Winning Flash - "Last Call" by Dan Pietrasik

We have a winner! I launched another flash fiction contest a month ago and what follows is our winning story. The entries had to be under 1,000 words, have a speculative fiction element and involve one or more mirror balls. I kicked it off with a story of my own, "Mirror Images". Our winning author, Dan Pietrisk not only is published here on Science Fiction and Other ODDysseys, he also has a mirror ball, complete with a motor to turn it on its way to him. Lucky him, huh?

"Last Call"
by Dan Pietrasik

Based on how many people are already here, I'll be eating well tonight. The sun is barely down and there's already a nice selection on the dance floor and milling around the tables. A guy like me will have no problems.
   
“Here you go, buddy,” the bartender says, handing me a Long Island Iced Tea.
   
I include a non-memorable tip when I pay him, and move on to a table. The big mirror behind the bartender bothers me. Not that I worry about a mortal noticing I don't have a reflection. They usually come up with some lame excuse on their own about line of sight or something. If they don't, it only takes a little mental push to give them the idea. The part where a mirror absorbs a piece of me instead of reflecting it back is what creeps me out. The table is also a better hunting position.
   
I sit and watch the herd for a while, wondering why another vampire hasn't claimed this place. Not just quantity, but quality of feeding here. A waitress catches my eye as she leans on the bar chatting with the bartender, but I know better than to choose from the staff -- at least if I want to come back. And I think I'd be a fool to not frequent these grounds. With a quick glance around I can see two women I'm definitely putting on the menu, and at least a dozen that wouldn't require lowering my standards.
   
“Ready for a refill?”
   
I look up over my left shoulder as the waitress I noticed earlier pulls her hand back from mine. Apparently I didn't hear her the first time. It's nice to be able to control my hearing enough to come into clubs and not be overwhelmed, but not hearing someone approach because of it takes some getting used to. I order another drink, the better to blend in. She's checking me out more than I'd like for someone on my Don't Drink Here list, so I send a little extra “ignore me” vibe her way. If she forgets to bring my drink, so be it.
   
I pick out my first appetizer. A young woman obviously drowning her sorrows in a girls' night out, and far enough into it that her friends won't notice the effects on her if I take a little off the top. I'm sure she'll appreciate the attention, even if she doesn't remember me afterward. And just a couple of unexplained wounds to differ tomorrows aches and pains from any other hangover. I'm about to make my move when the waitress comes back with my drink and sits across from me at the table.
   
“I just wanted you to know,” she says with a smile, “I can take a break now and dance, before we're too busy.”
   
I really need to work on turning down the attraction level, this is not the right kind of attention.  Sticking with drunk patrons for my meals is so much less complicated, and if I get carried away, much less inconvenient. But turning down an attractive offer to dance is not the way to avert attention. There's definitely worse sacrifices I've had to make than a little exertion with a hot woman. I've always been a sucker for the assertive but shy thing she has going on, coming up to me like this, but keeping her eyes slightly downcast while waiting for my answer. I'm hooked when she reaches up to scratch an itch on the side of her neck. Besides, she'll go back to work after one dance, and write me off as a player when she sees how many others I plan to go through tonight.
   
“Then let's dance,” I say, standing and offering her my hand.
   
She laughs at my gesture, and with a quick tug on my sleeve heads to the dance floor. At the edge, she turns to make sure I'm following and starts to dance. I glide smoothly into my carefully restrained, “let the woman I'm with appreciate me, but don't draw stares” moves.    She's using her whole  body, spinning and swaying, drawing me after her toward the center of the floor, but still not meeting my eyes. I sense the blood rushing through her veins, feel its pull. I'm getting worked up. All my urges are focused on her.
   
My hunger is growing as she dances. I need to break away before I succumb, but I can't. Why can't I look away? Why aren't I closing in? I've stopped dancing. I'm just staring at her. She finally looks me in the eye, but I can't catch her. Her smile has changed. Leaning forward, she whispers in my ear.
   
