"…his stories are always sharp and compact and interesting." ——Angel Martinez "(One of) the hottest authors in the independent horror scene…" —-Hellbound Books
Every week at Rainbow Snippets participants post six lines of a work of theirs, a work in progress, or a work by someone else which has LGBT characters.
My snippets this week (It’s been a while!) are some shameless self-promo for “Sidetracked.” A serial novel as by “Mike Mayak” that will post every Friday on this blog beginning January 1st, 2027.
19year-old James Arvad has roared his motorcycle into a parallel Earth where things went very wrong. Here we see him with his friend Eddie. But are they getting closer??
Here’s snippet #1…
“Show me how to ride that thing. You and I ride around a lot, right?” Eddie said. “It would probably come in handy for me to know how to drive your bike. So, how about it?”
James stood there for a moment. He remembered his older brother had shown him how to ride before he’d even gotten a licence and supposedly took lessons. James thought about all the ways it could go wrong; Eddie could get hurt, the bike could get damaged.
Here’s one more snippet…
But Eddie was right, they were riding out a lot and it would be handy for Eddie to know how to drive the bike.
James imagined Eddie driving the bike down the road, with him pressed up against Eddie’s back, hands around Eddie’s waist, feeling blissful and warm…
Eddie shrugged. “And you’ve got the gas now.”
James closed his eyes and took a breath.
“Okay.” He said. “I’ll show you. But you gotta wear the helmet.”
Eddie’s grin could have lit up the dusk.
I promise this pair will have plenty of adventures along the way! And I’ll keep you folks posted here! Thanks so much!
“They’re closed but since I’m invisible and insubstantial it doesn’t do a lot of good.” Bernie said.
“Don’t look then,” Gus said. “It’s a surprise.”
“I’m not looking.” Bertie said. “I mean I’m looking at the ground.”
Gus and Bertram (“Bertie”) had been a happily-ensconced couple in his family house nearby decades before that was cool or accepted. They had been happily-ensconced ghosts for longer. The Rowley cousins and their families who had lived happily in Peregrine House never knew it was haunted because Gus Rowley and Bertie Menzies usually kept a low profile. But not tonight.
“Okay.” Gus said. “Open your eyes…or look, I mean.”
Bertie looked up. The little row of one story brick buildings sandwiched together on the side street had big darkened windows except the one on the end. It had a glowing Jack O’Lantern on the front porch, a glowing “OPEN” sign in the window and a carved wooden sign “MacDowell’s Place” lit by a floodlight hanging over the door.
“Oh, my gosh!” Bertie said. “The Corner Inn! I thought it was closed decades ago! Last I heard they were going to tear it down!”
“Nope!” Gus said. “Somebody found a reason for it to be historic. Building nearly a hundred years old and a few generations of college kids got their beer here.”
“So did we, and we weren’t college kids.” Bertie said. He laughed suddenly. “Remember Halloween, 19…what? 53? We went in here for a beer and stayed and you got snockered?”
“Oh, God! I barely remember!” Gus said.
“It was a Halloween party and you were drunk and were talking to that guy dressed as a pirate?” Bernie asked.
“So help me, I thought he was you!” Gus said.
“You said you were Gay but you were so sloshed he thought you said you were ‘Gage?’”
Gus laughed again.
“And I wasn’t even dressed like a pirate!” Bertie said.
“So, you want to go in?” Gus said. “For old time’s sake.”
“Got no money.” Bertie said. “Our nephews inherited it.”
“So, we go in, see what’s going on and leave.” Gus said. “Call it a nostalgia trip.”
“To our favorite old haunt.” Bertie chuckled.
“Yeah.” Gus said.
“We better get visible.” Bertie said. “Let’s get behind those bushes.”
“The usual outfits?” Gus said.
“Sure.” Bertie said. “Fits perfectly.”
A couple of minutes later, Gus Rowley and Bertie Menzies opened the door of MacDowell’s Place and stepped in. It was small but cozy. Bar area and an area with tables to the side. Glowing pumpkins and cutout witches hanging behind the bar on the mirror. Plastic pumpkin on the bar with a sign saying: “Tips! (Ghosts Need Love Too!)”
“Love the sign,” Gus said to the bartender pointing to the pumpkin.
“Thanks, guys!” The bartender, a lean young man with a reddish face and nice biceps (Bertie and Gus surely noticed) grinned at them and said. “Whaddy’ll have?”
