by J L Forrest
Once more, the epistolary gives the writer an immense power of style and voice.
Songs at the End of the World
Each of the Songs at the End of the World is at once a first-person account through the eyes of a single character and an epistolary recounting.
Bettina’s journal in When the World Ends.
In Gods of the New Moons, Aurelius lives with a constant narrative, one which he cannot forget. If a Harque survives his mission, he recites his unforgettable narrative, and that narrative becomes part of the official record. Aurelius’s ongoing narrative is the mission report not yet written—a field observer’s notes, delivered by an observer who needs no notebook.
The next arc of Songs at the End of the World will be Queens of the Horned Lord. In it we will meet a third narrator who perceives and records her world in still another way.
The fourth, in his own way.
Then finally the fifth.
It is my hope that these novellas will lay the foundations for an even larger work, one whose competing epistolary narratives will weave an interesting song of their own.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to work with the very talented musicians at NiceFM, foremost the marvelous Marcus Suraci—aka the Big Makis.
J.L. Forrest
Denver, Colorado
13 February 2019
About the Author
J.L. Forrest has been a college professor, an international scholar, an expatriate, a medal-winning martial artist, a trophy-winning archer, a ticket-winning Skee Ball player, a wilderness survivalist, a sailor, a Fortune 500 consultant, an architect, a horseman, a rock-and-roll guitarist, and an utter layabout. All this amounted to nothing more than preparation for the real challenge—
Writing.
Scrawlings of science fiction and dark fantasy.
Literary musings and whatever else spews from his pen.
He is the award-winning author of dozens of short stories, which have appeared in the likes of Analog Science Fiction and Fact, Crossed Genres, Third Flatiron, Robot Cowgirl Press, and others. An active member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, J.L. Forrest is also an advocate for literacy, literature, and literary shenanigans of most kinds. He hosts the Denver Science Fiction and Fantasy Reading Series.
For more than a decade, he has made his primary home in Colorado, but occasionally finds himself ensconced in the Pacific Northwest or in the Old Country of Italia.
In bocca al lupo!
