As always, Vayland Rd. is for my Dad. It’s not a subtle story, or graceful, or maybe even good — but I like it.
I originally wrote it as part of a fundraiser for prostate cancer research, which was the goblin Dad was fighting at the time. The prognosis was bad, but the end result was [...]
Posts under ‘Excerpts’
The story behind Vayland Rd.
Vayland Rd. [9] — The End
~ The End ~
How do I end a story like this?
We got home with the sun coming up. By the clock in the kitchen, my part in the whole thing had been only about twenty-four hours.
It seemed longer.
Dad was, if not ‘all right’, at least ‘alright’ in the stoic, bull-headed parlance of the Midwest. He’d [...]
Vayland Rd. [8] — The Fall
~ The Fall ~
One of the real people walked up to him. He was limping, and had a
my
gun in his off-hand. There was a big stick in the other.
”It’s time to go home, Dad,” the young man said.
Steven looked up at his face, with its hurt eyes, and frowned.
”I think that he will stay here.” [...]
Vayland Rd. [7] — The Fight
~ The Fight ~
Most people, sitting back on their couches and watching this play out on television, might have wondered why I believed all this from the start. It was a good question; if I’d wrtten it out as a story, my main character would have yelled bullshit as soon as Brock and Bhuto showed [...]
Vayland Rd. [6] — The Needles
~ The Needles ~
I stood on the edge of Vayland, looking down into a ravine. Silver pain pulled at a single point in my body, dredging up memories.
When I was a kid in the first house my family ever lived in, my room was next to the living room and, thus, the television. After [...]
Vayland Rd. [5] – The Quest
~ The Quest ~
Twenty minutes later, I was ready for whatever they were going to tell me.
The dwarf and the ogre were looking doubtful.
“I don’t think those work where we’re going.” Brock gestured with some distaste at the gun slung over my left shoulder.
I raised an eyebrow. “You ever shot a gun, Brock?”
The dwarf [...]
Vayland Rd. [4] — The Talk
~ The Talk ~
“ …it wasn’t your imagination. The plains are thick with goblins, especially along those dark gullys and river bottoms where no man has traveled in a thousand years. The natives learned to avoid the areas and the white settlers soon after. There are goblins and ogres all along there. No trolls though, [...]
Vayland Rd. [3] – The Cage
~ The Cage ~
Steven didn’t want to wake up; sometimes you know things aren’t going to be good when you open your eyes.
On the other hand, better to see the trouble coming than get hit by it. He shook his eyes into focus and looked around, then shook his head again and squinted.
The sky [...]
