Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike

Posted on by Sarah A. Hoyt

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 JULIE FROST: Cry Havoc

Nate Cassin, the alpha werewolf of Missoula, Montana, finds his little city has a big wolf problem when shredded bodies start showing up all over town. Faced with a hostile press and even more hostile hunters, he tries to protect his innocent pack of eight at the same time they try to track down two elusive killers in an area of 35 square miles with a plethora of hiding places.

He’s seen this before. And the hunters always, always go overboard and decide the only good werewolf is a dead one, no matter who’s actually responsible. His pack will be collateral damage unless he can find the enemy wolves—and stop their broken alpha—before they turn his hometown into a human buffet.

FROM CEDAR SANDERSON WRITING AS LILANIA BEGLEY: Distress Signal: A Short SciFi Romance

As Sumire reveals her secrets in an explosive climax, a young Patrolman finds that what really matters is taking him in hand and leading him towards danger. Now, he has a chance to prove himself… and find out what love really means.

FROM RACONTEUR PRESS WITH A STORY BY LEE ALLRED: Full Steam Ahead!

“In the midst of this danger, dirt, speed, technological changes, and social upheaval comprise the heart of steampunk. The old and new were in conflict, and the outcomes were uncertain and fraught with failures, making it a rich tangle of possibilities for characters to clash and collaborate within. ” – From the introduction by Bart Kemper, answering the question Why Steam?

Steampunk is danger, adventure, and technology with a flair for the dramatic and an eye for beauty. Join these 10 authors as they explore worlds of danger, daring, romance and steam.

FROM LAURA MONTGOMERY: The Wheels Run Truly: A Science Fiction Lost Colony Adventure

Two brothers fight for freedom. A lost colony’s governor strives to reinvent the feudal state. Can Martha’s sons escape to liberty and a future?

Thaddeus Dawe is a patient man. On a planet where only the valley of First Landing is fully terraformed, he waits for spring’s agonizingly slow arrival. He plans to take the colony’s last terraseeder to fortify a secret northern enclave outside the governor’s control. When the palace loses power in late winter, Thaddeus scrambles to save his and his brothers’ hopes for independence.

Peter Dawe suffers under another secret. When he receives his brother’s call to return from exile to save the terraseeder, Peter forces himself to disclose his long-planned departure to those who sheltered and befriended him, including the woman he wants in his life. None of that goes as planned, and he heads north responsible once again for too many lives.

With the terraseeder losing power, a promise he has yet to fulfill, and the governor’s men against him, Thaddeus fears the new chaos marks the imminent death of the essential terraforming microbes and the failure of the new world he plans to build. Peter has spent the winter learning skills for his brothers’ northern plans, but joining Thaddeus’ team puts not only his own life at risk, but that of the woman he gives up to friendship.

Can the Dawe brothers escape the governor’s dominion with the life-giving terraseeder in time, and with their friends and loved ones alive?

The Wheels Run Truly is the final installment in the gripping science fiction colonization series, Martha’s Sons. If you like driven heroes, deep bonds of love and friendship, and a fight for freedom, you’ll need to read Laura Montgomery’s thrilling adventure tale.

Pick it up now to reach for independence!

Lord Adrescu’s Blade: A Familiar Origins Tale (Familiar Tales)

A legendary sword, and the man who wielded it.

Lord Danut Adrescu returns to his keep to find a mystery and a warning. A battered young Healer who cannot speak, and a vision of battle with a half-bull monster. What links the two? And what ties them to his new sword, a battle-claimed blade made by the finest Italian swordsmiths?

A novella, 30K words.

FROM M. C. A. HOGARTH: In the Court of Dragons: A Peltedverse Collection in the Fallowtide Period (The Fallowtide Sequence Book 5)

Sweeping cultural changes sound very good on paper. But in the lives of normal people, even the ones who stand to benefit, those changes can be a challenge… one they might not have even asked for. In the Court of Dragons collects eight stories of the period after the events of the Chatcaavan War, focusing on changes both personal and widespread: old favorites return and new characters make their debut as we follow the effects of the war on everything from the imperial harem to the nascent Eldritch newsroom. What are the Faulfenza up to in the capital? What was the fate of the palace castrates? And who taught an Eldritch to… bungee jump?

This reader-commissioned collection includes stories written by the author at reader request. Come home to the Alliance with these tales of hope, renewal, comedy, and romance.

FROM MICHAEL HOOTEN: We Are All Enlisted (Enlisted Book 1

Peter Wright joined the Navy thinking that he could do his time in a nice, quiet billet somewhere on Earth. The Navy had other ideas. When the asteroid miners claimed their independence, Peter finds himself getting sent to space on a warship headed straight into the combat zone. He has to get used to everything: zero gravity, standing watch, and being the only Earth-born in his crew. And he has to be ready for the biggest battle the solar system has ever seen.

