P.B. Cannon's Blog, page 13
March 8, 2015
Pedaling Hard – a drabble inspired by a true story
This drabble was inspired by a true story. ��The names have been changed to protect the somewhat innocent.
Pedaling Hard
���What are you doing, Sophie?���
���Gotta get this done but they keep popping off every time I try!��� She sounded quite aggravated.
���Hmm��� lemme see,��� mused Dan, studying the problem. ���Oh, lines not long enough.�� Well, I can help you out.���
He straddled a chair in front of her, stuck one foot out and commenced to pedal the treadle. ���Hold on tight and lean forward!��� he said loudly over the ensuing whooshing noise.
She nodded and pushed the suction cups down firmly while he pedaled.
The pump thumped, filling the bag, and together, they managed to get her properly milked.
END
March 6, 2015
Slideshow for “Turner: World Change” (coming soon)
Coming in late spring of 2015 – Book 2 of the Spaceships and Magic series
March 4, 2015
Coming soon – “Turner: World Change” Book 2 of the Spaceships and Magic series
Coming in late��Spring of 2015!
Juri Turner, the human-born��dragon, has to discover how��to save one world from��impending doom and ensure��help for another – all while trying��to escape death and an��unwanted��marriage!
Pray for Mur, pray for Earth, but most of all, pray for Juri!
March 2, 2015
Read an EBook Week – My ebooks FREE with coupon RW100 March 1 – 7
It’s that time of year again – yes, it’s READ AN EBOOK WEEK! All my ebooks (including the latest, “Turner: Bitter Change”, Book 1 of the Spaceships and Magic series) are free at Smashwords until March 7, 2015! Science Fiction, Fantasy, Scifantasy (and one that’s none of the above!) Novels, Novellas, Novelettes, & short stories. Get them all for FREE with this coupon: RW100 (click here or on the above image)
Download and enjoy!
Read an EBook Week ��� My ebooks FREE with coupon RW100 March 1 ��� 7
It���s that time of year again����� yes, it���s READ AN EBOOK WEEK! ��All my ebooks are free at Smashwords until March 7, 2015! Science Fiction, Fantasy, Scifantasy (and one that���s none of the above!) Novels, Novellas, Novelettes, & short stories. Get��them all for FREE with this coupon: RW100 (click here or on the above image)
Download and enjoy!
February 28, 2015
The Experiment – a short, mythological story
The Experiment
The colossal entity watched as the small beings struggled to finish their tower.
���They work diligently,��� remarked his companion who was observing the ongoing construction with him.�� ���Will they be allowed to complete it?���
���No,��� was the reply.�� ���I have been ordered to stop them.�� They seek to challenge us; they even think that by remaining there together, they can successfully war against us.�� But, they must disperse out into the world as commanded.�� If permitted to finish this building, that will not occur.�� They will stagnate at this level.���
���Perhaps if you were to demonstrate to them that they cannot win at such an action, and tell them they must scatter in order to grow–���
He shook one of his middle heads while turning the far left one to consider his companion.�� ���Demonstrations do not convince them for long, and they have been told; however, they have no understanding of the meaning of a stagnant society, and see no merit in separating.���
His companion contemplated this is silence for a moment, the three eyes in her farthest head on her right blinking at him thoughtfully, then she shrugged her many shoulders, her rows of iridescent wings shifting slightly, and said, ���I suppose you are right.�� Still, they are resourceful, and, occasionally one will listen.����� She chuckled with five of her throats.�� ���I thought surely they would all be washed away when our project head became angry and decided to terminate our handiwork.�� I am glad he relented and allowed the building of the ark.�� At least some survived.���
���Yes, it is also good that they are prolific, otherwise they would be too few to be viable.�� But now, they must disband into separate groups for diversification, or this will still fail, and they will never become that for which we are striving.���
He surveyed the little bipeds scurrying up and down the path that spiraled up the side of the brick-built tower, urging their work animals on.�� They were nearly finished.
He sighed with regret as he activated the neuron scrambler that would disrupt the language center in their brains, causing their one language to become many.�� He would not have minded seeing the tower completed.�� Though crude, it was quite an interesting artifact.
He was impressed that these creatures they had fashioned from microscopic organisms and cultivated over such a short span of time, had already been able to do this.�� But, the tower had to go. ��This action was imperative in order to enable them to advance and reach a certain level.
