#FridaySnippets

Friday Snippet #53

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Once Upon a TimeOutside, foggy and cold. Inside, two cups of espresso already consumed and a tea on the way; Painter doesn’t want to work; Artrage requested one more time a registrations key to start; my neck is aching; my patience is dwindling. Plus, I hate complaining.

But, my dad is coming to visit and that makes everything better.

Summary of the week:

One of my didlr paintings, the fairy tale drawing above, was featured on the main didlr page. If nothing else works, that’s plan B through Z—drawing on a touch screen that is.

Gaia’s cover is being made as I write. Elios is in the editor’s hands again. Marie’s Journey’s first edit is done and it is in my court now. I wrote the blurbs for both Gaia and Elios.

I ventured outside in the mist and the rain, and walked every day with Nero while reading three new books.  I think that’s it.

From Marie’s Journey:

Zena didn’t hesitate to answer. “Yes, I was here.” She took one chair by the armrest and went to sit close to the window. “I was in my twenties when the Massacre happened.”

“Did you lose anybody?” Marie asked. This time, she knew she shouldn’t have asked.

But Zena surprised her once more by answering. “I did. We were in love and we were planning on adopting a kid. She was at the wrong place at the wrong time and took a bullet not meant for her.”

Rane, who had been warming some water at the little portable stove, came back carrying three steaming cups by the handles. “The soldiers shot on the crowd?”

The nurse’s mouth thinned and her eyes went dark. “Yes, they did, but the bullet that killed Bianca was mine.”

The nurse’s words left both Rane and Marie speechless.

Zena raised her cup to the ceiling. “Cheers to Ginecea’s fall. If I’m lucky, I’ll still be alive when it happens.”

A few minutes of silence passed, none in the room able to say anything. The nurse finally broke the spell. “I had it easy. You can’t imagine what they did to the heterosexual couples.”

Friday Snippet #53

Friday Snippet #52

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Zucca Karla 2013Autumn is in full bloom in the Pacific Northwest, and everywhere I look is red, orange, and yellow. Some green is left here and there.

Today, I haven’t done a lot in terms of writing and editing, but I went for a two hours walk, and I painted the first pumpkin of the 2013 batch.

Waiting on the cover for Gaia, going through edits with Elios, and halfway through with Marie’s Journey as well. Crossing fingers, I might be able to publish three titles before the year ends.

From Elios:

“I have something to tell you.” I added two of the couches from the dorms to the cafeteria’s furniture and sat on the edge of the closest one to me.

Kam stood by the food counter, ready for seconds. “I’m listening.”

I tried to keep my eyes on his face. “I’m sorry for what I did last time.”

He turned toward me, his right hand in mid-air, palm up. “Well, I would be lying if I told you it didn’t affect me.”

Sweat formed on my forehead. “I know, and I’m truly sorry.”

He was back at the counter. “Why would you refuse a Share?”

I lowered my head and then forced myself to face him. “It’s a long story.”

Kam slowly looked around. “We have all the time in the universe here.”

Right. I opened my mouth to talk, but nothing came out. I cleared my throat twice before I was able to whisper, “I didn’t want to share with you that I have feelings for a human.”

Kam’s loaded tray disappeared from his hands. “What did you say?”

I cleared my voice a third time and then repeated, “I have feelings for a human.”

“You’re serious.” After a moment of hesitation, he went to sit on the coach opposite mine.

I waited a moment to confess the rest. I was feeling dizzy.

Kam’s expression changed. “Are you okay?”

“Why—?”

His eyes followed my body from feet to head and then back.

I looked at my hands and gasped. My astral projection was unfocused. It was more a ghost of my Earthly image than a proper solid projection.

Friday Snippet #52

Friday Snippet #50

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Nano posterized

I have neglected my Friday Snippets long enough, but here is number fifty in all its literary splendor.

