Short Story in Progress: Doll House

While I wait for Static Push to come back from editing, I have decided to try my hand at something a bit different. Doll House is based on a brief by my friend, Lee Hodgson. He provided me with a very short theme, and I could immediately feel the story unfold in my mind. So I started writing:

There is a world of dreamers, drifting through the void of space. The seeds of life, a pre-packaged colony that will take many years to reach its destination. Humans sealed in pods like packaged dolls.

 

But there is one person awake, although he shouldn’t be. One among thousands. Trying to survive, alone, in a place he does not know, with only the mindless walking vat-clones to keep him company.

 

He is four years old. And this is his doll house.

DollHouse-CoverMock3

You can find the work in progress over on my WriteOn profile, where I am adding and editing live (which is a little scary in and of itself). But no guts, no glory, right?

And yes, that is my son, Eli, who happily got dressed up and allowed me to photograph him for the (temporary) cover image. This story is for him, my little space man.

All comments are welcome, and if you have any themes or scenarios you might like to see turned into a short story, let me know!

Rich

A Date with a Slate

DataSlate-Cover

Recently I guest-hosted on Episode 9 on the Lave Radio Dataslate podcast. Head over to their website to listen to the episode where we discuss news, writing and review some great books.

Go listen to the episode now!

For anyone who has heard me on Ready Player 2, this is a considerably more subdued version of me, with nearly 90% less swearing and innuendo, which for me isn’t just impressive. It’s life threatening.

Do You Want to Build a Snowman?

If you follow me on Twitter, then I’m sure you know by now that I’m a huge fan of Elite: Dangerous. So much so that I’m now even sporting a freakin’ geekin’ EDTracker on top of my bonce for enhanced gameplay while I’m traversin’ the ‘verse.

You might also know that while grinding, killing, truckin’ and questing are all things I love to do, sometimes an opportunity presents itself that I just can’t pass up…

Meet Mr. Frosty, the Sunman:

MrFrosty_GalactusEdition

These binary stars can be found in the Miaplacidus system, and when I saw the angle, I just couldn’t resist. Huge thanks to my wingmates, who all had to perform some fine-tune maneuvers in their shiny new Vultures while I was shouting “Left a bit… Right a bit!” over Skype.

Cast in order of randomness:
CMDR Adyin – Right Eye
CMDR flibblesan – Left Eye
CMDR Zzleezz – Button
CMDR Zebwen – Camera!

If you’re out flying around in the big black, and you see some ships trying to perform some strange maneuver in front of interesting looking spacial bodies. don’t fret. We’re probably just trying to make a winking smiley.

Rich

You can find my original post on the ED forums here.