Jonathin Quackup, Issue 3

It was time to pull out Jonathin Quackup, Issue 3 out and read the book that alerted me to this series. While this entry brought me to the world of Weralt, it was after reading the first two issues, that I became excited about reading this issue. So once again I found a nice quiet place and opened up the book and began thumbing through the digital pages soaking in all the artwork. Just like the previous books the artwork was crisp and clean to the point that I had a rough idea of what the story was without reading any of the text...

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Review

First Stop

As the craft sailed through the stars, Rylan kept to himself whenever he could despite having made a few friendships among the crew. Since there were plenty in the group who thought he had sabotaged the platform the captain kept him from any real duties. So he tended to keep himself busy using the gym equipment that had been unpacked once the ship exited the atmosphere. He was getting dressed after an intense workout when he heard the captain’s announcement. “We will be dropping into the Latrian system in an hour. Once there it should take another couple of hours to enter planetary orbit. Landing crew report to shuttle bay one to prepare.”

Rylan smiled as he quickly finished getting dressed and then promptly reported to the shuttle bay. It had taken two and a half weeks to get to the first stop on the journey. When he arrived at the shuttle bay, he was greeted by Marcus, who still distrusted the technician...

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Flash Fiction

My Patreon Site

I love crafting stories. It is a transcendent experience for me, to craft tales that people genuinely enjoy reading. Unfortunately, keeping up the pace I that I want to is not always entirely smooth sailing. I knew there would be plenty of small expenses to keep this dream alive and I fully embrace them. But for anyone who has found my site and enjoyed my collection of flash fiction, short stories, reviews, thoughts and musings, I will ask you to consider helping me to keep the lights on and the content coming...

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News

Harrison & Sylvia Part One

Harrison & Sylvia is finally ready for publication. The particular journey has been a long yet wondrous one. Ever since these characters sprang to life in my mind, their stories have been lurking in my mind just waiting for me to transcribe them. And now that I have finished penning these tales I will be publishing these twelve short stories once a month throughout the year. These stories will detail the lives of Harrison and Sylvia and how they meet. Come read the beginning of their journey...

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News

Veiled Vision

Bethany was having an outstanding day, she was enjoying her family’s mini-vacation at the beach. Today was the last day of their trip, and so she was walking along the shoreline for the last time. Bethany took comfort as the waves lapped up against her legs and the salt-laden wind nipped at her unbound hair when her bare foot stepped upon something hard. With her mind racing, she bent down and quickly dug out what her foot had fallen on.

When the object broke through the wet sand, she was excited to find a pair of sunglasses. She gently lifted the solid frames from the sand, letting the incoming waves clean the clinging sand from it. She looked around, but there were only a few people, and they were far away, so she lifted her prize, peering through them to see if they were prescription ones. When her vision didn’t distort, she smiled enjoying the greyed expansive waters.

She quickly rubbed the lenses dry with the edge of her shirt before she put them on...

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Flash Fiction

Blood of Tyrants

As Crucible of Gold came to a close, the British detachment led by Laurence and Temeraire managed to help appease the Tswana dragons by claiming the French dragon transports, the Polonaise and the Maréchal, allowing them to go home. After that Laurence was approached by Gong Su, Temeraire’s cook that Laurence hired way back during the events of Black Powder War. The cook revealed himself to be a servant of Prince Mianning, the heir-apparent to China. He presented a letter to Laurence and suggested that Laurence should return to visit his adoptive father to discuss Napoleon’s ongoing conquest. And of course Hammond, ever looking to improve the relations between China and Brittain agreed that they should go.

Now with everything that Laurence and Temeraire have gone through, it is hard to imagine what Naomi Novik might put them through in Blood of Tyrants. However within moments of cracking the book the new struggles are painted vividly as Laurence awakens on shores of Japan with no knowledge of himself...

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Review

Allies

Tarian sauntered through the forest with his detachment with no signs of any of his people that went missing during the assault. He reached for his radio and depressed the button calling out to Keldon. “Hey Kel, have you had any luck over there?”

“No love on our route.” Came the stoic response from Tarian’s friend. “I think we have to call the search.”

“No, we need to keep looking, Kel,” Tarian replied with weariness bleeding into his tone...

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Flash Fiction

The Guardian of Bridges

Once upon a time, there were two neighborhood friends, a boy and girl, who loved to play and wander through the snow-covered woods behind their homes. In fact, the pair spent so much of their free time in these woods that they knew them better than they knew their own homes. Their parents only had one rule regarding this favored playground, they had to stay close to those homes. Unfortunately, this day both children were too eager to explore the full extent of their domain. While they were investigating, they eventually came across a stream flowing through their snow-topped forest playground. The girl looked at the boy and asked, “Where did this stream come from?”

