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 pulled himself together and climbed onto the beak. He was lifted gently back to the trapped heron's back where he finished his untangling job. He stood unsteadily on the heron's back and looked out over the pond. All the herons faced him; as one, they dropped their heads in submission.


Leaper was going to just drop the tangle into the water but slung the mess over his shoulder instead, and pointed toward his hollow stump. The heron walked around the pond, then knelt until Leaper slid off onto the ground. He turned and looked the heron in the eye and pantomimed eating, then pointed at himself, then around the pond. He made a sharp motion with his hand. The heron bowed until its beak touched the ground in front of Leaper, then it stood up and made a loud call; the other herons flew up into the trees.


The big heron stood right there like it planned to stand there all night. Leaper shrugged the web off his shoulder and dragged it into his stump to untangled it. 


Chapter 37: The Heronmaster, Part 8