But first, we have the:
Pre-Daily Grind - Hearts and Minds
Not technically a Daily Grind story--Gana, for instance, doesn't have poisoned barbs in her wrists in the actual continuity--this nonetheless has the first elements of what would eventually become Daily Grind and is in fact a story that happened to Tharka and Gana from November 11 through the 15 of 2003, about six months before they even meet the other characters. The canonical Daily Grind stuff starts with the next story, but I figured I'd put this up here because, I mean, where else is it gonna go?[ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5] [Epilogue]
Then would come the actual Books:
Book I: Another Country
Book II: Out of Darkness
Book III: Alone Together
Book IV: Till There was You
Book V: Written on Water
Intro - Welcome to Daily Grind [ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
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Seven - Pocketful of Dreams [ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
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Thirteen - Tools of the Trade [ 1] [ 2] [ 3] [ 4] [ 5]
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Nineteen - Signing the Senses
Mrs. Teasdale and Mr. Tharka have their own separate reasons for heading out to the serpent reservation at Clay Hills. But those reasons don't stay separate for long. The story starts Sunday evening, July 3, 2005 and concludes Tuesday afternoon, July 5.
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Act I
Act II
Act III
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From here, you can go to the first page of the next story, the current page of the current story, back to the 2005 Archive page, the 2006 Archive page, the 2007 Archive page, or over to the Current Archive page.
Intro: Welcome to Daily Grind
One: The Crossing Guard
Two: A Tooth for a Tooth
Three: Chrysalis
Four: Dust Bunny
Five: "-30-"
Six: The Batrachonesian Amphora
Seven: Pocketful of Dreams
Eight: Under Hill
Nine: Selected Shorts
Ten: Sons of the Black Swan
Eleven: The Apprentice
Twelve: Holiday
Thirteen: Tools of the Trade
Fourteen: Simplicity Itself
Fifteen: Shifting Sands
Sixteen: Toil and Trouble
Seventeen: Cradle to Grave
Eighteen: Administrative Oversight
Nineteen: Signing the Senses
Twenty: Hypocrisy
Twenty-One: Animus
Twenty-Two: On a Clear Day
Twenty-Three: Point of Order
Twenty-Four: A Long, Long Trail A-Winding
Twenty-Five: Saturday
Twenty-Six: Artifacts
Twenty-Seven: Foreign Correspondence
Book I: Another Country
Meet our five main characters briefly and start the actual Daily Grind stories. The Cast Page has more "up to date" info on them, of course, and since the Daily Grind Iron Man Competition started on February 28, 2005, that's the day upon which this story takes place.
One - The Crossing Guard
The first real story focuses on everyone's favorite psychotic squirrel girl, Jolene. She takes an assignment filling in for an ailing crossing guard at the Pike Street School and discovers a mystery reaching back 50 years. In the internal chronology of Daily Grind, this story starts the afternoon of February 28, 2005 and concludes Wednesday night, March 2.
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Two - A Tooth for a Tooth
Daily Grind's resident physician, Dr. Everard Chalko, takes the spotlight here, narrating a story that leads him from his past through the present and points him towards his future--if he doesn't get himself shot again, that it. The story starts Tuesday morning, March 8, 2005 and ends less than 24 hours later.
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Three - Chrysalis
The third introductory story has Mrs. Teasdale at its center and probably tells you more about talking insects than you've ever thought you wanted to know. It's the afternoon of Wednesday, March 16, 2005 when things start here, and the story ends Friday afternoon, March 18.
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Four - Dust Bunny
Mr. Tharka gets his turn--though, of course, he's already been introduced, sort of, in the whole pre-Daily Grind "Hearts and Minds" storyline. Still, you should be able to get the gist of who and what Tharka is and was by reading this story. It begins a couple hours after dawn on Thursday, March 24, 2005 and ends later that evening.
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Five - "-30-"
For Howlett's opening story, we go the old Citizen Kane route and follow reporter Alice Bryson as she tries to answer the question "Who is Howlett Creager?" She starts her investigation the evening of Monday, March 28, 2005 and gets her story into the Sunday paper the morning of April 3.
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Six - The Batrachonesian Amphora
And now, with the introductions all out of the way, the entire Daily Grind staff swings into action, journeying to the South Seas in pursuit of an ancient cursed artifact. "Hoplidzou meidesantos Batrachtheou," everyone! This one starts Monday afternoon, April 4, 2005 and ends Wednesday night, April 6.
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Book II: Out of Darkness
By the afternoon of Monday, April 11, 2005, everyone's back in Gadsden after the last story, and Jolene takes on another assignment, this time helping out at the bakery where she used to hang out during her years as a juvenile delinquent. There, some of her past catches up with her, and it's fairly heavily armed. The story wraps up Thursday night, April 14.
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Eight - Under Hill
Doc and Mrs. Teasdale respond to a call for help and find themselves caught up in the politics of the Twilight Realms and the Fair Folk--who, in this talking animal world, have eight legs and multiple eyes. This story gets under way the afternoon of Wednesday, April 20, 2005, and ends the next morning.
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Nine - Selected Shorts
To wrap up the first year of Daily Grind, we present a series of vignettes, the first five looking at our main characters individually and the last five taking them in combinations of two. These episodes takes place over three days beginning on Monday morning, April 25, 2005 and concluding Wednesday afternoon, April 27.
