Sandra Tayler knows a thing or three about the free content model. After all, she is an integral part of the success her husband, Howard Tayler, enjoys with his web comic, Schlock Mercenary. Between the two of them, there's a wealth of practical experience in producing and marketing a free-content based web property.

And, like so many women nowadays, she's constantly juggling her kids, her husband, their business that pays the bills, and her own creativity. That creativity is what I'd like to highlight in this edition of Free Range Fiction.

On Sandra's personal web site (http://sandra.tayler.com), you'll find a wide variety of short stories, essays, and links to projects such as Hold on to Your Horses (www.holdontoyourhorses.com), a picture book collaboration done with artist Angela Call. One thing you can not accuse Sandra of is having a narrow range of interests.

The short fiction tends to the fantastic and contemporary, but with excursions to science fiction and fantasies hailing from an earlier era. My favorite among them is probably "The Road Not Traveled", although all do a great job of exhibiting a fine writing "voice" and flare for subtle detail.

The one thing I noted that seems recurring amongst the pieces is that they tend to lack significant tension and rely instead on a great deal of introspection. The resolutions, similarly, tend to not be big whomping "Ta da!"s but, rather, quiet cessations of action. Regardless, they are each small, well crafted jewels of prose, very smooth and enjoyable to absorb even if they're not particularly "hearty" fare.

The essays tend toward observations and impressions garnered from various aspects of life. They make for interesting reading despite their everyday germination, and are suitable for a variety of quiet moments of thought.

Mentioned previously, Sandra's "Hold on to your Horses" project is a collaborative illustrated children's book that is already freely available off its web site in PDF format. In keeping with the free-content model, print versions suitable for reading to young ones at bed time will be available in late June. Additionally, Sandra has recently sold a story to the "Ages of Wonder" anthology edited by Julie Czerneda and Robert St. Martin. Look for it to hit Amazon's listing soon.

So, if you have a few minutes, you can take a rewarding browse through Sandra's free fiction and get a feel for where she started before she becomes famous on the basis of her own creativity.

Darwin A. Garrison