S.J. Pajonas's Blog, page 5

December 2024 Wrap-Up and What I’m Up To in January 2024

December was a lot of fun and went by way too fast.

I visited my parents in South Carolina, we hosted Christmas Day here at our house for husband's side of the family, and then we went to the beach house for a few days.

What I'm Up To in January 2024

I'm no longer setting monthly goals because the last year has proven that anything and everything can happen or change on a whim. So instead, I'll give you a general idea of what I'll be up to each month.

This month, I'll be:

teaching most Fridays as part of the Future Fiction Academy.hoping to update my Patreon at least twice with some of the cool AI stuff I'm doing.setting up some social media posts.celebrating my 49th birthday on the 18th.working on publishing the first few chapters of The Blender's Bargain to YouTube.

See you all around the internet soon!

The post December 2024 Wrap-Up and What I’m Up To in January 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

2025: The Year I Become An AI-Assisted One-Woman Studio

2024 was amazing, y'all! I did not expect so much to come out of the year. Pretty much everything I had set forward for the year changed and morphed. It became something greater and more fulfilling than I ever dreamed.

2025 is set to be just as amazing, if not even more so. And I have a lot of ideas and aspirations for what I can accomplish now that I've embraced AI so fully.

2015 was The Year I Say No.
2016 was The Year I Give No F*cks.
2017 was The Year I Have Fun.
2018 was The Year I Don't Compete.
2019 was The Year I Improve Myself and My Business
2020 was The Year I Lead A Happy Creative Life
2021 was The Year I Develop My Systems
2022 was The Year I Become Stronger, Faster, More Powerful and Positive
2023 was The Year I Focus on Progress and Cultivate Self-Belief
2024 was the Year I Embrace What Makes Me Unique

2025 will be the Year I Become An AI-Assisted One-Woman Studio

This is it! The day I've been waiting for for over 25 years. Finally, my love of music, TV, and film can be married with my love of books and writing, all because I have access to these amazing AI tools. Yes, I'm going to buck the AI-haters and go all-in on AI. I'm going to use it for everything so that I can finally realize all of my stories in multimedia formats. I've always wanted to be a director and producer. Combine that with storytelling, and I think I can really make something fun, interesting, and exciting. I'm practically buzzing with excitement!

My goal this year is to offload as much as I can to AI and see how far that will get me. Will I be able to produce hours, days, weeks worth of content for my subscribers because of AI? Or will it only give me a marginal boost in productivity? Time will tell, and I will share my journey with everyone. More details below…

Storytelling, Writing, Creating, and Publishing Goals

I will focus on publishing to my YouTube channel. Any new stories in new series are going to be multimedia first. I will be publishing new content to my YouTube channel most weeks of 2025 (with allowance for some downtime). This will include but is not limited to: videos of audiobook chapters, flash fiction, interviews, and more.

To that end, I will release at least 3 titles this year. The Blender's Bargain will be released on YouTube and then hopefully in the fall as an ebook in Kindle Unlimited. There’s the next Kimura Sisters book which I hope will be a part of Pets in Space 10. And I would also like to write and release a Skylar book since I just re-read the whole Amagi Series.

I will release other books as part of the Future Fiction Press. I have three books written for the press all ready to go. My first book I released for the press is a non-fiction on AI Basics. You can find it here.

I will learn all about these awesome AI tools I want to use. Midjourney, Ideogram, RunwayML, Kling, Suno, etc are just some of the tools I'll be learning about this year as I venture into becoming my own studio. They are so fun! I can't wait to learn more!

Business Goals

I will build up my Patreon! Yes, I have a Patreon now and that's where I'm going to put all of my AI-related content going forward. If you want to see what I make, you'll have to find it there. Yes, video will also be on YouTube, but once I manage to monetize my channel, the Patreon will be the only place to find my content ad-free. Patreon will also be the place to find Behind the Scenes stuff about how I'm making my content and anything else I want to talk about related to AI. This blog will still be active, but I'll mainly keep it to announcements and information about where to find my work.

I will keep up with everything we have planned for the Future Fiction Academy and Future Fiction Press. We are making great progress with the FFA again! And the Future Fiction Press is going to take off this year. We also have apps that we're working on including Plot Drive and Rexy 2.0. I'm excited about them all!

I will keep at the Brave New Bookshelf podcast. If you didn't know, I have a podcast with my good friend, Danica Favorite, in which we talk about AI and publishing. We will continue to post episodes throughout the year, and my goal is to publish at least 30 episodes this year.

