historical fiction
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4,739 words · About a 24-minute read. At White Head Lighthouse, Thomas Darling keeps the lamp burning through a violent storm. Then a half-drowned stowaway brings a warning about his former berth, SS Strumble, an empty ship, recorded lost, and now carrying ticking machinery that can calculate the future, and perhaps alter the coming century
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4,391 words · About a 22-minute read. Three days after the battle at Arfderydd, Brother Robert searches for the missing bard, Merlin, amidst the devastation. As he and two others navigate the battlefield, they grapple with the dead king Gwenddolau’s unburied body, Merlin’s potential madness, and the need for a proper farewell.
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6,035 words · About a 30-minute read. Jess Harwood returns to her late mother’s home after seven years, uncovering memories and remnants of her mother’s life and secrets. As she begins to help the village with herbal remedies, she discovers a powerful stone, the Eye of the Dracan, which deepens her connection to her mother’s…
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2,675 words · About a 13-minute read. During the reign of King Stephen, two children of strange green hue were discovered near Woolpit in Suffolk, speaking in an unknown tongue and refusing all common food save raw beans. What follows is not a retelling of that story, but an imagined prelude to it
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2,219 words · About an 11-minute read. In 1812, French artist Théodore Géricault painted ‘The Severed Heads’. With a reputation for macabre works, and a morgue supplying him with subjects, this was just one of several. The pair were unknown but France was in the turmoil of post-revolutionary governance, so who could this couple have…
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1,696 words · About an 8-minute read. Lady Katherine Bulkeley grapples with a letter concerning the crown’s inquiry into her abbey, feeling the weight of change and uncertainty. In the chapel, she encounters the spirits of Henry and Rosamund, who share insights on legacy, authority, and love.