[Not all my stories have their origin in what-ifs.  I began this little novella even before my first novel that I wrote the summer I turned thirteen.  I won’t say how many years it took me to finish it, but it has a certain teenage innocence about it still.  Enjoy!]

Escape from Earth

Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore

Part Three: On the Road

Chapter Eight

Saki walked around the parking lot and stretched her legs while Lucas went inside the roadside diner for takeout.  When he came out, he saw that a motorcycle gang had surrounded her.

“We’ll give you a good time,” said the biggest leather-jacketed ogre.  The gang name on his back said Devil’s Wheels.  These Devil’s minions all looked like Vikings, although some shaved their heads.

Lucas had an idea about what the man meant by a good time.  “What’s going on here?”

Big man studied Lucas.  “Stay out of this, dickhead.  The woman just wants to have some fun with us, right honey?”

“No,” said Saki, “no want smelly beasts near me.”

“Smelly beasts?” said another gang member with a testosterone-charged snarl.  “That’s a bit insulting, right Big George?”

The circle closed in on Saki.  Before Lucas could act, Saki took the disk from beneath her blouse and held it facing away from her.  She spun.  All the gang members staggered and fell to the ground unconscious.

Lucas saw the people in the diner who had been watching the altercation through the windows.  Not good!  “Let’s get out of here, Saki.”

Ten miles down the road he pulled off the highway and parked under a few trees.  He handed her a bag containing a burger and fries.

“Not dead,” she said.

Her bad English was second nature to him now.  “I know.  The people in the diner will soon know that too.  But they’ll also know something strange just happened.  Someone might investigate.”

She nodded.  “Stun them too.  Bad men.  Not like you.”

He smiled.  Stun?  A new word for her.  “I should hope not.  You sensed what they wanted to do, didn’t you?”

“Easy.  Primitive planet.  Feral humans.  All emotions.”

Lucas checked his watch.  “We’ll make Albuquerque and change cars.”

“Change?  This one OK.”

“Not after the bikers or diners describe it,” he said.

***

In New Mexico, Lucas made a bad deal at Happy Horatio’s Used Car Emporium, trading his pickup for a Land Rover that had seen better days.  He didn’t have to spend any money on the Rover except for plates and sales tax.  They found a motel.

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Find a nook and read a book.  It’s active time for your mind.  (Not a plug for B&N’s Nook, by the way…but Nook users can take it that way if they like.)

Happy Leap Day!

In libris libertas….

Alternative to Smashwords.  Several author friends have suggested an alternative to Smashwords, Draft2Digital.  Smashwords is a retailer that also distributes to the iStore (Apple), B&N, Kobo, and many other online retailers.  So does Draft2Digital.  The only advantage I can see for the latter is that they’ll also produce a Create Space paper book; Smashwords doesn’t.  (There’s some indication that Draft2Digital is quicker to adjust promo prices—Smashwords just blames their retailers—but I don’t care about that.)  It’s a coin toss (made infamous in the Iowa caucuses).  I’d still like to see an ebook outfit that would take my MS Word document, turn it into an ebook, and then market it and sell it.  I’d be willing to give up more royalties to do just that (marketing experts all want their money up front!).  I guess that’s something that lies between indie and traditional publishing (the latter takes too much in royalties, of course).  Anyone know of an outfit like that?  Drop me an email if you do…or comment below this post.

Rogue Planet.  You’ve read the excerpt (see the category “Pre-Release Excerpts” if you haven’t.  Here’s the blurb, just to remind you:

“Hidden away from near-Earth planets in remote spiral arms of the Galaxy are Human worlds that have lost contact with more progressive worlds and reverted to strange and primitive customs and traditions, their leaders using religion, superstition, and imported technologies to rule in tyranny.  Survey ships explored and catalogued these planets as suitable for future colonization centuries earlier, but groups with a special interest in ensuring a homogeneous and often despotic society didn’t bother applying for permission to colonize.”

