The Long-Awaited Tease

Hello hello, everyone!

Well, as those of you who've been reading for a bit know already, I have a novella by the name of "And the Stars Will Sing" available on Kindle and now, Smashwords. Here are the links to that, in case you missed it:

Kindle

Smashwords

Since it has lots of amusing dialogue, space pirates, a charming romance, and alien cuisine, you should go download it now, and review it, too. I'll wait.

Now that that's done, I'm going to let you in on a taste of what's to come. Back on Terra, at the other end of the galaxy, a friend of Crystal's is slaving away at an Orwellian workplace filled with peace, love, and light.

For the one-hundred fifteen-thousand, six-hundred ninety-fourth time since she'd begun working at the Langplex, under DOLMAC, Sara wondered why she'd taken the job. Once again, the usual answers presented themselves: I needed money, life on Luna was sucking because they made all those infrastructure cuts, I wanted to see more of the solar system, my Literature degree was only in demand out here, Tranquility University was having budget cutbacks...blah, blah, blah, blah. And still, a job at one of the hole-edge diners was starting to look pretty good...

Just then, someone knocked on the door, interrupting her mental bitch session. “Come in!”

“Hey,” said Julia. “How are you?” Sara’s blank face relaxed. Julia quietly closed the doorlet.

“Umm….what am I supposed to be doing again?

“I think you’re writing a recommendation on whether or not Heartbreak House should be totally eliminated from the Shaw canon, or whether it can be modified enough to maintain the integrity of spiritual love without the suggestion of too many base, unevolved sexual desires.”

“Wow, Julia. Your grasp of the TorYoBiKo never fails to amaze me,” she said, confining the irony in her tone to a delicate suggestion.

“Well, must maintain the image of orthodoxy, musn’t we?” Julia mouthed. “Watch out or they’ll can you. Try to fake reverence, Sara, or they’ll never let you out of here alive.”

Sara beckoned to Julia with one crooked finger. Julia slipped over and behind her. Onscreen, Sara typed,

Somehow I doubt that. Anyway, I can think of a few people who’d get plenty of shaudenfreude out of that. Fuck it, Julia, let’s have some fun. Round up Andie and Trops after work. Let’s go out for a drink.

Julia shook her head and shooed Sara’s fingers from the keyboard. Deleting everything that had just been written, she typed her response.

Will you at least pretend to do some work? You don’t want to lose café privileges. If you have to work in solitary for any length of time, that’s a black mark on your record.

Julia shook her head, and Sara skirted her away.

Yeah, right. Miss the blandwiches for a month? I’m shaking in my grav boots, baby. Loosen up. I have to go kill Bernard Shaw. Are we on for after work?

Well, you know about the alcohol rationing—

Fuck it. There are other things we can do. Not even coffee?

Did you forget about the embargo on products from Phoebus?

Chikusho! Yes, I did. Right. Tea? Or we could get some rotgut.

Are you swearing in Japanese to impress me?

Oh, Julia, honey, why do that when I can swear in German, too? Ch gebe nicht einen Scheiß! It’s all about flouting regulations.

You’re going to be fired. And so am I, if I don’t run. Seven o’clock at the Old Museum?

You got it. Now I have to delete this before someone sees it. They’re all Corinthenkackers, anyway. 

Okay, okay, extra points for the untranslatable pun. Aren’t we supposed to be killing words like those?

No shit.

Gotta run.  Don’t get into too much trouble.

Julia slipped out, straightening the folds of her uniform for a moment. Returning to her own cube, she glanced around, and Sara watched her disappear. So far, so good. Not too much time lost: she would be able to stay under the radar, unlike last week. Julia could be officiously rule-abiding, but that didn’t mean Sara wanted to see her get in trouble. 

...and if I see some comments, you guys will get another excerpt! So, get writing, people! Wordthieves, the story this excerpt was taken from, will be up on Kindle and Smashwords soon. A release link will be up on the blog as soon as it's done. Keep your eyes peeled!

Well, that's the long and the short of it for today...for more updates, funny crap, and interesting things, follow me on Twitter, at SciFiMagpie. SciFiMagpie, over and out!

Wordthieves: An Intro

I promised a few teasers about a work I'm currently editing (read: putting the boots to) that will be related to And The Stars Will Sing. Well, this much more grown-up work is called 'The Wordthieves'...and that's all you know about it so far. So, I'm going to tantalize you by telling you about the idea behind the idea. 

There are as many different visions of the not-so-far future as there are authors in science fiction. However, quite a few of these visions tend to overlap in a science fiction world type known as the dystopia. I absolutely love dystopic, post-apocalyptic fiction. The Giver and Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry formed my first introductions to this sort of world. After these baby steps, 1984 by George Orwell, Brave New World, Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood continued the slow journey into the end of the world and what happens after that. 

Then, I found myself wondering about a different kind of dark world, beyond the governments ruled by an iron fist and overt violence, such as V for Vendetta's setting. I hungered for diversity--surely not every government would be soul-crushing in the same way? 

Happiness (tm) by Will Ferguson powered the curiosity, really, and gave me a good lead. Being surrounded by a very interesting dominant culture in my second-year university classes gave me the rest of the direction for my setting. You can only be surrounded by New Age-y Neo-Buddhists in a department ruled by an iron fist for so long before you have to go eat a steak and make fun of Jung. Meditating, talking about chakras, and discussing self-actualization as you investigate life trauma will drive even the most patient people up the wall eventually. I'm patient, but I wasn't patient enough...

Anyway, I started to wonder...what if...the 'nice' people, like vegans and hardcore hippies, became the ruling heads in a totalitarian regime? 

More seriously, the current political situation in America, with the religious right's frantic suppression of contrasting ideas, provided further food for thought. Atheism and freethinking are on the rise, along with other dirty hippie liberal egalitarian pinko socialist ideas like gay marriage, but the old systems are putting up a good fight. However, much as I tend to spend a lot of time on the left side of the spectrum, it's impossible to avoid noticing that rhetoric-spewing nutbars exist in every part of the political spectrum. So, say that certain elements of the liberal continuum finally won out in the ideological wars...how much would they end up mirroring their former opposition?

These are some of the questions I've explored in Wordthieves. It started as an homage to dystopias and dark science fiction, and became something more. I hear you screaming, 'what's the plot? It's nice to know what inspired it, but tell us what we're in for!" 

Well, friends, let's say that it involves some of my signature wit, hamsters, coffee, foreign languages, hipsters, and tofu. Lots and lots of tofu. Are you scared yet? 

Tune in next time for more hints, sneak peaks, and more thinky talky things. And don't forget to follow me on Twitter, https://twitter.com/#!/SciFiMagpie and to share this blog on Facebook and with friends!