Welcome to PeteChaytor

I love to write stories and I have been doing it since the 1980's. Sometimes they are written with a concise outline and other times they are not. Every so often I permit my fingers to have full reign over my keyboard so the path and destination of the story is not scripted and it unfolds as an expression of what is in my head and my heart. I am uncertain which of these two methods of writing have served me the best and which has produced the better stories.

It is my intention to share a portion of these stores with you and, if you appreciate what you have read, the ability to read the rest. 

The first is Conversations With My Sister, a novella written as an exercise to get the Black Winter stories out of my head. It was not a successful exercise, I went on to write two more Black Winter stories, but it did produce a thought provoking short piece of fiction. It is in its entirety under the Conversations With My Sister tab above.

The second is Black Winter. It is fantasy fiction with a little action and adventure. It is a novel published through Newman Springs Publishing and I have included the first three chapters. The text is nearly as it was originally written, before the editors of the publisher got their hands on it.  

Black Winter II: Nirvana House introduced more characters and is a departure from the original story in that it is told in third person which assisted in the development of those characters. Nirvana House is the house Queen Freya built for Vidar at the nirvana by the river where he and the village girl survived the Black Winter. The story chronicles Vidar’s arrival at Nirvana House, his influence on those who share the house with him, his titling as Lord Vidar and his impact on those of Nirvana Village growing in the shadow of his house. Each of the Black Winter stories have some action and adventure and this one is no exception.

Black Winter III: Vidar's Legacy continues from where Black Winter II: Nirvana House ends. Because of events which occur in the first chapters the young queen realizes that she is being persecuted. Lord Bjarn of Norrberg who was responsible for the maiming and eventual death of Vidar has now set his sights on the village girl. This lord believes that ultimately it is the village girl who was responsible for the death of his first bon son. A life that her champion, Vidar, took in her defense early during the Black Winter. The life of Queen Freya becomes ever more complicated as she leads half of her palace guards to Nirvana House and is accompanied by Kolbjorn, King of Sintland, and his palace guard. During the ride to Nirvana House the young queen begins to exert her authority and it becomes clear to all those around her that despite her age she is indeed a queen and that she commands respect.

Black Winter IV: The Path To Revenge, like Black Winter III: Vidar's Legacy, picked up where the novel before ended. This story introduces a new character that, unbeknownst to Queen Freya, was a very devoted student of Lord Vidar. His name is Ulfr, also more commonly known in the capital, Oslav, as Nobody. He becomes Queen Freya's personal guard during a time when she is not only persecuted by a rouge lord of Sintland but also by a man of power and influence in the capital that desires her death. The depth of Ulfr's devotion and his mannerisms and words constantly remind the queen of her champion, Lord Vidar, but without his compromised countenance. These reminders creates a complicated relationship between them. Ulfr keeps his queen at arms length and denies his feelings for her to keep himself focused on the preservation of her life.

Molly Says (Added 12 31 2023) I recently added a few pages of Molly Says. This one was written more than twenty years ago. I started it when my boys were still in school because I wanted to share with them my passion for writing. Unfortunately, they were teenagers and they were more interested in being teenagers and doing things with other teenagers. I have often dismissed this story but every time that I have revisited it I Iike what I wrote ... Despite the events that happen, it's a humorous story of a married man with two young children that is not in charge of his life because he has never been a take charge kind of man. He is humiliated, fired from his job, severely beaten [not once but twice] and is eventaully hospitalize because of the physical and emotional injuries he has received. There is a plothera of poor grammer and, since it is told in the first person, the poor grammer is intended.