Boo has issues with Opie

Can’t we all just get along?

Boo, our dog, has issues with Opossums. We’re not sure why.

He also has some issues with Immanuel Vickers, a beautiful and healthy coyote who visits us often. Sometimes, when we’re in bed, we’ll hear Immi and his crew howling it up. Quite nice.

But this post is about Opie and Boo. Boo has no issues with raccoons. Raccoons by the dozens, Boo barely lifts his head.

An Ops? Oh, well, that’s it, right then and there, how dare they, let’s go out and take of this, dad!

I asked him once, “What do you have against opossums?”

“Well…they’re opossums, dad.”

He could not have picked up such prejudice from me or Susan. We both go out and chat with our visiting opossums, dine with them, so on and so forth. Ditto coyote. Ditto wolves.

Where do our children learn such prejudices if not from us?

It’s a foolish question to ask in a media rich world. Especially when they’re young, impressionable, and have no moral reasoning ability.

Do we police their media time? How can we? We can’t police our child individually when they’re out of our influence for a good chunk of the day.

And you know other people aren’t going to police their children, right?

I mean, they’re other people, after all…

 

“Why This Were Here, Now?” now on TimothyBatesonAuthor.com

Werecreatures are nothing new. Cave drawings frequently depict humanimals. Study any culture’s mythology and one wonders who wasn’t a werecreature. The concept of versipellics as evil is relatively new compared to human recorded history (about 800 years v 35,000 years).

Timothy Bateson put a call out for his 31 Days of Halloween and I hid.

But he found me. I was cringing behind my mobile (it’s a big mobile. Not quite so mobile a mobile, you might say).

Anyway, he wanted something about were-creatures. I’ve written a few stories about were-creatures. Therefore, I’m an expert.

NOT HARDLY!

But I came up with something and he, being gracious (probably also taking pity on me), accepted it.

So make him happy, do yourself proud, and go take a read of Why This Were Here, Now?

Here’s a tease:
Let’s say someone wants to write about werewolves but nothing they’re coming up with fits “werewolf.” Probably they’re putting the hearse before the horse. Their interest is on the were, not the were’s purpose in the story.

Be sure to leave comments. He likes them.

Meet dozens of local authors at Nashua Library

And I’ll be there!

Have you ever wondered what it takes to write, publish, and sell a book? On Thursday, November 7, you can get the answers from dozens of local authors at the Nashua Public Library’s Local Author Night.

Among those scheduled to take part is Mike Morin, the Frank FM 106.3 morning radio personality, whose latest book is about a New England institution: “If you watched candlepin bowling on TV as a kid with your family on Saturdays,” Morin says, “’Lunch With Tommy and Stasia’ is the book you’ve been waiting for. If you didn’t do that, you’ll still like the book because there are puppies, a parking meter coin theft scandal and everything in between.”

The Local Author Night, which is free and open to the public, runs from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

 
Forty-five writers are scheduled to be on hand, selling and signing their books. Attendees will be able to talk to them individually about their books and how they came to be published.

This is a perfect opportunity to do some holiday shopping for the booklovers on your list.

If you’re an aspiring author yourself, come early at 4:45 p.m. to hear a talk by Sara Marks, librarian and author of the 21st Century Austen books. She’ll be giving advice on using free and low-cost techniques to sell books. This talk is free and open to the public; registration is not required.

The topics of the nonfiction authors attending include American history, gluten, memoir, horror and more. On the fiction side, attendees can meet writers of fantasy, romance, mystery, poetry, thriller and science fiction.

For more information, contact Carol Luers Eyman at (603) 589-4610 or carol.eyman@nashualibrary.org.

The library is located at 2 Court Street, and its website is www.nashualibrary.org.

Join Me 9 Nov 2019 in Norwich, CT, for Book Fiend Reader’s Fest!

(they’re letting me out. over night. be afraid. be very, very afraid.)

Yes, it’s true, on 9 Nov 2019 I’ll be joining a host of other authors in Norwich, CT, for the 2019 Book Fiend Reader’s Fest.

