Free Flash Fiction: Why We Burn Witches
Free Flash Fiction: Why We Burn Witches
The overhead lights went out. A soft, warm light filled the classroom. Billy looked up from his book. A man putting down a match from lighting a huge three-foot candle stood next to the teacher’s desk. He turned. “Welcome to witchcraft 101,” his deep voice filling the room far better than the English teacher’s had. “I am a witch. Your witchcraft lesson is 13 hours long. That’s how long this…
More Posts from James-steinhaus and Others
Merry Christmas
Here is an old story from when I was just learning how to tell stories, (but thought I knew what I was doing, and didn’t understand why I could not sell it). I dug it out, fixed the bad grammar mistakes but otherwise left it as is. It is free and has under 1000 words all as a single episode on Kindle Vella. I hope you enjoy it. https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0CPSPTY62
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I Took a Walk: 4 Episodes Up
The fourth episode of my newest story I Took a Walk on Kindle Vella is now live. Join Jimmy as he finds out sometimes easy money isn’t so easy.
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The Ai are about to get better at manipulation and control.
This isn't a criticism of Trump and Musk. It was coming this term no matter who got that office.
Kara is Infinite
Kara, known as the fourth universe, has magic, its surface is infinite. The areas that humans colonized, has a greater population than all the human colonized planets in the other three universes combined. A combination of technology and magic has let mankind spread out fast there and have a higher standard of living than is possible with technology alone. Five hundred million plus continents…
Happy New Year
Happy New Year everyone. With the New Year I have added a new project, Donald Of Mars to my on-going story Viking of Asgard I started last year. I have in the past done quite a few blogs on many of the challenges of colonizing mars on the site Eptle.WordPress.com. In this new project, I am having my protagonist Donald overcome and deal with many of these things as a way of making them clear to…
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Ten Chapters of Vikings of Asgard are now available
Ten Chapters of Vikings of Asgard are now available
https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B09Q1LN2B6 Vikings of Asgard just released its tenth chapter on Kindle Vella. Keep up with Don and Bob continuing adventures as both find out things, gain, power, wealth and problems they never dreamed of. Also available on Patreon for those on Patreon.
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Kindle Vella is Going Away!
If you read serials or subscriptions, then you have most likely heard about Amazon closing Kindle Vella. Vella is where most of the people have read my work. It has been a fun ride, and I got a lot of good experiences out of it, but that ride is coming to an end. Almost everything I have on Vella is available on Reamstories. Currently, I am continuing to add to the content there and will…
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Donald of Mars Chapter 26 is Live on Kindle Vella
When a few of robotic ships carrying non-critical cargo fail, a scramble begins that affects every person on Mars. Read about it and all the previous episodes on Kindle Vella. https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BRG5CG3Q
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Kerric the Mercenary: Episode 7, Run to DeSon
Kerric and his Warcat took the lead. At the edge of DarkGate, he turned Akrus off the road and headed due west. The moment they made it to those dark woods, he said, “Run,” and all Akrus’s anger vanished. He was off as if shot from an arrow.
At home, north of the Black Sand, running was dangerous. There, except for hunting sprints, if he ran, it was in fear, and he was running for his life. It wasn’t until Kerric brought him south of the Black Sand that his war cat had a chance to run full out without fear. Now, only mating and hunting brought his Warcat more pleasure. It was a pleasure Akrus rarely got to indulge in and the perfect reward for being dragged out of his rest.
Like the larger breed of Warcats in the north, the ones his men rode were built for running for days despite that not being a good idea in the north. Except the Tolar, nothing in the south could escape them over the long run, and very few on the short. Only experts here would pick up that this wasn’t the breed you found in the far south in the forest bordering the frozen waste. Those were a patchwork brown, instead of dark brown with black stripes on their hind quarter, and only three-quarters the size of the Warcats Kerric’s men rode. Nor were they as fast or have the endurance of this northern breed.
Yet those southern beasts stilled killed more of their own riders than the northern ones did, making seeing a rider a very rare occurrence in the far south, and nearly legendary this far away from that icy waste. That was, until Kerric, and his band arrived.
Kerric shifted his weight. With a snort, Akrus stopped trying to outrun the others, but kept his pace high enough to make them work at keeping up. They might have longer legs, but Akrus had more muscle. That meant more speed in a run among Warcats.
They hit the edge of the gorge and Akrus leaped from the side to the branches of those massive trees. The others followed. Riding the treetops might be common in the jungles north of the Black Sand but was unheard of here. That shortcut across the gorge instead of around it, as all others had to travel, was why his men would get there before the sun came up, despite having to saddle them before riding out.
Akrus leaped to the next tree, and then the next. Even in the dark, Warcats never jumped to a branch that can’t whole their weight, though sometimes, they bend more than their riders anticipate. That bending and springing back is what the Warcats used to move forward with such speed. It took all the rider’s concentration to stay in those saddles and not one of them could have done so the way Kerric did, without the thigh straps. That springing motion was why in the trees, Warcats move only a little slower than their ground eating normal pace.
Kerric spared enough attention from his own ride to see all of his men having a harder time of it than they should. It was one more sign that they had lost too much of their edge. The gorge was deep and wide, but not so much so that those Warcats could not cross it in half the night.
With well over a candle mark before even the false dawn, his men were on the road to the main keep of DeSon, something that would have been a four-day trip by the road using caravan wagons.
Tantos came out of the woods as they moved closer to the keep. “I found Corman camped on a woodcutter’s track nearing the Aring-DarkGate Road. He’s taking his time and will hit that road early morning tomorrow. If he pushes it, he could make Aring by late night, but more likely is planning another night on the road.”
Kerric nodded and looked over the lands of his prospective employer.
Episode 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
