Cornbread the hard way

O axacan Green crossed with all sorts of things in the garden was harvested and allowed to dry out. Shucked, plucked, milled by hand, and turned into a rustic cornbread, i have frozen all that is left for future stews and bean chilis. Doing things the hard way is actually quite rewarding and fun.

Been busy...

[quote]

The room was large with a high ceiling and had all sorts of tubes and wiring in the rafters. There were different sizes of glass funnel above, ready to descend, with rubber sealant sprayed onto them. The tanks of gas were overhead, too, nestled like eggs among the nest of tubes.

“I’m relaxed, sir,” I said. I tried not to look up again.

“Good. So, we’re going to stand you in the center of the room, right inside the yellow square painted there. A glass tube will descend. For just a moment, you’ll be in vacuum, but you’re young and strong and you can handle it. Then, the ionized gas will fill the vacuum in an instant, and the glass will come up once transfer protocols lock in. You’ll be done in less than a minute. Okay?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Take a deep breath and hold it on my signal. Keep your mouth closed. It doesn’t really matter if you panic or not once the tank descends. You can’t break it if you try, I promise. Best thing to do is just hold still, try to relax, and let it happen. It will be over before you even start to hurt.”

“Got it, sir.” I stood firmly in the center of the yellow square, but I looked up at the glass tube above me.

“It will hurt a little. The ionization process is not a pleasant one. But, it will be no worse than getting a shot in the arm.”

Lights went on in another room behind a glass window that was darkened before. I saw technicians there looking in, and working at terminals, securing their connections and focusing the data lines into the proper channels for my transcendence.

“Hold still, Ensign,” he said, speaking calmly. “On my count, take a deep breath. 3...2...1...Hold.”

Air held still inside my lungs. The glass came down from above surprisingly quickly, but not so fast that I couldn’t jump out from under it if I had the nerve. It separated me from the room, and the vacuum seal hissed. I couldn’t hear anything, then. The air filled with a blue gas that emerged in spots and lines like a grid of flowers in the air itself. It was dazzling, and sudden, like getting punched and seeing lights. The gas filled out the air, and swirled and then I was through. In fact, I had been through for a few moments already, and the gas was actually an optical illusion of my body and brain trying to process the sudden shifts in my vision and orientation.

The glass came up and I was born here, on the Citadel.

The moment I had seen gas, I was already here, and the images in my retinas of the place I had been is proof to me that it was real. Once upon a time, there was a place called Earth, and a young cadet named Ronaldo Aldo who had lived at sea with his mother and father, until he went to War College in the ancient city at the heart of Mexico, and he stepped into a glass tube that quantum cloned him, creating me.

I was born, then, and I was reborn with all the sins still in my heart, my failure with Shui Mien, with my terrible pride.

[/quote]

Is starting to look like an interesting short novel, but more revisions needed.

Starting on July 1st, a Promotional Price Diminishing

Howdy all,

On July 1st, and for two weeks, STRAGGLETAGGLE, my latest novel, will only be $0.99 with the lovely people at WeightlessBooks.

https://weightlessbooks.com/genre/fiction/novel/straggletaggle/

At just $0.99, this will be a huge steal, less than a lottery ticket for something that will entertain you far longer than a lottery ticket will, without the horrible letdown when you don't win at the end, because you'll have read a book, and reading books is never a let down.

On July 1st, then, there will be a price drop at Weightless Books. Go there, and purchase a book.

Dogs destroying all things...

Angel Red

The last of the blackberries

K iowa blackberries are delicious. In year 3, we got 4 pints, easily, off a single bush. Huge, delicious berries. With the rain and overcast weather, not as good as last year, but still very good, and HUGE!

Planted with a Natchez thornless, the birds went after the smaller fruiting, thornless one, which was fine by us because the fruit quality on the Natchez was inferior.

We also managed to propagate both into new bushes by bending down a good cane and burying it in the raised bed beside the first bush. So, expect more blackberries next year!

Kiowa blackberries are amazing and you should totally plant one in the fall!

Everything is Haunted, a piece at a time

Do you remember Dolores, and her goat farm? It was in Asimovs. Here
Paul and his son who were also just in Asimov's? Here

Here is third piece of that odd mosaic text novel, in the latest issue of Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, dubbed "Everything is Haunted" which is also the name of the novel.

Link

This piece is about organ donors in a superbug future, and some urban exploration, and some broken marriage stuff. As an adult, Andrew falls in love with a blond woman, and strips estates for recyclable parts. His dad is an organ donor activist, a real radical. Their past is present in the lovely little 'zine that is always original, always exciting, and a joy to have in the post box, either virtual or material. Do subscribe, if you don't. And, do pick up a copy of my latest little piece.

Thanks!

MAZE is on sale for $0.99 for the month of May

Check your preferred eBook retailer, folks. Here's a link to the Amazon page for the sale:

Sharing is caring. Buying eBooks for other people is caring. Buying eBooks for yourself is self-caring.

A common name

It has come to my attention that one of the trolls or sockpuppetts commenting harshly on genre websites is named Joe McDermott.

This is not me. I have a ridiculously common name. McDermott is one of the most populous names of Ireland, and any Biblical Catholic male name including Nehemiah and Ephraim (I literally have a cousin named Ephraim) are to be expected in front of McDermott all over the world in some great quantity what with the traditional size of traditional Irish families. We do run out of names.

I am currently recovering from some minor surgery, and I am fairly certain my drugs aren't suddenly so good that I would be cheering on Heinlein. I also didn't have any good drugs leading up to the surgery. I dislike most Heinlein quite a lot. It is like Ayn Rand: a thrilling discovery at 15, that intellectually collapses by 17 because of problematic ideas and (more importantly) tedious workmanlike prose shoving bad ideas in my face.

Anyway, I have a common name. There are many of us. We are legion. We also probably don't agree about anything regarding this stupid genre thing. Any comment left by a Joe McDermott that is not in complete agreement with Cat Valente (whose LiveJournal thing is dead right on the money) can be assumed to be some other Joe McDermott, angrier, I presume, and/or a sockpuppy attempting to damage my reputation.

Don't be a sockpuppy, people. There are much greater battles to fight in this world.