Happy Sci-Friday! This is the day I try to to focus on all things sci-fi. Some of you know that besides my monster obsession, I’m also obsessed with climate change and the science emerging around it. I’m the author of the cli-fi, eco-punk Plastic Girl trilogy. The third and final book was published in June 2023.
I will be at the L.A. