The Spoons That Are My Ears!

When I was young my name was rather unusual but these days every man in Wales seems to be called "Rhys". I sometimes wish I had kept the pen-name I invented for myself when I began writing. Actually I had several pseudonyms, the first being the rather abstruse "Theophrastus Rhaeticus" when I was 15, followed by "Zadig Dikdorff" (inspired by Voltaire); and then "Henry Jovial", which is the pseudonym I now wish I had stuck with. Henry is my middle name anyway: and the surname Jovial (hearty, gleeful) is a nod to the satirist Juvenal. I collected Classical authors back then. I still occasionally read them.
One of the finest works of Classical literature, in my view, is The Golden Ass by Lucius Apuleius, a novel the equal in imagination and ingenuity to any fantastical fiction that has ever followed, a book that should be mounted on a pedestal in some hypothetical Temple of Literature. In homage to Apuleius I created a blog called The Platinum Ass where I could post some of my stories online for free reading. My notion is to eventually post 100 tales there. I will post only fairly short works and they will be selected pretty much at random from my back catalogue. I have just added the 14th. Hope you enjoy!