Archive | March 18, 2012

Alder By Post! Issue Three Available!

Mar18

I have finished printing Alder by Post Issue Three! I will be mailing these out starting tomorrow afternoon.

I still have some available from both Issue One and Issue Two, and am willing to offer a discount if you buy all three. 🙂

Issue One’s story is an Aunt Family Story take-off from the Gifts Giraffe Call Prompt on Glitter
Issue Two’s story is from Dragons Next Door, a bit of background on pixies & Tiny Folk.
Issue Three story is a setting-less piece called The Bramble Wife.

All Three are printed in limited-edition runs of 16 each.

If you donated $7.50 or more to the February Giraffe Call, or $50 or more in the last year, you may have one for the asking.
Otherwise, to cover printing & postage, each issue is $2 in-US, $2.50 outside (Or $3.50/$4.50 for two issues, $5.00/$6.00 for three).

Alder by Post
1 Issue, US $2.00 USD
I Issue, non-US $2.50 USD
1 year, US $20.00 USD
1 year, non-US $25.00 USD
2 Issues, US $3.50 USD
2 Issues, Non-US $4.50 USD
3 Issues, US $5.00 USD
3 issues, Non-US $6.00 USD

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/302334.html. You can comment here or there.

Human Town

Mar18

For [personal profile] anke‘s commissioned continuation of Parent-Teacher Conference (LJ) and Humanity (LJ). Have no fears, there is one more section in the queue to write!

Dragons next Door has a landing page here.

“So, little sister…” Jimmy’s crests did a fun ripple thing, like doing the wave, and his jaw dropped for a second in the way dragons mimicked human smiles, “My favorite little sister.”

“Jin says that!” she told him gleefully. “I’m your only little sister, too!”

“You’re right,” he laughed. “Well, while we’re up here, best-only-little-sister, what do you want to see?”

“EVERYTHING,” Juniper giggled. “How far can you take me?”

“I have a little while,” he answered, and swooooped down almost to the road level before climbing back upwards, wings flapping mightily. “Let’s look at Smokey Knoll. It’s always fun to look at your home from the sky.”

“Eeeee!” she squealed happily, and held on Very Tightly, like she’d promised, as Jimmy swooped and twirled in the air, almost like he was dancing with her.

“What’s it like, where dragons live” she called. The houses behind them looked like one boring grey roof after another, all so very similar, roof, roof, roof, red tiles! She wanted to know who lived in the place with the red tiles.

Jimmy didn’t answer for a minute. She wasn’t sure he’d heard her, but his crests were laying down flat. Something wrong? She’d asked it the wrong way?

“You’ve seen where we live,” he called back to her, his crests popping up brightly. “You’re over there all the time.”

“But…” Her question turned quickly into an eeeeeeeeeee as he swooped again. “Jimmy!” she called exasperatedly.

“I don’t remember where we came from very well,” he answered, falling into a nice level flight again. “Look, here, you can see where Human Town ends and Smokey Knoll begins.”

“Human town?” She peered down at the roofs, and the tall hedge around the Mulberry family’s house. “I’ve never heard anyone say that before.”

Jimmy’s crests wiggled again. “It’s what a lot of the other races call the city and the burbs, the places that the humans live in. Like, you know, how there’s Tiny Town downtown?”

“But humans live in Smokey Knoll, too,” she pointed out, confused. “Us. The Mulberry family. The Sanjays.”

“Look, there’s the Harpy place,” Jimmy called. He was ignoring her a lot today. “Watch out, incoming harpy chick!”

Giggling, Juniper ducked, covering her face with one hands. Little harpies were an airborne threat until they got used to their wings. And Jimmy… Jummy wasn’t telling her something.

Maybe Jin would tell her. Or maybe she could ask the nice guy at the bus stop.

Next: An Understanding (LJ)

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/301977.html. You can comment here or there.

Big Bad Witch

Mar18

For [personal profile] clare_dragonfly‘s Prompt.

Evangaline modern-era. After Unexpected Guest, Followed Me Home (LJ), and In the Cards (LJ)

Pancakes in hand, Eva knocked on the door to her Florida room and paused to listen.

A startled jumping sound was followed quickly by some hasty blanket-noises, and then, cautiously, “yeah?”

“It’s Eva,” she called, amused. “I brought breakfast. I can bring it in, or you can come eat in the kitchen with me.”

“I… uh. Could you bring it in?”

“Coming in,” she agreed, trying not to laugh. She swung the door open, and set the tray down on the low coffee table, before plopping herself into the old wicker chair. “Did you sleep well?”

“I… yeah.” He sounded a bit startled by that. “Did you… hex me or something?”

“I thought we talked about the witch thing.”

“You said you didn’t look like a witch. And you really don’t. But this house… everyone says it’s the witch’s house. Always has been.”

“And they say you shouldn’t go inside?”

“They say kids who do, never come out.”

Eva pursed her lips. “There is the off chance,” she allowed, “that one of my ancestors liked to scare small children. But, if it’s who I’m thinking of, those small children are grandparents or great-grandparents now, and that Aunt is long gone.” Although it might do to check the parts of the basement that had dirt floors.

“You still haven’t said you’re not a witch.”

“I haven’t,” she agreed. “But I’m not the sort that eats little children, either.”

The glance he gave her was half wounded dignity and half what she was pretty sure Beryl had meant by “Interesting :x,” though she would have just called it “steamy.” “I’m not a little kid, either,” he pointed out.

“No,” she agreed, and sipped her orange juice. “You’re clearly not.”

Next: http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/304427.html

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/301572.html. You can comment here or there.

The Princess and the Huntsman, a story of the Aunt Family for the March Giraffe Call

Mar18

For [personal profile] jjhunter‘s Prompt.

A continuation of “Tell me a Story,” (LJ) and “Princesses, Knights, and the Huntsman” (LJ)

The Aunt Family has a landing page here on DW and here on LJ.

Rosaria was not surprised to see Cady coming around more and more often. When Lily’s mother dropped off her handful of children to “visit Grandma,” there were often a few neighborhood kids in the van as well.

This particular day, it was Cady, Lily, her two brothers, and another friend, a shy boy with old shoes that she hadn’t met before, and yet felt she already knew.

“Gather round, children,” she said, as she did when the group was right, “it’s time for a story.” She had been asking around the neighborhood, trying to discover what Cady’s demon was. She had some clues, but nothing definite yet. Perhaps a story would tell her more.

“Once upon a time,” she began, reaching for the story as Lily whispered an explanation to her brother’s shy friend. Once upon a time, indeed. The threads were recalcitrant today, not wanting to give her a story. Rosaria coughed. “Some water for Grandma, dears?”

Chamus hurried to get her a glass of water, and Rosaria relaxed, letting the story take her where it would.

Not Cady, and not the new boy, no, today it would be Lily. Rosaria drank deeply from the plastic cup her grandson offered, and let the story take control.

“Once upon a time, there was a…”

“A knight?” they asked eagerly. “A Queen? A dragon?”

“A princess.” She smiled a bit as she said it. “There was a young princess, youngest of many princesses but no less beautiful. And this princess had come to fall in love with the huntsman’s son.”

She saw it hit home, and wondered if this tale was supposed to be cautionary. She liked those the least.

“She had fallen for the son of the huntsman, who himself would be hunstman in his turn, a skinny lad who hadn’t yet come into his full growth….”

“Is there a quest?” Cady asked eagerly.

“Hrrm, it seems there is. But we will get there when we get there, dear. The Princess’ parents didn’t disapprove of the match, because they didn’t, yet, know about the Princess’ infatuation. Thinking the Princess was too young, they were blind to the consequences.”

Interesting. Lily was squirming.

“But the young noblewoman herself was not so blind, and neither was the boy she loved, not the Hunstman, his father. They would have, she knew, many hurdles to cross before they could be anything more than distant friends. ” Oh, dear. I thought we had a few more years…

“And so, it seems, the Princess and the Huntsman agreed on a quest.” Rosaria smiled benignly, hiding the worry she felt. “To prove themselves worthy for each other, and for the world.”

This entry was originally posted at http://aldersprig.dreamwidth.org/301558.html. You can comment here or there.