Convention Time!!!
Jun 19, 2022 3:41 pm
I have so missed my people.
As this is going out I'm sitting at Libertycon with the people that I've missed horribly over the last two years. I've probably had too much to drink, had too little sleep, gotten not enough hugs, and I don't regret any of it. I've missed these people.
But it does mean I'm hoping mom is okay, that my brother is remembering to water the plants (really Georgia, can we get some rain please?), and trying to not panic about birthday parties and Dragoncon. Oh well, worst case it is a disaster and I will figure it out. For now assume I'm kicked back, drinking water, and looking forward to hanging out with friends tonight.
As you can tell I'm writing this ages ahead (occasionally I pre-plan) so I make sure I don't miss a week. I'll catch you up on all the things that happened two weeks from now.
For now I want to mention an awesome book. Many of you know I lost my husband a few years ago (six, has it really been six?) which changed my life forever. A friend of mine wrote a book called One Heart that Beats for Two. While Caspian's story isn't mine, the emotions are there and there is a lot of over lap (organ donor, rage, friends) but Caspian is luckier than I am, I never got visits from my husband. But if you want a book that will make you step outside your comfortable existence, give this a try. It is available in paper, audio, and ebook.
The is next book is a prequel to The Magic of Nasci and is free. Free is always good. I've been reading this series and the world is fascinating, though I completely agree with Ina in that the others have sticks up their butts. Take a gander at Finding Her Element.
Here is this weeks story, and I have almost over 100 responses to the survey! I know some of you don't love Google, but really the forms are a super easy (and free) way to do these, so sorry? But please if you haven't go fill it out so I can figure out how to go forward. And stay tuned to awesome stuff in the next newsletter.
Options
Geena clamped her mouth shut to prevent her scream from escaping. The spider couldn't exist. The square cube law said it couldn't exist. She repeated that in her mind over and over as she pressed her back against the wall sliding away from the spider stalking towards her.
She'd never particularly been scared of spiders and the part of her mind that wasn't gibbering with terror identified it as a type of wolf spider. Which meant it jumped and attacked it's prey, not spun webs and waited. Meaning her movement was drawing it's attention. But standing still wasn't an option. The desire to fling her hands up and run screaming like every idiot ever in a horror movie throbbed in her mind.
One fuzzy leg tapped closer to her, causing her breathing and heart rate to spike.
"I swear if I die to a spider…" she trailed off. If she did, then what? She'd haunt it? What good would that do? The door was three feet away. Trying to control everything, cause really peeing her pants was a very real possibility, she kept inching over. The door opened out. This mean if she got through it there had to be something she could wedge into it to prevent it from opening.
The front appendages, what were they called palps or something, raised up. That meant it was about to leap. Geena gave up and moved slipping through the door as spider hit mid air. She slammed it shut and looked for something to block it with.
"Stop simulation."
Geena found herself in a chair in a dark room. Voices spoke around her, but she didn't recognize anyone. Where was the spider?
"Most interesting. This subject processes data, comes up with options, and then controls emotional reactions to make logical decisions. Most subjects reacted emotionally and were useless. We shall continue to test but we may have found the candidate we were looking for."
Cold fear twisted in her gut and she realized being eaten by the spider might have been the better choice.
I'm back to finishing some short stories, then the editor returned Faded Luck. So it's getting closer.
Mel
Schedule 2022:
June 17-19: LibertyCon - Chattanooga, TN
Dragoncon Sep 1-5: Atlanta, GA
Remember find me here:
There's a Fan Group for Twisted Luck! Check it out here.
If you are on Tiktok, it is kind of working. Nothing impressive posted there yet, but look for @meltodd_writer
