Mike Carss

@Seraph28 and @CincyKris, I'd say both your viewpoints are valid in this case. As a reader, you've been dropped in the middle of their life. There's no way to know all the small details that have led them to this point. There's no question Sam and his parents are close, but given Sam's age (22), their overly protective nature is a little too overbearing. Sam commented on this already, stating he's an adult and should be able to make his own decisions. But it's hard for his parents to accept this because he still lives at home. They still see him as their child, not an adult. By the end of this novella, you'll have a better understanding why Sam never left home and made a life for himself.

The small hours of that night felt never-ending. Sleep continued to elude Sam. Instead, he hovered in restless states of consciousness. His mind repeatedly played the events of the day to consider all the feasible alternatives he could’ve taken. In hindsight, his lack of courage perhaps wasn’t so appalling. After all, four men had stood before him, but the situation still angered him. While their combat skills weren’t terrible, they weren’t experts, either. It was more likely they used thei

Pa was furiously splitting logs in the yard as Sam and Graeme rode along the farm’s lane. Upon noticing their arrival, he called out to Mum inside the house, and she emerged moments later. An unexpected atmosphere of precariousness grew as Sam and Graeme dismounted. Pa hefted the axe onto his shoulder and strode toward them. Sweat beaded his brow, and his chest heaved from exertion. His posture stirred Sam’s memory of the bandit leader’s smug attitude, followed by the visceral image of his head

Generally, we're our own worst critic, and Sam suffers from this strongly. He really feels that he lost his chance to "prove his worth" to not only Graeme, but to himself. Maybe he will get another chance, but will his eyes be open enough to see it. Self-doubt is such a terrible thing.

Indeed. They've never had problems with bandits before this current situation arose, so they felt safe. Being hidden by obscurity isn't really working out for them.

Once Rebekah had settled from her ordeal, Sam carried her to the relative warmth of the glowing coals. Nearby, he found a pair of trousers and an overcoat. He hated the idea of dressing her in those grubby clothes—her kidnappers’ attire—but upon presenting them to the child, she gratefully donned them. While she warmed herself, Sam assessed the living space—if it could even be considered that. The bandits had lived poorly. What belongings he found were shoddy and in need of repair. Digging

Hello, I'm asking this on behalf of a friend who's too shy to ask himself. 😅 He'd like to receive the genre news emails, but can't find where to subscribe to them. I assumed it was under Notification Settings and checking the Newsletter option, but he didn't receive the email sent yesterday. His account here was originally connected to Yahoo, and I was pretty sure that GA and Yahoo didn't work (because Yahoo is terrible 😉). He also has an email address at mailbox.org, and I had him switch his account to that a few days before the current Genre News email was sent. But as mentioned, he didn't receive the email. Any suggestions?

I'm happy to hear that. Yes, the title can refer to a number of things in the story. There's no right or wrong interpretation. But in retrospect, I felt I gave away a bit too much in the synopsis. To give you an idea where we're at in the story, there are ten chapters in total. Chapter five will be next Monday.

The Lÿmian ruins were countless centuries old, or so Sam had been told. They were the remnants of a past civilisation that dotted the Kingdom of Alides, his homeland, and possibly the Wardergilian Empire to the east as well. As a child, they were simply interesting places to explore. He never considered the history and stories these places could tell. He also never envisioned them as a refuge for criminals. Taking the lead, Sam galloped along the northern road out of Reabury. Graeme qu

You could say he's experienced from years of travelling the road. Overly confident? Perhaps. But we don't know his history, either.

You're absolutely right.

Sam is terrible at hiding his awe toward the knight. Graeme may keep his face hidden from view, but he's not blind.

I think it's safe to say Sam and Graeme won't be welcomed with tea and cookies. 😉

Sam slept terribly. Not for the usual reason—reading too late into the night—but because Graeme slept in the next room. He tossed and turned, overcome by endless visions of the knight. And if he let his mind wander, those visions became inappropriately intimate. A curt sigh escaped his lips. He had to stop dwelling on implausible fantasies. It was still dark outside when he gave up on his attempt to sleep. He crept into the chilly kitchen and stoked the cook fire to get some oats cooking fo

The meat of the story begins in earnest next week with the two upcoming chapters. Sam will certainly be given a chance to show his qualities.

