The Augmented Man – Surface

What do you do when the ultimate weapon falls in love?

What follows is the first chapter of The Augmented Man. Enjoy (and let me know what you think).


Surface
1 April 2053

Trailer closed his eyes and sat at the end of the bar where the cigarette-burned, cheap black Formica countertop met the wall. He eased himself onto the last stool, tucking into the corner in the dim light, a spider hiding out of sight at the edge of its web. His fingers hovered over the cigarette burns closest to him as if divining their cause, sensing them like small, unhealed wounds, seeing the people involved, learning if each burn was an accident or intentional.

The door opened and he smelled the cool April evening on his skin. It was followed by the alcoholic breath and sweat of two men and a woman they supported between them.

Trailer brought his attention back into the bar, collating the activity immediately around him. The barkeeper, a heavy smelling man gnawing a toothpick, his face somewhere between needing a shave and growing a beard, walked over to Trailer. “Yeah?”
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Joseph Carrabis – It’s Autobiography…I swear!

Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)

Regency and SciFi Author Wendy Van CampHello all and welcome to our first February Author Interview Plunge. Today we’ll be talking with…umm…me! I finally get my go at this with Jennifer “The Editress” Day at the helm! Feel free to give me (and Jennifer) a big round of applause for taking part in our exciting adventure.

I’m boring and dull

 
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Labor Relations

Pesky characters, always makin’ a ruckus…

Interesting experience a few weeks back. I got into a serious argument with some characters in The Augmented Man. The argument was so serious that all writing stopped. Not only writing on The Augmented Man, also work on Ritchie and Phyl, Gable Smiled and a host of others.

Fantasy characters threatened to strike in support of their literary fiction brothers and sisters. Characters still in development refused to cross picket lines in support of their already written brethren and sistren.

There was talk of locking up my keyboard until things got resolved.

But if you lock up the keyboard we’ll never reach an agreement, I explained.

Phyl said, “You have two paragraphs, Mister. Get writing.”
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