Book promo
If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so no more than once every six months (unless you’re me or my relative. Deal.) One book per author per week. Amazon links only. Oh, yeah, by clicking through and buying (anything, actually) through one of the links below, you will at no cost to you be giving a portion of your purchase to support ATH through our associates number. A COMMISSION IS EARNED FROM EACH PURCHASE.*Note that I haven’t read most of these books (my reading is eclectic and “craving led”,) and apply the usual cautions to buying. I reserve the right not to run any submission, if cover, blurb or anything else made me decide not to, at my sole discretion.– SAH
FROM PAM UPHOFF: Twist of Fate (Fall of the Alliance)
Yuri Egorov is a Intel agent on a distant World. His main problem? He inherited the family home–a serious wreck–from the uncle who disliked him. The solution? In the Troystvennyy Soyuz–the Three Part Alliance–a brutal form of slavery, enforced through mandatory brain chips. So, however unsavory to Yuri, buying a worker should be no problem.
But this worker is . . . not standard.
Then a cross dimensional invasion puts his own problems in perspective . . .
FROM ALMA T. C. BOYKIN: Castles, Creatures, and Nights: Familiar Generations
Strange things stalk the nights. Especially nights when the land remembers …
Christmas brings surprises both welcome and otherwise for Jude and Shoim. Can they survive the peak of baking season, or will Shoim finally end up in a pie?
Mike and Rich find themselves over their heads, assigned to observe delicate diplomatic negotiations in a haunted—perhaps—castle. Abyssal beasts might be easier to survive.
Deborah, Hiram, and Art try to prove that they are grown-up magic users. Their parents disagree.
How does a Hunter say what he cannot speak, mourn when tears are forbidden?
And more!
Jojn the next generation of mages, sorcerers, Healers, and Hunters on a wild trip through nights silent and otherwise.
FROM KAREN MYERS: The Visitor, And More: A Science Fiction Short Story Bundle from There’s a Sword for That
A Science Fiction Story Bundle from the collection There’s a Sword for That
THE VISITOR – Felockati is anchored to his permanent location underwater and misses the days of roaming his ocean world freely.
But something new drops out of the sky and widens his horizons — all the way to the stars.
YOUR EVERY WISH – Stealing the alien ambassador’s dagger is a sure thing for Pete — just what he needs to pay off his debts.
Until he starts talking to it. There has to be a way to get something for himself out of the deal. Has to be.
FROM DAVID COLLINS: The Giant War
The Earth Space Force Military has a huge problem. The massive alien Ogre that they fought was only an immature little one. The full-grown ones had found some derelict starships and were about to find one with an FTL drive.
Keith and his crew must sneak in and destroy the derelict with FTL before the Ogres can find it. To do that, the Meduala sent a living weapon to assist with the battle. One that the Meduala has spent thousands of years trying to deal with. Is the new weapon more of a problem than the Ogres?
The Ghost Ships that contacted Earth and requested this mission are hiding something critical. They also insist that this mission only uses old low-technology ships that they provided. As soon as the mission starts, all communications are unexpectedly severed. There is no phoning home for rescue. The Ogres spot them almost as soon as they arrive. The small arms they were permitted to carry are no match for an 18-foot-tall Ogre in an armored spacesuit carrying a 350-pound battle exe.
FROM WILLY MARTINEZ: La Siguanaba
This version is in English and Spanish. La Siguanaba is a mysterious figure in Central American folklore that has captured the imagination of many. She is a supernatural woman figure who appears to men in the night, often with a beautiful face and long hair, but hides her true form behind it.
This version of The Siguanaba takes a different perspective. Somewhat of an origins story, this version takes place in the early 1520s during the Spanish invasion of Central America.The tale follows General Pedro De Alvarado. Pedro de Alvarado was one of the commanders under the direction of Hernan Cortez during the conquests of Cuba, the Yucatan Peninsula, and other parts of Central America.After recovering from a battle with the Pipil tribe located in present-day El Salvador, Alvarado embarks on a journey to find Xibalba or the underworld. What he finds is a horrific creature from the underworld itself – in true Xibalba style – in which the Gods present themselves to punish the humans for their actions.
