The Dream Rider Saga - Book Tour and Giveaway

Will Dreycott is a superhero. In his dreams...and in yours.

The Hollow Boys
The Dream Rider Saga Book 1
by Douglas Smith
Genre: YA Urban Fantasy 

WINNER OF THE 2023 AURORA AWARD FOR BEST YA NOVEL
WINNER OF THE 2023 JURIED IAP AWARD FOR BEST YA NOVEL

“Thrilling YA fantasy” --BookLife (Editor’s Pick)
“A must-read story for YA fantasy fans.” --Blueink Review (Starred review)
“Inventive, engaging, and boundless fun.” —The Ottawa Review of Books

Vanishing street kids. An ancient evil. The end of the world.
Our only hope? A hero who can't leave home.

At seventeen, Will Dreycott is a superhero…in his dreams. And in yours.

Eight years ago, Will's parents, shady dealers in ancient artifacts, disappeared on a jungle expedition. Will, the sole survivor, returned home with no memory of what happened, bringing a gift…and a curse.

The gift? Will can walk in our dreams. At night in Dream, Will hunts for criminals—and his parents. During the day, his Dream Rider comic, about a superhero no one knows is real, has made Will rich.

The curse? Severe agoraphobia. Will can't go outside. So he makes his home a skyscraper with everything he needs in life—everything but the freedom to walk the streets of his city.

Case, an orphan Will's age, survives on those streets with her younger brother, Fader. Survives because she too has a gift. She hears voices warning her of danger. And Fader? Well, he fades.

When street kids start vanishing, the Dream Rider joins the hunt. Will’s search becomes personal when Case breaks into his tower to escape her own abduction. Fader isn't so lucky.

As Will and Case search for Fader and the missing kids, an unlikely romance grows between the boy with everything and the girl with nothing except the freedom Will longs for.

But as they push deeper into the mystery, they confront an ancient power feeding on these forgotten kids to restore itself. And once restored, no one in the world will be safe.

To defeat this creature, Will must do the impossible.

Go outside.

Indiana Jones meets Teen Titans in The Dream Rider Saga, a fast-paced urban fantasy trilogy from “one of Canada’s most original writers of speculative fiction” (Library Journal).

Praise for The Hollow Boys:
“This arresting series kickoff grips from the start as it introduces its inventive milieu, its flawed but fantastically powered hero, its playful worldbuilding, and a host of tantalizing mysteries. … [A] vigorously imaginative scenario. … Takeaway: Thrilling YA fantasy” --BookLife (Editor’s Pick)

“An assured, confident novel … A must-read story for YA fantasy fans.” --Blueink Review (Starred review)

“Inventive, engaging, and boundless fun.” —The Ottawa Review of Books “A fun supernatural tale with well-developed characters and a touch of romance.” —Kirkus Reviews

Praise for Douglas Smith:

"The man is Sturgeon good. Zelazny good. I don't give those up easy." --Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner

"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice." --Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner

"His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think." --Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner
 

**On Sale Until Jan 11!**
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​Chapter 1: When I Live My Dream 

At seventeen, Will Dreycott was a superhero.
In his dreams.
Happily for Will, right now, he was dreaming.
To start his night as the Dream Rider, he "awoke" as usual on the Bed of Awakening in the House of Four Doors. Will knew he wasn't really waking. He was asleep. But entering Dream always felt as if he had finally woken up. As if his time spent in the "real" world was time spent asleep, waiting to return here.
To return to Dream. To be the Dream Rider.
Brian, his favorite Doogle, waited for him. The creature sat beside the bed, its head on the covers, staring at Will.
Doogles were dog-shaped—sort of. Kind of like a Dalmatian, white with black splotches, or the other way around. But with a snout like an anteater, ears like a koala, and eyes like an owl.
Big nose, big ears, and big eyes. The better to smell, hear, and see you with, little girl. Or old man. Or middle-aged woman. Or whoever or whatever Will set his Doogles to search for in Dream.
Okay, so they weren't much like dogs at all. But they were his creations, his logical constructs in Dream, and he thought of them as his dogs.
Dogs that searched.
Doogles.
Will stood and looked around. The House changed each night. Tonight, it was a round, domed chamber of white marble with dark wooden doors of varying shapes—rectangular, round, oval, and square. The four doors were carved with writings in Latin. Or Greek. Or something. Languages weren't his strongest school subject.
He scratched Brian behind his ears. "Evening, Bry. I missed you, buddy." In reply, Brian curled his long, whip-like tail into a spiral, a Doogle display of happiness.
Will tugged at the costume hugging his slim frame, again regretting the form-fitting spandex. But by now, hundreds of millions of people recognized the Rider—and that recognition gave him power in Dream. Too late to change his appearance.
Besides, the costume looked cool. It was black as the night sky, its surface speckled with blazing red comets with silver tails. Gray clouds drifted over his chest, obscuring then revealing the moon behind them. The moon, which changed phases like the real one, was full and bright tonight.
A black cloak, its hood currently thrown back, completed the look. A jeweled clasp in the shape of a twelve-pointed crystal star fastened the cloak at his neck.
Yeah. Cool.
He considered the four doors the House presented tonight. Which to choose?
"Nyx!" he called.
A cloud of gray mist the size of a beach ball formed before him. Inside the cloud, a woman's face appeared—blue skin, violet eyes, and long, purple hair floating around her head. She was striking, but too sharp-featured to call beautiful.
Seeing Will, Nyx rolled her eyes. "Really? You again?"
"Uh, since you're my subconscious, who did you expect?"
She pursed dark blue lips. "Someone better looking? I mean, a girl can dream, can't she?"
"You are dreaming."
"Have you ever wondered why your subconscious appears to you as female?"
"I'm in touch with my feminine side. Just give me the data file I prepared on the missing little girl, please."
"Lisa Carter? Well, at least you bothered me for a good reason. Here."
He held out his hand. A crystal sphere the size of a baseball appeared with a "pop," dropping into his palm. Inside the sphere, words, numbers, and images scrolled and tumbled, appearing and disappearing.
"May I go now, oh Great Master?"
"Please. And lose the sarcasm," he said. Nyx made a rude sound and disappeared.
He offered the data ball to Brian. "Here you go, boy. It's everything I know about Lisa."
The Doogle bent his snout up to sniff at the sphere. A long black tongue shot out, wrapping around the ball and sucking it into his mouth.
Brian swallowed the ball. Sparks of light danced in his black eyes. He began a circuit of the House. After sniffing at each door, he returned to the oval one, cocking his round ears forward. His tail sprang straight up, then bent into an arrow shape pointed at that door.
Will walked up to him. "You sure?"
Brian's tail whipped out, smacking Will on the leg before forming the arrow again.
"Okay, okay. Don't get grouchy." He patted Brian's head. "We have to be sure, pal. Tonight may be our only chance to find her before…" He didn't finish. Before it was too late. Before Lisa Carter was dead.
He pulled up the hood of his costume. Now anyone meeting him in Dream would see only blackness where his face should be. A blackness no light could penetrate.
He grabbed his skateboard from beside the bed. Across its black surface, constellations spun behind a thin veil of cloud. He touched the door. It swung open, and he stepped into Dream, Brian at his heels.
​

The Crystal Key
The Dream Rider Saga Book 2 

​​Sequel to the AURORA AWARD WINNER and the Juried IAP AWARD WINNER, The Hollow Boys

"Give me the Crystal Key!"

Will Dreycott is the Dream Rider, the agoraphobic teenage superhero who can walk in our dreams but never in the streets of his city. Case is his girlfriend, a survivor of those streets who hears voices that warn her of danger. Fader is her brother, who is very good at disappearing. Together, they defeated a body swapper and a witch to save the world (The Hollow Boys).

Now, Case battles guilt over living sheltered in Will's tower home while her street friends still struggle. Blaming his affliction for Case's sadness, Will searches for a way to live a normal life with the girl he loves—a way to go outside.

But his efforts draw the attention of dark forces. Sinister figures hunt Will in Dream. Intruders scour the vast warehouse of antiquities "acquired" by Will's missing parents. And a masked swordswoman attacks Will, demanding "the Crystal Key" before disappearing into thin air.

Are they all searching for the same thing? Something from Will's parents' shady past? For the swordswoman leaves behind a flowery scent, Will's only memory from the lost expedition eight years ago that gave him powers in Dream but cost him his parents and his freedom.

A trail of dark secrets leads Will, Case, and Fader to a mysterious world. Trapped between warring cults willing to kill for the Crystal Key, the three friends must master strange new powers that grow stronger and wilder the closer they draw to the truth.

This time it's not just the fate of the world at stake…but the multiverse.

~ ~ ~

Indiana Jones meets Teen Titans in The Dream Rider Saga, a fast-paced urban fantasy trilogy from "one of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction" (Library Journal).

Praise for The Crystal Key:
"The richly inventive Dream Rider adventure continues in this second appealing entry…with an exciting plot… always enlivened by the Smith hallmarks of crack dialogue, fun sleuthing and puzzle-solving, a strong throughline of emotion, a swift pace…and a principled refusal to settle for the familiar. Takeaway: This thrilling superpowered urban fantasy series continues to grip." (New readers should start with book one.) --BookLife (Editor's Pick)
"The engrossing second installment of Douglas Smith’s Dream Rider Saga trilogy. … Smith continues to demonstrate an ability to expertly weave multiple complex fantasy elements into a cohesive whole. … This fast-paced story delivers in a big way—and Smith has all his ducks lined up for an explosive conclusion [to the series] that readers won’t want to miss." --Blueink Review (★ Starred review)

Praise for Douglas Smith:

"The man is Sturgeon good. Zelazny good. I don't give those up easy." —Spider Robinson, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner

"A great storyteller with a gifted and individual voice." —Charles de Lint, World Fantasy Award winner

"His stories are a treasure trove of riches that will touch your heart while making you think." —Robert J. Sawyer, Hugo and Nebula Awards winner

"Stories you can't forget, even years later." —Julie Czerneda, multi-award-winning author and editor
 

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​Chapter 1: Front Row 

Lawrence Kinland was afraid. Ridiculous, he told himself. He had no reason for fear. He was exactly where he wanted to be.
Even if he had no idea where he was. Or how he came to be here. Or why he wanted to be here.
He sat alone at a round white-clothed table in the largest banquet hall he’d ever seen. And the strangest.
The room was a huge cavern, carved from a shining black stone, running at least fifty paces by a hundred and rising to a high vaulted ceiling. At scores of tables throughout, men in tuxedos and women in evening gowns talked and laughed, ate and drank. All wore animal-headed masks.
Servers, male and female, dressed only in loin cloths and leopard masks, wove between the tables. Each balanced a tray laden with a steaming roast of an unknown meat on their heads and carried a wine flask in one hand. On the cavern walls, torches burned with scarlet flames, washing the room in a bloody light.
Why was this scene so familiar? Had he been here before? If so, he couldn’t remember. Just as he couldn’t remember how he’d arrived here tonight.
Tonight? Was it night?
An oval dance floor of polished hardwood filled the middle of the cavern, large enough for a hundred couples, but currently empty. Circling that space, every twenty paces or so, flames leaped from bronze pots squatting waist-high on clawed feet, their smoke mixing with the torches and the smell of cooked meat.
Kinland’s table sat at the end of the room on the edge of the dining area. Beside him, the dance floor ended at a semicircular dais a meter high and ten across, sculpted from the black stone. The dais jutted from the cavern wall, tall red curtains hiding whatever lay behind. Two men dressed as Victorian footmen flanked the curtains, each holding draw ropes. They wore bear-head masks and sword scabbards.
Concentric circles lay carved into the platform, with spokes radiating outwards from the innermost circle. On the floor below where each spoke ended, a golden goblet rested, as if waiting to be filled.
Masked guests occupied every seat at every table in the room. Except at his. He sat alone, unmasked. The other diners paid him no notice, yet his isolation and proximity to the dais felt both threatening and ominous. He felt exposed, naked, unwanted.
At the opposite end of the cavern, a broad red-carpeted staircase led up from the dance floor to a tapestry-draped landing. A movement on the staircase caught his eye. A man wearing the formal attire of a Victorian gentleman and a boar’s head mask descended the stairs. Walking the length of the room, the man seated himself across from Kinland and removed the mask. Long white hair. Blue eyes, bright and cold. A hooked nose under snowy eyebrows.
Another jolt of surprise shook Kinland. They’d met before. Here. In this place. His memories rushed back.
The man’s name was…Beroald. He was a powerful man. A man who had offered to share that power with him—if Kinland performed a certain task.
Cold sweat trickled down his back. He remembered more now. Remembered the agreement he had made, the task he had promised to do.
Remembered, too, that he had failed in that task.
 

The Lost Expedition
The Dream Rider Saga Book 3 

The Thrilling Conclusion to the Multi-Award-Winning Trilogy

Will is the Dream Rider, the superhero who walks in our dreams but never in the streets of his own city. Case is his girlfriend, a survivor of those streets who hears voices warning her of danger. Fader, her brother, is very good at disappearing.

In The Hollow Boys, they defeated a body swapper and a witch to save the world. In The Crystal Key, they battled warring cults to protect an ancient artifact tied to Will's affliction.

The Chakana. The Crystal Key. But the key to what? To finding answers, they hope, to the questions that rule their lives.

What caused their strange powers? And Will's crippling agoraphobia? Can he be cured? Why did their parents travel to the jungles of Peru eight years ago? Are they still alive?

Behind every question is the Chakana. What is the mysterious relic? Why will people kill to possess it? What hold does it have on Will?

As creatures from Inca myths haunt the three friends, another attack on the Chakana threatens Will's life. To save him and solve the mystery of the lost expedition, only one choice remains.

Return to Peru. With the Chakana.

There, they find friends and foes, both old and new. And behind it all, an unseen enemy moving them like pieces on a chessboard.

To win this deadly game, Will, Case, and Fader must master new powers to defeat the most dangerous adversary they've ever faced—a god.

At stake this time? Every life, every world, every universe. Everything.

Indiana Jones meets Teen Titans in The Dream Rider Saga, a fast-paced urban fantasy trilogy from “one of Canada’s most original writers of speculative fiction” (Library Journal).
 

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Chapter 1: All the Way Home 

When her plane landed on the Isle of Man, or Mann as the locals called it, the red-haired woman rose from her seat in the otherwise empty first-class cabin. Empty, because she had arranged it so.
A male flight attendant hurried up to her. She lifted her long tresses to allow him to fasten her hunter-green cloak around her neck. She wore tight black slacks and green low-heeled pumps. A white buttoned shirt with French cuffs completed her look, with enough buttons undone to expose impressive cleavage. Better than a spell for most men, she always said.
At the baggage claim, she stabbed a manicured finger on her left hand at the first person she saw, an overweight, balding man in a plaid suit. A bird-shaped shimmer passed in the air between them, then vanished.
She pointed to her suitcase on the carousel. “Get that. And follow me.”
The man opened his mouth as if to protest, then stiffened. Retrieving her bag, he scurried in her wake as she strode through the crowded terminal of the small airport, her cloak and hair billowing behind her.
At the taxi stand outside, she ignored the line of waiting passengers and got into the first car. The driver glared back at her. “Lady, there’s a queue. You—” His words died as he stared at her face, wide-eyed. Stared, she knew, at the golden runes that now lay there.
She felt them flowing across her face and down her left arm, arranging themselves into the script she desired. She flicked her left hand at him. He stiffened and stopped talking.
“Vel Gaelg ayd?” she asked.
He blinked at her.
She sighed. “You don’t speak Manx?”
“Few do anymore, Mistress.”
“Augh. Put my bag in the trunk.”
Getting out, he took her suitcase from the man in the plaid suit, who gazed around as if lost, then wandered back toward the arrival doors. The driver got into the cab. “Where to, Mistress?”
“Cashtal Rusien.”
He blinked again.
“Castle Rushen, you idiot.”
“Ah, Castletown. Yes, Mistress.”
She settled back as he pulled into traffic, letting the scenery scroll past her tired eyes. So much had changed, but one thing matched her fading memories. The grass still glowed in the summer sun, a blazing lime green that almost hurt the eyes. “There’s no green like that in the world,” she whispered.
“Are you from here, Mistress?”
“Many years ago,” she said, lost in the past. Catching herself, she scowled at him. “Shut up and drive.”
In Castletown, the harbor was familiar, although a sweeping curve of cement had replaced the old stone jetty, and the small lighthouse at its tip was new and freshly painted red and white. The turns in the roads matched her memories, but the low stone houses of old were now three-storied brick buildings, steep-roofed and shoulder-to-shoulder along each narrow street. She shivered at how little she recognized.
Until the driver turned a corner, and the castle rose before her, looming above the modern structures of the small town.
The gray stone of its thick walls and squat towers was streaked with white, randomly from bird droppings, deliberately from new mortar. A carpet of green moss covered the slanting stones topping the sea-facing walls. She smiled. Castle Rushen stood as it had for centuries, a physical memory of a past none here had lived.
Except her.
“By the Goddess,” she said. “It still looks the same.”
“Best preserved medieval castle in Europe, they say,” the driver said, pride in his voice.
It better be. Or at least one particular room.
​

