The Day John F Kennedy Met the Beatles – the Story Behind the Short Story

Announcing my first frenetic foray into fiction

I’ve been writing fiction since I was a kid in grade school. I love writing as much as I love reading but getting my stories published has always been frustrating.

Alas, I am writing in an age where fewer and fewer publishers are … publishing.  Were that this be the early twentieth century when newsstands were lined with magazine after magazine filled with fiction of every genre in all their pulpy goodness!

Those days are gone, but now cyberspace has replaced the old newsstand. You can still read stories of any genre and of any length online.

I have published three books online with some success. Regular readers know the titles by heart as I hype them with the frequency of a carnival barker: Abby’s Road, the Long and Winding Road to Adoption, Toddler TV and The Brave & the Bold: from Silent Knight to Dark Knight. All non-fiction.

I have not published any fiction – novels, novelettes or short stories.  Until now!

(trumpet fanfare)

“The Day John F Kennedy Met the Beatles” is a short story (just over 5000 words) available through Amazon.

Wait, you say, John F Kennedy never met the Beatles. True.

All fiction starts with “What if…?”  What if elves and dragons were real? What if man could sail among the stars? What if vampires and zombies roamed the earth? What if three penniless sisters move to Kent, England during the Regency Period and experience love, romance, sense and …

What if Kennedy had lived? Either by surviving the assassination or by it not having occurred at all? What if he lived to see Beatlemania invade American shores? What if he asked them to perform at the White House?

Why would he ask them? Would the Beatles and their management agree? Would they say, “Stuff it”?

As a history buff, my recycling bin is filled with issues ofHistory Channel Magazine (now defunct), Colonial Williamsburg Magazine (name and format now changed), Smithsonian Magazine and Renaissance Magazine.

I wrote “The Day John F Kennedy Met the Beatles” as if it came from such a magazine. It is very fact-driven – even with faux-footnotes.  Remember the old writing trope “show don’t tell”?  This is filled to the brim with “tells”. Think of it as a piece of fiction that thinks it is a piece of non-fiction.

And I like it! But then I say that about everything I’ve written.

But it’s true – I do like this story! It’s the kind of piece I would enjoy reading. I loved doing the research on the Beatles’ history and melding them with a fictional history of Kennedy’s second term.

I’ve also included quotes from the involved parties. Sometimes it was hard getting the voice correct – but I think I succeeded. I am particularly pleased with the quotes from George Reedy (LBJ’s advisor) and the humor in the press conference (“Did you vote for Kennedy?” Lennon: “I didn’t even vote for the queen.”)

I hope you enjoy it. Look for it on Amazon. It is available for viewing on Kindle and only costs $0.99.  You can enjoy it at lunchtime, before bed, or as one of many stories you can enjoy during a lazy summer.

Here is the link to the short story available through Amazon:

https://www.amazon.com/Day-John-Kennedy-Met-Beatles-ebook/dp/B01HQQ7F8K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1467304185&sr=8-1&keywords=beatles+kennedy+curry#nav-subnav

More fiction to come!

Copyright 2016 Michael Curry

What Bankruptcy Can't Do ... Part One: Taxes

WHAT BANKRUPTCY CAN’T DO

Part 1: Taxes

For over twenty years, I have helped thousands of people file bankruptcy. I enjoy helping people get out from under crushing debt and to stave off cruel collection agencies.

But there are times when bankruptcy will not help. There are certain kinds of debts that are not affected by filing for bankruptcy.  They are not dischargeable – which means they will survive the bankruptcy. When the smoke clears – these debts will still have to be paid.

State and Federal Taxes are these kinds of debts.

Personal income taxes due can be discharged in either of the individual bankruptcies available – Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 13 consolidation or repayment. But your taxes can be discharged only if they can make it over four hurdles:

1. The taxes had to have been due at least three years before you file for bankruptcy. Earlier this year taxes were due for 2015. Counting backwards that means any taxes owed for 2015, 2014 and 2013 are not discharged if you file for Chapter 7.

When does the clock start ticking? That is an important question that will affect whether or not the taxes will discharge. When is the exact date? Good question. When you file Chapter 7 bankruptcy the IRS will fight like a tiger to have your taxes ruled non-discharged. They have a lot of weapons at their disposal.

Remember that Tax Day is April 15^th. If someone filed on April 14^th of this year, their 2012 are not yet three years old.

Did you file for an extension for that year? Then the deadline is three years from the extension, not April 15^th.

