It's just become April 23rd, which means...

[steepholm]

... it’s pixel-stained technopeasant time! To this marriage of words and impecuniousness I have brought something old and something new.

First, the new: my submission for Scholastic’s forthcoming NSPCC charity book, made up of 366 stories each of exactly 366 words. I’m not sure why Scholastic didn’t take it (maybe they thought existential angst wouldn’t appeal to seven-year-olds?), but their loss is Livejournal's gain:

Dragon

The old is represented by the opening pages of my second published novel, Timon’s Tide - now celebrating its tenth birthday quietly with a few friends. Appropriately, it’s a spring piece, of the April-is-the-cruellest-month variety:

Timon’s Tide

I hope you like them.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

It didn't involve much angst, but there was a not dissimilar incident when I was at primary school, and played a game in which I was a horse and my friend was my rider/owner. She tied me to a drainpipe while she went off to do whatever horse-riders do when not riding, and then the bell rang so she went back to the classroom. It was only when the teacher asked where I was that she realised, and had to ask for permission to rush back to the playground to release me.

The point was that, as a human, I could have untied myself perfectly easily. But as a horse, I could do nothing but wait patiently, occasionally stamping my hoof or pawing the ground.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Great story. (I mean yours, Kalypso, as I've read steepholm's great stories already!)

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the Dragon story: our gain, indeed!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Why, thank you!

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

That is eerily similar. And a good choice of icon, for both stories.

[jadelennox]

It's August 15, which means i'm going through a backlog of open browser tabs from April 23, \o/!

First of all, more fool scholastic. What seven-year-old wouldn't want existential angst? About dragons, no less.

As for Timon's Tide... *totters off to amend bookstore wishlist* That's creepy, yo.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the vote of confidence! I'm fond of Timon's Tide, in a gloomy, creepy, brooding sort of way.