From Marie’s Journey, the fourth installment in The Ginecean Chronicles:

“Sit on the stool and give me your left arm.” The order was given with a tired tone. The old woman must have gone through myriads of branding. She turned to her right to open a big tome lying on a low table.

Marie sat as told, but before completing the task and raising her arm, she asked, “What’s your name?”

The older woman raised her eyes from the book and looked over the brazier. Surprise was soon replaced by interest in her wary gaze. “Why do you want to know? Nobody’s ever asked before.”

“So you won’t forget about me.” Marie kept her eyes on her.

The older woman tilted her head by the side, the orange-red coals illuminated the lower part of her face and her uneven teeth shone unexpectedly white when a grin spread through her face. “They call me Mala.”

“Marie.” She raised her arm then and watched as Mala chose between several branding tools neatly arranged on a low table on her left.

Friday Snippet #50

Friday Snippet #49

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Rainy Day Space Needle

An image is worth a thousand words, or something like it. Weather-wise, draw you conclusion from the picture on your left.

It’s August. Sneaky month. I didn’t see it coming.

Still working on three different projects at once, and I have a short to write within a week. I’m halfway through rewriting Elios, and almost done editing Gaia. Chapter #1 and #2 of Marie’s Journey are back in my editor’s hands.

Still painting. More on that later.

From Elios:

(Elios has just rescued two aliens.)

The male stared at me in surprise, and then looked for the woman. As their eyes met, a smile appeared on his mouth, and he chirped a long sequence of notes. At her short answer, he pushed himself up, trying to reach her, but fell on the ground.

“Easy, big fellow.” I hooked my right arm under his and helped him on his feet.

Given his size, he was surprisingly light. He gave me a thankful smile, then kneeled by the woman and rested his head on her belly, and while gently caressing it, he sung to the baby.

Feeling I was intruding in their private moment, I looked away and made to leave.

The man grabbed my hand and stopped me. “Tankiu.” He looked at the woman and then back at me. “Tankiuforsevingrea.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t understand.”

“Tankiuforsevingas.” He smiled. “Tankiu.”

I repeated what he had just said in my mind and I finally understood. His accent had tricked me, but he had spoken in Standard, a common travelers’ language.

“Thank you,” he said one more time when I smiled. “Your soul healed us back to conscious life.”

He touched me again and showed me what had happened by triggering a Share. When I had reached for the woman, for a brief moment I had imagined their story could be mine. I had felt their love and their pain in losing each other. With my empathic touch I had jumpstarted their consciousness back to life, like he had just said.

I shivered. “You looked dead.”

“We were in non-life.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Our bodies shut down. We waited for help. Your love saved us.”

Friday Snippet #49

Friday Snippet #48 and Monday Drawing #17

Monica La Porta, , , , , , , , 2 Comments

InfiorataSunny. Sunny. Sunny. That’s it. Enough reasons to put together my resurrected Monday Drawing ad the Friday Snippet in the same post. My tan allows me special powers. Also this is my blog.

Nothing to add on the rewriting/editing front. Same as last week.

From Elios, which is slowly taking shape:

Areel paused a moment and lowered his head. “Soon, we’ll be reunited.”

I nodded. “Yes, very soon.”

“You’ll see, you’ll feel better once you’re home.”

“Areel…”

“Yes?”

“I can’t help but wonder about the softness of her skin and the pleasure we would have experienced with the briefest sharing of our thoughts.”

Areel gasped and for a moment his image faltered. “But you haven’t attempted a Share with her? You told me you hadn’t—”

“I’m the epitome of the perfect Observer.” I looked at him and shrugged. “Never touched her. Never kissed her.”

“Good. That’s good. Because you know what would have happened to her if you had.”

I raised one hand to stop him from spelling it out for me. Every Observer knew the rules and I didn’t want to talk about scraping her mind clean of my memories.

But Areel keep talking. “She could lose her mind through the process.”

“I know.” The procedure was the equivalent of a sophisticated lobotomy.

“You know the exposure to us changes the subject’s DNA—”

“I remember.”