2. You will have had to file your tax returns for the years in question at least two years before you file your bankruptcy. If you owe for 2012 but you just filed them this past spring, they will survive the bankruptcy.

The key words are “you” and “file”. If you owe for 2010, but Substitute for Return was filed by the state or the IRS and NOT by you directly, that doesn’t count. Always check to make sure it is not a Substitute for Return. This is the most successful trap in the government’s bag. “I think I filed in 2010,” is not going to help – make sure YOU filed your tax returns.

3. The taxes you owe will have to have been assessed against you for over 240 days. You just found out you owe for 2010 taxes last week? They will survive if you file now. This is rarely a problem for my clients - by the time they come to see me they will have been fighting the IRS for years.

4. No tax fraud. This is also rarely a problem for my clients. As I tell them, “If you are being accused of tax fraud you would know about it and have a lot more problems than you have now!” If there is any tax fraud I send them to a tax attorney. Then they can come back for the bankruptcy.

***

Some clients do not have a problem with their tax debt surviving their bankruptcy. “I can handle the taxes if you can get these credit cards off my back.” That has been the case many times, but occasionally I see someone that only needs to wait a few months.

“It’s July, but if you wait until September it’s possible your taxes will discharge too. Would you like to wait?”

“Yes!”

***

These rules apply to income taxes ONLY. Sales tax from your business, employment tax, use tax, etc. are NOT subject to these four criteria. Those kinds of tax debt WILL NOT discharge if you file a Chapter 7.

***

However, ANY non-dischargeable taxes (income, sales, employment, use, etc.) owed can be paid in a Chapter 13. In some jurisdictions (like mine), taxes are not allowed to be paid interest. Interest continues to accrue in the three-to-five years you are paying into your Chapter 13 Plan. Depending on the amount owed, you may owe MORE at the end of the Plan than at the beginning - because of interest.

As said above, I have had clients say, “I can deal with that, as long as they stop collecting it in the meantime. If I can get the credit cards, the medical bills AND the IRS off my back for five years and all I’ll have is the IRS when it’s done, that okay.” I still have them sign an acknowledgment advising them about the interest.

Can the IRS or state still take your tax refund while you are in a Chapter 13? Tricky question. And it depends on the district in which you live. In my practice, the answer is “No, they are not supposed to”. Usually the Chapter 13 Trustee takes the refund, so there is not much to be gained by fighting over it – let the Trustee and IRS duke it out instead. If you live in an area where you are allowed to keep some of your refund, it is worth the fight. In my district we are very lucky – the IRS and Illinois Department of Revenue are wonderful to work with and tax return captures are rarely a problem.

As always, if you have tax issues and wonder if bankruptcy will help, consult a local skilled bankruptcy attorney. Consider this a guideline only.

I’ll discuss more debts that are non-dischargeable next time.

Copyright 2016 Michael Curry

My name is Michael Curry and I have practiced law in Mount Vernon, Fairfield, Flora and throughout Southern Illinois since 1992. During that time, I have helped more than 5,000 people (and businesses) overcome their financial difficulties by filing for bankruptcy. As a solo practitioner, I will also be happy to help protect you and your family’s future with estate planning, wills, powers-of-attorney, real estate transactions and other legal services.

Please call or text me at 618-246-0993, email me at michael.curry.law@gmail.com  or send me a letter:     123 South 10th Street, Suite 507, PO Box 93, Mount Vernon, IL 62864

False Filng: How Non-Tax-Filers Can Verify a False Return to Prevent Identity Theft

You probably know someone who has been the victim of identity theft. Perhaps YOU have been the victim of identity theft as well. Someone has used my credit card or got a credit card in my name; someone has used my social security number on a tax return.

As a bankruptcy attorney, I have seen the latter quite a lot in the last few years. In both the Chapter 7 liquidation and Chapter 13 consolidation bankruptcy, Debtors are required to give some of their tax refund money to the trustee to disburse to their creditors.

But I have had a few Debtors who were unable to file their taxes (and get their refunds) because taxes have already been filed in their name! Fortunately, both the court and the trustee are sympathetic and do not put them on a deadline while the IRS sorts out the problem.

The Debtors in those cases were lucky – the identity theft was discovered. What if I were on social security, disabled, not employed or otherwise were not required to file a tax return? How can I find out if someone is using my social security number to file tax returns?

