Weekend Writing Warriors: Horse Power

It’s Sunday, and time for authors to post snippets of their work. Click on the logos above and below this entry for the other authors.

Today it’s Horse Power (FREE again today on Amazon Kindle.) If you like it, I’d really appreciate a review. This is a little later in the story, after they’ve reached the ranch and Roi is talking with Amber’s husband, Timi.

 

“So how did you stop them?” Timi asked a couple of hours later.

Roi, seated on top of a molded fence panel, swung his legs as he answered.  “Countered the ‘something back there’s going to eat us’ and emphasized how tasty the grass looked.  Tricky part was applying it as a wave from the rear of the herd, instead of all at once.  Timi, what exactly are you doing?”

“Pregnancy testing,” Timi replied.  His face and hair were shaded by the broad-brimmed hat he wore, but the black curls that had escaped were streaked with white and the face that had once been black silk stretched over the fine bone structure was wrinkled around the eyes and mouth.  He wasn’t old, yet, but he was certainly heading in that direction.

Roi is now the acknowledged heir to Lai, kept busy learning to be a member of the Inner council. Flame and Penny are still with him after their trip on Falaron, but Amber and Timi have become colonists on Horizon, a world Terraformed for stock rearing. It’s an idyllic planet, but the colonizing company has set things up in such a way that the colonists have a difficult time avoiding debt slavery.

Roi is sent to investigate the problem, but it appears that the colonizing company’s actions however immoral, are legal. All it seems he can do is see that Timi and Amber’s children at least have the pets they crave. But a few things have been forgotten over the centuries, and those “pets” may have a great influence on Horizon’s future.

Jarn’s Journal Year 8 Day 111

Year 8 Day 111

Exploring, like many other things in life, is mostly boring. There are surprises, both fascinating and terrifying, but mostly I am flying along coastlines that are very much the same.

I started at the great river delta to the north, assuming I would spot the linear sea to the south if I bore east. I’d hoped to find something but desert, but this direction is as self-similar as the coast to the west. Sand and occasional rock to my right, the tideless sea to my left, and heat. I think this may be the wrong time of year to explore here, since it’s close to the summer solstice in this hemisphere. On the positive side, I haven’t encountered any major storms.

The coastline is beginning to swing north, rather before I thought it would. I didn’t follow the eastern arm of the linear sea, but I took it for granted that it also would approach the tideless sea to the north. The coast is turning north too fast, though. Of course I was following the west shore of the linear sea, before, and didn’t get too good a look at the eastern arm – perhaps I should check out that arm further?

In fact, I think I’ll do just that tomorrow. It was getting very hot for flying, even high, so I teleported to a known clone of the sweet dates and brought Rainbow a supply. She is combining them with other, tarter fruit to make a sauce for fish that is almost as good as the stuffed grouse. It’s just as well I am expending a lot of energy flying and teleporting, or I would get fat on her cooking!

Quotes from Jane Austen

These are contexts of the quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling from September 5 through September 11, 2013. All but the last are from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.

“Adieu to disappointment and spleen.” Elizabeth after the Gardiners have invited her to accompany them on a pleasure tour.

“I must have my share in the conversation, if you are speaking of music.” Lady Catherine de Burgh, interrupting a conversation between Elizabeth and Colonel Fitzwilliam.

“We neither of us perform to strangers.” Darcy’s comment to Elizabeth, referring to her playing and singing, and to his own conversational abilities. (At Rosings, before the first proposal.)

“He likes to have his own way very well.” Col. Fitzwilliam, speaking of Darcy to Elizabeth.

“Our habits of expense make us too dependant.” Col Fitzwilliam, explaining why as a younger son he must marry for money.

“Disguise of every sort is my abhorrence.” Darcy, justifying the wording of his proposal to Elizabeth at Rosings.

“That is a true masterpiece of both understatement and forbearance.” Homecoming, by Sue Ann Bowling. Lai, speaking of Davy’s comment that the people on his planet weren’t very tolerant.

Mr. Darcy’s Guide to Courtship: The Secrets of Seduction from Jane Austin’s Most Eligible Bachelor (Book Review)

When I first saw this title (by Emily Brand) in a BBC catalog my immediate response was, which Mr. Darcy wrote it? After all, the proud, status-conscious male chauvinist Elizabeth starts by despising would hardly have written the same advice as the man whom she eventually married.

