No Such Thing as Unicorns “The unicorn exists in two worlds. The real world of man with its equine body and sheer, muscular physicality and, obviously, its horn there,” Professor Atwood pointed at the overhead display for emphasis. “And in the world of myth—“, I raised my hand. “Or to amend that statement before our esteemed, Dr. Jackson here corrects me; the unicorn occupies a place in the consciousness of man. Some say it represents an allegorical reference to Christ and his relationship with the Virgin Mary and others say it is purely a pagan creature subsumed by the Church [...]

I’d been on the outs with the family for over five years. They went their way. I went mine. You know the story, right? Prodigal son who gets wrapped up in the wrong stuff, and only comes trudging back to the family estate when there’s money to be had. It’s trite. It’s cliché. And they didn’t even let me know.  Let me back up. Contextualize it a bit. Here’s what went down. I caught the notice in an old email account of mine. One I had set up to receive junk mail and bad jokes from friends and family. Well, [...]

The challenge? Write a three sentence story with a beginning, middle, and end. I whipped this up in about ten minutes. Enjoy! — Cthulhu stirred in his slumber, stretched his many tentacles, and poked his head above the choppy waters to gaze up into the night skies. The stars were actually right, but he was still sleepy, so he summoned his Star-Spawn and sent them into the heavens to change the constellations. As distant planets were thrown out of their orbits and ancient, unknown civilizations with long, proud legacies succumbed to the cold, dark void of space, Cthulhu descended back [...]

After the Round Table went to hell, there wasn’t much to be done. I know I was supposed to be trapped in a cave—and it would’ve been a better lot—but bards and minstrels prefer to tell the more romantic tale of what happened rather than what didn’t. And what then of Arthur? Of Guinevere? Of Lancelot? All is lost, all is gone, even Merlin trapped by lust and magic Gone are the players, gone is Camelot. The times I spent as a boy went fast. The kingdom changed. There was little work to be had for an out of work [...]

Today, I took a reprieve from some of my regular tasks to do a bit of fiction writing, again spurred on by the Flash Fiction Challenge on Chuck Wendig’s Website. He seems to be doing these weekly now, and I’ll admit to being too head down to notice. This is an odd challenge in that the request was for Baby Pulp. Mine is on the outer periphery of the definition, drawing as it does from some mythological sources and putting a spin on a certain famous wizard. I hope you enjoy it. Remember, writing something in a different vein than [...]

I write prose for the games I design–connective tissue binding the system and the setting together. It has been passing rare for me to have an opportunity to write any sort of fiction for its own sake (or, at least, the sake of it being read outside of a game context), so when I saw the Mad Wendigo, Chuck Wendig, announce a flash fiction challenge, I thought I’d take a pass. The hook gleamed, so I had to look. The bait hung heavy, thick with ancient Scotch, and an idea bubbled to the surface. I set it aside. I had [...]

“Are you sure this is all of it?” asked Amanda, as she watched the portly man struggle with what he claimed was the last crate. “Rest assured, Ms. Locke,” he replied in his thick Colombian accent. “I checked myself. Andre tried to sneak a bottle out, but I took care of him.” He caressed the handle of his gun lovingly. “Good,” she said. She thumbed a few keys on her phone. “The money’s transferred.” She locked the door behind him and took out one of the bottles, broke the cracked seal and poured some into a glass, gave it a [...]