New Releases

Greetings, readers. I wanted to let you know that I am making a way for you to get notifications when I release a new book.  You won't get many of notifications, perhaps one or two a year. And you will get first run at my newest publications.

I'm working through an online marketing tool called Mail Chimp, which promises to never release your information to anyone but me.  And I promise not to abuse this service because I just want you to know about any new books and free books I publish.  So, it's as simple as going to this link. http://eepurl.com/BpBwD

This link will also always be available on the blog main page for access at any time.

Typically I publish the ebook version first and then a paperback via Lulu.com.  Lulu is now also distributing directly to Amazon.com.  If you are an Amazon/Kindle addict you will be able to get everything in one spot. Of course these are available at many other fine ebook retailers as well including Apple devices, Sony Reader or Barnes & Noble Nook. 

I'm planning on releasing Saint Pauley sometime later this year and have another volume of short stories I'm trying to finish up.  This second short story collection will include the very popular "Pockets" story.  

Thank you for being a part of my writing world and loving words as much as I do!

Keep reading!

M.R. Hyde

"a Misspent god" Continues

I was back again last night at the CSWRS. Thanks to Mandy Solomon for her good leadership and bringing us wonderful writers to broaden our local horizons!

So, here is what I read aloud last night in the continuing saga of "a Misspent god."  Frankly, this story is not easy to write. It does not seem difficult because of the first-person perspective nor because of the content.  Rather, it is difficult to write because I want to be so very careful in building the plot to a phenomenal point of conflict.  Carefully, carefully I trod toward a resolution by which I am completely intrigued.

The Crone

I found a plateau nearby strangely vacant of vegetation and sufficiently flat enough for me to lay out full length.  Tiny deer fled from the nearby rocks as my shadow darkened their habitat.  Because the crone had ignored my calls I lay down and watched the clouds.  Presently a hawk flew overhead and I reached up and gently tapped its tail feathers and laughed when it careened through the air screaming at me to leave it alone.  Soon it flew out of my reach and I went to sleep in the hot sun.

The next thing I recall was the ground trembling.  I woke in a shadow—the shadow of my father walking toward me.  I did not know how I should or could react.  I was at his mercy as I lay there. The earth ceased trembling as he stopped near my side.  I blinked up at his aspect.  The sun crowned his head with its brilliance. This is what he said to me.  “Helgeror tells me you bested her at the library.”  There was a groundswell of challenge in his voice, but I did not respond.  “I would test you now in this matter.  However, your mother has told me she has sent you to the crone for a journey to the lower realms.  So, I shall test you later.”  And with that, and not waiting for any response from me, he turned and walked off of the plateau and into his chariot, a great cloud of dust in his wake.  I hated him even more then and determined that I would never permit him to test me.  I felt my feet slip off the edge of the plateau and realized that I had grown even taller as he spoke to me.  I was glad for this, for I had hoped that someday he might fear me as much as I feared him.  Then I slept again.

The crone woke me in the obscurity of twilight.  She stood by my ear which was as tall as she.  Her voice was gentle, but her aspect with harsh.  She had been legendary for her beauty.  But now her legend was made of other things.  She woke me with these words:  “So, this the son of Ogmios and Ernmos.  You have come at your mother’s bidding.  What does she want of me?”  I stretched and the plateau trembled.  I was in no particular hurry, so I sat up slowly.  The crone was behind me then and she had to shout up at me.  “You will have to lay back down, boy, if you want to speak with me!”  At this I reached around behind me and grabbed her in my fist.  I swung her up near my face.  “Or,” I declared to her in a small clap of thunder, “you will come to me!”

She was unimpressed and her eyes were as dark as midnight.  She closed them slowly and her aspect grew larger in my eyes.  In the next moment I realized that she was not growing, rather I was becoming smaller.  Soon my grip around her was strained and I could no longer hold on to her.  She laughed at me and cried out with delight, “How small do you wish to be, little god?  How small?!”  I only called out to her when I saw her ankle bones at the bottom of her tattered skirt.  Then everything stopped.  She leaned over and one dark, black eye blinked in my face.  Her breath was hot and heavy like a summer’s day at the seashore and it reeked of garlic.

 

She told me three things.  The first was that by sunrise I would be the size of a man of the lower realms.  The second was that I would remain in that form for only six turns of the sun.  And, finally, I was to have no powers except that of the lower ones.  I protested loudly, especially on that last measure.  But, she laughed and said that my father had made this so.  Then with a blink of that terrible eye she was gone.

Copyright M.R. Hyde July 12, 2013