As you may know, FVP’s new Anthology, Free-flowing Stories, will be released online and at our sale on Dec. 6th.

Here’s a teaser and a snippet from the fourth story:

A REASON TO SING  by Victoria Bastedo

In this companion story to ROOTS ENTWINE, the trees all around them in the forests begin to sing. Lewolenan’s dying father sends him on a mission to discover why. With his family life in splinters, Lewolenan travels and discovers danger on the road, as well as hope.. 

The mass of trees began to sing, suddenly and with voices that echoed with power and flowed in through the open windows. The choruses made people leap to their feet, fall out of their chairs and run outside. Everywhere in Lewolenan’s village human voices rang as well, exclaiming and even wailing until the unending note of the trees was almost drowned out. In Shenandya the trees were the world, and the Wildenbury tree was the height of mystic focus. And now the Wildenbury trees were singing, pouring out their non-human voices as if sound was a river draining from a spout. All over the village people were stunned with amazement.

But Lewolenan didn’t run outside with the rest. His breath caught upwards and tangled where he tried to suck it in. As miraculous as the sound outside was, there was nothing more involving to him at this moment than his dying father’s face.

At first when the singing began his father hadn’t moved. He hadn’t spoken in hours, no matter how Lewolenan had longed for him to say something. But when those trees began to sing the skin that was gray found a little color. The chest that was deflated peaked and filled with departing breath. And the eyes of his father opened wide and stared at the ceiling.

Outside people shouted, but in their house Lewolenan and his father were suspended in the moment. Time stood still and the ethereal beauty of the trees’ song began to weave around Lewolenan’s spine, holding him upright as he knelt by his father’s bed….

Want more? You can get the Anthology December 6th, December 13th & December 18th at our events. We’ll have a link to Amazon for online purchase as soon as it is released.