Birke Baehr (11-years old) Schools the Food System

As found on Common Dreams

Said Eating Corn as filmed by @9to5poet

Said Eating Corn

as filmed by Jessica Fox-Wilson

Saving Our Oceans: Sylvia Earle

Saving Our Oceans: Sylvia Earle

Time Magazine

Bike Mechanic: 18. Discarding Inez #TuesdaySerial

#TuesdaySerial Guidelines

If you missed a previous chapter, you can find them archived here: Bike Mechanic Chapter Archive

18. Discarding Inez

Seward replaced the small gun under his seat. Before moving, he watched traffic on 35 slide by his van. He took a couple of deep breaths and steadied himself. He asked the silence, “How many people have I killed over the years? How many people have I had to become?”

No answer.

He got out of the van. He needed to work quickly. No telling how long before someone would pull over to help or worse. Highway Patrol would be by soon, and he didn’t want to be on the side of the road.

Opening the passenger door, the pool of blood that had accumulated dripped on to the asphalt. Seward pulled Inez out and dumped her body over the Highway embankment. Inez’s body rolled slowly and came to a halt at the bottom.

Seward pulled cleaning equipment out of the back and started to scrub the passenger’s seat. The blood wasn’t easy to sop up, but he made short work of the seat and floor mat. What a waste, he thought. Inez was a pretty girl. He’d hopped that she was legit. The reservations he’d made for exiting the US were real, and now he’d exit alone.

Back in the driver’s seat, he started the van. He pulled out from the shoulder and made his way to the next major Highway. He could have taken 35 most of the way, but that wouldn’t have been smart. Instead, he chose to take 90 West, knowing that he’d have to double back eventually.

While he drove, he pulled an envelope from under the dash near the searing column. Opening it, he dumped a pile of passports onto his lap. “I’m not going back to prison. I’m not going back.” He picked one: Rupert Earlson, Henderson, MN. He thought about Rupert for a while. What types of things did Rupert like? What did Mr. Earlson do for a living?

One thing was for sure, Rupert Earlson wasn’t a bike mechanic. He needed to unload the bikes and trade in his van for something sportier. Rupert was a poor teacher of English that wanted to see the world before he died of cancer. In order to make his dreams of seeing the world come true, he’d signed-on to teach in foreign countries. His first stop was Peru, but he planned to hit Korea, China, and Japan.

Before Seward could become Rupert Earlson, he’d need to clean up a few loose ends that Daniel Emmett Seward had created. As much as he cared about his bike shop and the community that he’d lived in for the last several years, it was his connections with Al that gave him the most reason to pause. The only way that the Feds could have found him was to go through Al. Before he could become the traveling English teacher, he’d have to take care of him.

Seward new that if what Inez had told him about Al was true, and he believed her, he’d find him in a hospital. Al was a sickly fellow and if anyone was going to die of cancer at an early age, it was going to be him. Seward pounded his hands on the stealing wheel. Al was the only one who knew all of Seward’s aliases. Seward would just have to hope that on his deathbed, Al had forgotten a couple of them.

“Ah! The life of an Eco-Terrorist,” Seward said a loud over the hum of his van. “You blow a couple of buildings up and kill a few people, and the government won’t reset until you’re behind bars or dead. However, if you’re a multi-billion dollar industry that pollutes the air and the water killing thousands, the government gives you a tax break for creating jobs.” He honked his horn three times, punching it with his open hand. What made him truly angry wasn’t having to kill Inez, but was that he’d changed persona’s so many times since leaving prison that he didn’t remember his real name. To him, at this moment, he was Daniel Emmett Seward and had been his entire life.

"Kraken" by China Mieville

Kraken

China Mieville

I enjoyed Kraken by Mieville. In short, I want Guy Ritchie and Guillermo del Toro to direct the film together. del Toro would be in charge of directing the special effects, monsters, and art, which would leave Ritchie to direct the action, the dialog, and location. I really believe that Kraken is begging to be filmed, which is really all I have to say about the novel - it read like a movie. I think that I might even prefer the movie as long as it had the feel of Hellboy meets Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or Snatch, which is exactly how the novel reads.