Douglas Smith is a five-time award-winning author described by Library Journal as “one of Canada's most original writers of speculative fiction.”

His latest work is the multi-award-winning YA urban fantasy trilogy, The Dream Rider Saga. Other books include the urban fantasy novel, The Wolf at the End of the World; the collections, Chimerascope and Impossibilia; and the writer's guide Playing the Short Game.

His short fiction has appeared in the top markets in the field, including The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, InterZone, Weird Tales, and many others.

He is a 4-time winner of Canada's Aurora Award as well as the juried IAP Award. He's been a finalist for the Astounding Award, CBC's Bookies Award, Canada's juried Sunburst Award, the juried Alberta Magazine Award for Fiction, and France's juried Prix Masterton and Prix Bob Morane.
 

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What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write these books?

I’d written one novel (The Wolf at the End of the World), which had been well received, so I figured, “How hard can a trilogy be?” Yeah, right.
I wrote the entire trilogy before publishing the first book, The Hollow Boys, taking advice that the award-winning fantasy author, Charles de Lint, had given me. The Dream Rider Saga is one long mystery told over three books. When you’re writing that type of trilogy, it’s wonderful to be able to change the earlier books as you’re writing the later ones. Plus, readers don’t have to worry if the final book will come out when they buy the first one.
The inspiration for the Dream Rider came from my love as a kid of comics, superheroes, and stories of lost cities. I call the series “Indiana Jones meets Teen Titans.” I’d wanted to write a YA series for a while, so when I got this idea for an orphaned teenager who can travel through our dreams but can never leave home, I figured it would fit perfectly.
Then I asked myself questions. Where did his power come from? Why is he an orphan? So, I gave him a backstory, purposely sketchy at first:
Will’s parents, shady dealers in ancient artifacts, disappear on a jungle expedition. Will, the only survivor, returns home with no memory of what happened, with his strange power to walk in our dreams…and severe agoraphobia. He uses the money his Dream Rider comic creation brings to make a skyscraper home with everything he needs—everything but the freedom to go outside.
But it’s YA, so I needed a romance. Enter Case, an orphan Will’s age, who survives on the streets with her young brother, Fader, because they have their own gifts. Case hears voices warning her of danger. And Fader? Well, he fades. People just don’t notice him.
Book 1, The Hollow Boys, throws Will and Case together, and into danger and an unlikely romance, as they join forces to defeat a centuries-old body swapper preying on street kids.
In book 2, The Crystal Key, dark secrets lead Will, Case, and Fader to a mysterious world, trapping them between warring cults willing to kill for a dangerous artifact from Will’s past.
In the last book, The Lost Expedition, Will’s search for his lost parents propels the three friends deep into the jungles of Peru, where they battle an ancient evil to save all of reality.
The theme for the series is family. The family we’re born into. The family we find. The family we make. The family we choose.

If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters, what would they be?

Interesting question, since I use modern rock and pop songs for the chapter titles in these books.
For Will, my 17-year-old agoraphobic superhero, I think I’d go with David Bowie’s “Starman.” It’s about a visitor from outer space, so it fits Will’s weirdness with his Dream powers. But it’s also a song that has always made me smile, which fits Will as well.
For Case, my life-hardened street kid and big sister to Fader, I’d pick Billy Eilish’s “Tough Guy” or maybe Pat Benatar’s “Hit Me With Your Best Shot.” I use both in the books for titles of Case’s chapters.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

Ever so many. It was fun finally getting to write a scene in book 2, The Crystal Key, from the point-of-view of Adi, Will’s guardian and surrogate mother, when she tells the story of how his parents acquired the Crystal Key. I got to show more of her bad-ass side.
And any scene with Rani Patel, my snarky reporter in books 2 and 3, was fun to write. It’s a hoot writing a character who has no filter and doesn’t care what people think of them.
But overall, I enjoyed giving Case more POV scenes in the second book, where she actually has more words in her POV than Will. I wanted to show her strengths and internal struggles more than I could in the first book, to set up the role she plays in the final book of the trilogy. I’d also have to say she was the easiest character for me to write, to be inside her head.

