Punk!Phil, as cosplayed by Vic (Twitter, tumblr, website), posed for this awesome picture with the TARDIS! If you’re not sure who Phil is (Twitter, YouTube), or why he’s wearing this, follow the links!
Database of the Ageless Kings (Serial Story) Part 4
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 3.5
Part 4: An Emu Goes to The Market
They stood hugging for what felt like a long time. Sophia didn’t know what else to do to comfort him. In their little ship in the middle of an asteroid field that was once his home, all she could do was hug him back. The more she tried to avoid thinking about her body being against his the more she noticed how shapely he was. Under his slightly loose clothing, he was in very good condition.
An alarm pulled her out of her thoughts.
She sat back down at the navigation controls and saw that there was another ship coming towards them. “That ship has its weapons aimed at us.” It was big, at ten times the size of their ship.
“I don’t understand. That’s a royal cruiser,” Phil’s red teary eyes looked at the ship in utter confusion.
“That’s a cruiser? I’d hate to see a battleship.” She hit a few buttons on the control panel and said, “Royal Cruiser. This is the Phillip Two. We are unarmed please advise.” She’d meant to ask why it was the Phillip-Two and what had happened to the first. In the stories she’d read there were ten different ways the first had been destroyed.
“Phillip-Two, you are in a stolen royal yacht. Lower your shields and prepare for boarding.”
Looking up at the Prince, she waited for him to say something. When he didn’t she said, “They think I stole your ship. What do you want to do?”
“Um… I guess we surrender?”
Shaking her head, she said to him, “Are you sure? They could just as easily shoot us when our shields go down.”
He opened his mouth and nothing came out. Before he could say anything the cruiser hailed them again, “In the name of his highness Abernathy First of his name and rightful ruler of the galaxy, lower your shields.”
Without hesitation, she pushed them back into hyperspace. Once again without coordinates but this time she knew she could change them as they travelled.
“We’re running? Why are we running?” Phil’s voice became shrill and his eyes tried their best to imitate a kicked puppy’s.
“Abernathy isn’t one of your siblings and the only Abernathy in the stories was a rich mining tycoon. I had a bad feeling about them.”
His eyes widened and he just stared at her. Finally he yelled, “You just turned us into fugitives!”
“Better than dead!” she yelled back.
“WARK! WARK!” yelled Hagrid.
Both Sophia and Phil jumped and turned to the door. Hagrid was swaying left and right and making choking noises. Eventually he just gagged and spit up a large ball of feathers and something electronic.
“That’s the tracker.” Phil bent down and picked it up wiping it off on his jeans. “We have the tracker. I know someone who can help us. We need to get to The Market.”
She gave him a disdainful look and waited for him to tell her where it was.
“Oh right it’s um… the ship should know.” She searched the database and found that it wasn’t on a planet, it was an entire solar system. Twelve planets, three hundred moons, and several floating ships. It was immense. “Thank you for saving our lives.”
“My pleasure. I like being alive. I hate to be practical when our lives are being threatened ever five minutes but we need fuel and food. Hagrid has eaten most of what was here before and you’ve eaten all the cereal I brought.”
“We’ll be able to get everything we need at The Market.”
* * *
“We need the moon called Shimerman.” The moon was located closest to the sun and the databanks said it was one of the roughest places in The Market.
“Do you have any weapons?” Sophia asked as the were getting ready to go.
“No and if I did, I’d leave them behind. There’s only two laws on Shimerman and the first is that if you want to kill someone you do it with your fists.”
“What’s the second?”
“Don’t piss off Little Sister.”
“Who?”
He reached for the button that opened the airlock and looked at Hagrid. He opened his mouth like he was going to ask a question and then closed it and shook his head. “She runs the place. We’re not going anywhere near her.”
There was something thrilling about stepping off the ship onto an alien moon. She was less thrilled when she noticed the rest of the shoppers. They were human, or at least human looking. They were different shades of brown, pink and beige but they could all be from different places on earth. Where they differed was the style of clothing, tattoo, and piercings.
The entire planet looked like a bad Blade Runner rip off. It was the grimy future that eighties movies loved.
Part way to their destination Hagrid made a strange whistling noise and walked away from them in the wrong direction. Phil looked like he was going to try and stop the bird but didn’t. Sophia wasn’t worried, she’d placed a short-range tracker on him. Hopefully he’d stay out of trouble.
They were going was a little shop called Buck’s. The owner, who she assumed was called Buck, sat in the back of a large room that looked vaguely like a trash yard, if everything in the yard had a little tag with a price.
“You, My Friend are supposed to be dead!”
Buck and Phil hugged a quickly and awkwardly. The hug of people who’d once been close but now didn’t know what was acceptable.
“Not yet but someone is trying hard. I took this tracker off my hull it was laced with explosives.” When Buck gave him a sceptical look he added, “Ok well… she took it off. Can you tell me who’s tech this is?”
Buck took the tracker and looked at if for a little before getting an eyepiece that looked like the ones jewelers used. After what felt like years he said, “You really don’t know?”
“No I don’t. Who’s tech is it?”
“It’s Galactic Royal Tech.” Buck paused frowning. “This has your sisters royal signature all over it. Your sister was trying to kill you.”
If you’re enjoying this year’s serial story why not check out those from past years?
Land of Oz
No, I’m not talking about Australia.
You can actually visit the Land of Oz theme park on Fridays in June 2017, or September 8-10, 2017!
The theme park is located in North Carolina, and is only open for a very short time each year.
Are you interested in travelling to Oz? Jen has retired from working as a travel agent. Hope you’ve enjoyed Fandom Travel.