“Last call.”
   
She dances back again, raising her arms over her head. My eyes follow her hands as they go up. She's pointing toward the ceiling. I look up further, and see that we're dancing directly below a triangle of disco balls.
   
Hundreds of little mirrors. Flashing. Rotating. Pulling me apart. 


***

Dan Pietrasik is a reader and writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, two kids and three cats. A programmer by profession, he also dabbles in improvisational comedy.

Matchbox Girls lights the imagination

Matchbox Girls
Chrysoula Tsavelas
Feb. 2012 Candlemark and Gleam

Review by Deirdre Murphy

I won Matchbox Girls in an online drawing. The cover, drawn in an unusual style, drew my attention right away. The story more than lives up to the cover. It’s quirky and enjoyable, starting with an old trope (the troubles resulting when angels crossbreed with humans) but the world is original and interesting. The girls are adorable and I was rooting for Marley from the very first line, when she wakes up to answer an urgent call moments before her phone starts to ring.

As the book opens, Marley has more than enough trouble keeping her own life in order. She’s on medication to keep her hallucinations—all visions of disaster—and anxiety attacks under control, and her occasional writing jobs don’t really bring in enough money to pay her share of the rent.

So she’s shocked when the tiny twin nieces of an attractive male friend call to say he told them to call her if he ever disappeared. The girls insist their uncle vanished in his study shortly after answering his phone, which is, of course, totally preposterous. Still, the girls are scared, so she struggles into her blue-jeans and rushes out into Los Angeles traffic to go reassure them. Wildfires are burning in the hills, and the ominous glow and haze of smoke adds a sense of danger to the simple act of driving.

When she arrives, Zachariah’s car is in the driveway, but he’s not there. A search of his study discloses his cell phone and a strange roll of papers, the words either encrypted into strange letter-shapes or in a language Marley had never seen before. The girls want to get out of the house, saying it’s creepy there! Things start getting stranger. It’s little things at first—a book disappearing, and one of the twins opening the locked door of Zachary’s car so they can get their car seats. (They insist they can’t ride in Marley’s car without their seats, so they trust her with a secret they haven’t even shared with Uncle Zach.)

The strangeness accelerates as Marley’s visions return, and she becomes convinced that the twins will only be safe if they are with her. The wildfires in the hills grow ever closer to LA; a sinister lawyer threatens Marley, telling her that kidnapping is a crime; and she starts to have strange dreams. Then a variety of strange people show up, some trying to claim the girls and others acting to help Marley protect them.

At some point, Marley realizes she’s forgotten her medicine—but too many strange things have happened by that time for her to believe she’s just hallucinating. Besides, the twins and her best friends have seen strange things too, and she is more and more certain with each passing hour that she’s somehow protecting the twins just by being with them.

As with real life, when answers to some of Marley’s questions start to appear, they just raise more questions. The action moves forward at a good pace, blending danger and mystery in good measure as the story builds to a climax.

I liked this book. I think you will too.

Psyche's Prophecy might make you look over your shoulder

Psyche's Prophecy
Ann Gimpel
Gypsy Shadow Publishing (2011)


Reviewed by Clare Deming


In Psyche's Prophecy, author Ann Gimpel takes us to a near and possible future in which resources are scarce and rolling blackouts and gasoline shortages are increasing. Amid this burgeoning dystopia, psychotherapist Lara McGinnis stays busy, counseling disturbed teenagers, OCD patients, and couples with marital problems.

The story immediately takes on the trappings of a thriller before delving into the fantasy aspects that are at the heart of this mixed genre tale. Dr. McGinnis learns that patient Ken Beauchamp is abusing his pregnant wife and steps in to offer the woman assistance. Her help comes nearly too late. Mr. Beauchamp puts his wife in the hospital in critical condition, disappears from the authorities, and begins a course of stalking and retaliation upon Dr. McGinnis for her interference.

