No one ever notices the bartender.

Shea O'Ryan reflects on the place that was her whole life: her father's bar. You get to meet the people that made up her daily custom and through her eyes peek into the existence of each of them.

It's a very short story yet it covers a great deal of ground, the character studies alone make it worth the read. ...oh and someone does notice the bartender.

"Skin Tight" exemplifies Juxian's writing at its best: her amazing ability to weave together dark, disturbing, violent themes with an exquisitely lyrical, poignant tenderness, and her superb style that vividly captures images, sensations, and emotions.

Here, the premise of the Season 6 comedy "Old Ares Had a Farm" -- the mortal Ares is being hunted by warlords with grudges against the ex-God of War, and Xena hides him on her grandparents' old farm -- is reshaped into a completely original story that is anything but comical. In this version, Ares does get captured by a crafty old enemy (who, in a nice touch, is not just a warlord of the week but someone with a connection to an earlier X:WP episode), and Xena and Gabrielle fall into the trap as well. They get out -- but not before Ares is brutally abused on the warlord's orders. Badly injured, he has to stay on the farm until he recovers, and Xena finds herself having to grapple with her complicated feelings toward her former adversary.

Juxian's rich, evocative writing captivates from the opening lines, in which Xena is having a nightmare about being hunted in Chin long ago:

"She remembered pain the best. It returned undeniably real -- mind-numbing, tormenting ache in badly knitted bones -- not just settling there but rising all through her body, resounding even in her teeth at every jerking step she managed. ...

She knew it was hatred that made her move - perhaps the last thread that linked her to consciousness. Sometimes this hatred seemed to her a huge ball of blackness growing inside her head -- one that encompassed everything and everyone in the world."

Juxian refers to "the unbearable clarity of perception" in Xena's dream, and this phrase aptly sums up her own style. In the warlord's dungeon, "the bars of the cell were almost as thick as [Xena's] wrist -- moist and unperturbed as she tried to shake them." The violence inflicted on Ares happens "off-camera," but the scene in which Xena and Gabrielle huddle in their cell in a silence periodically punctuated by his screams is nonetheless harrowing. In the second half of the story, which takes place on the farm, the imagery is as poetic as it is harsh in the first half. (My one stylistic quibble is with the occasional references to Gabrielle as "Gabby.")

One may disagree with a few aspects of Juxian's characterization of Xena (particularly when she tells herself that she has no obligation to help Ares -- even as a psychological defense mechanism, that doesn't quite jibe with what we saw on the show in Season 6). For the most part, however, it is not only spot-on but profoundly affecting. The Warrior Princess in this story is a woman far more comfortable with action than with feelings, and guarded toward other people except for Gabrielle -- yet deeply vulnerable and loving underneath the stoical exterior.

Gabrielle in "Skin Tight" recedes somewhat into the background, but her good-humored warmth and her empathy still shine through. With a few sparse brushtrokes, Juxian paints a moving and engaging portrait of Ares, "softened" by mortality and trauma without losing the edge that makes him ... well, Ares. The former War God's newfound humanity is captured in a sweet (yet never mushy) scene in which Xena finds him feeding bits of apple to a hedgehog and recalls that she used to bring hedgehogs in from the forest when she was a little girl:

"'I didn't,' he said suddenly.

'You what?'

'Didn't have hedgehogs. Stallions, serpents, wolves -- but no hedgehogs.'

'Don't tell me you missed them,' she said but it felt strange for her -- to think about him being a child; it must've been such a long time ago that one might've forgotten about it himself. But no, he remembered.

'Nope.' There were the little wrinkles around his eyes as he smiled at her. 'But it might've been fun if I had them.'"

At the end of "Skin Tight," Juxian brings Xena and Ares together; but she is fully aware of the dark, troubling underside of their relationship and never turns it into a lovey-dovey romance. "It was not right that he could feel so good despite what he was," Xena thinks as Ares touches her face. "But, maybe, she could forget what he was. Maybe, he could forget it."

The Xena/Ares pairing may be relatively unorthodox in Xena fan fiction, but ultimately the themes of this story are classic Xena themes: the ability to survive and transcend darkness and horrific violence, to overcome hate and mistrust, and to find healing and redemption in an unlikely love.

In this version, after hurling Gabrielle off the cliff, Xena returns to Ares as his Warrior Queen, and is soon once again leading an army that slaughters and pillages its way across Greece. Yet, unable to resist the pull of the dark side, she hates herself for succumbing to it -- and quietly plots against the God of War, whom she blames for Gabrielle's death and for the loss of her own chance at redemption. After contriving to have Ares stripped of his godhood, she proceeds to take revenge, in a scene (recalled by Xena in flashback) that reads like some infernal symphony in which the horror seems to reach a climax only to rise to an even higher pitch. The complication, however, is that Xena also loves Ares in a warped way, and needs him by her side to fill the emptiness left by Gabrielle's death. So she keeps him alive -- as her slave, her lover and her victim, in a bizarre relationship that alternates between lovemaking and violent abuse.

The combination of shattering brutality and heartbreaking tenderness that was so poignant in "Skin Tight" takes on a grotesque edge in "Together," where the hurt and the comfort come from the same person. Added to these motifs is a gruesome touch of irony. Ares pushes Xena to embrace her rage and vengeance, and finds them unleashed against himself. Xena seeks to punish Ares for turning her to the dark side, and only sinks deeper into evil and madness.

