Falling For You

 

Falling For You is a short story that acts as the fourth installment for the series of works inspired by Dungeons & Dragons. Continuing the trend started in the previous two works, Falling For You again stars the elven fighter Saeros Elendil, this time finding himself in the carved halls of Stonehaven, a part of the Dwarven Empire, many years since the events of Holidays In The Sun, but still before the events of Bring The Night On or Late Night People. Only able to pass the time by traveling the land and playing cards, he comes across a chance encounter with a youth named Soryn Cyanos, a far traveler like himself who also appears surprisingly knowledgeable about Saeros and his past. Following an encounter with a local gang, Saeros himself discovers more about Soryn's own chequered past than he expects, as well as a common link between the two from many years ago.

Falling For You can be read right here. It's about 7000 words long.

The above image was drawn by Lin+, whose art can be found here. Like before, while the figure above lacks some elvish features, I liked the design enough to want to use it to represent Soryn the half-elf.

Some author's notes can be found after the jump.

Holidays In The Sun

Holidays In The Sun is a short story that I wrote over the course of July to September of 2021. Effectively the third installment in a series of works inspired by Dungeons & Dragons (which should get a proper name at some point...), Holidays In The Sun takes place many years before the previous two works in the series, centering on the travails of Saeros Elendil, mercenary-for-hire sent on a mission to capture and interrogate a merchant after the sudden disappearance of an elven banker. When he finally gets to a small hut far from the edges of town, however, he not only learns more about the mysterious disappearance, but he also learns far more about the merchant's miserable life and her ailing daughter, and also ends up having to fight for them in the end.

Holidays In The Sun can be read right here. It's about 7500 words long.

The above image was drawn by Jun, whose art can be found here. While the figure above doesn't appear to have the pointed ears associated with elves, I liked the design enough to want to use it as a token for Roll20.

Some author's notes can be found after the jump, but keep in mind that they contain spoilers for this work.

Dark Valentine

Dark Valentine was a quarterly e-zine that published five issues from Summer 2010 to Summer 2011. Its name is a bit of a misnomer; the e-zine did not focus on romance stories, and instead focused on stories with "dark" tones, generally featuring macabre themes, twisted plots, otherworldly creatures, and tragic endings. While a majority of the stories were high fantasy or horror, as suggested by the various cover arts and title, a surprisingly large variety of genres were present in Dark Valentine's pages, including urban fantasy, science fiction, and even one Western (Edward A. Grainger's Justice Served in Issue 3). The illustrations found for each story also featured a number of different styles from numerous artists, each helping to tell the respective tale. I read all five issues of Dark Valentine as they released while I was in high school, and I hoped that one day I'd find my own name on its pages, especially after the shuttering of the similarly-themed Talebones in 2009.

Dark Valentine's website has unfortunately been defunct for over a decade now (an archived mirror can be found here, circa 2011), and while the magazine's publishing house, Dark Valentine Press, still has a website, it has disappointingly little information about the magazine itself. While its final issue made promise of keeping archives of all five issues up and accessible, no mirrors of Dark Valentine exist anywhere on the Internet right now, and plans to produce a print compendium for its stories also apparently fell through, so I've decided to give this old e-zine a home of its own. Dark Valentine was published with the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 license, so uploading it online for a new audience doesn't fall foul of any copyright laws.

I elected to pack all five issues of Dark Valentine into one compressed folder, alongside download links for the individual issues if so desired. 

Complete

    Issue 1
    Issue 2
    Issue 3
    Issue 4
    Issue 5

The above image was taken directly from Dark Valentine's first issue, and was drawn by Joanne Renaud, whose online portfolio can be found here and personal blog can be found here. Renaud also drew the cover art for Dark Valentine's fourth issue, and she also acted as its art director throughout its existence.

Late Night People

Late Night People is a short story that I wrote over the course of April to July of 2021. Somewhat related in scope to the previous Bring the Night On, this story is again inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, this time featuring a half-elf sorcerer named Katalia Rhoeas, with Elsie making a return appearance. Late Night People focuses on the interactions of two orphans, Ilya and Elsie, and Katalia after a day of work, where they not only learn more about one another, but also end up in a scuffle stemming from a long-simmering feud between nations.

