First up - I am releasing Evermist as a serial piece of fiction. It's been updated and shown some love.
Check it out here: Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 & Chapter 4 are all live. Chapter 5 hits the web Friday and most new chapters also hit on Friday's. Check it out and enjoy.
Also, a collection of Flash Fiction from my site, ATFMB.com might interest you:
Free Falling
Dungeon Master
Ghost Story
Whoops!
SuperHero
In Space, nobody knows which way is up
And two of my personal favorites:
The Guardian
Welcome to Solar City
Take a look, leave a comment - let me know what you think.
~P
© 2009, Patrick Hester. All Rights Reserved
Tales from The New Universe: The Guardian
All I had to do was save the world.
Her name is Alison. I met her ten years ago. We were married eighteen months later by a Priest without a flock on a mountain with the snow falling all around us and the sun hidden behind thick cloud cover. It wasn’t love at first site. We both had a lot of baggage.
Eventually, we had four children together; Ben, Ashley, Naomi and Jordan. I got to name the first born, Ben, but then I was told that I lacked the imagination for naming kids as each subsequent child was born. I didn’t care as long as they were healthy, which they were. They’re gone now.
I watch her from a distance, sipping her coffee in one of those little white cups with the lids that seem to be all the craze. I’d forgotten about those. And she doesn’t know me now. We haven’t met yet. Probably never will now. The guy across from her is her husband. James, I think. Never met him. He wasn’t in the picture when we first met.
(click here to read more...this will take you off LJ - fair warning)(Please tell me what you think. Comments make the world go round...)
© 2009, Patrick Hester. All Rights Reserved
Tales from The New Universe: In space, nobody knows which way is up
“Four minutes of reserve oxygen remains,” said the computer voice in my ear.
Mutiny. That’s what it was – mutiny! Do you know what they did to mutineers in the old days? Do you? …yeah, me either – but I’m betting it was bad and that it hurt like a sonovabitch!
Floating in the empty space between places, abandoned, left for dead and for what? I’m not such a bad captain, am I? Sure, I push the crew hard, but no harder than any other captain looking to make a profit these days. Times are hard; Raiders hitting ships of all sizes and shapes nowadays, and the Company is cracking down on freelancers anymore – they don’t like the competition (or the independence). Translates to there being fewer and fewer jobs available and if you don’t deliver more than what you promised and twice as quick, well, there’s no guarantee you’ll get paid, let alone get the next job.
Doesn’t mean I deserve to be left in the black of space no matter what I done!
(click here to read more...this will take you off LJ - fair warning)
(Please tell me what you think. Comments make the world go round...)
You may have already checked out part 1 of my day trip to the Royal Gorge, well, here's part 2 in which we see a gunfight and part 3 in which animals abound.
Enjoy!
~P
I've got a post over on my ATFMB.com site with photos and stuff - click here to check it out.
~P
I died laughing. Seriously. There I am over there *points*. With my last breath - aw, who am I kidding? I have no breath left because I used it all up laughing and enjoying this video!
Anyway, I think it's fantastic. but you don't have to take my word on it. How about somebody with a little more street cred?
"Okay, usually I stay above such matters. But this video must be number one!!! Who is this Taylor Swift? Some evil robot, PROBABLY. (Although an evil robot vid would also potentially be cool.) (But fine! She can be number two!) The point is, I love this video to distraction (and inevitable procrastination). It has Felicia -- and money! Felicia LYING IN money! Combo-ed! Plus Vork, turkey legs, and the Solid Guild dancers! I care!
And I'm hobbled here, peeps. I don't twitter (I occasionally Glitter and Be Gay, but that's it), can't digg, or favorite, or friend... In fact I don't understand why my typewriter has a TV on it. I'M NOT SAVVY. But I really want this to be big. It's indie (which is the most important part), it's awesome, and it's made by people that I friended in the old-fashioned way of being friends with them. (Okay, technically, I brothered Jed before I friended him, but he's still super-talented.) So help me out. Let's go the extra mile here and DESTROY THE SWIFTBOT! Then I can get back to the business of making Dollhouse stranger.
Digg deep, people.
Smoochez! -joss. "
Joss, people. As in -Whedon-.
You can get it on iTunes by clicking this text. This will launch your iTunes. It's a buck fifty.
If you're too cheap to buy it, or you just don't care enough, I do offer you this alternative from ExtraLife. Cheapskates.
~P
© 2009, Patrick Hester. All Rights Reserved
Tales from The New Universe: Solar City
“Welcome to Solar City” says the card in large, bright blue letters. It depicts your classic suburban dream complete with a row of large houses each with neatly trimmed yards and white picket fences all lined up nice and proper the way they can only ever manage in a piece of cheesy art. Each home has a large tree in the yard with a swing made of rope and wood hanging from an extra thick branch that just happens to be the perfect length and height for such a thing, as if it were grown for that purpose and that purpose alone. The sky above is blue and pristine, utterly devoid of clouds and the bright yellow and orange sun with its pointed halo has a smile on its face and sunglasses shading its eyes.
The whole thing makes you want to be there, want to live on that street, have barbecues with the neighbors on cool summer nights when the air feels crisp and the fireflies compete with the local stars to see which can be the better source of amusement and delight for all the little kids you’ll have with your plump wife in the frilly apron and the perfect hair that falls just below her shoulders. It’s all a dream concocted by some corporate stooge who lives in a shimmering glass fortress with an iron skeleton billions of miles away on the edge of an ancient city that can’t even remember what a tree looks like or how grass feels on a cool night between naked toes weary of their cotton and leather day prisons.(click here to read more...this will take you off LJ - Fair Warning)
(Please tell me what you think. Comments make the world go round...)