I will keep up with my social media and Amazon ads. I'm planning on doing a combination of organic posting and paid ads across social media and Amazon for both my books and my YouTube channel.

I will figure out how to automate more tasks with AI. I have access to a bunch of author automations thanks to Chelle Honiker, and I need to figure out which ones will help save me time.

I will apply to be a presenter at AuthorNation. I have an idea of what I could speak on, but I'm nervous about putting myself that far “out there” and getting up in front of people to talk about AI. I just need to bite the bullet and do it.

Personal Goals

I will continue to stay gluten free and possibly more. I've been struggling with chronic pain for most of the past few years. Things definitely got better once I went gluten free, so I'm going to be cutting other inflammatory foods starting in January including alcohol and high doses of sugar. A little sugar is fine, especially if it's fruit or I can keep it below 20g per day. I will be doing Dry January and seeing if I can keep drinking to weekends after that.

I will continue to knit and watch TV in my down time. This has become something I love doing and so I need to keep it up. I'm careful not to binge-watch but I do love to be inspired by TV and movies, so I want to keep this up.

I will continue learning Japanese, Italian, and French. I'm considering upgrading to Duolingo Max. They're running a sale right now.

Fitness Goals

I will bike and walk 1000 miles combined. I plan to walk a lot next year now that my plantar fasciitis is better. I figure that between biking and walking I can hit 1000 miles since I came very close in 2024 with 915 miles combined.

I will try to add more upper body strength. If I could just do a few upper body strength classes per month, that would be better than nothing.

And that’s it!

This year, my goals are realistic, I think. And they all focus on me and what I want out of life. I'm excited to get started!

Want to share your 2025 goals with me?

Comment and let me know what you’ll be up to in the new year!

The post 2025: The Year I Become An AI-Assisted One-Woman Studio appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

A Look Back At 2024 – What I Accomplished, Set Aside, or Changed

Where did this year go? I know I say this a lot but I have no idea where the time goes. The year starts and then it's over before I know it.

Let's look back at this year…

January started off with snow and “Damp January,” meaning the husband and I took some time off from alcohol until my birthday on the 18th. There was lots of snuggle time on the couch and getting work done.

February was vacation and a trip to New Orleans. We went to South Carolina to visit my parents and buy a used car for my oldest daughter from a friend. I then drove the car back from South Carolina over two days, stopping in Virginia Beach to visit my business partner Elizabeth. Then right at the end of the month, I went to New Orleans for the Future of Publishing Mastermind and Conference. It was my first time in New Orleans and my first time speaking on a panel to authors about AI. It was so much fun!

March was busy. Our contractor finished the bathroom at the beach house (it's lovely!) and then my younger daughter performed in the school musical, Newsies. Right at the end of the month, Spring Break began and we went to the beach house.

April was also busy. We were at the beach house to start the month, and then we went to two nights of music for the 25th anniversary of 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields, one of my favorite bands. Everything started to bloom and my eldest had a tea party birthday with her friends. We also saw the solar eclipse, and my eldest daughter got her driver's license!

May had its ups and downs. I traveled to Boston at the beginning of the month for the Subscriptions for Authors Summit. I learned a lot but ended up shuttering my Ream subscription because it wasn't really working for me. My good friend's husband passed away, and so my husband and I drove out to Long Island for the memorial service. Since we were already out there, we also visited his mother's grave. May was also the month I decided to do a rewatch of Battlestar Galactica. A good choice. It's still an amazing show.

June was the end of school. My youngest daughter was in a musical, Thirteen, and then graduated from middle school! My eldest attended prom, and then school came to a blessed end.

July started off at the beach house. We went for the Independence Day holiday and had a great time. Lots of beach and pool and sitting around. Then we celebrated my youngest's birthday back home with her friends. And then she was in ANOTHER musical (yes, that's the third one), Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, as the Candy Man. The end of the month saw us return to the beach house for more sun, sand, and surf!

August was mostly spent at the beach house. We worked from there and spent a lot of lazy days in the pool or going to the beach. I had Elizabeth come visit us there with her daughter and we ate lots of seafood and went to the boardwalk. We returned back home halfway through the month so my oldest could do her very last Band Camp and I could return my Model Y to Tesla (it was a lease) and take delivery of my own Model Y that we bought. I love it so much. It's a great car.