My favorite character, who was Mickey O'Neil incomprehensible, was the chain-smoking, foul-mouthed female-detective Collingswood. Collingswood was streetwise and took no shit from stupid fuckers like Billy Harrow. However, Mieville under uses Collingswood in the novel. I was drawn to her storyline, and I found that I was racing though the majority of the book, which follows Harrow, to get to the dirty-sexy detective work. del Toro and Ritchie can collaborate on a film version, I hope that they make Collingswood the focus rather than the Luke Skywalker, whiny-bitch Billy Harrow. 

Well, that is what I have to say about reading Kraken by Mieville. The novel is good and well worth reading.

Business Casual by @joecombs

Business Casual 

by Joe Combs

Back in August, I looted the Minneapolis Indie Xpo at The Soap Factory. One of the most eye-catching displays (pictured above) was by Joe Combs marketing his comic Business Casual. The cutouts arranged as if they were in an office meeting caught my attention, especially the facial expressions. The diorama meeting seemed to expertly represent, sum up the meetings I used to attend. Then I found out the comic's characters worked in a contact center, and I had to swing some support Combs' way: I bought Business Casual: Above and Beyond: The Best of Business Casual, a collection of the best panels posted on his website.

One of my favorite panels was posted in 2008, which illustrates the plight of Paul, The Company's technical support contact center representative. However, I found something humorous in everyone of the panels in Combs' The Best of Business Casual. I only wish that more of the competition between The Company and The Rival Company would have been included in the Best of. I found the all-male Company rivalry with the seemly all-female Company interesting, but not because of the male-female who's-better-than-who setup, but because the men are attracted to the women, and the women want to crush the men - their competition.

Business Casual is worth reading. It would be ideal if more readers of the comic would support Joe Combs by purchasing The Best of Business Casual, however, panels are posted online. My recommendation is to fall in love with the cast online and then help support the artist by purchasing swag from the online store.

Bike Mechanic: 17. Pulling Over #TuesdaySerial

#TuesdaySerial Guidelines

If you missed a previous chapter, you can find them archived here: Bike Mechanic Chapter Archive

17. Pulling Over

Seward pulled the van over onto the side of the road. Without looking at Inez, he turned off the van’s engine. From under this seat, he pulled a gun and pointed it at Inez’s chest. The gun was small, sliver, and loaded. To prove that he was serious, he pointed the gun at the roof and fired. The small gun snapped like a cap gun the kids in the neighborhood played with on summer afternoons. However, unlike the plastic replicas, his gun put a small hole in the roof.

Pointing the gun back at Inez’s chest, “I’m only going to ask each question once.” His calm indicated that he’d been in situations like this one before. Still, his outstretched arm with the gun quivered slightly. Smiling, he relaxed further by lowering the gun, but he kept it aimed, his finger on the trigger.

Inez didn’t seem startled until he’d fired. She sat very still. Her hands were open and rested on her lap. “If you look in my bag, you’ll find your answers there.”

At hearing her confession, Seward didn’t hesitate. He fired a killing shot.

Cthulhu Old Spice - Spoof

Bike Mechanic: 16. Polar Bears #TuesdaySerial

#TuesdaySerial Guidelines

If you missed a previous chapter, you can find them archived here: Bike Mechanic Chapter Archive

16. Polar Bears

“Phone?” Inez buckled the seatbelt. The delivery van was so old it didn’t have a cross-strap. Each time Inez buckled-up, she looked a little confused at its absence. After fumbling with the buckle, she looked straight ahead repositioning her bare feet on the dash.

Seward started the van and pulled away. He’d press her again in a few minutes, when they were on the highway going about sixty-five, seventy miles an hour. For some reason, Seward found that people were honest at high speeds. However, he was impatient. So, as he pulled on the on-ramp, he asked again.

