Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
There was a star caught in a tree. Branches hung over a neighborhood sidewalk and the first breath of fall had convinced some of the topmost leaves to begin drying out. It was in this cluster of yellow foliage that a golden spark twinkled. I stood below on the cracked sidewalk, head craned back. "Did … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Soul Glow
Worry had just begun to gnaw at me when I felt the thin silver chain wrapped around my fingers twitch. In what I thought looked like an ancient river bed, I paused, swinging the pendulum hanging from my hand back and forth. Slowly, slowly. At the bottom end of the chain hung a smooth orb … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Migrating Forest
Fifteen minutes of hope. That was all it took to drive me into standing in line for a week, winding step by step through the bottom of a valley alongside hundreds of other travelers from the world over, all sharing that same hope with me. No one maintained the line, yet in it we stood, … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Fifteen Minutes
I was digging. Cold, dry flakes of snow bit at my bare fingertips, leaching the warmth from them. Knee deep in it, I didn't dare move any farther forward. She had gone down right here, the snow too light to bear her weight, closing over her head with just a small impression to show where … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Deceptive Drift
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
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
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
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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