Back of the Envelope

I asked my readers, along with current and former Storyblogging Carnival participants, to send me their favorite stories for the past year. Unfortunately, I didn't get very many responses, but there were a couple. For the most part, the recommendations came without comment, so I added a little description so you know what they're about.

---

Sheya Joie of Tales by Sheya recommends Ink Magic at Doc Rampage. Dave Gudeman's tale of demons, tattoos, and dark matter is certainly deserving of the recognition.

---

Dave himself, aka Doc Ramapge, has compiled a sizeable list of stories deserving recognition:

Celestaine at Books by Kai mixes sci-fi and magic.

Adventure at Perrero gives a writer a second chance at life.

Amelia Earhart's Blog tells the story of Earheart's last years.

Satin is one of Andrew Ian Dodge's one hundred word stories, and in Doc's opinion, the best.

Flame of the Heavens at Project Paradox. I didn't read this one myself, but it looks like an interesting fantasy story, and apparently Doc liked it.


Culture Shock at Caveman Joe. They travelled a long way through space to meet the odd aliens who looked so similar despite their lack of both fur and tails.

All of the Thag stories from the Skwib (which Doc thinks should be spelled(squib)). Pre-history was never this familiar.

Bob and the Circus is one of Goemagog's (at this space for sublet) longer stories. Bob happens to be a tree.

Pentecost at Fwd: Thoughts is a retelling of the second chapter of Acts.

Kidney Failure at Creativity Dies tells a rather depressing tale of drug use.

The Child at Tales by Sheya. Religious allegory or a good story disguised as religious allegory? You decide.

The Diary at Stealth Fiction is as good an argument as I've ever seen not to read strange books.

The Peace Moonbeam Chronicles at Peace Moonbeam. According to Doc, they "are all funny as heck."

Finally, Doc also thinks that Quest for the Sacred Crystal deserves mention as a user-directed novel.

Or maybe not so finally. Doc also sent me a long e-mail he thought should be added to the Reader's Favorites post. I'll post it as written, despite its blush-inducing nature.

It doesn't seem fair to me that Donald Crankshaw, a very talented writer, one of the most reliable entrants (up till the last few months), and the founder of the Carnival should have to do the aniversaries, so I've asked him to append this note to the Anniversary Carnival. Donald obviously can't talk about how good his own contribution has been, so I'll do it. He has done two things that deserve special mention (and a poem that doesn't deserve special mention so I'm going to pass sliently over it :-). First, his short novel, Fire is a tremendous fantasy epic set in a pseudo-Roman setting. I always look forward to the various additions to this story such as The History of the Domini: Part I and Interlude from Fire. Donald also contributed another good novella, Eyes in the Shadow. Frankly, although the story and charcters were very engaging, I never felt that Donald pulled off a sufficient level of creepiness for a horror novel. But as amply shown by Coming Home, the Prologue to The Eyes of the Shadow, he has finally found his inner Poe.

Finally, I'd like to thank Donald for all of the hard work he has put into the Storyblogging Carnival. He must end up hosting half of them or more, and hosting a Carnival is not a trivial amount of work. So, thanks, Donald, and congratulations on your second aniversary.

And the rest of you should be volunteering to host more often. I would host more often, but I'm too busy...

Thanks, Doc. Hopefully, I'll have some more stuff in the near future.