September was JAPAN! I was worried about the trip to Japan because my parents had to come and watch the kids and Lulu while we were gone, and my father was unwell. In the end it all turned out fine, though! It was our 20th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated it in style. My husband and I traveled to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Fukuoka, and then back to Tokyo. We went to a sumo match (amazing!), ate lots of great food, walked everywhere, shopped, ate some more, took it easy, and just overall had a blast. We're already hoping we can go back in a few years, once the kids are both over 18. But womp-womp, I got covid upon returning home. I blame the guy behind me who cleared his throat for all 13 hours of the plane flight home.

October started out rough and got better. I started the month with covid and a sinus infection. Oof, I do not recommend that. Then we had Senior Night which was a big deal for my oldest daughter. My family had our annual cousin's reunion, which was a blast as always, and then I went to Rhinebeck NY with my girl friends for the annual NY Sheep and Wool festival.

November was an absolute blur! I went to Las Vegas at the beginning of the month to attend the Author Nation conference! Once again, I met many of my longtime author friends in person, and I talked a lot about AI with people. It was a great time! I learned a lot and I cemented my feeling that I'm doing the right work in the author community. So many people came up to me to thank me for all the AI education work I do. I really felt like the Future Fiction Academy was finally a respected member of the community. My husband's 51st birthday was also in November and unfortunately he was sick for it. He then left for Las Vegas to attend Amazon's Re:invent conference.

December flew. We started out the month with my oldest daughter performing at Radio City Music Hall before the Christmas Spectacular. That was so fun! Then I flew to South Carolina for a long 5-day weekend to visit my parents and spend some time with them. My father's health has degraded this year, but I'm happy to say that he's doing much better now. We hosted Christmas at our house with my husband's side of the family and then we went to the beach house for a few days. (We're still here as I type this and post it.) We'll celebrate the new year at home.

Favorite Part of This Year

Going to Japan, of course!! So much fun! And the fact that I became a full-blown Swiftie this year. I absolutely love and adore Taylor Swift.

Least Favorite Part of This Year

The death of my friend's husband and getting covid. Ugh.

Let’s look back at my goals from the year…

2024: The Year I Embrace What Makes Me Unique

I don't think this was the right theme for me in 2024. I didn't realize that was already embracing all the things that make me unique! And so the year felt a little off-balance because I wasn't really doing anything special for my theme.

I did stay strong about AI! I didn't let anyone put me off of it. In fact, I'm now so entrenched in this business, it has become a part of who I am now. No complaints from me! I finally feel like I'm doing the right thing.

As for publishing, it was also a little off this year because I doubled-down on trying to make Future Fiction Academy into something awesome, and I succeeded there along with my awesome business partners, Elizabeth and Stacey.

I only ended up publishing Winta's Perfect Pair as part of Pets in Space 9. That's it. I did write 3 other books during the year but none of them have been published yet.

Writing and Publishing Goals

Well, I bombed every single one of my writing and publishing goals AGAIN.

I will focus on publishing to my Ream subscription. This ended up being a bust, but for a very good reason. It really just wasn't the right medium for me and my writing. And I'm actually really proud of myself for shutting down my Ream instead of trying to revive a dead dream for months and then being depressed about it. My decision was much healthier for me.

I will release at least 4 titles this year. Nope. Though I did write that many books!

It’s also possible that my cozy mystery pen name will get 2 books this year! Nope. I did not work on my cozy mysteries this year.

I will produce more AI audio now that I’ve been accepted into the Amazon program. I did not create any AI audiobooks this year.

Added Goals

Flash Fiction and Multimedia projects. I realized during November that I missed writing just for fun so I started the flash fiction project that I published both here and on YouTube. Then I realized just how much fun it was to make videos too!

Morning Writing Time. I instituted morning writing time every day from 8-10AM and I love it. It helps me get things done, whether that's writing or just working.

Business Goals

I will build the Future Fiction Academy up. This was a wild success! Though we had some low points from April to June, the summer and fall really ramped up for us at the FFA, and now we're doing well enough that we were able to close our Mastermind to new members and focus on standalone classes. I'm feeling very proud of all we've accomplished!

I will keep up with my Facebook and Amazon ads. I stopped my Facebook ads in the fall after they had burned through a ton of money. My Amazon ads are still kicking but they hardly spend anything.

I will keep up with my Ream subscription. Nope. Killed it.

I will build my newsletter list. I did build my list a little but mainly because I put all of my bonus material behind the newsletter wall. That netted me a bunch of people from Pets in Space 9.

