To each there comes in their lifetime a special moment when they are figuratively tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing, unique to them and fitted to their talents. What a tragedy if that moment finds them unprepared or unqualified for that which could have been their finest hour.

 - Winston Churchill

The Darkwood tales

Long away and far ago

        The world is filled with far away places, dark corners, and unsettled areas. It has always been such. Though their locations may change, they remain wild, obscure, and unpredictable. These are the lands of adventure, opportunity, and sometimes progress. Europe was once such a place.

        Eventually Europe awoke from the Dark Ages to find the rest of the world slumbering at its feet. Before that awakening,  Europe was a dark, savage, and uncivilized place.

        The Earth here did not cooperate, and had to be mastered. The ancient Babylonians and Phoenicians were gone. The Persian Empire was long past, as was that of the Greeks. The Etruscans, Carthaginians, and Cretans had passed into legend. Even the great and eternal Roman Empire was no more.

         The natural inhabitants of the area were the tribes of the Gauls, the Germans, and the various forms of Celts. There were the blue men of the mysterious isles, and the huge blond men from the north, in their long narrow ships. Civilization did not sit lightly upon them. All were descended from those who had left the cradle of mankind – outcasts, the lost, and the dissatisfied.

        Yet the Darkwood remained.

        It had been old before humanity had a written language, a place of nightmare, horror, and chaos, and was a dark and malignant spot upon the world. Darkwood was home to ogres, witches, dragons, and evil spirits before such things were even given names and forms in the legends of men. It had always been far north and far west of the habitation of men. Yet men moved across the Earth and spread to fill it, as their numbers increased. They created new civilizations and expanded old ones, having mastery over the Earth and the lesser creatures that resided upon it.

        Then the tribes of man encountered the Darkwood.

        Primitive men who had known fear now learned terror and loathing. The Darkwood had given them this, a gift and curse of wisdom. Europe grew from an infant of the old empires, to a child, and then entered its chaotic adolescence. During the adolescence, Europe put all past lessons behind, and attempted to tame the Darkwood. Old fears were reawakened and old terror recalled.

 

 

        A four volume tale (with a fifth coming) of a fallen great empire, and the Europe that might one day organize itself to be the strength to replace it. All might depend upon a young prince who had never known the love of a mother long dead, and a young princess who had never known the love of a cold and calculating father who yet lived.

 

Beginnings New kingdoms rise in the footsteps of grand old empires, like scavengers feasting on a rich field of carrion. It begins with a young prince who dreams of being a great warrior or magician, and a young princess who dreams of becoming a great queen and avenging all wrongs. Approximately 45,000 words
Chapter One	Chapter Three
Chapter Twelve	Chapter Twenty One

 

 

Travels A prince seeks salvation for his people, while a princess seeks vengeance and a kingdom of her own. Much mysterious lore of old resides in the unsettled world. A whole kingdom awaits a questing prince across a forbidding mountain range. Approximately 62,000 words.

 

 

The Fair Older than mankind and even more filled with avarice, wickedness, craft, and  perhaps wisdom, stands The Fair. Yet the Darkwood in which The Fair is held is older still, and has secrets of its own. Powerful protections preserve the fair from the malicious and mysterious presence of the woods. It is a place of remarkable events, and perhaps an even more remarkable history of huge forces and evil deeds. Approximately 47,000 words

 

 

Home A prince returns home, hoping to find a father and a kingdom; but what will he find? Rumors of treachery and civil war. Approximately 30,000 words

 

 

Empress Sometimes realization of a dream is not enough. When you finally get your heart's desire you may often find that your heart has become changed by the quest.