Ali Noel Vyain's Blog, page 71
September 24, 2018
Chapter 2 Farm Life on Eris
An excerpt from The Violet Series Book 1: The Water Nymph’s Tale.
At Cat Falls, Eris, Samuel and Anastasia had a routine. He got up early and checked on the plants and Betty the horse. Anastasia got up a little later to fix the two of them breakfast. They’d eat together. Then he’d harvest some plants and animals in the hydroponic and aquaponic gardens to sell in town. She would clean house or do laundry and if it was one of the days she had to work, then she would go to the boarding house in town to serve customers and keep the dining room clean.
They were happy. They were used to each other. But something happened. Something that they were hoping for, but didn’t try hard to get. It just happened that she noticed it first while she was cooking breakfast. He had just come in and sat down at the table.
She set the food and the dishes on the table and sat down. He served himself some food and noticed she wasn’t serving herself.
“Is something wrong?”
She smiled. “No. Something good has happened.”
“What?”
“I’m…”
He looked at her and waited with wide eyes.
“I’m pregnant.”
He dropped the serving spoon and promptly passed out.
She laid him out on the floor to make sure he was okay and then cleaned up the mess on the table. She sat down next to him on the floor and waited for him to come to.
He did a moment later. He sat up. “Oh, I hope you’re okay. It’s quite a shock.”
She smiled. “I feel fine. Let’s eat breakfast.”
They did. Afterwards, she cleaned the kitchen and he went back outside to continue his farmwork.
Soon she went to work and found Sally as fast as she could.
“Hi, Anastasia. How are you Samuel getting along?”
“Wonderful. Just wonderful.”
“You’re glowing. You two having a little fun?”
Anastasia laughed. “I’m pregnant!”
“Oh, congratulations!” Sally hugged Anastasia.
They went back to the dining room to get ready for lunch.
**********
Days went by and soon Anastasia was showing. Her belly got big and round. Between Samuel and Sally, Anastasia didn’t have much to worry about.
“Oh!” Anastasia rubbed her belly.
Sally walked over to her. “Is the baby moving?”
“Yes. It was a little painful, but now he’s back where he should be.”
Sally patted the younger woman’s shoulder. “Sometimes they do that. Probably just running out of room.”
Anastasia smiled.
Samuel walked into the boarding house and greeted Sally. He turned to Anastasia. “Need anything? Feeling okay? Need a massage?”
“I could use a back massage. It hurts to carry the baby around especially with him being very active.”
Samuel wasted no time rubbing Anastasia’s back. Sally smiled and went to check on the kitchen.
***********
Then one night, her water broke. She breathed hard and tried to stay calm. She was about to go to bed. Samuel was talking a shower at the time. He came back to the bedroom to see her puffing. He saw the water on the floor and his eyes got big.
“Anastasia?”
“It’s time. My water broke and it hurts!”
“Okay, I’ll get some towels. Stay right there!” He ran to the hallway closet and grabbed a stack of towels. Next he ran to the kitchen and grabbed a bowl of water he set that down on the night stand near the bed. He wasted no time in massaging her back and her belly.
It was a long a night, but just before a gray dawn a baby boy was crying in the room. Both parents were exhausted and relieved. They named the child Antoni Lance Winchester.
***********
Standing behind the check in desk, Sally’s husband was busy checking the news on a tablet computer. He looked up when he heard Anastasia walk in. “Well, this is certainly a surprise. We didn’t expect you to show up after you gave birth.”
Anastasia smiled. “I’m okay and Samuel is fine now that the pregnancy is over. Besides, I want to work.”
Sally’s husband smiled as he looked at the baby in Anastasia’s pouch. “So, is it a boy or a girl?”
“A boy. We named him Antoni.”
“Antoni? That’s a good name. He has your eyes.”
“Yes, he does.”
“If you need privacy to feed him, we’ll find you some space.”
“Thank you, I will need that.”
Sally walked out of the office to see Anastasia and her husband chatting. “Oh, so you brought the baby with you. Let me see!”
