This is part two of Spark Your Creative Fire. Hopefully, it is helpful to those of you out there chomping at the bit to do something creative! Lots of love to everyone. Happy holidays! I hope to be back here soon.

I am still website building, but wanted to assure everyone I am still here and so is the podcast. I decided to take a break to share one of my current frustrations about website building and respond to questions about creativity from your emails. This is broken into two parts since it's longer chat. Stay tuned next Monday for Part Two. Hope to be back here with stories soon! Hope everyone is doing well. 3 Mav

Quick announcement!

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

Welcome to Dark Softly Tales: Arabian Nights~Summer Bites. Our Summer Bites series centers around an unknown but dramatic and rather steampunk story called The Ebony Horse. The story features an enchanted wooden horse, an evil sage, very confused kings and, of course, love that survives the ages. "Time dies, but never dies the fondest love for you I bear; and in your love I'll die and in your love I'll arise again." I hope everyone enjoys the summer bites series and I'll be back again in...

We kick off the 2022 Summer Bites with an introduction to Arabian Nights and the story I'll be narrating over the summer called The Ebony Horse. Summer Bites are shorter episodes than our normal program without an intro or commentary from the host. I hope you enjoy and I'll be back with the regular program in the fall! Music: Islamic Way by Serge Quadrado Arabic Dawn by Zen Man Website: www.darksoftlytalespodcast.com www.darksoftlytales.com

Following in the footsteps of the Pied Piper series, I wrote my own story based off a dream I had: Neverwas is trapped in an abusive relationship with her mother. When she meets the Pied Piper, a beautiful hero who calls to her with his silver whistle, she transforms into the very essence of beauty and freedom. She follows the Pied Piper into the forest where he shows her the deep, dark secrets of his cave. You can read this story in...

Though written several hundred years after the event, Robert Browning's poem catches the eerie mystery of when 130 children were led away by a magician over Koppleburgh hill, never to be seen again. The Pied Piper of Hemalin by Robert Browning. Music: Mystique from pixabay.com Website: www.darksoftlytalespodcast.com www.darksoftlytales.com

In the year 1284, a hundred and thirty children went missing from a small German town. This has been a historically documented event that actually happened. Tonight we will be straying from our regular structure. I’m going to narrate the Grimm brother’s version of The Pied Piper called The Children of Hamelin and then we we will lightly discuss the story and it's history. The following two weeks I will be narrating a Robert Brown's Poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" followed by own take on the...

A quick reminder we are on break the next two weeks as I continue to put material together on the Pied Piper and for the Summer Bites series. I hope everyone has a great week! 3

This week brings us to the conclusion of Algernon Blackwood's The Wendigo where reality and the hauntingly fantastic meet at the tipping point of sanity... I will be taking two weeks off before we launch into the brief history and stories of the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and then the summer bite series. Music: Cello in a Dream by Liron www.darksoftlytalespodcast.com www.darksoftlytales.com