It’s been a sickly week around the Leonard household. I was taking a lot of cold medication this last week so I apologize about the missing podcast Tuesday. The story is written and has already been sent off to David so no worries about it this coming week. I’m finally feeling a bit better, but Samantha is sick now! This is why I don’t go to Chuck E. Cheese! It’s one of those places for kid parties. Pizza, video games, etc. Everything is sticky. Everything is just waiting to get you sick. *shudders*

Anyway, thanks for your patience.

Tonight we’re going to take a small break before getting to part six of Pushed to the Edge. I’m not usually big into poetry but I’ve been taking a creative writing class that is focusing on it. We were asked to write a sonnet and it’s the first chance I’ve had to write in the fantasy genre. I decided on a sonnet through the eyes of Alsalam as he’s watching the attack and defense of his village in last week’s episode. It peeks into a troubled and nervous mind. Of course, it has limitations by form alone, having only 14 lines to work with and only 10 syllables per lines. That really makes you consider each word carefully, a good writing lesson.

I think it worked in the end. I’m even a little impressed with what I came up with. Another fun twist was how David records the poem. The fun thing of poetry is that everyone interprets a piece differently. He really does a great job with the serious tone and it’s fun that his pauses come at different places than when I read it.

But enough of my rambling. I hope you enjoy it. Part six will be back next Tuesday!

Conflicts of Battle

Invading drums commence the steady beat
of a soldier’s march. The General calls
a charge, their avalanche of swords to meet
His own forest of spears. How many would fall?

Men shouted, men fought, men let out a call
of battle so sound it was heard around
Death’s field. Injured were forced to try and crawl
across hard packed dirt of striking red ground.

He watched the scene in a too common way,
A thought that wearied his soul. These brave men
wore masks of strategy, some would ever lay.
Tales would number those, rounding off to tens.

Yet to the man all fought at his command,
In time some might commend this brutal stand.

The battle is at hand and Alsalam does his best to defend his people. Mavis gets her first chance to prove her worth as a leader and tactician. Will the planning and enhanced defenses be enough to hold back the Kallish troops?

As always, thanks for joining us tonight. If you’ve missed past episodes or would rather read the story, check the podcast page for the full text. Hope you enjoy!

A retaliation force is heading for Jalsalam while a tired and sick would-be leader tries to rally what forces he is able. The Kallish army does not take their official’s disappearance lightly. Alsalam must help Mavis and his people understand the importance of standing up for themselves, and of working together to do it.

Thanks for joining us tonight, hope you enjoy part four of the story!

Check here to read previous parts if you’ve missed them.

There won’t be a podcast episode this week. David is moving and has been without internet. It didn’t seem right to make him worry about recording amidst the general frustration of moving! We’ll be back next Tuesday with a new episode. Hope everyone has a great week!

This poor blog has been neglected for a bit. This week’s episode really threw me for a loop. I haven’t had so much trouble writing for some time now. I scrapped three ideas (and lots of plotting) and modified the one that I didn’t scrap more than once. I think it came out pretty well in the end. Sorry it wasn’t up last Tuesday.

We had a nice Texas rain today, the first one in awhile. It felt fantastic, especially considering the 109 degree heat yesterday. It was kind of a defining moment of the end of Summer. Everything seems to relax a bit and fall into routine when such a large part of the population heads back to school.

Remember, if you’d rather read the story you can do so here. As always, thanks for joining us tonight!

In part two of Pushed To The Edge the walls begin to close in around Alsalam as he returns to his home village. Instead of a warm welcome he finds the town quiet and the streets empty. Things quickly turn from bad to worse and he discovers exactly why the people are in hiding.

Check out the podcast page if you missed part one. As always, thanks for listening!

Tonight we start a brand new story! Pushed To The Edge is another way of trying something new. Trying new accents, and hopefully a bit larger scale than any podcast story I’ve written so far. We shall see how this goes! I’ll re-post the synopsis for anyone who missed it last week.

For fifteen years invaders from the distant land of Kalleth have held Alsalam in servitude to their army, but they’ve brought peace and prosperity as well. When a murderous and enslaving change in command comes down from the eastern King, Alsalam must use the military knowledge he’s learned from them not only to defend himself, but all the tribes of his homeland.

As always, thanks for joining us!