Harper Kingsley blog

December 23, 2013 0 comments

Harvey Wasserman talks about the dangers of Fukushima Unit 4

This is one of those things that news networks aren’t talking about when they really should be. A blurb scrolling past the bottom of the screen doesn’t mean a whole lot.

I don’t know if this will really affect the tuna we eat — as bananas have been known to contain more radiation — but I honestly feel concerned. Irradiated water is washing up on the west coast of the United States. People in Japan are swimming in the water. Plant and animal life may be affected.

This is not the kind of problem that should be handled by a for-profit company that has already held back and lied to the public about how things are going. This is something that should be handled by people with know-how and concern for the public health. There should at the very least be some kind of over watch on the situation that has thus far not been provided.

Do we really want a situation like they had in The Host?

Harvey Wasserman:

The World Community Must Take Charge at Fukushima

At Fukushima Unit 4, the impending removal of hugely radioactive spent fuel rods from a pool 100 feet in the air presents unparalleled scientific and engineering challenges. With the potential for 15,000 times more fallout than was released at Hiroshima, we ask the world community, through the United Nations, to take control of this uniquely perilous task.

They need 125,000 signatures. Go check it out.

The danger of huge radiation releases from Fukushima 4 has taken on a new dimension; the world community must step in!

December 19, 2013 16 comments

Mistletoe Hop: Dec 20-23

Christmas Trees. Holiday Music. Sugar Cookies. Glitter and Bows. And Best Of All … the Mistletoe. Romance books enhance our holiday traditions. Who doesn’t love to cuddle under a warm blanket near a fire place on a cold day and read? Hop around with us to celebrate the best romance books of the season.

Read excerpts from some good books. Enter each of the author contests. Tell us what you like to read during the holidays. Find some new-to-you authors to ring in the New Year with.

For the Mistletop Hop I’m giving out eight copies of my newest collection “Shorts and Squares: Jagged Blade.”

As the title suggests, it’s a collection of short stories and vignettes. Included are a couple of Human Pets Verse vignettes like the excerpt, and the short story Black Friday which is set in the Heroes & Villains universe and features a young pre-Starburst Vereint Georges.

Most of the stories are gen, though there are some genhet, mm, and ff. Hopefully there’s something for everyone 🙂 There’s a rafflecopter after the excerpt, so please feel free to enter. Otherwise, follow the Linky at the bottom and check out the rest of the hop.

Good luck to everyone, and happy holidays!

Reef had been alone with only alien company for so long he thought he’d already lost his mind. There were some days when he had to force himself up out of bed, fearful of what would happen if he was thought to be sick. He really didn’t want to be put down.

He forced himself up and was cheerful and affectionate toward the Owner. It earned him tasty treats and lavish attention that were a lot better than the old mattress pad and dry kibble he’d had to put up with at the pet shop. The Owner would feed him real food, meat and vegetables, and even though everything was blandly prepared, it was positively gourmet when compared to the kibble and tepid water. He could almost get himself to believe that everything was going to be okay.

It was strange to think that he’d been free once. He’d been a kid with parents and a house and a future that had stretched before him with possibility. He’d still thought humans were going to turn it around, right up until he was marched onto a ship and sold on the galactic slave market. And then he’d learned to follow the commands he was given and keep his head down.

The Owner wasn’t so bad. He was one of the big furry bear ones versus the more sinister lizard ones that had conquered Earth and eaten his parents. The Owner had seemed to think Reef was fascinating and exotic; for the first few months he’d constantly checked what Reef thought was a book on pets. He’d read a few pages and then try to teach Reef simple tricks.

It wouldn’t have been so bad if Reef could understand what the Owner was saying, but his ears just weren’t built to handle the bear speech. Every once and a while he could make out a sound or two, but for the most part he just saw that mouth open and close and he had to figure out what was happening from the rather erratic gestures.

Reef had taken to teaching the Owner various broad gestures that he’d decided would mean certain things. He wished he could use sign language, but he didn’t know any and he wasn’t sure the Owner would pay attention anyway.

Over the past two years he’d come to realize that the Owner was some kind of rich socialite or something. His clothes were different from other bear-things and the way he held himself was different. He also seemed to be really attractive to some others of his species, because there were always dozens of males and females hanging around and Reef was pretty sure there was sex happening in the house when he was locked in his kennel. And to the Owner, Reef was a purse dog.

