Tales of Ethshar

About “The Frog Wizard”

Okay, this one needs some explanation, as it’s never been published in this form before.

Long ago I bought a blank book, wrote and illustrated a story in it, and gave it to my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day. Then later, when she had more or less forgotten about it, I stole it back and wrote and drew another story in it, and gave it to her for Valentine’s Day. I did this until the book was full — not every year, but most.

They weren’t romantic stories; they were silly children’s stories. One of them was called “The Frog Wizard.”

Many, many years later, after the book was long since full and she and I were long since married, I read some of the stories to our kids, and it occurred to me that a couple of them might be worth reworking and selling. I proceeded to rewrite “The Frog Wizard” in several versions — six in all. One of them was an Ethshar version. I actually sold one of the other versions, though; it was published in the January 1993 issue of Science Fiction Age . The Ethshar version was shelved and forgotten about — until I started assembling this book, when I realized that if I was going to be complete, it needed to be included. So here it is, a technically-never-before-published Ethshar story. And yes, it’s canon; the wizard’s spell is a variant form of Llarimuir’s Mass Transmogrification, and Mreghon is in the northwestern Small Kingdoms.