In her private practice as a psychotherapist, Lara has found that her long-time ability to read auras has always been handy. However, she has more frequent and disturbing visions as the conflict with Mr. Beauchamp and the unpredictable blackouts across the city continue. On top of this, a graduate student, one of her other patients, and even her live-in boyfriend, Trevor, have all had a common dream. Lara tries to solve this mystery while everything else around her spirals deeper into chaos and her visions become darker.

The first half of this book kept me up at night, both as a page-turner and in sympathetic fear for Dr. McGinnis. This is a very good thing if you're a fan of that type of story, but if the thought of having a stalker break into your residence will give you nightmares, then you may want to read this only during daylight hours.

As the story progresses, Lara must face who she is and what her paranormal abilities mean. There are dark forces at work other than Ken Beauchamp, and ancient mythologies turn out to have real relevance to modern life. Lara and Trevor's characterization sparkled as they confronted new facets to Lara's power and the inevitable changes to their world.

In the second half of the book, I felt like the tension lagged. Although to be fair, it was more like the type of tension changed, because this is where the fantasy aspects became heavier. A lot of information about magic, witches, and power is introduced that seems more like buildup for the next volume.

Psyche's Prophecy was recently announced as a Finalist for an EPIC e-book award. While there is a definite conclusion to this book, there are also many questions left unanswered. Psyche's Prophecy is the first book in a planned trilogy and the second volume, Psyche's Search, will be released soon.

Louise Marley on Mozart's Blood and writing

Louise Marley draws on her background in music in many of her works. She writes strong, female protagonists who don't wilt when a man shows up. I admire that. I met Louise at a convention. I asked her for an interview when I saw her again at World Fantasy Convention in San Jose last year. Since her latest book just launched yesterday, it seemed the perfect time to interview her. Learn more about her and her writing at www.louisemarley.com.

AW: What originally drew you to science fiction?

LM: Like so many of us who love the genre, I read it as a child, then as a girl, and as a young woman. I read all the Oz books when I was in third grade, all eight of them or whatever there were. As a teenager, I devoured the Darkover series, and of course when we were assigned books like 1984 and Brave New World I was in heaven. I read everything else Huxley and Orwell wrote, and probably didn’t understand much, but no doubt the reading helped my writing later.

AW: When did you start writing? Was it always science fiction?

LM: I started writing one summer when the musical season was over (I was a professional singer.) I thought I wanted to write children’s books, but then this idea came to me of singers with special powers . . . I was off and running. I never really considered writing anything else, so now that a lot of my books have historical elements, that’s something of a surprise. I think my stories will always be speculative, though, because I love that feeling of wonder and mystery—never knowing what might happen.

AW: Congratulations on the launch of Mozart’s Blood. Can you tell my readers about it?


LM: I have always been fascinated by the phenomenon of very long life. The career of an opera singer, as I can attest, is relatively short, limited by age and strength and, frankly, competition. I wanted to write about an opera singer who gets extra chances. Unfortunately, becoming a reluctant vampire was the way to do that for her, and so Mozart’s Blood came to be. My protagonist is based on a real-life singer, Teresa Saporiti, who was the first Donna Anna in Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni. The book is loosely based on the story of that opera, but it covers about four hundred years of musical history as well.

AW: I loved your protagonist in Maquisarde. Were you surrounded by good examples of strong women growing up?

LM: I loved Ebriel, too! And as you’ve noticed, I do love to write about strong women. Yes, both my mother and my grandmother were very strong, even tough, though in different ways. My grandmother was a painter with a studio in San Francisco. We all used to say she was the first hippie—wore slacks, hung out with bohemians, and refused to stay married even during the Depression. My mother was a child of the Depression, and had a seriously hard life. I never heard her complain once, and I still don’t, although old age can be hard to bear. She’s the most amazing 89-year-old you could ever hope to meet, and I still turn to her for advice and guidance. She’s also been the first reader for a number of my novels.

AW: What other genres do you write in? Which is your favorite to write? To read?

