October 31, 2023

Welcome to the 2023 Royal Academy of Bards' Halloween Special!

The Bard of New Mexico -A Grim Tale?

Mel makes a new friend, much to Janice's chagrim.

D.J. Belt - La Danse Macabre

Music is the language of the soul, it’s said. On Halloween night in a Romanian village, it’s the language of both the dead and the undead, as friends Lotte and Anna discover to their fascination and horror.

Norsebard -The Hearse

Irrational fear can be a killer. Laura Sorensen discovers that while driving home from a business trip. Tension mounts as a creepy hearse follows her every move on the freeway… or does it?  Could it all be in her mind?

Norsebard - Happy Halloween, Y'all

Halloween in and near Goldsboro, Nevada is just like every other day of the year: chaotic and weird. If it weren't for Jack O'Lanterns, outrageous costumes and bonfires in the desert, it might as well be January 31st. This time, the Last Original Cowpoke Wynne Donohue and her main squeeze Sheriff Mandy Jalinski must face a different kind of opponent to their usual supernatural foes - but the results are the same as always… chaotic and weird.

IseQween -Paw-Wing: A Mystery

Xena and Gabrielle undergo a uniquely wild, unsettling examination of their identities in the following submission to the 2023 Royal Academy of Bards Halloween Special Challenge.

Phineas Redux - The Canning House Ghoul

A 1930’s country house weekend party find themselves in the mire when a series of brutal deaths breaks out in the estate and surrounding neighborhood.

Phineas Redux - Laighburn Abbey

Periwinkle ‘Peri’ MacIntyre and her lover Maude Clarke are investigators of the Supernatural in 1880’s Britain. They visit an ancient Abbey and its nearby modern estate House, Cairncrag, to help in an esoteric and mysterious investigation; with significant appearances by Xena, Gabrielle, and Aphrodite.

October 13, 2023

Halloween is just around the corner! Please join the Royal Academy of Bards' Halloween Special by submitting a story! Spooky, funny, terrifying, maybe not even Halloween! All entries are welcome and you can submit as many stories as you'd like.

Please submit to: http://www.academyofbards.org/submit.html by October 30, 2023, midnight your time.

The Book of Chills, Volume 5 by Norsebard [Original/Alt/Complete]

A family's road trip takes a hellish turn through no fault of their own... Incompetent bank robbers look for a big score but end up in big, ghostly trouble... A radar specialist working at Area 63 has a chilling encounter of the third kind... An inner-city gang war gives a meat-wagon driver far too much to do... The Reaper comes for a gravely ill woman but is more interested in the living than the dying ---- Strange encounters, supernatural phenomena and otherworldly events - these are some of the elements you'll find in this anthology... the Book Of Chills, Volume 5.

Gabrielle's Quest For Xena by Donna Southerland [post FIN/Alt/Complete]

A Post Fin Xena and Gabrielle story that takes place after the final episode and is about  Gabrielle's attempts to reunite and bring Xena back.

October 4, 2023

Operation Finesse And Fortitude by Norsebard [Uber/Alt/Complete]

The desert town of Goldsboro, Nevada once again finds itself under siege by an invading force: a large-scale FBI field exercise that proves a great deal more difficult to handle for Wynne Donohue and Sheriff Mandy Jalinski than even the zombie cannibals, space aliens and vampiric ghouls that have all tried to conquer the long-suffering residents in the past. Federal Agent Hamilton Lydecker and the chaos he brings with him tests everyone's patience, but stressful situations can sometimes provoke brilliant responses...

"THE PRINCESS AND THE QUEEN" Series by TrueT159 [Classic/Alt/Complete]

SCROLL VIII: CONQUERING A BYGONE ERA

Now married and both amazon queen's, Xena and Gabrielle's life within the secret village carries on. While on a trip outside of the village, Xena and those with her encounter an old acquaintance from Xena's past who attacks and uses her power to show the Amazon's some of Xena's past crimes against their people. The Amazon's of the village Xena, Gabrielle and baby Aurora have been calling home are furious and lose trust in both Xena and Gabrielle. They're both soon put on trial and stripped of thier queenhood. As a result Xena is imprisoned and sentenced to death. And Gabrielle's title is also taken before she's exiled from all amazon tribes for life. And forced to leave the village with Aurora. Can Gabrielle has to find a way to stop the Amazon's from executing Xena who's being held prisoner and stop whatever their true enemy has planned before its too late?

Announcements:

Debut novel, Atlantis Dying by Angela Graves is now available at Desert Palm Press, Smashwords, and Amazon.

Atlantis is a world of magic, inhabited by the descendants of gods. Descendants who’ve been cursed since the moment their ancestors defied orders to leave the mortal world two millennia ago.

Meanwhile on Earth, Alexa Delmon’s own magic awakens, allowing her to glimpse the lives of Atlantians. Unfamiliar with her roots, Alexa initially writes her visions off as nightmares fueled by the stresses of trying to finish her sophomore year of college. But dangerous truths surface as her gift develops. She was placed in hiding by an Atlantian resistance group because their immensely powerful queen—Alexa’s great-aunt—has always seen her existence as a threat.
The queen tracks Alexa’s emerging magic and sends a royal hunter right to her front door. Alexa barely escapes with the help of her sister and an unexpected ally—the queen’s only son.

How will this under-experienced trio elude the centuries-old system of oppression on Atlantis now that they’re actively being hunted? Their journey puts to test not only Alexa’s wit and heart, but also her core beliefs about herself.

Desert Palm Press https://desertpalmpress.com/shop/p/atlantis-dying-by-angela-graves

Smashwords https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1427077

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCK4MZ5V

Stein Willard:

The new book, Ethereal, fourth in the Supernatural series, is available for preorder in Amazon.

I've attached an extract for the curious folk. ♥️