So I have posted my introductory offer and teased a little about the next posting.

The Auditorium will open in …

… just a few days now.

This introduction is actually the introduction to the introduction.
It is labelled as fiction, but there is really only one fictional passage, which will be self-evident, I’m sure.

Some of you already know that I live in Switzerland, which has its fair share of high mountain communities.
Some of you will also know that I share a house and a computer with Di Wonder.
Some of you will also know that I am a fan of Penny Lane’s “Somewhere Else Entirely”.

A fan to such an intent that Penny and I (with the odd assistance, or not, from Di) have been in contact email-wise and we have come to an agreement. I merely wish to add a little colour and texture to Penny’s fascinating world, and have no intention whatsoever of treading on her toes in any way.

I came up with a concept which Penny will allow me to develop — the concept is simple. I shall write a series of stories from the POV of one of Penny’s minor characters. I have written an introduction for this character and Penny has given me the go-ahead to publish it. So this entry is my heads-up to you, and the opportunity I have to acknowledge people and places that have been of assistance to me. Once I have ceased to be a ‘new writer’ then I shall set up a ‘directory’ for the stories as I write them. The first is an introduction to my character, vetted to ensure that no spoilers are mentioned. This is numbered 00 in my sequencing, and is a mere 3 or so pages. This will be posted as soon as I have managed to set up the directory for these stories. The first story proper is now complete and will be zoomed to Penny for her approval. It is around 15000 words long. I confess to a great degree of nervousness at publishing anything like this. It will probably appear in about a week. I should point out that not all the stories will have a ‘T’ content. In fact, the first story has a nodding glance at the concept very near the end, but this is not integral to the main storyline. I do have plans for the protagonist to do some F2M stuff mind you.

It is perhaps unnecessary to mention the debt and enormous gratitude I have to Penny, not only for her Anmarian world, but her kind and patient assistance to a relative newbie.

As regards the others who publish here, then first of all, I cannot fail to mention Angharad — the daily Bike being usually my nightcap before allowing my pillow to attack my ears. Beverley Taff is another who has inspired me and Bailey Summers has done so too. I have enjoyed nearly all of Stan’s posts, and I ‘tip my hat’ in his direction, hoping fervently that he really is now in a better place. Grover, Elrod, Susan Brown, Anesidora’s Urn, Erin, Sephrena, Lightoffury, Drea, oh a whole host more …. I am sure to offend someone by not including them here so I guess I’d better quit now.

Others — Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, Bernard Cornwell, Geoff Brown — oh the list here could go on and on as well.

There is another who is a must, a friend with whom I have lost contact, who is Gay.

No really, that is her name.

I met her 15 or 20 years ago after reading a short story she had written for a competition. This story won a prize and the prize-giving soiree was held in the city in which I then lived. I had the honour to be chosen to read her entry aloud to the audience there. We 'clicked' as they say, and shortly afterwards she sent me a book she had written. I loved it. A powerful concept with many under currents. She had been unsuccessful in getting it published so I said I would try. She gave me permission to attempt to get her and it published. I was unsuccessful, the publishing houses failing to see the potential of the sub-plots and declaring it to be too specialised to appeal to a wider audience.
But her story has stayed with me ever since.
I have to here confess that I have borrowed from this story for use in the first full length story 'Julina' shall post. I have borrowed 1 sub-plot, 2 characters and 3 quotes, all suitably amended to fit into Penny’s ‘universe’. Gay has apparently moved, as have I, and I no longer have a current contact for her. I have spent 4 months trying to track her down to get her permission to use her stuff.
Also unsuccessfully.

My beta-readers have declared themselves satisfied with that first story (thanks to them - you know who you are!) and it shall be published as soon as I can set up the directory for these stories and I get Penny’s nod of acceptance.
Di Wonder and I have also been working on another series for two years or more now, but we seem to spend more time polishing it, than writing fresh stuff! There will have to be a separate directory for those tales.

So here ends my introduction to an introduction, and I shall pass onto the fiction element of this.

.........

It was a dark and stormy night as Phil stripped off his skirt. He rushed too much and ripped the zipper stitching with his long nails. A Viking longboat was approaching with a strange man in a tatty bathrobe being used as a figurehead. A living figurehead as he seemed to be waving a bikini around his head as the boat approached the beach. Quite what a Viking ship was doing here in Canada, and bearing a Welsh name, Phil couldn’t quite work out. His head hurt as though there was something he should know or do, but wild dranakhs could not pull it from the dark recesses. A werewolf wearing a bikini padded slowly across the glistening sand as he straddled his bicycle, preparing for a quick ………………………………

..................

May your dreams be happy, and some achievable.

Julia