A 10th Anniversary Magical Squirrel Story



So:

     Volume 32 of Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthology is out for public consumption, and once again, I've got a story about Cluny the Sorceress Squirrel in it.

     This is the tenth consecutive volume to sport a magical squirrel story from me and the 12th story in the overall series. I continue pretending that I'll actually glue the first eight stories together with a bunch of interstitial material to produce a book that chronicles Cluny, Crocker and Shtasith's frosh year at Huxley College, and I invite you to play along with my delusion.

     Seriously, though, I've gotten to Spring Break of Cluny's frosh year in the collected edition and am currently laying out a big party scene during which several things will occur with characters who mostly haven't appeared in the published short stories. So someday...

               Mike

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Folks Letting Me Blather

Image
I've known Greta Boris :      For more then five years now but not as many as ten years, I think, ever since she joined the OC Fictionaires, the writing group that I've been a member of for something like twenty years. She writes mostly mystery novels, some of which are pretty funny, some of which are pretty suspenseful, and some of which are pretty much both at the same time. She and another author, Megan Haskell , also run a website called The Author Wheel where they do podcasts and offer writing courses and share their experiences with the wide world of publishing. As they put, "We've made the mistakes so you don't have to!"      As part of their podcast series, they wanted to talk about the value of critique groups, so Greta asked me if I'd be willing to make various noises on that topic. I agreed, and the episode they put together from our conversation, " Staying True to Your Creativity With Mike Payne ," is now available...
Read more

A Scent's Assent

Image
He saunters, not a hint of awkwardness About his movements, flowing sweet as fire. Dolores, trying not to stare, selects A protein bar, a heated argument Among her schoolmates raising ruffled fur And growls. The guy's a feline, after all. The student body's ninety-eight percent canine. The whole school's aware. He hears them, Casey does, their yips and all Alive with bitter scents of awkwardness. Remaining smooth, he doesn't look, the fur Beneath his shirt on edge, a tickling fire He knows. It follows matching arguments From other schools his science course selects. Universities should be more universal. "Should" is the key word. In class, Dolores carefully selects A seat in back of Casey, watching all The rest digress, off-topic arguments Concerning species, full of awkwardness. The room of canines almost seems on fire With ears and whiskers folded close to fur. Students of science should be— There's that "should" again. Stupid subjunc...
Read more