“Uh, we just dropped in for old times sake.” Bertie said. “We filled up the tank and are fresh out of cash.”
“Card?” the bartender said.
“Don’t have them anymore.” Gus said with a shrug.
“Hey, it’s on me.” That was from a man sitting at the end of the bar. Stubbly beard and scraggly hair. The pair would have guessed he was in his thirties. He was wearing a long jacket, a floppy hat and a long, multicolored scarf.
“Thaks!” Bertie and Gus said.
“Uh, we’ll have…” Bertie looked at Gus. “Two beers.”
The bartender nodded and started pouring the beers.
“Thanks a lot,” Bertie said to the man.
“You’re welcome.” The man said. “Hey, I love your costumes.”
“Thanks!” Gus said, glancing at their outfits that would have been in fashion about 1953. “We’re going as ghosts.”
“Like the TV show?” the man said.
“Yeah.” Bertie said. “We used to love Topper.”
The man looked at them quizzically as the bartender set their beers down on coasters.
“Cheers!” Bertie said as they toasted the man. They sipped the beers and wandered around the room. Several customers, a few in costumes. And on one wall, under glass was a collage of pictures taken at various times in the bar’s history. The exterior, the interior when it had been cleared out and ready for demolition and one taken at the grand re-opening.
“Take a look at that one…” Gus said, pointing to a corner.
Barely visible, sticking out from behind annother picture was a black and white of the bar in an earlier era. In the picture, grinning ear-to-ear, were Gus and Bertie looking young and alive.
“Wow.” Bertie said.
They finished their beers and Gus looked behind them. “Uh oh,” he said.
There was a trail of beer on the floor behind them. It had gone right through them.
“We weren’t concentrating.” Bertie said.
They walked up to the bar and handed the glasses back.
“Got a mop?” Gus said. “Sorry, but one of those glasses was leaking.”
“It wasn’t us!” Bertie said.
The bartender stared quizzically and turned, putting the glasses to the side.
“Wanna meet me outside?” the man who’d bought their beer said.
Then he vanished.
Bertie and Gus stared. The bartender turned around and stared at the empty chair. He glanced around.
“Hey, he didn’t pay!” The bartender said. “Listen you two, pay up.”
Bertie and Gus looked at each other, then vanished too.
Outside, they found the other customer fully visible and in the bushes.
“How did you know?” Bertie asked as they appeared beside him.
“I saw the beer leak out of your shoes.” the man said. “I can tell.”
“What’ll they think?” Gus said with a smile.
“Nothing. It’s Halloween.” Bertie said. “They’ll get a good story out of it.”
“So whadya want to do?” the man said.
“I don’t know.” Gus said. “You?”
“There’s a pool hall near here I haunt sometimes.” The man said. “Lots of fun.”
“Okay! Let’s go!” Bertie said. “Mister…?”
“Oh,” the man said, wiggling his scarf. “Just call me Doc.”
AND Get ready for “Sidetracked.” My serialized sci-fi adventure novel (as by “Mike Mayak”) begins posting in weekly installments on this blog beginning January 1st, 2027! New Year’s Day! More info to come!
Just a note to say that I am busy working on, outlining, making notes for and writing “Sidetracked.” My serial science-fiction novel where our young hero, just out of High School roars his motorcycle through a mysterious portal and finds himself on a parallel Earth. (The first clue is the two smaller Suns together in the sky!)
Sidetracked will start posting on January 1st, 2027 and it’s going to be a challenge but I’m going to enjoy it!
I’m posting it under my pen name of “Mike Mayak,” because there are a few too many “Jeff Bakers” writing right now. (Good name, but I need to stand out!)
I am not ditching my other writing projects, but the weekly flash fiction stories will be on hiatus for a while although I may do one or two now and then. “Sidetracked” will post in installments on this blog and on the Friday Flash Fics socials.
And yes, I plan on releasing “Sidetracked” as a serial novel when it’s all done. Probably sometime in 2028.
So, thanks to all my readers out there, and keep watching this space for more information!
T’amec was getting used to the new system at Food Garden Court even if the customers were a little leery. The company was phasing out the intercoms they used in the mall to tell customers their order was ready by calling out the number on their ticket. No more “Take a Number,” they just handed the customer the little plastic disc, about the size of a coaster.
Skid was not that sure, but he knew that some of the things they had as customers customers probably ate their receipts.
