TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#1
Includes these 8 titles:
*Teo and the Cathedral
*Affirmare and the Tournament
*Milly and the Royal Mix Up
*Miss Windy Ventures Out
*Vitalis the Mountain Mover
*Superbia and the Wedding Feast
*Constantio and the Winter Hunt
*Abraxas and His Ladyship
I call these stories "FAIRLY" TALES.
They're like Fairy Tales, but not quite.
~
They are stories about "MYTHLE'S",
which are like Myths, but not quite.
~
And their adventures are played out in
"MYTHLEWILD",
an imaginary place that's wild...
...only to those unwilling to step in.
Titles currently available as paperback or e-book:
For a god,Teo led a rather humdrum life. To relieve the monotony, he often slipped into his least raggedy sack- cloth and dropped in on the townsfolk. He called them his 'flock'. They called him a 'buttinsky'.
Things usually played out nicely for everyone...usually, but not always!
As a full noble knight, Sir Affirmare has sworn to honor the Code of Chivalry. But today’s tournament pits Affirmare against an ‘invincible’ blackguard without honor, and a ghost —a ghost from his childhood that will test both the knight and his code.
What twisted stitch in Fate’s tapestry turns a milquetoast goat girl into monarch of all the land?
That’s what Queen Superbia would like to know, as the pompous royal beds down amidst a bunch of bleating goats and one very surprised flock tender.
Everyone in the hamlet agreed she was lovely and could charm the honey from a bee. But Windy longed to travel the world in search of adventure, and perhaps a love that was true. And she refused to abandon her dreams despite the scorn of those who ridiculed her, just because she was made of wood.
Being a god isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Oh, it’s cool lording over mortals, but they’re so very hard to please— especially the young ones! The grand-est god of Mythlewild is embroiled in a test of faith. The over-the-hill mountain deity is matching wits with a curious man child who doubts the very existence of such ancients.
Guess who wins.
The indomitable boar queen, Superbia, is overseeing the wedding feast of her fetching niece, Lady Veronica, and the dashing groom, Lord Broadmoor.
But, Good Lord! Ansley has dashed off … and where is Rowena?
Can someone PLEASE fetch her?
The ‘knee-high’ king, Constantio, may be a dwarf, yet by any measure His Highness is above reproach.
On this winter’s hunt, his standing will be most sternly tested. Is it the demon wolf, Fenrir, and his pack—or duty—that threaten Constantio most?
Falling in love can be exasperating, especially for a sea monster like Abraxas, and especially if the object of your affection is Her Ladyship, Windemere.
Their courtship was especially difficult not because ‘Windy’ was a lady—but because she was a ship.
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#2
Includes these 8 titles:
*Kosmos and the Rumble
*Itchy Gets His Wish
*Celeste and the Scullery Bug
*Max Wright and the Squire's Quest
*Valentina's Gareden
*Agustus in the Icelands
*Negare and the Great Battle
*Onus and the Ocean Child
Itchy may have been a boy once, but the pitiful dungeon louse couldn’t remember not being a bug. Then one day Fate provided a glimpse of life on the outside, and the ‘bug’ began to dream. Be careful what you wish for, Itchy.
In an earlier age, Celeste was an angel of the highest rank, a champion in the Demon Wars. Then she fell—in love—with a worthy mortal. She surrendered her halo but kept her sword … for the earthly Demons.
The life of a knight errant is teeming with adventure. Training for knight- hood can be quite harrowing too.
Sally forth with young Max Wright, starry-eyed squire to the noble, Affirmare, on a quest that finds him ... well, a quest that finds himself
As you might surmise from her name, Valentina was a sweetheart. But take notice of the dagger she clutches … and beware. ‘Val’ was ill-suited to pine away in rose gardens waiting for true love to come courting. It’s just as well, because tonight something loathing, not loving, is dropping in
The firstborn child of the high king and his hog queen, this high-bred hybrid is more at home roaming the chilly ‘Wild than seated on his velvet throne. Good thing too, this quest he’s on turns most men’s blood to ice.
King Harry’s Crimson Knights are up against Sultan Kahn’s Golden Horde. This battle royal pits right against might … Alas, how might we decide which side is right?
Onus didn’t like fish. They were funny looking, and slimy, and terrible conversationalists. Worst of all, they stunk to high heavens. The heavens, by the way, were Onus’ realm of choice. The trouble was, he had no choice. Onus was a fish now, and nothing he could do would change that. But he was also a wizard, and wizards are always trying to change things.
