Unicorns & Other Monsters

By P.D. Haynie

Nine medieval fantasy short stories will take the reader from twilight to darkness and back into the light. Some monsters are people; some people are monsters. Strange forces like courage, honor, friendship, and love can drive all of them-- and all of us.

Included in this book are:
Valedictory: An aging warrior gambles with Death for the right to die in battle.
Under the Wolf's Head: Mercenary orcs face impossible odds with honor.
Oasis: Non-human mercenaries make hard choices in harder places.
Minotaur: A different look at a classic monster.
Unicorn Dagger: Unicorns make bad slaves. Even when they're dead.
The Girl on the Hearth: A girl, a prince, and a shoe as the story has never been told before.
Third Chance: Unicorns aren't always monsters, but it IS the way to bet.
The Oakbridge Oak: A wandering sorcerer goes out of his way to save a thing of beauty.
Jasper's Journey: An itinerant musician learns an unusual lesson about making up stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: P.D. Haynie
• Release date: Nov 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950237043

P.D. Haynie

P.D. Haynie is usually known as "Paul" in person. He has been studying the craft of telling fantasy and science fiction stories, and all related topics (which is to say, everything) for more than forty years. He lives with his wife in Waukegan, IL. He has not been called "P.D." since shortly after he learned to talk.

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P.D. Haynie

Unicorns & Other Monsters

Nine Medieval Fantasy Stories

First published by Spiral Path Publications 2019

Copyright © 2019 by P.D. Haynie

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise without written permission from the publisher. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

P.D. Haynie asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

P.D. Haynie has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Websites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book and on its cover are trade names, service marks, trademarks and registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publishers and the book are not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. None of the companies referenced within the book have endorsed the book.

The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without digital rights management software (DRM) applied, so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. (Iteration 112019)

First edition

ISBN: 978-1-950237-04-3

This book was professionally typeset on Reedsy

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For everyone who has ever expressed faith in me as a writer.

Don’t forget to tip the bus driver.

Contents

Preface

Valedictory

Under the Wolf's Head

Oasis

Minotaur

Unicorn Dagger

The Girl on the Hearth

Third Chance

The Oakbridge Oak

Jasper's Journey

About the Author

Also by P.D. Haynie

Preface

Shortly before my twentieth birthday, I allowed myself to become so freaked out by the future that was rushing at me that I came within fifteen minutes of jumping off of a tall building. I decided instead to make a run at being a novelist, and over the course of the next several decades I wrote fragments of a few novels and several short stories. I learned a great deal about telling stories along the way. I also learned that if you wanted to sell a short story, you needed to choose your market and target your writing. Since my personal muse is a recalcitrant layabout who only shows up a couple of times on a good year, that was never an option for me. When I had a story idea that needed to be extruded from my fingertips, it happened, even if no one in the world had any interest in that particular story at that moment.

In 2018, to the surprise of everyone who knows me, and most especially myself, I wrote a complete novel. I found myself with a sudden and unexpected need to learn to function in the white-noise ridden world of self-publishing. To that end, I pulled several stories out of my portfolio for the purpose of assembling a sample book. I learned a great deal, life was life, and I ended up publishing the novel, Fiddler’s Rose, first.

Once the novel was out, though, I had time to re-examine this little collection, and decided that it really deserved to see daylight. These are SOLID stories, and are well regarded by the scant bus load of people who have encountered them. They were written over a span of more than thirty years; the circumstances that brought each into existence are given at the end of each story. Two of them