He switched on the teleporter and began shifting the tiny individuals to different areas of the small blue globe.
Then, he and his companion watched with satisfaction as the miniscule beings, who believed them to be gods, oriented themselves and began to band together in small groups.
The project head would be pleased.�� The experiment to prove this a good method of bringing their necessary food to a nutritious fruition was back on track.
END
February 6, 2015
Intervention – a Valentine drabble
���I don���t know.��� ��He shook his head, dubiously.�� ���Are you sure we shouldn���t stay out of this?���
���It needs to stop,��� she replied.
They watched the couple as they snarled and screamed, angrily going at each other with everything they could get their hands on.
���Ooo���that was nasty! Hurry!���
He nodded and loosed his arrows at the two, striking both.
The angel dropped her lightning and the demon dropped his fireballs as they ran and clasped each other in a tight embrace, cooing sweet words of eternal love.
���See, Cupid? Told you it would work!��� exclaimed Venus.�� ���Love always does.���
End
February 2, 2015
February 1, 2015
Tatters – a drabble
I mourn as I try to hold the ragged fragments in my hands.�� They bleed through my fingers, falling softly and settling into a small, sad heap.
My heart is heavy as I make careful attempts at rescue.�� It is of no use.�� Try as I might, I cannot make it whole again; my feeble efforts only cause further damage.
I voice my anguish to an empty room.�� It was a great idea for a story, written on a napkin.�� Why didn���t I empty the pockets of my jeans before I threw them in the wash?�� Now it���s forever gone.
End
January 23, 2015
Don’t Wait, Write When You Can
Recently, I was asked by a young woman why I waited so long to begin writing, to which I replied, I didn���t wait.
I���ve always written.�� When I was a small child, I wrote little stories – mostly based on fairy tales I���d read – and poems. ��When I was a teen, I wrote, usually as an assignment from my English teacher, but sometimes because I just wanted to.�� Also, as a lot of teens did (perhaps still do), I kept a diary from time to time.
Then, I fell in love and began marriage and motherhood when I was eighteen. ��Not a good choice on my part, but, at the time, nobody could tell me it wasn���t.�� Ten years and three children later, I was divorced.
In between taking care of my kids, my household, and sometimes working two jobs but always at least one, and all the overtime I could get (not to mention going to school at the community college!), there wasn���t much time for writing though I would often get ideas for a story and scribble them down on whatever was handy.�� Then I���d put them in a drawer and somehow, over the years, I never got time to finish any.
Then, six years ago, I retired (yayyy!) and three years ago I found one of the few stories on which I���d actually managed to get several thousand words written.�� I had transcribed it into Word, and saved and moved it every time I got a new computer.
Gone were the days I ran from one job to another, or stayed late at my fulltime one and dragged home so tired I���d fall asleep in the shower, or try to read a book only to wake up with it on my face (though I still managed to get in some reading��– couldn’t have made it without that!).
As I read over that unfinished story, it occurred to me that I now had time to write, and a strange thing began to happen. ��It started to seem as if the characters were speaking to me, telling me the story, urging me to write it down.�� So, I did, and before I knew it, I found I���d written the first book in my Boucher���s World series, which now consists of a trilogy, a full-length, stand-alone novel, two novellas, two novelettes, and a short story.
I had written enough material for several stories in that particular universe, and even now, those characters call out to me, though I now have another series (the Juri Turner Spaceships and Magic series )��for which I���ve published book one and am halfway through book two, pulling at me for my attention.�� I���ve written other stories (the Cady and Sam werewolf stories) with more to come.
I did wait to publish but that was mainly because I wasn���t writing to publish.�� I was writing because I couldn���t not write (yeah, I know that ain���t grammatically correct as auto-correct just pointed out to me, but it���s true, so shut up, auto-correct!), but after a while I did sort of want someone other than family and friends to read my stories so as soon as I discovered I could publish as an independent author, and for practically nothing, I did (I���m now into that fixed-income thing, sooo���practically nothing, or free, is good).
The point is, and I repeat: I did not wait to write.�� I guess you could say I kind of dodged between the raindrops and skated around potholes and wrote when I could.
If you want to write, if you have to write, then do it.�� Any way you can.
And I hope to write until I���m dead.�� And even afterward if I can swing it.
