A Bushel of eSpec stories

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

I've particpated in a bunch of Kickstarters over the past few years. As a result, I wind up with not only a bunch of books to read, but bonus stories and gaming pdfs as nice little extras. These get sorted into folders on my hard drive. So I decided to knock off a few of them while I'm between books.

Since my last foray in reading short stories was a "peck" of eSpec, I'll call this one a "bushel", but don't expect four times as many stories, or even four times the length. It'll be until whenever I stop and post it. The batch should all be from eSpec Books bonuses and stretch goals, unless something else sneaks in.

In order that I read them:

Feeding the Mouth that Bites Us by L. Jagi Lamplighter was originally published in Dreams of Decadnece (date?). No spoiler, that mouth belongs to a vampire. The story is told from the perspective of Hannah, the lovestruck victim who despite giving up only a cup of blood every other week to her lover Ambrose, has lost all of her energy of the past year. While out walking by Central Park, she encounters a group of nuns handing out flyers. She reads it later to discover that they have a clinic that specializes in the very collection of symptons which Hannah suffers from and which no doctor has been able to diagnose. This leads her to the Order of St. George's Clinic, where she's finally able to breathe freely, and where she learns more about the nature of vampires. A fun read.

The Wedding Night: a Death and the Crone vignette by Megan Mackie. It's porn. Maybe the kind you'd find on HBO or Netflix, as opposed to other outlets, but that's what I found myself reading. It's literally the wedding night of the subtitular couple, and you're a witness to all the action. There's no plot, or as my editor might point out, no conflict. I assume these two characters, and perhaps this scene itself, were plucked from other works. I haven't read any Mackie that I recall (and this I would recall). Both characters are old and have been married before, but both have a youthfulness about them.

Seeing Red by Danielle Ackley-McPhail was originally published in In All Their Glory (2010). Samantha is a faerie who freezes when you sees the color red, particularly red caps. "Redcaps" are a type of malevolent, murderous goblin found in Border folklore, and they want to murder her. To overcome her hesitation, she organizes a game of capture the flag, using red banners, but soon she has to confront her fears head on.

The Fiber of Being by Jodie Lynn Nye was originally published in Heaven and Hell (2002). Jasper is dead, and Michael and Gabriel given him lessons on being an angel. Raphael shows up at one point, too. The Fiber of being is that piece of humanity that Jasper retains that angels do not have. It's what will allow people to rise higher than angels, who are as they were created. It takes Jasper a while to get the hang of it. (Nye cowrote The Death of Sleep with Anne McCaffrey, which I read quite a while ago.)

Alien Invasion of Earth by Keith R. A. DcCandido, Special eSpec Books Kickstarter Reward Edition (date?). Dr. Phillips P. Phillips, PhD meets with General Blunt at the Pentagon to discuss an unnatural object in space heading toward Earth. What follows is 7 pages of farce or satire, except those are usually funny. (Note: humor is subjective.) It isn't until the middle of the story that we learn that the story takes place during the Eisenhower Administration, which "explains" the use of the word "Negro" earlier. It also become alternate history very soon after this point. Phillips might seem progressive by having a black (Negro) and a female graduate student working for him, who he insists be brought along with him to assist him, but he berates them and treats them poorly to the point of being annoyed that they involved the gerneral about the UFO without telling him (even though they got him to sign the letter they sent). The general later mistakes the two of them (Lamont Johnson and Maria Chen) for an errand boy and a secretary, because, you know, it's the 50s. The one thing that is universal about the story is the higher-ups getting credit (and rewarded) for work of their underlings. I had an Assistant Principal who was quite smugly proud of himself at the bonus he got from his department doing more work.

On Rocky Ground by L. Jagi Lamplighter was originally published in Bad-Ass Faeries (2006). It starts This story is dedicated to the Freeman Children. It features the Prospero brothers, Erasmus and Mephisto, as they scale Monte Musine in the Italian Alps, along with Mab Boreas, who is an Aerie One. (I don't know what the Prospero brothers are, but they've lived a long time.) They are lugging ground giant bones and salamander poo as a payment to the Oreads, who are feminine rock-type creatures. They run into problems with a grumpy gnome. Hilarity ensues.

