Chapter Three: A Unique Toyshop

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: The next chapter in “The Tinker Town Chronicles.” Link to last chapter: https://theliteraryserenityarchives.wordpress.com/2023/03/08/chapter-two-a-confused-awakening/%5D                 Mr. Gimble explained the situation to Horatia while he attached her second wooden arm. He was the proprietor of Unique Toys, a shop along Artisan Lane, where he sought to find loving homes for the toys

A Light of Fantasy (Haiku)

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: Based on the story of the light that is usually kept on in the apartment above the fire station in Disneyland, where Walt Disney himself used to stay while at his theme park. Legends say that his ghost once asked a cleaner to leave the light on for him because

Chapter Two: A Confused Awakening

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: Hope everyone is doing well! Here is chapter two of “The Tinker Town Chronicles.” Here is the link to Chapter One: https://theliteraryserenityarchives.wordpress.com/2023/02/17/chapter-one-concerns-a-clocktower-keeper/%5D Clocks were ticking in the darkness. Surrounding her. Horatia found comfort in their regular rhythms. Like small, gentle heartbeats. She tried to move but found it too difficult.

Chapter One: Concerns a Clocktower Keeper

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: This is the first chapter of a much longer novel that I’m working on called, “The Tinker Town Chronicles.” It will follow a clockwork cat named Horatia who has maintained a mysterious clocktower in a place known as Tinker Town. Hope you enjoy it! Here is the next chapter: https://theliteraryserenityarchives.wordpress.com/2023/03/08/chapter-two-a-confused-awakening/%5D

An Old Clocktower (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: This poem is something of prelude to a much larger story on which I’m working. Hope you enjoy it!] An Old Clocktower stood so tall in the valley its origins unknown aside from vague legends of ancient artisans whose great skills when combined produced a sacred monument around the very

A Clean Ghost Story

Retold by Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: Based on an actual story published around Halloween in the student newspaper at the college I attended as an undergraduate and graduate student. I did try to save the actual newspaper where it appeared, but that source material has since been misplaced and lost to time. It clearly had

Woman in White (A Haiku)

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: I have heard quite a few versions of a ghost story where a “woman in white” will ask people for rides home, only for the drivers to realize it was directly to a cemetery. In certain retellings, the mysterious woman will have been known in some way to the driver,

Humble Gifts (Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: A few days ago, my father surprised me with a wooden block calendar that he’d changed the phrasing on to reflect some of my interests. It was a nice reminder that the smallest gifts can mean a great deal, especially when given with love.] Sometimes the sweetest gifts       are

Formation of an Idea (A Poem)

By Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: An experimental poem that I wrote quite a bit ago, and which eventually got expanded into a whole interactive tale called, “The Castle of Countless Compositions,” posted on DeviantArt. It’s fun how certain ideas develop in unexpected ways.] I needed a caretaker for an old castle    long abandoned                then

A Late Night Summons (A Dribble)

Retold by Joyce Jacobo [Author’s Note: A 50-word dribble based on a peculiar, reportedly true tale that I once learned about in passing]. “Please hurry, Mama is sick,” a red-cloaked child begs on the doctor’s doorstep, amid the snowfall.                 The doctor rushes to save a feverish woman. He says her daughter is a hero.