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Excerpt from Otherworld: Volume One
Cluck. Jo looked down, one foot raised. Underneath sat an orange and white chicken. It tilted its head at Jo’s foot, blinked beady black eyes, and clucked again.
“Is that-”
“Roast!” A deep voice called. Surprisingly, the chicken answered. It flapped its wings as it went running down the path. The chicken named Roast squeezed between two fence posts to dutifully return to its owner.
“Sorry, we’re just passing through,” Jo called to him.
He put his hands to his pointed phyrra ears and yelled, “What?”
Jo walked closer. “We’re just passing!”
“Oh, well welcome. I’m Kho, this is Roast.” Taller than most phyrra, Kho was only a couple inches shorter than herself. He had sandy chin length hair, honey colored skin, and dark freckles dotting his face. A wispy beard decorated his chin and jaw. His clothes were dirty and patched over, and his hands were closed around a pitchfork that he set to the side to scoop up Roast. Kho lifted the chicken’s wing gently, waving it up and down.
“Hm,” Maven grunted over Jo’s shoulder. “Never seen that before.”
“Her brother Toast should be around here somewhere.” Kho looked around the yard, shading his eyes against the sun.
“Toast,” Lola echoed over Jo’s shoulder.
Cluck.
A brown and black chicken looked up at Lola from behind her. Toast drew back his head and pecked at Lola’s ankles with all his might. When she shrieked, Jo had to cover her mouth to avoid laughing. Not everyone else on the team had the same courtesy. Kho looked between them. “Where are you all… from?”
“We’re… well…” Jo trailed off, unsure how much to share with this random farmer.
“We’re headed from Lekonis,” said Lola carefully, “towards Ipbo. We hear they’re debuting airboats for the holiday.”
Kho looked between Glade sweeping their tail behind them to ward off attacks from Toast, and Iila, who was trying on her most winning, and most terrifying, grin. “Alright then.”
The sun beat hot on the farm. Animals were sheltering under woven awnings and lapping at water gratefully. Jo thought about her own empty canister. “Would you by chance have water for some friendly passersby?”
Kho looked apprehensively at the weapons at their belts and slung across their backs. He shrugged and waved them forward. “Thought you wouldn’t ask.” He didn’t sound happy; in fact, Kho’s voice was trembling.
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Short Fiction- Untitled
In the backyard sat a camper van, spacious enough to fit a family of eight, a trampoline, and a large above-ground pool. Their house was one of those rich, suburban houses, with a white mother and father and their three children- two boys and a girl. Seven bedrooms, three bathrooms, a decked-out kitchen perfect for hosting holidays, and a special living room for hosting Bible Study on Wednesday nights. Toys piled up and the latest video games were always around. It was a house my family dreamed of living in, and we did live in it. Downstairs sat an uninhabited basement, fully finished with a small kitchen and living space, and three of the house’s bedrooms. This was where my family of seven moved. The best part about the house wasn’t the pool and it certainly wasn’t the trampoline; it was that we were not homeless for the five months that family allowed our stay.
The Way Smell Evokes Memory
On a hot summer afternoon, after a day of playing in the sun but before retiring to play video games, my mother would always shower. She loved spending time with us on those rare free days when all five of her girls were home, and she wasn’t working one of many jobs she held down simultaneously to provide. Our job was to set the living room up, since she didn’t understand and wasn’t willing to learn how to work the equipment. She would emerge in a puff of steam and a waft of perfume. Unwilling to wear shorts outside, those days she was even willing to don a light summer nightdress. We each peeled off at different times in the night, smart enough and independent enough to dictate our own bedtimes. With a yawn, I’d announce my departure. My mother was never short on hugs, pulling me in and holding me, understanding of the importance of that contact. Rich vanilla and rose and a creamy, heavy shea butter: the last things I’d smell for the night.
When riffling through the cabinet before moving out, I discovered the exact lotion she would use. Her ‘yes’ when I asked to take it was distracted, unaware of the significance. Although, I don’t use it much.
6.7%
Attributed to diagnosis
Brought often in late spring
Clearly
Directly
Estimated to be
Factors of illness
Greatly cause internal
Health decline
Immune to physical evolution
Join discussion for fewer storms,
Lies we authored,
Mismanaged medicines; mortality rates
Never revealed
Other
Physical symptoms
Questioning
Realities spread
Surrounding mental illness
Timelines weakened by disease
Unknown and invisible,
View seriously only too late
Winds
Expected
Yearning to blow
0 likelihood of simple and total recovery
Sticky Buns
There were several things about mini-me that were embarrassing. First of all, I was held back in kindergarten for being “too small.” My teachers were worried that me, a tiny brown girl with curly hair bigger than her head, would get bullied if I wasn’t the same size as the other kids. I waited the extra year in hopes of catching up, but I got bullied anyways. Secondly, I was a nerd. Not a cute quiet nerd, mind you, but an obnoxious, always-carrying-a-book-and-reading-aloud-to-herself type of nerd. Finally, and probably most insufferably, I was known as the teacher’s pet. If all of that wasn’t enough, I was that kid. I was the kid in school who peed her pants.