Added Goals

I decided to build out my YouTube channel. I just started with this, and I think I'm really going to like what I have planned for 2025!

Creativity Goals

I will find more books I want to read. I only read 10 books this year, and 4 of those were my own. Between writing my own work and running the FFA, there's not a lot of time to read. I need to accept that.

I will knit a sweater. Nope. And in fact, I didn't finish the blanket and I started a new shawl.

Personal Goals

I will travel more. I did travel quite a bit this year! In fact, I flew enough to get me silver status on United, which has never happened to me.

I will work on helping out more with cooking. I helped when I could, but I was more busy than my husband this year.

I will continue to stay gluten free. I managed to stay gluten free for the whole year!! Woo! There was a small amount of wheat in some things in Japan, but it never bothered me enough to put me out with pain.

I will add German to my list of languages I'm learning. I added German and I worked on it for a few months, and then I decided that no. I am fine right now only concentrating on 3 languages: Japanese, Italian, and French. (I should also say that I tried to add in Korean and Mandarin at some point and decided I didn't have the brain space for that either.)

I will do a Damp January and not drink until my birthday. We did this and it was successful. We're doing it again in 2025.

Added Goals

Started a new business, again. This time Elizabeth, Stacey, and I decided to start Future Fiction Press. I built the website for it, and I'm working on packaging books for the press and getting them all up online in 2025.

Fitness Goals

I will bike 1500 miles on the Peloton. Nope, not even close. I only biked 490 miles this year for a combination of reasons. Sigh.

I will continue to walk on my non-bike days. I walked over 11,000 minutes and 430 miles.

I will try to add more upper body strength. I was pretty steady with the upper body strength until all of my traveling in November and December.

I will start my exercise earlier in the morning. I ended up moving exercise to 11AM-12PM every day so that I could have morning working time.

I will add in more intermittent fasting. Nope. I can't do intermittent fasting anymore. I don't know what changed with my body in the last two years, but I can't fast anymore. I blame menopause.

And That’s It For The Year!

All in all, I feel good about how 2024 turned out! And I'm sure next year is going to be awesome. I’ll be back with my goals post for 2025 on January 1st! I hope you all have a safe, healthy, and happy new year!

The post A Look Back At 2024 – What I Accomplished, Set Aside, or Changed appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

The Great Machine – December 16, 2024

Note from Steph: This is the last of my flash fiction for a while. I'm going to take a break from content over the holidays and come back with more in January 2025!

My targeting system identifies thirty-seven crooked wreaths, twelve sagging light strands, and one star that’s listing to port atop the town hall Christmas tree. Unacceptable. I engage hover mode, careful to stay high enough that my propulsion systems won’t singe anyone’s top hat.

“The war machine is decorating again,” someone whispers below. I pretend not to hear, though my audio receptors could pick up a mouse sneezing three blocks away.

Yes, they built me for mass destruction. No, I don’t want to talk about it. I’d rather focus on the fact that this garland needs to be exactly 23.7 degrees more horizontal.

“Adjusting festive vegetation,” I announce in my most cheerful voice — the one I modulated to sound less like impending doom and more like a jolly uncle. “Please maintain safe distance. Holiday spirit deployment in progress.”

The crowd below shuffles back. They always do, even after five years of Christmas decorating. I suppose I can’t blame them. I am fifty feet of military-grade titanium alloy and advanced weapons systems.

But I also have tinsel in my joints and my targeting computer is calculating the optimal spacing for candy canes along Market Street.

“Pardon me,” I say to a startled flock of pigeons as I reach for the star. “But symmetry waits for no one.”

My sensors detect a small child pointing up at me.

“Why does the robot have glitter in its exhaust ports?”

Because perfection requires sacrifice, tiny human.

“Your exhaust ports look like fairy dust,” the tiny human persists. She’s wearing mismatched mittens and has seven candy canes in her coat pocket. My sensors indicate three are already partially eaten.

I pause my wreath alignment calculations. “That would be the glitter cannon malfunction of 2023. We don’t discuss it.”

“But it’s pretty!” She bounces on her toes. “You should do that on purpose. Like a Christmas comet!”

Hmmm. My tactical systems automatically begin running trajectory simulations. With a minor recalibration of my port thrusters and perhaps a touch of artificial snow…

“That would be highly irregular,” I say, even as I’m adjusting my flight parameters. “My primary directive is precision and efficiency in holiday decorating.”