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#3
Includes these 8 titles:
*Uthor and the Griff
*Niki and the Really Rainy Day
*Niles and the Abbey's Crown
*Lara and the Houseguest
*Wiley-Yin and the Trolls
*Honos and the Stowaway
*Christen and the Lonely Lamb
*Zigfried and the Great Race
The volatile warlord, Uthor the Red’s, castle is under siege. The situation called for the stoutest of warriors fronting ranks of fully decked knights. What the situation got was Pax, the ‘Griff’.
Niki was a gift from the gods, harbinger of hope, and goodwill, and lots of nice stuff. But all the sleepy, little dove wanted was a nap. Instead, she had an adventure. It wasn’t the cyclone, the sea serpent, the cyclops, or even those colossuses she minded—it was that other thing that alarmed her..
Devil-may-care scallywag, Prince Niles, teams up with a real ‘fallen’ angel to recover the stolen crown. Or is it a halo? It’s a treasure for sure. And the gremlins who possess it intend to keep it.
Phaedra, lordess of the underworld envies her big sister, Lara, who rules the heavens. Their sibling rivalry plays out in a modest daub and wattle cottage. And in this place between the pit and sky, the two gods find a world of real value.
The ‘Wild’s back streets were home to Wiley-Yin. The misguided runaway had no family, no friends, no one—except for the Trolls. Then along came Max, and suddenly Trolls didn’t seem so bad.
Sign on with the bull-headed ship’s Captain, Honos and discover what real ‘swashbuckle’ is. This voyage will impart a vivid lesson on a stowaway and every body able to stay the course. Of course, there's pirates too!
Christen is all boy—from the waist up. The rest of him, the sheep half, likes nothing more than gamboling with the other 'kids' in the flock. But fun and frolic cease the day a new—and very unwelcome ‘wooly’ is born.
If Zigfried Dragonheart, vainglorious knight, and charioteer, is to survive tomorrow’s perilous race. He must first confront an even greater danger—yesterday’s demons.
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#4
Includes these 8 titles:
*Peter and the Basilisk
*Xanadu and the Falling Star
*Audree and the Seven Wonders
*Phaedra and the Inferno
*Quotes and the King's Song
*Pax and the Elephonkey
*Roland and the Humble Hero
*Isolato and the Riddle Game
If you're going into the forest—"Watch your step! You don't want to step on a basilisk."
That's what Peter told his troop of kids as they trekked deeper into the woods. But sometimes kids just don't listen.
How high can a cloud go? Xanadu, or 'Dewy', was about to find out. Presently, he served under his king. He was the royal pedestal, and the dwarf king rose to new heights with Dewey underfoot.
But when His ‘Highness’ gave the devoted cloud leave to … leave, he did.
Is anyplace filled with more adventure than a child's nursery? To find out, step into Audree’s playroom. Join the toddler as she and her visitor, the ‘moon-eyed’ boy, explore a terrifying, real world called Make Believe.
Envious of her siblings’ domains of Earth, Sea, and Sky, Phaedra stole all of the desirable colors, sounds, scents, and tastes of their surface world, and buried them in her hellish realm, the Pit.
Alas for her, she neglected the most essential sense of all—feeling.
Quotes celebrated his idyllic life as shepherd every day composing music and epic verse for his ‘woolies’. They turned a deaf ear to such noise—but King Constantio did not.
To escape the mounting pressures of court, His Majesty deserted the palace for the pasture. The result was a catastrophe of epic proportions.
Pax the griffin was interesting enough, like a glob of different animals all stuck together in a wondrous way. The
jungles of Mythlewild are home many wondrous beasts. Take the Elephonkey —Wait! Someone HAS taken the Elephonkey!
There’s something very peculiar about the new kid in Roland’s sixth-grade class. He looks and sounds … creepy. Everything about him spells trouble. Naturally, he and Roland become inseparable friends.
Imagine the fisherman's surprise when he reels in the catch of the day—Isolato, reclusive lord of all the world’s waters.
What to do with this ‘king fish’? Throw him back? Throw him on the griddle? Or … engage him in a riddle!
