Hi All,
Update: I have cleaned up and resubmitted the first five parts of the Tale of Roland. For me, that means reading it starting at the end and going to the front sentence by sentence to catch all of the typos and formating errors. The first couple of chapters were really messy. If you have already read the story, nothing has changed. If you have downloaded it to a hard-drive to reread (I do that with SOL stories), you might want the cleaner new copy. I will work on the last half and try to repost it soon, but it was pretty clean to start with.
I have been very happy this week. Wilhan Dragonslayer has been at the top of the Top 20 finished stories downloads all week. Since all of the stories that were above it were multiple chapter posts (2-3 chapters posted during their last week) Wilhan is actually #1 in readers because its numbers are for only one post. Many of the ongoing stories by really good authors have a much larger readership, but I'm happy that I don't suck. Maybe I do and people just really like Viking stories, crap or not. I'll find out with the next story.
I have a question for you guys. Chapter 7 is being reread a lot more than any other chapter. Why? Is it because it is long or because something is good about it? Army move, battle, army move, battle, big finish. ... It's not Pulitzer stuff ... like my sex scenes are.
I am going to start posting the old Death Bringer stories on the story site. I finished a Christmas episode, which is too big for the blog so you will have to download that one -- sorry. I'm out of ideas for the little furball, so I don't know if he will live on after that.
Here is the episode that comes before the Christmas story. It's minimalist.
Death Bringer IV
I have done it! My mortal enemy is no more! After a hunt for the ages and an epic battle, the squeak beast is dead.
The saga begins just after sunup on a frigid morning when I went into the chariot cavern to visit my privy box. After carefully digging a hole in the loose earth, doing my business, and carefully covering it so that none would ever know I had passed that way, I left the box only to see the squeak beast in the open making a run for cover. Three leaps and I was upon it. I heard its battle cry and then felt its razor sharp teeth dig deep into my hand. Fearful that a second bite might sever my whole arm I sank my fangs into my foe as hard as I could, bringing death to it.
It was over; my greatest battle to date. There was no playing with the corpse, my valiant enemy deserved better. The gods would be pleased, so I set the noble body where they would be sure to find it, for I am Death Bringer and that is my purpose.