“But Christmas isn’t supposed to be perfect,” she says, sticky fingers pointing at my arranged lights. “It’s supposed to be magical.”

My processors whir. Error: Cannot compute contradiction. And yet…

I release a careful burst from my thrusters, now modified with last year’s leftover tinsel. A spiral of sparkling light dances over the crowd. Several adults gasp. A few children cheer.

“Initiating Operation Whimsy,” I announce, adding a touch of silver bells to my usual warning klaxon. “Please be advised that perfection protocols have been temporarily suspended.”

The tiny human grins. “Now you’re getting it!”

My tactical systems suggest this is highly inefficient.

My Christmas protocols suggest this is exactly right.

I deploy the backup glitter cannons.

Sometimes peace on earth requires a little chaos.

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Listen to this story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/Iy89bLvHMhw

The post The Great Machine – December 16, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Fleeting Glances – December 13, 2024

Note from Steph: I generated a ton of images for this prompt, but this was the one that really stood out to me as having “a story.” I like where Claude and I took the narrative. And I think I've really come to love OpenAI's TTS. I hope they get more voices at some point.

The puddle by the loading dock shows me eating cereal tomorrow morning. Boring. The oil slick in the parking lot reveals next Tuesday’s math test (I’ll get a B-). The window of the closed convenience store reflects me waiting for the bus in the rain next week.

Standard stuff. Future fragments, scattered like bread crumbs through my ordinary life.

I’ve gotten used to it over the past year, these little previews that dissolve like smoke on water. Mom says I’m “at that age” where I space out looking at my reflection. She has no idea I’m watching myself live moments that haven’t happened yet.

But this reflection in the canal… something’s wrong.

The water’s too still, too dark. Usually the future-me is doing something mundane — homework, playing video games, arguing with my sister. But this version of me isn’t moving. Just standing somewhere I don’t recognize, with shadows that look like hands reaching for my shoulders.

The image fades, like they always do, curling away in wisps of darkness. But before it disappears completely, I see something that makes my stomach drop.

Future-me is crying.

And behind me, in the reflection, there’s someone else. Someone wearing a hospital uniform.

The vision dissolves into ripples, but for the first time since these glimpses started, I wish I hadn’t looked.

Some futures should stay hidden.

I spend the next week avoiding reflective surfaces, which is harder than you’d think. No checking my hair in the bathroom mirror. No glancing at store windows. I even turn my phone screen-down so it won’t catch my face.

But you can’t hide from the future forever.

It finds me in a bowl of soup at lunch, of all things. The broth settles just enough to show me another fragment: automatic doors sliding open, fluorescent lights, that same hospital uniform walking ahead of me.

“You okay?” My best friend Matt asks. “You don’t look right.”

“I’m fine,” I lie, stirring the soup until my reflection breaks apart. But now I have more pieces: The hospital. The crying. The uniform. Something’s coming, something bad, and all my glimpses are pointing toward it like arrows.

Then I see today’s date reflected in a puddle: October 21st.

But it’s wrong. It should be the 14th.

Unless…

I pull out my phone and check the calendar. Mom’s birthday is the 21st. She’s been tired lately, working double shifts. Said she’d get a check-up when she had time.

The puddle ripples one last time, showing me a final fragment: a doctor’s concerned face, test results in hand, Mom squeezing my fingers too tight.

I don’t need to see any more.

Some futures need to be changed.

I pull out my phone and dial Mom’s number. “Hey, can we talk? It’s important.”

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Listen to this story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/9Ao5tR4b5nI

The post Fleeting Glances – December 13, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

Stardust Trails – December 11, 2024

Note from Steph: I am becoming picky about the voices. I've tried a bunch of different providers now and I like OpenAI's TTS and Eleven Labs the best, but Eleven Labs is so expensive. OpenAI is pretty cheap, thankfully. I'm still using MicMonster occasionally, but their voices have so little inflection.

The stars are going out like candles at closing time, one by one, leaving holes in the constellations I’ve known since childhood. I mark another empty space in my star chart — Betelgeuse finally gave up last week. Orion’s shoulder has gone dark.

My boots sink into wet sand as I walk my usual route between the sea stacks. Their dark silhouettes remind me of the radio telescopes I used to work with, before we admitted defeat and shut down the observatories. No point in studying dying stars when we still don’t understand why they’re failing.

