StanleyWheeler

     “Now we’ll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer’s gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood.” -- Mark Twain -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn We didn't write our names in blood--not our own, that is--but we did have a dangerous band, an unruly gang who lived and died by the roll of the dice. Les Freres Corses made a visit. We began with getting some skills for their man cards. We began with learning to pop the hood. They had a difficult time finding the hood release, but located the dipstick (the one under the hood) and the oil-fill easily. They each got to check the oil on a vehicle and add a little of the lubricant. RC also got to add some water to the radiator. They should get bonus points for the quick lesson on making a funnel. With the man card punched for the day, we convened around the kitchen table to resume the rip-roaring showdown between figures from Star Wars, Barsoom, Middle-earth, and co...

 Some stories, tales, plays, and such are so filled to overflowing, packed down, and heaped high with lines that stimulate the mind and pluck the strings of the soul that they are beyond comprehension--or rather, they exceed the bounds of my ability to recall, my stage of recollection being riddled with portals to oblivion. Therefore, I'm posting some bits from Hooker's translation of Cyrano de Bergerac that I had enjoyed and forgotten.   De Guiche : Let him rewrite a few lines here and there, and he'll approve the rest of it. Cyrano : Impossible. My blood curdles to think of altering one comma. De Guiche : Ah, but when he likes a thing, he pays well. Cyrano : Yes--but not so well as I--When I have made a line that sings itself so that I love the sound of it--I pay myself a hundred times. De Guiche: You are proud, my friend. Cyrano : You have observed that? ___ Cyrano : To sing, to laugh, to dream, To walk in my own way and be alone, Free, with an eye to see things as the...

Interview with Katharine E. Wibell Author of: The Incarn Saga, The Guardian's Speaker, and The Twelve Tasks   Please tell me a little about your current work in progress. I am always working on several WIPs simultaneously. I am actively writing the fourth book in The Djed Chronicles series. These are young adult, adventure, epic fantasy books of which the first, The Twelve Tasks , earned second place in the 2021 Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards in the Young Adult Fantasy/Sci-Fi category. I also have the fifth novella for my series, The Guardian’s Speaker, with my editor while the sixth one just came back from my beta readers. This series is an adult, dark, Viking fantasy. The first one in that series was a finalist for the International Book Awards in the Fiction Novella category. Where did you get the idea for this book or series? My ideas come from very different places. The Djed Chronicles was heavily influenced by the imaginary play that my sister and I engaged in when...

      I may have to work this into a cover for book 6 in the Tomahawks and Dragon Fire Series. It captures some of the excitement in chapter 5. I'm still in chapter 6, but the cataclysm that is chapter 5 reminded me of some important turning points in the series. The tower fight chapter of Threading the Rude Eye changed everything that followed. It led to Lucette's increased importance and set up the sequel to that fight in Clamorous Harbingers . Another critical point that profoundly influenced the rest of the story was a struggle in the snow involving Akira, Alex, and Roberts. The Awesome Train blew its whistle and pounded right through what I had planned, bringing terrible consequences for the central characters. I think Power to Hurt and Truth in Flames were free of violent, story-transforming events in that the events and characters adhered to the main plan--which was already at def=con level Phenomenal. Oh, I almost forgot. The whole Iago thread in Promise of Car...