MOST DEVOTEES OF HOPMON, GOD of the Ever-Filling Purse, were honest souls. However, woe betide any who encountered their seeming opposites. Prosatio Silban was sweaty, thirsty, and famished. The dust of the ostensibly endless road filled every visible wrinkle and…
Category: Writing
My own serious stuff; the craft itself; those who inspire me in it; the art of reading.
Prosatio Silban and the Leg Up
THE NAME “EVERFAIRE” DESCRIBED THE village perfectly. It was a centuried and perpetual trading-center on the border dividing the lands and villages of epicurean Pormaris from those administered by cosmopolitan Soharis, and its shops, inns, and taverns never closed. Some…
Prosatio Silban and the Curious Artifact
MISTAKEN IDENTITY AND MISTAKEN IDENTIFICATION are two entirely different things – but both have the potential to spark unintended consequents. Prosatio Silban was driving his galleywagon along one of the Uulian Commonwell’s little-known and lesser-used roads, though not far from…
Prosatio Silban and the Great Wasting
SENSITIVE SOULS BEWARE: ALTHOUGH MOST of Prosatio Silban’s adventures are whimsically lighthearted, this is not one of them. We find the once-beefy cook in his galleywagon at the side of a lately untraveled road, stirring the rather malodorous contents of…
Our Meaningful Century
THIS PAST WEEK SAW A couple of personal milestones: the completion of my 100th Prosatio Silban story, and my e-book‘s first review. (Pop the confetti and cue the corks.) To celebrate, here are synopses for all the Cook For Any…
Prosatio Silban and the Wavering Line
ACCORDING TO THE WISE, REPUTATION is everything. But that’s not always a good thing. “I would like for us to enter into a commercial arrangement,” said Idino Tarz to Prosatio Silban. “You have a solid standing throughout the Three Cities…
Word to Bring Back (Okay, Forward): “Fabtastic”
– Definition: adj. portmanteau of “fabulous” and “fantastic” – Used in a sentence: You have fabtastic style, my dear. – Why: I generally dislike modern portmanteaus, but this one leaped onto the screen when I tried to type “fantastic” and…
Prosatio Silban and the Divine Gaze
(THIS TALE IS FOR THOSE who have wondered about Those Who watch over, and occasionally interfere with, the residents of the Uulian Commonwell. Read it in good humor.) Prosatio Silban finished his evening meditations, stood up on his ornate braided…
… Cervantes compared translation to the other side of a tapestry. At best we see a rough outline of the pattern we know exists on the other side, but it lacks definition and is full of loose threads.”
— Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, z”tl
Prosatio Silban and the Senseless Struggle
AND THEN CAME ONE OF those days which every culinarian dreads. “Master Cook? Master Cook!” called a well-dressed old man. He was sitting at one of the two tables-and-chairs Prosatio Silban had set up in the lee of his galleywagon,…
5 (Well, 6) Thoughts: How I Write
(THE FOLLOWING IS A BRIEF account of how the Prosatio Silban tales are conceived and written. It’s mostly meant for fans of those works, but if you’re interested in the writing process in general, read on — if not, I…
Prosatio Silban and the Tournament Palatine
THE SCULLERY MISTRESS HELD A brimful cup to Prosatio Silban’s waiting lips; he sipped, swallowed, and paused. “It is good that I am blindfolded,” he said with a triumphant smile, “or else I’d see the nutmeg before tasting it.” “That…