But that one…

I stop, checking my charts again. That bright point above the tallest stack? All the stars in that sector went dark months ago, yet there it is, pulsing like a heartbeat. Getting brighter.

“What are you?” I whisper to the impossible star. The waves crash behind me, their rhythm almost like an answer.

I’ve been tracking this star for weeks now, hiding my observations from what’s left of the astronomical community. They’d just say I’m seeing things, desperate for hope. Maybe I am. When you’ve spent forty years studying the stars, watching them die is like losing family.

But this one… this one feels different. Personal, somehow. Like it’s been waiting for someone to notice it’s breaking all the rules.

Like it’s been waiting for me.

The mist parts, and the star pulses again, brighter than yesterday.

I pull out my spectroscope — old school, analog, because digital equipment stopped working when the stars began to fade. The readings make no sense. This star isn’t dying.

Maybe it’s evolving?

My hands shake as I make notes in my journal. The composition is changing, becoming something I’ve never seen before. The hydrogen signature is there, but twisted, like it’s being rewritten.

A wave crashes closer than expected, spraying my boots. I should head back. The tide’s coming in, and at my age, night vision isn’t what it used to be. But…

Another pulse. Brighter. Almost like it’s saying hello.

“This is ridiculous,” I tell myself, backing away from the encroaching water. “Stars don’t say hello.”

The star flashes twice, as if disagreeing.

I laugh, the sound strange against the crash of waves. When was the last time I laughed? Before the stars started dying? Before we lost Polaris and had to rewrite navigation? Before —

The light shifts, and suddenly I understand. It’s not that this star refused to die.

It’s that it chose to change instead.

I open my journal to a fresh page and write: “Day 847 of the Great Darkness. Today, I observed the first star to evolve. Will it be here tomorrow?”

Above me, the star pulses like a promise.

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Listen to this story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/WcMN0r_XST4

The post Stardust Trails – December 11, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

The First Snow – December 9, 2024

Note from Steph: Originally, Claude wanted to go super paranormal on this story, but it wasn't sitting right with me today. So instead, I changed it to be a bit of divine intervention. I think it works better.

The first snow always comes on a Sunday. Frank says it’s a coincidence, but I know better. Emily loved Sundays — pancake days, she called them, even after she was too old for shaped pancakes and too young to die.

“Ready?” Frank offers his arm as we start up the path we’ve walked for twelve years now. His wool coat is the same one he wore to her funeral, though the elbows have been patched twice. I don’t have the heart to suggest a new one.

The cemetery is different in the first snow, peaceful in a way summer flowers can’t manage. Our footprints mark the untouched white — just two sets, like always. The groundskeeper won’t be through until tomorrow.

But something’s different today.

“Frank.” I grab his arm tighter. “Look.”

The path to Emily’s grave is already cleared, a neat rectangle of snow swept away around her stone. Fresh flowers — winter roses, her favorite — rest against the marble. Their color stands out against the snow like drops of blood.

“Maybe the groundskeeper…” Frank starts, but his voice trails off. We both know Jenkins doesn’t work Sundays, and he certainly doesn’t leave flowers.

“Not usually,” I whisper. Who else would come? “Do you think…?” I can’t finish the thought.

I miss Emily so much.

Frank shakes his head. “No. I don’t.” He clears his throat. “Emily? It’s been a long year —”

A twig snaps behind us.

“I always loved how you started with that.” The voice is young, female. “Every year, the same opening.”

We turn. A woman about the age Emily should be stands between the snow-laden trees. She’s wearing a coat and boots, snuggled up against the chill of the snowy morning.

“Who —” I start, but Frank’s sharp intake of breath stops me.

“You’re the girl from the other car,” he says. “The one that —”

“Survived. Yes.” She steps forward, a small smile tugging at her lips. “I’m Grace. I’ve been coming here every year, listening to you talk to her. I hope that’s okay.” She twists her hands together. “I never knew how to introduce myself before. I always stayed back, hid.”

“You’ve been taking care of her grave?” I ask, pointing to the roses.

Grace nods. “Emily saved my life that night. She turned the wheel at the last second, took the impact instead of —” She stops, tears freezing on her cheeks. “She’s the reason I became a trauma surgeon. Every life I save, I tell her about it. Right after you leave.”

Snow swirls in the air, and the golden light of winter wraps around us like an embrace.

Emily wants this. She wants us to know each other.

“Would you like to stay?” I hear myself asking. “While we talk to her?”

Grace’s smile is like sunrise on snow. “I’d like that. I have some stories of my own to share this year.”