Gotta love how governments are creating these laws with seemingly no clue how identity theft works, and without a secure infrastructure to enable sites to enforce them. @Myr, does GA have to comply to this nonsense or are we hoping to fly under the radar?

But will Graeme allow himself to be seen? He's been shunned in the past and found it best to keep his face hidden. Will Sam be able to convince him otherwise?

Silence lingered after the knight’s greeting. It lasted only a breath, but to Sam, it felt painfully everlasting. Astonishment had taken hold, and he found himself unable to form a sentence. His eyes darted about, wanting to take in the details of the armoured man before him, but not wanting to openly stare, either. “Hello, Ser Graeme,” Pa said. “What brings you to our humble home?” “Your village inn has no remaining vacancy due to a trader convoy passing through. The innkeeper, howeve

“I’m not hearing the clang of that hammer!” Sam winced at the blacksmith’s gruff voice blaring from the opposite end of the workshop. The hammer was in Sam’s hand, forgotten. Instead, his attention was focused down the lane leading to the village’s main thoroughfare. Horse-drawn covered waggons passed by at a leisurely gait. “Sorry, Mr Kent. The trader convoy arrived. I’ve been waiting for them.” It was a welcome distraction. With no customer orders to complete, the day had dragge

Sam, a young man fascinated by knighthood, is astounded when a knight-errant rides into his rural village of Reabury. Cloaked in mystery, the knight reveals little, but before Sam can discover his secrets, tragedy strikes. A child from the village is kidnapped by ruthless bandits and held for ransom. Upon hearing the news, the knight prepares to confront them, but he cannot do it alone. Only Sam knows the way, and thus begins a journey that will test his courage and define the true meaning of heroism. The outcome, however, leads to a tragic consequence that will change his life forever.

While everyone is suggesting a laptop, there's more to consider than portability. Despite laptops being a common commodity nowadays, you're still paying a premium for that smaller form factor. If you already have a dedicated space for your PC and don't plan on using it for travel (you have an ipad, after all), don't waste your money on a laptop. Yes, as others suggested, you can connect screens, external mice, and keyboards to a laptop, giving you the "desktop experience", but at that point, your laptop is an overpriced tower PC. Finally, keep in mind that despite laptop and desktop CPUs share similar names, desktop CPUs will generally run faster due to better cooling. This is especially true when it comes to GPUs, but I digress. I question if your current PC is actually dead, though. If smacking it worked, that sounds more like a loose cable than a hardware fault. But if I was to guess, the system sounds pretty old, and unlikely be to eligible for updating to Windows 11. Given Win 10 security updates are ending this October (although there are ways to extend it a year), now might be a good time to get yourself a fresh machine. If you're looking for more advice, PM me. I've been building PCs for myself, friends, and family since the late 90s, and would be happy to share my knowledge. P.S. Don't use Norton. 😬 I hope you were joking about that. Nowadays, modern PCs don't need 3rd-party anti-virus software, and even if you felt safer using it, there's much better options out there. Again, hit me up for advice if you're looking for it. Good luck!

Absolutely. I'll PM you the finished draft later this summer. Thanks! 💗

Do you mean editing the original story as-is? Noooo, it's beyond hope. 😆 There's a number of changes I want to make anyway. Thanks for the offer, though.

I'm in the polishing stage for my current project (a novella which I'll be posting here very soon), but then will start work for the Creature Feature anthology. I'll be rewriting a short story from college back in the 90s. I don't have the Wordperfect file, but I do have a printout to use as a guide. The story is interesting, but my writing is terrrrrible. 😅 I'll also be modernizing some of the story elements. For example, cellphones weren't nearly as common then as they are now.