Wyngraf Romance Special 2024

By J. Alexander Cohen, Lynn Strong and Nathaniel Webb

Cuddle up with us this Valentine's Day!

Wyngraf's beloved romance edition is back and bigger than ever! Fill your heart with three new cozy fantasy romances—plus a tea recipe!

* "Mail-Order Husband" by J. Alexander Cohen: Silas is a dragon rancher who dreams of romance. But good men are hard to find west of the Rift, and Silas's personal ads in a newspaper back east seem to achieve nothing but annoying the editor... A funny, poetic M/M romance.

* "Frozen Hearts" by Nathaniel Webb: Ravvie is an adventurer, searching the snowy north for dragon eggs. After breaking her leg, all she wants is to heal up and head south. But how can she survive the cold when her unflappable barbarian healer doesn't even speak her language? A heartwarming F/M romance.

* "Rahat al-Hulqum" by Lynn Strong: When the God-Emperor's third brother shows up at the House of Jasmines, owner Ashar pretends he doesn't recognize him. But as Ashar warms to the sweet, shy prince, he must find a way to ease his lover's burdens without letting any secrets slip—or running afoul of the prince's rough-and-tumble bodyguard. A lush, complex M/M romance—novelette length!

* Ashar's Masala-Chai Tea: Warm body and heart with this authentic tea recipe from author Lynn Strong!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wyngraf
• Release date: Feb 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798215314258

Book preview

Valentine’s Day 2024

VALENTINE’S DAY 2024

COZY FANTASY ROMANCE FROM WYNGRAF

J. ALEXANDER COHEN LYNN STRONG NATHANIEL WEBB

Editor

NATHANIEL WEBB

WWW.WYNGRAF.COM

Wyngraf copyright © 2024 Young Needles Press, individual stories copyright © 2024 by their respective authors.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

TALES AND EPHEMERA

Mail-Order Husband

J. Alexander Cohen

About J. Alexander Cohen

Frozen Hearts

Nathaniel Webb

About Nathaniel Webb

Rahat al-Hulqum

Lynn Strong

Ashar’s Masala Chai

Recipe by Lynn Strong

About Lynn Strong

MAIL-ORDER HUSBAND

J. ALEXANDER COHEN

FROM: Billing Department, Eastern Comet

TO: Master Silas Kroekner, Maidenfax, West Fairland

DATE: Meridien 3

Dear Master Kroekner:

Your account has an outstanding balance of three (3) gold shells for your most recent classified advertisement in the Matrimonials section. Please remit your payment promptly.

Kind regards,

Eastern Comet Billing Department

The Finest Newspaper East of the Rift

FROM: Silas Kroekner

TO: Editor, Eastern Comet, Sattensby

DATE: Meridien 4

Dear Editor:

Your billing department wants me to pay 3 gold shells for an ad I put in your paper that didn’t even work. Still no husband. I should be asking you for money. It’s called the Matrimonials section, not the I’m still single despite advertising for a man section.

Silas Kroekner

P.S. What are you going to do—send someone out West to collect?

FROM: Adrian Weskit, Editor, Eastern Comet

TO: Master Silas Kroekner, Maidenfax, West Fairland

DATE: Meridien 5

Master Kroekner:

The Comet offers a service that enables frontiersmen (and women) such as yourself to advertise in search of a spouse. We make no guarantees about matrimony. If your efforts have so far been in vain, I suggest reviewing whether the text of your advertisement accurately describes your personal assets. Any advertisement is meant to sell the sizzle, not the steak.

In the future, please direct your missives to the Billing Department. The ley lines are not meant for casual correspondence.

Adrian Weskit, Editor

Eastern Comet: The Finest Newspaper East of the Rift

P.S. Quotation marks are not weapons.

FROM: Silas Kroekner

TO: Editor, Eastern Comet, Sattensby

DATE: Meridien 4

Dear Editor:

This sounds like a racket, to be honest. And let me tell you I’ve heard plenty of rackets. As soon as I said I was going West, everyone wanted to sell me a potion or an amulet or a charm. Come to think of it, these advertisements feel like a magic potion. You know people who use them won’t get hitched, but you don’t care, because they’ll keep paying you. Just like I did.

