Hooves and Horns has gone through a long run before finally coming out.
Medical operations wait for no man, and if they do that could be very bad, so we were delayed. But such is life. And there is life on the other side, and so there is also this anthology.
In it you will see all kinds of unicorns and horses and other creatures of an equine variety. My mom would have loved this anthology.
Now I hope you will get a chance to love it as well.
Opal Kingdom Press has now released Hooves and Horns and it is available across multiple ebook retailers around the globe.
Across enchanted forests, forgotten roads, ancient villages, storm-tossed shores, and worlds far from our own, hoofbeats echo through stories as old as wonder.
Unicorns may offer miracles—but demand a terrible price. Centaurs carry ancient wisdom and old grudges. Kelpies wait beneath dark water for the unwary. Mystical mares bring judgment between worlds. Terrifying creatures with hooves and horns emerge from legend to challenge those brave enough to face them.
Hooves and Horns gathers tales of beasts both familiar and unexpected, reimagined through fantasy, folklore, history, and urban adventure.
Saddle up, hold tight, and listen for the hunting call.
Something extraordinary is coming.
The bit about writing stories that most people don’t really see is how much of yourself goes into every story you write.
There’s a saying about “writing what you know” and that’s more accurate than some think. It’s just about impossible to write something you don’t know or have a basic understanding of. Which is why so many writers who have magical stories will create rules about how magic works. Because even with the make believe, you have to know what you are writing or you can’t do it. And very few people in the world can write truly abstractly and have something come out in the end that is readable.
If the writing is too abstract, people won’t be interested. If it is too crazy, they will lose the plot. And as usual, there are different ranges. Some people like a bit more crazy, and some people like reading a bit more rules.
I like reading stories about prepared and trained men doing things that need doing. And some people like horror stories where unprepared people get dragged into circumstances where the things that go bump in the night scare them half to death. And I like to write stories about the people who hunt the things that go bump in the night. Because there always has to be the people prowling around the campfire, keeping the monsters at bay so everyone else can sleep.
There is a range of stories people read and love, and we have to write for the one we choose. But there are many things we haven’t written that we could if we wanted to.
Do you think the lawyer of that lady who brutally murdered her three children should be disbarred?
He released the man’s identity, or at least enough of it as to make it simple for others to find it out and make it public.
He’s trying to get the guy in legal trouble for taking part in the jury process.
This is a direct assault on the very idea of jury trials. No member of a jury should get in trouble for being on the jury and not giving one of the sides of a trial the verdict they wanted.
And anyone who pursues agendas that lead to future jury members thinking that will be the case should be disbarred. Or worse.
Do you remember during the George Floyd “Mostly Peaceful Protests” and the Covid lockdowns that drug stores in some cities had to put glass panels in front of their shelves to keep the usual suspects from stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down? That happened in Washington DC.
Well, the President placed soldiers on the streets to stop all the murders taking place in our nation’s capital after he won election, and that has cut the murder rate WAY down. It also dropped crime and theft so low that the drug stores in Washington DC have removed those glass panels. They no longer lock up the toothpaste if the reports I’ve seen are real.
This is the kind of nice and peaceful place you can make for people to live in, if you put a priority behind maintaining the public peace versus a priority behind putting career violent criminals back onto the streets that people walk through.