Because it’s been a while since I did one of these, and because this blog has kind of fallen by the wayside while I worked on other things (mostly keeping up with the snakelet): have a snippet from my latest short story!

Thanh arrived late at the First Presentation party; deliberately, because it would enable her to mingle more easily into the crowd; and because she couldn’t deal with the thought of making small and inane talk with Anh Ngoc and her new husband for what would seem like hours, while they waited for the other guests.

It had been years, and she wasn’t sure, altogether, if she would even know anyone; if she would even have the proper authorisations to see anyone. But, once she cleared the entry hall and entered the compartment proper–­­and the overlay of a vast courtyard replaced the narrow compartment, she saw people clustered by a buffet instead of a beautiful, empty landscape; and let out a breath she hadn’t even been aware of holding.

Set onboard a very particular space station that has a very particular way of dealing with things. I actually started this one as an entirely different beast–basically a thriller about circles of power, and the coming back of someone who had been displaced from a ruling position aboard a space station. I had the rough outline, and I got about a scene into it before I realised this just wasn’t the story I wanted to tell; that I needed something more intimate and more concerned with daily life in all its glorious strangeness and eccentricities. Space soap opera ftw 🙂