Reflections of Amontillado by Ty Drago was a special eSpec Kickstarter Rewards edition (????). It starts With respectful apologies to the master. The narrator is Antonio Santino Argestelli Fortunato, a merchant and a student of no art but business, who happens to love wine. He is married to the Lady Fortunato, who doesn't appear in the story. The tale takes place in northern Italy, where he is approached at a carnival by Monstresor, whom in the opening of the story was refer to as a friend and a foul murderer. Monstresor is the last of a family of wine makers as swamp has overtaken his lands and spoiled his vintage, forcing him to sell off land and let go of his servants. He lures Fortunato there with the promise of an Amontillado (which I had no idea what that was, other than a wine of no particular note). From there it plays out like Poe, in a tale I was first exposed to in a Bradbury story, similarly in a House of Ghosts comic (or another series of that ilk), and even in an episode of Dark Shadows. However, this tale doesn't end there.

A Brief Battle for the Throne by Jeffrey Lyman was originally published in Bad-Ass Faeries: In All Their Glory (2011). The story starts in London, 1850, when Lord Broggon of the Hobgoblin Tribe tries to go through the Door to Fairie but something is blocking it. The building the Door had been attached to has been demolished and the Door should just attach itself to the new structure. Unfortunately, the new building is the King's Cross station for the new iron rails being laid along the ley lines in England. They are blocked off from King Oberon. What to do? A Council meeting of hobgobins, elves, ogres, pixies and others try to come up with a solution. Instead, the tribes end up taking sides and a ninety-year war commences.

Undine the Boardwalk by Keith R.A. DeCandido was originally published in It's Elemental (2013). I don't get the pun of the title, if it's supposed to a play on "Under the Boardwalk". The story is set in Key West, mostly at Mayor Fred's Saloon, where a band named 1812 plays. The main character is named Cassie, who we find about about a quarter of the way through the story that she is a "Disir", a fate goddess, and sometimes referred to as a "Dis". She learned this from the king of the Norse gods, and previously had to stop Loki. So this is a series story. Only a couple of people know about Cassie's background. One is Bobbi, a member of 1812, and Rance, an FBI special agent. Jana, a friend of Bobbi's since childhood, and a friend of Cassie's since she moved there, doesn't know. Jana is also in the band. Jana has a new love in her life named Russ and everyone seems to love this guy, except Cassie, Bobbi and the old curmudgeonly Larry. Cassie doesn't know know why she doesn't like him, but she doesn't, and that's good enough for Bobbi. (There's also a crack about Russ having two middle initials -- so "pretentious".) By day, Cassie is a diver at Seaclipse.

Rance runs a background check and finds that Russ lives on a boat with his mother, so Rance, Cassie and Bobbi take a trip. The boat has "rusalka" etched on the prow. Looking that up, I found that a "rusalka" is a Slavic water elemental, usually malicious. Cassie can see its ugly true form through its glamour while the other two see an older woman who can still pull off a bikini look. Russ, however, looks human, so they figure that his father (who wasn't listed on his birth certificate) is also human. The mother, who goes by the hman name Anne, is horrified that her son is going to marry a human because it will only end in tragedy for both of them, and she speaks from experience. So they have to break up the couple, and get Jana out from under Russ's spell before it's too late. And then we find out more about Russ's parentage.

Tag Team Match with Hell by Patrick Thomas, C. J. Henderson, and John L. French. Kickstarter Rewards edition (????). It is listed as A DMA Casefile, which stands for Department of Mystic Affairs. The copyrights and trademarks list Murphy's Lore and "Bullfinche's Pub" gets a shout-out in the first paragraph. Bianca Jones is listed as a trademark of John L. French; she appeared in the story "Cold Iron", which I read recently. I don't recall reading any story including Lai Won, by C. J. Henderson. This is more of a CW crossover (not of "Crisis" propotions) than the Avengers getting together. Lai Won is a "psychometrist", which is mentioned often, but I wasn't exactly sure what that meant. (I was on the train, so I didn't have a dictionary available. It turns out that it's a real thing, someone who administers psychological tests. Yeah, that's not what she does.)

The story leaves NYC quickly (no Bullfinche) and heads down to Baltimore, which is Jones's home turf. Jones had worked with Agent Karver once before but not his partner Maddi Cobb, or Lai Wan. Wan has called in a marker because of something horrible that she experienced when she accidentally touched a DVD. From there is gets disturbing in subject matter as it involves a demon granting a bunch of people eternal youth 50 years ago, and they end up as children. They make money by making black-maret pornography. It's enough to make everyone sick, including the reader, which is, I guess, the point. On the cosmic reading balance scale, this tips the story so heavily that no amount of light-hearted banter is going to lift it back up again. (And the banter between Karver and Cobb seemed a bit forced, but it was also tossed out there for the benefit of the two other occupants in the car.)

