Clouds Fall to Earth

Sunset from Craggy Gardens Visitor Center, BRP.  9/10/17

Chapter 1.
Hunting Day

Rho Aquilae encounters earthbound people for the first time. 

I began writing Clouds Fall to Earth in 2011 and worked on it off and on for two years, roughing out seven of the planned twelve chapters. I also created much of the world in some detail, including history, economics, technology, and culture. It actually connects with my short story "Shoreless Ocean of Eternity", which you can find in my when earth whispers collection. "Shoreless", then, is a prequel. Clouds Fall has been "on the shelf", untouched, since 2013, but always in the back of my mind.  This is chapter one.  It's not perfected yet, but I think it might be of interest.  I'd rather have something of the book out for people to read than for it to lay buried in my computer.  And this might motivate me to finally finish writing it and get it published.

Read the chapter HERE.

The Greenlandic Windows

by Mickey Hunt

Jonathan T. Barron takes his new bride Isobel, a former police officer, and her toddler Scotty for a month long "honey and moon" at a mysterious stone house on the remote, frozen east coast of Greenland. The house, designed in trapezoids and possibly built before the first Europeans arrived, isn't the only mystery however, because the elderly caretaker's wife babbles on and on about space ships... in Greenlandic.  Fourth in the JTB short story series, "Greenlandic Windows" at about 11,000 words, received an Honorable Mention in a 2016 Writers of the Future Contest.  (Update 10/22/16: Read "GW" HERE.)

Attack of the Gravid Amazons

A mid-30ish couple's marriage is on the rocks. He's an acoustical architect and she's an ob-gyn. About the only thing they have in common is a love of bug watching, so they are taking an entomological expedition to Indonesia to try to patch things up. Then Earth is invaded by pregnant green women. Among other inexplicable places around the planet, they attack in Singapore where the couple is staying for a few nights.

"Gravid Amazons" [8050 words] was revised in September 2016.  

Read HERE.

See my related Monarch Butterfly Photos from the Blue Ridge Parkway SW of Asheville NC, September 25, 2016.  Watch my 32 Second HD Video of them.

Genius

by Mickey Hunt

    Brad heaved what might be a truncated stainless steel water heater onto his table under the ancient live oaks.

    "Still peddling your miraculous apparatus?" Marquis said and plucked a dog-eared brochure from Brad's stack. "Looks dubious, old man. Hmm... Lead lining and rechargeable battery."

    "If I was a person of color like yourself..."

    "What? Bullscat. Everybody got a color."

    Cars swished by on the road. Breezy. Hot. Seagulls gliding overhead. Marquis stood behind his van, handing out bags of fresh shrimp and ice, taking in cash, improvising rhymes. Brad sagged in a chair at his tailgate while massaging the small of his back...

"Genius" (1090 words) was published at Stupefying Stories Showcase on March 25, 2015.  It was republished in March, 2016 and can also be read HERE at AntipodeanSF, based in Australia. 

Not the Wrong Planet

by Mickey Hunt

The Radiant entered a high, slow orbit around Lumen.

Alone in his tiny quarters, Specialist Johnten stared from the port window at the charcoal-black nightside of the planet. No lights broke the gloom below...

Another lonely, silent world.

Like me...


Not the Wrong Planet (1080 words) was first published in the near professional level e-mag Penumbra in the November 2014 issue.  But the parent company, Musa, went out of business early in 2015 and took down all its past issues.

But, the story is out again as of December 2015 at AntipodeanSF, an online Australian-based publication. Find it RIGHT HERE. In January, 2016, AntiSF made it available as an audio podcast read by me. The podcast may be heard HERE.

Spark

by Mickey Hunt

"Welcome to the edge of the universe," I said cheerfully. "The very edge."

The clutch of tourists easing into my parent's store seemed overawed.  At night, part of our sky is lit with nebulae, pulsars, galaxy clusters, and all sorts of stuff, but the rest of the sky is black, pitch black.  As far as anyone knows, no electromagnetic phenomena, gravity, or nothing ever emanates from out there...

Find Spark at 365 Tomorrows.

Read it with a New & Better ending at Rapid River Magazine. (1/7/16)

Demon Dragonfly

by Mickey Hunt
      The slave Mao Ping picked himself up from the street and dusted off his elegant embroidered robe. His cowardly porter peeked from behind a vendor stall, stumbled out to him, and bent over to reclaim the brown, cloth-wrapped package.

      Happily, Mao Ping thought, the mysterious package did not appear damaged. It might be the open umbrella of a princess, but was heavier, as he had noticed earlier when they collected it at the wood carver’s shop.

Demon Dragonfly (2644 words) was rejected 29 times.  It was a finalist in the 2016 Neoverse writing competition. Read the story HERE.

 

Shoreless Ocean of Eternity

        Before the seas rose and covered much of the land and before the Great Chaos overwhelmed civilization on Earth, the State of Israel devised a plan to prevent the breakdown from even beginning to happen in the first place.

#

        A man of medium height and dark, receding hair stood back from the door and looked up at the imposing edifice.  The building was not particularly large, but it preserved memories of fear, death, and unthinkable horror.  Not a prison, but containing the memory of prisons, remembrances of prisoners.  He put the keys into his pocket and said to the young woman beside him, “It’s closed then.”

Shoreless Ocean of Eternity (9,880 words) has been rejected so many times that I finally gave up submitting it to other people's publications. It is a prequel to my novel in progress, Clouds Fall to Earth.  Read "Shoreless" HERE.