Dear Reader…
Welcome to another beautiful week here at Talebones! If you’re new around here thanks to the most recent issue of TALESTACK NEWS, a hearty welcome to you, too!
I can't believe it's almost the end of June! Next week I'm going to be announcing next month's short fiction story, so make sure you check out our June horror tale A Thing Must Be Loved if you haven't already!
Contest Update
Gather ‘round, folks, because this is the final week to enter our flash fiction contest AND vote for your favorites!
Since last week, we’ve had further entries from Barry Burton, Andrew Paul Ward, Vincent Marshall ,Shaina Read, and Olivia St. Lewis, so make sure you head to the contest comments, read their tales, and vote by “liking” the comment containing their story link! (Remember: you can vote for as many stories as you want!)
The winner will be announced in the next Talebones Weekly, so don’t delay to have your vote counted!
The Archive - A Brief Introduction
The winner of our flash fiction contest will receive a year-long free comp to the Talebones Archive.
So, what IS the Archive?
Talebones runs on a seasonal schedule. At the end of each season, all of the free content (short tales and completed serials) are moved into the Archive where they are only accessible through a paid subscription. Access costs $2.50/month or $30/year.
For that price, you get:
Access to ALL content within the Archive
Seasonal Summary posts outlining behind-the-scenes, extra worldbuilding, and other process-related materials for each season of stories
Exclusive Q&As about each story
Collaboration in future publishing projects (and free/discounted copies)
The ability to help decide what content will appear on Talebones in future!
Basically, Archive Members are my Talebones Team!
The Archive officially opens in the fall when our summer stories will shift over, but if you’re interested you can sign up right now!
Every cent goes toward supporting this publication as well as TALESTACK NEWS—your dollars make a difference!
And now, an excerpt from our upcoming third issue of Ivy & Ixos…
Excerpt - “The Big Tour”
In the morning when dawn crept through the window, Ivy woke up to a sound she had never heard before. She thought at first it was coming from her tablet, which she had left on the windowsill, a sort of unfamiliar buzzing, trilling sound. A long vibrating note, discordant and yet beautiful. It echoed out for a second or two, then stopped. Then it started up again, a single wavering thrum, then silence. It was coming from outside her window.
Ivy pulled herself up onto her elbows and flicked aside the curtain to reveal the grove of alders. There in the branches was a bird she had never seen before. She thought at first it was a robin; they were all over the park where she liked to ride her bike, running about and pulling worms out of the manicured lawn. But this bird was different. The marigold-orange of its breast feathers was vivid, splashes of the same color on its throat and in a stripe above its eye. It contrasted sharply with the charcoal grey of its cap and mask and back, the two colors falling into a patchwork pattern along its folded wings.
The bird opened its mouth and the sound came out again, a haunting buzz. Ivy was enraptured. She had never heard anything like it before.
When it realized it was being watched the bird cocked a dark eye at Ivy, froze for a moment or two, and then fluttered away, out of the alder grove and on toward the dark line of the woods.
In the quiet that followed, Ivy could hear a mechanical clanking sound, coming from somewhere outside. It sounded like someone hammering on metal. Pete must already be awake.
She pulled her slippers out of her backpack, tugged her sweatshirt on over her pajamas, and padded down the spiral staircase.