Image: Sue Vincent

Come on over, pull up a log and sit a spell.  I’ll build up the fire and then tear a hole in the universe to transport us to another place and time.  I might just take us back to yesterday’s mammoth hunt or maybe I’ll throw us forward to a space-based civilization a million years in our future.  For I am a practitioner of one of the world’s oldest professions and will ply you with my trade.

What, you say the oldest professional is she who sells her body?  Have you forgotten about the man or woman who sells their soul, the shaman, priest, priestess, wizard or witchdoctor?  And what about the ones who sells their dreams and imagination, the story tellers?

Sometimes it is impossible to distinguish between these three oldest professions, with words creating magic in your mind so you see and hear what is not there, and magic in your body so you lose control of yourself, lean forward in anticipation and draw back in horror, fall in love and tremble with lust or shake with rage and spitting hate.  The greatest of artists can make all three one, twisting body, soul and mind with a few well-placed syllables.

Ah, but that was then, around our primordial fire pit.  The unknown Universe pressed in against the fading circle of light and we made sense of it for you, comforted you, mind, body and soul.  There are some now who say that as the years went by those three trades split.  Perhaps that is true, particularly for the story teller, for we can now still work our magic long after we have gone.  The magic was transferred to paper and exists in the minds of the readers.  The magic stretched far out of any mortal’s reach.  New worlds were created each time the scroll was unrolled or the book opened.  The magic flowed through time so a poet dead three thousand years can still launch a thousand ships.  The words transverse space so that the Icelandic sagas can be enjoyed in the Australian Outback.  The words are still spreading at light speed through thin fiber tubes.

Come, pull your chair up to this electronic fire and sit a spell.  I will open a portal to another time and place.  It might be ten thousand years in the past at a great mammoth hunt of our ancestors, or it might be tomorrow as we reach for the stars.  For I am a practitioner of one of the world’s oldest professions and will ply you with my trade.  For I am a story teller and all I need from you is a few minutes of your time and an opening in your imagination.

Image: Sue Vincent

I started my blog shortly after finishing the first draft of my first book, The Fireborn.  I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do with the blog, I just knew I had to have one.  So, I created “Trent’s World, the Blog”.

At some point, I decided to write a new piece of fiction for the blog at least once a week.  The idea grew from there.  Over the last three and a half years I have posted over 200 short stories ranging from 100 words to 8,000 words.  That does not include The Halley Branch, a 60,000-word book that I wrote and posted over one month in 2015.  I often post two to four stories every week now.  Although you may argue over the quality of my fiction, with those types of stats you have to admit that I am a story teller of some sort 😉

This year I have self-published a book of short stories, many of which first saw light as rough drafts on my blog.  I have also started a new draft of The Fireborn and plan to self-publish it this summer.  The Halley Branch will then start undergoing the editing and revision process, taking it from a 30 part ultra-blog post to a real book.  And, of course I have other plans.

One of the most import of those palns is to continue to write and post at least one story every week.

Find and follow Trent

Trent’s World Blog    Amazon author page    Twitter@trentpmcd

About the author

I never decided what I wanted to do when I grew up. I compose and play music, draw and paint, take a lot of pictures, and yes, I write. I’ve written a couple of books that are sitting on my shelf waiting to go out and I write a new short story almost every week, which I often post on my blog, trentsworldblog.wordpress.com. I’ve collected some of the best short stories I’ve written and put them out as “Seasons of Imagination”.

I also like to eat, so I work as a computer nerd during the day while I figure out what it is I really want to do.

If you really need details, I was born and raised in Ohio by the shore of beautiful Lake Erie and now split my time between mountainous New Hampshire and the coast of Massachusetts.

One thing to know about me is that I hate to write bio-blurbs in the third person.

Trent’s book of short stories, Seasons of Imagination, can be found on Amazon..

Trent P. McDonald’s Seasons of Imagination contains an eclectic mix of stories covering many places, times and even different genre, yet they all hold one thing in common, they are all about people.  Be they silly, serious or speculative, all of the stories are about us.  What makes us tick?  Why do we say the things we do?  Why do we react as we do?

So whether it seems the stories are exploring outer or inner space, in reality they’re always exploring the human space.

Here is an invitation to open the page and come with me to explore the Seasons of Imagination

Amazon US   Amazon UK

If you would like to be my guest, please read the guidelines and get in touch!