Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
Orange sparks drifted upward into the night sky. Below them, flames fed upon fragrant pine boughs, leaping high and higher. The popping hiss of logs and branches lent the dancing flames voice, like a smoker singing to the tune of the whistling wind. I had questions for the builder of this bonfire, for those fluttering … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – An Abandoned Bonfire
I have one particular writing nemesis, and that's the time change. Every year at around this time -- when it's getting dark at 7p and earlier -- my writing suffers. I write in the evening, after coming home from work, but now, the encroaching darkness tricks my brain into thinking it's bedtime. I can't possibly … Continue reading Writing Life: Time Change
Our Murderbot remains ever capable of combat intelligence, but not only does it continue to struggle with social norms, it also now must make decisions for itself, a thrilling but terrifying experience for the newly emancipated SecUnit.
Dug several levels into the earth, a double set of stairs twisted around and around each other in graceful spirals - spirals that put me in mind of the arms of a galaxy. Black wrought-iron railing echoed the emptiness of space. This and the marble flooring below suggested opulence and grandeur deep underground. Warm, inviting … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – An Inviting Stairwell
Sometimes you find a book that's just about you, about the things you love and the longing in your heart and the fears that consume you at night, and Ballad is of all that for me.
Perched upon a porous boulder at the toes of a fiery mountain, I regarded a distant but nearing lava flow. No flames breathed from the peak above, but smoke billowed moodily into the evening sky. The ground vibrated with constant rumbling and heat soaked my hair with sweat. This was no place for people, yet … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Hungering Mountain
Upon a stone fence along a country road, a cat rested in the warm sunshine. It was doing that thing cats do where they stare into space at something invisible, perhaps at a lingering spirit, perhaps at a mere dust mote. This cat's eyes moved back and forth, like the perpetual swinging of a clock's … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Cat Curiosity
At the top of the world, I approached a cloud that had come to rest on the tallest mountain peak. Though a rocky path indicated this as a thoroughfare, the cloud had remained for days and days, obscuring passage and worrying the locals, who asked me to climb up and negotiate. "The people need to … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Concerned Cloud
The Darkest Part of the Forest seems brief as a stand-alone novel, but it's packed full of events, action, and twists, traipsing all over the fictional town of Fairfold, through the woods, and down below the Faerie hill.
Beneath the tiny bristles of a street artist's paintbrush, an alien landscape spread across what had once been a blank wall. I caught glimpses of her progress in flashes, around the bodies of people moving up and down the sidewalks between us. Some of these, like me, stopped to watch, mouths open and faces tipped … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Living Art
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