News:

Welcome to the Renaissancefestival.com Forums!  Please post an introduction after signing up!

For an updated map of Ren Fests check out The Ren List at http://www.therenlist.com!

The Chat server is now running again, just select chat on the menu!

Main Menu

Coming Soon

Started by Blackbead, January 09, 2009, 03:26:40 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Blackbead

In time for Christmas, 2009, brought to you by the same people who published Raising Black Flags: Original Poetry By and About Pirates, the name hasn't been chosen, yet, but it will be a fantasy/science fiction anthology of approximately 200 pages of poetry, short stories, and artwork.  It will include pieces by some of the same poets and artists that were featured in the previous book but will also include new folks as well!  Now, here, for the very first time, is an excerpt from one of the short stories that will be included in this new book!  The short story is entitled "The Sorcerer's Headphones," and is the tale of a late night DJ, a pair of old headphones, an unusual vinyl album, and some very interesting magic:

     Joel put on the headphones, cued up the album, and leaned back in his chair to listen to "The Damsel and the Dragon."  The music began softly, sounding sort of menacing.  It was a well orchestrated piece that started with a lone trumpet and slowly added violins, low brass, and timpani.  As he listened, Joel's eyes kind of . . . clouded over with an eldritch mist.
     
     "Whoa!  Must be getting sleepy.  And I've still got five and a half hours to go!"
     
     Joel yawned wide, closing his eyes and stretching.  He finished the muscle tingling stretch by reaching up and squeezing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger.
     
     When he opened his eyes, Joel nearly swallowed his tongue.
     
     The first thing that he noticed was that the sound booth had changed, dramatically changed.  Joel seemed to be in a huge cave, lit here and there by patches of fire.  And there, not ten feet in front of him, was one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his life.  She was chained to a stake, her arms extending up above her head.  She was hanging slackly, she seemed to be unconscious, but Joel could still tell that she had a body to die for and gorgeous blonde hair that fell almost to her waist.  She was barely wearing some sort of dull white robe-thing and what she did have on was partially ripped; Joel saw the hint of some extraordinary curves.
     
     "Where am I?" Joel asked out loud as he stood up.  ("Wait a minute, was I already standing?") 
     
     "You are in my cave, fool," said a deep, rumbling voice from above and behind him.  The music played on and Joel still wore the headphones but he had plainly heard the voice, almost as if it had been recorded on the album. 
     
     Startled by the voice, Joel whirled around and looked upwards – directly into the face of an enormous lizard.  The thing's eyes were easily a foot across and looked like the biggest cat's eyes that Joel had ever seen.  In the light given off by the patches of fire, its skin was reddish brown, like old bricks.  There were horns on the top of its head and six-inch teeth sticking out of the mouth that seemed to be the source of the response to what Joel thought was a rhetorical question.
     
     Joel let out a scream that echoed off the walls of the cave, whirled around and took off running.  Milliseconds later, he fell over the console and somersaulted into the studio door, losing the headphones in the process.
     
     He found himself out of the cave and back in the radio station.


                                                                            Stephen Sanders
                                                                            ©1977

     Look for the book in November, 2009, from Blackbead Books, at www.Blackbead-jewelry.com.

 
"It's not the gold that sets our sails, 'tis freedom and the promise of a better life that raises our black flags."