Author Description

The author presents the story and libretto titled Piper. (308 pages; available in paperback, hardcover, eBook, and Kindle) The 30+ chapters span three acts and read like short stories with action, adventure, and lyric. Piper is an allegorical fairy tale influenced by the author's studies of the early 1700's and his fascination with pirates, Grub Street, and the Stamp Tax of 1712. Jonathan Swift excerpts are cited within the book's preface: "Grub Street is dead and gone last week? No more ghosts or murders now for love or money. I plied it pretty close the last fortnight and published at least seven penny papers of my own..." Story review by author Emily-Jane Hills Orford: "Timothy Rags, or Taylor as he liked to be called, is a detective. He's on a sabbatical of sorts, imposed by his employers. He's been sent to de-stress in a tiny village, Kipper's Cove. Stumbling out of a storm into a quaint store, he discovers a book which the owner, Samuel, lends him. Back at his lodgings, Taylor immerses himself in the book and finds himself swept into another world, another time, in a tiny village called Thyme on the river Thymes. And Samuel's there too, as is the lovely landlady's daughter, Ms. Gibson. The year is now 1712, about three hundred years before Taylor's time, and the Samuel and Ms. Gibson of this century share the story of an adventure filled with the power of music and the power of the written word, a story that makes the reader believe they've fallen down the rabbit hole with Alice, or flown off with the fairy Tinkerbell to Never-Never Land. The reader is certainly presented with a tale full of wonder and extraordinary events, extraordinary people and creatures, and extraordinary places. With an evil witch set to steal all of the stories and a child who escapes her evil ways to become a magical piper capable of weaving musical spells, G. Gene Black's debut fantasy, Piper, exudes charm, adventure, and the magic an