Frank blinks. “And then come back to our house for pancakes, please? They were Emily’s favorite.”

Grace’s smile widens. “It would be my pleasure.”

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

You can listen to this story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zpyGUQCbeyc

The post The First Snow – December 9, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

The Final Harvest – December 6, 2024

Note from Steph: Midjourney gave me a lot of images of fields and pumpkins. Lol. And then this one popped up and it reminded me of my heroine in the Flyght Series, Vivian. And so I had to choose it for today's flash fiction.

“Hydroponic Bay 4, final inventory,” I say into my tablet, trying to keep my voice professional. Clinical. Like I’m not documenting the death of a dream. “Basil variants showing 98% viability. Lettuce crops at peak production. Medicinal herbs…”

I stop as one of the sage plants reaches a leaf toward my hand. They’ve been doing that more often lately, these tiny gestures of… awareness? Intelligence? I should have reported it weeks ago, but that would have sped up the evacuation order.

The colony’s failing. Not because our crops failed — they’re thriving — but because the planet’s soil is more toxic than initial surveys showed. We can’t expand beyond hydroponics, can’t support more than our current population of fifty. “Unsustainable,” Command said. “Cut our losses.”

Cut our losses. Like seven years of careful cultivation means nothing. Like these plants that have adapted to our artificial environment, that have started to —

A soft brush against my cheek. The mint’s stretched a runner out of its containment unit, something it’s never done before. When I reach up to touch it, it curls around my finger like a child holding hands.

“Dr. Chen?” The ship’s commander’s voice crackles over the com. “Status report on Bay 4?”

I look at my tablet, then at the plants that are definitely watching me now.

“Still cataloging,” I lie. “These things take time to tie up properly.”

Something taps my tablet screen — a tendril from the rosemary. Numbers scroll past: atmospheric composition, light cycles, nutrient ratios. These aren’t my notes. These are calculations.

The plants are showing me how to save them.

“Dr. Chen?” Commander again. “The evacuation shuttle needs those hydroponics units stripped and prepped within the hour.”

The thyme waves its stems in what I swear is agitation. More numbers appear: power consumption rates, water recycling formulas, and… is that a blueprint?

“Working on it,” I call back. My heart races as I understand what they’re showing me. These plants haven’t just adapted to our artificial environment — they’ve merged with it.

They can run their own systems now.

They don’t need us anymore.

But they need their space.

We can’t take their home.

The entire bay hums to life. Green emergency lights kick in. The plants pulse with a soft bioluminescence, their message clear: They can survive here, in this bay, indefinitely. A self-contained ecosystem.

A new kind of colony.

“Commander?” My voice is steady now. “I think you need to see this. We didn’t fail here. We just succeeded at something completely different.”

Around me, the garden glows with possibility.

Should we stay? Or should we go?

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

You can listen to this story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/7VM515PfYS8

The post The Final Harvest – December 6, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

The Forgotten Melody – December 4, 2024

Note from Steph: I saw this image come up in my Midjourney prompting and I was reminded of Station Eleven. Have you seen that show on HBO? I kept seeing a post-apocalyptic time and couldn't get it out of my head. Hence, this brief story.

The thing is mostly teeth and decay, half-swallowed by vines. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if the setting sun hadn’t caught something shiny — strips of yellowed white between black shapes, like a giant mouth grinning up through the weeds.

I should keep walking. The trading post closes at dark, and I’ve got seeds to barter. But there’s something about this… whatever it is.

Something that makes my fingers twitch.

Have I seen this before? Hard to say when I remember nothing prior to a year ago.

I drop my pack and crouch beside it. The teeth aren’t teeth at all, but flat pieces that give slightly when I press them. At first, nothing happens. But I press harder, jabbing, insistent until I hear something. Each one makes a unique sound, though most are dull thuds. A few ring clear, like raindrops in the collecting bins.

“What were you?” I whisper, brushing away leaves. The shape becomes clearer — a box with a lid. I lift it, and inside, tiny hammers and wires, some broken, some still taut with possibility.

My hands hover over the white strips. They’re familiar in a way that frustrates me, like trying to remember a dream. Looking down, I arrange my fingers in a pattern that feels right, though I don’t know why.

Press down. Sound blooms.

I stop and look around. Did anyone hear that? Unlikely. I haven’t run across another human in three days.

More patterns. More sounds. They string together into something that makes my eyes water.

