Visit Carolyn Kephart: A Writing Life for the synopsis and entire first chapter of my epic fantasy THE RYEL SAGA: A TALE OF LOVE AND MAGIC. Also on the site: three free short fiction pieces, fantasy and sci-fi, previously published in well-regarded ezines; reviews, biography and blog link. "...from earliest childhood he would escape into the Steppes night while all else slept, running far from the yats into the deep fields, there to lie with his back to the breathing grass and his face to the flickering infinity overhead. As a child he had known no greater delight than those rapt communions that leapt to ecstasy at every touchstone streak of meteor. But as he grew older the joy ebbed, giving way to aching awe, ineffable hunger, solitude absolute and godless where each pinprick shimmer melded into a burning white weight just above his heart, intensifying with every star that fell.      I have not known the stars in two years, he thought. The remembrance of everything else he missed seemed to envelop him like Markulit fog, chill and desolate." ~The Ryel Saga           

Ph.D. in English Literature (interdisciplinary Baroque), Pennsylvania State University