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

Leaper shrugged and snapped up the next fly.


"Think about what I said," Old Bull said, and swam back to the shore. Leaper watched him swim and wondered what part of the odd conversation he was supposed to be thinking about.


The days got shorter and colder. Leaper puzzled at his conversation with the Old Bull. He didn't dare try to swim over to ask, and the old frog showed no sign of coming back to explain himself. 


One particularly cold day snow fell from the grey sky. Leaper let himself sink to the bottom of the pond where he dug himself into the mud for another winter. Though his leg didn't pain him this year, he still didn't care whether he woke in the spring or not.


Chapter 32: The Heronmaster, Part 3