This type if scam could go on for years. You would have no idea someone was using your social security number to file tax returns and receive refunds – because you do not HAVE to file! The only time you would discover it is if, for some reason, you decided to file taxes OR the scammers goofed up and the IRS or state department of revenue contacted you about an error or other red flag.

You can check to see if anyone has used your social security number by preparing and filing Form 4506-T Request for Transcript of Tax Return.

Now hold on, you say. How can I request a transcript of a tax return I did not file?

Fill in the top of the form – name, address, social security number, etc. Then check box #7:  Verification of Nonfiling, which is proof from the IRS that you did not file a return for the year. Current year requests are only available after June 15th. There are no availability restrictions on prior year requests. Most requests will be processed within 10 business days.

The IRS will verify that you did not file tax returns. At worst, they will verify there HAS been a tax return filed under your social security number in the past. You will then have to take steps to report the identity theft to the IRS and elsewhere. This blog post does not go into those details, but Google it – there are dozens of places you can seek advice on where to go and what to do next.

Note the June 15^th date – you cannot check to see if someone filed a return under your social security number for 2015 until June 15, 2016. Information on 2014 and prior years are available before that June date.

Identity theft leaves us feeling sick and angry. But in this high-tech society, it is something we have to watch out for; something we have to ardently guard against. This particular type of theft – tax returns filed for people who do not have to file returns – is particularly heinous because it can be left undiscovered for years. Someone is using you to line their pockets with our tax dollars – and this time we didn’t vote for them!

If you are worried about this issue, request verification. Do it every year.

Original Material Copyright 2016 Michael Curry

Read Part one here.

If a Creditor forgives some of the debt you owe it, the IRS considers that amount as additional income for you that year. The Creditor can send you a 1099-C for the amount they wrote off and that is added to your total income. It may be enough to jump you into the next tax bracket – especially if it is a mortgage loan of tens of thousands of dollars.

During the few times clients ask me about debt consolidation, I advise them about the possibility of a 1099-C being sent to the IRS. I also tell them to seek the advice of an accountant or a tax attorney as to any forgiven debt and its tax consequences.  This, plus the fact that SOME debt consolidation companies are scams, are enough to convince them not to abandon the idea.  There ARE plenty of good debt consolidation companies out there, and I recommend a few – particularly Clearpoint – but otherwise caveat emptor (Google it)!

In over 5000 bankruptcies filed, I have had perhaps one percent of my Debtors receive a 1099-C on the forgiven debt. But since they filed for bankruptcy and received a discharge, there IS something they can do about it.

If you filed bankruptcy and received a discharge, and you later receive a 1099-C on the debt from the Creditors, you do not have to worry about it. You still have to DO something about it, but you do not need to WORRY about it.

Simply, a debt discharged in bankruptcy is notforgiven, instead the creditor is required to stop collecting the debt! The debt is still owed, but it is uncollectible, so the creditor might as well write it off on their own taxes and submit it to their insurance.

But they send out a 1099-C to you anyway. Why? Good question, do they get any monetary benefit from it? No, unless it helps keep their bankruptcy insurance premiums down, I suppose. They report it to the IRS and now you have to spend extra time and forms.

How can they send the IRS a 1099-C form on a debt that has not, technically, been forgiven? Another good question. I am not a tax attorney and the tax code is second only to the Harry Potter series in page count. Perhaps somewhere in that former rainforest of volumes, the tax code says that debt discharged in bankruptcy still counts as forgiven debt (although it is excepted). Perhaps it says the opposite; perhaps it does not address it at all (most likely).

Perhaps it may mention what happens when a company sends the IRS an intentionally false 1099-C.  An Attorney General (state or federal) looking to make some bonafides with a non-big-business constituency can look into this if they are looking for some political clout should they ever run for office.

I am sure some attorney, SOMEWHERE, has looked into this…

Regardless, the credit company sent you a 1099-C on a debt you discharged in bankruptcy. You HAVE to claim it on your taxes – the IRS has a copy of the 1099-C as well and will be looking for that income on your returns! What do you do?

When you file your taxes, you should also file a Form 982, labelled Reduction of Tax Attributes Due to Discharge of Indebtedness (and Section 1082 Basis Adjustment).

Fill in your name and social security number, check box 1a and fill in Line 2 with the amount on the 1099-C. Then complete the rest of Form 982 and file it with your taxes.

