Bringing you stories, book and game reviews, writing tips, and updates from author S.G. Baker.
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
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
A face loomed in the darkness outside our stopped subway train. Outlined in glowing white lines. Xs for eyes. A hand-drawn, rictus grin. A mask. It bobbed along up and down the cars, pressing against the windows, fingertips tapping the glass. Giggling echoed down the tunnel, accompanying a high-pitched voice asking, "Who smiled? Whooo smiiiiled?" … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Smiling at Strangers
Sweet, floral perfume hung on the stale air of a forgotten warehouse. Wafting among corroded pipes, which wove their way along a high ceiling and around long, dusty windows. Drifting through the trash and dead leaves scattered across a concrete floor. Reflecting off once-white walls and old, broken furniture. I was following a trail of … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – Making Change
Brushed with soft pink hues in the fading evening light, full white dandelion heads stretched away from either side of a dirt path. Evidence of a wishing festival lay scattered all around me - broken, bald stalks discarded in the dirt. On still air rode the scent of sap and cut grass, warning other plants … Continue reading The Hopeful Wanderer – A Seed of Doubt
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