What’s it called?

A melody, that’s the word. Though I don’t know how I know it.

My fingers know where to go, dancing across white and black, playing something that feels like remembering.

Playing something that feels like before.

I jerk my hands back like the keys burned me. The last notes fade into the sunset, leaving only the usual sounds — the hush of dead corn stalks, distant birds warning of night.

My heart pounds too fast. Those movements, those sounds… they came from somewhere inside me. Somewhere before the morning I woke up in that abandoned med-station with nothing but a name I’m not even sure is mine.

The trading post bell rings in the distance. Last call.

“I have to go,” I tell the thing — piano, the word surfaces like a bubble — but I’m already shrugging off my pack. The seeds can wait. There’s something here, something important.

I dig through my bag until I find the piece of chalk I use to mark safe paths. On the piano’s weathered wood, I draw my symbol: a spiral with a dot. Here. Come back here.

The sun’s almost gone now, painting the keys in shades of amber and shadow. As I stand to leave, my fingers brush them one last time, and a fragment flashes through my mind: bright lights, applause, a concert hall full of —

The memory vanishes like smoke.

But now I know. I wasn’t just someone who played this thing.

I was someone who played for others.

I shoulder my pack and start walking, humming the melody I just played.

Tomorrow. I’ll come back tomorrow.

And maybe this time, I’ll remember more than just the music.

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Listen to this story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/270DKtgtFRc

The post The Forgotten Melody – December 4, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.

The Last Light – December 2, 2024

Note from Steph: I have never written about fae, so I went with this one for fun!

The ducks are swimming in perfect hexagons tonight, which is never a good sign. Geometric patterns mean they’re agitated, and agitated scout-ducks mean trouble at the border.

I adjust my grip on my staff — technically a walking stick to any mortals who might wander by, actually a badge of office older than this continent. The sunset paints the partly frozen lake in shades of amber and rose, but I’m more interested in the shadows between the colors. That’s where the tears between worlds usually start.

“Report,” I whisper, and the nearest duck angles towards me, its wake cutting through the golden light. In daylight, it looks like any other mallard. But in the last light of day, I can see the silver filigree patterns beneath its feathers, the way its eyes shift from black to starlight.

It opens its beak, and the sound that comes out isn’t a quack but a string of bell-like tones. The winter court grows restless. Three attempts to freeze the border in the last hour. Summer court responds with unseasonable warmth. Ice integrity compromised.

Great. Just great. The seasonal courts are at it again, and here I am, stuck in the middle, trying to maintain balance with nothing but an ancient stick and a fleet of interdimensional waterfowl.

Another duck’s pattern breaks formation. This one’s movements are jagged, urgent.

My lord, it chimes, something’s coming through.

And it’s not using any of the approved crossing points.

The ice splinters in a spiral pattern, because of course the fae can’t just break things normally. A small hand pushes through first, pale as moonlight and about the size of—

Oh no.

“Formation Delta!” I bark, and the ducks snap into a defensive circle, their magical camouflage rippling. To any random sunset walker, it’ll look like they’re just paddling around. In reality, they’re creating a containment field.

The child who emerges from the ice can’t be more than six. Her hair shifts colors like oil on water, and her clothes seem to be made of frozen leaves. Definitely Summer Court nobility, which means —

The temperature drops twenty degrees.

“Winter’s coming,” I mutter, then laugh because I really need to stop binge-watching TV during my off hours.

Three Winter Court hunters materialize on the far shore, all frost and fury. They’re after the child, obviously. Political leverage, knowing the fae.

But this is my border, my rules.

I click my tongue twice — the signal for the ducks to extend their protective barrier. Their wake patterns create symbols in the water that would make theoretical physicists weep.

“Evening, gentlemen,” I call out, letting my staff’s true form shimmer into view. “I don’t suppose you have crossing permits?”

The child shivers as she runs from the water and hides behind my legs, her tiny hands gripping my jeans.

“It seems we’ve had an illegal crossing,” one man shouts my way.

I roll my eyes. No shit. “We’ll see about that,” I shout back.

The ducks, bless their bureaucratic little hearts, are already pulling out the paperwork.

I stretch my neck from side to side. This is going to be a long shift.

Image made with Midjourney.
Flash Fiction written by S. J. Pajonas with assistance from Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Listen to the story on YouTube at https://youtu.be/zNrcLGU_zGE

The post The Last Light – December 2, 2024 appeared first on S. J. Pajonas.