Anastasia walked over to the Sally, who quickly let Antoni grab her finger. “So cute already.”
“Yes, he is.”
“Oh, you can use the room I used when I nursed my children. Come, let me show you.” Sally led the younger woman back to the office and into a small room with a comfortable chair and pillows. “I know it’s really just a closet, but with the curtain, you’ll have all the privacy that you need.”
“It’s great. Thank you.”
“Good. I don’t blame you for wanting to come back. My husband was willing to cover me as much as necessary and he did. I can’t complain. I hope Samuel is okay with you bringing Antoni here.”
“He is. He knows me well enough to know why I still want to work.”
Sally nodded. “I’m glad to hear that.”
Antoni smiled and cooed. Both women laughed.
“They just keep getting cuter until they become adolescents.”
“And then what happens?”
“They lose all their cuteness and sometimes aren’t pleasant to deal with. And they eat a lot of food!”
Anastasia laughed. “I think we better get to work. There’ll be customers wanting lunch soon.”
“Yes, yes, let’s go and service them.”
Soon Sally, Anastasia and Antoni were in the kitchen getting ready for the lunch crowd. Polly was busy getting organized to begin her cooking. She saw Antoni and smiled. He smiled back.
Freddy walked into the kitchen and smiled at everyone. “Hi, Polly. Looks like Antoni likes you.”
“Well, I’d hope so. He’s awfully cute.”
Sally nodded. “Alright, we all know what we’re doing. Let’s go get some orders.”
Sally and Anastasia went to the dining room. Freddy was sweeping the kitchen. He still limped, but was grateful for his family. Seeing a new baby brought a smile to his face.
“Sis, you ever think you’ll have a baby?”
“Why would you ask such a thing?”
“I was just curious. You don’t have to.” He paused to put the broom away. “But I would like to be an uncle someday.”
Sally smiled at her brother. “I haven’t decided. And you? Will you make me an aunt someday?”
Freddy laughed. “I don’t think so. Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but women don’t tend to give me a second glance.”
“Awww, that’s sad. If they can’t see what a wonderful person you are, then it’s their loss.”
“Thanks, sis.”
Orders began to arrive. Polly started cooking and Freddy went to help his father check in guests.
Anastasia greeted the dining guests and wasted no time in getting their orders. She gave them water and bread rolls. Many people saw Antoni and smiled at him.
“Excuse me, how old is your child?”
Anastasia smiled. “He’s a couple of months.”
“Oh, how adorable!”
“Thank you.” Anastasia went to the kitchen.
The woman at the table continued, “Just goes to show you that women are the ones who really build the colonies.”
“With us raising children and working at the same time,” chimed in another woman.
“Okay, you win. Women can multitask better than men,” said a husband of many years.
“That’s because we’ve had to.”
***************
Samuel was busying washing Betty when Anastasia returned home with Antoni.
“Hey, they’re back,” Samuel heard in his head.
“What? Oh, good.” He smiled.
“You’re done with me. Go see them.”
“Thanks, Betty.” He walked over to them. “Welcome home.” He clasped Antoni’s little hand and kissed Anastasia.
“It’s good to be back. I’m a little tired.” She yawned.
“That’s not surprising. Other people have told me how exhausting it can be to take care of a baby.”
“He’s worth it.”
“Good.” Samuel took Antoni out of his pouch.
Anastasia took off the pouch and diaper bag. She set them down in the kitchen and got right to cooking. “Sally is letting use a closet so I can nurse Antoni comfortably while we’re there.”
“Good. I’m glad he’s so happy.”
“Of course he’s happy. Everyone says he so cute and adorable.”
“He must know what that means.”
After dinner, Samuel was out in the moonlight running around in his cat form. Anastasia was sitting on the porch nursing Antoni. She smiled.
“If you become a werecat like your father, then I hope you’re just as kind and harmless as he is.”
Antoni finished and went to sleep.
“That’s right, little one. Rest now. You’ll be running around soon enough.”