 
I’ll be on the Imaginary Gardens with Real Toads panel discussing real-world fantasy with Kristen Ward, Mark Dursin and Beth Bernobich.

I’ll also be signing books. Hopefully you’ll buy them.

I may also do something else exciting.

Come and find out.

You can get tickets by contacting oddballnewtstuff @ yahoo.com

Striders

Sometimes smart women get stuck with dumb men. But not for long.

As I mentioned in The Raping of Cyrynda Strong, in the early 1990s I wrote a triptych of stories in which women took the lead and not always to their benefit. Although not part of the triptych, my success with Cymodoce, spurred me into give a female lead/POV a whirl.

The first story was Rachel, Above the Clouds, While Flying (and was recently published in Across the Margin). The Raping of Cyrynda Strong came next and this story, “Striders”, came last. I can’t tell if it still needs some polish.

Let me know what you think, and thanks.


Striders

 
Gladys stopped in the doorway between the comm and the ship’s claustrophobic living-room. She could see Dobrynin shuffling on his roll-bed and balanced herself in mid stride, the toe of one slipper not quite touching the floor, her tiny figure framed by the comm’s instrument lighting.

Dobrynin sat up and scratched his beard and gut. “Where’d’you go?”

“I…I had to go to the john.”

“You didn’t fuck anything up, did you?”

Alarms sounded.

“What in hell?” He glanced at her and rose. Instinctively she backed away as he hurried into the comm. “Coil chamber integrity, zero. Stabilization manifolds point-ten and dropping. Life-support viability,” Dobrynin toggled a switch which flipped the readout back and forth, “recycling heap and atmospheric plant, both failing. Well, Gladys, not even you could have done this.”

She sighed and her shoulders relaxed.

Dobrynin studied the instruments one more time. “It looks like we’re going down.”

Slowly the stars came back into view and the Venturer shook as the jump drive indicator lights died.

Gladys called up the maps and arranged them according to the emerging star patterns.

“Don’t touch that.” He slapped her hand away from the interface panel as he studied the maps for a landing site. “Emerson’s Planet or Nemel. Some choice.”.

She peered over his shoulder. “Nemel’s closer to trade routes this time of year.”

“I am trying to think.”

“Sorry.”

“We’ll go to Emerson’s Planet. It’s got breathable air and fresh water according to the map. It shows green, so there’s got to be vegetation down there, too. Computer, estimate time before system failure.”

A synthetic female voice replied, “15.7.25.”

He touched the planet’s image on the map. “Locate landing site on selected body.”

A panel lit up to Dobrynin’s right. The female voice said, “Working.”

Dobrynin moved his feet to the servos. They responded with little effort. “Good. At least we won’t crash.” He punched in a descending spiral orbit on the flight control computers, letting the planet pull them in until the computer came back with some findings.

“Landing site found,” the computer said a minute later. A series of crosshairs and circles formed on the map.

“Auto pilot,” Dobrynin said. The servos went limp as the computer assumed responsibility for the descent. Dobrynin went into the storage bay to check food, power, and weapons. Gladys followed him in. “I don’t want you in here, Gladys.”

She nodded, crossed her arms tightly over her chest and walked back to the comm.

An hour later they were on the ground. Dobrynin sent up a Caster then went back to finish checking on their supplies. Within a few minutes the Caster flew over a group of grazing quadrupedal creatures.

Gladys stood alone and observed the creatures in the Caster’s monitor. “Hmm. Morbid thorax and abdomen, at least by earth-standards. Hirsute, rounded mandibular structure, prehensile proboscis and osculates, bi-aural and ocular, apparently herbivores, three-hundred kilo by two-point-seven meter average.”

She flipped the Caster from automatic to manual and gently nudged the joystick.

The Caster flew lower and the creatures broke into a run. “Unguligrade perissodactyl tylopods, evolved for extended trotting and moving in 1-2,3-4 rhythm.”

Dobrynin came up behind her quietly. His hand snapped forward and crushed hers around the joystick, ramming it forward so that the Caster flew among the creatures, knocking some over and scything through the hides of others with its blades.


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