Author’s Note: Skyer Dannon, Episode 2

On June 20, 2022, I published The Ballad of Skyer Dannon - Episode 2 - “Kibbler’s Bridge” to Wattpad.

Hey! I’m #3 in the #halflings tag today! What fun!

In this episode, I needed to pull away from the Pickles’n’Pork and go straight for the jugular. And not just proverbially-speaking. I needed to introduce Skyer, get the reader to develop a small sense of who he is, build some rapport with the reader, then brutally murder him, in under 2,500 words.

It was hard killing this character. I didn’t want to, not really, but I had to. I needed him to die.

And that’s pretty awful to think about.

When I read this episode aloud to my partner, she was taken aback by it. “It was sad,” she said, and that’s not usually how my stories about halflings go. I usually write about more fluffy and fun halflings like Gammond Brandyford.

This one, though, needs to be intentionally dark, and I have to write more from voice of horror and tragedy and less from a voice of lightheartedness and comedy.

Not only did I need to kill Skyer. I needed to do it in a way that was both true to vampire lore, but also in a fictional hamlet setting of hobbits. Can you imagine Count Dracula suddenly appearing in the Shire? Yeah, neither can I, but that was my problem. I needed to avoid cliche and write a terrible death scene that would take place near or around halfling burrows. And all of that seemed pretty antithetical to me.

Taking Skyer out of town - away from the burrows - and across Kibbler’s Bridge seemed like an easier way to deal with the problem. I also figured the pond scene was unusual enough to keep the reader’s interest, and to set the stage for a more unusual vampire story. The Bridge becomes an interesting touchstone for me later in the story, especially when revisiting the lore about vampires needing to tote around soil from their vampiric birthplaces.

As a halfling vampire, the Skyer Dannon character tries to take the vampire concept and twist it into something else. If you get a sec, please complete this story's survey below. I'd really like to know your thoughts!

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R