As I warned, sorry to end on such a downer. Then again, IRL I am ill again and don’t feel like a happy ending at all.
Sometimes we write the stories we’re told to. I’ll try for something lighter, next time.
Continue reading “Nazca, 6, End”Month: September 2025
Nazca, 5
Things get rather grim from here on out; there is a war going on in the background, after all. And I hope some of you get the joke about the llama’s name.
Doe tries to help, but is not military-trained.
Continue reading “Nazca, 5”Nazca, 4
Pushy Doe is pushy; most demi-humans are; Empress Aurelia’s father being a huge exception, and as you’ll know when you read Irrational Pai, Fusions can be dangerous.
Rather than spit-swapping magic rocks, this was a much faster way to convey information, even if it hurt Doe.
And, just for y’all: some pictures below the fold.
Continue reading “Nazca, 4”Nazca, 3
Communication established, even if, as Aleja says, it’s kinda gross. Do we stand on the threshhold of interstellar war over this?
At the end of this segment, we meet Doe, a Fusion first introduced in Irrational Pai. A nice girl, but used to getting her own way and comes across very rude.
Continue reading “Nazca, 3”Nazca, 2
A bit of a “first contact” part of the story. I can just imagine what Salvy thought of an alien lizard next to him. Aleja is a clever girl and gets her visitor back to the shed where she was told to live. We do get a little foreshadowing when she sees an Anglo woman in this tiny, out of the way village.
Her uncle and aunt sound like real winners.
Continue reading “Nazca, 2”Nazca, 1
Another short story project. This will be a submission for an anthology likely due out in the spring of next year. It is fairly contemporanious with my last short; both of these are, of course, a part of my future history, and, more specifically, the coming of the Civil Wars.
In the story, there is a reference to the goings-on on Mars. Also, later, we meet a minor character first introduced in my most recent novel.
Continue reading “Nazca, 1”Civil War, 7, end
While I have killed main characters before, this is not one of those times. Graf, unconscious and very shocky, and his team make it back to a medical facility just in time. I think the doc liked Pai’s unconventional idea: “You tied a tournequet around his neck?”
These seven parts will form the prologue of my second book of the Civil Wars. I expect it to be unpleasant and yes, there will be deaths of people some of y’all may have been reading about for years. A real civil war – think Whites and Reds; Serbs and Croats; for example – is a house to house, mind by mind affair. Nothing at all like the US War of Northern Aggression.
Thanks for reading. My next installment shall also be a short story, roughly contemporanious with this one, but set in Nazca, Peru.
Continue reading “Civil War, 7, end”Civil War, 6
The Violent, the last Circle of Upper Hell.
Continue reading “Civil War, 6”Civil War, 5
If you’re watching, yes, this is a replay of Upper Hell from Dante’s Inferno. Each level they descend represents another Circle, another kind of sin. In this shorter installment, we cover two: impetuous lust and hoarders/wasters.
And, for those new to all this, Graf and Pai, husband and wife, are first featured in Irrational Pai. Their relationship, human and Machine, is almost unique and constantly changing the world of those around them. A daughter of the ruthless Machine Reina of Russia, Pai is often at odds with her Upper Midwest farmboy husband and his sense of niceness and fair play.
Continue reading “Civil War, 5”Civil War, 4
I know it should be “wars,” but I wanted to finish up this sequence from back in April. Good Lord, has it really been that long?
Well, Graf and his team set down on the Moon but are immediately informed there is a problem and are underway again almost immediately.
Continue reading “Civil War, 4”
machciv 