Often, I get the feeling that the story is really happening somewhere and all I'm doing is trying to work out the best way to tell it.

Yet when ancient forces stir, many things are woken.

For everyone and everything, there is a time to die. Some do not know it, or would delay it, but its truth cannot be denied. Not when you look into the stars of the ninth gate.

Fish and fowl, warm sun and shady trees, the field mice in the wheat, under the cool light of the moon.

Ow do you knock out a Denizen?" asked Suzy. "I tried it myself once or twice, but just hitting them never works." "It is not the force of the blow, but the authority with which it is delivered," quoth the raven.

Double, treble, quadruple bubble, watch the stock market get into trouble.

I suppose you could call me...Soot," said the thing. "Yes...Soot. I have breathed it, lived in it, and eaten it for so long that it is a fitting name." "Eaten it?" asked Suzy. "Why eat soot?" "Boredom," said Soot.