“Following the ITUIP (Interstellar Trade Union of Independent Planets) Protocol, ships were restricted to observe and maintain a hands-off policy for these rogue planets, even when there was great temptation to intervene.  Eden, where a theocracy rules with an iron fist, is such a planet.  A group of rebels struggles to end the oppressive regime to forge a new future.”

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[Not all my stories have their origin in what-ifs.  I began this little novella even before my first novel that I wrote the summer I turned thirteen.  I won’t say how many years it took me to finish it, but it has a certain teenage innocence about it still.  Enjoy!]

Escape from Earth

Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore

Part Two: Gumshoe Activity

Chapter Five

“Nice to see that the Feds actually listen to us sometimes,” said Sheriff Olson after welcoming them.  “I was happy to see your names aren’t Mulder and Scully.”

Needham searched for words.  They were in the sheriff’s small office sitting on old wooden visitors’ chairs that had seen better days.  The sheriff sat behind the cluttered desk.

“I’m too old,” said Needham with a smile, “and Carpenter’s too young.”

“Is this Bob McNamara usually reliable?” said Carpenter, jumping to the heart of the matter.

“Mack’s as solid as a rock.  He’s my brother-in-law.  I believe he saw something.  Neither one of us is sure what it was.  It’s all in the report.”

“We have that,” said Needham.  “We want to see where he saw the flash.”

“Can do,” said Olsen.  “Mack said it was like a huge camera’s flash going off.  Lit up lots of acres over by the old Wright farm.  We already went out there.  Did a fly-over too.  Lucas Wright’s truck’s gone.  Haven’t talked to him yet.  He was the only one living in the farmhouse, although his sister Janet goes out there frequently.”

“We’d like to talk to them both.  Probably not much chance they saw anything if it was still dark at the time and everyone was asleep.  What was Deputy McNamara doing out that way?”

“Attending to a domestic dispute.  Two farms over hubby returned from a poker game drunk as a skunk.  Started harassing the missus, and she kicked him out.  He called us on his cell phone to complain.  Mack went out to bring him here to sleep it off.  About as much excitement as we ever get outside the pool hall on Saturday nights.”

“Cell phones work here?” said Carpenter.

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Did you hear about the jurisprudence fetishist? He got off on a technicality.

Amazon “bookstores”?  The company just announced that they will expand their number beyond that unique one in Seattle.  Wondering what the business model is?  If you’re thinking Create Space paperbacks will be featured, you might be in for a big surprise.  From what I’ve been able to glean from all the BS, these stores will reflect what you can find on Amazon’s site: all sorts of crap will be for sale and, as an afterthought, books.  For a retailer that started out selling books, they have come a long way in shedding that mantle, so far that neither they nor their customers worry much about books anymore.  Authors shouldn’t think that Amazon is going to be featuring their books, that’s for sure.

Smashwords.  If you want a retailer that only sales books and does it well, complement your Amazon catalog with one on Smashwords.  Worried about formats?  Smashwords features them all, including mobis.  Moreover, Smashwords is a distributor too; they distribute to many other retailers (Apple, Kobo, B&N, and so forth), as well as selling to libraries.  It would be in your best interests to end Amazon exclusivity and add Smashwords.  I’ll be doing this slowly but surely (see below).  Think of it like this: it’s like the stock market in that you’re better off having a diversified portfolio.  I don’t own a lot of stock, but I’ve written a lot of books.  I want to reach out to as many readers as possible.  Amazon limits that.

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[Not all my stories have their origin in what-ifs.  I began this little novella even before my first novel that I wrote the summer I turned thirteen.  I won’t say how many years it took me to finish it, but it has a certain teenage innocence about it still.  Enjoy!]

Escape from Earth

Copyright 2016, Steven M. Moore

Part One: The Encounter

Chapter One

Lucas watched twin sister Jan’s antique Civic speed away from the farmhouse.  Four months ago he would have been following her in his old but newer GMC pickup for a bit just in case the car broke down again on the old country roads.  Now, at her insistence, he just kept his fingers crossed and hoped she made it back to the turnpike and the city.

