Related Fiction
This page serves as a repository for various pieces of short fiction (and perhaps the occasional work-in-progress snippet). Many, perhaps most, will take place in the world(s) of the Halflands. Other pieces may be stand-alone stories or fragments of other works.
Phone Home
“Phone Home” is one of those stand-alone stories, at least so far. There is a sequel in the works, and it may well turn out that it takes place in the Halflands metaverse. For now, though, there are no explicit connections. The story was written for my sister Katey, not long after she lost her husband in a freak accident. She posted a picture of herself that reminded me of places we had travelled together, and included a quote that served as my muse for the story. There's a little more explanation at the bottom of the story, so as to avoid providing too much in the way of spoilers.
Without further ado, we present “Phone Home”.
Missing Persons (Aunt Jenny interlude)
“Missing Persons” was written while I was still shopping around for a publisher, editor or agent for Aunt Jenny. I know some publishers prefer stories that have not appeared, even in part, elsewhere. Still, I wanted to give potential readers an idea of where the story was going and what it was like, so I started to write pieces about the world, the story, the characters and their history.
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, Aunt Jenny and the Delayed Quest is the story of a retired librarian and teacher who finds herself caught up in an heroic journey to a land of adventure on a quest that has always been her destiny. Such quests not only transform the lives of those who set out upon them, but of those they leave behind. Here’s a glimpse at our tale from that perspective: “Missing Persons”.
Little Jenny’s Journey to Fairyland (snippet)
Little Jenny’s Journeys and the real Little Jenny—Aunt Jenny’s great-aunt Jenny—play such an important role in Aunt Jenny and the Delayed Quest that I had to include an excerpt from one of the books, so the prologue of the book starts out with Aunt Jenny reading from Little Jenny and the Moon Maid. But that wasn’t really enough, and so I started work on realizing Cassandra Montclair’s classic tale of High Adventure in the Halflands: Little Jenny’s Journey to Fairyland, the first of the Little Jenny stories, which came out just one month before The Wizard of Oz. I haven’t finished restoring it, but the first couple of pages of Little Jenny’s Journey to Fairyland are available here.