A Brief History of Sword and Laser

Key moments in Sword and Laser history

(Dates given are blog entry announcements or date podcast posted)

Unknown Date Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont decide to start a Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club

Oct 8, 2007 Sword and Laser blog created by Veronica

Oct 15, 2007 Sword and Laser Ning Forum created by Veronica

Oct 16, 2007 First book to be read, The Golden Compass is announced

Feb 4, 2008 The first Sword and Laser podcast: Discussing Book 4 Neuromancer

Jan 15, 2009 Veronica lems Lem (Podcast confession)

May 23, 2009 The first guest interview: Rick Klau, product manager at Blogger

Sep 8, 2009 The first author interview and live podcast: Timothy Zahn at DragonCon (Sep 4, 2009)

Nov 8, 2009 Tom introduced his family's new border collie pupper, Sawyer.

Mar 5, 2010 Sword and Laser moves from Ning forums to Goodreads

Mar 17, 2012 Sword and Laser join Geek and Sundry to make a new video show

Apr 13, 2012 The first S&L Video episode with Scott Sigler

May 2, 2012 Sword and Laser Wiki started

Dec 5, 2012 Sword and Laser Anthology officially kicked off and open for submissions.

Oct 24, 2013 Kickstarter to make Season 2 of S&L Video Show announced

Feb 20, 2014 First episode of S&L Video Show Season 2

Apr 29, 2014 Sword and Laser Anthology goes on sale

Sep 1, 2014 Veronica and Tom won a Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction Fan or News Podcast (General)

Sep 30, 2014  The Sword & Laser Patreon launched

Apr 1, 2015 Inkshares and S&L launched a publishing contest for The Sword & Laser Collection

Jul 2015 or thereabouts, Veronica brought new pupper Bodega home.

Dec 2, 2015 Inkshares and S&L launched a sequel to the first publishing contest

Mar 1, 2016 The first book in The Sword & Laser Collection from Inkshares was released: The Life Engineered by JF Dubeau

Mar 15, 2016 The second book in The Sword & Laser Collection from Inkshares was released: An Unattractive Vampire by Jim McDoniel

Apr 5, 2016 The third book in The Sword & Laser Collection from Inkshares was released: Asteroid Made of Dragons by G. Derek Adams

Jan 2017 Jango the dog passed.

Mar 2017 Tom introduced his family's new doggo, Rey.

Mar 14, 2017 Pilot X by Tom Merritt was published by Inkshares as part of The Sword & Laser Collection

Oct 16, 2017 Sword and Laser celebrates 10 Year Anniversary. The announcement of the first book was officially declared the starting point of S&L in Podcast #308 - A Decade of Us

Mar 31, 2018 The 2018 Hugo Award finalists were announced. Sword and Laser, presented by Veronica Belmont and Tom Merritt, was a finalist for Best Fancast.

Aug 2018 Veronica and Tom attend WorldCon 76 in San Jose, California.

Mar 18, 2019 Veronica introduced her new doggo, Moro, to the world.

Aug 2019 Veronica and Tom attend WorldCon 77 in Dublin, Ireland.

Mar 11, 2020 The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic.

Mar 17, 2020 Trigor by Tom Merritt, a sequel to Pilot X, was published by Inkshares.

Jun 2020 Sword and Laser face masks went on sale.

Dec 2020 Veronica went on maternity leave. She and Ryan welcomed their son Julian into the world.

Dec 17, 2020 The 400th episode of Sword and Laser was released, with guest host Brea Grant from Reading Glasses joining Tom on the podcast for the month of December 2020.

Jan 2021 Podcast guest host was Mallory O'Meara from Reading Glasses.

Feb 2021 Podcast guest host was Rod Simmons from SMRPodcast.