Key moments in Sword and Laser history.
Unknown Date Tom Merritt and Veronica Belmont decided 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 moved from Ning forums to Goodreads.
Mar 17, 2012 Sword and Laser joined 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 by Veronica.
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 went 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.
Jul 2015 to Aug 2016 Tom and Veronica posted book haul and unboxing videos.
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 4, 2016 The first annual Sword and Laser March Madness begins.
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
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 attended WorldCon 76 in San Jose, California.
Mar 18, 2019 Veronica introduced her new doggo, Moro, to the world.
Aug 2019 Veronica and Tom attended 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 mask 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.
Jan 31, 2021 The Sword and Laser Discord server was announced.
Feb 2021 Podcast guest host was Rod Simmons from SMRPodcast.
Mar 2021 Podcast guest host was Alex Brown, Punk-Ass Book Jockey.
Apr 2021 Podcast guest host was Jenny Colvin from Reading Envy.
May 2021 Podcast guest host was Robb Dunewood from SMRPodcast.
Jun 2021 Veronica returned to the podcast.
Jul 2021 to Apr 2022 Tom and Veronica experimented with streaming the podcast live, recording audio and video.
May 2022 Remembering Jenny "Reading Envy" Colvin.
Jun 30, 2022 Tom and Veronica began streaming the podcast live on a Discord voice channel.
Sep 2022 Veronica and her family moved to Canada.
Oct 2022 15th Anniversary of Sword and Laser.
Jun 2024 Seven the dog joined Tom's family.
Nov 27, 2024 The 500th episode of Sword and Laser.
Feb 2025 The 10th Annual Sword and Laser March Madness begins.
Apr 2025 Sword and Laser became the Carl and Donut podcast.
Jul 2025 Veronica buried the hatchet with guest Wesley Chu.
Aug 2025 Ruth offered Veronica a clean blade but may accept a drink at WorldCon in Dublin 2029.
Oct 2025 Tom's book Synced: Know A Little More About Tech was published.