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Flash: I Am Prophecy – Part 5

Erin Penn

Caught with her hand on the door, nearly fully recovered from time lost at the closet, Vixen shoulders slumped and she turned.

“Up, up.” Her mother directed as she stood and made her way over.

Two minutes play room before a DNA test would be required.

Vixen raised her chin and squared her shoulders, thrusting forward her newly formed chest. Her breasts came out even further than she expected after months of hiding them in binding. She was going to have to be careful not to hit things with them, like she did with her suddenly too long arms and legs. Being clumsy was frustrating.

“Spin, there is a love.” Her mother’s first wrinkles stood out when she smiled. “My girl is all grown up. Not even the uniform can hide your beauty.”  She tapped the belt on her designer outfit, considering. “I’m going to see if a closet update is possible; the tailoring on that blouse isn’t quite right.”

Her mother always had appreciated appearance over brains even though Tamatha’s ability to memorize every script in a single read proved her brains outweighed even her famous beauty. Father would not have contracted a fool, no matter how beautiful or famous, though he admitted once he was still fairly infatuated with Tamatha despite their contact being dissolved for years.

Vixen returned the smile, forcing her face to react as it would have yesterday. Before she knew, before she understood. An aging starlet getting fewer and fewer parts every year, no matter how skilled an actress she was, would become depressed. Unfortunately her brains and acting ability would let her hide her mental state from the monitors until it was too late. The question was who would die first, the daughter by cleansing or the mother by suicide.

“Air kisses mom?” Inside the carefully constructed bored and indifferent but not quite indifferent exterior a teenager would have – acting was much harder than it looked – Vixen searched the future for paths to help her mother.

The hologram leaned in and kissed the air either side of the half-helm before whispering, “Tell Osantos you are not allowed to watch any more rated entertainment at his place.”

Dashing out the door sadly gratified by another day won with her mother, Vixen realized she hadn’t needed to use her Unnatural abilities at all. Lesson learned: physic abilities are not always needed.

Mental puzzles entertained the actress. Searching out information real-time without being obvious to her daughter had challenged her, not knowing Vixen could see exactly what she had done as soon as Tamatha had finished it. Maybe mom would even change the program for the kitchen. Vixen could not see the action clearly, her mother was less predictable than the wind. But today her parent will live; the poison purchased would stay in its box.

The question was, would Vixen? Would she survive the next hour, let alone the next day?

(words 486; first published 11/10/2019)

Other Cool Blogs: Magical Words 11/9/2011

Erin Penn

Image courtesy of patrisyu at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

“I just had the best idea, hon. Just let me make a note of it on my phone.” I look up after a few minutes of quick typing and uploading to the cloud, ignoring both the cooling food in front of me and the character in my head going ‘and another thing’. “Now, what were you saying?”

Writing is a Solitary Business, as Faith Hunter explains in her November 9, 2011 post on Magical Words. The problem is even as introverted as most writers are, we aren’t solitary creatures. We have jobs and family. In November NaNoWritMo when writing dominates, Thanksgiving steals time away from the laptops and Christmas hides in the shadows waiting to pound us with lists and demands as soon as the 50K is clocked.

Ms. Hunter and the commentators on the post share some of the trials and tribulations of the story-in-the-head swiping moments meant for family and friends at . With the all-consuming NaNoWritMo, remember to breathe and listen to others in your life. There will be other stories; there is only one family.

Book Review: Trail of Dead (Scarlett Bernard Book 2)

Erin Penn

Book Cover from Amazon

Trail of Dead (Scarlett Bernard Book 2) by Melissa F. Olson

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

As a null, Scarlett Bernard possesses a rare ability to counteract the supernatural by instantly neutralizing spells and magical forces. For years she has used her gift to scrub crime scenes of any magical traces, helping the powerful paranormal communities of Los Angeles stay hidden. But after LAPD detective Jesse Cruz discovered Scarlett’s secret, he made a bargain with her: solve a particularly grisly murder case, and he would stay silent about the city’s unearthly underworld.

Now two dead witches are found a few days before Christmas, and Scarlett is once again strong-armed into assisting the investigation. She soon finds a connection between the murders and her own former mentor, Olivia, a null who mysteriously turned into a vampire and who harbors her own sinister agenda. Now Scarlett must revisit her painful past to find Olivia—unless the blood-drenched present claims her life first.

 

MY REVIEW

Such an improvement over the first book.

The world-building in Dead Spots felt generic except for the addition of a null crime scene cleaner. In the second book, Trail of Dead (Scarlett Bernard), the uniqueness of the world – a labyrinth of a new mythology building on the boring cinderblock foundation of the first – has come to life. Suddenly the series is looking interesting.

