of the craziest kaiju I've ever encountered. And Peter Rawlik? He decided to base his story off a true story - and I won't spoil it any further.

They say write what you read. Same goes for compiling an anthology. I can't wait to see what Larry Correia can do with a GIANT monster story. I have high, high hopes for Erin Hoffman and Bonnie Jo Stufflebeam. But the author whose story I'm most pumped to read? Samuel Sattin. After reading his subversion of superhero tropes in League of Somebodies I know that his KRAoM story will be pure gold. But honestly? I'm ecstatic to read them all. The talent on display here is humbling, and the level of enthusiasm and commitment our authors have brought to the project blows my mind.

I'd also like to mention the interior art stretch goals - I love the work of Robert Elrod and Chuck Lukacs. We better hit those stretch goals because I NEED to see all our kaiju in illustrated format.

Q] In closing, do you have any last thoughts or comments you’d like to share with our readers? 

NS: I would just like to thank everyone involved in this project, from our amazing cover artist Dan Howard to Michael Edstrom, the man responsible for putting together our one-of-a-kind video. Of course I would like to thank the authors, without whom none of this would be possible. Continuing on I'd like to thank our interior artists and The Shakedown Project for allowing us to use their song "Where do your eyes roam" which is the perfect background for the video.

I'd like to thank Joe and Tim for helping me make this happen. I'd also like to thank you Mihir for taking the time to do this interview and lastly I'd like to thank YOU, dear reader, for giving your time and support!