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Ten - Sons of the Black Swan
The second year of stories begins with Howlett on the trail of a stolen diamond. What he finds along that trail, however, will change the lives of everyone in the city of Gadsden forever. It runs from Monday morning, May 2, 2005 till the next Monday, May 9.
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Eleven - The Apprentice
Another step along Mr. Tharka's quest to leave his past behind. This time, he finds help from several unexpected sources. It all starts the morning of Friday, May 13, 2005 and ends Sunday, May 15.
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Twelve - Holiday
Threads from the last few stories weave together to pull the entire Daily Grind crew into a situation that threatens the city of Gadsden itself. The adventure starts Monday afternoon, May 16, 2005 and reaches its conclusion Wednesday evening, May 18.
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Book III: Alone Together
It's not unexpected when a young, terminally-ill girl Alice is interviewing for the Gadsden Gazette dies in the pediatric ward at St. Regis Hospital Tuesday morning, May 24, 2005. But something Alice notices makes Doc begin to wonder if the girl's death was entirely due to her disease. Everything shakes out--more or less--by Friday evening, May 27.
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Fourteen - Simplicity Itself
Jolene has from late Tuesday night, May 31, 2005, till dawn on Thursday, June 2 to fix an assignment she botched before Daily Grind is sued out of existence. Unfortunately, along the way, she runs into Mr. Spivy and Mr. Brock....
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Fifteen - Shifting Sands
For his first vacation in five years, Howlett decides that he needs to spend a week in Clay Hills, the serpent reservation where he grew up. Not everyone, it turns out, is happy to see him again. The story takes place entirely on Monday, June 6, 2005.
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Sixteen - Toil and Trouble
Starting Monday night, June 13, 2005, Tharka and Gana follow a lead on the disappearances a month ago. Over the next 24 hours, they run into several things they aren't exactly expecting.
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Seventeen - Cradle to Grave
The second year of Daily Grind stories wraps up when a young barbed moth from a far-off country introduces herself to Mrs. Teasdale on the morning of Friday, June 24, 2005, and sends them both off on a day-long, bullet-riddled journey across Gadsden in search of the truth.
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Eighteen - Administrative Oversight
Daily Grind's third year of stories begins the evening of June 24, 2005, with an unprecedented opportunity for Howlett and Co.: after the happenings at the St. Regis Medical Center detailed in "Tools of the Trade" and "Cradle to Grave," our heroes are hired to administer the entire hospital complex, their biggest job--and longest storyline--yet. Further revelations abound over the next few days, the entire storyline culminating the evening of Wednesday, June 29.
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Book IV: Till There was You
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Twenty - Hypocrisy
Howlett sets to work expanding the ward in the basement of the St. Regis Medical Center so it'll cover the entire complex, and to help, he separately calls in Doc and the Sons of the Black Swan. But everyone quickly learns that chasing a monster out of the cellar doesn't guarantee anything about the attic... The story starts late on Sunday evening, July 10, 2005 and runs into the first few hours of Monday, July 11.
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Twenty-One - Animus
Mrs. Teasdale returns to the Myrmec District for the first time after the explosive events of four months ago--events chronicled in "Chrysalis," our third storyline--and this time she's got Jolene with her. They're on a simple surveying job, so what could possibly go wrong? The story starts Wednesday evening, July 20, 2005 and winds up about twenty-four hours later.
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Twenty-Two - On a Clear Day
Two months after the events of "Tools of the Trade" landed her there, Alice is finally released from St. Regis Hospital--and is almost immediately swept up into the continuing maelstrom of adventure that surrounds life at Daily Grind. This story takes place entirely on the afternoon of Thursday, July 28, 2005.
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Twenty-Three - Point of Order
A stuttering otter named William Dustin walks into Daily Grind Friday morning, August 5th, 2005, and sets Howlett, Jolene, the Sons of the Black Swan and several less savory individuals on a collision course that will lead to fire, flood, and bloodshed before the day is over.
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Twenty-Four - A Long, Long Trail A-Winding
Friday, August 12, 2005 finally arrives: Jolene's 18th birthday! Several other folks have been looking forward to this day, too, and by the time it ends, wrapping up the third year of Daily Grind stories, the lives of our various characters will be irrevocably changed. This is a big 'un, folks.
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Book V: Written on Water
Twenty-Five - Saturday
The previous long and involved story took place on Friday, August 12, 2005, and closed out Book IV. The aftermath, then, follows in a shorter and more leisurely fashion the next day, Saturday, August 13, 2005, and opens Book V.
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Twenty-Six - Artifacts
With much of the Sons of the Black Swan headquarters flooded after the events of "Point of Order," our 23rd storyline, Monty and Howlett put together a plan to donate much of the treasure formerly stored there to the Gadsden History Museum. Unfortunately, other parties turn out to be interested in the items as well. The story starts the afternoon of Monday, August 15, 2005 and ends late Wednesday, August 17, 2005.
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Twenty-Seven - Foreign Correspondence
Mr. Tharka's partner Gana, working a case involving the kidnapping ring run by the Corsine mob, makes a phone call to Monty Tarr's house at 1:30 on the morning of Monday, August 22, 2005, then disappears. Tharka, Mrs. Teasdale, and Steven spend the next seven-and-a-half hours tracking her down.
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