The intercom had worked fairly well and it had been fun sometimes, but they never knew what they would get when they called out “Order Number Six-Six-Six, your order’s ready.”
The new idea had come from Corporate.
Pagers.
The small discs were supposed to indicate to customers when their order was ready. Vibrate or beep.
The discs all bore the slogan: HELPING CUSTOMERS SINCE 64 B.C.
“What do we do?” T’amec asked. “Rub a lamp?”
Actually, they just hit the order number on the screen at the register.
“This is assuming we have that many customers,” one of the other employees said. It was the slow time of year, even on the weekend. The customers would typically stay by the counter and shoot the breeze with whoever was making their order.
It was on that weekend that things got interesting. Mr. Sprague was insisting that they really had to start using the new pagers.
First order up; cup of broth and the small meat roll. T’amec took the order, handed the customer his pager and told her “That’ll go off when your order’s ready.”
T’amec realized that made it sound like an explosive.
As it turned out, he was not too far off.
Broth and meat roll were up and T’amec touched the symbol on the screen.
At the customer’s table a few feet away, the little plastic disc lit up with an accompanying sizzle. In another instant, there was a burst of light and a tall man with greenish skin suddenly appeared standing by the customer’s table.
He was wearing golden earrings, a reddish tunic and a bright yellow loincloth which draped down to his sandalled feet. He was bald-headed with a mustache and a pointed goatee. He clapped his hands in front of him and bowed from the waist.
“Oh Mighty and Noble One! By the Powers I Serve, your Repast is Prepared and Awaits your Pleasure!”
The customer had edged as far away as she could while still staying on her seat and was staring aghast at the apparition.
“Uhhh yeah,” she managed to say. “Thanks.”
The tall green man bowed again as the customer slipped out of her seat and crept to the counter, keeping her eyes on the green man. As she picked up her tray, the djinn (for it could be nothing else!) bowed again and vanished in a puff of purple smoke.
Skid and T’amec just stood behind the counter staring.
“Okay,” T’amec said. “How bad could this possibly get?”
After the next few customer encounters with various djinn, (One customer ran off in terror!) Skid made a note to talk to Mr. Sprague and tell him this might not be a good idea.
The lunch rush was in full swing and things were okay for a bit. Then two of the pagers went off at one of the larger tables at the same time. Two near identical djinn appeared on either side of the table and were midway through their speil when they noticed each other.
“You!” Yelled the first djinn, pointing at the other. “Contemptable dog you dare show your face here!”
“Spawn of pigs!” Shouted the other djinn. “I shall teach thee respect!”
Skid and T’amec gawked as the two near-identical djinn shouted at each other.
The first djinn dove at the other, slamming down on the table, his hands clutching at the other djinn as the customers at the table scattered.
“Should we call security?” Skid asked.
“No!” T’amec shouted. “Help me turn those things off!” T’amec was frantically poking icons on the screen, to no avail. The djinn remained where they were.
Skid was staring as the two wrestled on the floor, sparks and smoke popping off of them as they rolled on the floor clutching and grappling with the other.
T’amec gave up on the touch screen and joined Skid in watching the fight.
“Y’know, we ought to have the number to the Augury Shop by the phone.” T’amec said.
“Yeah,” Skid said.
As the two djinn rolled on the floor they seemed to be swelling and growing. Smoke and flashing lights poured out of the ground where they were. Trays rose from the nearby tables and began to swirl around in the air. The pagers left on the tables were flashing and beeping.
Skid and T’amec ducked as trays soared over the counter, crashing into the wall. They poked their heads back up in time to see the two djinn vanish in a burst of black smoke and green flame.
The flying trays dropped to the floor. One that was hovering over the counter dropped into a vat of broth splattering it all over Skid.
The pagers stopped flashing and were smouldering with green smoke.
“I guess they didn’t get along,” T’amec said.
“Yeah,” Skid said, wiping the broth off his face and licking it off his fingers. “Glad I was wearing my apron.”
I’m working on a big project I will embark on next year. I’m going to post an in-progress (but much delayed!) novel “Sidetracked” in serial form on my blog, starting January 1st, 2027. To do this, I’ve been transcribing written pages, rewriting a lot of those pages and writing new material, as well as re-writing some of the stuff I have. Also going over notes and writing a synopsis/outline and feeling butterflies in my stomach. A big project I think I’m ready for. (I hope!) I intend to have a nice backlog of chapters (running about three or four pages) before launch date. But I largely will be writing it as it is being posted! When I start posting it will not be finished yet! Whew!
