(Story idea, with thanks, by Ann Clark.) SOME TROUBLES ARE ONLY small – if not in importance, then at least of stature. Whistling a tuneless melody, Prosatio Silban bustled about inside his galleywagon in anticipation of a healthy Pormaris breakfast-crowd.…
Category: Writing
My own serious stuff; the craft itself; those who inspire me in it; the art of reading.
Our Hero Returns!
IT’S BACK TO THE EXILIC Lands for our dauntless and resourceful holyman-turned-mercenary-cook, where he seeks rewards both profitable and profound in a world unlike any you’ve ever visited. The forty-five new stories in More Commonwell Tales pick up where Across…
Prosatio Silban and the Recipe Thief
SOME SECRETS ARE NOT MEANT to be shared – at least, not without consequences. Prosatio Silban closed his eyes and inhaled the clean salt air of cosmopolitan Soharis-on-the-Rimless-Sea. I never tire of this city, he thought. Its ridiculously fresh seafood,…
Prosatio Silban and the Road Taken
ONE GOOD TURN LEADS TO another – and also, sometimes, to unforeseen ends. Prosatio Silban was sick. So sick, in fact, that he couldn’t sit upright on the wide driver’s bench as his galleywagon swayed along the tamped-earth road near…
Indicator (A Prosatio Silban Amuse Bouche)
“HOW CAN YOU TELL FROM a single dish whether or not the cook is adept?” a customer once asked Prosatio Silban. “Simplicity in the complex, and complexity in the simple,” came the cook-errant’s swift reply. His customer creased her brow.…
Prosatio Silban and the Weekly Vacation
LIKE ALL PEOPLE ACROSS THE Uulian Commonwell, the Cook For Any Price always looked forward with eager anticipation to Sixth. For the first five of the Uulian week’s six days, everyone (including beggars and outlanders) tended to their trades, professions,…
Prosatio Silban and the Dire Straits
FROM WHERE DO YOU DRINK when your once-abundant spring dries up? Prosatio Silban sighed, and – for the dozenth or so time – regarded his empty pantry, coldbox, and coin jar. I don’t imagine repeated examination is going to fill…
Prosatio Silban and the Artful Dodge
HERE’S A SIMPLE QUESTION: WHAT is the essence and meaning of “art?” I have never seen such beautiful food, Prosatio Silban thought. The village of Pastisi had made a name for itself by crafting the most picturesque baked goods in…
Prosatio Silban and the Dueling Perfumers
THE SENSE OF SMELL IS an important component for that of taste. But can it stand alone? “I shall be brief,” said the woman in the jewel-bedecked caftan, smoothing a tailored crease upon one crossed knee. “My enterprise, ‘Sobor’s Scents,’…
Prosatio Silban and the Tainted Wind
NOT ALL AWAKENINGS ARE RUDE – but some may as well be. Prosatio Silban stretched, yawned, sat up, and contemplated the interior of the curtained sleeping-berth tucked into his galleywagon’s rear. Something is amiss, he thought. But what? His inquisitive…
Prosatio Silban and the Boundary Crossers
PROSATIO SILBAN HAD TO LOOK twice before he realized what he was seeing. Why is this Xao woman, he asked himself, dressed as an Uulian? It was a fair question. The Xao were almost the oldest original residents of the…
Prosatio Silban and the Gourmet Gallivant
IT BEGAN, AS DO SO many seriously frivolous matters, with an impassioned tavern-boast. “Outside of present company, the best cookery in the Uulian Commonwell is found not in epicurean Pormaris but in its provinces,” burly, wise-eyed Apista Thurtok said. “And…