September 23, 2018
Chapter 1 The Mine
An excerpt from The Violet Series Book 1: The Water Nymph’s Tale.
There was always water in the mine. Frank pondered why this was. He scratched his head and then put his helmet back on. He sometimes thought he saw the water move in ways water didn’t normally move. But, he figured it was just the booze ruining his head. It always went straight to his head as he slowly wasted his life away in the small town on the Martian colony.
He wasn’t even sure why he kept working in the mine. His brother was willing to give him a job in an office in the next town. Sure, Frank thought, sure I’ll be clean all the time instead of covered in filth and watching water swirl and move uphill.
Frank lifted his pickaxe and resumed chipping. He wondered when this monotonous life of his would change and perhaps either get better or get more interesting. Today, as many other days, he was alone in this part of the mine. He liked to be alone. The other miners bothered him and he wasn’t quite sure why that was. Still he chipped away at the rock and hoped he wouldn’t cause a cave in.
He was pretty busy. He felt numb and didn’t seem to care anymore. He just kept raising the pickaxe and dropped it with a slow motion that was nearly hypnotic. Before long he had stopped thinking and just moved the pickaxe up and down and chipped the rock searching for more ore. He didn’t notice the water moving towards him in droplets. Before long the droplets became puddles of water. Still Frank hadn’t seen it. He was too busy feeling numb and chipping away for more ore that he didn’t even see the water move upward in the middle of the cave. Not even on the walls— out in the open. Soon there were shapes forming.
Frank lowered the axe and then he wiped his brow. He sighed loudly, which echoed in the cave. He thought he heard some giggling. He furrowed his brows. He was alone in this part of the mine. He thought it must be the booze again. Then he thought he should perhaps stop drinking. He shook his head and was about to resume his chipping when he heard a female voice near him.
“Excuse me, sir, but what is your name?”
Frank dropped the pickaxe and turned towards the voice. To his astonishment, he saw several women in the cave with him. They were all curvy with blue skin and red hair. They each wore micro-mini skirts with very short sleeved short tops on. Their clothes were red. “What? I must be seeing and hearing things. It must be all the booze I had last night.”
“Booze? What’s that?” asked one of the women.
“Oh, booze is the stuff that I drink every day after I’m done workin’ in the mine. The booze just goes to my head so fast that before I know it, I have to come back here in the morning and work some more.”
The women giggled. “Well, we can assure you that it’s not the booze that’s making you see us. We are here in this cave with you and we’ve been here for awhile.”
“What? I’m here alone in this part of the mine. I like to work alone.”
“Oh, well, surely you can’t work all the time, can you?”
“Well, no, I guess not. How did you ladies get in here anyway?”
“We just swirled our way in and came up to meet you.”
“To meet me? What about the other workers?”
“Oh, I don’t know about them, but Melanie was the one who wanted to meet you and find out your name, but she’s a little shy.”
“Oh, pleased to meet you ma’am. My name is Frank. I’m sorry, I’m so filthy, but I’ve been working in the mine all day and I won’t be able to clean up until after I leave here.”
“That’s okay. Perhaps we can chat later.”
“Sure.” The horn blew. “That’s my signal that my shift is over for the day. If you ladies will excuse me, I’ll be going home now.” He tipped his helmet to the ladies and picked up the axe. He carried it over his shoulder and out of the mine. The women melted down to the cave floor. All that was left of them were puddles of water. Soon the water moved in different directions. One streak followed Frank and soaked into his left pant leg. He then left the axe with the other tools just outside of the mine and collected his pay.
Later, he was in his hotel room. He didn’t bother getting a place of his own because he wasn’t sure whether he wanted to stay or move on to another place. Frank threw his dirty clothes on the floor and jumped into the shower. As he scrubbed the dirt and grime off of his body, the soaked pant leg moved a little. Not much, but enough that the water moved out of the fabric and onto the floor. Soon the water had gathered into a puddle first and then formed into Melanie. She could hear the water running in the shower and she smiled. She thought she’d wait until he came out of the bathroom to greet him.
