Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #12: Superhero fashion

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post snippets from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This snippet is from a middle-grade superhero WIP, Woodland Girl and the Mechanic:

Here, the main character, Jared, has just offered his newly super-powered friend, Maria, some comic books to give her costume ideas.

-----

"Most of these women are almost naked.” Maria rolled her eyes. "You’re such a pervert, Jared. I 'd prefer something like they wear in Venusian Princess Himiko.”

I snatched the stack out of her hands. “Give me a break. Venusian Princess Himiko? Don’t they fight in dresses? How can you fight in a dress? That’s just stupid.”

“They’re magic dresses,” she said, a pout on her face. She shrugged. “It’s no more stupid than fighting in a bikini. I’m not going to wear anything like those slutty girls in your comics.”

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #11: Magic User's Guide to Educational Reform

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday - a chance to post snippets from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

In honor of completing the draft of my fantasy WIP, Mind Crafter, I'm putting up a snippet from that work that gives some insight into the protagonist, Shala. She's a scholar-mage who doesn't quite understand why everyone doesn't value knowledge and access to knowledge as much as she does (btw, a crafter is a type of magic user and silja is an abstract strategy board game kind of like a cross of chess and go):

     Ansa looked down at her hands, an uncomfortable expression on her face. “Mistress, I don't know how to read. I can write and read the characters for my name, but no more. I am sorry. You shouldn’t have been sent such a foolish girl.”

    “A mind that can grasp silja with such ease is never one I would call foolish,” Shala said, keeping her voice neutral. “Well, I suppose I must teach you how to read. You will find it a useful skill. With a quick mind like yours, I am sure I can teach you many of the most common characters in a rather short time.”

     The ways of the palace befuddled Shala. Not cultivating basic reading in the servants of the important officials seemed absurd. At House Lran, none of her fellow crafters would tolerate an illiterate servant.

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #10: Always Be Prepared

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday - a chance to post snippets from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

I decided to put up another snippet from my MG superhero story, Woodland Girl and the Mechanic.


For reference, the Woodland Girls are basically a Girl Scout-type organization in the story (they sell fudge instead of cookies, though).

“We caught a mobster the first night out!” Maria said. “Lucky! I wish there was a criminal catching achievement pin. I have my advanced criminology pin, but that’s just for doing fingerprinting. Kind of dumb mobster if you ask me. What was he doing in an alleyway robbing some old guy? Aren’t all the mobsters all like millionaires from selling drugs and making shop keepers pay them money so they won't break their windows?”

Fingerprinting? What kind of stuff did they expect normal Woodland Girls to be doing?

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #9: Not Quite Hero Material

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This Saturday, I'm going to take a break from Mind Crafter to offer a snippet from a temporarily shelved (but still fun) project, Woodland Girl and the Mechanic, a middle-grade superhero story:

 "Jersey Devil fights crime without powers,” I said.

Maria rolled her eyes. I wished she made a mask where I couldn’t see her eyes.


She rose from the ground surrounded by a faint blue haze. "Jersey Devil isn’t even real. Second of all, Jersey Devil, even in the comics, spent seven years training with kung fu masters in China and three years with acrobats from the Cirque de Lune.” She sighed. “Jared, you have trouble just running the track in gym."

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #8: This is what we call a tongue lashing

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP, Mind Crafter:

The protagonist has just angered her empress during a conversation about the protagonist's place in story's society. I'm cutting into the center of her tirade:

". . .I will rip off my chains, and I will rip off the chains of millions if I have my way. You acquiesce to yours and act as if being bound makes you superior. It is disgusting and unbecoming an intelligent woman. Your arrogance is laughable and your delusion pathetic. A barbarian child is your superior. At least they understand a slave’s life is no true life."

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #7: What is life?

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter. 

Fouang cleared his throat, obvious irritation in his face--no doubt angry over being made to wait.

Tua resisted a snort. She would make him learn his place. 

“Do you know what living is, Vice Minister?” she said.

“I am no philosopher. I would say living is not being dead.”

