Lawrence Dagstine gets us lost at sea...on an island of mythological creatures...in The Spires of Shadow and Water!

"First, I'd like to congratulate Frances Rowat on winning the story title contest.  I was very taken in by  The Spires of Shadow and Water.  I wanted to do another high seas tale for The Willows, maybe something with an oceanic cult involving spires.  I've always been fascinated by Greek myth, so I used the Aegean Sea as my setting.  Mythological things such as an abandoned Grecian fishing village and the Sirens also acted as my catalyst.  I wanted my story to take place in World War Two, but this time have an indefinable sense of mystery and ill-portent behind it.  Many of us have read the "doomed seaman" tale before, but did you ever wonder what would happen if you took a mythological, cosmic horror from the ocean's murky depths and combined them with two elements? Shadow and water? What if such elemental creatures have masqueraded as us and plagued seamen since the beginning of time? I hope you enjoy The Spires of Shadow and Water as much as I enjoyed penning it."

His website may be found at www.LawrenceDagstine.com.
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G. D. Falksen returns to the floating city of Salmagundi inThe Strange Case of the All-Seeing Ear, Part 3 !

"As The All-Seeing Ear moves toward its midpoint, the accompaniment begins to take form. The principles (Cerys, Ras, and to a lesser extent Wilde) are joined by the supporting parts. The pairings of LeClerc and Mernil, and Wilde and Mueller, help to lighten the tempo by playing off one another, but in addition to providing some banter for relief it also helps to heighten the tension and growing dread by way of contrast. The character of Marguerite arrives as a sort of inexhaustible pillar of reliability for Cerys, but she also symbolizes the innocent Salmagundi that Cerys is devoting her life to protect. And of course, the "silent character" of the setting itself remains an integral part of the story. The two major locations in Part Three (the decaying undercity and the orderly, bureaucracy-bound Legion headquarters) are stark opposites of one another, and this tension helps retain the story's theme of struggling opposites: faith against reason, tyranny against chaos, technology against the occult. The climax is building, and it is only a matter of time before the conflict must be resolved, one way or another."

His website may be found at www.myspace.com/GDFalksen
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