“Then you also remember that the subject transfers Solean DNA in their genes and passes the memories of us to the next generation, and then the next, changing both their history and ours.”

“I remember!” I finally shouted, but Areel wasn’t done yet.

“There are too many implications in having a superior knowledge way ahead of time. Especially for a violent society like the humans.”

I was furious with him, but I composed my voice and repeated, “I did not touch her.”

“I trust you.” He sounded apologetic and before I could ask what was all that about, he whispered, “It makes everything easier.”

Friday Snippet #48 and Monday Drawing #17

Friday Snippet #47

Monica La Porta, , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Greenerie inkThe Pacific Northwest is experiencing a sun epidemic. My sales are sinking, but every indie authors and their mothers are complaining about not selling, so I’m partially relieved. It must be the sun. Unable to control the weather and the publishing market, I blissfully make lemonades by walking mile after mile and writing when I’m not walking—I wish I could do both at the same time. I’ve been also on a baking spree. More on that later.

From Elios:

Around mid-December, one rainy afternoon, I was sitting on the floor, hoping to sense her aura and feeling bereft without her mental presence to soothe my pain. A familiar but unpleasant feeling possessed me. Darkness embraced my mind and I was sucked up into the tunnel before I could react.

I was enraged, but not surprised to see both Areel and Kam at the other end waiting for me. “What did you do?”

Kam waived one hand in the air. “You didn’t give us a choice.”

“And you thought forcing me here would be for the best?” I had never come to feel so close to want to beat anyone. Physical energy built in me and needed to be released. “You thought involving Lex to give you my mental signature would be a good idea?”

“We didn’t know what to do—” Areel stepped forward and I stepped back. “I’m not going to force a Share on you!”

“Wouldn’t you now?” I looked at them and they flinched. “What did you tell Lex?”

“Nothing.” Kam lowered his eyes on the ground.

I shook, fists by my side. “Lex wouldn’t have given you access to my mental signature so that you could summon me here against my will for nothing. What did you tell him?”

“That you needed a vacation, but you were too busy with your mission to be bothered to take a break.” Areel gestured for me to look around.

Only then, I finally took in where we were, and it wasn’t our usual spot. “What are we doing on Karillion?” It was a place we used to go on vacation, a tropical island close to our Academy. Ancient pink sand beaches with perfumed seawater and warm temperatures. I looked down at my feet already buried in the shore. The fine pebbles mixed with the sand and moved at once with the water, rolling back and forth and creating a melodic sound, almost music. I had always though it was the most relaxing place in the universe. Not at the moment. “I am still doing my job. This, what you did, is uncalled for.”

Areel maintained his gaze on me. “We only wanted to help.”

I felt angrier. I didn’t like to feel vulnerable and right then I was devastated. “I wouldn’t stop working on a mission for anything and you know it.”

“That wasn’t our concern.” Kam discarded the cloth around his waist and waded into the water. “Come.”

*Today’s drawing is an inked version of one of the illustrations I made for The Prince’s Day Out. I used Paint.Net as my usual to saturate the colors of the original and I added the ink filter.

Friday Snippet #47

Friday Snippet #46

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My art on Someone else's cell phone

Another great week in the Pacific Northwest. Last Sunday, I went for a hike and discovered I’m not in the wonderful shape I thought I was. The climb is quite steep though and I did swim in the icy waters of the lake once we reached the end of the trail. It felt awesome, but I temporarily lost the use of my limbs. Worth it.

I finished several paintings using Fresh Paint, but I hesitated to share the one titled Rainbow Feelings on twitter. I thought it looked too crowded. I’m glad I decided otherwise, because I received several kind tweets commenting on it.  My naïf art is now a lock screen background on someone’s cell phone. And that is priceless.

