Wizard Libraries and Dragon Archives

By Rebecca M. Douglass

Libraries: where all the words live. In this collection of tales about books and libraries, we meet dragons and wizards who run some unusual libraries, and bibliophiles who are willing to go to great extremes to visit them. And perhaps some cautionary tales about what can happen when we love books not wisely, but too well.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rebecca M. Douglass
• Release date: Feb 12, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005029470

Rebecca M. Douglass

After a lifetime of reading and a decade of slinging books at the library and herding cats with the PTA, Rebecca began to turn her experiences into books of her own, publishing her first (The Ninja Librarian) in 2012. That failed to quiet the voices in her head, but seemed to entertain a number of readers, so she wrote some more, which generated still more voices. Despite the unlimited distractions provided by raising sons to the point of leaving home, not to mention the mountains that keep calling (very hard to resist the urging of something the size of the Sierra Nevada), she has managed to produce many more books in the years since.For those who enjoy murder and mayhem with a sense of humor, Rebecca’s Pismawallops PTA mysteries provide insights into what PTA moms and island life are really like. If you prefer tall tales and even less of a grip on reality, visit Skunk Corners in The Ninja Librarian and its sequels. And for those who’ve always thought that fantasy was a bit too high-minded, a stumble through rescues and escapes with Halitor the Hero, possibly the most hapless hero to ever run in fear from any and all fair maidens, should set you straight.Through it all, she has continued to pen flash fiction, for a time sharing a new story on her blog nearly every week. Now those stories are getting new life in a series of novella-length ebooks, with an omnibus paperback coming soon.Why does Rebecca write so many different kinds of books (there’s even an alphabet picture book in the mix!)? It might be because she has a rich lifetime of experience that requires expression in many ways, but it’s probably just that she’s easily distracted.

Book preview

Wizard Libraries and Dragon Archives

A Flash Fiction Collection

by

Rebecca M. Douglass

This book is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, events and places portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

Copyright © 2020 Rebecca M. Douglass

ISBN: 9781005029470

All rights reserved.

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. It is illegal to copy this book, post it to a website, or distribute it by any other means without permission.

Contents

Introduction

Stories from the Wizards’ Library:

The Wizard Librarian

All that Glitters Speaks Louder Than Words

A Wizard’s Not a God

One Fine Day at the Wizard’s Library

Other libraries to visit at your own risk:

The Dragon’s Library

The Forgotten Library

For the Love of Words

Be Careful What You Read on Halloween

Librarians vs. Robots

The Door

Library Eyes

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Also by Rebecca M. Douglass

introduction

For seventeen years I worked part time as a library aide, which is to say, I was the person who checked your books in and out, helped you find what you needed in the card catalog (yes, I still think of it that way), and often forgot what I was doing in the excitement of discovering an intriguing cover or a tantalizing blurb. It’s no surprise, then, that when I found my voice as a writer and began publishing, the first books were about a librarian… the Ninja Librarian, who generously gave his name to my blog (www.ninjalibrarian.com).

There’s no denying I like a good library story as much as I like a good bar story. I particularly like a library where things are… different. This collection of library tales features libraries run by wizards and dragons, libraries long forgotten, and libraries encountered unexpectedly. Most of these libraries are far from the suburban branch where I served, and the patrons are even more interesting than the ones I got to know over the years. These are library stories born out of strange writing prompts and a love of fantasy.

It is impossible for any fan of Terry Pratchett to write about a library without the library of Unseen University lurking somewhere in the background. My understanding of magical libraries is forever shaped by Pratchett, who invented the concept of L-Space, through which all libraries are connected, and wrote into being the best librarian of them all (if you aren’t familiar with Terry’s Discworld, run out and get some of his books as soon as you finish with this one).

In the end, what better place for a writer or a reader than a library? Pull up a chair, make yourself comfortable, and enjoy visiting these libraries!

This book is part of a set of flash fiction collections, including Strange Drinks: Tavern Tales Short and Tall; Clue, Cops, and Corpses: A Collection of Minute Mysteries; and Missing Snow: A Collection of Holiday Stories.

The Wizard Librarian

Millicent was no name for a wizard. What the dragons had been thinking when they saddled her with the appellation, Mil had no idea. But it had given her something to overcome, and the dragons were big on overcoming things. Mil thought that being an orphan raised by dragons was enough to overcome, but the dragons hadn’t agreed.

Maybe that was also why, when she was seven, they left her in the slums of Erlintown to manage on her own. For four years she did just that. The magic helped. She could bend men—though not dragons—to her will, and no one messed with her. Especially after she’d blown one fellow into a million pieces. He’d needed it. No one argued with her right to do so, but they treated her with more respect after that.

When she was eleven, the dragons took her to the