The Girl on the Dock: A Dark Fairy Tale
by G. Norman Lippert.
Returning to the home of her grandfather after her final school year, Petra Morganstern has changed greatly. Confident in her recent choices, yet plagued by dreams of what they cost her...
Greetings, dear reader, and welcome to "The Girl on the Dock". Before you begin the tale, I thought it might be rather helpful for me to tell you the story of the story.
A little over a year ago, I embarked upon a writing project. It was meant to be just for fun, for my own enjoyment and that of a few family and friends. The project was a cathartic exercise, following the story of a certain well known young wizard—not quite as famous as his father (thus forming the nature of this young wizard's primary problem) but famous nonetheless. To my surprise, this writing project grew into a full length novel. On a lark, I released the novel online. There, amazingly, it achieved a rather shocking worldwide readership. This led, of course, to a sequel.
With the release of the sequel, I discovered a few interesting things: while based in the essential storyline of another famous author (thus forming the nature of some of my own ticklish problems) these stories had come to encompass an awful lot of original concepts and characters. I realized with some degree of delight that there was an entirely new storyline embedded there, and that it was unique to me.
Thus, I embarked on a new writing project: I broke away from the trunk of the original idea and I transplanted some of my own unique branches into a new story. This, dear reader, is the result of that experiment.
So what does this mean to you? Well, there are two ways you may choose to enjoy this story: First, since this tale is, in many ways, a logical progression from my first two novels, you may choose to read those first. They can be found free online, beginning with www.elderscrossing.com. There, you will find the back story of the characters contained herein, which will surely allow you to appreciate this tale on a somewhat broader scale.
Second, you may choose to launch into this story as its own entity. It was written to stand alone, even if much of the back story exists elsewhere. The struggles and concepts that form the core of this story, while fantastic and magical (and rather dark) will be familiar to most readers, even if they've never read the names of these characters before. If you choose to read the story on its own, it will be helpful (though not necessary) for you to be aware of a few things: first, our main character, the teenaged Miss Morganstern, is a member of a secret magical society that exists alongside the non-magical world. Second, she has had a rather unusual last year of schooling, during which she was the center of a rather shocking plot by some very bent wizards. The details of that plot will become known as the following story progresses, but the essential result of that plot was this: Miss Morganstern has discovered that she is cursed with the final, fragmented ghost of the most evil wizard of all time. Like a flame in a lantern, this wicked shred of soul lives inside her own soul, affecting her, influencing her. In this, Petra is not unlike all of us, cursed as we are with the dual nature of our humanity, constantly struggling between the twin polarities of darkness and light, goodness and selfishness.
And that, dear reader is the story of the story. I hope you enjoy this dark little fairy tale. If you do, let me know. There may be more.
Keep an eye on the water. Something is sure to come out of it.
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