A small raw snippet from Family Law #4

“How interesting,” April said. “Lee Anderson has hired the very same private investigators we use in Armstrong to run a series of inquiries on us.”

“I knew she wasn’t stupid,” Dakota said. “And Marsh and Hasan are the best in the business. I give her points for zeroing in on them to hire. My only concern is the conflict of interest. They shouldn’t have taken her money if they can’t do their assignment properly, and they certainly shouldn’t tell you that they were approached even if they do have to turn her down. You could reasonably conclude they will simply hire someone else and be alerted to their interest.”

“They didn’t tell me, I have others watching them. I think the key word is what you said, properly. The assignment reads to find and sort all public information and interview third parties. However they were told specifically not to try to breach our privacy, data systems, or suborn present or past employees. They may well conclude that puts them in no conflict with their duty to us.”

“They should have just hired a clipping service and asked them to do a search back to such and such a date,” Dakota said. “It would be a lot cheaper.”

“But the mentality is very different,” April said. “An investigator will tell much different things than a simple data sorter. For example they will inform a client what data is missing and why it’s absence is significant. No keyboard drone searching databases is going to analyze things in that depth. She was smart to hire their sort as well as data searchers.”

“Yes, but they will have to be theologians to sort out the moral imperatives from such an assignment,” Dakota warned. “I’d certainly not be confident I could to look at everything they know about us and decide what is public and searchable and what they only could know about from our relationship. I don’t consider myself a candidate for sainthood to be so flawlessly impartial.”

“I can see how to do it,” April admitted. “Just hire a promising new investigator and turn him loose on the problem with resources, but no access to their own files.”

“But . . . you’ve just hobbled him to do that,” Dakota objected.

“That’s all Lee’s paying for, and all she’d get elsewhere,” April pointed out.

“Did you think of that twisted devious thing all on your own? Or has Marsh and Hasan hired a new associate who might be used that way?” Dakota asked.

“I thought of it on my own,” April said. “But they do have a request out to several recruiters to find a new investigator. And it’s their first hire in over six months, so that’s sort of suspicious.”

“Are you going to quietly drop them?” Dakota wondered.

“Why? Because they could treat us badly?” April asked. “They’ve always had plenty of opportunity to be crooked with us. I don’t feel right to fire them unless they actually do something wrong. It’ll be interesting to watch.”

“You know . . . You could feed them misinformation or deliberately leak selected bits of information back to them,” Dakota suggested.

April smiled amused. “And you think I’m devious?” she asked Dakota.
* * *

A short snippet of Family Law #4

Rough and unedited as always, but just to give you heart that I AM working on it.

Lee asked the realtor about gardens. She was short, rather full framed compared to most of the Fargone population, with short curly hair and spex that oddly had a strap across the back of her head. What purpose did that serve? Lee could see now she probably had Life Extension work done. She was starting to be able to recognize that in people.

“Of course dear. It has a lovely terrace that doubles as an air car pad. There are planters with rather nice palms and some native plants, you could even arrange them to be outside the windows along one side of the penthouse. I think that would be lovely to do on the side that has the lesser view of the city lights. You have to pick them with some so care that they can withstand the jet-wash from landing and taking off right next to them. You also need some sort of ground cover so the dirt doesn’t blow out of the pots.” The Realtor held a finger up to give her a moment to deal with flying.

“B-13267 Dropping off net. Landing point in sight and going manual.” Blessing said, punching the controls to make it happen. She didn’t ask.

“I’ll take us around so you can see the place,” Blessing Evens said, slamming the stubby control stick at the end of her armrest all the way against the left stops, and threw the air car into a descending bank that had them close to vertical and pressed in their seats hard. The building flashed by close, very close, as they went around, but Lee was too busy reviewing her life before it ended to really appreciate the view.

Blessing rolled flat and came down at the landing pad barely off the vertical. Lee was sure they’d crash into it but the last fifty meters or so the engine pods all roared and she only thought she was pressed into her seat before. The last few seconds must have topped six Gs.

“If I let them land us on auto they take forever and would taken us straight in so you didn’t get to see the building,” Blessing related loudly over the engine sound. The amazing thing was it compressed the landing gear on contact and she cut the power so smoothly it just sprang back up a few centimeters and didn’t bounce at all.

In the sudden silence she looked at Lee oddly.

“I hope that didn’t bother you dear. I understand you two fly spaceships and jump to other stars. My goodness, that would scare me worse than any old air car.”

Lee smiled like it hurt her face to force it.

“The thing about it,” Gordon said from the back seats, speaking for both of them, “is we go very fast, but the things we are going between are so far away they are just dots in our sky. Even when we come up on a big planet it grows slowly until it fills much of the sky.”

“Oh. . . I never thought about it that way,” Blessing admitted. “I have learned to not go inverted with clients in the car. It seems to upset them even if the G forces are positive to keep their butt nailed in the seat.”

Well, her flying style explained the head strap for the lady’s spex. “I’m curious,” Lee said, forcing her fingers to unlock from the grab-bar in the dash. What did you do before you started selling real estate?”

“Oh I got my fifty years in the military to get a retirement. I went in right out of school. The recruiters are always looking for short hypertensive females, and the fact I had good grades and was on the gymnastics team was just icing on the cake.”

“Yes, but what did you do?” Lee insisted.

“Oh, I flew cargo lifters and then they took some of us short landers and sent us to school to fly close support platforms for the infantry. Nobody has ever messed with Fargone though. I spend my entire service in peacetime.”

“I suspect that is entirely their good fortune,” Gordon said from the rear. “So you learned to fly low and fast.” He really didn’t frame it as a question after the demonstration.

“Sure, and you are a sweet talker, but we had some nice machines,” Blessing said, “Not like this slug. My instructor impressed two things on me the first day. He said when you have to approach across your own forces it’s their job to keep their heads down, and if you come back with all the paint on your bottom you aren’t trying hard enough. It was fun, but even with Life Extension it’s a young person’s game. You could still do it,” she said, appraising Lee.

“I’m in love with star ships,” Lee informed her firmly.

Blessing reached over and patted her knee. “It takes all kinds,” she said pleasantly.

Gordon muttered something in the rear, but it wasn’t really audible.

Power back –

After 5 full days with no power and freezing temps it was finally restored today. It snowed all day too.
The house is back up to 60 and it feels tropical.

Trying something new.

I have so much written it’s hard to keep it all in mind now. I have a few scribbled ‘bibles’ but they aren’t easy to use. I don’t want to take the time to read entire books, much less series, before starting new things to refresh my memory. It’s also hard after you’ve changed a book several times, adding and removing or shuffling entire chapters in writing it, to remember WHICH variation you kept as final. I’ve resurrected both a character and a ship now and had to correct them in published versions.
So I downloaded a wiki to try out. This particular one is the ZIM wiki. It’s going to be a learning curve I see looking at the manual I’ve never contributed to any wiki much less made my own. Any of you with experience at them are welcome to advise me.

A third small snippet of HooDoo

As requested by Joyce. I’m not sure how to classify this book. Science Fiction, Fantasy or Horror? The beta readers may have to inform me. I don’t want to give too much away but this gives you an idea what direction the book is taking.

Uncle had a habit of producing unexpected items from his loose clothing, so David had no idea how he intended to start a fire. He wouldn’t have been surprised if he produced a cheap plastic lighter.
David watched him prepare a fire, quite a small one, although longer along one direction instead of round. He took a small stick and made repeated cuts in it until it resembled a small carving of a pine tree. Uncle left an opening in the stacked wood and held the little starter piece down by that hole. Instead of producing a lighter or any other method Davis had ever heard of he sat very still and looked at the carved stick steadily. David was starting to wonder if he was changing his mind or having some sort of a seizure. Then the curled up slivers of wood started turning brown. David suddenly had trouble sucking in his next breath, and the hair stood up on the back of his neck…
The wood got darker steadily and then started to smoke. It all burst into flame at once instead of starting at a point and spreading. Uncle thrust it in the opening where it would catch the fuel above it on fire and stepped back.
David was so sure of his own sanity he never considered it was a hallucination. Neither did he think it was any trick, a magician’s sleight of hand. But the look on his face had to be addressed, even if he didn’t say anything.
“It is a small skill, but often handy. More frequently useful than… bigger things,” Uncle said a bit sheepish, as if it embarrassed him to jolt David so. “I’ll teach you, but we need some things still to start, and I think it will be at least another day’s journey before we can find them.”

Now up – “A Sudden Departure”

Should be up everywhere by tomorrow for sure. It takes a while to propagate through their system. So no link yet.
OK link now – https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06VX84PTW

April #9 is done.

I’m sending it out to readers today and tomorrow. I have to look in my old computer to get addresses.
I may cut a few off I’ve used. It takes a long time to check a large number of readers.
Then I want to get the paper edition of “Family Law” back in print and go back to FL #4 and a couple stand alone books.

TO CLARIFY – Out to BETA readers not published. Still finding errors and waiting on a cover.

A small snippet of “A Sudden Departure” April #9

Raw and unedited as usual. Not the main story line but interesting I hope.

Jonathan was sitting by the stove, sharpening his ax. It was warm now, almost too warm, because he’d been able to cut some limbs and deadfall finally to feed the stove extravagantly. The snow was receding around the chalet and the slope behind them. It was still deep in the shadows and on the north side of the hill across from them.

In the last three days he felled seven trees and trimmed the limbs from two of them. Six of them he got to fall pretty much up-slope and he hoped to drag them down most of the way to the cabin with a cable and a come-along. The one that didn’t fall right was slotted between standing timber, and he might just leave it for now until warm weather and cut it up in place.

The ragged snarl of the vuvuzela actually made him jump, but then smile. He still looked downhill carefully with the binoculars from further back in the living room, not showing himself at the window. There were three horses down at the bottom of their meadow, it would never be a lawn again he suspected. He’d emptied an old washtub that had been used as a flower pot, but the bottom was rusted through so he hung it as a gong. However, Victor Foy was smart to use the horn. That told him they had visitors and who.

Jonathan was concerned with the size of the party until he looked closer. The second horse held a thin man with a beard. But the third horse held a woman and young girl, which helped him relax. Then with a start he focused the binoculars with extra care. It was their daughter.

Looking back at the bearded man he decided that it could be his son-in-law. But bearded and forty of fifty pounds lighter he sure looked different. The fellow had already started on a middle aged paunch early the last time he’d seen him. He had a pistol stuck in his pants on one side and a pair of bulky tan gloves on the other. Jon doubted he’d ever touched a pistol before the day, and he was too dainty back then to do anything that need gloves. Both horses had some baggage lashed on across their rump , and when his horse got nervous and side stepped a little Jon saw he had a small backpack.

“It’s Cindy,” Jon confirmed to his wife Jenny who’d joined him in the living room. I think it’d safe to walk down with me if you want.”

“Why don’t you just wave them to come on up?” Jenny asked.

“Sure, that makes sense,” Jonathan said, embarrassed he’d grow so cautious.

Victor might have been of a like mind, because he had Cindy, with their daughter Eileen sitting in front of her, lead the way up the gentle slope to the chalet. They tied the horses up on the porch railing and Vic took the precaution of hobbling them in case they pulled that loose.

Jenny hugged the woman and girl too overcome with emotion to speak.

FREE – this weekend 1/21 & 1/22 – “Going Up?”

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IGMRUOI

Oops…

Can’t use Kurt. Already have a character Kurt started in the last book…Oh. Got Kurt and Karl transposed a couple times. Fixed it and uploaded to Amazon. And nobody caught it….

Free –

“Common Ground and Other Stories” will be free 1/9/2017

Can’t get it to display right or link……..

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050YYVHY

Paper…dead trees

I’m working at getting the print on demand version of “Family Law” available again. Then on to”April” and the others..

A short snippet from April #9

Aaron was almost done with his supper. Karl figured he better ask him for the favor before he stood up. Aaron wasn’t big on patience to stand and listen when he was ready to march off.

“Keith Petros has a new concert recording out that everybody says is just tremendous. Do you think you could loan me two bits until payday to get it?” Karl asked.

“You’re broke before payday?” Aaron asked disgusted.

“There was stuff,” Karl said, and shrugged.

“And you didn’t keep any back to dip into,” he asked further.

“Well yeah,” Karl lied, “good thing because I needed it too.”

“I won’t loan it to you, but I’ll pay you a bit to run an errand for me,” Aaron offered.

“The download is two bits. He’s got a following. The guy is worth it though,” Karl said, enthused.

“Petros may be worth two bits, but the errand isn’t,” Aaron said. “No deal.”

“I’ll run your errand and owe you another,” Karl offered.

“Run the errand and owe me two,” Aaron demanded.

Karl didn’t like that and didn’t say anything.

“Or wait until payday,” Aaron suggested. “No skin off my nose.”

“OK, now and two whenever,” Karl agreed. Aaron keyed his pad and aimed it at Karl’s. The transfer registered and Karl immediately bought his music.

“Here, take this,” Aaron instructed, handing him a standard memory card between thumb and forefinger. It had no printing and could be any size. Probably cheap generic if it didn’t have a logo.

“Go down by the cabbage mines, on the tunnel to the elevator. You walk in the tunnel a couple meters and there’s a glow panel up high on the wall. Just sit this on top of the panel and leave it there. You’re as tall as me, so you can reach it if you stretch. Feel along the top and if there’s another one up there bring it back to me.”

“Now?” Karl asked.

“You’ve been paid already haven’t you? Now.”

“OK, Karl agreed and wolfed down his last couple bites and headed out the back access. He didn’t play his new music. He wanted to savor it in his bunk undistracted.

There wasn’t anything on top of the light. He felt carefully with his fingers hooked over the back edge and slid it off the end so if it was there he wouldn’t knock it off behind. There wasn’t any gritty dust at all which also surprised him. He left the card and headed back to the singles barracks.

“Adverse Possession” is free through the 30th

https://www.amazon.com/Adverse-Possession-Short-Mackey-Chandler-ebook/dp/B01LDXY7N8

“April” will be free 12/25 and 26.

Please tell anyone who might enjoy it.

Free

Adverse Possession will be free Dec26 to Dec 30. That’s Amazon time which approximates Pacific time.

Site changes and comments –

A couple people noted they could no longer make comments since the site was modified to make it look better for mobile users.
The lady who maintains the site just did a fix. I just looked (for the first time) at it on my phone and got a comment box.
If anybody is still having trouble let us know.
I personally need the big monitor! I’d go nuts trying to read it on my phone.

Mac’

Rough snippet of April 9

I don’t want to give away too much of what is happening on Home, but here’s some more of the side story about the fellow in California.

The man had a cheap plastic vuvuzela like some idiots took to sporting events, and blew a flat nasty raspberry with the cheap yellow horn. Jon hadn’t expected to see anybody at the cabin once there was any snow on the ground at all, but the fellow had a horse that seemed to deal with it well. When Jonathan went to the window to look the fellow seemed impatient for a response and gave it another blast. The horse he was sitting on just twitched its ears so he must be used to it. Jon had never seen a horse with a thick winter coat. The man was being cautious, not aggressive, and stayed back well over a hundred meters away. That was smart. He wouldn’t want to be mistaken for a bandit.

Jonathan told his wife to cover him while he walked out to talk to the man. She was a fair enough shot to do that. She’d watch him through the scope, dialed back to the weakest magnification from well inside the door where she’d be in shadow.

He looked the fellow over with binoculars and then set them on the table before going out. They were a treasure and it was best not to advertise your wealth now. He’d seen the butt of a rifle sticking up from a scabbard. Something old fashioned with polished wood and a metal butt plate. The man had on a heavy jacket with the collar up. He might have a pistol but it wouldn’t be very accessible.

The man kept both his hands on the saddle horn, reins loose, and the horse stood patiently without any fuss. Jonathan walked out to him at a normal pace. He looked all around and back on each side of the house. If he had to run in snow he didn’t want to start winded.

“I’m Victor of the Foy family,” he said when Jonathan came to a stop. “You go downhill to the northwest until you hit a stream. Go uphill and you’ll pass an abandoned cabin in rough shape. We’re another mile and a little more past it. About seven miles in all from here. We have a dinner bell on a post by the stream for folks to announce themselves.”

“We’re the Hughes,” Jon said. “That’s a good idea about the bell. We don’t have a bell but I’ll improvise a gong or something. What sort of business are you about?”

“Folks seem to be settling down. There were a few people who lived hereabouts all year long. Mostly retired. And those who could reach their property after things went all to hell seem to have made it. I don’t expect a whole lot more to show up. Some weren’t the owners of record, but that’s no concern of mine. There was one case where folks arrived to find squatters and they shot it out. We have two of the kids who survived that in our family now. I was told of another case where they came to an agreement and allied.

“I’m taking a census for our own use. I’m going to hold it close, and I’ll burn it before I let it fall in the wrong hands. But in maybe another year, if it looks safe to publish, I’ll be back and have a map for you of where everybody lives in about a forty kilometer radius. If you don’t want to be added just say so, but if you aren’t on it you don’t get a copy either.”

“Is there a cost involved?” Jon asked.

“Nope. We hope to get some trading going though. If you have a skill or intend to make something it’s a way to let people know. I have one lady who intends to produce wool and woolen goods. She’s what you’d have called a hobby farmer, and it all depends on increasing the size of her flock and keeping them safe from the coyotes. Got another fellow who has a decent metal working shop. There’s also a woman who keeps bees. You have any specialty?”

“I’m a farmer, a real trained one with a degree, not a hobbyist. I can provide expert advice and a lot of practical lessons on how to propagate plants and keep the lines of cultivars pure. I’d be happy to trade seed for variety I don’t have.”

“You sound like you’re saying you’re in then,” Vic said.

“Yes, as long as you have the sense not to supply it to somebody who will use it as a treasure map.”

“That’s a danger to me too. That why I am looking at next spring. This spring is too early. We have satellite com and get good weather reports still. I’m sure I have a three day spell we won’t get any snow right now. This is probably the last week I’ll be able to go out, even on horseback, before the deep snow sets in. About late May I hope to send a young man out further than I can go now.”

Jon nodded approval. “I notice you didn’t come in by the road.”

“The roads are still dangerous. We have maps and avoid the roads. Some people have dynamited the hill side and brought it down to block the road off too vehicular traffic. I had to beg a fellow not to take a bridge out and just do something less permanent.”

“Is there any official presence at all?” Jon asked. “Any police or military?”

“Nope. The county Sheriff quit when it was obvious he wasn’t going to be paid. Even if there were enough people to pay him in kind we don’t have the transport to get it to him yet. He’s not of much use to use if we can’t call and he has no way to come. When we breed some more horses it’ll help. Horses breed faster than people so they’ll catch up.”

“I was actually more concerned somebody would show up demanding their property tax. But when it was settled out here they had sheriffs. I suppose somebody had to ride into town to fetch him,” Jon speculated. “I don’t suppose you have anybody who can actually make radios?”

“No, but I’ve got a young guy who says he can make telephones if we can get him enough wire. Maybe half the homes near main roads have power wire strung we can use. Some can be cannibalized for other places. That’s a couple years out though,” Foy said.

“You think things will stay like this for years?” Jon asked.

“Up here? Yeah. They’ll likely take back control of the cities much faster. Better to plan on that, and be on the safe side, than wait for somebody else to fix things and be disappointed. What else you got to do but get on with life?” Vic Foy asked wryly.

Jon just tilted his head to concede the point.

“Is there anything you need?” Vic asked. “No idea when we’ll have access to anything, but I’m making a list of folks who need medicine or glasses. If it’s anything real serious they’re just out of luck. But I’m still making a list.”

“No. We’re fortunate that way. I suspect people will learn to use herbs and such again.”

“Then you’ll probably see me or one of my boys around late May or early June. We’ll be looking to survey to the southeast of here.”

“Hopefully we’ll be here. There’s a couple with a young girl who might be trying to come here, but they had a longer way to go than us. Just be aware,” Jon said.

“I’ll keep an eye out and know it’s OK to admit you are here, if they turn up and ask after you by name.”

“Thanks, until spring then,” Jon agreed.

Foy clicked his tongue at the horse and pressed with his knee, ignoring the reins. It turned back the way they’d come, highstepping a little because of the snow.