Late Night People can be read right here. It's about 7500 words long.

The above image was drawn by WANKE, whose art can be found here.

To Forgive A Stranger

 

To Forgive A Stranger is a short story written from fall 2020 to winter 2021, as a sequel to To Be Saved. Taking a few months after the last story, To Meet A Stranger is about Renato, a young man from the village of Kishuta itself. Finally of age to join the Diviners, Renato ventures out to Zoltan's Quarters to find the collective in flux; after overhearing a vulgar and coarse argument between Hajnal and Timea from upstairs, Renato also comes across a completely new face in the entryway. While waiting for his chance to speak with Zoltan, Renato strikes up conversation with the newest Diviner, Bartalan, amidst other commotion in the Quarters; after Bartalan is briefly called away, however, Renato learns more about the newest Diviner, and upon Bartalan's return, Renato has to decide how he feels about someone he has only just recently met in tandem with his new life.

To Forgive A Stranger can be read here.

The above image was drawn by English artist Morten Morland. Note that Morland primarily works as a political cartoonist, and my use of his image is not an endorsement of his views.

High Atop the Hills

 

High Atop the Hills is a short story that I wrote over the course of February to May 2021, being somewhat of a companion work to Over the Horizon and Into the Dead Downtown. A somewhat shorter affair this time around, High Atop the Hills is about Arden, another young man who has survived the apparent end of the world, and his first chance encounter with a cheery young woman named Angelina, who has plans for both him and any remaining survivors they meet. What follows is a conversation that makes him learn not only more about her plans for the future, but her own life before having to switch to exploring and foraging.

 High Atop The Hills can be read right here as a PDF. 

The above image is a promotional still I found online from the 2007 movie The Place Promised in Our Early Days. I have not seen it yet, but I have heard generally positive reviews from friends (though none of them would consider it better than Makoto Shinkai's later film Your Name).

Angelina was named after the song of the same name by New York post-punk band The Bravery, and the song was a bit of an inspiration for this work.

The Bleak Oasis

 

The Bleak Oasis is a short story I wrote over the course of about October 2020 to March 2021, acting as a sequel to The Unwelcome Visitors. As I mentioned before, I had an interest in revisiting many of the characters introduced in the previous work, and I chose to write a second story starring them. With several months having past since their previous, ill-fated mission, The Bleak Oasis has the group of Bryce, Marcel, Tanneke, Felicity, and Agnés travel to Ostend, another far-off city to try and convince a new, bustling city to build a library where sorcerers like them can continue to hone their craft. After a heartwarming reunion, a walk through town, and a brief history lesson, they finally come face to face with one member of the monarchy, Empress Theresa; the resulting meeting, however, causes them to realise how such a city came into existence.  

The Bleak Oasis can be downloaded as a PDF in the following formats:

Complete
    Part 1
    Part 2

The above photograph is that of the real-life Ostend, a coastal city located in the Flemish-speaking region of Belgium. I felt the seaside setting, busy architecture, and dense crowds seen above provided a good reference for what I felt the city would look like; furthermore, its province in Belgium, West Flanders, is somewhat bilingual, and the postcard above features French text on it, which provided a good excuse to make the town relatively bilingual.

I still have a few more ideas for stories involving this cast, and once again, we may see them again soon. In which case, I'd probably have no choice but to find a title for this series. We shall see.

Bring The Night On

Bring The Night On is a short story that I wrote over the course of December 2020 to January 2021. I wrote it following my first few sessions of Dungeons & Dragons I had with a few friends, with the intention of helping flesh out my character, a human rogue named Silifrey Helder. Owing to this, Bring The Night On is about one of Silifrey's misadventures in the dark of the night, as she meets Elise, a street urchin, and teaches her what it means to be in debt to someone, and how to dangerous the streets truly are.

Bring The Night On can be read right here. It's about 3700 words long, and once again, any and all constructive criticism is welcome.

 The above image was drawn by an artist named BALANCE, whose art can be viewed here