Four months earlier, their once-per-month visits to the old homestead where they had grown up allowed them a nostalgia fix that helped preserve memories of happier times with their parents.  That was before the highway accident that took the old-timers’ lives.  That was also before Becky, who had often accompanied Lucas to the farm, broke up with him.  And before he quit his job.

Both Jan and he had made their parents proud.  Farm kids who became doctors, she a successful pediatrician, he a successful neurosurgeon.  Jan still loved helping the little ones.  He had traded helping others for returning to his childhood fascination with all things scientific and especially electronics and computers.  That allowed him to become a recluse and forget about flirty Rebecca Hanlon who was afraid of a permanent commitment and never sure about their relationship.

After the Civic disappeared over the horizon in a cloud of dust and dark gray exhaust from burning oil, Lucas debated whether to finish a project in his basement workshop or go fishing.  He looked back at the farmhouse.  Jan and he probably would never have sold it even before, and now it seemed like his solid fortress against the world’s randomness.  He opted for fishing, remembering a deep pool in the river he hadn’t visited for a while.  He wasn’t much of a cook, but he could prepare an acceptable dinner out of a few catfish and instant wild rice.

***

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The races to determine the traditional U.S. parties’ nominees for president is on.  Europeans, not worried about policy details (they probably worry about them more than the traditional U.S. parties and their voters, though), might look at the party names and seek comfort in that one party is called Democratic.  That probably doesn’t include Germans, who will remember that German Democratic Republic, and other European countries bordering the Iron Curtain, who remember all those Democratic Republics in the old U.S.S.R.  Indeed, the Democratic Party in the U.S. is far from being democratic!

Why do I say this?  Consider that Sanders tied Clinton in Iowa (yes, it was a tie) and beat her by a wide margin in New Hampshire, yet Clinton walks away with more delegates than Sanders!  Huh?  “How did that happen?” you ask.  Easy.  The Democrats have something very anti-democratic built into their primary process, whether we’re talking about caucuses (like Iowa) or straight votes (like New Hampshire).  That something is the notion of super-delegates.  Check it out.  After New Hampshire, Clinton already has a commanding lead in delegate count, 394 to 44, because she has committed super-delegates in most primary states already.  44% of the Democratic Party’s delegates are NOT determined by popular vote.

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Ladies, don’t forget the rummage sale. It’s a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.  (Seen in a church bulletin.  Husbands take note if you forgot Valentine’s Day.)

The Finest Hours.  Craig Gillespie, dir.  I resisted going to this one.  “Just another disaster movie,” I said.  Two things convinced me to see it.  First, it’s a true story.  Second, it’s set on Cape Cod.  Having lived in the Boston area for many years, I’m familiar with the Cape.  We have our little inn there, the Nauset House Inn, where we love to stay; it’s conveniently near many of the settings in the movie.  We’ve taken boat tours off Chatham around the bar and on to Monomoy Island to see the sites and cool off on a hot summer’s day.  We’ve taking whale-spotting excursions off Provincetown.  We’ve spent more time on Nantucket than Martha’s Vineyard, a vacation site for the rich and powerful.  We’ve laughed at the Kennedy compound and remembered faux environmentalist’s Ted’s NIMBY attitude about windmills damaging his view.

The sea is a constant character in the lore of the Cape.  It can be placid and beautiful; it can also be a horrible and murderous monster.  This film is about a Coast Guard rescue launched from the station at Chatham, a rescue that took place in February 1952 in the maws of the monster.  The oil tanker SS Pendleton split in two.  Chief Warrant Officer Daniel Cluff (Eric Bana) sends Botswain Mate First Class Bernard Webber (Chris Pine) and two others out in a small boat.  That’s considered a suicide mission by some, but Cluff doesn’t know those seas (at least he doesn’t in the movie).  Because you can look up the history, it’s a not a spoiler to say that Webber and friends saved all but four of the thirty stranded on the back half of the tanker (the other half went down, carrying the captain and other members of the crew to a watery grave).

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