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TEAL: Chapter 12
…In one fluid motion I leaped toward the fence, grabbed the top of it, and flipped myself back over. My heart thumped and my mind raced, but I only had one thought: Eddie and I had to get out of there, and we had to do it fast. By now, the agents almost certainly knew we were missing…
TEAL: Chapter 11
…I moved faster, grateful for the adrenaline saturating my blood. I couldn’t believe I’d just pulled a fire alarm and was now trying to steal Eddie out of secret agent custody. Part of my brain told me to turn and run for my life, but I couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling that if I were the one stuck with the police, Eddie would almost certainly try to save me…
TEAL: Chapter 10
I was in the back of the line. The janitor still lead the way with Eddie in-between us. I caught myself reflexively glancing over my shoulder, because while we hadn’t seen anything yet, I half expected to see some monstrous, bloodthirsty creature sneaking up on us. I had assumed these Zargansk guys to be some brand of assassin or ninja or secret agent – but what if they were something else entirely?
TEAL: Chapter 9
Above us, a single naked light bulb hung from the ceiling, its dim glow casting thick, stubby shadows across everything – including our host, who stood alone in the center of the room. I realized for the first time that the mystery man might actually be one of the school’s janitors. He was tall – 6’3″, maybe 6’4″ – and he might be handsome if he weren’t wearing coveralls and a sour expression. In contrast to the coveralls, his eyes were large and intelligent, and they peered out at Eddie and I beneath bushy black eyebrows. His hair looked halfway between black and gray, and hey – he even smelled like a janitor. Still, he didn’t look nearly as old as I had imagined (more like 40 instead of 60). I didn’t know if that made me feel better or worse.
TEAL: Chapter 8
When I finally woke up, I woke up suddenly – as in sat-up-straight, eyes wide open, mind crystal clear. I instantly realized something was wrong. My room was dark, way too dark considering how long I thought I’d been asleep. On top of that, the house was silent. That never happened. And I had the weirdest taste in the back of my throat. It tasted like a little like grass, a little like cough syrup, and a lot like crap. Why?
TEAL: Chapter 7
Teal is available as a free CC-licensed science fiction novel. You can read more about the project here. Click here to download this chapter as a PDF (132kb) “Okay, brain – let’s get down to business.” When I really need to think hard, I have a conversation with my brain. I think I got the [...]
TEAL: Chapter 6
Teal is available as a free CC-licensed science fiction novel. You can read more about the project here. Click here to download this chapter as a PDF (107kb) I’d never been in a car chase with my mom before, so I wasn’t really sure of what to do. Car chase passengers on TV always had [...]
TEAL: Chapter 5
I watched, horrified and unable to pull myself away, until mom let off the brake and floored the gas pedal. The force of the acceleration smashed me into my seat but I stayed turned around, watching as the group of men stopped firing and pointed at our escaping car. Three leapt back into the intact black sedan while the fourth placed something shiny on the pile of now-smoldering car wreckage. Once he finished, the black sedan swung around and he jumped in…
Rethinking Publishing, Rethinking Teal
I’ve written a book. It’s called Teal, and it’s best classified as a YA sci-fi novel. Teal is 346 pages long – or more precisely, 102,282 words comprised of 550,713 characters. (Characters meaning letters, numbers, and punctuation – not individuals in the story.) It took me some 18 months to finish the first draft, then another year to rewrite it in 1st-person instead of 3rd-person (well worth it), after which came another year of reworking and rewriting the story to the point where I feel like it truly represents my best effort with these particular characters. As you might imagine, the road to finishing Teal has been… “interesting,” to say the least…
TEAL: Chapter 4
Teal is available as a free CC-licensed science fiction novel. You can read more about the project here. Click here to download this chapter as a PDF (123kb) What can I say? This was quickly becoming the worst Friday of my life, and the drive to the hospital was anything but comforting. Mom remained tight-lipped [...]
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