Back of the Envelope

The next story comes from Stephen W. Doc selected the first part of this story as one of his favorites from the past year.

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Flame of the Heavens (Part Two) (Part One)
by Stephen W of Project Paradox
The next 2,851 words of a 5,897 word story in progress rated PG.

Alderin travels onward, with a zombie's mad ramblings as his only clue: "Seek the flame of the heavens in the heart of ice."

[This well-written fantasy epic is intriguing. -DSC]

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The next story is the latest from Sheya Joie's The Child:

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Part 3, Chapter 30 of The Child (The beginning)
by Sheya Joie of Tales by Sheya
The latest 2,661 words of a 157,625 word novel-in-progress rated PG-13.

In which Beatriz is rescued as last, so you'd think Walker would be happy about that...

[Sheya's The Child is the longest-running continuing story in the Carnival, dating back to SBC 4. She's done a great job of keeping the story going the whole time. -DSC]

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For our fourth story, Doc Rampage continues the tale of Rolf and Zantar.

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A Guilding of Lillis, Scene 6 (To the beginning)
by Dave Gudeman of Doc Rampage
The next 1,975 words of a story in progress rated PG.

Zantar and Rolf find the missing children. Will they be able to rescue the darling little tykes before goblin dinner-time?

[Doc tells an exciting tale with great humor. Of course, having heroes who aren't really heroic livens things up quite a bit. -DSC]

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The next story in our LIVE Storyblogging Carnival is from Goemagog.

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The Tortoise and the Cat
by Goemagog at this space for sublet
A 700 word brief story rated PG.

Rather short, with mild violence and chelonian magic.

[Goemagog's always ready to provide a slightly weird and very short story (although recently they've tended toward very weird and slightly short). -DSC]

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Once again, for the LIVE Storyblogging Carnival, we're posting stories throughout the day. The next story is my own, the second part of The History of the Domini.

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The History of the Domini: Part II (Read the whole thing)
by Donald S. Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope
The next 597 words of a 1,440 word short story rated PG-13.

The Domini and their fellowed escaped slaves flee the wrath of the Malwer.

[It's my own story, and as a rule I don't say much about those. -DSC]

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Doc Rampage was wondering what in the world I meant by a LIVE Storyblogging Carnival, if perhaps I'd put up posts all throughout the day. I didn't feel like explaining Roman numerals to him (again!), so I decided to just go with his suggestion. Rather than a single post, I'm putting up a post for each story. This will hopefully hide the fact that there weren't that many entries this time. For our first story, we have the beginning of Mark Rayner's pirate epic:

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Cheese Pyrates: Curse of the Black Cheddar (part one)
by Mark Rayner of the skwib
The first 500 words of a story in progress rated PG-13.

The opening salvo of a new chapter in the life of Jim Quinn, who's quest for revenge takes him to dark places.

[Mark always writes with humor and aplomb, and this is no exception. -DSC]

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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.

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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.

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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.

Old Post: Here is last year's Carnival of Storyblogging Carnivals.

Last year, I put together a post linking to all the carnivals, and in the process recovered one which had been lost to the ethers. Today, I'm doing the same for all the carnivals during the second year. Once again, I'll point out that I do have a page dedicated to the carnivals here, but as I noted then, it doesn't hold the full twenty-six for the previous year, much less the year before that. So this post will serve as the one which links to them all.

Storyblogging Carnival XXVII at Back of the Envelope
This is the first anniversary edition, hosted by myself. We had ten entries, mostly from our regulars, with one or two special treats. The Carnival itself was only a small part of our First Anniversary festivities.

Storyblogging Carnival XXVIII at Tales of Tadeusz
The second carnival of the second year had thirteen entries, as many as we've ever seen.

Storyblogging Carnival XXIX at Tales by Sheya
Sheya hosts the next carnival, again with thirteen entries. For some reason, thirteen seems to be our limit at this point.

Storyblogging Carnival XXX at Back of the Envelope
This is the carnival all those Google searches for "XXX stories" wind up at. The searchers are no doubt disappointed that this is one of the less racy carnivals, with only two stories getting an R rating and not a single NC-17. It had ten entries.