I was curious enough to get the Kindle edition for my iPad, and decided at once that it had to have been written very early in Pride and Prejudice. Darcy is, frankly, every bit as conceited, proud, and aware of his social position as Elizabeth first imagines him.  On the other hand, he has met the Bingleys, actually allows Caroline to write a chapter of advice to women (a chapter which would have had Elizabeth giggling) and is beginning to interfere in Charles’s affairs. Certainly he sees no place for any mixing of classes, and he puts himself very near the top of those not actually royal!

He starts with the assumption that “An eligible gentleman not in possession of a wife is assailed from every quarter with a fervour bordering on  derangement.” He clearly regards himself as so far above the average that he may wed any woman who comes up to his exacting standards – an attitude that he retains in Pride and Prejudice until Elizabeth refuses him. (His stricture that “there should be no ‘falling in love’ except with suitable persons” seems to have been discarded somewhat earlier.)

In fairness I must say that his advice is not toward seduction as leading to a light affair; his advice is clearly toward finding a wife who will produce the next generation of a noble family. But I cannot help but imagine how he himself would have reacted to much of the advice in this book a year later in his life.

North Pole Weather 9/9/13

The sun rose at 6:56 this morning, and it will set 13 hours, 41 minutes and 30 sec later, at 8:38 pm. The days are shortening by about 6 minutes 40 seconds a day, and today is the last day this year the sun will be more than 30° above the horizon at noon. On the other hand we now have astronomical night again, so if the clouds clear, we can see the stars. (No local street lights, though the glow of Fairbanks is certainly visible.)

The basil is blackened, though the parsley and thyme (and the weeds) are still untouched.

Still no hard frosts, though I have the potted plants by the garage door, to bring in fast if needed. The basil, which is very tender, is black, and we have a few yellow leaves on the trees, but mostly the plants are still green. They’ve almost quit growing, though. I’ll need to get help soon to cut the perennials back for the winter, though there aren’t nearly enough leaves fallen yet to cover the beds. Just a yellow sprinkling on the lawn.

My balance is still poor—a side effect of chemotherapy I hope I’m soon over. Other than that, I’m feeling human enough to get back to editing the trilogy. I might start sharing bits on Weekend Writing Warriors in the next month or so.

And as of this morning, the sun is finally out.

Only a few leaves are showing color on the raspberries.

Weekend Writing Warriors: Tourist Trap

It’s Sunday again, and time for snippets from authors far and wide. For Weekend Writing Warriors click the logo above, for Snippet Sunday click the logo below.

This week I’m posting a snippet from Tourist Trap, available in all formats from Barnes and Noble, iUniverse and Amazon, though I can’t seem to get Amazon to offer a reasonable e-book price. Point out the lower prices to them. This is some 20 years earlier than Horse Power. An unexpected jibe has just knocked Roi out of the sailboat Timi has been piloting

 

If you knocked him out, something in the back of Timi’s mind whispered, there’s a good chance he’d drown.

That’s crazy, his saner self replied.  Roi’s my friend.

He’s your owner.  How can he possibly be your friend?

He was almost back to the eddy now, and with a surge of relief—or was it hatred?—he saw Roi’s head break water.  The R’il’noid was pawing feebly at the water, seemingly unable to use his right arm, and he was choking and coughing.

All you have to do is hit him like this, the voice whispered, and to his horror Timi felt his hands moving, not to assist Roi until the boat could get back to them, but to kill.

A vacation with his three best friends from slavery and a manhood challenge: Roi is given the graduation present he has dreamed of. Dogsledding, hang gliding, a chance to see Pleistocene animals transplanted to a Terraformed vacation world, horseback riding, sailing … all the sports he has returned to with his recovery from paralysis, and a few new ones to learn.

They’re prepared for danger from weather, wild animals and extreme sports. But none of them realize that Roi’s half brother Zhaim, determined to recover his old position as Lai’s heir, intends to kill them if he can—and he’s decided that the dangers of the trip will make a perfect cover for his schemes.

How long will it take them to realize that the “accidents” they keep running into are more than just accidents?

Tourist Trap, the second novel of the Jarnian Confederation, won first place in science fiction and fiction book of the year in the 2011 Reader Views contest.

Jarn’s Journal Year 8 Day 106

Year 8 day 106

I’ve decided to map the northern shoreline of the tideless sea, as a first step toward exploring the continent to the north. I already know that there a a strait to the west connecting the tideless sea with the tidal ocean that surrounds this continent, so the logical place to start was the great river delta to the northeast. Besides, I wanted to see what Rainbow could do with the rare clones of sweet dates I have discovered.

