Sky is pushed to her breaking point and briefly does. Fortunately her friends and new family are there for her.
This was a fun fish-out-of-water tale to get to know a secondary character from “Obligations of Rank” better. Many of my short stories are like that. I’ll reread part of a book, recall something, or have someone ask “what ever happened to…?” and off I go.
Speaking of, onto my next project!
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Continue reading “Culture Shock, (pt4;end)”Wherein we see some of the existential angst (and Skylar would not understand that at all) which she is experiencing. I moved around a lot as a kid but it never became “easy,” just a routine. For someone like her, IIRC she’s nineteen, to find out your boyfriend is not exactly human, and a prince, and lives in one of the three Great Powers on earth… that could be overwhelming.
I thought about writing the argument she and Roland might have had when she proposed getting a job like she had before. Given how defensive he is over her, I’d imagine once he satisfied himself with her physical safety, he’d probably roll with it. Still, this is supposed to be a short story, so I cut it.
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Continue reading “Culture Shock, (pt2)”I know, I know: another girl. At least this one is human.
We meet Skylar – and Roland – in Part Two of “Obligations of Rank.” They’d been dating for about a month. Roland’s cousin Robert sort of gives them a push to get on with it. They do.
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Continue reading “Culture Shock, (pt.1)”There are about 1200 words left in this story but there was no even break. So, this one is a little shorter and the conclusion tomorrow will be a little longer. Such happens.
I finally have two days off in a row from DayJob; I swear those people do not know what “part-time employee” means. I also now have two more short ideas to round out my next collection. Oh, yes… it will be called “Imperial Entanglements.” That title is, of course, borrowed from somewhere else. I invite guesses.
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Continue reading “Berserker, (pt3)”On the first hand, this short story raw is complete
On the second hand, I ended it in such a way to pick it back up again, later.
On the gripping hand, I’m going to bet this pisses a lot of people off.
Working on another short. Not sure when I’ll have enough to start posting it.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt9; end?)”Overhead imagery in central China is terrible. Street View doesn’t exist. No surprise, of course.
For the technically minded, information about EAST is here. Otherwise, I wrap all of this up *cough cough* tomorrow.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt8)”I realize this is kind of bare-bones, even for me, but a short story collection, to my mind, presupposes a certain knowledge on the reader’s part of the world they are entering. Saying that, I’ll still probably add a paragraph about exactly why they need a flux point prior to publication. This blog is, after all, supposed to be a proving ground for raw ideas.
Should be two more entries after this one. I have a suspicion there is much seething in my readership.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt7)”This is about halfway through. I think I just got to an ending which shall be along in a few days. That makes these 4300 words about 15 pages in a 6″ x 9″ book. I’ll have to start pulling these shorts together to see how much material I have right now. I need at least one more story – most likely young Aurie in her Sisterhood, the first time she went into Berserker Mode, and probably nearly killed a human – or perhaps two.
I’m beginning to think that Four Roses bourbon presupposes me to cliffhanger endings.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt6)”Broke 2000 words. This is supposed to be a short story, right?
Per my usual, got stuck at the end of this. Had a head-slap moment at Mass when (…a short story, right?) I realized I don’t need the granular details. These collections assume the reader has at least a passing familiarity with Machine Civilization so I can turn the exposition waaaay down. Thus, we’ll be back to Tamera with Lem in the next scene.
I think Fussy’s 180, below, was hilarious.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt5)”“Jaw-jaw is better than war-war,” as they saying goes. I’d modify that to “in most cases.” As seizing the EAST reactor by force would be a huge logistical undertaking – not that the Hartmann family could not pull it off – it appears that diplomacy would be the first step.
This is the first time any of us, including me, has met Ildi. She is mentioned in passing in “Obligations of Rank” as a carefree young girl who regards the world as her personal play-toy. Sent as an exchange student to Japan by her mother, Empress Faustina, it appears she has matured a bit. Curious to see where this is going to go.
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Continue reading “Tamera (pt4)”
machciv 