Whooops!
If this is the way I'm going out, then bring it on.
That's what I wanted to say. It's the renegade in me; the rogue. He's always saying stupid shit like that, and it never, ever ends well.
Still, when you're staring death in the face, I suppose there are worse things you could say.
"Fuck."
Like that.
I don't usually cuss. Honest. I say 'shit', sure, but that's not really cussing, right? I admit that, on occasion, a choice phrase or two have been known to slip through and then there's this f-bomb hanging in the room, kinda like right now, and people are staring at me, and I'm staring at them, and no one is really sure of exactly what to say or how to react. I guess in a situation like this one, the old f-bomb just has a bit more impact because I don't use it all the time. I suppose, if I were some sort of sailor, I'd probably use it all the time. But, I just find it so crass. It's sort of like a last resort kinda word...(click here to read more...[this will take you off LJ - fair warning]
Ghost Story
“Well, there it is! The most haunted house in the world! Do you know, they say a hundred people died in there on the same night! Poisoned! And we’re gonna spend the night!” George grinned at his friend Aiden, who appeared to be turning a fine shade of green. Without another word, George stalked up the stairs and into the condemned house, leaving Aiden alone in the over grown yard full of too-tall weeds and stickers. He’d already gotten a couple in his socks and they hurt.
Aiden readjusted his rolled up sleeping bag under his arm and stared up at the old house, the oldest on the block. It had sort of towers that rose up to little flat points surrounded by tiny versions of the iron fence that kept most people out. The windows were all boarded up, the green paint chipped and fading, the porch wide and flat but with spider webs in the shadowy corners and weeds growing up through the cracks. He scratched his cheek, sure he felt a spider crawling there.
George reappeared in the doorway. “What are you waiting for? Come on!” then disappeared...(click here to read more...[this will take you off LJ - fair warning])
© 2009 All Rights Reserved
Dungeon Master
“Um… Okay. You're standing at a crossroads. You see before you a mist rising from the marsh.”
Duncan stared out above his screen, only his eyes visible to the players crowded around the too small table. To his left was Mark; a Half-Elf Thief unimaginatively named ‘Marc’, a surly sort, always looking over his shoulder and muttering to himself, then came Xander as ‘Rogkar’ the Dwarf, a Warrior whose great battle-axe was nearly taller than he was. On the right sat his brother, Aaron; playing an Elf Predator Druid named ‘Sinese’ currently in her Tiger form and next to him sat Bryon with his Human Paladin, ‘Adama’, complaining about both the Half-Elf and the Dwarf incessantly.
“I don’t want to go into the marsh.” That from Mark. Or ‘Marc’. Sometimes it was difficult to tell which was doing the whining.
“Coward!” bellowed Adama, slamming his hand down on the table and causing everything to jump and shift slightly to the left. Duncan hated that name. He wanted to force Bryon to change it to something less Battlestarish but he was afraid that ‘Starbuck’ was next on his list of names, so he kept his mouth shut.
“Do you have to hit the table?” asked Xander as he scrambled to reset the minis on the...(click here to read more...[this will take you off LJ - fair warning])
"UM, well - I was typing on the computer."
"Yeah?"
"Uh-huh."
"That sounds nice."
"Yeah, I guess it was. I had to stop though."
"Oh?"
"Yeah. See, when you jump up on the desk and flop down on the keyboard the way you are right now, it makes it kind of hard for me to type. Hear that 'buh buh buh' noise? That's the computer complaining because you're lying on the keyboard and pressing all the keys at the same time and it doesn't like that."
"Sounds like its finicky."
"Yep."
". . ."
The plan is to update once a week.
Click this link for the feed. iTunes link is (hopefully) coming soon but in the meantime, you can subscribe via that link if you wish.
Creating it was exhausting. I hope that I've worked out all the kinks so it is not so in the future. The cat helped. Not.
~P
H. Robert Cooper at 8:40pm June 18: I love it!!!!!!!!
Patrick Hester at 9:08pm June 18: "It's waiting for you in the basement."
Patrick Hester at 9:08pm June 18: "That wasn't chicken..."
Ethan Senter at 9:53pm June 18: "She doesn't love you anymore."
Patrick Hester at 9:56pm June 18: "Redrum. Redrum."
H. Robert Cooper at 9:59pm June 18: You're not the father
Patrick Hester at 10:15pm June 18: "Ah, mister Bond. You've eaten the poisoned cookie and now have 30 seconds to live..."
...I so amuse myself.
This is an original work of Flash Fiction by Patrick Hester
© 2009 All Rights Reserved
Free Falling
Falling from a thirtieth floor window sucks.
If you don’t have a parachute, it’s worse. Still, I don’t panic. I still have the crossbow and the bolt with the line. Plus the automatic pistol. I shoot down, shattering the windows below me, then pull the crossbow and shoot for the hole I’ve made as I pass it. The ground is rushing up, or am I rushing down?
The line is attached to my harness and as soon as the bolt hits, I can feel the tug, feel the resistance. I have no idea what the bolt has hit or how well it’s in place, so I have to make this count. I pull the brake and start to swing in. The machine pistol makes short work of the window and in I go. I didn’t give myself enough slack though, so I have to cut the line or else get pulled back out the window which, as I already mentioned, sucks.
Luckily, my harness has a dead man’s switch; it slices right through my (click here to read more...[this will take you off LJ - fair warning])
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