She was stalling for time, but it took a lot of courage to speak about his death.
Finally, she found it. “Both our ships were in the battle that killed him. We were in orbit above Faden. It’s a small planet, not really important, but that’s where we met with the Leath. Our ship was up in orbit, and his team was on the surface. I was afraid for him. I was always afraid when he was getting shot at, right?”
They nodded.
“It was a one-in-a-million chance, though,” Angie continued. She sighed and clenched her hands. “The Leath captain, he was… God, he was a stupid jackass. He tried to skip his ship off the planet’s atmosphere to get away, and one of our ships saw what he was doing and went to shoot him down. And they did.” She looked down at the table, not really seeing it at all. “The pieces of the ship were big enough that some of them made it to the ground. Manny was one of the ones hit.”
There was silence when she finished talking.
“Was it your ship?” Terrence asked curiously. “That shot him down, I mean.”
“No, thank God.” Angie shook her head. “I know no one could have predicted that, but to believe that I might have ordered the shot and then… That would have just killed me.” She shook her head at her choice of words. “God, what am I even saying?”
“We get it,” Terrence assured her.
She met his brown eyes and saw that he really did. Whatever loss Terrence had experienced, he understood the phases of it.
Angie looked at Tabitha. “It did help to tell it. It really did. Thank you.”
Tabitha smiled. As Angie looked away, lost in thought, Tabitha’s eyes strayed to the glass. Angie had clearly come in here hoping to get blind drunk, but now that she’d gotten the grief off her chest, she was no longer drinking. Tabitha didn’t think Angie had touched her beer since the break in the story.
Tabitha smiled at Terrence, and the two of them nodded at one another.
Another soul was starting to heal.
FINIS
Author Notes - Ell Leigh Clarke
July 21, 2018
Thank Yous
Massive thanks as always goes out to MA, my collaborator on this project. This is another one of those books like in the Second Dark Ages series where we each wrote half the words, and then one of us (yours truly) has the task of stitching it all together.
Can you guess who did what? ;)
Thanks MA for letting me in on another Kurtherian project. It’s been a blast.
Huge thank yous also go to Steve “Zen Master” Campbell and the JIT team who work tirelessly to make sure that all slips are caught and corrected, the files are uploaded on time.
Thank you so much folks. I truly appreciate all your efforts. :)
Reviewers
Massive thanks also goes out to our dedicated and engaged Amazon reviewers. It’s because of you that we get to do this full time. Without your five-star reviews and thoughtful words on the Zon we simply wouldn’t have enough folks reading these space shenanigans to be able to write full time.
You are the reason these stories exist and you have no idea how frikkin’ grateful I am to you.
Truly, thank you.
Readers and FB page supporters
Last, and certainly by no means least, I’d like to thank you for reading this book, and giving a new series a try. I’m hoping you’ve enjoyed it!
Your enthusiasm for the world, and the characters, is heart-warming. Your words of encouragement, and demands for the next episode, are the things that often stay in my mind as I flick from checking the facebook page to the scrivener file when I start each writing session.
Thank you for being here, for reading, for reviewing, and for always brightening my day with your words of support on the fb page. You rock my world, and without you, there really would be no reason to write these stories.
Thank you.
E x
Jayne Austin and Impossible Deadlines
If you followed the (now complete!) Molly series you have probably seen us talk about the Jayne Austin, Spy for Hire series in a bit of detail in our author notes.
You may also have seen me mention that were planning on doing a rapid release on this new series: three books in the space of a month. It takes about a month to write each one though, so we delay the door launch date of the first one until the third one is the ready: effectively “saving them up”.
Unfortunately, even though MA knows this, having been the guy that told me about it, when he hears me say when we plan to launch the first one he has this as:
Oh, I don’t have to do anything on this until the last two weeks. That’s good!
No. No MA. You do not get to do that! Someone has to find time to write all these things before we hit publish!
(I have eyerolls on tap.)
X-ray Vision and Poker
MA and I were talking about the Jayne, Spy for Hire series that we’ve been working on for a few months now.
MA suggested that in order to win at poker Jayne should use some kind of x-ray vision gadget/implants, in order to see her opponent’s cards.
Ellie: You know that would be cheating right?
MA: Yeah, she’s a dubious character…
Ellie: I guess she is now.
Giggles all round.
MA and Bragging
Sometimes it’s hard working with a collaborator who has multiple other projects going on at any one time. Even with the best will in the world some things fall through the cracks. For a while I was trying to get him to do some work on these beats for the Tabitha side of the story. Imagine my joy when I wake up one morning and is posted on Facebook that he’s been working on his beats, and that is working with Ell Leigh Clarke later today!
Woot!
Traction. Finally. Something is happening…
Optimistic, I showed up to our story meeting later that afternoon.
