“I’m dead, you know,” he said suddenly, breaking the silence of the room. The fire still crackled away merrily, and the enormous black dog in front of it whacked its tail against the stone hearth, no doubt expecting some attention at the voice. The King turned to look at Master Richard. “Well, this is the […]

The phone was beeping and rattling on the nightstand. Eyes closed and face half-buried in the pillow, he scrabbled around, grabbed it. Dragged it closer. “What?” “George, it’s me. Tony. You awake?” “mrgl… yeah, I guess. What the fuck, Tony!? It’s three in the fucking morning!” “George, wake up. This is important.” “Yeah, yeah, I’m […]

304 Bleth Chapter 1 Prologue Sit there. Record every word I speak. I will review your work personally… yes, I read your foreign writing, Han scribe. And if there is one error, you will suffer. These scrolls are for my own reference. I have lived long, I suspect longer than you can imagine. My memory, […]

“Is the King in today?” The doors were massive, apparently carved of single slabs of rose crystal, every inch covered with carvings of heroes and monsters and more, cavorting across their polished faces. I could not identify the legends they illustrated, although I recognized several of the nightmarish creatures depicted there, fortunately not rendered in […]

The first story in the Book of Richard, “Fleeting Dreams,” started the whole thing. The original idea came to me decades ago, probably in the mid-1970s when I was doing a lot of RPG stuff (playing and writing), but it took half a century to get it down on paper. I can’t post that part […]