When I first read "Together," it occurred to me (once I had recovered from the shock) that this is what X:WP fan fiction would look like if written by the Marquis de Sade. But the comparison is unfair, since de Sade's torturers and torturees are nothing more than stick figures evoking neither revulsion or pity. Juxian, on the other hand, never lets the reader become a mere observer but takes us inside the psyches of her painfully real characters. Written as Xena's monologue addressed to Ares, the story gradually reveals more and more layers of her mind and her motives. She is punishing Ares, but also, in a way, affirming their dark bond through the very violence she does to him: "I owe you -- all my achievements, all my crimes, all the pain I can inflict."

On yet another level, she revels in her unlimited power over the former War God -- and, perversely, in playing his protector after reducing him to helplessness: "I'll never let you down. I am the strong one now. You can rely on me -- in everything." While we do not get Ares' point of view here, he still emerges as a complex and believable character. Almost completely broken, he still responds to violence with "passive defiance" -- but is unable to resist his self-destructive obsession with Xena: "My kiss does to you what my blows can never do. Your eyes go all mellow and defenseless -- and you lean towards me, cling to me, despite the sharp curves of my breastplate that jam into your chest."

Powerful and superbly written, "Together" is an excruciating read, and not only because of the overly graphic and extreme nature of the violence (which could have been toned down without compromising the story). In contrast to "Skin Tight," there is no promise of salvation here. Both Xena and Ares are beyond healing and beyond redemption; and Gabrielle, of course, is dead. And yet, in this near-total darkness, there are tiny glimmers of light: Xena's hatred of the monster she has become, her memories of Gabrielle, even her twisted tenderness toward Ares -- as well as the hints that Ares' desire to possess Xena has turned into something very much like love (albeit with Stockholm Syndrome overtones), that he is horrified not only by what she is doing to him but by what she is doing to herself. These little sparks save "Together" from being a dehumanizing chamber of horrors: its characters may be hopelessly lost, but their humanity never is.

As if the prospect of dying slowly on a mountainside whilst a young child plays mental and emotional games for fun with Xena and Gabrielle wasn’t chilling enough, Temora keeps the pace, the suspense and the emotions right at the forefront with some strong characterisations right through. Her Xena and Gabrielle are true to type, Xena being especially interesting as we see her in an atypical situation; helpless and dependant upon another for help, but it is Tai who is the real star of this story. You’ll want to hug, slap, kiss and kill this child by turns. And you’ll be asking yourself right up till the end - will Tai let them die?

Xena and Gabrielle are visiting Cyrene and Lila in Amphipolis. While waiting tables the bard bowls over a priest resulting in an interesting curse with hilarious results.

Warning this is trashy sexual humour at it's very best. Little people and hard core feminists are best to give it a miss. I promise you will never look at Lila or Argo the same way again!

Troubleshooter intertwines the legal case and the attraction of the two characters into an enjoyable, sometimes humorous, and entertaining story.

"Buried behind that wall was the guilt, the rage, and that darkness in her soul that scratched and clawed for freedom, but also behind that wall was her vulnerability, and as her vulnerability peered back at me through that crack, I saw that it had my face."

L.A. Tucker's comedy/drama "The Light Fantastic," is definitely one of my favorite stories this year, heck..maybe even my top 5 for all time. It's a wonderfully written tale revolving around Chloe, a librarian in a small township near Lake Erie, PA, who also happens to be volunteer director of the high school play with her best friend Marcy in tow. The lead in the production is Nelson D'Amico, son of Dave D'Amico who is Marcy's latest flame. Dave is a simple guy, following his dream of opening his own golf course, with the help of his reclusive, once famous actress sister, Sara.

Sara is gorgeous, prone to panic attacks, and wants the world, save for Dave and Nelson, to go away and leave her alone. Of course, in this tight knit community, it is only a matter of time before Chloe and Sara meet...but that is where the predictability of this Uber ends, and their journey towards like and maybe even love, begins.

L.A. Tucker's characterisations are lively, fresh, and as a result I found myself enjoying all of the minor characters as well as the major. The story itself is panning out to be often times humorous, sometimes sad, but never dull. Trust me folks, this is one tale that is not to be missed.

This is mainly a comedy, but it's got romance thrown in, of course. The list of characters is as follows:

• Chloe, the town''s librarian slash part time drama teacher, who is also directing the senior play, Oklahoma.
• Sarah, the elusive Hollywood star who is back in town after hiding from the world. She is still trying to come to terms with her own emotional set backs after an accident took her looks, and career. That with the help of her loving family, and a cute little librarian she just might be able to do.
• Marcy, the art teacher who is trying to give Julia Robert''s in Run Away Bride a run for her money. She also happens to be Chloe''s best friend.
• Dave, the UPS man that dreams big by starting his own golf course, Sarah''s brother and the man that just might have won over Ms. Marcy.
• Nelson, the football star that wants to follow his Aunt Sarah''s footsteps and become an actor, and who just might be the only adult in this fine story at times.

Now, put all these characters together, in a small town, with small town gossip, and you have the setting for one fine comedy.

This is still a work in progress, but I do believe LA Tucker has been added to my list of favorite bards. Although I can give you my word that it will have you laughing out loud, it does have its more serious topics, which you will find when you read it right? Good, now go forth and read!