Don’t do this by yourself! I cannot stress this enough! It’s okay to get the forms free online, but take them to an accountant or a good tax preparer. I have nothing against the people who work in the kiosks in discount department stores or the people who volunteer their time at churches and care facilities who help with taxes. If not for the 1099-C I have no problem recommending you go to them to help you with your taxes. But this is worth paying a little extra. Remember – the IRS is waiting for you to account for the amount on that 1099-C.

Same for credit companies. Some loan companies will help you file your taxes. That’s fine … but they may be the same companies that will send you their own 1099-C in the future.

If you discharged the debt in bankruptcy, a 1099-C is nothing to worry about, although it may cost you extra time and costs when you file your taxes (you can deduct the cost of the tax preparer on next year’s taxes if that is any consolation). A 1099-C is the final thrash at you from a discharged creditor.

Mean? Yes. Petty? Yes. Are you stuck with it? Yes. Can you do something about it? Yes – if it was discharged in bankruptcy.

Original Material Copyright 2016 Michael Curry

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From 1099-C; when forgiving is NOT divine, part one

Bankruptcy clients rarely receive a 1099-C. Only on certain specific debts do I advise a client that after discharging their debt they might get a 1099-C in the mail. Usually mortgages, specifically mortgages with Greentree.

Also, they come in waves every few years. Earlier this year (2016) I had four or five calls from clients about getting a 1099-C. This is the first time I have had to handle calls about it in about five years. I suspect that the person in charge of doling them out at a credit company has moved on and a new person takes over the department trying to make his (or her) bones by inflicting these flimsy pieces of paper on their heretofore loyal customers.

What is a 1099-C form? When a creditor forgives a debt that you owe, it can send a 1099-C to the IRS and that counts as part of your income you must report and on which you must pay taxes.

What?!

Let’s suppose you owe a credit card $11,000.00. Miraculously you have managed to persuade the company to accept $6,000.00 in one lump payment and they write off the rest. They agree and do not renege.  You pay (somehow managing to collect the money – hopefully not as a loan from another credit card company thereby going from the frying pan into another frying pan) and they still do not renege.

(Keep in mind this is a fantasy only used as an example. The odds of a credit card company actually agreeing to something like this and not weaseling out of it even after payment are the same as winning the lottery – so you might as well win the lottery and pay off the card entirely…).

Everyone is now happy. Until you get a letter from the credit card company some months later containing a 1099-C. Now you have to declare that $5,000.00 that was forgiven as income.

Note that you have to declare that $5,000.00 as income whether you get a 1099-C or not!

The logic, that word used loosely, is as follows: now you do not have to pay that $5,000.00. You have five grand you would not have had if the credit card company had not forgiven the debt. That $5,000.00 is income for the year in which it was forgiven.

“But it would have taken me more than five years to pay off that $5,000.00, why does it count for only that one year?” Don’t try to argue around this with reason and sensibleness …

Imagine this family earns $35,000.00 per year. For 2016, their income will be $40,000.00.  If this person is single they are in a new tax bracket – 25% instead of 15%.

The problems come in with real estate mortgages – either modifications or short sales or whatever the latest scheme is from the mortgage companies. In cases like this we are not talking about a “few” thousand, but tens of thousands. Suppose the bank writes off $60,000.00 from the house you just gave back to them. They send you a 1099-C.

Now you go from $35,000.00 to $95,000.00. That a jump up one tax bracket for a married couple, two brackets for a single person!

Here’s an ugly scenario: imagine if the student loan problem is resolved and the government starts forgiving loans. What if THEY start sending out 1099-Cs? You might go from owing the Department of Education $200,000.00 to owing the IRS $100,000.00! And the IRS doesn’t believe in forbearance or deferment! {Note that if a student loan was forgiven because the person who received the loan worked in an underprivileged area as a teacher or a physician (remember that was the original premise for the TV show “Northern Exposure”), that is an exception to this rule.}

Does the credit card or mortgage company benefit from this? No. They do it because 1) they are required to under the tax code, and (more likely) 2) it tickles them.

What can you do? Not much, I’m afraid. You will have to consult an accountant or a tax attorney. You can except the “income” from a 1099-C only in certain circumstances – proving insolvency, if the debt was your home, your business or farm property … things that go beyond this blog and my expertise.

Speak to an accountant or a tax attorney for ways to stave off the extra income.  Tax avoidance versus tax evasion.

Can you file bankruptcy on the debt? No, as there is no debt to discharge. I have had to break this bad news to a few clients in my twenty years of practicing bankruptcy, but not many. And remember – even if the creditor did NOT send you (and the IRS) a 1099-C, it is still your duty to report it as income!

