With his journey more than half complete, Andy the Auroch sees a chance to rest his weary hoofs when his wagon reaches Everlong Faire. Their he hopes to renew his burgeoning relationship with with Angie the Auroch. However, since Angie has not yet arrived, which caused Andy to spend most of his time eating and sleeping, let us focus on the other members of our intrepid threesome, Manny and Maude. Particularly since a colleague from the past threatens to tear them team apart.

For the last while, instead of writing stories, I have been perfecting a long held skill. That being the creation of barriers that stop me from writing those stories. Something, I'm sure in which I am not alone, but I thought I would write about some of my current favourites. If for no other reason than to start at the beginning of an idea and take it to an end.

Do you ever find yourself looking at My Stories and find yourself surprised how long ago you posted something. Today that happened to me with In This Land, my last Manny and Maude story. I knew it had been awhile, thought I was coming up on a year, but its actually been almost 16 months since I posted it. Yet, despite the next story, Who's the Fairest, being one of my goto stories to work on since I finished The Transformation of Gwri, it still feels like I have a long way to go.

Like all inhabitants in the Land of Dalembrine, the Maker created Foulkes to serve a single purpose, to play his role in bringing harmony for all. But in crafting Foulkes, the Maker proved to own a sense of humour. How could a discordant note fit into the symphony of life?

A twist upon a familiar nursery rhyme.

It started in Tokyo. From there, the virus spread across Japan, to Korea, to Hong Kong, and beyond. Within weeks no city had escaped the infection, humanity was devastated. But some had escaped, though they were slowly being hunted to extinction by the stocking dead.

A strange tale of saccharin horror.

Life in a production company, like Toboggan to Nowhere Productions, was far from glamorous. Mostly they produced crappy adds or videos for local businesses. However, the rise of reality shows introduced the possibility of striking it rich with the right idea. One night, while eating take-out in front of her television, Colleen Kowalchuk found herself on Discovery Channel watching Mike Rowe catch leeches, when she got an idea. The next Monday she was presenting it to her boss, Winston.

His tasks completed, Gwri now is only left to face his dead and those upon who he would seek their revenge.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. This is the tale of the last of those tasks.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. Completed five of his six tasks, Gwri finally hears the tale of Fin and learns what faces him in his final task.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. This is the tale of the fifth of those tasks.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. This is the tale of the fourth of those tasks.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. This is the tale of the third of those tasks.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. This is the tale of the second of those tasks.

With his friends placed into the sleep of the ages, by Fintan Mac Gabhann, a minion of the mischievous Goban Saor, Gwri is forced to serve them in their plot to strike back at Brarn the Reaver. Set before him was six tasks to gather six items. This is the tale of the first of those tasks.

To subvert your will to vengeance requires you to throw yourself to something with no understanding of mercy. So it will use you, take from you your very being, in the pursuit of its end. And if victory is achieved, then vengeance will toss you aside, unneeded and forgotten.

After there is something to be something avenged. Then there needs to be someone who seeks it and someone to be the tool of that vengeance

To subvert your will to vengeance requires you to throw yourself to something with no understanding of mercy. So it will use you, take from you your very being, in the pursuit of its end. And if victory is achieved, then vengeance will toss you aside, unneeded and forgotten.

But first there needs to be something avenged.

I was wondering what techniques you use to determine whether or not to proceed with a story?

My preferred strategy is to bull through one story while ignoring all others that seep into my mind. However, it seems to be something that is not working currently, as I constantly jump from story to story, unsure which if any to focus upon. Do many people get others to look at early stages of a story and obtain feedback as to the direction the story appears to be heading?

Midway through his contract to guard Maude the Seamstrist, as she travels the Land Beyond creating beautiful clothes, Manny daily found himself wishing he had never crossed the bridge and accepted her offer. Admittedly, he had grown to like the talkative witch; however, strange things happened around her. Worse, those strange things seemed to happen too him. First trapping him in the body of Maude’s daughter, Lirial, then as a gorgeous, amazonian sized pixie. He could definitely use a quiet day off by himself. But will the most dastardly band of villains (on a skill testing exam, the only band of villains would also be acceptable) in the mountains have different ideas.

Dun-dun-dunnnn.

The expression when you realize a major problem with a story you are writing.

Last September, October, and November was a very productive period of writing for me; however, since then I have basically been in a wasteland for writing.

Few teenage boys fill the world with brilliant ideas, a rare possibility exponentially diminished with each teenage boy you include in the group. Add alcohol to the mix and the ideas generated can cause a group of crap throwing monkeys to stop and shake their head in amazement at the stupidity. But what makes teenage boys unique and special is their ability, even after determining the stupidity of an idea themselves, to bring those ideas to fruition.

Unfortunately for Dylan Campbell, he is a prototypical member of the species.

Like most other art, I struggle even to do a good stick figure.

Forced into the wider world, Sascha must learn to make his own way. But should he take the easy route, acting as people expect him to act, being who people saw him to be? Or can he grow into something more, his own Sascha, without further diminishing the current Sascha.

Little ditty about Manny and Maude, seamstrist and guard travellin’ the Land Beyond.
Maudie's sellin’ sartorial splendor, Manny debutante of Maudie’s mirror.

Oh yeah life goes on...

Warning: Please brush your teeth after consuming this story, for it may cause cavities.
Warning 2: Contains some funky formatting, which I blame upon my imaginary friend, Imaginary Fred.

With his nation caught before the rapacious empire of Goscaire, Anders Welsodon, the Hermit Lord of Validurm, is forced to decide if he can commit the ultimate sacrifice to spare his people from the worst of conquest.

Alister Juniper had experienced more than his share of terrible things in his young life, just as had any of those crammed into the poor quarters of the city. But then a fancy gentlemen found him, offering insight into his past and maybe a key to his future.

Writing is a cruel mistress.

I would like to offer some thank yous to the three groups of people important in this little niche world we have.