I was only familiar with Bianca Jones before this story, and she had the least to do with it, even though it took place in Baltimore. Maybe that's why they decided to set it in Baltimore.

Vein Glory by Christopher L. Bennet, Kickstarter Reward edition (????). Not surprisingly, it's a vampire story. Vincent Shahan wakes up after a couple centuries in cryo-suspension, having been misplaced during the upheavals in the past. This is understandble. His doctor, Dr. Corazon Lee, is a vampire, and is most of the population. That's a little less understandable. Advancements have led vampires to suffer fewer ill effects and not require fresh human blood. The only cure for disease is vampirism and medical research has come to a halt. But there's more than meets the eye with Shahan

The Inner Light by John L. French, Kickstarter Reward edition (????). John L. French is the editor of an upcoming angels & devils anthology that I will be included in. This story takes place in Bethlehem on the night of the birth of Jesus from the perspective of the angel, Nika, who was sent to watch over Maryam during childbirth. Nika faces off against five of the Fallen. Any doubts are met with a voice reminding her to "TRUST YOUR INNER LIGHT."

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact April 1971

ANALOG PLUS 50: Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, April 1971

The fourth issue in my ANALOG PLUS 50 series.

At some point, I'll stop numbering, but probably not until I do this for at least a year.

This was a less impressive issue than the past few.

In this issue:

The Editorial: "Ecological Collapse", by John. W. Campbell. An ecology can collapse but Ecology keeps going, albeit in a different form. Campbell starts by talking about one of the greatest Earth-changing elements ever: oxygen. It altered the atmosphere and what life could live on this planet forever. From there, it's on to other types of pollution, like thermal pollution from nuclear reactions. They can heat rivers, and that could kill off the current wildlife in those rivers, but it could spark other life to move into those rivers. There are lots of side effects to consider, good and bad.

Novelette: "The Unreachable Stars" by Stanley Schmidt, with an illustration by Kelly Freas, showing a background of skyscrapers against a night sky and the outline of people in the midground. Above to the left is what appears to be the head of some kind of feline animal humanoid species. The caption reads, There are choices which, once made can't be reversed -- and typical of these is the choice of immediate desire over long-term need!

First thoughts: the title, to me, invokes "The Impossible Dream" from Man of La Mancha, which was a 1965 musical, but the movie didn't come out until 1972.

The story is set in a far (at least I hope far) future when space has been abandoned and forgotten, and Earth is overpopulated. Anthon Hillar goes to the Regional Planning Director Olaf Karper about a discovery. He's unearthed some books from a crypt of a 21st century eccentric at one of the new energy and food complexes in Kaliforn. Bypassing his chain of command, he showed them to Mylo Gotfry, a professor of Ancient English in a government school. He thinks they are important. They are books about the stars and other worlds. Olaf doesn't seem interested and Anthon is afraid a coverup will take place instead of talking about going out there (not that there's money to go out there when there are people to feed and house). Anthon goes AWOL trying to figure out what to do next, wondering if the books are a hoax, when a voice in his head tells him, "They're not a hoax." Ozrlag, the feline-like alien, is trying to influence Anthon mentally, much to the consternation of Mizhjar. They're trying to get information about Earth, and they already know about Mylo. They want him to go to the crypt and get the other books. In the end, Ozrlag has to join Anthon and they are confronted by Karper, who predicted their movements. There's a little twist in the epilogue.

Interesting story, without a lot of speaking parts, and only two short, feline aliens needed, which could be either male or female. None of the speaking parts are tied to any race or gender. Despite the grand scale of the story, most of the sets would be simple, and everything else could be handled with establishing shots and montages to suggest overpopulation and the brink of starvation. It could be adaptable, but from these past four months, it woouldn't be one of my top choices.

