Mary is a blast, but hard to write... So it tends to take me awhile. Enjoy the first chapter of the new year by me.

And as an aside, any recommendations or advice or help in regards to marketing or exposure would be appreciated. Seriously, I won't turn any of it down. I'm wary of Facebook however - they have a tendency to screw their users, as well as getting hacked. Sometimes both at the same time.

REVENGE: A Tale of Pleasure Island

By Christopher Leeson © 2014

Version date Jan. 03, 2015

Author's Note: This is a new revision, with some small textual changes and illustrations added. I took a bit of experimentation to figure out how to put in images. I still need to learn how to do tables in BC html, and if I do, things should look even better. These illos are not all the same one appearing in the earlier posting of the story, at http://thefulltgshow.blogspot.com/search/label/pleasure%20is.... This story should serve as a general introduction to the universe of Pleasure Island. If anyone is inspired by it, or by the Mana Universe that it is a part of, they are invited to try their hand with stories of their own. (I'm sure I'd enjoy reading about Pleasure Island without having to do the work of writing the story myself first) :-) Pleasure Island was inspired in me partly from the evil island in the Pinocchio story (aren't we glad that they got off that donkey schtick?) and also by Fantasy Island. I want to keep these stories short, to make them easier to write to a conclusion, but to explore different facets of the subject in each one, and also the different reactions from the boys involved. Carl Boelke is mentioned in this tale; I'm gradually getting a revision of Carl's personal experience ready to post here at BC.

One night aboard the Enterprise

Author’s note: This is a sequel of sorts of a story called “The Procrustean Petard” published in an anthology called “Star Trek: The new voyages 2”. Which you can buy from Amazon here:
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-The-New-Voyages/dp/055327933...
I’ll try to give enough detail at the start to help those who haven’t read that story ...

Author's note: This isn't quite a short-short story but it's not far off. We tend to write about the process of transition but occasionally it seems a good idea to think about 'what then?'

Fiona unpacks her purchases before heading oft for supper in Crystal hall. There, she makes new friends, an enemy and chooses a code name. Later, she has a first magic lesson from Selene and gets in trouble, (again.)

Megan gets more than just a movie

After surviving an unexpected and brutal encounter with a monster, a young man is drawn into the world of the Val Kyr.

You Don’t Have To…

My name is Shane and I actually don’t mind my name at all it’s just the rest of me that has extraordinarily been off kilter. I guess it sort of started when I was little but that’s actually kind of hazy and repressed stuff. By repressed I mean there’s stuff that just sometimes that kind of just pops into my head that comes up when I see something that would have been like normal and stuff.

Chapter 9

The moon lit up the boar tracks pretty well on the trail through the woods.

"This wild boar is a pretty big fellow, maybe the biggest I've ever tracked," Artemis whispered.

"How do you know?" Lysander asked.

Artemis knelt to the ground and pointed.

"Look how large they are, and how deep, my little one," the goddess replied.

Lysander asked why she called him little one, when in mortal size, she wasn't that much taller.

Chapter 8

Just a few more yards until the finish line.

That's what Lysander thought as he tried to catch the young Spartan boy who managed to stay just a few feet ahead of him.

They were the two youngest in the race. They easily outpaced the others.

Try as he did to overtake the boy, he could not.

The crowd cheered as they both collapsed shortly after they crossed the finish line.

Garia's day descends into chaos as personnel problems appear from every direction. Matters are not helped when one of her problems turns out not to be what anyone expected.

Somewhere Else Entirely

by Penny Lane

117 - The Stowaway

I swing my hips to the beat of the music playing from Sarah's music centre, following my girlfriend's lead, the two of us giggling at our private little 'party'.

Being Me

By Karin Roberts

The Cruise – Voyage of Discovery

Cruise Diary – Day 4

Chapter 7

"How did I get myself into this mess?," Lydia thought as she struggled to get loose from the chains that bound her to a pillar.

Meanwhile, she was being circled by a hulking figure claiming to be a king named Aron. He laughed and told the young girl she would someday be his bride.

"Tall and creepy is not my type," Lydia replied, not showing the her enemy her fear.

He slapped her. It hurt.

It hit home the words her mother told her. There would be times when Lydia would find an opponent who would be her equal in strength.

Two days after Christmas and I was starting to get bored. Another week before I had to return to work and I didn’t have anything to do.

All the Christmas Day detritus was put away on the 26th. My visitors left the same day as well and now the place is quiet.