Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
All at once, my senses came crashing in. Leaving behind the bubble where my mind had floated, separate from sensation. I took a breath, surprised at this return to wakefulness. I was seated on the floor, leaning against the wall in the low-ceilinged outbuilding where I had gone to ground. Long enough for my legs … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Short Break
One by one, a crowd drew close in the dreary, oncoming night around the lights from a single carousel, burning gold. No one, children or adults, rode the platform, but many stood about, watching as a world of sleepers spun around and around. Horses, tigers, dragons, and giant birds. Jeweled fur and feathers and scales … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Sleepers One by One
By way of a leaf-strewn country path, I accompanied Fall home. At least, we had begun as companions traveling the same way. But now he sagged against me and I hauled him along as best I could. Golden days had turned sharp and brittle, crunchy leaves growing damp and moldy underfoot. Low gray clouds raced … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Turning of Seasons
As I trekked down a back alley, the memory of rained dripped from the sky in the wake of a thunderstorm, plopping into big puddles filling up numerous potholes. I splashed through these, heedless of the water soaking my socks, as I had no way to avoid the many of them. Yet I pulled up … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Tread Not Here
I had the rain to thank for my recent growth. Days and days of cool moisture, seeping through the roof and the walls. Water stains spreading outward the way I spread my fuzzy gray-green tendrils along the ceiling corner I called home. Not ready to send my spores spiraling throughout the house. My children to … Continue reading Natural Growth – A Halloween Special
Old boards creaked beneath my boots as I meandered across a rotting footbridge. In the entrenchment it crossed lay the mere memory of running water in the layer of mud at the bottom. Leaf loam littered the ground beneath wide-spaced trees. I had my gaze upward, regarding the rustling branches above, when a hand grasped … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – The Toll
I'm getting better at making pancakes. Rather, I'm getting better at making pancakes the way I like them, which is, of course, the point. Buttery golden brown, soft in the middle, with a rim of good, light crunch around the edge. Weekend mornings of my childhood featured light smoke drifting from the kitchen into the … Continue reading Pancake-Making as a Metaphor for Writing
Moon must learn to go from lost and alone to part of a community of his own people that he does not understand at all. At the same time, enemies of the Raksura come bearing down on his newfound colony in his wake.
Question marks surrounded me. Big, pale, spray painted on every trunk as far as I could see. Glowing in the gloom beneath the spreading branches of enormous pines. All facing me, like the disapproving gaze of a fussy uncle. Just a moment ago, the forest had appeared as any other cluster of trees. Embarrassment overtook … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Punctuated Demand
In a disintegrating room stood a girl in a white dress. She had her back to me, hem trailing among broken bricks. She was about to begin. "What's that sound?" She turned toward the wrecked wall, then she stumbled backward and fell over. Her form drifted apart like fingers raked through mist. After a moment, … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – The Role of the Witness
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