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #6: Feasting Upon Vengeful Rage

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter. The protagonist has been summoned to a clandestine meeting with her empress when she realizes the decor of the room she's in is a bit disturbing:

Shala’s breath caught. The paintings were not simple battle scenes. A young soldier in gleaming armor, his face contorted in pain, hoisted an imperial standard aloft while everyone burned around him. Everyone in the empire would recognize the face of Prince Daro, the greatest casualty of the Battle of the Golden Valley. Others lands might forever downplay such an inglorious defeat, but the empire feasted on the Golden Valley to feed their rage even ten years later. The recognition of the prince refocused her attention on the other paintings and their titles: “The Treachery of the wicked General Narakeen”, “The Final Stand at the Golden Valley”, and “The Cowardly Tiger burns the Noble Hawk.” 

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #5: No trespassing means no trespassing

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter:

Frigid air knifed at his skin. Howling winds whipped through the mountains. Flurries of white flakes filled the entire area rendering any attempts to see beyond the immediate vicinity futile. A clawed hand gripped his shoulder. His blood pounded in his ears. The Vali had finally come.

Gone Gene Fishin'

I'm off to the annual meeting of the American Society for Virology. So, no Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday or Six Sunday for met his week. Helena and/or Gail will return next week.

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #4: Always find the positive in a given situation

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter.

In this six, the protagonist (Shala) finds herself having a most curious nightmare in which she's a foreign woman on a doomed ship. For reference, in this book, a crafter is a type of magic user with specialized abilities. Shala is, when she's awake at least, a mind crafter.

Through the sheets of rain and flying debris, she spied a golden-haired woman yelling into the storm. Why hadn’t the damn Caranian air crafter protected them? Despite all the silver they'd given her, they were still going to die. A fellow Dassian would have done more for them. Jalisia cackled into the wind. A fellow Dassian also would have wanted double the silver.

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #3: We're already measuring your coffin

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter.

In this six, the protagonist (Shala) finds herself talking to the Vice Minister of Harmony (basically a government internal security/secret police type ministry). The Vice Minister proceeds to gleefully describe the process of "Clouding", a procedure that strips the magical power away from errant crafters (the term for magic users in this setting):

"First, you see the panic settle over their face," Vice Minister Fouang said. "Then, the pain. Oh, how she writhed.” He stepped toward Shala, his face almost mirthful. “Then I saw it in her eyes, the exact moment they carved her soul. The screams would haunt your nightmares, Fifth Shala."

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #2: Chilling With the Empress

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site and links to other great speculative fiction authors at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.

This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter.

In this six, the protagonist finds herself summoned to the imperial palace after an act of heroism. Instead of a small private meeting, she instead has meet the empress in a formal audience with hundreds of people watching.

With her heart threatening to break into a sprint, Shala forced her face into practiced neutrality. She walked forward with her head down until she stood before the stairs to the throne dais. After she lowered herself to her knees, she placed her forehead and hands on the carpet. Whatever respect and deference a member of the Fifth Circle of House Lran might expect from common citizens, she knelt now before the Empress of the Larangian Empire and would pay proper respect.

“You are before Empress Tua of the Van,” a man’s voice announced. “She who sits on the Silver Throne. Defender of the land, protector of the people, head of Larang and heart of the empire.”

Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday #1: Reading someone's mind isn't always fun--for them

Welcome to #SFFSat – Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday -  a chance to post six sentences from a piece of speculative fiction. Want to join in? Check out the site at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday and follow the hashtag #SFFSat on Twitter.


This six is from my fantasy WIP Mind Crafter.


In this scene, the protagonist, a type of crafter (mage) specializing in mind magic is about to be interrogated telepathically by her superior about a massacre she witnessed. Here we see just why this type of mind magic isn't casually used as he begins to probe her thoughts:


The small tap grew into the prick of a needle. Shala quashed her defenses and instead concentrated on the Cleanser incident. Again, the bodies, the wailing, and the blood filled her mind. The prick of the needle became the throb of a dull ache. A long moment later, the pain coalesced into a ball of fire. Her breathing quickened and she dug her nails into her palms.