A painful journey home, filled with the knowledge of incoming pain, a career demolished, a marriage crushed….. She leaned forward. “Nicolau, you did what you did. Any small thing that can pull you out of the deep crater you created in your life is worth considering. I’m not suggesting that this is good, and I […]

The first lines of chapter 1…a little lyrical, a little musical, a beginning…. The Iktara river sang. At least, Piper always thought of it as singing. Sometimes a sweet murmur. Sometimes a strident song. But the sound of water flowed around and through him whenever he was near, whether it moved and coursed, dripped, whether

Nicolau has dragged his wife, Annika, to an archaeological dig, hoping to find some inspiration for his creative work. She’s not happy with the location, and she feels he’s wasting time. He proceeds into the pit where the dig will take place, and speaks with the head laborer: In various places, trenches pierced the pit

The lord waved the folio away. A servant stepped up and took it. “I’ve no desire to read that, and spoil the surprise. This is my entertainment, not just something I put on for everyone else. Give me the essence without revealing everything.” He lifted an arm to the room. “This will be your stage.

I broke the world. I admit it. Me, Mischief the Trickster, I tore the Skin of the World, the thin veneer that separates reality from chaos, allowing magic and monsters, all humanity’s wild myths and imaginings, to roar into life. Why? Maybe because I was bored? At least, that was the accusation; I’m a trickster,

At least, so it seemed. Being a warren of hungry monsters and deadly plants, bubbling with chaos magic, gave it a certain feeling.