Catalyst

Today's post is by Bronwyn Cair:

“Today,” Admiral Roth somberly began her address, “we suffered a great blow. We lost hundreds. Some were our friends, some were our family. They were our mothers, our daughters, our wives. They were our fathers, husbands, sons, sisters and brothers. This is a day we will never forget. We will hold their memories in our hearts for all eternity.”

Photo: www.maxwell.af.mil

She paused, looked down at what had become her family away from home. They were all mourning. She thought about her son, her daughter and her partner, all fighters. All killed.

Photo: www.cargolaw.com

“And because of what they have done, it will be a day that Govern will never forget. Because of what they have done, we have an opportunity to strike back with a vengeance Govern has never seen.”

Photo: www.okefood.com

Admiral Roth’s podium shook with the volume of their cheers, the voices of every man and woman united in a fierce cry of agreement.



“We will not allow them to stomp out the light that burns within our hearts. We will not allow them to take away who we are. We will fight, in the names of those we have lost, and we will show them what a mighty nation we are. We are the Last Air Contingent, and we will not let our honor be forgotten!”

Book Review: Behind the Ruins by Michael Lane

I just finished reading Behind the Ruins by Michael Lane. I don't make it a habit to review books, but I liked this one so much I thought I'd tell you about it.

I found the book because I was looking for indie fiction that was at least halfway decent. I'd been slogging through a wilderness of awful ramblings, and when I came across Behind the Ruins I didn't hold out much hope. Why would this one be different? Then I read the first few chapters and realized that while it was still entirely possible there was no plot, at least the characters, the setting and the narrative were a great read for now.

And it turned out there is a plot. I won't tell you what it is, but it swept me up.

The Premise

Here's the blurb from the virtual 'jacket':

The world didn’t end when the meteors came; it changed. 

We meet Grey in the process of killing three people intent on robbing and murdering him. The deaths solve nothing; instead, what he finds on one of the bodies leads to a bloody trip through the wreckage of a world scarred by a near-apocalypse, and inward through his own memories. In the process he becomes involved in a plan that could mean the return of the world he knew as a child, in the time before the Fall.

During his trek from British Columbia into the former United States he must overcome both his own bleak memories and the murderous forces of an old friend. The lessons he takes away and the decisions he makes will determine not only if he has a future, but whether civilization does.

What I Liked

In no particular order, I liked the characters, the plot, the pacing and the setting.

The people in the book seemed very real. They were easy to tell apart by their distinct personalities and habits of speech, and they had complexities, layers and even inconsistencies, like you and I do.

The plot struck me as well-organized without being either contrived or obvious. I kept guessing what was going to happen, and I kept being wrong, which I consider a good sign. And when the book was over, I thought, "Yes, that is probably what would end up happening, if these people were in this situation."

The pacing felt right. It was slow enough to feel gritty and real: I felt forced to relate to the cold and heat, the dirt, the indecision and the dread. And it was fast enough not to make me feel bogged down or bored. There was, perhaps, one section of necessary explanation that dragged a little, but maybe it didn't. I was tired when I read that part, so maybe it was just me.

Michael Lane lives in western Canada, and the story takes place in the borderland of southern British Columbia and northern Washington State. To be honest, it annoys me a little when novel after novel is set in either New York, Los Angeles or a big-city concept of what a 'small town' must be like (yup, I'm talking about Forks, Washington). Michael wrote about his homeland, and that makes a difference in the quality of the book.

What I Didn't Like

Behind the Ruins has the same problem my own books have: a crying need for editing. In fairness, I do not have the latest version, and some of the errors may have been fixed since I downloaded it. Editing is just not one of those things an author can do for his own work. It's one of the growing pains of the indie author/publisher movement. And, yes, we're working on that.

My interview with Michael Lane 

Michael's guest post on this blog

Guest Post: Alex

We get to have Bronwyn Cair back today:


I could sit here and tell you that I know who I am, where I’ve been and where I’m gonna go, but anything I said would be a lie. Truth is, I don’t know where I came from. I’m pretty sure I have military training and a little brother somewhere, and that I love sushi, but I’d never eat tuna.

Sometimes, in my dreams, I can see children hiding from me -- from other men like me, men with guns in army fatigues -- and I wonder if I was the good guy or the bad guy. G says it doesn’t really make a difference. She hasn’t seen what I’ve seen.

Photo: www.deisisraellobby.blogspot.com

To be honest, I’m not so sure it’s that black and white. I mean, the good guys sometimes do bad things. The doctors make fatal decisions, the senators take bribes, the guy who swears to protect and serve kills innocent people in the name of liberty… So maybe she’s right-- what’s the difference, really? Maybe we’re all a little of both.

Photo: www.crossandcutlass.blogspot.com

I don’t know if I’ll ever know if I’m the good guy who does bad things, or the bad guy who does good things. I know my name. Alex. That’s about it. When I met G, she told me I’d wake up one day and remember everything; my birthday, my hometown, how I got here, all of it. It’s been three years.

I’m still waiting.

Photo: www.formybeautifullove.com

The Jury Farm

Janie only wanted to know where her sister was.

Ellie Barbour was a lot older than Janie, and Grant said she would have been fourteen now. It was Ellie's birthday today, Grant said, but they couldn't talk about it. They had to remember Ellie in their hearts but make everybody think they forgot her. Grant was very wise about things like that. He was almost as old as Ellie and he was their brother.

So Janie pretended to forget Ellie but remembered her very much in her heart. Which means she didn't even talk about her to Grant. Only to Mommy.

Ellie had gone over the fence, Janie had reminded Mommy, and gone down the road and found out where the noises were coming from. The snorting and humming and whining and thumping and scraping didn't come from alligator cricket tournaments or monsoons or wild moose parties, Ellie had said. They were made by giant misshapen cars with huge claws, digging holes in the earth. And then Ellie had been taken to the police station, and nobody had seen her since.

And now Janie had been taken to the police station. There were two parts to the office she was in, and the officer was meeting with her parents in the other part, with the door closed. She had tried to listen through the door, but the secretary had music on, and she couldn't hear a word. So all she could do was wait, and pretend very hard to not remember Ellie. And she could read.

Nobody knew she could read. Not even Mommy knew that, because reading isn't something you do in your heart. Reading is something you do with your eyes, and you just do it, and there really isn't anything to talk about. But it really helps when you're stuck in an office with nothing else to do.

So Janie found a spot near the window by the secretary's desk where there was a stack of papers, gave the secretary her most innocent smile, and started reading:

CONFIDENTIAL

Pre-Harvest Report

Jury Farm Project

Mission: 

To provide a reliable source of individuals qualified to serve as jurors at all court levels throughout all states and territories.

Progress Toward Goals:

Repeated here for reference purposes, five main objectives established at the outset of the Project are relevant at this stage:

1. To build a self-contained habitat ("the Farm") for jury candidates ("the Candidates").
2. To seed the population of the Farm with persons under the age of 30 months, who are wards of their respective states and do not receive regular visits from their families of origin.
3. To raise the Candidates in an isolated setting, ensuring that they remain untainted by any knowledge of real events which could disqualify them from serving as jurors.
4. To educate and condition the Candidates to be optimally qualified to serve the prosecution as jurors in any trial in any court in the United States.
5. To harvest the Candidates as needed to serve in jury trials.

The current status of Progress toward each of these objectives is outlined below:

1. The Farm is approximately eighty-four percent (84%) built, which conforms to the timeline set forth by the Plan, as amended. The remaining sixteen percent (16%) represents the final phase of construction, to accommodate the expected population growth as the current population matures and begins to reproduce (See p. 32 of the Plan, section 12: "Sustainability").
2. Four thousand, five hundred thirty-eight (4,538) qualifying Candidates have been transported to the Town over the sixteen (16) years since Stage One of construction was complete. These consisted of two thousand, two hundred sixty-eight (2,268) males and two thousand, two hundred seventy (2,270) females, and they have been living in small groups in homes on the Farm, along with adult caretakers they believe to be their natural parents.
3. Isolation has been completely successful with the following exceptions:
1. A total of six (6) Candidates were exposed to construction in progress, and had to be terminated.
2. A total of eight (8) Candidates showed persistent curiosity regarding life outside the Farm, and had to be terminated.
4. Education and conditioning have been highly successful. The following methods were implemented:
1. Schools. All the Candidates attend school from Kindergarten through Grade Twelve (12), and some attend preschool as well. Eight hundred four (804) students will begin attending college in the fall. Curriculum and teaching methods promote a binary ('either/or') thinking style, to help Candidates efficiently identify trial defendants as either good or evil.
2. Home. All the homes are run by trained staff whom the Candidates believe are their biological parents. Education and conditioning in the home begins before the Candidates start school, and continues throughout childhood.
3. Neighborhood. Conditioning is extended to the Candidates' neighborhoods and every aspect of their lives. For example, the Farm is divided into fifty-six (56) sections, each named after one of the fifty-five (55) states and territories of the United States plus the District of Columbia. Each of these divisions is in turn given one or two designations which mimic common town names, such as  'Springfield' or 'Hillsborough.' This way if an attorney asks a Candidate during voir dire where he or she resides, the Candidate will be able to provide an appropriate reply in full honesty.
5. Harvest of the first crop of jury Candidates is scheduled for the third week of June. This inaugural crop will be small, only one hundred twenty (120) Candidates, as outlined in the original Plan, as amended.

Harvest Methods and Best Practices

Several factors set the inaugural harvest apart from subsequent harvests, including the smaller size of the crop and the fact that the harvests do not yet form a part of the Candidates' lives or cultural frame of reference. To this extent, conditioning for this inaugural crop cannot be complete, as previous harvests form a necessary part of Candidate conditioning under the Plan. 

The following methods and practices are being strictly adhered to for the inaugural harvest:

1. Surprise. No advance warning or indication will be given to any Candidates that any harvesting will occur, except for the fact that the subject of jury duty is presented in their education as an important civic duty in a free society. When the inaugural harvest occurs, it will be a surprise to both the members of the crop and their peers.
2. No publicity. No Candidates except those who are an actual part of the current crop will be aware of the harvest until after it is complete.
3. Final conditioning step and guarantee of confidentiality. As outlined in the Plan, as amended, the aftermath of the harvest will be leveraged to achieve maximum efficiency in the trial process, as well as to allow for the retirement of some veteran staff members. To complete the conditioning process, the disappearance of the harvested Candidates will be explained as a brutal mass murder, with appropriate graphic details and evidence provided. After serving as jurors, to preserve the integrity of the Farm's confidentiality and ensure a continuous supply of jurors without activist interference, the entire crop will be returned to Farm property for termination.

Short Story: Children's Activity B

The smell was getting bad. There were almost twenty people in that small room and most of them hadn't changed clothes for weeks. A medium-sized man of twenty-five sat in the doorway with his back to the jamb. He could have passed for a Greek.

Photo: flickr.com

"Pike." His best friend squeezed his arm. "Don't let the floor bugs bite."

Gavin Pike shook his head. It was a weak joke, but his lips curled up anyway. Phil Petrarch would probably outlive them all. When it got too cold, when the food ran out, he'd live on his sense of humor.

The man in the doorway glanced around. Eighteen people were stretched out on the bare floor of the ten-by-fifteen room with no heat. Most had no blankets or coats. "Children's Activity B" the room was called, according to the sign beside the door.

"Are we all here?" asked an old man who was new there.

"One more," Pike whispered.

"Who is it?"

"Name is Shelly." He put his finger to his lips. There was no need to alarm the others.

Photo: sabp.nhs.uk

"How long do we wait?"

Gavin Pike shrugged.

"What if she doesn't come?"

Pike held up his index finger and cocked his head to listen.

"Tell me that's not a guard coming," said the new man.

Pike said nothing.