Ellie (beaming): so I see that you’ve been working on your beats?
MA: oh yeah I posted the earlier, about this meeting.
Ellie: (teasing) yeah I noticed how you were bragging that you were putting the work in. Let’s see them then?
Ellie waits expectantly.
MA turns bright red.
Ellie: What? What is it? We were meant to be working on these today right?
MA: Er…
Ellie (slow realization): you haven’t got the beats?
MA: not really.
Ellie: But you were bragging to the fans?
MA: Yeah. I got sidetracked.
MA and Largesse
You may have seen the pre-order email for this book: beyond the frontier in the days leading up to the release. I noticed it come through one afternoon and took a peek to see how Tabitha would describe the release.
I must say I was impressed. The email was fun, witty and just the right amount of snark.
In fact, I was so impressed that I forwarded it to MA expressing that this was the best Tabitha email that I’ve ever seen.
His response?
Hahahahaha....
In general the feedback on the cover has been positive - so I have to give it to you on this cover...
Just not yet - the author notes aren’t done ;-)
Michael Anderle
(He’d been reticent about the cover design and he and Jeff had given me shit over my mockup when I presented the idea.)
Ellie response:
This is so going in my author notes!
MA response:
… fuck …
you’d take advantage of my largesse so easily?
I’m not sure, but I don’t think it’s largesse if it’s not given freely and unreservedly…
And regarding the cover design, I have video footage of him and Jeff giving me shit over the concept it’s based on. Keep your eyes on the fb/ lawnfaries youtube page for the footage.
Brittany will be getting it posted soon.
Space Odyssey: 2001
You may have seen on Facebook that I recently went to the cinema with my writer friend, Amy. We booked in several weeks ago to see the restoration version of Space Odyssey.
(We’ve been trying to do a film each week. It’s a fun way to get away from the keyboard and do something fun but also good for our storytelling brains!)
I didn’t quite know what to expect from Space Odyssey, but the Alamo cinemas have excellent boozy milkshakes and quite honestly as long as something isn’t gory or scary I can watch almost anything. Even the artsy stuff.
The Alamo also has this great philosophy around film. Rather than just showing trailers, for about half an hour before the main feature it will show mini programs, documentaries, clips and generally just cultural stuff to do with the show you’re about to see. (I took some pictures of one of the cartoons about gravity and posted them with a selfie on Facebook.)
A number of folks asked me what I thought of the movie. I have lots of thoughts to share, but were limited on word count here at the back of the book now, so I’ll probably end up sharing them elsewhere in more detail, but here are a couple of takeaways.
What occurred to me as I watched the long, (often deafeningly loud) scenes were the influence this probably had on Interstellar. (I noticed a few of the people mentioned this in the comments and I totally agree.)
The other was about the hilarious scene where HAL explained that the whole crew are dead. I’m pretty sure that the creators of Red Dwarf were paying homage to this in their opening scene of the TV show.
If you haven’t seen it, do check it out here: https://youtu.be/nyKF2qd0-iQ?t=2m43s
It’s a British classic that my cool babysitter got me into when I was a kid. If you like British humour, you’ll love it.
If you like the Scouse (Liverpool) accent, you’ll be mesmerized.
Coffee and Space Travel
<< Ellie: Oops. Yeah. Ok, so here’s the story…
On the way to see Space Odyssey we passed by a Starbucks. We were heading down town and I don’t normally venture that far, so it’s become unusual for me to see a big ass Starbucks.
I comment on it, with a sigh leaving Amy to explain to the Lyft driver that I’m off ALLLL caffeine, on doctor’s orders.
The Lyft driver expresses his sympathy, and the conversation moves on.
Until we get into the cinema… where I notice a guy a couple of seats down from us has ordered a big ass caffetiere of coffee. Amy catches me gawking, then sniffs at the air. “Hmm, that coffee smells good!” she teased.
I sulked for a full twenty seconds.
Eventually the movie began and some time after that, the story got going. (If you’ve seen the film you’ll know what I’m talking about!). Not many scenes into the actual story there are three guys heading out to the moon to investigate a secret phenomenon.
We watch as one of them unpacks turkey sandwiches and passes them around and the three chinwag about the operation as casually as if there were having a meeting in a board room. Mid way through their conversation the sandwiches guy offers them coffee... then turns around with a big ass space canister of caffeinated goodness.
Amy whacks me with her arm so hard I nearly snort my rum infused milkshake!
We sniggered, starting others around us to also snigger.
(I’m pretty sure they didn’t know what was so funny… but I guess that is the beauty of a shared cinematic experience!)
I told her in the interval: “Even the guys in space get to drink coffee. How is that fair?” >>
Fours are soooo dramatic!
