Author:
Alex McGilvery has been reading since before he can remember, and writing almost that long. He has published 18 books and is author and editor at his imprint Celticfrog Publishing. He lives in Kamloops with his dog and the stories clawing their way out of his head.

The Heronmaster includes the title story, which is the tale of Leaper who grows from a tadpole to become a legend. Murder in the Woods is a noir style mystery with animals rather than people. Nick, a young wolf, is forced to seek out the answer to Bob the moose's disappearance. Sammy is a the story of a young man on a cruise with his new car, the elderly man he takes with him and a red balloon. Madison's Meteor tells the story of Frank Madison, a farmer outside of the town of Madison which has fallen on hard times with the closing of the plant - the main employer for the town. Frank finds a meteor one night and changes start in both him and the town.

The Heronmaster

"Good thing I found it." He laughed louder and held it up. The coin caught the sun and flashed bright like gold. But Sammy's smile shone brighter yet as he carefully placed his find in his pocket.


"I'll buy a balloon from the balloon man and let it go."


"Why?" A strange reason for buying a balloon.


"So I can watch it fly free and disappear." He sounded perfectly reasonable, but my gut warned me of dangerous ground. I retreated and changed the subject.


His grin was answer enough. Sammy and I walked to the beach to eat our ice cream and watch the sea gulls. They flew up to us and screeched, demanding that we feed them. Nothing would satisfy Sammy, but he had to find something to feed to the birds. Back we went and bought fries. He tossed them into the air as the birds wheeled and dove to catch them. When they fought over the fries Sammy chased them away, waving his arms and shouting.


Chapter 27: Sammy, Part 2