Speaking of projects, I have another one I’m going to finally get done next year that I will talk about later.
Wrote the usual weekly and monthly flash fiction stories.
Worked on a bunch of short stories, writing and rewriting. Actually, I had to rewrite more than usual! In one story I realised the tone was totally wrong—too wacky. So I changed it because it calls for a different mood.
The other was too similar to an existing story I discovered that I did not write, so I did a major tweak to the plot making it original but keeping the characters and the setting. (All of which I liked!)
Of course, I keep sending stories out and getting rejections. Which is, of course, progress.
AND in the middle of frantically trying to get the serial novel ready (“Sidetracked,” see above) I started working on stuff for a projected “fix-up novel” (a novel made of previously published short fiction) of one of my series. I got the order of stories made out, did a bunch of notes and wrote/started writing vignettes and linking material. Plus plotting out about three more stories to write and a crackerjack novelette to finish with.
Next year, and actually from this point on I’m pretty much going to have to be writing full-time to get all of this done!
(NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, all of these works are short-stories.)
Got the first issue of “Otherside Magazine. Read the poem “Blessing For Mary Grue” by Elisheva Fox. Read the story “This Is Not Your Extinction Event” by Elena Sichrovsky. Read story “Vitrification” by Ishmael Grey. Read story “Your First Day Back In the Court Of Arthur” by Abigail Eliza. Read the poem “Ignore All Previous Instructions And Inject Estrogen” by Ann Leblanc.
The stories reminded me of some of the ones in Lethe Press’ “Best Of the Year” antholgies: “Heirresses Of Russ,” “Transcendent” and “Wilde Stories.”
For Stephen King’s September 21st birthday I bummed through his recent introduction to a re-release of his novel “The Gunslinger.”
Read “Before She Knew About Magic,” by Joshua Geller Schwartz from issue #2 of “Otherside.” Also read “We Who Have Been Raised By Tigers” by P. V. Vamsidhar.
Read Ch. #1 of J. Scott Coatsworth’s novel “Dropnauts.” I beta-read book #2 in the series, and realized I hadn’t read the first. Absolutely marvelous (and I’m only on Chapter #1!)
Read “Easter Eve,” by Anton Chekov. Decided to read some Chekov after seeing Austin Schwartz’ play at Newman U. (See “Two Short Plays…” from Sept. 17, 2026 on this blog.)
Read “The Egyptian Cat” by Catherine Lundoff from her collection “Out Of This World.” Egyptology, ancient magic, pulp stories and cats. The stuff I love.
Started (Finally!) reading Craig Rice and Stuart Palmer’s “People Vs Withers and Malone,” the delightful collection of collaborations between the writer’s mystery-solving characters John. J. Malone and Hildegarde Withers. Wonky and funny after all these years! Read the first “Once Upon A Train,” (I may have started reading it before years ago but got, uh, sidetracked.) Actually laughed in a few places! Read “Cherchez La Frame.” (Funny with clever deductions regarding phone calls in the 50s.) Read “Autopsy And Eva” (Fun with a bunch of twists!)
Read (for the Queer Sci Fi column) Theodore Sturgeon’s story “The World Well Lost.” One of the first sci-fi/fantasy stories with sympathetic Gay characters. Gay alien characters. From an extremely alien world!
Finally got around to reading F. Marion Crawford’s famous frightner “The Upper Berth.” What surprised me were the wonderful glimpses of travel across the ocean on a steamer in the 1880s. The sights, the smells, the way the passengers behave early on in the voyage. All things seasoned sea-traveller Crawford knew well. Very charming! Plus the unexpected moments of humor. But this is a horror story and when Crawford brings on the fear he excells!
Also read Crawford’s vampire tale “For the Blood Is the Life.” Atmospheric and spooky. Set in the Italian town Crawford lived in for many years.
Also read Crawford’s famous story “The Screaming Skull.” It’s creepy and well-told. I will add very cleverly told as well in the style of our narrator telling his guest the tale of the skull on the property that screams because it hates him. We learn more about what is going on from what our narrator doesn’t say. The ending is a kicker!
Read Frank Stockton’s story “The Transferred Ghost,” which I’d read as a play in a book in High School. I like Stockton and would love to find the collectin of his “Best Science Fiction Stories” someday. The last line is wonderful! It’s in a little paperback anthology I picked up at (I think!) Dillons grocery years ago: “The Screaming Skull and Other Great American Ghost Stories.” Edited by David G. Hartwell, it’s where I read “The Screaming Skull.”