I should note that in the first book, the establishing scene defining her abilities and specialty magic involves the cleanup of a bird. The effect and non-effects of her null abilities as established there are important in the second case. Not that you need to read the first book to enjoy the second. Just the two situations together made some very good world-building.

For the second book, the main character becomes more engaging, as she moves beyond her damage and takes control of her life. The murder mystery felt more urgent. In the first book, the urgency felt artificially enforced. In the second book, the ticking clock device felt real. Like the rush of an oncoming car.

The downside is the Romantic Heroes both remain neutered – and I had hoped the policeman would wander off with his new love interest so we can stick with the more interesting combo of Scarlett and the regions’ second-in-command werewolf (who needs to work on being an “Alpha” male hero). Hopefully in the next book the author will figure out how to make toes curl from the romance as well as the mystery.

Anyway, many of the issues that made the first book only so-so have been fixed. I can only hope to see a similar jump in the next book. Where the first book only felt worn-out, the second book now feels like a comfortable pair of worn-out jeans. I am hoping the third book will be like a comfortable pair of jeans that hugs every curve – in other words, the perfect Urban Fantasy book.

Flash: I Am Prophecy – Part 4

Erin Penn

“Hey mom … pops.” Vixen hurried past her parental holograms on the way to the breakfast her mother had programmed. She frowned at the biscuit, soft boiled egg and clumps of tricolor berries. The breakfast hadn’t varied in four days. Past, present, future blinked. The countertop grounded her in the now until her timeline realigned.

Oh, momma, is it really that bad?

“Is that anyway to greet your mother?”

Taking the plate and eating utensils to the table from the nutrition dispenser, Vixen baited the woman on the other side of the world before sitting at the one real chair at the table. “You didn’t complain when Gina did it.”

Foxhole’s premiere female fatale of Length stories, one-shot entertainment video narratives between two and three hours often shown in group situations like the old movies of Earth, pulled out a chair and sat, the hologram program overlay transposing whatever milieu she was in to the kitchen in the personal module where Vixen lived. “Really, Environmental Fail? When did you manage to get past the age protections on that? … And Gina was killed in the next scene for not respecting her parents’ instructions.”

“Mom, it is only restricted from the concrete thinkers. I’ve been rated abstract for over five years.” Vixen shoveled food in, trying to make up for lost time.

Father’s hologram lacked interaction since he was still on circuit. He left a placeholder with a half-eaten plate of food in front of him, distracted from eating by the fan twisted open with whatever news or laws he was reviewing. Not far from how he would be if he was really there, though he would be demanding the half-helm be removed. “People need to see you more than you need to be connected,” he would say. Still, he was one to talk since he was never without a fan, snapping it open and close constantly to study esoteric laws from hundreds of worlds and outposts as his brain danced from one problem to another.

“It’s restricted to parental review for the non-citizen. And I know I have made certain all of the fictional parental review programs are locked, even if you father unlocked all the non-fiction.”

“Yeah mom, you need to talk to him about that. I stumbled over the Coord Outpost Full Recreate yesterday studying for today’s test.” Vixen shuttered dramatically while returning the plate for disposal. “Cannibalism, and other ick. Really didn’t need that in my head in vivid smell and space-time color. What the heck rating did that have? You were in it, so I know you got to know.”

“Citizen only, with verified mental stability of three or above.”  Tamatha sighed. “I am not going to win that argument, and neither are you. Not with your father. Now, let me see.”

Caught with her hand on the door, nearly fully recovered from time lost at the closet, Vixen shoulders slumped and she turned.

(words 488; first published 11/3/2019)

Blog: National Novel Writing Month

Erin Penn

Shark Angry GIF from Shark GIFs

 

***Guess what I am going to try again this year.***

To the tune of Baby Shark
November, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Na – No
November, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
November, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
November!

Choose a Theme, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Choose a Theme, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Choose a Theme, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Choose a Theme!

P-O-V, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
P-O-V, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
P-O-V, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
P-O-V!

Write some words, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Write some words, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Write some words, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Write some words!

Plot some more, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Plot some more, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Plot some more, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Plot some more!

Find Buddies, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Find Buddies, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Find Buddies, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Find Buddies!

Word Sprint Time, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Word Sprint Time, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Word Sprint Time, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Word Sprint Time!

Lots of words, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Lots of words, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Lots of words, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Fifty thousand words!

Type the End, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Type the End, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Type the End, Na – No – Write – Na – No – Write
Type the End!