After the first few accidents, Mom found that I was simply unable to ‘hold it’. She chuckled as she wrote the note to my teachers that made it official: I had to go when I said. Because my hand was annoyingly stuck in the air anyways, it made notifying teachers easy. Once I hit middle school, my reputation preceded me. When I wiggled around in my seat like I had ants in my pants, and waved more fervently that normal, the teachers would sigh and point to the door. My wiggly dance down the hall was a sight to see.
Tiny me thought this worked pretty well. I was getting out of class as much as I could want, no questions asked. Since I was a ‘good kid’, I never took this for granted (Of course I did, how could you believe a child?!). Mom and the doctor had other plans for me. Something about getting a diagnosis for what made my bladder weak, but I think the word they were looking for was ‘Loser’. I peed in a cup seven times before starting treatment. Most people never have had to pee in a cup once. I’m jealous.
Homework was not foreign to me. In fact, homework was my favorite pastime (I told you I was insufferable), until the doctor gave me bladder homework. Did you know you could educate your bladder? After weeks of this at-home ball-squeezing and hip-flexing homework, I went back in for testing. My new routine was: get to the pee doctor’s, drink as much water as I could hold, get the cup from my mom, and send my pee away for Science. That day held other plans, for which my mom promised me McDonald’s. Before I even processed how these new plans would help me exactly, five extremely sticky nodes were attached to my butt.
If you’re wondering how terrible it is to be hooked up to the Butt-o-Matic, I couldn’t tell you because I promptly zoned out for the rest of the visit. All I knew was that I was being rewarded for this discomfort with salty fries and a thick shake. I pictured bringing my meal in when I was dropped back off at school, flexing on my classmates with the greasy bag. For once, I would lord over my class.
After a half an hour of doing the exercises with nodes hanging off my butt, I was finished. On my way out, I was offered a Princess Jasmine sticker. Letting my face show my sadness and, blinking at the doctor, I asked if I could also have the Princess Ariel one. The doctor’s face shifted into one of pity. She gave me both stickers.
Mom fulfilled her promise, swinging by the Drive Thru while pulling her Aldi’s employee sweater on. The water I’d had from the water fountain was starting to make its appearance and, since I hadn’t peed in the cup, I had critically miscalculated. As she pulled to the first window to pay, I leapt out of the car, slamming the door shut on my mom’s surprise. I barely made it in time. She was laughing when she swung the car around the front of the building and I came out. “Welcome back, Sticky Buns,” is all she said before driving me the rest of the way to school.
I sauntered into the building with the aromatic McDonald’s bag swinging from my grasp, my tattered Percy Jackson book in the other, and my buns still slightly sticky.
Forever Writing,
quill rose
Can’t think of a much better way to celebrate one year of this project, than by getting to see a review for COLOR OF A MIRROR in print for the first time! And in the indie section of Publishers Weekly no less!
Written, designed, published, and sold by me.
Thanks to BookLife for the review, and thank you always to the Kickstarter backers who helped make this possible (and to everyone who’s picked up the book since then).
colorofamirror.net
IT’S GONNA BE A REAL THING!
What a month. Ups and downs and everything in between. But yes, you read that right. The Kickstarter for my cyberpunk novel and dark ambient soundtrack is FULLY FUNDED!
I can’t wait to get the final stages of this project underway in the next months, and for everyone to get the chance to read this book!
For anyone who may still want to join in, there are still 30 hours left! And if you back now, it’s a sure thing—you’re getting this novel! And at the same time, supporting an independent publishing and music project that doesn’t fit in the normal bounds.
Check out the link below, and who knows, maybe if enough people jump on board, we’ll unlock the first of those stretch goals!
Prose + Soundtrack + Art = Color of a Mirror
^ this is what this project is all about ^
The newest in my motion design previews, incorporating one of my favorite descriptions in the book, a Vangelis-level soundtrack moment from Josh McCausland (song titled “The Taste Was Blue”), and some brutalist artwork (also by me)… multiple disciplines coming together into a single experience.
