"Into the Deep Forest"

A paid subscriber exclusive.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I had entered a short story for the Midwest Writing Center's Iron Pen Competition. Even though I didn't place in that competition, it was a great experience and I would definitely do it again next year.

Thoughts on the Iron Pen Experience and What I Learned From It

I've been thinking, however. I personally think what I produced was pretty good. It was a short but expansive look at a different world and dipping my toe into fantasy writing, although there was no magic to be seen in it. (According to Google and the articles it sent me to, a story without magic in it can definitely be still considered to be in the fantasy genre.)

Then I considered something else. Why sit on this story? I think it's pretty good, and it's continuing to inspire me to continue planning for this original fantasy series idea I've been toying around for a while.

With that in mind, I'm going to make this a subscriber exclusive for Liegois Media. Right now I don't have the time or inclination to be chasing down places to print my short fiction, so I might as well do it here. If you are my subscribers, you should have something to show for it, and original fiction definitely fits the bill.

So, here you go. The sentence below was the prompt for this piece. It gave me the idea which expanded into this story. Enjoy.

Between the ocean and the mountains is a wild forest. That is where I want to make my home.