Stoyblogging Carnival XXXI at Back of the Envelope
Another one at Back of the Envelope, and again ten entries. It feels like we're settling into a rhythm, getting 10-13 entries each time. We're going pretty strong, it seems.

Stoyblogging Carnival XXXII at The Skwib
I believe this was Mark's first time hosting the Storyblogging Carnival. He divided the nine entries between fiction, non-fiction, and audio. Overall, it was very nicely done--neat and no-nonsense.

Storyblogging Carnival XXXIII at Tales by Sheya
And just as I'm convinced that we'll never have more than thirteen entries, along comes one with fourteen. Have we finally broken past unlucky thirteen? Will we continue to grow and grow and grow? In a word, "No."

Storyblogging Carnival XXXIV at Back of the Envelope
A week before Christmas, and we still have nine entries. Not bad at all. Kind of light on the Christmas stories, considering, but they aren't completely absent.

Storyblogging Carnival XXXV at Quibbles-n-Bits
And from nine down to five, our smallest ever. Well, it is the Christmas Holiday, so I suppose it happens.

Stoyblogging Carnival XXXVI at Doc Rampage
Doc hosts with eleven stories, and it looks like we've recovered from the Christmas vacation slump.

Storyblogging Carnival XXXVII at Back of the Envelope
Nine stories, thanks to successful whining on my part. I especially like Doc's emotionally true one.

Stoyblogging Carnival XXXVIII at Tales by Sheya
Sheya hosts seven stories, including five which are the latest parts of continuing stories. Continuing stories have become a staple of the Carnival, for reasons which are obvious when you think about them. I just haven't had a chance to do so yet.

Storyblogging Carnival XXXIX at Doc Rampage
Twelve entries this time, and I finally wrap up Fire, leaving me with no idea what to post next.

Stoyblogging Carnival XL at DesertLight Journal
This is the first carnival where I didn't have an entry of my own. I was very sad about this, but after submitting a story (or a chapter of one) every two weeks for thirty-nine weeks, I guess I can be cut a little slack. There were five entries in this one.

Stoyblogging Carnival XLI at Zeroth Order Approximation
Seven entries, and the first time hosting by Ben, I believe. Having missed my first Carnival, it was relatively easy for me to miss my second.

Storyblogging Carnival XLII at Quibbles-n-Bits
Twelve stories this time, and as it's the Passover edition, Josh guarantees that they're 100% kosher.

Stoyblogging Carnival XLIII at Cagey Mind
Eight stories this time, during Cagey Mind's first turn hosting.

Stoyblogging Carnival XLIV at Back of the Envelope
This was one of the rare carnivals you could pronounce, and let's face it, xliv is just fun to say. There were five stories, most of them really short, so the total wordcount was 5,005 words, less than some of the longer entries in most carnivals. On the other hand, one of Goemagog's stories finally broke the 1,000 word mark, so not everyone's writing was getting shorter.

Storyblogging Carnival XLV at Back of the Envelope
While xlv isn't as pronounceable, there were twice the number of entires as the previous carnival (that's, uh, two times five, carry the one, ten entries), and 140% more words.

Storyblogging Carnival XLVI at Back of the Envelope
My third hosting in a row, with eight entries, although the intro says seven--I must have miscounted. I also mispelled rather as 'rahter', so I'm wondering what was up with me that day. On the bright side, I had an entry myself, the first in the long while. Don't get too excited though: it's poetry.

Storyblogging Carnival XLVII at Doc Rampage
Doc hosts with ten entries. As usual, he has trouble with the Roman numerals.

Stoyblogging Carnival XLVIII at Our Adventurous Song
Hosted by the Blog for the e-zine Sone and Foe, I expected there to be a lot of interest in this one, but there were only five entries in the end: tying for the shortest one. The Fourth of July weekend just seems to be lacking in storyblogging. However, I did submit a story to this one, a prologue for Eyes. I also noticed that the host, Jeremiah, had been confused by Doc's Roman numeral confusion, so I figured I'd better host the next one before it got any worse.

