Bedtime Story, Part IV

[The parts in italics were not written by me, but by the person I was telling the story to.]


There was a boy who watched the girl, watched her with the men who came to her nightly. He kept himself away from the lights, not because he was afraid of them precisely, but because he knew they would melt him utterly. He crouched by her when she slept and watched her from all the shadows he knew. The darkest shadow was her smile, and he wished to hide there the most. And he wished he had a heart to give.

There was once a boy who found a heart in a sand castle and decided to sell it in the marketplace in a nearby city, as he already had one of his own. He wrapped it carefully in crinkled white paper even as it throbbed and pulsed. He did not make it to the marketplace, though, as a shadow-boy caught him in an alley. "Give me your money," the shadow-boy said, thinking of a girl with dust in her hair who had not eaten today. "I have no money," protested boy-from-the-sea. "Only a heart. Want it?"

Shadow boy held his hands out, greedy for the heart. “Yes, yes, and all I want is yes,” he said and boy-from-the-sea dropped it into his hands. The boy opened the paper, just a tiny bit, to see the heart, because he was curious. He had never seen one before, only heard stories. He found the girl, the dusty dancing girl, and he felt brave, excited. “I have it, for you, a heart, a heart!” he sang, stepping forward into the sunlight. And he melted. When she turned to look there was only the heart, beating quietly in its white paper wrapping.

Bedtime Story, Part III

There was once a ragged tramp of a girl with dust in her hair who had no home, sleeping under stairwells and on benches in the big city where she lived. Sometimes she would sing and dance for coins, or sweep courtyards and water flowers. Though dirty she was a pretty girl, and men often asked her for favors. "Only for a heart, I'd only do it for a heart, not for your love but mine, and only for a heart," she would say with her dark smile.

Bedtime Story, Part II

There was once a girl who lived in a tall tower - not in the middle of nowhere guarded by a dragon, but in a green park in a big city. She was not a princess, though she was beautiful. The girl who loved her, a ragged tramp of a girl with dust in her long dark hair, would visit every day. "Come with me," the girl below pleaded. "I will show you the world and all my love. "I haven't the heart," replied the girl in the tower. "I haven't the heart."

Great news!

Book five in the Laconia series, Dad and I Are Sort of Human, has been accepted by Eternal Press. We are still working out the details but I will announce the release date once it has been decided.

Bedtime Story, Part 1

There was once a boy who lived by the sea. He loved to build sandcastles too close to the water, so that the waves would destroy them, making him feel like a powerful and capricious god.

One of the sandcastles would not wash away, though, even when the waves rushed over all else, smoothing out the sand. It did not become a lump of sludge, either. It stood, a little crookedly, for three days and three nights. Finally he took a shovel and smashed it.

Inside the sandcastle was a beating heart, bleeding but alive. He picked it up in trembling hands and felt rooted to the spot.

Last I looked he was still there, under the stars, not sure what to do next.

Steampunk Holmes Needs Your Help!

What is Steampunk Holmes?

Steampunk Holmes is a series of seven books published across multiple channels. This project raises funds for the first book in the series, Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus.

About 'Steampunk Holmes: Legacy of the Nautilus'

In an alternative Steampunk universe (c.1885), the plans for Captain Nemo's mysterious Nautilus submarine have been stolen from the British Secret Service. There is only one man who can solve the case, Sherlock Holmes. With his bionic side-kick Doctor Watson, and his brilliant and lethal sister, Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock unravels a mystery that will shake the foundation of the British Empire. 

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/369012565/steampunk-holmes-for-the-ipad/posts

They have five days to meet their goal, guys! I'm a backer but I can only contribute so much. WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. :D :D :D :D 

I came upon a tumblr that has pirated copies of my work for download: http://qoozqvu.tumblr.com/ 

I wasn’t able to message qoozqvu to ask them to not post downloads of my books for free, due to them not having an ask box, but in the interest of protecting intellectual property I would like to ask people to please not download from qoozqvu. If you want to preview one of my books before buying, Amazon will allow you to see the first few pages, and also you can message me and I will happily “lend” you a section as well. If my books are not available in a format you can use, or not available at your location, contact me and I will find some way you can get it honestly.

If you’ve already pirated, I’m not mad - I take it as a compliment - but I would very much like you to buy something as soon as you can because if you like it enough to read it I would hope you’d like it enough to repay me for my effort.

Several of my works are available for free on the Internet with my permission; in fact I put them there. Read them to your heart’s content. 

I’m not going to try to take legal action because I believe in Internet freedom, that it does more harm to try to regulate what users do than to let some piracy occur. What I think works better is to politely say: I worked hard. I don’t make much money from this. What money I do have, I am very grateful for. I’m 21 years old and just starting out. My publisher will only keep giving me deals if I turn a profit for them, otherwise they won’t survive as a company. It’s a harsh reality, and I need your help to keep it from ruining my dream.

Thank you.

Written? Kitten!

Just found out about a great tool against writer's block: Written Kitten! Every hundred words you write (you can also set it for more) you get a picture of an adorable kitten. Much kinder and gentler than Write Or Die, which I already knew about.