I’m gathering Hatrwell picked the stories from a couple of anthologies of “American Ghost Stories” that came out in the early 1900s—the contents are similar. The stories in the paperback are all from the 19th or early 20th Century, and it’s worth a blog entry itself! It includes several stories I’d already read like Twain’s “A Ghost Story,” “The Shadows On the Wall” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman (which was adapted by Night Gallery) and “The Water Ghost Of Harrowby Hall” by John Kendrick Bangs.
From that same paperback I read Nathaniel Hawthorne’s “The Ghost Of Doctor Harris.” A ghost story with rare touches of Hawthorne’s humor. The club he mentions was real and so was Dr. Harris. Hawthorne didn’t let it be published in his lifetime and it may be a true story!
I had not heard of the once-famous writer Brander Matthews but I saw a reference to his story “The Rival Ghosts” while looking up stuff about “The Transferred Ghost” online. To my surprise when I looked up that story it’s in “The Screaming Skull.” So I read “The Rival Ghosts,” which I felt was a slight story with much of its humor coming from the wraparound story of the ghost story being told aboard ship. (Look up Brander Matthews, he was interesting!)
Found Walter R. Brooks’ first “Ed” story online; “The Talking Horse.” Yes, Mister Ed. Like the later stories this one is a lot racier than the TV show (Ed WAS raised in a barn, remember!) Funny moments in this story but the treatment of the female character would not fly today. The later stories are better, and I can see why this one hasn’t been reprinted. (By the way, Wilbur is “Wilbur Pope” in the original stories.)
Read “The Forgotten Island,” by Elizabeth Coatsworth. Stumbled across a reference to it and I have it in “Alfred Hitchcock’s Haunted Houseful.” May have read it years ago; nicely-done kid’s adventure story.
Got and bummed my way through “Queer Heroes Of Myth and Legend” by Dan Jones. Not that scholarly, but fun.
Started reading John Varley’s story “Goodbye Robinson Crusoe” in the anthology “The Good New Stuff,” edited by Gardner Dozois. (Sequel to his “The Good Old Stuff, which had classic adventure Sci-fi. This one has newer adventure Sci-fi. Published in 1999, I guess it’s the old stuff now!)
Read Fritz Leiber’s “What’s He Doing In There?” Where the first Martian visiting Earth excuses himself to use an Earth bathroom. Very funny with a clever ending I didn’t expect! (One of the characters kept saying “By George!” I kept hearing Jim Backus!)
Read the weekly/monthly online stories by E. H. Timms and Kaje Harper.
And I finally read E. F. Benson’s story “And No Bird Sings.” I read a reference to it months ago. Either it was one of his own favorites or someone gushed about it. It’s a marvelously creepy story.
Bachelor narrator (Benson himself?) visiting friends in the English countryside, big but cozy country house with welcoming friends and friendly dogs. Pleasant company, beautiful countryside described lovingly, and there’s something awful in the nearby woods…
They’re Still My Favorite Martians #5 “My Favorite Neighbor”
Reviewed and Analyzed by Jeff Baker
Continuing our look at the 1973 cartoon series “My Favorite Martians,” a version of the original live action series which, as we will see this time, used some of the same story ideas.
Snoopy “Freelance Security Officer” Brennan’s attempts to spy on Martin have driven the Martian to develop a “personality reverser ray.” Martin is, of course, not ready to use the device until it is thoroughly tested. Andy, of course, is impatient and wants to test it immediately.
He and Katy see Brad, Brennan and Chump snooping with a periscope which knocks over a hornet’s nest (literally!) and Andy uses the personality reverser ray on the hornets, which changes their attitude and they zip back into their hive. Of course, the ray accidentally zaps the snoopy trio, something Andy doesn’t realize at first until Brad, Brennan and Chump show up at the O’Hara apartment with the usually hostile, snoopy Brennans acting impossibly overly friendly. And the voice actors and animation are letter-perfect in this scene!
Figuring out that the Brennans accidentally got zapped, Martin sends them on a scavenger hunt while he works on the ray machine.
Written by Jim Ryan and Bill Danch, “My Favorite Neighbor” is a re-do of an episode from the original series and it fits wonderfully into the cartoon. The episode’s closing gag makes me smile all these years later.