But what if it WAS for a debt that was discharged in bankruptcy?

Ah, that is another story altogether! And a story with a happy ending!

Original Material Copyright 2016 Michael Curry

Star Wars The Force Awakens, a review with slight spoilers (but don't worry)

There are 7.125 billion people on this planet. On Christmas Eve I became the 7,125,000,001^st person to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens. This is a brief review with minimal spoilers.

I was just the right age to enjoy the first Star Wars movie. Now, by first movie I mean FIRST movie, back in 1977, before it was a trilogy, or before that a nine-part-epic, then before that a trilogy, then before that just the one movie…). The opening fanfare still brings back floods of memories. Every time I hear it, just for a brief second, just a nano-second, I am 12 years old again.

The only comparable feeling is the smile on my face when I hear THAT portion of the William Tell Overture. People of a certain age can’t help but shouting, “Hiyo Silver!” at just the right part of the song. The opening fanfare of Star Wars creates a logarithmically greater chill.

The archetype of the first Star Wars is well known to anyone who read (or saw) the Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, the Wheel of Time series, etc.: a strange wizard whisks a youngster and his friends off to fight the forces of a dark lord.

***

The story of Star Wars boils down to this:

The movie opens with the forces of good losing a devastating battle against the forces of evil. One of our heroes has vital information that may finally defeat the bad guys once and for all. To prevent the information from falling into the hands of evil, it is hidden in a droid that is sent to a barren desert world.

After fighting off scavengers, the droid befriends our main hero. We meet the rest of our heroic band who join together to take the droid to the main HQ of the good guys – whilst in the meantime visiting various places in the galaxy including an odd bar filled with bizarre aliens and unusual – yet strangely familiar- music.

We discover that the bad guys have created a planet-size machine that can destroy an entire world in one blast. They discover a flaw that can destroy the machine, but first they have to infiltrate the machine and shut off the shields.

Then the good guys in their space fighters head to the planet’s one weak spot. Can they destroy it in time, before the machine can fire upon the good guy’s home base?

***

The rest is cinematic history: the merchandising of the first movie, the comic books, the Holiday Special (shudder), Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the Empire Strikes Back, the Han Solo books, the Lando Calrissian books, Return of the Jedi, the cartoons, more comic books, Heir to the Empire, more and more books from the distant past and distant future, the Phantom Menace (slight chill), the other two movies of the second trilogy (shudder), the purchase by Disney … and on and on.

***

And now here we are at Star Wars Episode 7: The Force Awakens.

A brief plot descriptions (with only MILD SPOILERS):

The movie opens with the forces of good losing a devastating battle against the forces of evil. One of our heroes has vital information that may finally defeat the bad guys once and for all. To prevent the information from falling into the hands of evil, it is hidden in a droid that is sent to a barren desert world.

After fighting off scavengers, the droid befriends our main hero. We meet the rest of our heroic band who join together to take the droid to the main HQ of the good guys – whilst in the meantime visiting various places in the galaxy including an odd bar filled with bizarre aliens and unusual – yet strangely familiar- music.

We discover that the bad guys have created a planet-size machine that can destroy an entire world in one blast. They discover a flaw that can destroy the machine, but first they have to infiltrate the machine and shut off the shields.

Then the good guys in their space fighters head to the planet’s one weak spot. Can they destroy it in time, before the machine can fire upon the good guy’s home base?

END OF SPOILERS

***

  

I say the above with tongue planted firmly in cheek, of course. The plot of Force Awakens is an homage bordering on plagiarism, yet despite this slight similarity in plot J, it worked! Force Awakens is a great film!

And leave us not forget that the original Star Wars was itself an homage to old serials of the sci-fi and pirate genres …

It is not a complete reboot ala JJ Abrams’ two recent Star Trek movies, it is a continuation.  We meet new heroes and villains. All are interesting and I cannot wait to see them again. Each seems, again, to be an homage to those-who-came-before: Rey, the main hero from the desert-world whose past remains unresolved, Poe the pilot extraordinaire/lovable rogue (although despite such comparisons to a certain Correllian smuggler, from the first moment of his introduction Poe’s being a hero of the rebellion is never in question, Kylo Ren as the Darth Vader wannabe (SPOILER: when he takes off his mask I whispered to my wife; “Abrams couldn’t get Marilyn Manson?” END OF SPOILER), and even BB-8, the R2D2-spunky-and-cute-droid of the movie.

