Chasing Melodies and Memories
Greetings, lovely humans and robots!
I have a new flash fiction story for you today, but before we get there I’m going to subject you to my art and also remind you to copies of my books (if you haven’t yet):
Links: Lunar Logic | Robot Galaxy Series | Final Orbit | Objective Reality
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…and make sure to read to the end of this newsletter and check out other Indie writings!
Apparently, I’m on a kick writing about Ensign Rowe Rivers right now.
This past weekend, I was at my annual writer’s retreat. Five other writers and I (well, initially it was 6 others until one moved away) started this four years ago. It’s simple… we rent an AirBnB for the weekend, bring five times our weight in food and every day work on our projects. Then we come together for dinner and discussion and maybe play a game or two. Repeat until checkout time on Sunday.
It’s become one of my favorite weekends of the year!
This year, I made a lot of progress on the sequel to Lunar Logic. That was my primary project and goal. I had some secondary projects, like writing the flash fiction you’ll read in a moment and… making art.
2 or 3pm is my cutoff for being able to write, but I can read and… I can make art! On my phone. It’s one reason I pay a little more to have the version of the phone that comes with the stylus. I’ve made a lot of art on the phone over the years.
I will now share some of that art and ‘splain myself at least a little. I do subscribe to the belief that art is meant to be interpreted by the person seeing the art. So when I say I will explain, I mean I’ll provide some insight into how the piece came about. (And for the tech geeks out there, FWIW, the app I use to make art on my android phone is called “ArtFlow.”)
Piece 1. I do not have a name for it. I had it in my head ever since scrolling on Facebook and seeing an ad for some kind of art therapy. I’ve since seen the ad, and what I drew is nothing like what I saw, which is fine. The thing to know about this is that all the circle-y things are connected. I spent a lot of time tracing over going from one to another.
I still have this ‘motif’ in my head, and after I made that one, I tried making other similar ones. I’m not as happy with the results:
I still have the ‘motif’ in my head, so I’m likely not done with this series yet…
That was all on the first day. The second day, I made this:
This was inspired by a photo I took of the sunrise out the window of the AirBnB. I’m still learning how to be effective with the stylus… I have a similar painting in my house done in acrylics, a medium I’ve been painting for two decades and am much more comfortable with. I couldn’t get the same kind of effect with the trees.
Here’s what I mean… this is the painting and the original photo I took from my home. The photo is from March 2020 and I made the painting in April 2020:
Lastly, I was getting into a whimsical mood and so I drew this guy. Then I named him George. (And I will hug him and squeeze him and, well, call him George.)
No one has seen the last of George. That’s all I’ll say for now!
Especially because y’all are probably sick of my art and want to get on to the story I wrote.
Two things about this story… I am starting to rely on the fact that most of you have read the previous stories with Ensign Rowe Rivers. I’m not sure how this will read if you don’t already know Rowe or the other characters I’ve introduced in that series.
If you want to catch up before continuing, read Not Your Standard Orbit and then The Library of Indecision.
The second thing to know is… sigh… this will be a two-part story. I sigh because I don’t like it when I do that when I haven’t written the second half yet. As of this moment, I don’t know how this is going to resolve and it stresses me out a little to know that I might have written myself into a corner!
I have two weeks to sort it out, right?
Chasing Melodies and Memories
"It's an ancient tradition I read about," Rowe said.
Zara refrained from rolling her eyes.
"I could just search and come up with music to play," she said.
"Not the same. Not the same at all. These are songs that I specifically chose because they made me think of you. Or ones that I want you to think about and listen to me."
"Shouldn't you be giving this to a romantic partner?" Zara scrolled through the list on the tablet Rowe handed her.
"Yeah, but I don't have one. You're the next best thing..."
"Oh yuck, these are all mushy and romantic songs."
"How do you know if you haven't listened to them?"
Zara winked. "I had a life before I knew you, remember." She kept scrolling. "Seriously, who were you thinking about when you came up with this?"
Zara looked up and saw Rowe looking past her at the kitchen counter.
"Rowe, why don't you just give this to her?" The 'her' Zara referred to was the latest chef's assistant to come aboard the TSS Ecliptica.
"It's too much."
"It is, but since you like ancient Earth stuff, I'm going to throw another phrase at you: you miss 100% of the shots you don't take."
"Fine," Rowe said and held his hand out. Zara gave the tablet back to him, and Rowe stood up, straightening his uniform.
"What should I sa—"
A red alert siren cut him off.
"Red Alert! Everyone to their stations!"
Rowe and Zara nodded to each other—a silent acknowledgement that the job came first. They were well-trained and knew exactly where to go and what to do.
Rowe knew that meant Zara was headed down to Engineering.
Rowe, on the other hand, was headed to the bridge. While he was not the pilot on duty, he needed to be within arm’s reach if something happened to the pilot in the seat.
Arriving moments later, Rowe saw that the lucky person at the helm was none other than Lieutenant Rynn Calder. They worked opposite shifts, so Rowe didn't know him too well. Mostly, he’d heard good things about the guy. He'd transferred to the Ecliptica not long before Rowe had, so he wasn't much more seasoned on this specific ship.
Rowe thought he'd slipped in quietly and taken his post next to a monitoring console when the Captain's booming voice called out:
"Ensign Rivers. Just the person we were all waiting for."
All eyes turned to Rowe, and he felt his face get hot.
He'd been on the bridge during red alerts before, but always as a background character. Only once had it been during his shift in the pilot's seat.
"Sir?" Rowe squeaked.
"Do you recognize the ship on the viewscreen?"
Rowe hadn't even had a chance to look at the viewscreen since he'd walked onto the bridge. Now, he couldn't believe he missed it. The screen, running from floor to ceiling, was occupied by the image of a ship. A single ship. The Phantom's Blade. His sister's ship.
"I, uh, I don't know what I can do to help."
"So you recognize the ship?"
"Yes."
"What can you tell us?"
Rowe was very confused. Especially since his sister was now in custody.
"Nothing that's not in the database. As I tell security at my annual review, I have not had any contact with my sister in years. I don't know her whereabouts, I don't know her associates, and outside of the name of her ship, I know nothing about it."
"But you know your sister."
That gave Rowe pause. Especially because Rowe wasn’t certain if Captain Voss intended that as a question or a statement.
"As I said, sir, I haven't spoken with her in years."
The captain took in all the eyes looking at Rowe.
"XO,” Captain Voss said while not looking directly at Commander Tarian Cross who was sitting in the seat next to the captain’s chair. “You have the bridge. Ensign, come with me."
Rowe followed the captain to a door on the far side of the bridge. It swished open as they approached, revealing a small table in a small room. It was Captain Voss's private office. Rowe had only been in here once before. Captain Voss had a habit of meeting all new officer's within the first 48 hours of their posting. The last time Rowe had been here was right after Captain Voss had met Zara. He hadn't been back since.
"It's been my experience, Ensign, that people change very little. Not from who they truly are. Which means, your sister is the same person who you grew up with." He looked over at Rowe to gauge the ensign's reaction. To Rowe's credit, there was little to none.
"I re-read your personnel file. She's eight years older than you. Which means that she was in and around your life for the first, what, ten years or so?"
"Less than that sir. She ran away when she was 16."
"Why?"
In truth, Rowe didn't know. He had his guesses, his suspicions. But his parents wouldn't talk about her much, and he didn't know how to ask. Why does anyone do anything drastic, unexpected, brash, or otherwise?
Rowe thought back to his sappy playlist and what he was about to do before the red alert claxon blared. A memory surfaced of his sister fighting with their parents over...another girl.
"She was in love. That's why she left."
"Do you know who she was in love with? Do you remember a name?"
"Tree... Tree something."
"Treana Nine?"
"That's it. How did you know?"
"Guess who is currently at the helm of the Phantom's Blade?"
What did you think of the story?
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I think when I start thinking about art, I get all the forms stuck in my head. So while I’m not actively making music or playing an instrument, I’ve been listening widely and cultivating playlists like some people collect… comic books. Stamps? Coins? Seriously, what do people collect these days? (A lot of interesting things, according to the internet: https://www.mearto.com/blog/85-different-things-to-collect---the-ultimate-list )
Keep reading because I routinely participate in newsletter swaps with other Indie Authors. This is one of the ways we help each other get the word our about our books. So please — check these folks out and see if they’re for you!
You might enjoy this complete sci-fi novella by Richard Dowling:
I also participate in Group Promos as well. Here are the ones I’m in that you should definitely check out and see what other stories and authors you might enjoy!
My co-hosts and I took at BIG Sci-Fi podcast talked with the incredibly talented sci-fi author, Greg Cox. His latest novel, Lost to Eternity, is available and I can’t wait to read my copy! Hopefully you’ll enjoy listening to his stories about writing and life as much as we did!
Find us on: Spotify | Amazon | Apple | others…
What’s next?
More and more work on that Lunar Logic sequel! I’m trying my best to stay focused on that. :)
I really did get a lot of work done on it over the weekend. My bonus pic for today… this is what it looks like after I did a lot of work, but still have a long way to go! LOL
All always, thanks for reading all of my ramblings, and staring at my art. I hope you’re enjoying it all! Remember you can reply anytime with questions/comments/feedback!
Until next time… be kind, be well!
-Adeena
A budding romance, a pirate space ship capitained by a rogue sister’s love interest , what’s not to love? And the commanding officer on ensign Rowe’s ship seems to be knowledgeable about lots of things , not just his ship and crew. Many things can happen. Very interesting. Keep up the good work
oooooohhhh, I can see multiple ways this could play out, both with the mix tape (mix tablet?) and his sisters ship and 1st mate (?) in more ways than one :p
I’m a firm believer that ‘some’ form of art and it’s expression, either admiration or creation, is essential to a well balanced mindset.