Greetings sci-fi lovers. I have returned after having a mental collapse taking off a month. It’s been a frustrating summer so far. I haven’t been able to write much, but the mind is always churning. In fact, I have a little bit of short fiction for you below and then I want to introduce my newer subscribers to my annual event ODDTOBER.
But first, micro-fiction:
"Give me your heart," she said.
In olden times it was an expression of love. 'Wearing your heart on your sleeve,' was spoken of the passionate. It was common to see "I heart U' on shirts and painted upon the concrete world of the fallen age. A "broken heart" was love gone wrong.
But now, 'give me your heart' means something new. It meant to give over your genetics, your medical future, your pre-cancers and congenital dispositions, your mental health, and your odds of survival and flourishing.
'Give me your heart,' has replaced 'Give me your number' as the precursor for a relationship. In antique times to give someone your number, according to archeo-historians, meant giving them your 'life-line' so that they could 'get in touch.' A superstition regarding the bodies they did not yet understand.
So I gave her my heart. I showed her my medical past and future and included my curriculum vitae, exposing my health and material hope. I see her eyes narrow as she calculates compatibility and forecasts earnings.
I pass some predetermined threshold and she gives me her heart in return. Without speaking she snds her data into my stack. I skim it to be polite.
We stand technologically bare before each other. She smiles. Science makes this easy. It's all upfront and obvious. Her personality chart aligns with mine in key areas, I already knew this. Unlike many in my position, I have breathed in a room with her. I have smelled her smells. I have seen how she sees the world. She is incalculable. Unfathomable.
She tugs a portion of her lip between her teeth. When she looks at me again, the brown-gold hair that tapped against her chin when figuring, flies back to reveal a dimple on one side of her face. "Would you like my pics?" she asks.
Within me my soul rebelled. "Let’s risk romance."
Oddly Concerning is a book of micro-fiction, like the story above. It is available for free at Amazon and other online vendors. Here’s a review:
Oddtober Prep
Speaking of excellent segues, Oddtober is just around the corner. For my newer subscribers, Oddtober is my writerly version of Inktober: 31 Days of Odd and Uncanny Micro-fiction. The first year I sat down each morning and thought something up on the spot (resulting in the above mentioned book Oddly Concerning). The next year, I wrote out some prompts the week before October began and then wrote up a story each day that was somehow inspired with that prompt. Several of you participated with me and we had great fun. My resulting book was Widdershins. I think that I’ll release Widdershins and the next two Oddtober attempts together in an Oddthology. Maybe I’ll include OC and call it an QuODDrilogy.
This year I’ve decided to go to the circus for Oddtober prompts, so I went to this page of circus skills and selected several to serve as inspiration.
Some of the odd skills that I didn’t include have some fantastic names: Banquine, Corde lisse, Devil sticks, Poi spinning, Risley, Rola Bola, Voltige, Gurner, and Chapeaugraphy. I can tell you right now that the words “rola bola” will definitely appear in one of my stories.
Micro-fiction is the sort of low-bar, high creativity exercise that keeps me charged and gives me a healthier boost than social media interactions. If you want to flex your mind in a literary way, I highly recommend the practice. If you don’t feel particularly moved by my prompts search out some Inktober prompt as October draws near and adapt them in a sci-fi/uncanny way. It’s fun. You don’t have to show them to anybody, but if you do, please share them with me. I love it.
I thought I’d go ahead and post the prompts now so that I can return to them nice and fresh on October 1st. I’ll probably send out a reminder September 29th.
Favorite tweet:
New motto:
New Release!
One of my stories appeared in the genre-bending anthology of the Weird and Cosmic Anterior Skies edited by C. F. Page. I’ll talk about my story in the next newsletter, but I just wanted to make sure I sent something on the first Sci-Friday of July.
Quick question before the next installment: Anybody love The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?