FROM HOLLY CHISM: Having a Pint
Meg Turner, vampire accountant and investments advisor, has plenty of living clients, but not many among her fellow undead. That’s about to change: she’s been invited to a regional business fair for her kind. She’ll get to meet and greet more bloodsuckers than she really wanted to (hopefully without having to suck up to any of them). than just the two Vampire cops she helped track down and stake her late, unlamented sire—and hopefully make some friends and answer some questions.
Unfortunately, she’s got a Line Progenitor who’s begun invading her dreams, and a serial killer stalking her future clients to distract her from growing her business. Throw in a sick roommate not long before the conference starts, a mafia messenger boy left on her front porch, and only one car to juggle all of her responsibilities toward her roommate and unexpected guest. And then on top of that, she has the business fair over an hour away that features vampire karaoke, nosy, pushy elder bloodsuckers, and one particular elder who’s friends with her unwelcome dream guest. Seriously, it’s enough to drive her to drink something other than coffee or blood.
Just why did she think this whole conference thing sounded like a good idea, again?
FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: The Shadow of a Dead God
What secrets lie beneath an alien world?
A routine archeological dig on a world once ruled by the mysterious Star Tyrants. For Moon-born Liu Shang, working on a planetary surface might be unsettling, but she could manage — until the dreams started.
Unwilling to drag others into a harebrained search, she headed out alone, contrary to mission rules. Just as she was about to give up, she found an unlikely artifact.
Handling it connects her to the mind of a long-ago rebel against the Star Tyrants’ rule. Nothing will ever be the same.
A short story.
Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.
So what’s a vignette? You might know them as flash fiction, or even just sketches. We will provide a prompt each Sunday that you can use directly (including it in your work) or just as an inspiration. You, in turn, will write about 50 words (yes, we are going for short shorts! Not even a Drabble 100 words, just half that!). Then post it! For an additional challenge, you can aim to make it exactly 50 words, if you like.
We recommend that if you have an original vignette, you post that as a new reply. If you are commenting on someone’s vignette, then post that as a reply to the vignette. Comments — this is writing practice, so comments should be aimed at helping someone be a better writer, not at crushing them. And since these are likely to be drafts, don’t jump up and down too hard on typos and grammar.
If you have questions, feel free to ask.
Your writing prompt this week is: THINKABLE
According To Hoyt 
“But but that’s unthinkable!”
“Sorry Sam, this garbage exists so somebody “thinks” it. If you read history, especially about the Time of Troubles, you’d find that garbage is very thinkable because people will do it.”
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“What will we do for light?” said Autumn.
Lucie’s eyes narrowed. Then she said, “Ciara, I think you can do that.”
Ciara winced, but her voice was calm. “Let’s put it to the test. Can we safely shut the door behind us?”
“Safer than leaving it open,” said Autumn, “and betraying us to those outside.”
She started down. Ciara came two steps behind her, and then Lucie pulled the door shut after, trapping them in a gloom lit only by Ciara’s pale golden glow.
“Everyone will know we are coming,” said Autumn. She raised her head. “Let them fear it.”
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“I have it!” Adam burst out from beneath the trees. “I have the way we must go! Make haste, make haste, we do not want to sleep under the stars today!”
Rosaleen hesitated, and then ate in haste. Hope stirred, and she realized she had not thought they could arrive.
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“On Monday I’m giving a lecture on the Titanic and I need a way to point out the prideful thinking about it.”
“Didn’t they call it “Unsinkable”? That seems to perfectly encapsulate their arrogance.”
“They did, but I’m afraid that coming from me, that dethcription would thound thtupid and confuthing.”
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After the Liberty Bell 7 of the Mercury program, Gus Grissom gave some thought to the name of the Gemini capsule. His was the only named Gemini capsule. “Molly Brown”
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Good thing it lived up to its name!
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Figured this prompt would lead to this group! Set during the earlier war obviously.
Friedrich von Thunerswald, King of Baldraz, looked out over the group he had assembled, his expression cold. He wasn’t disappointed in any of them, per se. After all, it wasn’t as if the situation they found themselves in was unthinkable, what with that damnable Mad Empress on their southern border. They had just counted on her terrorizing her own populace, or perhaps trying to snap up some eastern territories before her cousin did. Though thinking on him did make the king realize that things could be worse. At least Lysandra had chosen to go at it alone and didn’t go begging Vahit for help for this latest excursion into Baldrazian territory. The combined might of the Diamond Paladin and Carnelian Avalanche would spell disaster for his kingdom had that been the case.