“I have no idea,” the boy replied as he stared at the calm surface of the stream, absorbed by its simplistic beauty. After a few moments of silence, he looked towards his friend saying, “But we should cross it and see where it goes...

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Flash Fiction

Novus' Plummet

Marcus let his eyes drop to the vast array of sensors for the colonization ship. He had gone through these checks numerous times before, and they were always the same when the ship was coming to a new planet. When the great ship entered the system, the long-range sensors had registered five planets in this system. Of those five planets, one was too close to the sun to support life, while three were gas giants. But the second sphere from the sun was the only suitable planet for colonization, so the ship automatically set a course for the world. When they got close enough the ship’s sensors indicated that the surface wouldn’t need to be terraformed, which was a pleasant change from the last three planets.

Now that the ship was entering planetary orbit, the loneliness of the bridge was being erased with a vengeance. The ship’s automation was only designed to operate during the long stretches of space between planets...

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Flash Fiction

Departure

Rylan looked at everyone around him, they were preparing for the launch of the ship. They had been training vigorously for the last three weeks since no one had any idea what to expect, so those who had been volunteered for the mission were being readied for anything. Those in charge had even decided to alter the purpose of the mission, slightly. Their primary goal was still to discover what had happened on Laria but it was decided that to help prepare those on the mission that they should investigate two planets that were on the way to the Larian system.

So two worlds were chosen, Latria and Medicia. Thanks to the comprehensive Larian library they were able to plot to each planet. Also thanks to the library they knew where each platform was located just in case the lack of communication was more than just an inherent system failure. Which was a thought that Rylan was being forced to abandon with each passing day...

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Flash Fiction

Jonathin Quackup, Issue 2

After reading the first issue of Jonathin Quackup of the Planet Weralt, I was eager to pick up the next book in the series. But I wanted to wait and savor these books like an excellent steak. So I waited to read the second book and instead thumbed through the first book multiple times to extract all the beauty and depth of that book. Yet it was time to move onto the second book in the series. So I opened the book on my Surface Book and found a comfortable place to consume the story and artwork.

Just like the first book, the second one was intriguing, and it captured my attention. Letting my eyes soak up the cover my mind was ready for action and my mind was prepared for the promise of knightly action...

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Review

The Grave Countdown

Pausing backstage Ryan pulled the bagged letter out of his coat. Forensics had examined the thing already, but he never wanted to contaminate evidence. He quickly reread the mismatched letters, yearning for some new insight. Unfortunately, it revealed nothing new. Ryan thought about how it had been delivered to the station earlier that morning by a private courier. Yet it was just another dead end, that another detective already found.

Though even with the dead end it wasn’t the end of his investigation, not when there was a bomb threat. These investigations were always a high priority, and with this one, it felt like the entire precinct had been pulled into the frantic search. By the time he arrived, the initial search had already been done, finding nothing. But the note detailed everything from the address to the time of detonation. There was one other thing on the letter expressly forbidding the police to try and evacuate either the location and surrounding blocks, or the explosion would be earlier...

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Flash Fiction

Path of the Willow

Once upon a time, a young girl woke up on Christmas morning, and with a grin running across her face, she raced from her room. She flew down the stairs as quietly as she could to the living and adorned Christmas tree. She ignored the presents under the tree, choosing to lock her gaze upon the hanging stockings packed with wonderous goodies. She picked her stocking up and found a thread running from the edge of her stocking into a nearby closet. Opening the door, she followed the thread into the closet. Instinctively she knew she should have reached the wall across the door, yet it never came. Her mind was further befuddled when her foot stepped into a puddle. She knelt and confirmed the presence of water with her free hand. Turning around she couldn’t find the door, though she felt fabric brushing against her. Keeping the fiber in her grasp, she found a coat, pants, and boots that would fit her...

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Flash Fiction

Crucible of Gold

Crucible of Gold begins its tale with William Laurence and Temeraire having fully embraced their lives in Austrailia and are in the midst of constructing a pavilion when their lives are once more altered. This time Arthur Hammond, last seen in Throne of Jade arrives in Austrailia with an urgent message for the once loyal servant of His Majesty’s Royal Arial Corp. The crown is once again in need of Laurence’s dragon, Temeraire, so the diplomat arrived offering the once captain his rank back...

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Review

Jonathin Quackup, Issue 1

Ever since I came upon Raymond Mullikin’s Kickstarter for Jonathin Quackup: Issue #3, I have been eagerly awaiting the campaign’s conclusion and the arrival of the digital comics that my pledge promised. I received them earlier this week, and I immediately downloaded each and every issue available. Once I had the three books on my computer I opened the first issue and began looking through the book, for my first pass I was not reading the book, rather I was taking in all the images bound within the comic book.

As I took in the images I was confused by the initial panels, based upon the campaign, and ignoring the cover, I was not expecting to see the main character dressed as the wanderer he would eventually become...

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Review