Science Fact: "Real Science for Real Problems" by John R. Pierce. The caption reads, It isn't obvious that Bell Laboratories runs a major educational "univeristy" -- but it does, because it has to. Educational psychology is, consequently, highly important to the Labs. And because it is a business -- utility commissions and stockholders alike want expenses down! -- Bell Labs has been applying the "Schwartzberg test" to educational psychology for years. Any theories have to work! [(P)] In the process of learning how to learn, the "University of Bell Labs" has developed solid proof that students should not be allowed to determine how they are to be taught, and what is "relevant"! The Editor

Fifty years old, and still relevant when it comes to student learning. At the time, the Bell System was the largest university instituation in the country after the U.S. Government itself. By applying research, Bell was able to shrink one course from 7 weeks to 7 days, and they had better results. And through tests, they discovered that students didn't always choose the best methods for learning and retaining information. Credit for programmed instruction is credited to B. F. Skinner, whom I learned about somewhat in an Educational Psychology course a long time ago.

There's some information that's interesting, at least as a historical note, so it's worth finding a copy of the article.

Bell increasing relied on programmed instruction instead of lecture and text books. In front, when the programs, there often wasn't a teacher in the room. It also showed that if there were breaks in the text to asks relevant questions about what they just read or saw, there was better retention of the material. Of course, just because programmed instruction can be evaluated doesn't mean that a course has been appropriately assessed. It's possible that people will score well on the test questions without taking the course at all. Or that seasoned employees will do better than recent graduates just starting. That shows that the course didn't work as advertised.

One outdated piece of trivia, people remembered phone numbers longer if the chunks were reversed. Most people would make calls to the same area code and usually to one of a handful of exchanges. It was only the last four digits that changed the most. And yet, as you dial, those are the four digits that get forgotten by the time you dial them.

Novelette: "Heart's Desire and Other Simple Wants" by W. Macfarlane, with an illustration by Vincent Difate, showing a bare-legged, bare-footed man in an overcoat, swinging a sword. There's half a wheel on the ground (with a shadow) and a car heading toward a wooden covered bridge which turns into more of a steel trestle.The caption reads, Given infinite mobility, you have absolute immunity. But if there is a place you want to be -- thereby you're limited!

I honestly have no idea what was going on in this story. Despite a line like, "I thought my operation was secure with baffles, dead ends, double bluffs and a chain of command trustworthy as a paperclip necklace. I figured I was safe as the nissing side of a Mobius strip", I'm not sure where it went off the rails. Maybe if I reread the portion in the middle.

Arleigh Ravenshaw takes his order from General Craddock, who tells him he's a marked man. It seems to be an X-Files situation where they investiage alien artifacts, witchcraft and odd occurrences. Craddock sends Ravenshaw on a cross-country trip that starts in Saratoga Springs and leads him down South and then out West. His first stop seems to be a couple of New Age hippies (but, again, this is written in 1970) and it's long on conversation, and then it moves on, and on, and on. Maybe I was dulled by this and didn't pick up the common thread. When he gets to a town called Nak-a-tosh, he phones a woman named Mrs. Aubray Chalmers, which brings him to a coven and a ceremony that he's about to take part in. One of the women involved was named Nell Rowley whom Ravenshaw managed to not ogle ("goggle") by ogling another woman instead. It wasn't until I was writing this up that I realized that Nell Rowley was mentioned very early in the story and is known to both Ravenshaw and Craddock. I missed this.

Anyway, Rowley grabs Ravenshaw and pulls him out of the coven before anything stupid happens. They flee in a car, and the coven gives chase. And some point, this road trip takes a major detour as they start hopping, leaping, jumping or sliding between dimensions and realities. Start thinking about something (like a bridge) and it appears. This causes problems as they are moving around in alternate realities acting odder than a $2.50 bill, which actually exists. They finally figure a way back, but I really haven't a clue what was going on. If someone wanted to adapt it, they'd need to leave out a lot of the beginning and explain what was going on better.

Serial: "The World Menders" by Lloyd Biggle, Jr., with an illustration by Kelly Freas, showing a line of hairy humanoids walking, one with a torch, two carrying another who seems to be passed out or injured, and a female seems to be dancing. The caption reads, Third of Three Parts. One of the problems that has never been adequately considered is "When is a slave not a slave, so freeing him is impossilbe." That unconsidered problem presents aspects that make it inherently insoluble.

This Part 3 of 3, so I chose to wait to read this. I may do a separate entry for two or three serials.