Inez didn’t budge.

To Seward, she looked like she was trying to pretend to fall asleep. What was it with women, Seward thought, that they could so easily devolve from perky-go-lucky to bitchy-go-cranky. Either way, she was going to have to tell him something. Whatever she told him, he’d decided that it would likely be a lie.

Shifting her weight a little, Inez asked, “When did you get your scar?”

“Scar?” He knew exactly what she was asking about, but he wanted her to be specific. He needed her to engage him in conversation, so he could read her responses. He was good at lie detecting. He had known she hadn’t been forthright with him from the start, but he hadn’t had this much fun in years. Fun, he thought, it all really comes down to fun. Am I so simple?

“The one behind your right ear that curves down your neck, how far does it extend?” She sat up, removing her feet from the dash.

“Her name was Julie Ryerson. She died in Albuquerque.” He paused to focus on the road. An eighteen-wheeler passed on the left disrupting the headwind just enough that he had to compensate to keep the van on the road. After it passed, Seward was able to pick up where he left the story.

“Julie was lovely. The kind of firecracker that could ignite the soul of the most callused man.” Seward looked over at Inez, taking his eyes off the road to meet hers. “She was a lot like you.” He quickly resumed watching the road.

“Julie died for the cause. She was leading a protest of eighty, concerned environmentalists who were trying to have a specific species of butterfly added to the endangered species list. The locals were not amused.”

“Why?” Inez asked, “Wouldn’t the preservation of a species help to create an eco-tourist destination?”

“Yes. It would have, but the habitat in which the species resided had already been turned into a series of mixed-use nature tails. The most profitable type of tourism was from off road bikes. The town hosted several motocross competitions every year, including the X-Games.”

“So, couldn’t a compromise work?”

“Compromise! Compromise, are you for real.” Seward had to ease up off the gas. He just noticed that he was pushing his van a little too hard. “You just blew up a Nestle water bottling plant, and you want to talk about compromise?”

“Hey. I tried to compromise with them.” Inez was leaning forward in her seat one hand on the dash. “I had asked them to slow down, pump a little slower and allow more water from the spring to travel down river.”

“So you know how it is.”

“Yes, I fucking do.”

“Good. Now you know how Julie felt when the town wouldn’t budge. They didn’t want to see their tourism dry up because the butterfly’s habitat needed protected. They saw their livelihoods in jeopardy.”

“What do you mean?”

“About what?”

“Protecting habitat jeopardizing livelihoods.”

Seward had her. He would now have to double check everything she had told him. She was no environmentalist, and she hadn’t taken classes from the University of Michigan in any scientific field. If she had, she’d have known the answer to her own question.

“Okay. Let me put it this way: The EPA, under the second Bush administration – that’s Bush Jr. – purposed adding the Polar Bear to the endangered species list even though the species’ numbers didn’t qualify its addition.” Seward let out a long sigh. “These are the issues that get my blood fired up, sorry. Anyway, the proposal was deigned. Any guesses why?”

“No.” Inez shrugged her shoulders. “You just said there were plenty of them running around.”

“True. However, the proposal predicted that the Polar Bear’s numbers would drop significantly in just a few years because their habitat was fragmenting too quickly for the species to adapt.”

“Do you know what happens when a species is added to the endangered species list?” Seward asked.

“Sure. We protected it.”

“Yes, we do protect it, but when a species is added to the endangered species list, we go further – we attempt to help it recover.”

Inez butted in, “How?”

“We have to protect the species’ habitat. The only way to ensure the protection of a species is to protect its habitat.”

“So we protect its habitat. What’s the big deal?”

“Where do Polar Bears live?”

“The North Pole.”

“Correct. So?”

Inez was slow to answer, “We’d have to protect the North Pole.”

“Yes, which would mean we’d have to find a way to slow the retraction of polar sea ice, which, in turn, would mean we would have to do something about anthropomorphic climate change.”

