That was a toughie. Sorry it took so long.

Writing this latest chapter in Harold's story was a big chore. I wanted it to feel like an important turning point but not the end of the story. The story kept wanting to make it an ending and yes, it is a good enough ending, but there are other parts of Harold's story I want to tell.

I hope I hit a nice compromise and in a week or so, I hope to be able to start posting Part 2. :)

Hugs,
Erin

This is the end of the first "book" which I think I will call "Castle and Road". Next chapter will begin book 2 which will concern the city of Lundenna.

I've had some more fun with the language in this chapter though I left one word untranslated. People can probably guess what it is from the context.

Two things for those who have been following my story Bian in which I play with a language I madeup called Bloddish:

1. Yes, I am working on the next episode (along with work on the next episodes of Vector and Hired Girl and other outside work, besides the other stuff I do around here and on DopplerPress. :)

Piper will be tuning the intranet and switches connecting our various servers; so expect brief outages, probably lasting no more than a few minutes as she disconnects and reconnects various cables and occasionally reboots machines to activate new configurations. Please be patient and forbearing. :)

Thanks and hugs,
Erin

Some years ago I was running a tabletop RPG in which my players were exploring an underground ocean. They had their own ship and were attacked by another ship. The crew of the pirate ship seemed to be made up of human-sized spiders carrying cutlasses and firing muskets. Except some of them seemed to come out of nowhere and attack with nunchuks, sais and shurikens. And some of them seemed to be undead and unkillable.

During the course of the battle one of the players said, "Wait, wait! Stop! We're fighting Zombie, Ninja, Pirate Spiders?"

Rule One: Keep it friendly.

Rule Two: Give the benefit of the doubt.

Rule Three: Remember, it isn't about you.

How to complain...

Hugs to all,
Erin

Went to see Suicide Squad Thursday night, it was very good. Good story, good atmosphere, good acting. Okay, the dialog is a bit weak but the actors nail the characterization and hold the script up.

The critics and a certain subset of comic book fans dislike it; that mystifies me. A movie is supposed to be entertaining and I found it very entertaining. So much so, that I'm going to go see it again while it is still on the big screen.

You've probably been seeing a few postings about Kindle books on BC. This is nothing new, Maddy Bell's Gaby series has been on Kindle and before Kindle on Lulu for a long time. Also works by several other authors including Tanya Allen, Katie Leone and me.

Someone objected to my removing a comment and protested that doing so without an explanation was "gauche". Here is part of my private reply to them:

The May story contest ended last week and the voting is still going on. Tonight I will take a snapshot of the current Kudos count for the contest entries and tomorrow will announce the winners.

1st Prize has been upgraded to a 1-year subscription to Hatbox.
2nd and 3rd prize are 3-month subscriptions.
All other entries will receive 1-month subscriptions.

I'm taking the day off, going down to OC and maybe the beach or Downtown Disney.

Piper and Cat will be on and off and they can reach me on my phone. Have fun everyone!

Hugs,
Erin

{Refreshening this announcement} Time for a new story challenge (Not a Contest^™)! :)

This is for any story or chapter of a longer work based on the theme of "Fools Rush In" posted in the month of April, 2016.

It's just for the fun of it so there are no prizes but there will be a feature spot on the front page for entries, once we have a few. Any length, solo or serial chapter or whatever. Go for it!

Hugs,
Erin

It's that time of month. We have about 1700 due by the end of the week and we are about 400 short on our expected subscriptions and gifts.

Anything you can give will be appreciated and we have some new stuff happening that people will be finding out about soon. Piper has been very busy. :)

Here's the info:

We're still about $300 short of this month's goal. And we got hit with an unexpected expense for almost that much, just last night. So, we're pretty much broke.

We have about $180. We owe about $1375 on Friday, though we can put a lot of that off. Shortfalls are made up by me, Erin.

So, if you can help, please do. The link for a onetime gift is: Hatbox and the link for a subscription is: Subscribe.

We're down to the last $57 in our bank account and more bills coming in. If you can send us a contribution, it would be greatly appreciated.

Use this link to send us a gift:
One-Time Gift

Use this link to subscribe through the Hatbox Membership page:
Subscribe