FROM HOLLY CHISM: Lizzy’s Tail

A small, plush horse learns what it means to be real when a little girl chooses her and takes her home. Through adventures and accidents, Lizzy the horse becomes real to her little girl, Carrie, even though she is still a toy.

FROM LEIGH KIMMEL: Lunar Surface Blues

The High Frontier is no place for foolishness, but nature can always make a better idiot.

Four years ago, Molly’s parents brought her up here to the Moon when their work brought them to Shepardsport. In the time since that move, she’s earned her place here and a seat on this field trip. Only one problem — she’s been given the worst possible EVA partner.

A pencil-necked dweeb with an attitude, Benji wants to be one of the guys. But his stunts keep putting them both in danger, and the adults keep blaming Molly.

When Benji gets in over his head, can Molly save him before it costs both their lives?

A short story of the Grissom timeline.

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: seat

22 thoughts on “Book Promo And Vignettes By Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike”

  1. Before them was a bicycle built for two, but one that might have come straight out of the imagination of Dr. Seuss — on a bad night after a few too many corned beef sandwiches and kosher pickles. In meatspace the mad network of tubes and sprockets would’ve collapsed in a tangle of metal and rubber — but here in cyberspace it was just a matter of modeling the parts such that they hung together in all three dimensions.

    Roger realized just how much he’d become accustomed to the Digital Dreams’ devs assumptions about what a whimsical fantasy ‘verse should look like. Magic Garden was the safe side of whimsical magic, informed by such classics as Alice in Wonderland and Peter Pan. The wild and wacky whimsies of Theodore Seuss Geisel were probably the most child-friendly of the sources for this game.

    No time to worry, not when they were being pursued, not with Sierra’s freedom and Roger’s very existence depending on getting out of here. Nothing to do but hop on those seats mounted on improbably long and spindly poles, and get to peddling.

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      1. In the ‘verse of this novella (which is also the ‘verse of “Phoenix Dreams” and “Phoenix in the Machine,” as well as my novel WIP Phoenix in Cyberspace) the games are full-sensory-immersion, so players feel as if they’re actually living in the game world while they’re playing — and Roger’s an informorph, so he lives full-time in cyberspace.

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  2. “Have a seat” Detective Donovan said.
    “Which one they’re all rather tacky?” Julie replied.
    “You’re drunk” Detective Donovan said.
    “Is that what this is, I’ve never been drunk before” Julie replied.
    “You drink your elfin brandy all the time” detective Donovan accused.
    “Not the same, it tistialates, titilates…” Julie started to say.
    “Titillates?” Detective Donovan said.
    “That’s the word, elfin brandy, that word, but is not supposed to inebriate. The alcohol in your world is another story entirely, hic” Julie slurred.
    “I think we need to take you home” Detective Donovan said.
    “Thats would be wondersful, take are a right at the next dimension and look for the realm with dragons, der a deads gives away” Julie slurred.
    “How about I take you back to the Bookstore?” Detective Donovan asked.
    “Probbabbly a better choice, hic defentatelys easier for chou” Julie opined.
    Chaperoning a drunken Wizard through the city on a busy Saturday night, how do I get in these messes, Detective Donovan asked himself?

    Liked by 2 people

  3. The old wizard was showing his new apprentice around the castle and passed a throne surrounded by protective spells.

    “Sir, what is that throne and why are there protective spells around it?”

    “That’s the Perilous Seat and no sane person wants to be seated on it.”

    “Don’t you mean the Siege Perilous? What happens when you sit down on it?”

    “If I meant Siege Perilous, I would have said Siege Perilous. A person sitting in the Perilous Seat gets everything he might have wished for in the worse possible way.”

    “I don’t think I’ll sit down on it. I’m not crazy enough to risk that.”

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  5. “Armbruster take your seat” the dean said, “ you are filled with deceit. You accused Mary Seet of being a liar, and made her lose her chair as the large language model, a position for which her ample seat made her the fetching favorite for the anatomical studies. What do you have to say for yourself?” Armbruster rubbed his chin. “ I guess, dean,” he said, that Mary had a little lamb, a little pork and a little ham. Her spread was broad, she was a fraud, and she needed to be unseated. She is through, And so are you: for to get the gig you were too well treated.”

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  6. Her heart still hammered. She withered the vines away to nothingness on the other side, and the footholds and handholds they had grown for her on this, and the woman did not curse or scream.
    Rae turned away. Only then did she realize that someone else in the garden could be a danger. But there was no one on the paths, and no one in the seat under an arch of roses.