It was some time before he did finally step out of the shower. He carefully dried himself off with a towel and then wrapped it around himself. He stepped out of the bathroom to see Melanie standing in the middle of the room as she had appeared earlier.
“Uhh…”
“Hi, Frank! Are you in a better state to spend some time with me?”
“Uhh, let me get dressed first.” He walked over to the dresser and grabbed some clean pants, shirt, underwear and socks. He walked back into the bathroom. He closed the door and took off the towel. Then he quickly got dressed. Afterwards, he looked into the mirror. His face was rather pallid and he thought he wanted a drink, but wasn’t sure. He grabbed a comb and combed his hair. He sighed and then turned to open the door. Out he walked back into the bedroom where she was still waiting for him.
“Well, howdy. You’re Melanie, right?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. How did you get into my room?”
“Oh, that was easy, I just soaked into your pant leg and you took me here.”
His eyes grew wide. “My pant leg? Well, I don’t understand.” He dropped down to the bed. “I must be losing my mind. Women don’t appear out of nowhere and attach themselves to men’s pant legs. That just doesn’t make any sense.” He fell to his back on the bed and remained motionless. He covered his eyes with his hands.
She walked closer to him and leaned over him. “I’m not human like you are, Frank.”
He moved his hands away from his eyes and placed them at his sides. “What do you mean by that?”
“I’m a water nymph. Let me show you how I travel.” With that she melted to the floor and became a puddle. A few minutes later the water rose back up and formed back into Melanie. “Do you see now? I know you saw us moving back in the mine, but you kept shaking your head. No one else noticed besides you.”
He didn’t speak for some time. “So, why do you want to see me? I’m just an alcoholic with no real future.”
“You’re different. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard the other water nymphs complain that men never pay any attention to them. But you paid attention to me. Only I was too afraid to say anything to you until the others came with me.”
He sat up on his bed. “Wow. I can’t say I ever saw anything like you when I was drunk. I still don’t understand why you’d pick me. I don’t know what I have to offer a water nymph.”
“You can offer yourself. I wouldn’t ask for anything else.”
“Okay, whatever you want, Melanie. I have to say you are the most beautiful creature I have ever seen.”
“You’re so sweet.” She sat down on the bed next to him and they continued to chat far into the night.
September 22, 2018
Latest Poll Results
I recently did a poll asking people what I should do next for work. It was unanimous: everyone said I should write. And ⅔ said I should also do graphic design. So, that’s what I’ll be doing mostly.
That doesn’t mean I’ll quit any day jobs I have, but perhaps all the writing will make it easier to quit such things later on.
Somehow I think Nuri will like this better. She’ll see me much more than she has been…and she’ll want to bother me while I’m working. Of course, she is allowed to keep on bothering me. She’ll just be helping me to be right on track.
September 19, 2018
Just Curious…
I find myself wondering what I should do next for a regular job. So, why not get suggestions from other people? I have a wide variety of skills. I’ve had quite a few jobs so far in my life. I’ve worked as a cashier, did lots of customer service, data entry, fast food, answered phones at an answering service… Can’t say any were that great. None of them were hard to learn and do. But I would still like to have plenty of time to devote to my writing and my cat while supporting us. Feel free to comment and share your work experiences with me.
Take Our Poll
September 17, 2018
Typos Can Be Annoying
How many times have I read books with typos in them? It doesn’t matter if they were ebooks or printed books. I just remember one book from Phillip K. Dick had so many typos in it, it was annoying. I borrowed it from the library and someone else had found it so annoying that they had penciled in corrections. And they were correct…
I hear people complain about typos from self published writers in their ebooks, when I read plenty of printed books or ebooks from traditional publishers with just as many typos. Let’s face it, typos are something which happens to all of us.
When I was serializing a few of my books on Wattpad, I found more typos in my books. I wasn’t happy about it. But I did make the corrections and then uploaded the ebooks to Smashwords again. Lucky for me my books aren’t currently in print. Somehow it seems worse with a printed book. Unlike ebooks, you can’t upload a new version to the printer… for better or worse the printed book is set.