On the writing front, my latest news is that I joined a co-op on NetGalley. I have no data to report at the moment. I’m working on Elios and keeping a steady 1500 words a day, while also editing Gaia. Crossing fingers, I should be able to publish the two of them for Christmas. Meanwhile, Marie’s Journey, the fourth in The Ginecean Chronicles series—formerly known as a trilogy—is in the capable hands of my editor, Amy Eye.

From Elios:

“Now, I want you to do it again, by yourself,” Lex said.

I blinked.

“Try.”

In earth time, several hours had passed since the beginning of the session and I was mentally tired. Almost certainly, my physical body—lying naked on the bed—was aching as well.

“You must trust me.”

“Of course.” I summoned the image of when I had gone deep diving in one of the seawater pools by the Academy. Lex had asked me to find a memory that symbolized my reaching for the innermost part of my soul and that image had stood out. I shed my clothes as I had done that day and dove into the bright, turquoise waters. It wasn’t a coincidence my human eyes had turquoise flickers in them. I kept diving and the colors all around me darkened. Soon, I was surrounded by black waters, but I wasn’t scared. I felt at peace; cocooned in a warm, safe liquid. I was ready for the next step and surprised it had taken so little effort. I switched my point of view, and, as I had done in the previous sessions guided by Lex, I opened my eyes to a different scenario. I was in Seattle, but I wasn’t. I levitated over the vast expanse of the city, myself as big as the sky, floating over the roads and the buildings. I expanded my consciousness. I stretched my ego until I was no more. I looked down and I saw reality as a constant stream of mathematical possibilities. Every single action taken by the individuals living down there could be explained and predicted with great accuracy. I lingered to analyze one of the possible futures this city would live through in the span of ten years. I fast forwarded to one century. Then, I came back to five minutes from the present. A second later, I was in the now. “Amazing.”

Lex chuckled and when I looked at him I saw the sparkle in his eyes. “You, my pupil, are the youngest Observer to ever achieve the Dark Void with barely a mission in.”

Friday Snippet #46

Friday Snippet #45

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Summer Turmoil

Sunny, exceptionally sunny in Seattle. Therefore, I have little to say about this past week other than I walked miles and miles and  got sunburned. Rewriting Elios is hard and I’m struggling through the process, but I am working on it every day. Conversely, drawing with Fresh Paint is easy and I’m having fun with it. Summer Turmoil is one of my latest drawings.

From Elios (working title)

“Are you up for a session?” Kam had the uncanny ability to check on me whenever my mental defenses where at my lowest.

I closed the window, stepped inside and sat on the lonely chair. Breathed in and out and let the rest of the room disappear one item at a time. First the wall in front of me, then the one on my right, next the one on my left. A blank screen engulfed my vision. The mosaic marble tiles with their floral pattern followed the walls. I was sitting on a floating chair. Then, I was simply floating and the blank screen zoomed toward me. A slow moving tunnel sucked me in and I emerged at the other end to face a smiling Kam.

“You made it.” He raised an eyebrow. “You look horrible.”

“Thank you.” Next time, I should be more careful in composing my mental appearance. I had been successful so far to keep both Kam and Areel unaware of my inner turmoil. “Where is Areel?”

“Unexpected session with his Guide.” Kam materialized the furniture in the astral room as he strolled toward the center.

I had to move out of the way to make space for a chair and two cabinets. “Why do you bother?” I regretted my words as soon as they were out of my mouth.

“You know why.” He blinked and the old, battered couch we had spent so many hours sitting on appeared before him. “I like our dig to be lifelike. It makes our shared time here all the more enjoyable.” With a tilt of his head, Kam gestured for me to join him on the soft cushion he was patting.

The fabric let out a fine cloud of dust that reached my nose. I waved my hand to dismiss my earlier statement. “You’re right of course.” I added a few pillows and rugs to the floor and went to lie there instead. “So, is Areel having problems again?” Our friend was still healing after the trauma of his first mission’s end.

“It takes time to adjust to the idea you had to doom an entire species to oblivion.”

