Escape Routes (Novel Excerpt)

This is the fourth excerpt from my upcoming novel tentatively titled “Elder Rites” which was begun on November 1st, 2020 for National Novel Writing Month and is intended to be the first volume of an as yet unnamed dark fantasy series set in a world of myth and magic which now finds itself on the

Camp NaNoWriMo Achievement Unlocked: Night Owl Status Restored!

I take it back, NaNoWriMo.org! I’m not sure if you fixed the problem or if it fixed itself, but this time all it took was two more updates between 10PM and midnight over the past two days to get rid of that hideous mid-day flamingo and replace it with the more sensible, refined character of

I Am Not a Mid-day Flamingo!

I have a bone to pick with thee, NaNoWriMo.org. I am a night owl, not a mid-day flamingo! That isn’t even a real thing, you just made it up so that anyone who wasn’t either an early bird or a night owl wouldn’t feel left out. But that’s not what I’m here to complain about.

My Camp NaNoWriMo Project

I’ve struggled for nearly a month over what I would make my Camp NaNoWriMo project this year, assuming I’d even participate, because part of me wanted to work on the novel I’d already started and still am nowhere near finishing, and part of me wanted to leave that on the back burner and just begin

Witch’s Hill: An Original Fairy Tale

Red blood out and black blood inMy nanny says I’m a child of sin—How did I choose me my witchcraft kin?Know I as soon as dark’s dreams beginSnared is my heart in a nightmare’s gin… ~Walter de la Mare, “The Little Creature” As the young woman entered the lone cottage on the edge of the

Wishing Well: An Original Fairy Tale

Today is National Tell a Fairy Tale Day, and I’ll be celebrating it by tweeting about some of my favourite fairy tales, but I also can’t resist this opportunity to share one of my own original fairy tales with you, Beloved Reader, so here’s one I wrote several years ago with the intention of self-publishing

A Few of My Favourite Things, Part I

One of the things I love about blogging is that I get to tell perfect strangers all about the things I love. Imagine trying to do that during a long flight, or sitting in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. The difference is that I don’t have a captive audience. This blog is more

The Breaking of the Fellowship

This post contains spoilers for both the book and film versions of The Lord of the Rings. I’ve been continuing my re-read of J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, which as I mentioned early on I used to do every year, but if I’m honest haven’t really done since before the release

Medieval Monday: Labors of January — Allison D. Reid

Winter had tightened its grip, and the most important labor of January was staying warm! With only hearth fires for heat, the cold was a very real danger for everyone, but especially the young, the elderly, and the poor. There were still several feasting days to be celebrated, which continued to be a blessing for […]

A Brace of Tolkien Posts for his 130th Birthday (#TolkienBirthdayToast) — A Pilgrim in Narnia

As J.R.R. Tolkien was born about 68,374,080 hours ago, the Tolkien Society is once again raising a toast to the Professor on his birthday, 3 January 2022 (see here). After Bilbo left the Shire on his eleventy-first birthday in The Lord of the Rings, Frodo toasted his uncle’s birthday each year, which he shared. Tolkien […]