“How goes the efforts to retake Eisenstein, General Brandt?” he asked one of the men sitting to the right.
“A mixed effort, Your Majesty,” the general replied. “The Arev forces themselves are numerous but that’s all they have. They show up but are quickly routed, especially by our more decorated pilots. The problem is when either the Lord Protector or the Mad Empress appears. Or worse, when they appear together.”
“The exact problem we always face with Arev, particularly when Sir Vincent is occupied elsewhere,” Marshal Steinmann sighed. “How is that wretched machine of Empress Lysandra’s so strong?!”
“Maybe if your men weren’t such bumbling fops I could have gotten my hands on it and dissected it by now, Arnulf,” an effeminate voice sniffed from the side. “But alas you meatheads just can’t rise to the occasion and my research suffers. Pitiful.”
Brandt whirled around in his chair and glared at the speaker, a wrinkled older man with a full head neatly parted, mostly grey blonde hair wearing a lab coat over an expensive light blue designer suit accented with pricey, elaborate golden accessories. “How dare you?! Do you have any idea who you’re speaking so rudely to?!”
“You might want to ask yourself that question first, little man,” came the reply, the well-dressed man sighing theatrically as he threw up his hands in mock exasperation. “Can’t you recognize Baldraz’s genius of geniuses when you see him? Or have you taken one too many blows to the head, hmm?”
“Enough!” King Friedrich thundered, cutting the argument short. “General Brandt, Dr. Blomgren, let us return to the task at hand.”
“Then speak on the subject at hand I shall, Your Majesty,” the well-dressed man, Dr. Blomgren began. “We can’t spare Vincent Austin and the Jade Tempest while Carys Adair and the Amethyst Sage are a threat but we can perhaps even up the odds with a few of my new designs. They’re no Diamond Paladin, I’ll admit, but I guarantee they’re more than a match for the Mad Empress and her Yurena! All I need are a few volunteers. Preferably with more wit and willpower than Little Man Brandt here.”
Brandt ground his teeth, biting back the insult he desperately wanted to throw out when he saw Marshal Steinmann hold up a restraining hand. The leader of Baldraz’s army then turned to the scientist and said “If His Majesty approves we will send out word among the soldiers.”
“Do so.” King Friedrich ordered.
“Ahh, excellent!” Dr. Blomgren exclaimed, a wicked grin splitting his face as he clapped his hands and began rubbing them together. “None of you will be disappointed, believe me! Now if you gentlemen, and I use the word loosely, will excuse me. Unless His Majesty requires something else of me of course?”
“This assignment is now your highest priority, Anders,” King Friedrich said, addressing the scientist by his first name to emphasize the point. “Make haste, and have Barbarossa tuned up while you’re there.”
“Say no more, Your Majesty!” Dr. Blomgren replied with a bow and a flourish. “Have fun settling the score with King Philippe once and for all!”
The scientist walked out of the room briskly, whistling a tune that would be merry if anyone other than Anders Blomgren had been performing it. The assembled generals breathed a sigh of relief when the kingdom’s top mind for mechs finally left the room. They all knew Dr. Blomgren got results nobody else on the continent did but that didn’t mean any of them had to like the way he rubbed it in their faces with his perpetual insolence.
“Is that what this has come down to, Your Majesty?” Marshal Steinmann asked. “You going to the Loire front to challenge King Philippe while we rely on Dr. Blomgren’s creations to buy us time to properly set Sir Vincent and Ashleshia against Lord Protector Edmund and Alpheratz?”
“Do you see another way forward, Marshal? Or do any of you other gentlemen?”
A long moment of silence passed before Steinmann spoke for the assembly: “We do not, Your Majesty.”
“Then we do what we must.” King Friedrich proclaimed gravely. “All of you are dismissed.”
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“There’s a moment in every great social upheaval when what was previously unthinkable becomes thinkable. Even as late as the first half of 1776, many colonial leaders were still seeking reconciliation with His Majesty’s Government in London, hoping that if they just communicated their grievances more clearly, Parliament would compromise and all would be well in the world. But after the Declaration of Independence, nothing would ever be the same again.” Mr. Connalt looked around the room. “Now, for tomorrow’s essay, I want two thousand words on a comparable turning point in lunar history. And please don’t give me the original landing at Tranquillity Base.”
