A Short Story/Book of Poetry

And now?

     Albatrossed is finally out!

     This is something I originally wrote in 2017. The chant royal at the heart of the collection came first in April of that year, then I decided to expand it by writing sonnets that told what happened before and after the chant royal: it's much more a short story than it is a poetry collection, I have to admit.

     To get those sonnets written, I enrolled in that summer's "Write Like You're Alive" challenge, something the folks at Zoetic Press used to do. During the month of August, participants had to create something artistic every day, and I determined that I my daily output would be one of these sonnets. I distinctly remember working on several of the pieces while sitting in the Denver airport waiting for flights to and from Baltimore for that year's Bronycon, the My Little Pony convention they used to hold there. And on September 1st, I had 31 sonnets and a chant royal telling the story of Lorelei, a student mage, and how she ended up both destroying and saving the world.

     I did a few revisions over the next seven or eight years - I added another sonnet to Part Four at some point and smoothed out some of the rougher bits of rhyme and rhythm - and tried a couple times to get someone to print it. I got a few nibbles, but TS S. Fulk at Island of Wak-Wak finally committed to doing it earlier this year. And now it's out!

                                                                                Mike