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#5
Includes these 8 titles:
*Olaf and the Quagmire
*Phoebus and the Olympiad
*Four Winds and the Devil's Due
*Grimwood and the Secret Thing
*Lazarus Lizard and the Wyvern
*Octagolly Finds a Friend
*Notion and the Nine Muses
*Shana and the Widow's Wings
Mythlewild's southern fens were a foul and forbidding quagmire of bogs, wallows, and wastes. How Olaf loved it! He was sovereign of his domain, and none therein would resist … as long as they were dead.
Olaf was a buzzard. However, someone living was about to intrude … and his world would never be the same after meeting this little girl.
Phoebus, son of the Sun, was peerless on the Immortals’ field of athletic competition. This year's contest promises to be especially keen, however. A newcomer has arrived, who has never, ever lost. And then there was the ‘Rookie’.
Monsoons, droughts, blizzards, tornadoes too … what's a father to do? Your children are making mischief again, and when your children are the four winds that can be a lot of mischief!
Two serpentine, squabbling branches sprouting from a single trunk, that was the monster tree known as Grimwood. But ‘He’ branch and ‘She’ branch will have to put both their boughs together or be cut down to size by the Centaur and his secret thing.
If you've ever faced a monster like the Wyvern, then you know how Lazarus lizard must have felt—SCARED—scared to the bone! But age had not snuffed the valor still burning within this fabled knight, and tonight he was going to prove it.
The trouble with being the most feared predator in the sea is, it's very difficult to find a playmate. Octagolly was lonely and often dreamed of having someone like him to play with. His dream is about to come true … unfortunately for Octagolly.
Did you ever get a ‘notion’ to do something? Well, this is his story. Notion, is responsible for almost everything we do. This unpredictable fellow often grows into something bigger ... sometimes into a giant. And there's no telling what a giant can do!
Important people can sometimes acquire big egos, especially if you are a god.
Can you imagine how 'put out' Shana, Supreme Lordess of the Earth and Heavens, was to find herself in a rank and filthy hut, boiling even ranker, filthier laundry? … And then there was that porcupine.
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#6
Includes these 8 titles:
*Eons and the Time Game
*Scarlett and the Triton's Tale
*Pandas and the Golden Lamb
*Mors and the Scavenger Hunt
*Tierra and the Perfect Place
*Folly and the Peril at the Gate
*Beezle's Bad, Bad Day
*Malfor and the Misty Knight
Eons is the Sky Lord, the Father of Winds, and commands a host of cloudy minions. He is lusty, full of life, and hot air … and he is bored. Simply moving clouds and wind around doesn’t get a rise out of him anymore. So, he decides to play a game—with Time. The trouble is, that interloper, Fate, holds all the winning cards.
A cunning predator, or a scurrilous, little hoodwink? Whatever you call her, Scarlett is a fox. And she will do what foxes have to do to survive. Tonight, the vixen must do even more to outfox the Troll, the Bull-headed Minotaur … and that fish-tailed thing everyone is after.
Pandas the bear was gentle as a lamb. He was also a shepherd. Join the easy-going bruin on his quest to rescue a stray sheep. He will find the going, not so easy. And the ‘stray’ … not what he expected.
Mors is a nervous and niddering collection of bones all wrapped up in a burial shroud. He has chosen this crisp, and chilly, autumn night for a most important scavenger hunt. Be careful if he comes knocking … you might catch your death.
Tierra, the Goddess of Beauty, lived among gods in a seemingly perfect paradise above all worldly cares.
But don't envy her—not until you hear what happened when she saw that ‘horror’ in the mirror. Even worse, was that beguiling stranger who came knocking on the door of Paradise.
Hippopotamuses were not uncommon in Mythlewild. Neither were angelic little cherubs. But Folly was. He was a hippo … and a cherub. What made Folly truly unique, however, was his role as Gateman at Castle Isabelle. The fate of king and every countryman within would rest upon the shoulders of this most uncommon guardian.
Nobody loves a demon. That’s why little Beezle is on a tear, stirring up one dickens of a time for two of our favorite Mothers: Nature and Goose. Creatures real and 'storied' team up to chase down the Devil's delinquent … and sew things up.
Just who is this shrouded figure called Malfor? That’s what the foreboding and fully armed knight would like to know.
These two sinister wayfarers meet in the chilly evening fog and share a campfire's warmth. And there a contest is joined—a game of deception that only dawn's light can reveal which one has truly won.
