StanleyWheeler

    Goblin Souk has finally materialized from shimmering mirage on the sands into solid form in paperback and ebook. Quaff from the many flavors of the Near East, ancient and otherwise, with this anthology of stories set in mysterious marketplaces. My story, "A Soldier's Bargain," sees three of Napoleon's infantrymen under attack and looking for refuge find their way to a bazaar that will effect their fates in this life and the next. Fun Fact: Before Christmas in 1099, Bohemond of Antioch and Baldwin of Edessa made a miserable 250 mile trip to Jerusalem, plagued by cold, rainstorms, hunger, and bandits. They arrived at a city ruled by Baldwin's brother Godrey and smothered in stench of the dead. Godrey had taken the title of Defender of the Holy Sepulchre. On receiving his appointment, Godrey had marched out to Ascalon where Al-Afdal was assembling the army that had failed to relieve Jerusalem from the crusaders' earlier assault. He defeated the Fatimid army ...

As part of the road trip to take care of things at Le Chateau au Chat Gris, we had to play the next installment of the adventure that started with the Cursed Ruins and the Cauldron of Mystery. Le Freres Corses were looking to meet with the Count who hired them to get the flask of fluid from the cauldron. I hadn't prepared anything yet, so I put something together on the fly. Charo and Gretel arrived back at the Count's mansion and immediately discovered that it wasn't going to be as easy as provided in their Anticipation Proclamation. A mouthy guard at the gate demanded to see some ID and the Wizard Gretel obliged him by zapping the head of a statute beside the doorway. The helpful guard then offered to take the flask to the Count himself.  Charo nearly gave him the flask--which would've resulted in a locked door and no reward for their efforts. They finally convinced the guard that they had to take it in themselves. The guard then took them inside the mansion and intro...

  Interview with Michael D. Young Author of The Penultimate Dawn Trilogy     Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. My current work in progress is called “Everyman” and was started during National Novel Writer’s Month this November. I managed to write the 50,000 words on it that month! It is about a deep-sea explorer who goes missing and comes back with an alien host that can absorb the DNA of other people and assume their traits and appearance. When he appears, a mysterious cult appears with him that has been expecting his coming. The protagonist is a man whose pregnant wife was taken by this monster, who has vowed to find a way to stop him while trying to work through his own grief and anger. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? Like many of my books, this one popped into my head as a “shower thought.” Warm water gets my brain going. Do you write in more than one genre? Yes, while I love fantasy and science fiction, I also writ...

   Every book is a window into another time, place, reality, or mind.  Apparently, just over half of adult Americans read at least one book a year. That's terrible. Every adult should be reading at least a dozen books a year - minimum. Older adults read more than younger adults. Is that because older adults grew up with reading as the primary means of obtaining information and younger adults are accustomed to plugging their brain into a screen through which someone who has already evaluated and condensed the material can tell them what they think they should know? Or is it because reading books has become a completely foreign activity which they've never tried or from which they've divorced themselves? I haven't been in a bookstore in quite a while. I can't remember the last time I was in a bookstore. The new books I get are almost all ebooks because they're cheaper than paper books, I can carry an entire library on my phone, I can change the print size, and the...

 Interview with Deborah Jarvis Author of The Keyralithian Chronicles and Wolves Running     Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. Right now, I am working on a book called Wolves Running . It is not part of my first series, The Keyralithian Chronicles, but randomly came to be in January of 2021 when I was working from home and had some extra time. I had a dream, wrote it down, and the next thing I knew, I was two hundred pages in, and it’s two months later! It’s an urban fantasy (unlike The Crystal Pawn and The Ivory Queen , which are high fantasy) and is set in Colorado. The main character is a wolf shapeshifter and even though the understanding that there are shapeshifters living among the populace of the world has recently become common knowledge, she still is hiding the fact due to being a biology teacher at a high school. The problem comes where her ex is determined to get back at her for breaking up with him, and teams up with a group bent...