Stories of the Season

By Darragh Metzger

A collection of odd tales inspired by the Spirit of Christmas...
Call of the Wild: A woman and her horse meet up with an unusual escapee from the holiday madness.
And To All a Good Night: The Alien Commander has planned his invasion well, while Earth sleeps, unsuspecting, seduced by visions of sugarplums.
Long Distance: Ann receives a call for help from an old friend, and learns that love reaches across any distance.
A Gift of Avalon: Terraforming a new planet means leaving everything of Earth behind. Or does it?
Merry Christmoose: Love conquers all. With the help of the classic Poets. Maybe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Darragh Metzger
• Release date: Oct 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465874450

Darragh Metzger

I make my living in the world's two lowest-paying professions: acting and writing. While my resume includes stage and screen credits, I've spent the last several years wearing armor, riding horses, and swinging swords with The Seattle Knights, a stage combat and jousting theatrical troupe. My publishing credits include plays, non-fiction articles, and short stories, one of which made The StorySouth Millions Writers Award Notable Stories of 2005. I've written two short story collections and ten novels to date, sold three of them in 2002, and have now re-released them under my own imprint, TFA Press. My first non-fiction project, Alaska Over Israel: Operation Magic Carpet, the Men and Women Who Made it Fly, and the Little Airline That Could, came out in 2018. I also sing and write songs for A Little Knight Music and The Badb. If I had free time (which I don't), I'd spend it with horses. I'm married to artist/fight director Dameon Willich.

Book preview

STORIES OF THE SEASON

A Collection of Tales Inspired by the Spirit of Christmas

by

Darragh Metzger

SMASHWORDS EDITION

PUBLISHED BY:

TFA Press on Smashwords

The Call of the Wild: Copyright © 1999, 2011 by Darragh Metzger

And To All A Good Night: Copyright © 1996, 2011 by Darragh Metzger

Long Distance: Copyright © 2001, 2011 by Darragh Metzger

A Gift of Avalon: Copyright © 2004, 2011 by Darragh Metzger

Merry Christmoose: Copyright © 2003, 2011 by Darragh Metzger

Cover Design and Illustration by TFA Press, copyright © 2011

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords. com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Other Books by Darragh Metzger from TFA Press:

The Strawberry Roan

Stories of the Seasons

Alaska Over Israel: Operation Magic Carpet, the Men and Women Who Made it Fly, and the Little Airline that Could

Other books in the Triads of Tir na n'Og series:

Tales from Opa

Tales from Opa, volume II

Ironwolfe

The Triads

The Red Triad

The Green Triad

The Blue Triad

The Ironlords

The Gate

Other Titles available at Smashwords. com:

Short Stories:

Return of the King

And To All A Good Night

Masque of Moonlight and Shadows

A Box of Magic

Novels:

The Strawberry Roan

For more information, please visit:

www. TFAPress. com

or

www. DarraghMetzger. com

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Table of Contents

Author's Notes

Call of the Wild

And To All a Good Night

Long Distance

A Gift of Avalon

Merry Christmoose

About the Author

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Author's Notes

(I'm going to do one of these before each story, so might as well read through this one so you get used to it. The others will be a lot shorter, though. I promise. )

Just so you know, I don't normally write short stories. I'm a novelist. Confining myself to a few pages hurts my brain and has, upon occasion, proved utterly impossible (The Strawberry Roan started as a humorous short story). Only one thing could make me do it.

For many years, I belonged to the Fairwood Writers Group; a group of professional and semi-professional writers, some published, some working at breaking in, who meet weekly to critique each other's work, share marketing tips, and generally encourage one another along the long, rocky, and too often lonely path every writer must walk.

Every year, the group has a Christmas/Holiday Challenge, where all members must come up with a short story, to be read aloud at our holiday party. The length is anywhere from 1500-2000 words (which I almost never stick to), and we randomly select 2 or 3 characteristics that the stories all have to have in common.

There. That's where all these (and a whole lot more) came from. Now, read one and enjoy!

In case this makes no sense, go up a page and read the Author's Note; it will explain what I'm about to explain.

In 1999, the only element we all agreed on that I can remember was it had to be about the New Year as well. Turn of the Century, end of an era, new millennium, and all that.

To me, it seemed natural to include a horse. But then, it usually does.

Jokata is real, and lived to the ripe old age of 33. I miss her still.

I ride these trails all the time, and have never spotted a single reindeer, but there you have it.

Years later, I tried to make the story less time-specific to try and sell to another market, but Christmas stories are notoriously difficult