Guys, I can’t believe June 1st is only a few days away. Which means I’m about to start posting Three Keys in the Desert, which still seems unreal somehow. Even though there’s a cover (which you can see right next to this text)! And an ebook file! And like, a public record that this will actually happen!
Anyway, if you’ve read my previous posts you already know the story behind how this novella was written, so it’s probably time you knew what it was actually about. I’ve spent a lot of the last decade tinkering with a potential summary for this thing, since like a lot of authors no single-paragraph description seemed adequate.
But I finally settled on one! So, without further ado:
On a remote planet, a military boarding school is about to get a new headmistress. Her charges will include Ebie, a girl desperately trying to keep a secret, Kim, a boy desperately trying to keep his friends from dying, and Vrei, a girl who just wants to make it to the end of the day. Will any of them get what they want? With only a week until Transfer Day, the biggest and most important event of the year, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
😀 😀 😀
If that sounds interesting, here’s a short excerpt from said headmistress’ point of view:
“The girl in front of Claudia took a deep breath, as if trying to come up with more reasons to argue. She clearly hadn’t anticipated Claudia’s resistance. She’d thought the morning bulletins would turn Claudia into a cowering idiot.
“If there’s anything–” Ebie began, but the door interrupted her, opening with a chime and revealing the head doctor’s face.
Claudia was already tired of the woman’s perpetual cheerfulness. She wasn’t looking forward to prison, or wherever they sent her next, but at least she could be certain that after this posting there would be fewer annoying underlings to deal with.
Susanna looked from Ebie to Claudia. “I’m sorry, should we postpone?”
“No,” Claudia said, and then looked at Ebie. “Your ten minutes are up. Get out.”
The girl grabbed the edge of Claudia’s desk. “Colonel, please, let me just–”
“Get out,” Claudia said again, in the tone it had taken her a decade to perfect, the one she used to discipline her officers.
The girl got up, surrounded by a halo of violence. Claudia watched her carefully, almost hoping she’d do something, give Claudia an excuse to burst.
But no further response came. The doors slid shut and Susanna sat down. Claudia pretended to look at the numbers on the sheets Susanna pulled up and nodded along.
This day would be without end.”
What’s got Claudia in such a foul mood? Will Ebie actually punch someone? Should someone protect Susanna the head doctor from all this negativity? Tune in on June 1st to find out! 🙂
Tell me more!
Gladly! If you want to be notified when the novella finally goes live, the best way to do that is to sign up for my New Release Mailing Listd For more updates on cool stuff I’ll post before and after June 1st (yes, I have at least one more thing planned for May!) you can follow me on twitter or facebook.
In any case, thank you for reading this far, and oh my god this is really happening isn’t it?
Don’t answer that.