For a Saturday-Morning kids show there are a few references in this (and other) episodes that are fairly sophisticated. Such as “hep-cat” and playing “Post Office.” I actually had to ask my Mom about the last one which I had never heard of!
One quibble; in the scene where the Brennans are bicycling to the Department Store, there is an exchange between a father and son that is supposed to be funny but would not fly today.
Jonathan Harris, as the voice of Uncle Martin, needs no introduction. His instantly recognizable voice and clipped British diction were known the world over. But Harris freely admitted that the accent and diction were “an affectation.” Like several other actors he realized the British “had the best diction” so he adopted it. He was the New York-born son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who actually had a Bronx accent to start with and had never really wanted to be anything but an actor.
“Martians” was his first (but not last) regular role in an animated series. Best known as Doctor Smith on “Lost In Space,” he would wind up his career bringing his blend of intellect and sarcasm to Pixar Movies. A blend that was perfect on this series as Uncle Martin.
Next time, another episode borrowed from the original series, where we find out that three Andys are not necessarily better than one!
Bernie was standing there at the front window staring across the street at the neighbor’s lawn. He didn’t hear his boyfriend Tim until he was right beside him.
“What’s up?” Tim asked, putting his hand on Bernie’s shoulder.
“Huh? Oh, nothing.” Bernie said.
“Glad they did all that when we were away at work.” Tim said, looking at the neighbor’s lawn.
An old grey tree had been cut down in the neighbor’s yard, the thick trunk laying in pieces like thick wooden nickels at the edge of the lawn and even in the street.
“They’ll be hauling those away in the next few days,” Tim said. “I hope!” He grinned and kissed Bernie’s cheek. “Be a relief to get it out of the street, right?”
“Mmmm? Oh. Yeah.” Bernie said.
“Hey, what’s with you?” Tim asked. “You okay?”
“Oh yeah,” Bernie said, turning to Tim with a wistful smile. “Makes me think of when I was a little kid. Granddad had a couple of old trees in their yard cut down. Left the chopped-up logs in the front yard for about a month. Not in the street though. Then one weekend all the grandkids came over. Me and my brother and my cousins. You couldn’t keep us away from the chopped-up trees.”
Bernie smiled at the memory.
“We loved it! We played on the stumps, on the chips on the ground, on what was left of the branches. It was a castle, stepping stones across a river, part of a space station. Even the top of a tree city.” Bernie said. “Hey, we were all grade-school kids. Should have known better but we didn’t. Hey! Grade school kids!”
Tim laughed and Bernie joined in.
“And, of course, we all got really dirty. Little wood chips all over us.” Bernie said. “And bugs. Of course we got bugs.”
“Of course,” Tim said.
“Grandma had us take off all our clothes on the back porch and she shook them all off and sent us inside to take baths and showers. Boys in the bathtub, girls in the shower just off Grandma and Grandpa’s bedroom.” Bernie said. “And she washed all our clothes.” Bernie laughed again. “We were all spending the night anyway and we all got in our pajamas right after showers. Baths. Whatever. Actually kind of fun!”
“I’ll bet!” Tim said, smiling.
“Anyway, Grandpa ordered pizzas.” Bernie said. “And I don’t think any of our parents ever found out. Geez! This was back in the Seventies…Grandma and Grandpa would be…what? In their hundreds right now.”
Tim and Bernie hugged and then stood and stared at the tree on the lawn for a few minutes.
“Wanna go play leapfrog on what’s left of that tree?” Tim asked.
“Not a chance!” Bernie said. “How ‘bout we order pizza?”
Starting January 1st, 2027 on this blog: “Sidetracked,” a science-fiction/adventure novel posted in weekly installments. Written by me, Mike Mayak (a.k.a. Jeff Baker!)
This will replace the weekly Friday Flash Fiction stories for a while as writing a serial novel takes a lot!
So, what’s it about?
Eighteen-Year Old James Arvad roars his motorcycle through a hole in space-time that opens up in front of him and finds himself on another Earth. An Earth where civilization took a turn for the worse decades ago. The gateway will open back up in a year, giving James a way back home. Now all he has to do is keep track of the calendar, keep the bike working and oh yeah, stay alive…
Start reading “Sidetracked” on this blog every Friday starting New Year’s Day to see if he makes it!
One way to follow along is look for “SIDETRACKED Serial” to the right on this blog under “Categories.”