A couple of my friends here in Austin are into the Enneagram. They use it to make sense of a lot of the crazy people around us: their motivations, their reactions to things, the way they express themselves. If you’ve read any of my non-fiction you’ll know that I already find profiling can be a useful tool for all of the above, and lots more.
Well, recently when we were doing one of our writing dates in the local café, (where Sven our curious barista takes care of us and waxes on about how fascinating we are – even when we talk about ridiculous things like library books and other mundanities).
Amy mentioned that someone she knows is such a four. I asked what that meant, and she explained that fours are dramatic, and artists, and sometimes special snowflakes.
Oh, I said. What is my number?
She and Alyssa exchanged glances.
Alyssa had previous had me pegged as a nine, but now she reconsidered. After answering a few questions she had me read a short passage she had on her phone.
Omg – that is totally me! I exclaimed, surprised to finally be reading something that made sense. (In the past I’ve been profiles and tested and not really bought into the description 100%).
Alyssa: You’re a four.
Ellie: you mean, the overly dramatic one?
Amy: Yes. Exactly that.
Now, ever since, whenever Amy describes me as “being SOoooo dramatic” I have a ready-made excuse.
That’s just coz I’m a four, I tell her.
She looks at me dryly, perhaps wishing she’d never giving me such a neatly packaged come-back.
And so it goes on.
Well, for the last few weeks my acupuncturist has been checking a point on my inner thigh for a needle bruise… ever since I said I’ve had a permanent tattoo there ever since I started acupuncture. (Ok, maybe it was a slight exaggeration, but he’s made a thing to check it every time now… just to prove me wrong.)
So once again, for maybe the 14th time, he checks it. “Nope, no bruise,” before he proceeds to jab a needle into the spot in question.
“It’s ok if there ever is a bruise there. It’s not a big deal,” I say, trying to normalize the situation. “I’m not going to die from a tiny bruise.”
“Oh my god, you’re so dramatic!” he replied.
Even though I said I’m NOT going to die!
Somehow I’m still the one that’s dramatic.
I then *had* to explain the enneagram to him, and that my friends think I’m a four.
He agreed with Alyssa’s diagnosis as he ambled out having covered my body with hellraiser pins.
E x
P.S. I’ve just launched a Patreon account. If you’d like to see more pictures, happenings and read more author notes, feel free to check it out over here: https://www.patreon.com/ellleighclarke
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
July 1, 2018
First, I thank you for not only reading this book, but also working your way through the author notes to what we have to say here.
Since my collaborator in crime, Ellie, has taken up so much of the last part of this book with her notes I believe that I have to cut mine very short. Therefore, it is with much sadness that I have to say I'm done.
Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
.
.
.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA!
<< Ellie edit: and also seeing that your author notes are only 800 words even though you carry on. You had waaaay more words you could have written. Don’t be blaming me for a word limit. You’re nowhere near it! >>
Serves you right for placing in the author notes related to the front cover! I should have known that you would not provide me the litt
lest amount of reprieve. Mind you, with the sheer amount of harassment I gave you during the creation of the cover, I suppose it might be warranted.
(For those who wish to understand just how much fun Jeff and I had, connect with Ell Leigh Clarke's Facebook page and you will get notified. Or I suppose she might mention it in the emails.)
<< Ellie edit: I will. >>
Expensive Taste
So, I am minding my own business on Facebook the other day when I get notified that Ellie has placed a new Facebook post up. Often, her posts can be fun, and occasionally interesting too. (Yes, I'm getting the narrowed eyebrows again.)
<< Ellie edit: now I’m getting paranoid about my eyebrows. Since when do brows narrow?? >>
This time, my eyes shrink themselves as I realize she has a picture of a whiskey bottle on her Facebook page.
Now, I realize that she drinks upon occasion, but placing a whiskey bottle up on Facebook, at least to my knowledge, isn't something that she normally does. So, being the inquisitive inspector Clouseau that I am, I look further into this.
Originally, I did not remember what was on the whiskey bottle, so I had to leave these notes and go find out.
The bottle says, “LAPHROIAIG” 10 year Single Malt Whisky.
Now, inside my mind I’m thinking, “I can’t even pronounce the name, how is one supposed to drink something you can’t pronounce?” (I’m not a drinker much, I rely on my collaborators to add that verisimilitude.)
<< Ellie edit: by this you’re inferring that you can pronounce all the chemicals in a bottle of coke? >>
BUT, it is her quote that goes with it that makes me chuckle. She says, “Damn my folks for instilling me with expensive taste in booze!”
I chuckle because the word ‘booze’ makes me laugh. (I don’t know why, it seems like a dirty word and my 12 year old boy inside snickers.)
Deuces Wild Boxed Set: Books 1-4: Beyond the Frontiers, Rampage, Labyrinth, Birthright Page 20