Radial Fatigue

Golden Kill

Visual artists do sketches... I'll sometimes sketch scenes.  This is just a rough something I came up with today...

        A pair of cool blue dots lit up on the bracelet about her wrist, mirroring the pair of lights just above the trigger on the gun.  Just as she’d ordered it… the weapon recognized her touch.   Only her touch, as it were.  She could almost feel the life beneath her finger, coursing through the palm of her hand, urging her to squeeze the trigger.  If anyone else tried to wield the heavy-automatic rifle, the chamber feed would seize, effectively locking all function of the gun until an authorized user attempted to use it.  But for her…

        Carefully, she set it back on the table, and both pairs of lights were extinguished.  The bracelet was just a bracelet again, and the gun was now little better than a heavy club.  For a moment, she considered how effective the vastly expensive hunk of metal would be as a simple blunt force weapon.

        She looked up and across the table.  “You do impressive work… for a doctor, that is.”

        “You are pleased, then?”

        Her silence was as much confirmation as if she’d actually spoken.  If she’d been displeased, she would have been sure to let him know, and in none-too-eloquent of language.

        Yes, silence was good.

        “About payment, then…” he began.

        She held up a bullet, one that glimmered in the dim light like gold.  In fact, it was gold, solid all the way through.  “Do you know how much this is worth?” she asked.  She tossed it to him, allowing him to weigh it speculatively in his hands.

        “Maybe ten-thousand?  At the shiest mark, at least… it could be even more.”

        “Exactly,” she said.  “That’s more than half your fare.”

        “What about the…?”

        Before he had even able to finish, she had whipped a small, silenced pistol from the small of her back, and fired a second bullet straight through the man’s forehead.  “There’s the other half,” she growled.  “Plus a little extra.”  As he slumped forward over the table, blood leaking down between his eyes, she stood to leave.  “Keep the change,” she tossed over her shoulder.

        The lights on her personalized rifle were already lit as she exited the back room of the bar, the live weapon nestled in the crook of her arm.

        Maybe silence wasn't so good after all.

Retrograde.

// Launch Day // Welcome to The Dive //

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A few days ago, I launched my debut novel COLOR OF A MIRROR. Written, designed, and published by me, it’s my vision of a dark, cyberpunk future. No galactic stakes, no one person saving the human race… it’s a cerebral story of very human characters trying to carve out an existence in a near future city that will crush them without a second thought. If you like Blade Runner or the writing of William Gibson, I think you’ll find something to love in this book.

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And I’m so excited to announce that the softcover novel is now available exclusively on my website! (Please note, I absolutely will ship internationally! If you’re having trouble with an order, just send me a message through the site and I’ll work to fix it.)

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So if you’re looking for something a little different this Black Friday/Cyber(punk) Monday, here’s the link again, in case you didn’t click the one above: colorofamirror.net and I hope to see you all in The Dive!

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(And be sure to check out the soundtrack for the book on Spotify and other streaming services.)

House of Arrows.

Through the Veil.

Echoes from a Memory.

Water's Edge. First time using something other than ink.

Everyday Brutalism

(Photo by ArtificeLux)

Duskblade. (Of a part with the earlier Moonblade.)

3-dimensional calligraphy test... just playing around with a third axis