A single star rises and pierces the darkness. Spider webs cocooning the great forest dissipate like smoke under the touch of the star’s illumination.
With the light comes a rider, bold and proud in his saddle, one hand holding a battle-worn stave, the other outstretched, palm open and turned up, a battered steel circlet around his head. The star rises in union with his nearing the forest, like a balloon tethered to his back by a very long string.
In the city in the forest, people pour out from their houses cheering, squinting in the light after 57 years of darkness.

Continued: https://jeffsuwak.medium.com/57-to-1-8a7c0bdd07ed

The Diary of Magnus Cray continues. 

Is there still time to stop the Virus?

Yes or no, Mangus intends to find out.

Print version is here. 

Audio:

The door is open. The church on Parsons Street. The one with the holes in its windows.
Go there and see...


​This story was originally published in Medium. 

An audio version is now available here:

​

An unnerving blog appeared yesterday. No one's sure exactly what to make of it.

This Magnus Crazy guy...no one can find out who or what he is. Something about his story seems legitimate, though. 

If so, then we have much bigger things than a virus to worry about. 

God help us.

Diary of Magnus Cray (Day 1)

My drabble (a story under 300 words-long) was published in Adler's Writing back in 2018. 

I made an audio version of it. The story is about a six-year-old boy named Darnell Short. He sneaks inside a magician's hat to find out where the rabbits come from. 

I've taken my new video experiments to a new level and actually put myself before the camera. 

I immediately regret it. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F82AvmWsxY&feature=youtu.be

The only way I know how to do anything is through trial and error, which basically means doing it poor several times and learning from each mistake.

So, I want to learn to effectively turn my written stories into videos and podcasts. I made my first attempt here. 

I'll get better. 

​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzlzQZaGinA&t=8s

I recently went on a very long hike looking for the ghost town of Melmont, Washington. It was a great example of building things up too much in the imagination. 

The town wasn't nearly as ghostly or as dramatic as I'd envisioned it would be. The trail was great, though.

I wrote about it over at my travel blog, Northwest Nomad: ​http://nwestnomad.com/uncategorized/where-the-heck-is-melmont-ghost-town-anyway/

I'm experimenting with publishing a novel chapter by chapter on the Medium platform. 

With publishing changing so quickly, I want to see what happens when I fully embrace the digital evolution and build an audience chapter by chapter with the project coming to completion as readers follow along. 

Check it out. Chapter 1:
ClayClay made it halfway to the woods before floodlights snapped on and bathed him in light. He pushed himself into a dead sprint without wasting one second looking back. His head reeled from dehydration and starvation, but the memory of his mother’s face drove him onward. He would not die out there in the wilderness and leave her forever wondering what happened to her vanished son. Not without a fight, anyway.
He’d just reached the cover of trees when a woman’s voice called over a bullhorn.
“There’s no place for you to run, Clayton. Come back. We can talk this out.”
He recognized the voice as Karen’s — his supposed friend, supposed sister.
“If we have to go after you, talking will no longer be an option. Nobody wants that.”

Contined at: https://medium.com/@jeffsuwak/evidence-of-absence-8cb829189d8e