Silas Kroekner

P.S. I bet you’re sitting in your cozy home in Sattensby with your wife, smoking your pipe and laughing at the rube from the West.

MEMO FROM: Adrian

TO: Hanna, Classifieds Department

Date: Meridien 5

Some frontier settler named Kroekner’s kicking up a fuss about the Matrimonials. Can you let me know how many advertisements he placed? And while we’re on the subject... What’s our success rate with mail-order marriages?

Adrian

MEMO FROM: Hanna

TO: Adrian, Editorial

Date: Meridien 5

He’s been trying for three years! I almost feel sorry for the guy. Who wants to go West and marry an old grump like that?

No idea what our success rate is. I see marriage announcements now and then with names I recognize. Most announcements are going to be in the Western papers, though.

We can’t charge for performance, though. That’d be bad for business.

Hanna

FROM: Adrian Weskit, Editor, Eastern Comet

TO: Master Silas Kroekner, Maidenfax, West Fairland

DATE: Meridien 6

Dear Master Kroekner:

The Eastern Comet would hate to lose a subscriber. Let’s try to diagnose the problem, shall we? Did you receive any responses from any of your advertisements? And did any of your correspondence with these prospective suitors lead to a meeting?

Regards,

Adrian Weskit, Editor

Eastern Comet: The Finest Newspaper East of the Rift

P.S. I have no wife, and no husband either. I do smoke a pipe, however. How did you know?

FROM: Silas Kroekner

TO: Editor, Eastern Comet, Sattensby

DATE: Meridien 7

INCL: Facsimile image

Dear Master Weskit:

One response. One guy answered me. Said he was looking for adventure on the wild frontier. The only time the Western frontier is wild is when one of the dragons gets out of the pen and into my alehouse. Anyways, as soon as I sent this gentleman a drawing of me, he never wrote me again. Maybe he fell into the Rift.

I’m not that ugly. Take a look for yourself—I included a sketch.

Silas Kroekner

P.S. Don’t all writers smoke a pipe? That’s how I see you: pipe, green visor, suspenders. I bet you never get your hands dirty.

MEMO FROM: Adrian

TO: Hanna, Classifieds Department

Date: Meridien 7

You didn’t tell me Kroekner’s a half-orc!

Adrian

FROM: Adrian Weskit, Editor, Eastern Comet

TO: Master Silas Kroekner, Maidenfax, West Fairland

DATE: Meridien 7

Dear Master Kroekner:

There are publications that may be more geared towards your interests and lifestyle. Orc Bazaar, for example. Or the Tusk Review. I understand the Tusk has its own set of Matrimonial advertisements, although you are likely too late to meet the deadline for the Meridien issue.

Adrian Weskit, Editor

Eastern Comet: The Finest Newspaper East of the Rift

P.S. My hands are permanently ink-stained. It’s a hazard of the profession. But this is labor of the mind, not of the hands.

FROM: Silas Kroekner

TO: Editor, Eastern Comet, Sattensby

DATE: Meridien 8

Dear Master Weskit:

I don’t know whether you’re dense, or you’re just trying to fob me off on someone else. Maybe I don’t want an orc husband. Don’t try to pigeonhole me. I have every right to advertise in the Comet. Come to think of it, I’m going to keep advertising in the Matrimonials section under my own name so that people will see your paper’s a grift. Silas Kroekner, loneliest frontiersman in the West.

Silas

P.S. This isn’t backbreaking work dawn to dusk, either. Mostly mucking out the dragon pen, feeding them, doing stuff around the house. It’s the waiting for something to go wrong that gets me. I’m out in the middle of nowhere. A fire, a tree comes down on the house, and nobody to help me.

FROM: Adrian Weskit, Editor, Eastern Comet

TO: Master Silas Kroekner, Maidenfax, West Fairland

DATE: Meridien 9

Dear Master Kroekner: