Happy new year!
I'm not the kind of person that sets new years resolutions, but the end
of the year is always a good time for me to look back and ahead and see
if what I'm doing still matches what I'd like to be doing, whether I'm
still on a trajectory towards a place I'd like to be. Last year, I
decided I wanted to pick up writing again, and in earnest this time. And
so I did. I'm glad to say, I'm close to ticking of my first writing
goal: write and publish 6 novelette-length pieces. The fifth of these,
Eddy
<https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-5-eddy.html?mtm_campaign=nl22…>,
will be out on January 18th. Follow me on twitter
<https://twitter.com/koenswriting> to be notified as soon as it's
available on the various platforms!
I'm currently wrapping up the Isolated Futures series. The sixth
installment is almost ready to send of to my copy editor. I'm looking
forward to my next project, the full-length sci-fi novel due to be
released by the end of 2022 or early 2023 (I still need to lay down the
planning).
Are you a goal setter? Or do you just take life day by day? Have you
been able to tick off some of your goals in 2021, or maybe have set some
new goals for the years to come? I'm curious to hear what's going on in
our life! Just hit reply on this email and let me know.
But now, without further ado, I promised you a surprise for sticking
with me and here it is: a flash fiction story I wrote a while ago but
never released. So consider this a belated Christmas gift to you, my
loyal newsletter subscriber. Let me know what you think of it. And keep
reading after the story for two book tips (four if you count my own two
Isolated Futures installments) and of course this month's music tip. Enjoy!
Moon
They found her, despite her best efforts to hide. Two weeks ago, when
the message had arrived that she’d "won" the lottery and was destined to
be on the next rocket to the moon, she'd fled. She'd ran and ran until
she couldn't run any more. Then she had built a shelter in the woods,
and hid there, coming out only at night to crawl back into the village
to rummage through trash cans looking for food.
As she lay there on the fifth night, shivering from the cold, she heard
voices in the distance. She fought to control the shivering, make
herself lie still. But the voices grew louder anyway. Then she heard
dogs barking and whining, and she'd run again. In vain.
And now she was dragged, drugged and dazed, up the launch tower ramp,
into the elevator. Around her, people cheered. The world was preparing
for the monthly festival. Three days of joy and noise from banging on
pots, pans and anything else.
In the sky, she saw the waning moon announcing three days of darkness
and death. An abstraction to the people cheering around her, but a
certain reality to her.
From the rising glass elevator she saw a familiar face. Her room-mate
at the university campus, beaming. Telling everyone she knew the person
going to the moon this month. She knew the person that would give all of
them another one-month lease on life.
The elevator stopped, and she was dragged along a narrow bridge into the
capsule at the top of the rocket. Despite the drugs, she felt a
tightness in her chest. Her muscles tried to resist the pull of the
guards dragging her along. She wanted to extend her arms and legs to
grab the edges of the small entrance into the rocket. But she was too
numbed.
Tied down, looking up towards the sky. The hatch closed with a bang and
she was alone. The capsule walls lined with high-tech panels, blinking
lights and bright displays showing complex formulas. State of the art
equipment to guide her on her last journey.
The rocket roared, shaking her body against the restraints. At first,
nothing seemed to happen but then she felt movement. She was on her way,
to die.
Hours passed, fading in and out of sleep. The moon grew larger, a
looming black shadow threatening to engulf her. Her dreams faded. Her
future was gone, just like that. What horror would await her?
She thought it cliche, but her short life flashed past her as she
surrendered to the inevitable. Her child-hood, her father and mother,
brother and sister. They must be so proud now, down there. High-school,
her first kiss. Starting at university, eager to learn and become the
best doctor ever. Then the message, delivered by special courier, her
entire dorm in awe, cheering her on. Happy. For her or for themselves?
For the first time since the message came, she felt calm. She understood
now her place in the world. As the moon loomed closer and closer, she
accepted her destiny.
It was the way of the cosmos. It was to be. The moon god would take her,
devour her, and spare the billions she had left behind below.
Her spacecraft rolled, the dark landscape turning to one side, still
approaching ever closer but slower now. Looking up, she saw a blue,
green and white globe. Earth. Tears filled her eyes, the beautiful sight
reducing her to just being.
