This cycle of stories was started based on a general disillusionment of how the mythic was used in modern fiction. Much of the time it is used to add a sense of mystery, or otherworldliness, or to provide a deus ex machina. Yet if you look at historic use of the mythic, it is seldom mysterious, is very firmly rooted in this world, and its invocation often presents more problems than it solves. This primarily stems from the fact that historic writings are more often meant for instruction than entertainment. Thus it is hard to teach a lesson about the real world by invoking things not of it. Rather the mythic is used like science in science fiction: to advance the plot, or to create a situation that could not otherwise arise in order to explore to make some point about the modern world.

In each of these stories, there is a touch of the mythic. Some more so, some less so. But in each the main character's problems are not solved by it. Rather it helps them realize the problems are within themselves and this helps them deal with it.

I didn't exactly set out with these lofty objectives in mind when I wrote the stories. It was only after reflecting on them once written that I began to see traces. There are more I would like to write:

• DRYAD Set in Victorian London, in Kew garden. About a young man dealing with an unwanted engagement and a Dryad brought back from the wilds of Africa and kept as an exhibit in Kew.
• DRAGON Set in the Early 80's in Georgia Tech. About a young woman dealing with internet sociology via IRQ. She's in a group of people who like to pretend they are dragon's on-line. But there is one very poetical corespondent from China who she isn't sure is pretending.
• GHOUL or DWARF Set in turn of the millennium Boston. A man is late for his evening MBA class and decides to run between the last two subway stations when the train breaks down. He makes a wrong turn and finds another world he did not expect.