I originally wrote this story back in February 2012, but, to be honest, I started having doubts about how it actually turned out. The plot hit the nerve in the way I wasn’t quite expecting, and I think too much of it spilled on the page. At the same time, the story was kind of necessary in terms of Urbis Arcana canon, so I wound up putting in the “ ( Read more... )

Over on her Facebook page, corrinalaw posted a pretty interesting challenge.

Post by Corrina Lawson.I couldn't help but feel intrigued by it - and, with her permission, I gave it a try. I just so happened to have an 8-page short story I've been struggling with for the past couple of weeks. One that's almost ready go. It's called "Library Fantasy," and it' ( Read more... )

Every year, I try to write a story for Chicago Reader’s Fiction issue. Last year, I thought I had a pretty good idea for a story. But as I sat down to write it, I realized that it wasn’t working. And no matter how hard I tried, it kept on not working. So, with not a whole lot of time left, I decided to try something else.

When I wrote an initial ( Read more... )

I wrote the original version of this story around this time last year. I wrote it for a short story contest rowandoll was doing for his Burnham Society series. Like Urbis Arcana, his series deals with supernatural goings-on in Chicago. But unlike my series, Burnham Society deals with more overtly supernatural stuff, with faerie lords, book shops located in ( Read more... )

Russian folk tales are full of recurring characters. And out of all recurring female characters, none are quite as well known as Vasilisa Premudraya - the wise, strong-willed sorceress who was sometimes a princess, and Vasilisa Prekrasnaya - beautiful and virtuous maiden who had her own dealings with the supernatural.

Taken as a whole, the folk ( Read more... )

This one was a bit unexpected. The writer of this story asked me for permission to write a short story set in Urbis Arcana universe. Not sure what to expect, I agreed.

And I was pretty impressed with what I got.

While the story doesn’t have to be an Urbis Arcana story. But it doesn’t contradict anything in Urbis Arcana universe, either, so I’m pretty ( Read more... )

I have been thinking about the whole concept of demon children - kids destined to become word-destroying Anti-Christ types when they grow up. We’ve seen this type of character crop up a lot in media over the last few decades. Whether they embrace their destiny or try to avert it, it’s compelling stuff.

And I started thinking about what would happen ( Read more... )

This was supposed to be a quick post. I had a short story idea that kept nagging at me, and I had a few hours free, so I figured I might as well write it quickly and put it up on Livejournal.

That was almost six weeks ago.

I made pretty good progress that day, but then, I decided to finish the rest tomorrow. And then, things got busier. And busier. ( Read more... )

( The former god of war makes his last stand )

Ever since moj_oduvan4ik offered to translate my short stories in exchange for translating her novella, I have been looking at Urbis Arcana stories I've posted already. They were written back in 2011 (if not earlier) and I wanted to clean them up a bit before sending them off for translation, maybe make some changes ( Read more... )