Who is Gaius Darkspell?

And what’s his strange desire?

Instructions for Strange Desires storyboard teaser made with Midjourney and Canva

Very excited that I just finished the first story of my collection of shorts for “Instructions for Strange Desires.” Strange Desires was a little idea I had in December to get myself back to writing short stories while also catering to my craving to tell a longer story.

I explain the concept here: Instructions for Strange Desires

And I wrote a bit about some story ideas here: On Writing While Commuting

Today’s particular story, which I started writing yesterday after seeing some digital art in which a great warrior does battle with a dragon on a mountaintop, is mostly complete, and I’ll drop it maybe tomorrow after I’ve made sure I’ve run down all the typos and whatnot.

It’s the tale of Gaius Darkspell and his fated, as it were, battle with Valkath the Inferno, a dragon and the deadliest foe in existence. It’s not part of the longer narrative, I don’t think, although my time with Gaius and the cast of characters I alluded to in the story may require me to write about them again. I make no promises. The stories will do whatever they want, and I just go with it.

Meanwhile, I’ll leave you with this snippet so you can see what to expect. I hope this tidbit is enough for you to swing back around for the whole thing and maybe more.

In the meantime, if you want to keep up with the images I’m finding or generating, here’s the link to the Pinterest collection for this short story collection: Instructions for Strange Desires.