Storyblogging Carnival XLIX at Back of the Envelope
Six entries this time. I'm beginning to think July and August are just slow months for Storyblogging. However, xlix is still pronounceable.

Stoyblogging Carnival L at Back of the Envelope
The cool thing about using Roman numerals is that every once in a while you go back down to single digits. Of course, Doc challenged my use of Roman numerals, accusing me of just making L up. He got me so confused I had to check just to make sure. In any case, there were seven entries this time.

Stoyblogging Carnival LI at Doc Rampage
Doc hosts number fifty-one, claiming that he has four stories, but I count five.

Stoyblogging Carnival LII at Fringeblog
Seven stories this time, with Jeremiah taking the helm after a long absence.

This is it, Storyblogging Carnival LIII, the second anniversary. Unfortunately, it occurs on the fifth anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks. This coincidence is a grim reminder that while we write stories about fictional worlds, we still live in the real one, where the tragedies and heartache are real and the victory of good and the redemption of evil aren't always so clear. Nevertheless, I make no apology for writing fiction, even on this day. Fiction is more than escape. The stories we tell are about the world as we believe it really is. A writer sees purpose in the world, and his story is weighted with it. Writers, whether they believe it themselves or not, make it possible to believe that no tragedy is truly meaningless, that even the worst events shape a grander story. One that I, at least, believe has a hopeful ending.

For our second anniversary, we have a number of writers returning after being away for a while. They've saved some wonderful tales for us. In addition to the carnival itself, I plan to do a couple of other posts this week, one being a Carnival of Storyblogging Carnivals, like I did last year, and one being reader-submitted favorites from the past year's Carnivals. I've seen a few nominations so far, but not many, so I'm still looking for more. Please send them to me so I can put the post together Tuesday night.

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Thag Go Grunka Gathering
by Mark Rayner of The Skwib
A 391 word brief story rated PG-13.

Thag and the Thunka Grunkas join all of the other Grunka clans at their big gathering, where the religious debates continue, and one of the other clans invents a new drink.

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A Poodle Tale
by Madeleine Begun Kane of Mad Kane's Humor Blog
A 560 word brief story rated PG.

"I read recently that elegant dog garb and pricey canine day-care are 'in' these days. Frankly, I was pleased to learn this. For until I acquired this seemingly frivolous bit of information, I was seriously concerned about my parents."

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Ghost in the Machine
by Postmodern Sass of Postmodernes Sprachspielen
A 607 word brief story rated PG.

A story about how my dead mother is haunting me.

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Names
by Tom Harrison of Monday Evening
A 634 word brief story rated PG.

A young man joins the army.

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Part I of The History of the Domini
by Donald S. Crankshaw of Back of the Envelope
The first 843 words of a continuing short story rated PG-13.

"This previously unpublished work is an excerpt from an early draft of Randall Aurelius's History of the Domini."

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Clear Passage, Part 2 of Chapter 2 of Celestaine (To the beginning)
by Kai of Books by Kai
The next 1,479 words of a story in progress rated PG-13.

Aine Harper isn't anyone to mess with--and neither is the order she represents.

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Deepsouthend
by Andrew Ian Dodge of Dodgeblogium
A 1,799 word short story rated PG.

"The Sage sat at his desk chuckling as he wrote down his latest encounter with his lifelong enemy and its efforts to infiltrate humanity. A veteran of the fight against the Great Old Ones and their minions; it was rather rare that he found anything amusing related to his task. But this one just had a tinge of typically British humour about it."

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A Guilding of Lillis, Scene 5 (To the beginning)
by Dave Gudeman of Doc Rampage
The next 1,803 words of a story in progress rated PG.

Rolf and Zantar find the goblin cave. They also find some goblins.

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Part III, Chapter 29 of The Child (To the beginning)
by Sheya Joie of Tales by Sheya
The latest 3,337 words of a 154,964 word novel rated PG.

More fighting, and the return of the fried-headed demon!

[Sheya is back! It's been a while. -DSC]

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If you'd like to take part in a future carnival, please contact me. I am also looking for hosts. Other carnivals can be found here.

The Storyblogging Carnival can be found at The Truth Laid Bear's ÜberCarnival.