Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
They arrived as the full moon crested the horizon like an enormous gold coin. Silhouetted people in ones and twos materializing beneath the spreading limbs of the Memory Tree. Their outlines wavered and shimmered beneath the hazy moonbeams, solidifying as the night grew darker. I wasn't the only person sitting beneath the boughs, so I … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – The Memory Tree
Beneath a brightly lit city, a yawning tunnel ran away into darkness. As if to avoid attracting attention to the area, no light spilled across the wide concrete steps leading downward. Yet at regular intervals, the footsteps of one or two people passing below rang out, telling those walking along the railing above that a … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Insecurity
When the waters rose and swept between the pillars of an innocuous shrine, it was said a voice could be heard by those standing beneath its graceful wooden arch. Intrigued by this rumor, I arrived there just as the rainy season petered off and stood where calm water met grass, toes bare, gazing outward at … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Whispering Waters
A ruined city glimpsed between thick clouds, spires and skyscrapers towering above the earth, breaking through the eternal fog enveloping its forgotten world. Sunlight poking through the windows illuminated dangling innards -- wires and ventilation ducts. Cold and empty and beckoning explorers and wanderers alike. I stood somewhere within the fog layer but still outside … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Lost to Hidden
While ducking under the bone-bare branches of a snowy wood, I came face to face with a pale barn owl. It perched on an aspen branch at the exact height to be eye level with me when I stepped around the tree's trunk. I found myself close enough to count the small feathers on its … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Dreams of Home
Every wrecked window of the fallen airplane contained a different story. The story that interested me existed at the front of the plane. Or it would have, if the crash hadn't shorn the cockpit windows clean off when it plowed the plane's nose into the ground. I stood on the spine of a once-white, narrow-body … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Wreckage Recollected
From a nearby pond, I heard a very small argument. More of a berating, actually. A tiny voice pierced the peace of the meadow where I lay napping. "You must fly!" it shrilled. "How else can we be together?" With a groan, I sat upright, immediately spotting the speaker. A handsome blue and black butterfly … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Macabre Collaboration
A thump sounded beside me as an object landed in the springy moss along the dirt path where I walked. Following its trajectory, I figured it had come from a house crowding this side of the walkway; a lacy curtain stirred in a high open window, but no light filtered from within. There was no … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – The Hardest of Hearts
Clusters of bells hung in every archway of an old stone city. At the center of each was the original bell and along both sides of its dark, weathered chain, smaller bells clung like uneven bunches of brass fruit. I stood below one such cluster, listening to their small clappers shivering in the breeze. Bright … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Howler Alarms
One of the rare times that I tripped, I happened to do so over the heads of a pair of gods, which I had mistaken for a pile of stones. Though they were sunk to their shoulders into the ground, they smiled contentedly at me. One had moss growing on its round cheeks and the … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Resting Gods
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