Fantasy and Science Fiction Writer JA Howe
Welcome to my page and my writing. Hope you'll stick around for a while.
The fantasy I write is more of the "high fantasy", "sword and sorcery" kind.
A good example of it is all the stories I've written (and am writing, and am going to write) about the land of Kritter. But among the Knights and Kings and Lords and Elves and whatnot, I also have creatures called bodbglines (see the story "Birds and Bodbglines" pub Mythic Circle 2003, I think it was), and I stick in other things such as the Shades, or harpies and pooka. You see I like to combine mythologies, and even more to explore the sociology of creatures, of the world in which these creatures live, and so on.
I don't write tales about Kritter in any direct serial line at the moment, but some of them do have connections to each other. Since I've done a few already and will do more, those will be marked here as "Kritter Tale" along with the story title, so you'll know if you are looking for them. I also have a fantasy tale "Mermaid on the Isle" available at ifiction.
Kritter tales are currently available.
Coming soon is my first Kritter book, "Urchins of Wenterly" (soon as I finish it)
Every so often, I do write science fiction - though it ends up in more of a spec-fic vein. I really do like to play "what if" with the information available. For instance, several years back, I wrote a series called "Cherryn Rainbow" on this zine called PariahOnline. Other things I do: baseball fan(atic), genealogy buff, bird-watcher, amateur linguist and historical reenactor. (sometimes, I even manage to do some of these at the same time).
Hopefully I've peaked your interest by now. If so, check out my writing.
"Flame in the Night Regions" in the anthology Stereo Opticon by DrolleriePress http://drolleriepress.com (2009)
"The Burning Darkness" in the April 2010 issue of Bards and Sages Magazine http://www.bardsandsages.com/quarterly.html
"Copper Wire of the Gods" in PariahOnline http://www.dotguy.net/fantasy.html
"Dave Pursues the Gryphon" available from AmazonKindle.com http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005NKFRQY
by J.A.Howe
Empowered by the face of a new dawn
The life of Willard Peterson goes on
He smiles and yawns and stretches in his bed
And muses at the outside sky so red
So cloudy - "Ah, 'twill rain today," says he
"So much the better for my beans that be."
He danced in moonlight once, now pulls on boots
And heads out for his daily walking route
He passes 'neath the shadows of the trees
Where golden flowers grow amidst the breeze
The birds sang to him as he passed them by
And raindrops pattered down on from way up high
He caught one in his palm and held it fast:
"Now, don't you melt, my dear; you're mine at last!"
For drops are really fairies, as those know
Who often wandering in Dreamland go.
He brought her home and put her on his bed
And smiled kindly "You're beautiful," he said
She blushed " - but oh, so tiny, oh so small
I fear almost to touch you again at all!"
She smiled at Willard, danced upon his floor
Passed through his legs and scurried out the door
He found her later after a long search
Upon the kitchen counter she had perched
And was inspecting all his crockery
His pots and pans and kettles curiously
"This is a spoon, and this a fork," he told her
And she held up her arms for him to hold her
He showed her all his house with much delight
And gave her broth at supper when came night
And went to sleep, and when again came dawn
His tiny lady of the rain was gone.
For she was but a raindrop after all
And melted in the sunlight of the hall.
Pablo Lennis May '98; DarkMoonRising Sept '00
Where else to find me on the net:
fanfic shown in:
excerpt from "Yarrow's Tale" by JA Howe:
...Yarrow rolled over, humming to herself. It was a pleasant sensation; she could feel the vibrations rolling around in her skull, even if she couldn't hear them directly. What do they know anyway? she thought. One minute more of this, and then she got up; if she didn't, her aunt and uncle would be on her like grubs on a dead body. About as pleasant, too.
The nightmare was still smashing at her mind, as she rose and threw on a light dress with a buckle. Worn fabric for a worn mind. She shook her head to clear it - hopefully. But Yarrow kept seeing visions of Lord Holder Toric dying. It always happened like that, and the man always died in different ways. But he always yelled the same thing, and she wished she could hear it... wished she could hear anything. But then, would her Harper parents have trusted her with Harper secrets, like their real reason for visiting Southern? "Something's not right down there," she remembered her father signing to her with a wag of his head and a finger pointing at the map they had for where to go. "Masterharper Sebell wants us to investigate."
By "us," he meant Yarrow's mother too, but she knew they would also be taking her. Porilan had been very protective of his daughter since she'd been born, like she was a rock crystal or something. The Journeyman of Composition, Masterharper Sebell's second apprentice, made sure he knew what she was doing almost every second of the day, be it playing with some of the Hall firelizards or helping out in the kitchens with ever-so-patient Silvina.
She didn't know what the fuss was about; nobody really told her much, and she only really heard facts like this one: they were to go, and that was that. Not even Yarrow's mother Ulia said otherwise. She just made sure Yarrow packed clothes.
They were gone now; it didn't matter anymore. Now Yarrow was stuck with people she wasn't even related to - who, if they even guessed why Yarrow's parents had come to the Continent, kept up the pretense for their convenience. They could always use a personal drudge, a free one at that. Who cared about Lord Toric dying anyway? Yarrow had wondered from the start what the big deal was. Harpers were strange sometimes. But that was not her life now.
Sure enough, there was Mink in the doorway, making rapid signs about how his cousin better get up before The Parents arrived. Yarrow and Mink had a sort of cautious neutrality to their relations; he didn't want to anger his parents, and his parents hated his deaf cousin, but he liked her well enough to give her these warnings. Mink had on his wrinkled blue tunic, that he wore in defiance of his father, so he must be feeling especially impish today. He pestered Harper Undabran often enough for her to know what he wanted to become someday. I wonder how long it will take before he gets his ears boxed for it - this time, she thought. Mink did things just to irritate his parents, sometimes, she was sure. And it didn't take much to irritate Hannin and Petia.
No matter thatYarrow's own father had been a Master at the Harper Hall far away on the North Continent, and her mother had once been a singer there. When they'd been in Southern, where Yarrow felt it was far too hot, for only a sevenday, Porilan had gone out "fishing" (which Yarrow felt odd since he was from Ruatha, a decidedly landbound Hold). The boat had washed up in pieces near Southern, and Yarrow's mother had gone bezerk, like a firelizard around an angry dragon. "Listen to me!" she'd signed to the girl emphatically over and over, grabbing plump shoulders. Her nails had bit into the thin fabric of the Southern-style dress Yarrow had taken to wearing, as she'd signed rapidly something about "if something happens to either of us, Yarrow, you are to investigate - it's very important that you investigate... Fax!" Yarrow knew her history well enough, but this had made no sense. Lord Fax and - well most of his issue were long gone. She knew vaguely that nobody had liked Lord Toric as it was, so why the concern? But her mother didn't say why she was telling the girl either; she seemed to know something was going to happen...