What would be the one thing you’d want readers to remember from these books?

The characters. I’m a character-driven writer. I can’t start a story unless I know my characters. Characters drive plot. I always try to start with an interesting character with a problem. Plot twists and turns come from choices my characters make as they struggle to solve their problem. To make those choices believable to the reader, I need to understand my characters so well that their choices are true to each of them. “Love the characters!” is a common comment in reviews of these books, and I think readers will come to love Will, Case, and Fader, and the bonds that form between them.

What genres do you write in?
My short stories have covered a broad spectrum in speculative fiction, SF (both hard and soft), fantasy (a lot of urban but also high fantasy and sword & sorcery), some horror, some humour, as well as some mainstream.
My novels (The Wolf at the End of the World and the three Dream Rider books) are urban fantasy, but my next planned novel is a near future SF novel that expands on my short story, “Memories of the Dead Man.” After that, I plan to write a sequel to The Wolf.

What appeals to you about SF, fantasy, and horror?

I enjoy the freedom that speculative fiction allows me as a writer. I think it was Damon Knight who talked of how spec fic allows us to hold up a distorted mirror to reality to highlight aspects of our society that need our attention. It’s that “if this goes on…” type of story that allows speculative fiction to provide a social commentary in a way that mimetic fiction cannot.
And I don’t feel restricted by one particular genre. I can tell any story I can think of in the way I feel is best suited to that story idea. I really don’t think about genre when I write. I don’t think “oh, this is an SF story. I can’t do *that* in an SF story.” Which is probably why I tend to mix genres not only across the stories I write, but within a story as well. As a reader, I’ve always enjoyed stories that mix genres. One of my favourite writers, Roger Zelazny, was a master of “science fantasy,” stories which have the veneer or trappings of fantasy, but have a core logic of SF, stories like “Lord of Light” or “Jack of Shadows.”
Not being restricted to a single genre, there are fewer (no?) limitations to the types of stories I can tell. The stories still need an internal logic and consistency, but I’m not bound by any concerns of matching current reality. That is wonderfully freeing for a writer.
Speculative fiction can use other worlds—future or alternate—to focus on aspects of our real world, our shared beliefs, our conflicting beliefs, our humanity, our inhumanity, our potential, our failings, to let us view ourselves through a different lens, at a slightly different angle. Speculative fiction, by the very nature of its unreality, can make us see our reality in ways that mimetic fiction cannot. How we relate to those views, which messages resonate with us as individual readers, can then tell us something about ourselves.

How can readers discover more about you and your work?

The easiest way is to check out my website at smithwriter.com. It contains a complete catalog of all my publications, along with reviews and buying links on all major retailers and my own online store.
Readers can also subscribe to my mailing list via my site, and follow me on Amazon, BookBub, Goodreads, or BlueSky. And readers can email me. I always love to hear from readers! 

How can people purchase the books which have been published.

The easiest way is to visit my website, smithwriter.com and click on “Buy My Books.” That will give readers an option of buying from their favourite retailer in their own geography, or directly from my online store. Doesn’t matter which to me, but they can order a personalized, signed copy of any of my print editions from my online store.

Why should people buy / read your books?
Well, I’ve won Canada’s Aurora Award for speculative fiction four times, and all my collections were finalists for multiple awards and contain multiple award winners and finalists and “best of” selected stories, including the Heroka stories. The Dream Rider series has already racked up two award wins and an award finalist showing.
But more than that, I’d say that if you’re a reader who enjoys character-driven stories, you’ll enjoy my work. If you read reviews of my books, the comment that is made over and over is how quickly and strongly readers connect to my characters. Which is great, because that’s why I write—to tell my characters’ stories.

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