

Shino
Day 3: Countdown is 17 more days to publication for Haiku Dance. “A man with outward courage dares to die; a man with inner courage dares to live.” Lao Tzu Shino is sent into a trap. His skills included heightened senses allow him to easily detect the plotters: The faint light of a crescent moon lit Shino’s path as he moved through the darkness. A late, warm spring wind hid his movements as it whipped through the bamboo. The rustling leaves sounded like a thousand crickets vy


HAIKU DANCE
Day 1. Countdown 19 days to publication: My main character is Saito no Shino, chief warrior for the house of Fujiwara no Ichiro, Japan. We open with Shino reflecting back to the love of his life while he guards her tent as their travel back to her childhood home to mourn her mother who died there: 980 A.D. Tonight, after years of denying and repressing the urging of my heart, I now admit I love her. It has always been so. But my heart is weary of fighting for lost causes. I