Ilos continues!

Ilos is a story about another world that's become intertwined with Earth via what are known as Keys, a tool in the shape of a metal headband that allows those on Earth to access Ilos and interact with it. However, the magic of Ilos has snatched some of those with Keys away from Earth permanently and a mad scramble ensues to figure out what has truly happened and deal with things as Ilos continues to encroach on Earth. The story follows Aria, Nick, and Tasalin as they fight, scheme, and command on their way to the answers they seek in this new land.

The start of one of the final chapters of book 2, Aria is back in action and exploring the Dread Castle Hamelin!

 

[At a School, somewhere two weeks before Christmas]

“Miss Featherstone, the Headmistress would like to see you in her Office?” said the Head’s secretary after she’d popped her head around my classroom door.

Sadly, my class of fifteen year olds were more interested in which ‘C List’ celebrity had either had a boob job or was … well, having it off with some other reality TV performer than 'Britain during the Industrial Revolution'. I refuse to call them stars. Most of them had as much talent as I had in my little finger.

Christmas.

I suppose it must be Christmas - my Facebook feed was filled with trees, Santas and such trappings, masses of frosted cookies, reindeer with red noses and Donald Trump in various compromising yuletide positions. As if we didn't get enough pictures of him all the rest of the year… (Could he really do that with eight not-so-tiny reindeer?)

Answer To A Maiden's (?) Prayer Part Two

Snowmen plotting revenge. Servants of Krampus plotting death and torture. Rotarians plotting... a carol sing? Sample five short holiday stories by Cashmere Chloe, Trismegistus Shandy, TGSparadox, M. A. Thermidor and Hikaro.

Billie's Christmas Present

Bill’s team was in a hard-fought battle with their little league archenemies. They had split their previous two games and this was for the championship. It was the bottom of the last inning, the score was tied, and Bill was up to bat with the bases loaded and two outs. The pitcher watched him dig in at the plate. He had already struck Bill out three times and he was quite sure that he could do it again.

You know the old saying, there's a sucker born every minute? Well, I discovered the truth of that one all too well recently.

You see, I used to go out in my van and fix problems in the telephone lines, just like in the song Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell. Most of the time, it wasn't difficult work, although it could be time consuming after a big storm went through the area, but that's life, ya know?

This seemed to be a day like any other, I was headed out to check a few sites, one of which had a malfunctioning transformer.

If you've ever left your own house in a dress you've probably encountered the classic dilemma: to go through the door with the stick figure with a triangle that is supposed to be a skirt or the door with the stick figure without that silly triangle. Have you ever stopped to consider that there is absolutely no way to tell if the stick figure without the skirt is wearing anything or simply the outline of a naked man, reduced to it's simplest skeleton?

Another Chapter in Callie's progress through university. An interesting research offer is put before her but causes internal conflicts.

Heir to a title 29.

During the Michelmas term Callie started as she mean't to go on by dutifully completing all her assignments well before their 'hand-in' dates. Consequently her punctuality and grades started to attract the attentions of her tutors and the departmental head. Few students handed in their work as often as a week or even a month before the deadline.

Sometimes I wonder if the entire world is crazy or if it's just me. For quite some time now I have been staying home unemployed while my wife goes off to work or school. Being unemployed is not the greatest thing in the world, but it has given me a great deal of time to be dressed, and therein lies the source of my bemusement. Tuesday to Thursday I get up after everyone has left, Ricky gets dressed and is alone until shortly before the school bus arrives in the afternoon. I am a solitary dresser, I'm not used to having anyone around when I wear a dress.

The Superiors: The Gift

Chapter 1:

Author's note: I know its been a while since I wrote the prologue for this story. You might want to read it (or read it again) so this chapter makes more sense ...

On the super island known as “The Compound” ...

Fluke woke with a start, sending her partner Sarah off the bed.

“Hey!” Sarah shouted.

“Sorry. I just had one whack of a nightmare.”

Sarah climbed back onto the bed, and asked, “What was it?”

CHRISTMAS DREAMS

(WISHING ON THE CHRISTMAS STAR)

When we are children, we often wish upon a star and hope our dreams come true. Do our dreams come true without any action from ourselves, or is it just a deep understanding that all will turn out as we wish?

It takes a little fire to ignite, to burn a whole forest (ancient saying).

We're a creative bunch, those of us males who like to wear women's clothes. I've never seen a bunch of folks so intent on inventing new words to describe every little nuance of just why they do this or wear that. My sisters seem to have an endless capacity to transform every Greek or Roman root for two into some new combination of syllables that exactly describes their motivation for putting on a dress.