Sunday Snippet: Zero Sum

September isstarting off with a bang. And crazy busy. Also a full blood moon, which is alwaysfun to see.

Spent all day Saturdayin Hocking Hills with a group of cousins on my mom's side of the family. Wehave so much fun when we get together. We're already planning the third annualgathering for next year.

I finished up twowork projects this week and made progress on two more. I have a new onestarting this week also. Possibly two. I'm hoping the due dates are a littlemore staggered.

Had an okay viewingweek. I made it almost all the way through my usual slate of shows with theexception of Lower Decks. I started it but need to finish it up. It'sthe first season finale so there seems to be a lot going on.

Started with MissFisher's Murder Mysteries and it's one I really enjoyed on my original runthrough. Always fun to see Dot stand up for not only herself but others.

Finished up seasonfour of Madame Blanc Mysteries. Very happy to see Jean and Dom workthrough their issues. Loved how Dom proposed and how everyone knew they weremeant to be together.

Caught anotherepisode of Death in Paradise. I'm interested in where things will gowith Selwyn. The new officer is going to be fun. I love the vibe he has. DIWilson might or might not grow on me.

Enjoyed another episodeof Poirot. The entire trip to the coast just to hear good things insteadof bad from Japp is such a Poirot thing to do. And the side plot with Lemon wasfun.

Elementary had an interesting case along with aninteresting side case. I like how Moreland reached out to Joan, and she figuredthings out with what's going on with him. And I love that she told Sherlock.Also really thrilled Sherlock met the character on the autism spectrum at herlevel, seemingly with care and patience.

Watched anotherepisode of Batman Beyond and I didn't remember much of this one. Endedup quite enjoying it.

Started the LowerDecks episode. I do enjoy how many easter eggs are in this show. Mentionsof other characters and episodes from all the various series are so much fun.

I didn't get tostart season two of Reacher. I'm hoping I have the time this week, butI'm not going to rush in. I like to be able to focus on this show.

Also didn't get to finishup the Peak Practice episode I started, but I'll get back to it soon.

That's it for thelife update this week. Tonight's post is from Zero Sum, a novella thatpulls a couple together when they have to crash land.

Here's theminiblurb:

Sabrina Delft and Carrick Stafford have a zero sumrelationship—whenever one gains something, the other has a corresponding loss.But when they're stranded on an abandoned mining colony and forced to rely oneach other, they learn to balance the good with the bad and end up with a totalwin.

And a sneaky peek…

Sabrina stretched her neck fromside to side. "We should stop and rest." She didn't know how manyhours they'd worked but longer than a normal shift.And they hadn't argued once.Carrick didn't disagree; he pulledout a seat and settled at the table. "Now that the suits are operable andwe've got plenty of O2, let's decide where we'll hunker down." He flexedhis fingers, probably trying to loosen up the stiff joints from holding them inone position for most of the day.Sabrina wanted to explore and takean inventory of the camp. "We should stay here, at the colony." Shereally wanted to figure out what kind of supplies they had available.Carrick didn't immediately deny thethought, but he did counter. "One of us should stay on the ship. In casewe get a call from another fleet vessel." A wary look crept into his eyes.She didn't blame him. Normally,she'd be all over his push back. But … he made a valid point. She'd hate tomiss contact if it came. A stroke of inspiration hit her."You know, a simple solution would be to rig a cable from the signal tothe intercom system. If it's triggered, an auto response will generate, givingus time to get to a comm unit to reply." Her shoulders slumped. "But,ugh, I don't have the energy to deal with making that happen right now."She didn't relish putting the suit back on at the moment.Carrick huffed out a breath."Huh. That's genius." He riffled through the pack he'd brought overand pulled out two MREs. "We'll get on that first thing in the morning.Don't know about you, but I'm wiped out." He squeezed the package,activating the heating element inside. "Terrific solution though. Whydon't I stay on the ship for tonight until we can get the line set up?" Hetore open his dinner.Sabrina blinked. "Um, okay."She nodded. "Yeah, that sounds good." She grabbed her MRE andmimicked Carrick's actions, a little stunned to have the arrangements resolvedso quickly.She didn't quite know how to dealwith full cooperation from him.But she liked having it.

I have this onepretty much plotted out and outlined. I'm excited to see where things go as Icontinue to write.

 

That's it for thisweek. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye