Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
In the very last car of a subway train, I heard a squeak, as of skin sliding against glass. I glanced around the empty car from my seat somewhere in the middle, where I waited for takeoff. The noise came again, from the back door. Getting up to investigate, I wondered if someone was trying … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Opening the Box
In Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, orphaned, broadsword-wielding Gideon Nav makes a bid for freedom from a life of servitude on the claustrophobic planet of the Ninth House, but the Reverend Daughter Harrowhark Nonagesimus, necromancer and bone manipulation prodigy, thwarts Gideon's attempt at escape, demanding the swordswoman's help in exchange for her freedom. The … Continue reading Book Review: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Thick dust whirled upward in a swirling column, thinning out and widening in breadth the higher the wind whipped into the sky. A dust devil. Close enough to my position in the middle of sandy scrub land that the dusty air rendered the sun above hazy. Close enough for the wind whistling through desert plants … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Dusty Day
I started blogging primarily to remind the world that I was alive.
"When you said you needed help in your shop, I thought it would be a little more... finished." Afternoon light squirmed in through the front door of a very run down rental space, cascading through floating dust motes kicked up by my vigorous pushing of a broom. The floating dust would render my efforts useless … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Secondhand Furniture
A person was laying in the grass, and she had been for quite some time. Flat on her back. A bouquet of big white and yellow daisies clutched in her hands lay across her chest. When she continued not to move from her grassy bed, I walked over to investigate. Blue eyes widened when I … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Jealous Grass
Warm, salty air blew in my face as I made my way to my favorite market, a place I had not visited in awhile. A setting sun pinking the soft clouds overhead let me know I needed to hurry before they closed down for the night. I turned a corner for the stairs leading down … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – An Ocean Come to Stay
Seven boats lay keeled over on their sides in the shallows of a cloudy bay. Water swallowed the gray sky above until they became mirrored reflections, indistinguishable, and lapped against the exposed ribs of the boats like a kitten at a captured fish. Wood and metal creaked as the tide began to shift back out … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Seven Vessel Mission
"This world is dying." A woman stood in the middle of the crumbling living room in an abandoned house. She looked like a specter, with the dim afternoon sunlight struggling in through the dusty windows at her back, with her flowy dark clothes and her flowy dark hair, with the small deer skulls perched on … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Desperate Apology
In a remote field of faded stubble, buried deep in the woods, I had almost crossed to the other side when two young women stepped out in front of me. I pulled up short, but they just stood there next to each other. Both wore a lacy white sun dress and no shoes. They seemed … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Field Guardians
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