Kyle had seen the police officers walk by the door, but they hadn’t looked in past the window. There was no way of knowing whether the terminator was circulating their pictures among the police, or whether it had told the right sort of lies that would cause a manhunt for the him and Sarah. The […]
Branches on the Tree of Time, Chapter 5
They eventually tracked down a cybercafe, which was practically deserted. The bored cashier took their money, and they grabbed a table at the back of place where no one would be able to see what they were doing. If Sarah was really going to get this done in a month, they’d need a more permanent […]
Branches on the Tree of Time, Chapter 4
“What,” said Sarah flatly. “Skynet goes online in the next month. We know the military facility that it’s housed at, we know company involved, and we know most of the principle architects. All you need to do is take this flash drive, analyze the source code, and write up a new utility function for it […]
Branches on the Tree of Time, Chapter 3
Kyle grabbed her from behind and shoved her down, and the blonde man’s fingers closed on thin air. He took a half step forward, and then Kyle was in front of her, the gun in his hands, firing directly into the man’s skull, over and over. Sarah lay on the floor watching helplessly and trying […]
Branches on the Tree of Time, Chapter 2
“So, tell me about this crazy cyborg that might be coming to kill me,” said Sarah Connor. She allowed herself some flippancy, just to let him know that she didn’t really believe him. At worst … well, at worst he was going to try to rape and kill her at the first opportunity. A more […]
Branches on the Tree of Time, Chapter 1
Kyle Reese crouched in a small ball, completely naked, and with a flash of light was transposed a thousand miles and thirty years, from the cold floor of the MIT facility to the still-warm air of Los Angeles at two hours past midnight, June 22nd, 1997. His whole body tensed, and he readied himself to […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 6: The Wayward Princess
Rowan had learned much about dark magic through first principles. First and foremost, the social aspects of dark magic must largely be about trust. If he followed a ritual which had been described in a book, he had to take the author at their word that their descriptions were full and correct. If any of […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 5: The Castle Spirit
The castle finally got a spirit when Sofia was fifteen years old. She had imagined the spirit for a long time. Most of the books said that every place and every thing had a spirit, from the cobbler’s shop to the temple gardens, and from the forests to the trees. The spirits themselves stayed in […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 4: The Separate Paths
She knew the names of all of her guards, but she only called them by their nicknames. Walrus had a thick mustache, and Egg was completely bald. Leech was pale, like the blood had been drained from his face, and Cyclops had a scar across one eye, though he could see with both. One of […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 3: The Drowned Witch
Sofia was faster than him, and that bothered Henry. She sprinted across the short grass with bare feet, her red hair floating on the wind behind her. He couldn’t keep up. He’d thought that she would tire herself out, but instead she just kept running, running in circles around him, or running away from him, […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 2: The Kidnapping
“We need money,” said Omarr. After they’d put Henry to bed, they’d cracked a small cask of ale and drank from the large mugs. A fire crackled in the fireplace. Adrianna had come to like the two men, somewhat despite herself. They had taught her much. While their theft of Henry had soured her opinion, […]
The Dark Wizard Of Donkerk, Chapter 1: The Orphan
Author’s Note: This work is essentially stuck in ‘first draft’ state until I can find the time and incentive to put other things aside and devote myself to fixing the numerous typos, restructuring the plot a bit, punching up the prose, and some general tidying up to make it the novel that it’s meant to be. […]
Narrativism vs. Simulationism
Definition: Simulationism In the simulationist approach to writing fiction, rules are defined and then outcomes are decided upon. These rules can be fundamental rules far removed from human/story scales (“there is no up quark”) to something that can be intuitively grasped and whose first order effects are somewhat obvious (“people die of an aneurysm when […]