The most unique starring character is Finn – by that I mean he has no real original movie equivalent – as a storm trooper/deserter. He starts as a coward but his attraction to Rey, and his eventual discovery of his bravery and sense of right and wrong, turn him from the dark side.

By far my favorite character is the Palpatine-equivalent Supreme Leader Snoke, “played” by CGI-king Andy Serkis with a disturbing resemblance to Bill Nighy.

Our old friends are also present. No spoilers here, there are as-yet undiscovered tribes in the Amazon who know that Han Solo, Princess Leia and Luke Skywalker are also in the film. As are Chewbacca, C3P0 and R2D2. I heard the voice of Obi-Wan during one intense scene and although I read Yoda’s voice is also heard I must have missed it.

Certain characters (or their alien race) from the second trilogy have been happily omitted. Mesa happy about that.

Most of our old friends appear in vital slightly-more-than-cameos. Carrie Fisher’s Leia gives us more emotion here than she had in all three of the trilogy. She is wonderful in her role.

No spoilers here: I am very pleased to report that Harrison Ford’s Han Solo is more than a cameo – he has more of a roll in the movie than Poe. Captain Grumpy excels in the role that made him a superstar – I loved this Han Solo. Here is he is older and not necessarily wiser. And funnier!! “You’re cold.”

There is much more humor here than in the prior six films, but not enough to lower the movie into spoof territory. The humor comes from the characters and the situations and is realistically done. Poe and Finn especially give us some very canny quips to uncanny situations. “Why are you nodding your head at me while I am trying to talk?”

The Force Awakens is not perfect. No movie is perfect. Okay, Godfathers 1 & 2 are perfect. No OTHER movies are perfect.

But this is close. The only real issues were the deux ex machina of some of the rescues and sudden and coincidental appearances of the cast. But, to be frank, that is expected in this kind of genre, isn’t it?

The direct parallels to the first movie made for a pleasant homage to we old fuddy-duddies and still made for a great story.

The original fanfare opening the movie made me feel like a 12-year-old for that split second. The plot homages helped continue that feeling. An original plot – and remember Phantom Menace, for example, had a very original plot – might not have done so.

Perhaps it might be best Abrams is not involved in the rest of this third trilogy. If only because of his track record of his Star Trek movies: the first, a redo of the original series. The second, a redo of Wrath of Khan. I would worry about his plot of a second Star Wars movie: After a First Order assault decimates a rebel base, Finn & Poe seek refuge at a base they thought was run by an ally, but are betrayed. Meanwhile, (SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT) Rey goes to a swamp world to be trained in the Force by a reptilian Fozzy Bear … (END OF SPOILER)

For the first time since the first movie, I want to see more of this universe. Empire succeeded in doing that. Let’s hope Episode Eight does that, too.

And remember Empire had an original plot. We’ve now known the thrill of knowing this universe we love so much is back, so now let’s move forward instead of looking back …

Original Material Copyright 2016 Michael Curry

A review of Elven Jewel, Book One of the Hunters of Reloria series by Kasper Beaumont.

Elven Jewel, Book One of the Hunters of Reloria series by Kasper Beaumont.

The author of this fantasy series sent me a copy of his book and asked that I review it! I did in Amazon, Goodreads and Smashwords.

An excellent adventure in a Tolkien-esque world populated by elves, dwarves, humans and halflings.

Reloria is “a peaceful land, protected by a massive force field” from the reptilian Vergais, who are determined to invade and complete their conquest of this world. The evil lizard men can occasionally rend a hole in the field and enter Reloria.

During one incursion they meet a family of halflings. The family travel through Reloria gathering allies, including a kingdom of dwarves and a few humans. They also meet an elven princess and her protector.

Through the eyes of the halflings we learn about the societies and peoples of the other humanoids of Reloria. We also learn of the halflings world – unique among the Relorians (and most of fantasy) are their fairies. Each halfling has their own fairy linked to their host. If one dies, apparently, so does the other. Although the halflings are not magical, their fairies certainly are. They are also fun and lighthearted for the most part. It is a nice and unique bit of flair added to the race.

We are also treated to some fun battle scenes against the Vergais, including a fun and epic final battle.

The book does not end on a cliff hanger, but it IS a continuing series and leaves some plot threads dangling. Friends are killed in the battle; enemies unite, if not as friends, then at least as allies.

Fun fantasy and highly recommended! I hope you enjoy it as much as I did and I am looking forward to reading the complete epic!

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