Friday Snippet #45

Friday Snippet #44

Monica La Porta, , , 4 Comments

Finestra sull'Umbria SketchedGray outside. Gaia is in the hands of the editor once again. It took me a long time to implement his corrections and add my changes. Hopefully, this second time around it will go faster. Meanwhile, I’m working on Elios. A nightmare. I must rewrite the whole 90k words. The first 80 pages are mostly inner monologue. Although there’s a good reason for that—Elios is an Observer—the story can’t stand on its own the way it is written now. I don’t look forward to the task ahead.

From Gaia (still a working title):

It was Wednesday afternoon, and Sara was checking the weather to see if we could finally go for a hike somewhere nearby. I was trying to focus on something on TV while Pallino had decided to sleep on my lap.

“Spending a few days away from Seattle is going to help you reconnect with the rest of the world,” Sara said.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, it’s been proven that open air is beneficial for the health of the gray matter. In your case, there isn’t a lot left to save, but still.”

Suddenly, the doorbell rang, and I jumped, surprised because we weren’t expecting any of our friends. Pallino woke up, irritated by my lack of manners.

Sara went to see who it was when I felt it. I felt him.

I knew exactly who was behind that door before she reached the other room. I sat down on the first chair I found because I couldn’t stand up, couldn’t breathe. I just wanted to scream.

Elios had come back.

Friday Snippet #44

Friday Snippet #42

Monica La Porta, , , , 4 Comments

Libera la MenteNot a lot to recap since my three thousand years stint in the alternate universe I went to a few days ago. I can only add what I think happened to my radio host, author Frank Smith, who keeps quiet about the whole thing. He declared having screamed at unanimated objects for four minutes. That’s my answer to him:

“Frank, although we didn’t take the same portal, I’m pretty sure I saw you waving at me at least in two different occasions. The first, if I remember correctly–it was a long time ago– it was in the occasion of my coronation as Empress Monica the First of Moon and Mars. I didn’t mention this detail earlier because I like to keep it real and humble. Anyway, I think you were among the delegation from Ganimedes. I could be mistaken. The second, I had a glimpse of you at the inauguration of the Transoceanic Railroad on Jupiter. Quite the crowd gathered for that occasion. You were accompanied by an attractive Venusian and quite interested in her gills. Although not excusable that could explain why you didn’t notice when the first bomb exploded. Since we finished our interview, I surmised everything went fine on your side.”

And now, my snippet. From, Green Glass and High Tide, Jules and Lucia are having lunch together in one of the Rotunda Restaurants just outside the megalopolis:

They settled on the cushions and played with the music selection while waiting for their food. Two servos arrived from who knows where and deposited the artfully arranged plates on the windowsill, took Lucia’s credit number by asking her to look into the robotic eye they all sported on their trunk, and finally left.

“I’d like to move back here,” Lucia commented, while having a second helping of her crème de cassiope.

“Don’t… say that. You know this is temporary.” Jules dropped her spoon and looked at Lucia with pleading eyes.

“It could be permanent.”

“Hell is going to break loose as soon as I start my investigation.” Jules pinched the arch of her nose.

Lucia thought that Jules looked more and more like their father. Even in the way they expressed anxiety, they moved their hands in the exact same gestures. “I can help you with that.”

“I think is better if you leave as soon as you can… so that the aftermath doesn’t reach you.”

“Nonsense, I’m not going to abandon ship.”

“Listen to me, Lucia. I love having you around, but, have you considered that maybe I will have to run away…?” Jules’s comlink chimed harmoniously and she made an I-told-you-so face. “And hell is going to break loose in three… two… one—she raised one finger to shush Lucia—Rizieri’s here. Yes, I’ll wait for him. Thanks.” Jules tapped gently her earlobe to close the call. “I’ve been assigned to a cleric. This is the beginning of the end.”

Lucia touched her sister’s arm. “May the Truth prevails… as father would say.”

“Forever and ever,” Jules finished the formulaic prayer with a sigh.

Friday Snippet #42