"Dragons of Paris" and the Role of Time in the Mongolian Wizard Series

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The kind people at Reactor Magazine have posted my two latest Mongolian Wizard stories, one yesterday and the other today. Thursday's "Halcyon Afternoon" took place during a rare moment of peace for Franz-Karl Ritter. But in today's "Dragons of Paris," it's warfare as usual. 

Time has always been a little tricky in this series. The first story was clearly set in the Nineteenth Century but, though only a few years have passed, the series has now reached what is recognizably World War I. Mostly this occurred for reasons explained in "The Phantom in the Maze" and "Murder in the Spook House." (And which I anticipate giving me increasing difficulties in writing the next ten stories.) But also, in a more literary background sense, I wanted to cover the transition from a way of life now alien to us to something more modern, if not contemporary. 

So time may get a bit more slippery in the future. That's if, of course, the stories go in the direction I intend. Sometimes the fiction has its own ideas where it wants to go and the author can only follow along meekly in its wake.

You can read the story here. Or just go to the ezine and poke around. It's a good place to poke around.

Above: The illustration is by Dave Palumbo. I'm grateful for that.

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