With the obvious off the table, Sandy had to consider her options more carefully. Although the Ares expedition crews both quarantined at the old moonbase before returning to Earth, the discovery of the bacterial mats on Mars and their relation to terrestrial life were really more a part of Martian history.
On the other hand, there was the Kitty Hawk Massacre. Without it, Reginald Waite probably would’ve quietly absorbed NASA’s Expulsees into Shepardsport, and otherwise continued to sit out the Sharp Wars. It might even have meant the realization of Tsar Joseph’s hope of peace, albeit at the price of the Flannigan Administration’s anti-Sharp legislation remaining in place indefinitely, perhaps even to this day.
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Image a dull grey metal vehicle that carries passengers for hire, operated jointly by a southern fairy and a horned bovine, powered by a narrow woven steel cable. It only something you can imagine in your head as a thin cable, tin-cab-bull & tinka’bell.
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That requires a 3-Carp barrage! Fire for effect! :-P
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Points up to Steve O’s entry.
I like him. He’s silly!
Note that the ‘tin’ would like the ‘tin Lizzy’ (not really tin) or the system would need to operate only in warmer climates. Tin, below a certain temperature, just sort of falls apart over time.
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“Pinky, are you pondering what I’m pondering?”
“I think so, Brain. But I have so many thinkable thoughts flying through my mind right now, I can’t remember whether we made that left turn at Albuquerque either!”
(Look, I’m tired, okay?)
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They should have made a right turn at Albuquerque. [Crazy Grin]
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My kids used to do pinky and the brain dialogues from down the hallway.
I’m glad they’re grown and adults, and on their own. But …. the teen years were fun ;)
And this is fun too.
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“Fact or fiction, tragedy or comely, you must establish the story line and hence define and delimit yourself.” she said, out of the blue with no relationship to any discussion, reflection projection or action that had gone before. She raised her eyebrow.
I calmly replied, “I’m thinkable therefore I’m amiable.”
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He supposed he might not even reach shelter if he set out this morning. Perhaps he should rest the day. A woodcutter would not build a hut if he could find other shelter.
He shook his head. No, a woodcutter would spend his day cutting wood before he took shelter.
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“No. Not imaginable.” His father seemed to not even notice him. Will scowled. The woman’s face seemed funny; he could not tell if she were happy or sad or scared. The man took her by the hand and started to lead her off.
“Stop there, you sorcerer!” his father bellowed.
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OT: My dad finished his radiation treatment for lymphoma a week ago Friday, and had the follow-up Friday. His oncologist says that it looks like they got the cancer in that node, and he doesn’t need a follow-up for another 6 months.
He’ll be 91 September 10.
Deo gratias
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Oh, good. G-d be thanked indeed.
My nephew is still undergoing chemo. The tumor seems to be shrinking. I wish he’d gone with radiation, but–
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Amen et amen! That’s great news.
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“Think, think, think, there has to be a way out of this mess!” Darla moaned as she tapped her forehead. She looked at her companion with eyes pleading for inspiration.
Jordan looked perplexed, giving what he hoped was a useful reference, “Wasn’t there an old children’s tale about a little engine that could think?” Darla groaned and Jordan ducked to avoid the pillow flying at his head as he began chanting, “I’m thinkable, I’m thinkable…”
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“The death penalty is unthinkable!”
“Is it, now? Why?”
“B-because murder is murder! It makes you no better than them!”
“That is where you are dead wrong. Executing a murderer to preserve life is the opposite of murder.”
“How can you say that?”
“Life has value to any rational being. Death is worth nothing. Even so, sometimes killing is necessary to prevent even more deaths. Such is the case with execution of violent criminals. Those criminals are given every opportunity not to rob and rape and murder people, they know they’re not supposed to, they are informed of the consequences, yet they choose to do so anyway. They must be stopped. They must be captured, imprisoned, and put on trial to determine their guilt. If you then fail to impose the prescribed penalties, the law becomes a bad joke, and casual murder a commonplace occurrence. Sound like any place you know?”
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