LM: I read in all genres, really, including literary novels. I’m impatient with some, because as a genre reader I like plot and substance, but there are some literary books that provide those. I write fantasy, science fiction, and historical with a paranormal element. I just love the weird! I haven’t written a “straight” historical yet, but that may happen. As to my favorite, I have to say that whatever I’ve just finished is usually my favorite. The book I’m working on always seems lame to me while I’m in the process. This would be scary, except that my family reminds me every time that I have the same anxiety with every book.

AW: What would you say your ratio of writing vs. rewriting is? Do you outline?

LM: I do outline, rather loosely, but I like to know where I’m going and have some idea of how I might get there. Rewriting is my favorite part of the process; I love playing with text, tightening, enriching, listening to the poetry of prose. Writing first drafts is so hard! It takes me a lot longer to write that first draft than it does to polish the second and third drafts of a book or a story.

AW: What was your most memorable book signing or convention experience?

LM: I did a signing in Spokane, Washington at a lovely independent bookstore called Auntie’s. The Glass Harmonica had just come out, and my collaborator, a glass armonicist, joined me there. We had more than a hundred people at that event, and it was grand. Book signings have fallen out of favor for the most part. Now I do launch events, and the occasional signing, but not nearly so many as in the past.

I love conventions. I didn’t discover them until I attended Clarion West in 1993. I’ve had some wonderful experiences at conventions, but perhaps the best was in a restroom at Readercon, outside of Boston. A charming young woman accosted me, apologizing for the “fan girl” moment, but having nice things to say about The Terrorists of Irustan. It was delightful. Such things make me want to paraphrase Dorothy Parker: I hate almost all famous (Parker said rich) people, but I think I’d be darling at it!

AW: Do you write character driven or plot driven stories? Or both?

LM: I suspect we all like to think we’re writing both, but I’m aware that character development is my strength. It’s all that time with the opera! I struggle with plot, but I suspect everyone does. When I get it right—when the pace and the build-up of tension are in the right places—it’s such a huge relief.

AW: What are you working on now?

LM: I just received a two-book contract with Kensington, I’m happy to say. They’re both follow-ons to Mozart’s Blood. The first is The Brahms Deception. The second doesn’t have a name yet, but it will be either Puccini or Verdi. I have to do some research so I can decide! It should be fun, because I love doing books based on real people, and then adding some sort of strangeness to their lives. I’ve done Mozart twice now (The Glass Harmonica features him as a child) and it’s time to get to know some of the other big names!


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Published again! and media magnetism

I've obviously managed to get on a sci-fi media database. I received two emails in one day this week from TV station marketing people. TLC and Comedy Central both have new shows they'd like me to tell you about.

The Comedy Central show, Ugly Americans, may appeal to the young male audience. It's on the Comedy Central station after 10:30 PM for a reason. Ugly Americans is an animated show featuring various, somewhat less than human (or more than human?) creatures like zombies, devil women and vampires who all invade New York City. Well, invade is not really the right word. They act like freakily dysfunctional New Yorkers who can't last 60 seconds without alluding to sex. It premieres on St. Patrick's Day, believe it or not. It's very much like an animated, but smutty, Men in Black. Trailers can be viewed here.

TLC sent me a press release about Paranormal Court, their one-hour program in which psychic medium, Robert Hansen, helps families who have lost a loved one gain justice and closure. Hmmm. Sounds like Judge Spooky. March 27, 10 PM on TLC.

Now to MY news! A short memoir that I wrote about finding my sister, entitled "The Rosary" has gained new life. After a very long wait, the second anthology to pick it up is now available. The volume is called The Mystery of Fate: Common Coincidence or Divine Intervention? Read more about it and purchase it from Amazon or on the publisher's website. Can't wait to get my copy!

Finally, I learned of this article on writing, Writing a story - 12 important elements of dialog, by A. J. Barnet, on a LinkedIn group and thought it worth sharing. Barnet encourages the use of dialog and gives many basic tips on writing and dialog. I'm a dialogaholic. I still think I need to try screenwriting...



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