“I thought we were talking about Polar Bears?” Inez asked.

“We are. In order to protect the Polar Bear, we would need to solve the climate change, because climate change is fragmenting the Polar Bear’s habitat, and we can’t help the Polar Bear if we can’t preserve its habitat – its ecosystem.”

Defensively, Inez asked, “Weren’t we talking about Julie and your scar?”

“No.” Seward said as sternly as he could. “I wanted to know who you were yelling at on the phone back at the gas station.”

Read my story "Recession Love" in Eclectic Flash, Volume 1, September 2010

Eclectic Flash, Volume 1, September 2010

Order Here

Good News! Eclectic Flash, Volume 1, September 2010 is available, now, via Lulu. My story, "Recession Love," appears in this issue. "Recession Love" is the story of man who feels that he isn't providing for his family. He has a job, but his job doesn't pay well enough to keep up with their mounting bills. One of his wife's favorite activities was checking the mail, until recently. Now, the mail only brings sadness, frustration, and pain. However, he has a plan that will put the joy back into checking the mail. 

I hope you enjoy the story and the others in this issue of Eclectic Flash. I just ordered my copy, and I'm looking forward to seeing what gems were published. If you pick up a copy, please let me know that you think of the issue and my story. 

"BlankIt" by @aric McKeown and Lemuel @Lemmo Pew

BlankIt

Aric McKeown, @aric

Lemuel Pew, @Lemmo

Back in August, I looted the Minneapolis Indie Xpo at the Soap Factory. One treasures that I discovered was BlankIt, Vol. 1 by Aric McKeown and Lemuel Pew. I have to admit, one of the reasons that I was drawn to BlankIt was that it was printed in full color. I like color. I like glossy and shiny. The other reason was the cover: I couldn't resist the image of two guys falling through nothing along with a can of Hand Juice, a robot, a fox, and a penguin in a jump suit. Something about the riot on the cover told me that the page within would take me on a unique adventure. I was right about the unique adventure.

BlankIt follows the struggles of Aric and Lemmo as they discover (and create) the world around them. One day - June 8, 2008, Aric appears on the page, alone, nothing can be seen in any direction. Aric doesn't over think this situation as many would, I assume. Instead, he makes the most of his situation and gets a little more comfortable. Well, at least until Lemmo arrives - June 12, 2008. From the moment Lemmo arrives, Aric's world, the wold of nothing, fills with adventure. Together, they must traverse an endless expanse and go where no cartoon has gone before: a purple ocean, a cookie hell, a ghost town, and more.  

However, what I enjoyed the most about BlankIt, Vol. 1 was Aric and Lemmo's argument about naming. It doesn't seem that names exist in the landscape Aric and Lemmo explore, and it is almost certain that Lemmo's perverse mission to name everyone and everything get the duo in trouble. In one case, Lemmo names one of the blurry people from blurry-town. When Lemmo names their leader, the leader comes in to sharp focus. The leaders new glossy and shiny image cause him to be banished, and he swears revenge upon Aric and Lemmo. 

BlankIt, Vol. 1 is well worth the price, and I can't wait for Vol. 2. Perhaps, I'll see Aric McKeown and Lemuel Pew at next year's Minneapolis Indie Xpo. I've got my fingers crossed. 

The Last Man Anthology @SwordSagaPress gets a Cover by @HiveMindWriters Alexandra Wolfe

The Last Man Anthology

Sword and Saga Press

Alexandra Wolfe

I'm excited. I just got my first glimpse of the The Last Man Anthology book cover. The anthology is edited by Sword and Saga Press' Hunter Liguore. The cover was designed by fellow The Hive Mind writer Alexandra Wolfe, who also has a story, "Finley's Last Chapter," in the anthology.

I'm also excited to hear that Liguore will be guest appearing, once again, on Sci Fi Saturday Night October 23, 2010. Her first guest appearance was back in May (TalkCast 32), which is well worth a listen.