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  7. She tried to not shift in the seat, or twitch the reins, too much. The horses knew the route, which was just as well. She recognized nothing.
    Birds shifted and murmured and cawed softly. Her mouth set. She would have thought that such a great flock could hardly be missed.

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  8. “Why were representatives from Novi Magyarsk and New Texas given seats at the negotiating table?”

    “Because, most wise Excellency, we need their expertise.”

    “And our guns,” Ambassadress Goodnight reminded the Honored Administrator. He twitched, pained by her bluntness.

    Liked by 1 person

  9. Kevin tried not to squirm in his seat. Behind the desk in front of him, the principal was silent, his expression a mixture of fury and anguish. The principal looked at the papers he held, shook his head, then looked back at Kevin as if he were about to speak.

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  10. “Have a seat.” The Family Services Advisor pointed to the chair.

    Kevin sat. The FSA sighed, then spoke: “Understand, it’s not only your reputation you’ve damaged, but your classmates’ and your family’s.”

    Kevin didn’t understand. “What did I do that was so wrong?”

    “That’s not the point,” said the FSA.

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  11. The FSA rose from her chair. “Listen, you can fix this.” She removed a folder from a cabinet. “Here are resources you can use to set yourself right.”

    Kevin examined the contents: Mimeographs explaining counseling and reporting options, all generic.

    “And remember,” the FSA said kindly, “I’m here to help.”

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  12. Sitting on a bench at the bus stop, Kevin pondered. His reputation? His classmates’? His family’s? He knew all that was recorded in, well, some database. But why wouldn’t the principal tell him what he was accused of? Why wouldn’t the FSA?

    Then it hit him: They didn’t know, either.

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  13. She stood back so we could enter Number 37. It was a decent-sized room, bigger than the one I had on the airship which brought me to Noricum. I could see the underside of the wall bed which had been folded out of the way, and the small writing desk which had been slid out from the opposite wall, with a chair beside it. At the back of the room was a standard bureau and wash basin, with a lidded metal pitcher of water. If it was like the one on the other airship, it would be screwed into a sort of socket in the top of the bureau to keep it from falling over.

    Karina slid the desk back into the wall and turned the chair towards the wall bed, which she then folded out of the wall. She sat on the edge of the bed, and beckoned me to sit beside her. She offered the chair to Maxim with a sweeping gesture, as though it was a throne. He waited until I was seated before taking the chair.

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  14. “–ustonwe–ottapro–lem–”

    “Mad Mike” Abdera shook his head, pulled up the origination node, and kept walking. “Lena? Was that you? Reading you about one by zero.”

    “Sorry, Mike. Auto-key, and probably auto-squelch too. Wasn’t even trying to reach you just yet, but… we do have a problem, may be a big one.”

    Ah, yes, his mind supplied, of itself. “Houston, we’ve had a problem” indeed. “Turn both those settings to full-manual and talk to me.” He kept walking.

    “Main propellant valve on our main engine is… stuck shut. No way to run the NERVA without it, and with no way to burn down into orbit…”

    “Liquid hydrogen is one of the best of rocket fuels, and one of the very bitchiest to handle. Remember, even a trace of water in cryogenics…”

    “Yeah, Mike, I got that. But the wiggle sequences only confirm that it’s not moving no matter the actuators. Doesn’t seem to be a way to heat the valve, everything in the normal circuits is either cold liquid or cold gas and neither one would help.”

    Mike chuckled. “Send me a link to the big diagram. I’m on my feet moving so it’ll be faster for you to look that up.” And the link appeared nearly at once, but…

    And he nearly swore to himself as he turned a corner. Newton’s revenge, Corolis forces do matter on any spin-gravity ship this small. “Not the bloody augmented-reality-immersion virtual-not-a-map thingy. The simple, actual flat-image map.”

    More than a dim back corner of his mind was occupied, just now, chasing down the hint of a shadow of a fugitive memory… And then he did stop, there in the corridor, the better to pinch and zoom and scroll…

    And, there it was. “See the HX6 on the autogenous-pressurization feed back to the void-space in the LH2 tanks? The little auxilliary heat exchanger sitting on the main hot-hydrogen loop?”

    It only took Lena Denisovna a couple of seconds. “Yes, but that’s to heat something else using the hot hydrogen bled off the engine cooling loop, of which there isn’t any, because we can’t start up, because… you know.”

    And he laughed, on-circuit, because this is why they called him Mad Mike. Among other reasons… “Think outside the ‘box’ and I mean like that gray cardboard yit was never there in the first place. ‘SCE to AUX’ and all.”