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#7
Includes these 8 titles:
*Glib and the Lost Crown
*JoJo and the Magic Cat
*Ymir and the Glass Egg
*Roxand and the Billiken
*Gloria and the Loneliest Place
*Aegis and the Octagolly
*Fearsome, the Wolves, and Pip
*The Labors of Ambrose
How deep is a hole? That depends on if it is a whole hole. The High King of all Myths has dropped his crown down his Oracle’s well. And the quest for its return unravels into a ‘hole-some’ adventure that even, Glib, the fast-talking, all-knowing seer can't foresee.
JoJo is a billiken. Billikens are impish, little elves that are supposed to bring you luck. But following the antics of this surprising pink clown as he jaunts from stage to stage you might wonder—is it good luck or really, really bad?
To the stable yard of animals, this ‘egg’ the two visitors nurtured looked like nothing special … except, it was glass. It was Ymir, the World Egg, capable of hatching miracles—and tonight’s extraordinary birth.
The sphinx, Roxand, could attract suitors, there was no denying that. Astonishing beasts of legend like the manticore, and garuda, and the cockatrice, all wooed the canny, stone-skinned cat.
But it was a wee, little gnome that took her home and melted her heart.
Have you ever wondered how lonely a star must be, sitting way out in the void of space all alone, unable to attract a single friend for fear of burning them up?
Gloria pines for attention. It takes a 'stellar' stream of suitors to convince her that when all is said and done, everything and every life revolves around her.
Beavers, dwarfs, even the impetuous jay birds, all within the Wilds' vast Northwood called Aegis, lord and master. The great eagle was favored by the gods and loved by all—all, except the Octagolly.
That nasty creature loved no one, and she was out to prove it.
The most frightening thing about Fearsome was not his name, or his enormous size. It was not even his three heads. It was his temper. When this barnyard dog was angered, things turned ‘ugly’. Just ask the wolf pack … what’s left of them.
The Titan, Hercules vanquished a host of hideous monsters and became immortal.
Ambrose is no Hercules But this humble civil servant will need all his strength when confronting an even more terrifying swarm of monsters—the King’s Council.
TALES of MYTHLEWILD
#8
Includes these 8 titles:
*JinJing and the Earth Wyrm
*David's Masterpiece
*Deserata and the Vanishing Land
*May-Lin and the Wondrous Works
*Clariss and the Doppelganger
*Flux and the Ten "Don'ts"
*Paladin and the Chrysalis Spell
*Tomie and the Eggshell Miracle
What can you learn from a caterpillar? Plenty, if that caterpillar is Jinjing.
Jin’ is sort of a book worm, whose story has tangled up the causes of Mother Nature’s... Nature. Sorting it out leads into some of imagination’s wonderlands... and the Earth’s Wyrm.
David may be homeless and without parents. But the young artist is blessed with imagination and a unique talent. His paintings are incredibly vivid and lifelike. That’s the problem … His paintings are like life.
“Someone has stolen my colors,” cried the rainbow to her friend the Alicorn.. The great winged unicorn, revered steed of the sun god, vowed to track down the culprit.
But color was not the only feature fading from the face of Mythlewild. The sounds, and scents, and all the senses were vanishing.
Imagination takes wing as the butterfly, May-Lin, flits from one ‘picture perfect’ world to another.
It’s a romp … until the effects of such haphazard venture catch up to her.
What do you do if you're the most omnipotent of gods, but your 'omni ' isn't potent any more? You blame your oracle of course.
This is the story of a seer's search for answers. What she finds is the Doppelganger.
Flux is a wad of clay, a changeling, constantly molded by Fate into intriguing shapes.
Today, this wayward golem will lead his master on a hide and seek escapade through the wilds of Anotherland.
Nothing and nobody is better suited for the task as Protector of the Realm than a knight like Paladin. This towering suit of armor is invincible. It cannot be killed … because inside, there is no body. Nothing!
This old tome is Fate’s favorite storybook. And ‘Tomie’ might become your favorite too, if you dare to open the cover and “step in”. Be careful though, some of his fantastical tales are very, very captivating.
Do you believe in Fate?
Before you answer that, take a stroll through town with Kosmos. Observe this ageless, absent-minded guru waddling hither and yon shaping lives like a wad of clay clasped in the palm of his hand. You may be surprised at what happens—especially if it's your town!
