A bit of a change today, as I’m not posting from War’s End. (I’ll return to it next week.) This is from a short story I’ve just uploaded to Amazon Select and it does tie in with War’s End as a remote prequel. Coralie is from Horizon, the planet on which the action of “Horse Power” takes place, and she’s a descendant (about 8 generations on) of Timi and Amber. Roi, who does not age, is her husband and Audi’s, though Coralie is new to the family and still not quite sure how she feels about Audi. (For that matter Kelty was one of Roi’s rescued children and Ginger is torn between Roi and Roi’s other medical assistant, Mark.)
Here a much younger Roi is checking out a rumor that the colonizing company on Horizon is maneuvering the colonists into debt slavery, and his old friends Timi and Amber, now among the colonists, have put him up for the night in one of their children’s rooms. This is the next morning, edited a little to get to six sentences. Roi is the first speaker.
“Between the birds, the worms and the spiders the children obviously like animals. Is there a reason they don’t have more conventional pets?”
“Spiders?” Amber moaned. “I didn’t know about those.”
Probably just as well he hadn’t mentioned the snake that had been in bed with him this morning, Roi thought. It had been a perfectly friendly little grass snake, but he doubted that Amber would see it that way.
“Horse Power” is priced at $.99, but it’s free today. Pick up a copy, and I’d love reviews. Just click on the book cover to get there.
Incidentally, I finally talked iUniverse into dropping the ebook prices on Homecoming and Tourist Trap to $4.99 each. If Amazon and Barnes & Noble haven’t dropped theirs yet, they should soon.
Now, on to the rest of the Six Sentence Sunday snippets!
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'Homecoming' Blog 
I laughed at this—I didn’t know about the turtle my two had for three days! 😀
Great—and realistic—six!
Children (and many of us adults) enjoy pets, and Horizon doesn’t have anything planned as pets in its ecology.
Sounds like a fun read!
I think it is. Grab the free download.
What a great little snippet. So much fun and speaks a ton of their personalities!
Roi’s telepathic, so he knew the snake was friendly.
Oh, hey! I saw this snippet yesterday. The humor of it comes through better on the second read. If I was Amber, the spiders are what would worry me, too. Until the snake…:D
That’s why the download was free for those two days. (And this is a planned ecology. None of the spiders or snakes are venomous, and the snakes are going to die out in a couple of centuries.) I have three more free days coming, so expect to see more on SFFSaturday and Six Sentence Sunday when it’s free again.
LOL! I love the humour in this snippet. I wonder why the children prefer creepy crawlies over “more conventional” pets 🙂 Great 6.
There are no “conventional” pets on this planet. No cats allowed (they can really mess up an ecology if they go feral) and dogs and horses are thought of as luxury items.
Enjoyed your snippet. I don’t much care for snakes and spiders– more so if they were crawling in my bed. lol
I picked up a copy and ‘liked’ it, too. Thanks. 🙂
Hope you enjoy it.
Oh dear! I’m glad my children don’t bring those kinds of pets into the house. I’ve never cared for the creepies or the crawlies.
They don’t have anything else.
Very amusing and true to life, especially about the snake! Great six!
I hope people like the story. It’s a little thing, but important for the future history of Coralie’s planet.
Love this. So realistic [though neither of my kids would make pets of spiders, far too scary]
Well, it’s a planned ecology, and the corporation didn’t include anything that would make a good pet.
Spiders! Ugh. Snakes I can handle, but spiders are a completely difference story. I just downloaded Horse Power and can’t wait to read it. It’s a lovely appy on the cover.
You mean there weren’t any spiders in that storage room? We (the cover artist and I) actually dulled the red on the appy to make it look more like a grulla, since Dottie shows up in the trilogy I’m working on now as the horse that brought the dun gene to Horizon. (She’s a granddaughter of Roi’s Raindrop, from Tourist Trap.) Couldn’t find a photo of a dun appy.
Spiders wouldn’t be my idea of a pet either. I enjoyed the humor in this snippet. Nicely written!
There are actually people who have tarantulas as pets, though I suspect this was just a little non-venomous spider.
I’m with Amber on that one. I can handle the snakes, but I draw the line at spiders. Not even tarantulas are welcome in my house, much less my bed. Intriguing six, Sue Ann.
But the kids want pets, and there are no cats and very few dogs on this planet.
Unconventional, the pets, the marriage arrangements (in the western world). Great six, Sue Ann. I just downloaded it. Thank you. I’ll be off work this week–hope I can get to it. 🙂
Actually, Horizon has a monogamous system. Central (where Roi’s from) anything goes as long as the children are cared for. It’s a pretty short read.
Hahaha! Too funny.
Tongue in cheek, at least. But there’s a serious reason for the question.
This is so funny! My boys are forever bringing snakes to the house and my husband can not STAND snakes. Really brought your six home for me!
It’ll be free again some weekend this month. It’s pretty short, but it’s a bridge between my two published books and the trilogy I’m working on.