A gift!

Today is the anniversary of the eruption of Vesuvius, 1928 years ago. It's also the date of an alarming number of massacres and bloody battles and other events which resulted in the painful deaths of many, many people.

Coincidentally (?), it's also René's birthday. Happy birthday to you, sir.

In keeping with what has been an awesome week -- new Rock Band songs, good times hanging out with my sister, fun Hunter game, tonight's Wii-related festivities, and the news that Steve is going to be the father of two children (twins, I mean -- it's not a Maury Povich situation) -- I will provide for all (four) of my dedicated readers a gift: the first complete short story I've written in, swear to the Prophets, three years.

This isn't the Revolver short story I was talking about -- that's probably not going to end up getting finished, for reasons I don't feel like explaining at the moment. This is, instead, a complete diversion from style for me -- it's a medieval fantasy story, which I almost never, ever write (and, in fact, barely ever read). Don't ask me why, the story just came to me that way. The tone is also different from the way I usually write, but it seemed to fit the tale I was telling.

The basic idea has been kicking around in my head for almost two years, but it never went anywhere until last week, when I was reminded of something René told me once -- it clicked, and the story as you read came to me in an instant, a fully complete thing. So I suppose I should offer thanks and, perhaps, dedicate said story to you, René -- fittingly, it's about a megalomaniacal dictator.

Enough blathering from me -- if you'd like to read "The Storyteller, the Dragon, and the Great Decree," you may do so by following this hyperlink:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dgbq6j8_11mxfzz

Yay for Google Documents!

(If you like to leave comments on the story, you can do so on this posts. Or you can just e-mail me.)