    “Huh?” was all he’d expected. Right away.

    But he could practically feel it, across their audio link somehow, when she got it. “You mean… run something like hot gas from the cabin CO2 to methane converter, that turns our exhaled carbon into rocket fuel, through that heat exchanger and… heat cold purge hydrogen gas from the tanks, run that back down warmed into the engine and into the plenum just upstream of the main valve…” Re-purposing innocent stuff like — Mad.

    “And you bathe the valve and stem and seat in warm hydrogen gas that’s still as pure as the stuff in the tanks. Hopefully, that’s pure enough.”

    And the frost or ice or whatever, melts, and the valve opens and the warm gas purges out through the pumps and the vents. Of course then you have to re-chill everything or cavitation will likely kill your pumps, but… back on the standard start track. With the ice gone down the vents to space.

    Cross your fingers and hope to fly…

    “Give me a few minutes to trace this all out and run it through the expert system for safety, Mike, but I think this will go. One Sabatier preheat is usually warm because the smaller system is sized for continuous… Mike?”

    “Lena?” He was, of course, walking again.

    “How do you do this stuff??”

    “This is nothing. Once in the old days of the Manhattan Project, they got this guy in who was supposed to be a miracle worker. Showed him the full detail huge blueprints of the whole Oak Ridge gaseous-diffusion plant, a gleam in the eye as it was then. And he got out a red pencil, and started making little marks on them, ‘chicken scratchings’ he called ’em. Half an hour later, this guy had cut out a third or so of the plant’s pipe run, I think, before even a foot of it was ever laid. ‘The best part is no part’ and so-on; half a century before Elon Musk or Stephanie Ausfaller.

    “Next to that, Lena, or the Original Steely-Eyed Missile Man who came up with that ‘SCE to AUX’ fix in real time on ascent on that Apollo launch? Next to that, I’m just a regular workin’ man. One more Old White Guy.”

    “Huh? Old White Guy?”

    “Means a bit like ‘steely-eyed missile man’ — now. Back during the Crazy Years they had this prejudice against older people, or white people; and it got pretty, well, crazy. Even, or especially, when they were the ones to know what switches to pull and where the good stuff was hidden. Later when people came to their senses, because Or Else, it turned into a term of mild honor and esteem. Like ‘bossman’ did.”

    “Wait, they had a prejudice against… hard to believe they wouldn’t’ve valued somebody like you.”

    “Hah! My name is Miguel Rodriguez Abdera, which makes me not-white. Never mind how I’m almost pure Castillian Spanish, after two centuries in space for all us clever monkeys too. And don’t try to wrap your mind around it, Lena, you’ll sprain something. They call ’em Crazy Years for a reason.”

    “Expert system says okey-dokey. Going to bleed off some of the heated H2 from the Sabatier reactor, run that through a bypass into the HX6 offside loop. But going to start real slow, thermal shock is never our friend.”

    “Now you’re talkin’ — so I’ll get back to you in about ten, fifteen minutes. We do have almost an hour till we need to start our burn, right?”

    “Yes, but, wait, aren’t you coming to Engineering Control to help me??”

    “Not right away. Got another thing. They’re in a comms blackout right just now, planet in the way; but in — six and a half minutes, I’m gonna be on the radio with a tourist boat in trouble. Their pilot’s just had a mild heart attack, their co-pilot showed up quietly stoned on himmelscheiss or something — fortunately relieved of duty before the heart-trouble hit the command pilot who caught it — and so now I’m about to talk a civilian if sensible pilot’s daughter through a restart of their main computer net.”

    “Doesn’t sound too bad.” Lena’s voice was half-engaged, half-worried.

    “When she’s sixteen years old and her dad just doubled up? And over a very helpful light-time delay of ten seconds, each way on the signal? With four to seven minutes after AOS before it’s too late to begin their own burn?”

    There was a quiet moment. Then, “Roger all that, Mike. Do what y’gotta.”

    “Be seein’ you soon, Lena. Don’t worry, this is what they used to call a Character Building Experience. Mind the heat shock and the mix safety in the pipes — as I know you will — and I’ll be in our own comm-comp room staring at the same model main control console they use on a Hy-Vector 6C.”

    Last turn, don’t spin your head too fast, this time. (Moron!)

    “And just work the problem, Lena Lyudmilla Denisovna. Stay chill as an LH2 turbopump. Soon enough you’ll qualify to be an Old White Guy like me.”

    Mad Mike cut the audio-data link; and kept on walking.

    (With a long-distance hat-tip toward Michael Z. Williamson, for stealing his nickname.)

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