My story "The Paperless Doctrine of 2152" will appear in the anthology along side stories by Ray Bradbury, C. J. Cherryh, Barry N. Malzberg, H. G. Wells, Edgar Allen Poe, Jack London, an assortment of contemporary writers from four continents, and a third grader, according to the Sword & Saga Press's website. 

Pre-order a copy now!

I can't wait to who else is included!

Bike Mechanic: 15. Rest Stop #TuesdaySerial

#TuesdaySerial Guidelines

If you missed a previous chapter, you can find them archived here: Bike Mechanic Chapter Archive

15. Rest Stop

Inez shifted several times, crossing and uncrossing her legs. She pushed herself upright in her seat, and then she slouched.

“Are you okay over there?” Seward asked.

“Could you pull over somewhere, so that I can use a bathroom?”

“Emergency?” Seward scanned the road a head. He spotted a road sign. “Can you wait a few minutes? There’s a gas station a few miles up the road, or do you need me to pull over here?”

“I can wait.”

“You sure?” Seward hiked his thumb over his shoulder. “Now that I think of it, there must be a couple of empty containers in the back somewhere. We can dump it out when we stop.”

“I can wait. Can we talk about something else or listen to the radio?”

“The radio is busted. I don’t usually take the van on long trips.”

“Don’t you think that the guys out front will have noticed that we’ve not coming back?” Inez crossed her legs again and sucked on her lower lip.

“Yeah, they’ll notice.”

“Won’t they start looking for your van?” Inez spread her arms as if she were Vanna White turning letters on Wheel-of-Fortune. “I mean it has a picture of your face on the side of it.”

“What?”

“I’m just saying.”

“Okay. I’ll take care of it when we stop.” Seward pointed at the side of the road. “Here we go.”

Seward exited HWY 35, and he pulled in beside a gas pump at a BP station. Inez had jumped out, and she had run for the convenience store before he had even had the chance to turn the van off and put it into park. Seward got out and filled the tank. Then he walked around his van. He loved the picture on the side of him on his chopper. A friend had taken it as a joke, but Seward loved it, and Seward had it made into a large magnet.

Carefully, trying not to damage the magnet, he pealed it off the side. It was flexible enough to loosely roll up, but he didn’t have a tube or anything to tie it with, so he went into the store with the intention of buying string, rope, or cord.

He walked up and down the isles looking at all the different types of chocolate bars, gum, and bags of sweat and salty things before making his way to the automotive section where he picked up some rope. As he was paying for the rope and gas, Seward looked up into the security mirror above the clerk. In the mirror, he could see Inez. She was talking adamantly on one of the pay phones. Her body language, flailing of arms, the set of her hips, and how she white knuckled the receiver, told Seward she was upset. However, she didn’t look upset in the way he expected. It looked more as if she was giving instructions to a child who didn’t listen the first three times to clean his room.

Seward finished up at the register, and he went back out to his van and stored the magnet in the back with the bikes. He got in and waited. As he sat there, he started to have doubts about Inez again. She had just shown up out of nowhere, and here he was helping her. What did he know about her other than what she had told him? As far as he knew, she could have been on the phone with the Feds. This whole scenario could have been constructed to ensnare him, his contacts, and his friends. She was in the store, on the phone, right now, reporting their location and asking for help, back up because no one expected a middle-aged, has-been eco-activist to take off with a young girl in order to fulfill some wet dream he had had as an undergrad in college.

Seward looked in driver’s side mirror. He could the open road. He looked into the rearview and saw the darkness envelope bikes and bike parts. He then twisted the rearview and looked into his own eyes. He thought, Seward has had a good run. It might be time for a change. In that moment, his soft friendly eyes wrinkled and hardened.

The passenger door opened. “I see that you’ve taken ad down.”

Seward took along deep breath before turning to look at Inez. “Who were you on the phone with?”

My story "Apophis" in the September 2010 issue of eFiction Magazine ed. @DougLance

Open publication - Free publishing - More short story