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Author Archive

One Thing Leads To Another

Alex makes a new friend at a conspiracy convention and sparks fly.
Keep an eye on the guy in the chair, you just might see him again. Soon. Enjoy!

The presenter pointed to several statistics on the overhead slide before turning back toward the audience. Ninety-eight pairs of eyes followed his pointer.

“As you can see in this illustration, the government has been reading all of our mail for over a hundred years. We’ve just made it easier for them in the digital age. Now they have computers to sort through all of our exchanges. Privacy has always been an illusion. They are just more blatant about it nowadays.

“That’s all I have. Any questions from the audience about the history of government surveillance?”

Alex considered the issues the presenter brought up. I agree with some of his points, but this guy is whackadoodle. Does he really think the US government used to steam open letters like someone’s nosy spinster aunt? The gossip from someplace like that would have been impossible to rein in. Let alone keep its existence a secret.

(more…)

Maybe the Glass Is Half Full

We wondered how James ended up in San Francisco.
Turns out his older brother Kevin had something to do with it. Enjoy!

“Another whiskey, laddy?”

Around him, the atmosphere of the bar muttered, clinked, and scraped as the afternoon crowd went about its business. At the back, around the bend of the long mahogany bar, Jimmy Cavanaugh stared morosely at the few remaining drops of amber in his whiskey glass.

Looking up at the man behind the bar, he shrugged. “Yeah. I guess.”

(more…)

Evelyn’s Big Adventure

Evelyn is definitely a city girl. Camping isn’t exactly an itch she needs to scratch.
But for Kier, she makes an exception. Bet she’ll never make that mistake again. Enjoy!

“C’mon, mom, keep up!” Kier yelled from a bend in the trail.

Evelyn, struggling with the aluminum folding chair she’d insisted on bringing, called back, “You could carry my chair for me, you know.”

With a put-upon air, newly teenaged Kier said, “You wanted the chair, so you have to carry it.” He turned to his best friend Barry. “That’s one of the rules of camping, isn’t it?”

Barry shrugged. “I guess so. I mean, you and me’re fishing, so we’ve got to carry the fishing stuff, right?”

(more…)

SnakeGrrrl

You met Tessa’s boa constrictors, Meg and Calvin, in Dreaming of Xeres.
This story tells how she got them, and
what happened when Riley met them for the first time. Enjoy!

“C’mon, Josh, it’ll be cool. You know the manager said we couldn’t have any pets ‘with fur’. Snakes don’t have fur so he can’t tell us no.”

“But they’re slimy. And besides, where would you keep it?”

Tessa batted her eyelashes. “In a terrarium, of course.”

Josh made a face at her. “I know that. I mean,” he said with an exasperated air, “where would you keep it in our tiny little apartment?” He shook his head. “I don’t think I could sleep in the same room as a snake. What if it gets out?”

“Are you seriously telling me you’re afraid of a teeny-tiny snake? This little girl’s hardly bigger than a pencil.”

(more…)

The Infamous Couch Story

In Dreaming of Xeres, you heard several times about what happened when Alex helped Riley and Tessa get their old, lumpy couch. Now you can find out for yourself what actually happened. Enjoy!

“We can’t afford a sofa,” Riley MacPherson protested from where he was finishing drying the supper dishes.

Tessa Connors, his girlfriend or ‘significant other’ as she preferred to be called, was sitting at the kitchen table with a dozen or so catalogs strewn across it. Looking up from one of them, she said, “Maybe I could talk my way into a discount at one of these places. My business with Diana is too small to get things at wholesale yet, but we’re getting bigger contracts every day.” She dug through the pile and pulled out a catalog. “Look at this one.”

(more…)

It’s Been An Interesting Road

Welcome to our blog. Orion and I will be taking turns blogging here about what we’re up to, what conventions we plan to attend, and the status of our next book. Occassionally, we’ll post short side stories from The Third War universe. Enjoy!