The Wooden Maiden

By Douglas Van Dyke, Jr

Despite the common presence of magic in Dhea Loral, tales of a witch in the vale are treated as no more than a scary story to keep children in line. Myth becomes reality when a young maiden named Evessa finds herself face to face with a captivating woman. Bound by the witch's magical commands, Evessa is forced to march into the wilderness for the sake of magical experiments. The maiden's life and body are transformed by the witch's curse. Left isolated and trapped, she faces a future of despair. After many dark days, a whistling song heralds a new visitor. A loner that has forsaken civilized lands stumbles upon her exile. Can this man rekindle the hope she once thought lost?

This is a short story suitable for Young Adult readers, set in the fantasy realm of Dhea Loral. It is being offered free in many outlets on behalf of the author.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Douglas Van Dyke, Jr
• Release date: Jul 11, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949060041

Douglas Van Dyke, Jr

Douglas was born on Nov 28th, 1971 . He got to live many different places while growing up, courtesy of the assignments the US Army offered to his father. Too quiet and too shy for too long, there was always dreams of other worlds and places...and the desire to write about them.He got into fantasy role-playing games in his mid-teens. The first such games played on a computer were offered by a Commodore 64. Often Douglas and his brother would create their own tabletop fantasy games and rules as well, all using very basic 6-sided die. Eventually, they also got into Dungeons and Dragons*. As MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games) appeared, he tried a hand at several of them and made several new friends across the internet. To this day he has friends whom he meets in tabletop role-playing games, as well as online adventures. Many of his characters evolved in games, and each developed their own personality.Inheritance of a Sword and a Path is the second book he has written, though the first published. It starts The Earthrin Stones trilogy, set in the fantasy world of Dhea Loral...a world he created for tabletop role-playing. The Widow Brigade is set in the same world, but a different locale and characters. While The Earthrin Stones trilogy servers as a good overall introduction to Dhea Loral, The Widow Brigade is focused on the dwarf widows of Tok-Maurron and their struggles. Douglas continues to write novels and think up short stories, while pondering the changing world of print vs ebooks.Douglas lives with his wife and two young autistic children in Minnesota. He works in health care, serving people’s healthcare needs in imaging. When most people see him, he is wearing scrubs.FUN FACTS:Most influential authors: R.A. Salvatore, Ed Greenwood, Joel Rosenberg, Terry BrooksFavorite meal: Sausage and pepperoni pizza, with a PepsiFavorite role-playing class: Rangers lead the wayHobbies: Online fantasy games, collecting swords, local Pathfinder games (Paizo)–Graduated high school at age 16, then faced resistance from the state of Wisconsin because they felt no one under 18 should hold a full-time job.–Lived on an army base in Germany for 3 years.–Most loved RPG character endured a long campaign in which he lost twelve horses out from under him and more magical weapons destroyed than he could count. The Dungeon Master finally let him earn an unbreakable sword and an intelligent, high-level monster mount. The sword melted in acid and the mount was accidentally killed by a party member.–Wouldn’t be surprised if he has Asperger’s Syndrome, since the more he learns about it in his oldest the more it sounds like his own childhood. Douglas sees no point in trying to diagnose it since he’s an adult.–Won the middle school spelling bee, but didn’t last long in the regional contest.–Played the following characters in school plays: Blackbeard the Pirate, Squanto, Mr Smee (Capt Hook’s First Mate), and.....R2 D2, whose lines were all beeps and whirring noises.–Spent several years in Civil War reenactments, portraying the Red-Legged-Devils of the 14th Brooklyn, NYSM.

Book preview

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