I think part of her problem with her mate was that she is too intelligent. She is, for instance, one of the very few who has some fuzzy grasp of what a map means. She can’t quite get her mind around the idea of something as big as the continent we are on. But when I zoomed the computer map out until the local area was visible, and showed her where the landmarks we can see were located on the map, she was able to figure the direction to one she hadn’t seen. Compared with those who cannot understand a map I am not standing on, this is genius.

I get the impression, however, that she considers my mapping a harmless diversion that she is quite willing to put up with as long as it gets her food and skins. Especially dates. She has devised a way of stuffing a local bird I am fond of with those, and the result is almost enough to distract me from my mapping. She is thrilled to get the birds, a rather stupid type of ground-dweller that competes with us for plant food. I find them fairly easy to trap.

Jarn’s Journal is the story of a human-like alien who was stranded in Africa some 125,000 years ago. His story is part of the back story of the civilization in which my published science fiction is set.

Quotes from Mercedes Lackey

These are the contexts of the quotes tweeted from @sueannbowling from August 29 through September 4, 2013. All but the last are from The Snow Queen, by Mercedes Lackey.

“It is so much harder to take a hint of scorn from the beloved than a verbal battering from an enemy.” The Snow Queen, testing Gerda to determine whether she can stand up to Kay.

“I am glad I am not a human.” The Bear, relieved that he does not fall under the Tradition.

“I only promise that I will try.” Kay to the Snow Queen, after she has given him the casket. The important thing is that he promises only to try, which is under his control.

“In a way, eventually, this would be very good for her.” Annukka’s thoughts on Kaari’s experience with the bandits.

“We will help everywhere it is needed.” Annukka’s mental promise as she plays her spell-music.

“What good is immortality without the ability to laugh, to love, to weep?” The lament of the soulless forest spirits.

“Could it possibly be deliberate terrorism?” Bowling, Tourist Trap. Marna is taking the first steps toward unraveling the source of the plague on Eversummer.

Who Needs a Nightcap?

Sometimes your subconscious can be remarkably wise, though it doesn’t always choose the best way of getting through to your conscious mind.

I’ve been cold at night the last few weeks, probably as a result of chemotherapy. For some reason the lines of “’Twas the Night before Christmas” also kept running through my head. Not the whole poem, and it’s really too early to start thinking of Christmas, though the stores will probably start carrying Christmas stuff before Halloween. But for some reason “Ma in her kerchief and me in my cap” kept bothering me.

Last weekend the penny finally dropped.

I knew perfectly well that nightcaps and other head coverings were common in the days before central heating, simply because the head was not covered by blankets. Add to that that heat lost through the head is close to the greatest of any part of the body, and it made sense to keep the head warm. Add to that our cooling temperatures and the fact that chemotherapy has made me practically bald ….

At 3 o’clock Saturday morning it occurred to my sleep-fogged (and cold) mind to try wrapping a bathrobe around my head. I went back to sleep and stayed warm. Saturday I  checked my head coverings, and found a fleece scarf – the kind you can cut and it doesn’t ravel. I didn’t want a bulky knot under my chin, so I cut a couple of slots where the ends crossed and had a modern version of Ma’s kerchief.

It works. Sunday night my feet stayed warm.

North Pole Weather 9/2/13

Fall is on its way, and the sun is dropping lower and staying up for less time every day. This morning it rose at 6:35, and will set 14 hours and 28 minutes later at 9:04 this evening. We’re still losing about 6 minutes a day, and we start getting a little astronomical night (sun more than 18° below the horizon) in a couple of days.

I don’t seem to have had much frost yet aside from a little burning on the ends of the squash leaves, and none is forecast for this week – lows generally in the low 40’s. Highs are in the 50’s and lower 60’s, so it’s not been exactly Labor Day picnic weather. But then we take Labor Day to mean the end of the reliable growing season. The frost covers are over the squash and herbs. I pulled back the ones on the herbs Sunday to let them get the benefit of a few sprinkles, and let out a wonderful medley of aromas. Whether I get any more squash is uncertain – we picked it clean Wednesday, when I had some help, and only a couple more flowers are showing signs of development. So far only a few leaves are showing yellow on the trees and lawn.

Thank goodness the last chemotherapy session was over a week ago, as it was the worst of the three. I was so anemic Friday that I spent most of the day Saturday at the hospital getting a couple of units of blood and going low on blood sugar every time I checked. I wonder – could the transfused blood have had enough insulin to throw me off? If so, it was certainly gone by last night!