Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Round 2

I enjoyed my first experience with Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday so much that I have decided to participate every week. Which brings us to my next installment of Abens in Remota, my novel in progress. Before you read my snippet please take note of the fact that many other authors are also involved with SFFS at http://scififansat.blogspot.com/.

Now our protagonists find themselves in a silent place, attempting to adjust to life together again after millenniums apart. This new physical reality is a slowly thawing thing:

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She considers the way he wordlessly studies her on the way out, wondering if he is comparing her new form to the original, or to all the others she has inhabited. This current vessel feels so small and soft when considering the others, and when regarding her first body–the one Sean fell in love with–some saw-toothed thing works back and forth in her chest cavity, jabs knitting needles through her tear ducts into her skull, spills boiling oil down her shoulders and back. She realizes the grimace she wears must be unpleasant, but so is jealousy of yourself, of your former beauty. Then again her lover is only a pale sliver of his own former majesty. With a neck swivel and a smirk she returns to work.

They go on subdued sightseeing expeditions now that they live in Washington, DC. There are no pyramids constructed of blindingly bright indestructible material, no long-necked, needle-toothed Lebonectus craning toward the subway to snap reptilian jaws at Sean and Cordelia as they ride past. There are no corpse pits, no sentient trees used in place of buildings. Instead the world passing by their subway car is populated by loading docks and clogged roads, schools and pedestrian traffic. It should be neither exciting nor new, but this is not the District of Columbia they have known so many times.

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You can read others snippet from Abens in Remota in my previous blog posts: Tag Part 2 and Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Round 1. Thanks for reading, and do let me know if you have any suggestions! And please don’t forget to read the other authors of SFFS at http://scififansat.blogspot.com/.

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday Round 1

This is my first time participating in Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday, despite the fact that Heidi Ruby Miller has been telling me about it for months. I’ve finally listened to her sage advice, as we all should.

The snippet below is from my novel in progress, Abens in Remota. It is a tragic romance with strong elements of fantasy and science fiction and lots of action. Lots, lots, lots. Readers accustomed to my experimentation with form will find plenty of surreal mind-bending to keep them busy within the text itself. In this scene our two central characters attempt to become reacquainted with each other after more than a century apart…

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The sun will disappear over the horizon soon, and seems to be pulling the clouds over itself to stay warm for the night. Cordelia remembers Sean saying something about that to her in worlds past. The sun in question was green, and those clouds were silvery with toxic metal particles, but it was an adorable notion regardless. She closes her eyes, listens for his body and subtle movements below the noise of the tide coming in. Her senses assure her this is really happening.

He says, “This is the most beautiful sunset ever.”

She draws in breath with lips twisted in a dour I’m-going-to-shoot-you-down way, but stops, nods. “In the history of this universe, and the millions we destroyed.”

“Come on now, Lotus. You know it was more than millions.”

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You can read another snippet in my previous blog post Tag Part 2.