Effing Feline and the door into winter
[image error]I, Effing Feline, have gotten interested in tracking down my ancestors. Geneology sites are useless for cats — an intolerable oversight — but I’ve discovered some cats who are worthy of my bloodline.
One such is Pete in The Door Into Summer, by Robert A. Heinlein. Awhile back, Mr Valentine proclaimed this ginger ale-swigging puss the greatest cat in all of science fiction. Clearly, Pete must be related to me.
Today, a snippet from an upcoming (December 4, 2017) science fiction romance by my pet human, Mr Valentine: Rescuing Prince Charming. It picks from where we ended last week, with tech writer Dusty Johnson searching all alone for a bomb saboteurs have planted in the poorly lit guts of Earth’s first starship, which is under construction.
Nothing was neat and tidy down here; in a prototype, speed and ingenuity trumped meticulous design. That meant a lot of places for saboteurs to hide a bomb, but only two where technicians wouldn’t discover it in the course of a workday.
The first hiding place was a niche behind the backup life support nexus. Staring into its shadows, she paused. A heroine wouldn’t hesitate, but an ordinary, everyday woman would think twice about squeezing into a dirty cranny while wearing a new, cream-colored chambray skirt with filigree trim.
Maybe she should just walk away.
Or run.
But there was no one else around to save the ship, and reaching the stars was her dream . . .
Imagining she was watching a movie heroine who’d never had a second thought in her life, Dusty slipped between a girder and the grease-streaked life support housing. When her skirt survived unscathed, she felt an instant’s relief . . . until she spied a cheap plastic lunch kit, tucked almost out of sight.
Effing Feline here again. When the weather got cold and snowy, Heinlein’s Pete went from door to door, hoping that one of them led to summer. That’s incomprehensible! Summer is hot enough to singe my fur. Why isn’t Pete looking for the door into winter?
Mr V, you should totally write a story about an Arizona cat called The Door Into Winter. Do it now. Immediately!
While he’s writing, the rest of you go visit the Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday authors. Do it now. Immediately!
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I now have a back cover blurb for Rescuing Prince Charming. Here goes:
Dusty Johnson, a self-styled ordinary, everyday woman, responds with extraordinary heroism when saboteurs try to bomb the prototype of Earth’s first starship. Although she yearns to return to anonymity, that moment of courage propels her ever deeper into dangers that tear the scabs off her dark secrets—and thrust her into the arms of the unattainable man of her dreams.
Reese Eaglesbrood, an alien prince, yearns to restore his tattered reputation by guiding the starship project to completion, but his fascination with the unassuming heroine threatens to undermine his fragile authority. Shunning Dusty is necessary, yet unthinkable—and when the saboteurs strike again, she is his only ally against Earth’s most elusive enemies.
Rescuing Prince Charming is now available for pre-sale.