If this multi-sensory approach intrigues you or if you just want to support an independent publishing venture that strives to upend the norm and the status quo, I’d be thrilled if you’d check out the Kickstarter project link below.
Ends the day after Cyberpu… I mean, Cyber Monday.
Final Week!
The Kickstarter is winding down, and I’m full of gratitude for those who’ve backed my vision for this independent dark science fiction project. Of currently-active Fiction Publishing projects on Kickstarter, “Color of a Mirror” is the 9th most-funded. In the world. That’s absolutely incredible to me!
Why, then, is the project not yet funded?
Well, largely because I’m not content with producing a hardcover or softcover book as cheaply as possible. I want this book to be a work of art in and of itself, to feel like it came from a big-name publisher, despite me being just one person. I want to work with a printer that strives for that same type of quality in the options they offer, that gives me the ability to customize this book in a way that makes it sing.
Beyond that, however, I’m also trying to do a limited pressing of a vinyl for the soundtrack. All my metrics for how big a run to do of these various items to make them cost-effective, cross-referenced with a feasible amount of money to raise, has landed me on the $15,000 mark.
(I’m encouraged that there’s currently a novella project from an established, published author that had a goal of $10,000, making me feel like my higher goal was not so far off.)
This may be a bit of a ramble, but I hope it’s an honest look at how I’m thinking about this project, and what I’m trying to achieve.
There’s still time to back! No matter the tier you choose, every little bit helps. It’s going to take a mega-surge this final week to get to fully-funded, but I whole-heartedly believe we can get there.
Ends the day after Cyber Monday, in celebration of the cyberpunk story that it is.
Now, let’s go get higher on that most-funded list!
-Dan/ArtificeLux
Back with another look at the soundtrack! This time featuring “Closer to the Dead” (as always, by ultra-talented Josh McCausland)!
The video on this one is a little different than those that have come before… still abstract, but really hinting at certain elements of the book as well. Secrets abound…
There’s still time to back the Kickstarter for the exclusive vinyl release of the soundtrack, and the deluxe-hardcover novel, all with designs by me. There are other rewards (including digital copies and softcover) as well, so hopefully a little something for everyone!
It’s gonna take a big push this final week to get it over the line, but I’m holding out hope it can happen. Every little bit helps, so if you’re interested, I’d be thrilled for you to check out the link below:
“File Already Exists… Overwrite?” is the title of this newest song. Josh McCausland really channeled the Vangelis/Blade Runner vibes on this one, taking it much darker and brooding. And of course, some brutalist artwork of mine to match.
The Kickstarter seems kinda stalled at the moment, but all is not lost! We’ve made great progress so far, and I’m trying to spread the word and gain exposure, so we’ll see how the rest of the month plays out.
If you want to check out the project, the link is below:
A first look at the soundtrack element of this project! So excited to have Josh McCausland’s massive talent creating the moody sounds of this dark sci-fi universe!
This song is entitled “Sensory Deprivation” and will feature on the Color of a Mirror original soundtrack, as part of my multi-disciplinary novel/soundtrack/design experience.
(Motion graphics and design by me.)
If you like what you see and hear, there’s only 10 days left in the Kickstarter! Check out the link below, and thanks for looking!
New Excerpt! And a character we haven’t yet seen in this series of sneak peeks!
Definitely a good look at the tone and writing style of the book.
Like what you see? Check out the Kickstarter, running through Nov. 29 to get in on this independently-published book and ambient soundtrack!
Feels like it was just a couple days ago I was saying 1/6, and now we’ve jumped past the 1/3 mark! The support this past week has been absolutely stunning, and I can’t say thank you enough.
Still a ways to go to make this happen, but I have no doubt we can get there!
As always, link included below if you’re interested in learning more:
A brief excerpt of the main character in my upcoming novel COLOR OF A MIRROR.
Now on Kickstarter. Check it out below!
Just a short excerpt teaser, trying not to give anything away from one of my favorite parts of the book.
(Also. The Kickstarter pre-campaign page is active. You can save the page or get notified when the campaign goes live on Nov. 01!)
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/artificelux/color-of-a-mirror-dark-science-fiction-novel-and-soundtrack
It feels more and more real at each step of the way, and I’m so excited for people to finally get to join me in this dark future.
•Never Normal•
Another small peek at the first chapter. Plus a new abstract design.
Back with a fresh post about the book! These here are the opening sentences, mixed with a bit of my minimal numerals/font design. Loving playing with the layout and formatting for the text on this!
Check out the fiction section of my website artificelux.com to see a longer excerpt and to find out a bit more about the project!
Looking forward to sharing more over the coming days and for the launch of the Kickstarter in a month on Nov.1