So, dear readers, if you find typos in my books and they bother you, please let me know. I will make the corrections and upload the books. Then I’ll let you know once it’s been done. It’s the best I can do when typos are just going to happen and we don’t all see them. Even when working with an editor, we don’t all see the same typos or even all of them. It’s just the way it is.
August 31, 2018
My 34th Published Book
I am on a roll. Or at least it feels like it. I just uploaded my 34th book to Smashwords.com for sale. This time it’s non-fiction. It’s a how to book on how it’s possible to publish books without having to spend money on them. It requires time and energy. The examples are from my personal experience.
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Publishing 101
Publishing 101: How to Publish Books While Spending Little to No Money at All
eISBN: 9780463899212
price: US$5.99
I am excited. I’m sure lots of people want to know if they can publish a book without spending money. Too much of the advice on self publishing insists we have to spend lots of money to earn anything at all. I’ve discovered it’s not true.
It’s just on Smashwords for now, but available worldwide. I hope it helps those who are interested in getting their books published.
Oh, a side note: I’m still serializing some books on Wattpad. I have two done so far, but I will finish the rest as soon as I can. I also still have five more books to edit and package up before I can put them on sale. I also need to get back to the magazine conversion project. I will as soon as I catch up with everything else…
August 18, 2018
Five Novels Serialized on Wattpad
I’m at it again. I have five books I’m serializing on Wattpad. They all start different book series. I just thought it would be a good idea to help promote them all. I hope you enjoy the different stories and who knows? Perhaps you’ll continue reading the rest of the series. All books are available in their complete form on Smashwords.
Wattpad is free to use. Here’s the booklist there.
The five books are
The Violet Series Book 1: A Water Nymph’s Tale
The Starlover Series Book 1: Project Earth
The Guardian Series Book 1: Formation of the Guardians
The White Lion Unicorn Series Book 1: A Colony of Tiny Nekos
The Titanium Mysteries Book 1: What Is She Doing Here?
July 31, 2018
July CampNaNoWriMo 2018
It’s been a long tiring month. I set out to write 100,000 words among a poetry book, a how to book, and three novels. I wrote just over 100,000 words among a poetry book (100 poems), a how to book, and four novels. Now it’s time for a break and some fun before I start the editing.
In the meantime there’s still time left on Smashwords July sale. Until 11:59 pm Pacific Daylight Time. All these books are usually US$2.99. Happy reading as I recover from being temporarily brain dead…
The Guardian Series Book 1: Formation of the Guardians
Starlover Series Book 1: Project Earth
The Violet Series Book 1: A Water Nymph’s Tale
The White Lion Unicorn Series Book 1: A Colony of Tiny Nekos
The Titanium Mysteries Book 1: What Is She Doing Here?
June 28, 2018
Free Ebooks for July
While I’m busy writing for July CampNaNoWriMo, you can enjoy several of my books for free from Smashwords only. They are on Pacific Time. The sale is on for the whole month of July. This is in addition to my free ebook, The Strange & Unusual Universe of Silver Moon Unicorn. The other free ebooks are usually US$2.99 each and all start a book series. Happy Reading!
The Guardian Series Book 1: Formation of the Guardians
Starlover Series Book 1: Project Earth
The Violet Series Book 1: A Water Nymph’s Tale
The White Lion Unicorn Series Book 1: A Colony of Tiny Nekos
The Titanium Mysteries Book 1: What Is She Doing Here?
June 16, 2018
Current Work
A lot has been going on since I last wrote a post. Back in April I drafted six books: two poetry collections, three novels, and a memoir. So far I have finished the three novels and abandoned the memoir. I would have to rewrite because it’s not just up to par for me. I still have to work on the poetry collections, which is 200 poems. They need to be edited and arranged before I can put them ebook format. Oh, and I need to design covers for both of them…
After I catch up on these two books, I need to write up rough outlines for three more books. I just want to be ready for the July CampNaNoWriMo with several books to choose from while I draft myself into insanity and exhaustion.
