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

The Sudden Raid

 

The Sudden Raid was a shot story that I quickly jotted over the course of December 2020. It acts as a sequel to one of my older works from 2016, Seeds of Dread, though it is not necessary to read the previous story to understand this one. The Sudden Raid features a return to Claire's old apartment without her old flatmate. As she prepares for the upcoming holiday on her own months later, however, she discovers that Johan's last encounter with her had far greater repercussions than she ever expected. In the end, she not only learns about what happens in the city she lives in, but also what happened to Johan.

The Sudden Raid can be read right here, and is about 3000 words long. All constructive criticism is welcome.

The above image was taken by myself without the use of filters, as part of photo challenge to take a shot of our nightstands as a joke. I added the card later and re-shot the image in the midst of writing the story, as the card itself served as an inspiration for the work. Further inspiration came about due to one of my friends jokingly saying she would start an overly-realistic campaign for a tabletop RPG, which made me think about what would really happen if certain stories happened within the confines of reality.

A close-up of the card can be found here, while the backside, which details the backstory and inspiration for the illustration, can be found here. While Michele Gauthier reportedly still does woodblock printing, Beaver Quill Studio has since moved to Grand Junction, Michigan.