My Blog Week: February 21 to February 27

Posted by ractrose on 28 Feb 2021 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                             A Word on the Week   Work Ethic         Suppose you had a business, one in the hospitality industry, and that your business was under stress. No surprise in COVID times; travel restrictions […]

Hammersmith: Two Reunions (chapter seven)

Posted by ractrose on 26 Feb 2021 in Fiction, Novels

Hammersmith Chapter Seven Two Reunions           Ruby Magley went walking down the dewy hillside towards the same creek that had attracted Hogben. She too hoped to sit in quiet thought; listening, in her case, to birdsong. She felt not quite so bereaved today…just lonely. All the same, it was not Minnie’s […]

Mathilde Alanic: Shine! (part thirty-two)

Mathilde Alanic Shine! (part thirty-two)                         “We’ll cross the moor. We should be there in five minutes.” As they climbed, the placid terrain came broader into view, the beaches and their dunes, the meadows in their browns and greens muted by falling dusk, and […]

Bride to Be (part twelve)

Posted by ractrose on 24 Feb 2021 in Art, Poems

      Bride to Be (part twelve)     Yet with my crafty uncle the field was never taken For thus had his stronghold been devised Ringed fences narrowing passage like a maze A lone stone knob on which, from times bards tell of in their lays Sons of the House of Barangalen Behind […]

Marjorie Bowen: The Sword Decides! (part eleven)

Posted by ractrose on 23 Feb 2021 in Fiction, Novels

Marjorie Bowen The Sword Decides! (part eleven)                     The vice-chancellor paused, for the dying man had murmured. They heard him, in the silence: “Before the eyes of Heaven, I right myself… I do well.” When, for straining his ears, Andreas slackened his grip, Giovanna jerked free […]

The Totem-Maker: Lore and Lessons (part two)

Posted by ractrose on 22 Feb 2021 in Fiction, Novels

The Totem-Maker Chapter Nine Lore and Lessons (part two)             I return to the story of Bani. Those two of our party who were the Citadel’s, the traders’ people, came to me for nightly studies by firelight. They told me the zhatabe knew my book’s symbols, the strange lines of […]

My Blog Week: February 14 to February 20

Posted by ractrose on 21 Feb 2021 in The Latest

All the Latest from Torsade!                             A Word on the Week   In Meh-quiem         My father went through a Rush Limbaugh period. I know this much. We had a bad family vacation in 1989, and my father wanted […]

Celebrated (conclusion)

Novella Celebrated (conclusion)                           Having money for things was new. Petra had lived on grants, otherwise been hired for jobs term-to-term. Since buying this land eighteen years ago, she had lived by hodgepodge, not free to roam. But by selling a few things, […]

Hammersmith: Mossbunker’s Castle (chapter six)

Posted by ractrose on 19 Feb 2021 in Fiction, Novels

Hammersmith Chapter Six Mossbunker’s Castle           Vic B. Mack was in Mossbunker’s castle keep. In their mutual professional capacities, Mossbunker had spoken to him once…stipulating he did not allow the press inside his walls. They’d walked the yellowing greensward, as Vic felt inclined to name it, passed by the holly hedges (these, […]

Mathilde Alanic: Shine! (part thirty-one)

Mathilde Alanic Shine! (part thirty-one)                                 iii.       “Jean-Pierre Le Goël.” The copper plaque, shining on the openwork of a gatepost, informed the stroller thus, and he stopped. A ground-floor window between green shutters stood open to let […]