Short Story: "Higher Centers" by F. Paul Wilson, with an illustration by Vincent Di Fate, showing a dog looking at two people, one standing, and one getting up, on top of some kind of platfrom, and a second platform has a lamp that looks to be projecting the title "higher centers", and there's a flat skyline and two moons. The caption reads, The efficient way of doing things is to have a strong, centralized Center of Command that makes all the decisions. Well-l . . . at least as long as the thing works at all . . .

The higher centers refer to parts of the brain. Spoiler: unraveling a mystery on another as to why some people are having trouble breathing, and can't sleep for more than an hour at a time. Side effects include the government screwing everything up because affected employees cannot function properly, and people are starting to riot. Due to some kind of accident (I'm not sure what), the people suffering have a problem where their higher centers have taken control over some body functions that the lower centers should handle, such as breathing. No solution is offered, and the problem with be passed onto another authority.

This story is too cerebral to make a good sci-fi story. Even as a medical drama, it fails because there is no solution to the problem.

The Analytical Library: The top five stories from January 1971, when I started reading. Gordon R. Dickson's serial takes the top spot with an incredibly low score (low is good), and "The Telzey Toy" was next. I liked that one. I couldn't argue with the placement of the rest of the stories. I had to think about the titles a moment to remember much about them.

The Reference Library , by P. Schuyler Miller.
Books reviewed include: Dread Companion (Andre Norton), The House in November (Keith Laumer), The Dark Symphony, and Anti-Man (both by Dean R. Koontz), and The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge (Harry Harrison). Also there are mini reviews of books reprinted in hardback: The Stainless Steel Rat (Harry Harrison), The Wanderer (Fritz Lieber), I Am Legend (Richard Matheson), A Gift From Earth (Larry Niven), Nightwings (Robert Silverberg), and Rebirth (John Wyndham).

Brass Tacks:
Stan was incorrect to assert that 3,000 tons of coal dust could cause a 3 kiloton explosion -- it's closer to 33, but since it isn't efficient, at a 10% rate, he'd be close. Rick Cook gave an update to his bacteria article published in November 1970. (I haven't seen the article but I skimmed then skipped most of the letter.) Drugs are bad enough when they're good, but when they're cut with arsenic, rat poison or such, they're even worse, and the users don't know what they're getting. (Sounds like getting pharmaceuticals over the Internet!) Pot and alcohol are also menaces. And a couple more editorial responses.

On to May, and whatever else is in the TBR stacks in Kindle, iBooks, and the physical nightstand.

Bellewether (Kearsley)

Bellewether by Susanna Kearsley (2018)

(Not a review, just some notes to help me remember the things I've read. But written this way because it's the Internet, and some people will stumble across this page.)

The was a book group book. Yes, I've somehow become part of a book group.

The spelling of "Bellewether" is a pun on the French "belle", and it is the name of a ship and an estate in the book.

There are dual storylines taking place during the Seven Years (French & Indian) War and current day at a home above Snug Cove on the northern shore of Long Island, which is becoming a museum dedicated to the the life of a Revolutionary War hero. The hero will become Captain Benjamin Wilde, but he is still just one of the brothers of Lydia Wilde in the earlier narrative. There is also the story that a ghost haunts the museum and the woods about it, and the tale that it is a French soldier, killed by the one of the Wilde sons, when he attempted to run off with Lydia Wilde.

Charley is a descendant of the Wilde family, whose family fled to Canada during the Viet Nam War, but has come back to Long Island to look after her niece when her brother dies. She becomes the curator of the museum, much to the chagrin of a couple of board members, but she has the credentials for the job. She encounters the ghost early on and also starts to learn more of the history of the Wilde family as she goes to retrive items that were in the house according to an Inventory List made during British occupation (during the American Revolution). She also tries to find inormation behind the ghost story, which would allow them to expand the mandate of the museum. Some information is not welcome to be found. In particular, no one wanted to discover that the Captain was raised in a house with slaves. (Note that I don't think the current-day historians uncovered the entire story.)

The pre-Revolutionary story was of more interest to me. I can't say that I've read much of the Seven Years War era. Usually, it's from the 1770s onward. As for the modern-day story, most of my interest lay in uncovering the stories of the past. The ghost, which you can be certain early on is in fact a ghost even if you don't know whose, doesn't add much to the story, except as an aid to steering Charley in the right direction at times. The love stories/triangles are for anotehr demographic than me but didn't affect my enjoyment of the book either way.

Kearsley adds some historical notes at the end of the book which are of some interest, which events actually happened with real people, and how her characters and composites fit in.