Compliments for American Standard
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
It’s easy to get angry and righteous when things don’t work, but sometimes it’s important to recognize when things go well.
When we moved into our new home, three years ago now, I really wanted a proper tap and so we bought this one.
Isn’t it pretty? It from a company called American Standard.
Unfortunately it broke a few months ago. Two weeks ago I decided to try and fix it. After about twenty minutes, I realized that I had no idea how to fix it so I called the company.
I was hoping they’d walk me through the repairs. Instead the extremely friendly person on the other side of the line told me it was broken and they’d send me a new one. All I had to do was send proof of purchase and my address.
Less then a week later we received our new tap. Here’s the email I sent to them.
Hello,
Two weeks ago I contacted your telephone help line and spoke with Shannon.
I was impressed by both her professionalism and friendliness. She was able to help me quickly and knew exactly what was needed.
I needed a replacement, which was sent promptly.
This message is to thank you for the excellent customer service and I look forward to buying more American Standard Products.
Once again thank you,
Éric Desmarais
Later days,
Éric
Booth 2501 at Ottawa Comiccon
JenEric Designs will be at Ottawa Comiccon booth 2501!
Each day this weekend we’ll have two different coffee flavours for you to try. Come by and say hello.
Blush Guest Post: A Gender Exploration
A Gender Exploration
by Jamieson Wolf
When I started to write Lust and Lemonade, I didn’t intend to write a book that dealt with gender.
Before writing Lust and Lemonade, I was primarily a romance and erotica writer. I delved into the lives of men and the ones that loved them, set in mythical worlds with otherworldly beings. The men fought for each other with every fibre of their being, using their magic to save the day and save the man they loved.
When I started writing Lust and Lemonade, I only intended to write about what I knew. I knew gay men being one myself. But as I continued to write, other characters wanted to come onto the page, too. One of them was a woman named Poppy and she was pregnant. She was also a lesbian.
I didn’t know anything about pregnancy and what women went through with having a child. I relied on my beta reader for info on the female gender and about what is involved with having a lesbian relationship. I was in uncharted waters and Google would only take me so far. I had written women characters before, but the focus was always on the men and the relationships they were having. The women were only secondary and hadn’t taken centre stage. Lust and Lemonade was the first of my novels to feature strong women in lesbian relationships.
As I kept writing, I began to realise something. Two of my characters were transgender. One of them is a transgender woman and the other is a transgender man. If I had no concept of lesbian relationships, I had absolutely zero idea about the transgender population.
This uncharted territory was rather frightening for me as a writer, but it was also freeing in a way. I have never researched a novel before Lust and Lemonade. I delved into the lives of transgender people and what they went through to become who they always were, who they were meant to be.
I also wrote about straight characters finding love. It seemed right that if I was going to write about all kinds of other genders, that I included them too. The characters demanded it, really. It was only fair, they said, that if I was going to have gay, lesbian, and transgender characters in my novel, that the straight people get fair representation, too.
So, when I started writing Lust and Lemonade, I didn’t intend to write a book about gender. The book let me know where it wanted to go and the characters that peopled its pages. I also knew that, even though I’ve written many romances, that there would be no sex on the page. It would all take place off stage.
A friend of mine asked me how I could have lust in the title and not include sex scenes? It’s simple. The lust that is in the title is about the lust of getting to know someone, of becoming enraptured and enthralled with them. Much as I became enthralled with all the people in Lust and Lemonade.
I may not have set out to write about gender, but I’m so glad I did. I learned something about others that I didn’t know before, learned about their battles to be who they were and who they were meant to be. Writing Lust and Lemonade made me a better writer and, quite possibly, a better person.
Find out what happens to Blaine, Nancy, Mike, Chuck, and company in Lust and Lemonade, available now from Renaissance Press! You can get your copy here:
https://renaissancebookpress.com/product/lust-and-lemonade/
Jamieson Wolf is an award winning, Number One Best Selling Author. He is a poet, a blogger and, above all, a story teller.
He currently lives in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada with his cat, Tula, who is fearless, and his husband Michael, who is magic.
You can find Jamieson at home at www.jamiesonwolf.com
You can also read his blog at www.jamiesonwolfauthor.wordpress.com
The Importance of Taking a Break
Hello My Imaginary Friends,
Some mornings I wake up thinking about all the things I have to do and I panic. I lay in bed and stare at the ceiling paralyzed. I’m not afraid of work, or working a lot. I’m terrified of forgetting something.
Since September, I’ve increased the amount of things I do and I’m not just talking about taking care of a baby Dragon. I’ve written a few more short stories, added a few more jobs, laid out more books, and roasted more coffee than ever before.
I’m extremely lucky both in the quality of my clients and that I had this wonderful opportunity to watch my child grow up right before my eyes. That said, other than a week at Disney that was a lot of fun but not relaxing, I took a few days to myself after Christmas.
I’m starting to feel like butter spread over too much bread. I know my limits, and with my parental leave quickly running out, I need some time to recharge.
If you don’t force yourself to take some time off from doing all the little things that stress you out, you’re never going to get the chance.
So I’m taking next week, the 15-19 of May, off to relax, watch some TV, and play some video games. Hopeful the weather will be nice and I can take the Dragon to the park. No plans, no big obligations, just me, my wife, and baby Dragon.
After that week, I have to start preparing for my return to work, and I’ll have 3 books to work on, along with more conventions.
Later Days,
Éric
Rowboat
Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…
We found Eric and Ariel’s rowboat washed up on the shore!