As I receive contracts and final edits from authors, I’ll post a teaser from their story here and on our Facebook page. You know where to get the rest, right? Comments are welcome.
To Rule, Do Nothing
By
T. F. Davenport
After laying out the corpse and heaping snow over it, Kandel went on with his daily walk. Hydrocarbons and astral dust filtered in through the pores in his suit, collecting in tiny pouches where atom-by-atom the suit recombined them into a drinkable slurry.
Ostensibly he was gathering food, but really it was just a way to pass the time while he awaited his next visitor. Like everything else in his new life, this business of finding food was uncomplicated. Existence was no longer a matter of striving. Things were simpler now. Nothing to do and no one to speak to. The same ineluctable razor that divided the star-pricked vacuum from the endless white dunes of snow also divided what he could have—food, water and a place to lay his head—from what he couldn’t: anything else. The few things allowed to him came automatically.
So, why did we take this story? As flash goes, this one was flashy indeed. We enjoyed the way it developed to a most unexpected and high stakes ending. We asked for some rearrangement to maximize the effect and the revision did not disappoint. The original was 700 words; final edit is 640 words. And, no, it’s not about the current political situation in Washington. That’s a tragedy; this one is more dark comedy.
Tune in tomorrow for our next tease. The full Table of Contents is here.
Any plans to make Last Contact available via Kindle? These excerpts are really whetting my appetite…
Yes, I’m planning on doing this thing. How quickly I can get ‘er done is the question. Hopefully at least some e-book formats by next week and formal kindle a bit after that.