Reef had seen the way humans and animals from Earth were treated. He guessed they were so new on the market that they cost a lot of money and were currently some kind of status symbol. Only the richest of aliens were buying them. He supposed he should be flattered that he’d cost a ton of money, but mostly Reef just wished he could go home.

Until the day he found himself being led on his leash through some kind of market and the Owner took him to a fenced in area full of people. He’d never imagined how emotional it would be to see other human faces. He’d nearly forgotten what a face other than his own looked like.

He was momentarily frightened that he was being resold. He liked being the Owner’s pet. It was so much better than being locked in a small cage at the pet shop, shivering and naked as only purchased humans were allowed clothes. Then he realized that the Owner was going to buy another human. He wouldn’t have to be alone.

From the gesture the Owner made, Reef saw that he was supposed to help pick the new human. He was being allowed to choose his new companion. It was a frightening and heady prospect. Who was he supposed to save? How was he supposed to know who he would get along with from this desperate group of strangers? He almost wanted to turn away.

“Reef! Is that you, Reef Galloway?”

Reef traced the shouts and his breath caught for a second. Then he screamed, “Ryan!”

The other was older than the last time they’d seen each other and seemed to have filled out some in the interim, but there was no doubt in his mind that that was Ryan Bellows. The boy he’d had a crush on back before the end of the world.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

December 16, 2013 0 comments

I feel a little dumb

Okay, so I’ve been responding to comments via the reply box on my dashboard. Which seems not to have been integrated with Disqus at all, so all my replies have been disappearing into the aether. First my Disqus lost its reply box — which means I have to go to each post to reply from there — and then when I thought my prayers had been answered, nope. I don’t even think the dashboard reply box is even attached to anything.

Anyways, I’ll be going back to normal replies, and my apologies to everyone that didn’t get a reply.

I watched the Korean movie Sunny on Netflix and I cried and cried because it was so beautiful.

The summary says it’s about a new girl that is embarrassed on her first day and makes six new friends. What it really is, is the story of a woman with a settled life that finds her friend that she hasn’t seen in years dying in a hospital and agrees to get the old group back together.

It was like the Korean Beaches.

I also saw the Korean movie A Company Man about a company assassin that comes to regret the life that he’s lived. He decides he wants to make a change, which results in all kinds of badness for everyone involved.

Lots of guns, knives, and violence.

Hyeong-do (SO Ji-sub) goes to the office every day, but isn’t thrilled with the cubicles, the politics, his co-workers, or the management. His job is murder. Literally. At this company, death is all in a day’s work. Hyeong-do is a corporate assassin, working for a company specializing in contract killings. He’s one of the best, and a loyal employee. But when his new trainee gets killed on the job, he feels an obligation to care for the kid’s family – and taking his eye off the ball is not how a guy gets promoted. Now, Hyeong-do wants out of the cutthroat rat race to start a new life, but his colleagues have different plans – and “retirement” may come at a far bloodier price than expected.

December 11, 2013 4 comments

Winter Warmers Giveaway Hop: Dec 12-16

As everyone knows, I love books. From the time I was nine years old, books have been one of the biggest parts of my life, not just the reading of them, but the writing of them. And when I was fourteen years old, I discovered my first romance novel, The Prize by Julie Garwood.

With time, I grew up and discovered other romance authors — Jude Deveraux, Amanda Quick, Susan Elizabeth Phillips — and I’ve found my tastes focusing on happily ever afters where everyone gets their prince or princess. Maybe my vision of the way things should be is shaded by rose-colored glass, but that’s what I want to read, that’s mostly what I want to write (there’s been a few angstfests that have crept up on me), and that’s what I wish the real world was like.

Books have always been an escape for me, a freedom from a harsher reality. It’s the reason why I mostly avoid so-called “realistic” stories featuring heroes that are reformed sex offenders, drug dealers, or just all around skeevy people. Because I’ve seen those stories play out in real life and they never end well. I want my bad people to fully embrace the fact that they’re bad people, not sugarcoat their acts of evil as being for the greater good or whatever. As such, my villains are gleefully villainous, my heroes are firmly antiheroic, and more often than not everything ends with a kiss, a happy ever after, and at least one person finds the someone or something they want to spend the rest of their life with.

There’s nothing like curling up with a sugary sweet romance novel and reading about someone finding their happily ever after.

Here’s my backlist. Leave a comment with the book you’d like to receive, and I will choose a winner using Random.org. (Not all are romance, or contain romantic elements.) The ebook will be presented through a Smashwords coupon, but if you don’t want to make an account, let me know what format you read (Mobi, PDF, Epub) and I’ll send you the ebook direct.
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And this is my attempt at writing first person. Feel free to judge. I’ve probably said it all myself. The narrator is a woman, the eventual relationship is f/f/m.

Once when I was young I fell in love and it was like tumbling into the sea. The waves caught me and pulled me down and before I knew it I was completely wrapped up in the girl I loved.

She was beautiful and smart and seeing her always made my heart beat fast. She could dry up my throat quicker than anything and for the longest time my every glimpse of her left me completely tongue-tied.

I loved her so much. I thought it was always going to be forever. The way I felt about her, it had to be real.

My feelings were honest and true, hers not so much. She chewed me up and spit me out, cheating on me several times. It took me a ridiculous amount of time to realize that I was nothing but a game to her, and then I only understood after she’d tired of playing.

She hurt me more than anything before or since. I’ve sworn off love; love is for saps and losers. It’s better to wander free and play the field than to settle down with someone that’s just going to hurt me.

I’m not a fool.

“Clarity, what are you doing?”

I gave Adam a smile. “Daydreaming.”

I pushed out his chair with my foot, waving a hand at the spot across from me. I’d been holding his seat and had already earned myself the stink eye from several other people in the breakroom. Whatever. They could deal.

“Daydreaming about what?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I was just reaffirming my vow to never love again.”

He made a moue. “There will be so many guys sobbing from the heartbreak.”

“They’d be crying anyway.” I lowered my voice for him alone, “I don’t drive stick.”

Adam’s eyes went wide and he made a “Really?” hand gesture. I nodded.

“Whoa,” he said, raking a hand through his spiky hair. “I just need a moment to process that into my memory banks.”

“You’re a nerd,” I teased.

He puffed out his chest and stroked an invisible goatee. “You better believe it. And I’m dragging you with me when I go to Sakura-con. So you better be ready to sync vacations with me.”

I gave him an OK sign. “I will let you dress me up in full anime style. It is not a problem.” I’d been jealous when he’d gone to Sakura-con last year, but we’d just met then. Getting an invite this time … That was pretty damn awesome.

That’s the thing about Adam. Somehow he’s become my best friend and I’m still not quite sure how it happened. One minute he was just some guy I’d seen around work, the next we were eating lunch together in the breakroom and going to see movies on our days off.

I’d never had a friendship happen so easily before.

It’s my nature. I’m naturally very standoffish and I have a severe lack of social skills. It’s my curse that while people are attracted to my appearance, one conversation and they’re running for the hills.

Adam could listen to me babble for hours about movies or video games or just whatever random thought passed through my head, and he always seemed incredibly interested. He was comfortable to be around, though for some reason some of our co-workers really didn’t like him. A few had even tried to warn me that he was bad news, which I took to be sour grapes because he was young and good looking and his father was big in the company, like the number five or something.

That was another thing about Adam. I would have thought the kid of one of the bosses would be bringing it up all the time and just be a total nuisance. Not Adam. He was making his own way, and though he talked to his dad everyday, it was usually about things outside of work, like the garden Adam’s dad, Gary, was trying to put together. From what I understand, it’s not going too well.

“I’ll start thinking about costumes.” Adam pulled his phone out of the breast pocket of his blue uniform shirt and happily wrote himself a note. “We are going to blow everyone away. We are going to be internet famous when our pictures get around.”

“Nothing *too* sexy,” I warned. The last thing I wanted was my dad to see me in a bikini or something, covered in bodypaint. He would lose his ever loving mind.

Adam waved his right hand at me while he continued to text with his left. “Eat your food. I’m almost done here.”

I sighed and focused on the tray in front of me: stuffed cabbage, cherry tomatoes, mashed potatoes with brown gravy, and a plastic tumbler full of unsweetened iced tea. It was all leftovers from the buffet, recycled to feed the full-time employees their one mandatory meal per shift.

Even though it wasn’t food I would have bought with money, I ate. There was no sense wasting it and I was going to be hungry as my shift progressed. Besides, once I shook on the Choloula sauce it wasn’t so bad, though I would have much preferred Sriracha instead.

As I ate I watched Adam enjoy himself playing with his phone. He would turn the odd comment my way and I would nod or grunt or give him a thumb’s up depending.

Having a friend in my life–even if it was pathetically enough just the one–was making the whole “I’m never going to fall in love again” vow a lot more bearable.

Peace, love, joy,
~Harper Kingsley
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