The capsule crashed, hitting the surface and shattering in a million
pieces. Her body, lifeless, ejected by the force of the crash, was
thrown through vacuum and came to rest on the surface. Around her final
resting place, for hundreds if not thousands of kilometres in every
direction, debris and perfectly preserved bodies lay as a testament to
life. She was at peace, her life fulfilled.
Book cover for Negative Reinforcement: silhouette of a rabbit against
industrial background
<https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-4-negative-reinforcement.html…>
Book cover of Eddy, distorted female face.
<https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-5-eddy.html?mtm_campaign=nl22…>
Independent app developer Limei Huxcon leads a peaceful life on
Luxulyan, a space station in orbit over ice giant Yamm. Oobya, the
station’s owners, keep the twenty million souls on the station fed and
comfortable, both physically and mentally.
But when her second date with a power technician is violently
interrupted, her life is turned upside-down.
After she discovers what is going on outside her bubble of recommended
news and entertainment, she embarks on a crusade to set things straight,
teaming up with a band of underground hackers and rejects. But are their
goals and hers aligned, or is there a more nefarious purpose to the
gang’s plans?
Get it here!
<https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-4-negative-reinforcement.html…>
/Why did she have to die?/
Convicted for a murder he doesn’t remember, digital forensics specialist
Lagan Quill spends his days at the secluded Clay Institute, picking
apart his memories and separating fact from fantasy.
But when a rehabilitation hearing takes him back into the thrumming
city, he uncovers technology so disgusting that his own past pales in
comparison.
Forced to trust the one person he despises more than himself, he
struggles to stay true to his principles. Can he reclaim his sanity
while escaping those who will stop at nothing to prevent him from outing
the truth?
*Find out in this thrilling tale that puts the disruption in disruptive
technology.*
Release date: January 18, 2022.
<https://koenmartens.nl/pages/isolated-futures-5-eddy.html?mtm_campaign=nl22…>
Book Tips
Tilted red-tinted landscape of bare mountains and rubble
<https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/2914bbd4-6a7f-11ec-b8d1-bb5c2eb8f4fa>
Person against skyline surrounded by flora and mushrooms through green
filter
<https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/fce90abe-6a43-11ec-84f1-135832acfa77>
In these interconnected stories, you're the main character. You've just
discovered life on a new world, or you're running from monsters on a
derelict warship. You're an interstellar emperor who's just lost a war,
or an ordinary galactic citizen falling into alien tourist traps. So
live through these stories. Explore the vast unknown!
Get it here for free!
<https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/2914bbd4-6a7f-11ec-b8d1-bb5c2eb8f4fa>
*Rules were made to be broken.*
From terraformed outposts to magical realms, journey to worlds where
deadly plants, rampant biodiversity, or failed colonies have created
irresistible opportunities for those brave enough to seize them.
New worlds, found family, mystical secrets, and deadly science weave
together in this lesbian-centric anthology focusing on a very different
kind of first time—a first encounter with a world, or being, entirely
unlike our own.
If you like diverse stories with lesbian heroines practicing science,
magic, and seduction, buy Distant Gardens today!
Get it here!
<https://storyoriginapp.com/swaps/fce90abe-6a43-11ec-84f1-135832acfa77>
Music Tip
Album cover, pixelated Eric van der Westen against red background
<https://open.spotify.com/album/4LjTi4OPYIBYcgVkE99zGh>
(spotify <https://open.spotify.com/album/4LjTi4OPYIBYcgVkE99zGh>)
Funky, groovy, languid, dreamy. A perfect album for a lazy Sunday
afternoon. A nice mix of more up-tempo but always relaxed grooves and
dreamy soundscapes, at times reminiscent of the more psychedelic p-funk
tracks of yore. The quartet, led by Eric van der Westen on electric bass
and with Jeroen van Vliet on keys, Aron Raams on guitar, Dirk Peter
Kölsch on drums, has recorded five excellent tracks. I've had this album
on repeat for the past week, and it still doesn't get boring.
--
https://www.koenmartens.nl/
