
One of the goals of SPFBO is to give a chance to self-published authors to get more exposure. This year I’m taking part in the competition with my own team. You can keep updated on our progress and all of our content on my SPFBO 5 page!
Tales from the Asylum is a new feature I came up with for SPFBO. I wanted to create a unique opportunity for the authors to show off their story telling skills by taking their characters and putting them in an asylum room to see how they would deal with the situation. A lot can happen in a closed space…
The Author

Brian D. Meeks writes full-time from a studio apartment on the Las Vegas strip with a great view. Though he’s now writing Epic Fantasy, he also has penned mysteries, satires, science fiction, a thriller and a couple of YA novels. He is most well known, though, for his non-fiction books, Mastering Amazon Ads and Mastering Amazon Descriptions, which get him speaking gigs at author conventions.
The Setting

The Scene
Kal knew he didn’t belong there.
At least, that’s what he thought the first day. He’d been caught picking the pocket of a rather rotund banker with inexplicably fast reflexes. Maybe he was losing his touch.
It wasn’t the first time he’d been pinched, though. Kal knew the insides of every major city in the Fifth Kingdom except Wexstone. The guards in this harbor town didn’t know him, yet. Kal hadn’t had time to charm them at the local taverns. It was his habit to make friends with the gents who would likely incarcerate him, but he’d only been in town three hours when thing went awry.
What was odd, aside from the massive cell he was in, was that for the life of him he couldn’t remember the time from when that meaty hand grabbed his wrist and when he landed on the floor.
Why wasn’t there a bed?
Had he been drunk?
That would explain how he got caught, but if he had been so full of ale that it dulled his reflexes, something that took a considerable number of pints to do, he would still have that wonderful happy glow.
He hadn’t slept, it had only been a minute since they had tossed him in here.
Kal stood up and turned toward where he thought he’d been thrown through the door.
Nope, just a wall.
There were four walls, but no door.
The ceiling had a diamond shaped relief that glowed pale yellow. His prison didn’t even have a tiny window.
Kal checked all four walls again, just to make sure he wasn’t imagining things. Not a door to be found.
He sat down in the corner. Across to the other corner, he noticed a chair, but how had he not seen it when he walked the entirety of the room looking for a door. Still, it was better than sitting on the stone.
Kal crossed the room and took a seat.
A thought crossed his mind, maybe I should panic?
He’d been in worse spots, so panicking didn’t rise to the level of sensible next action to take. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep.
A few seconds later, he opened them back up and found he was lying on the ground in the center of the market square.
The sounds of bartering were all around and people walked past and over him as if he weren’t there. Kal got to his feet and saw the banker he’d tried to rob watching him from next to a vegetable vendor on the far side of the square.
Kal rubbed his eyes and when he opened them, he was back in the cell.
He didn’t know it at the time, but the next three days were going to be life changing.

If you’d like to get in touch, you can find Brian D. Meeks on social media:
Brian D. Meeks entered Dragon’s Fury into SPFBO, which you can check out by clicking on the cover:
You can keep updated on our progress and all of our content on my SPFBO 5 page!
This is so cool! I was looking forward to this segment and Brian D Meeks’ offering is excellent. Feels like the start of a really unusual and really fun novel. I like the angle of reality-bending that’s going on in it.
Still got to get my entry in! I’m working on the concept. ^_^
I was looking forward to the stories come in as well! I think it’s going to be a fun few months with these 🙂
Love this 🙂
Yay! I’m so happy!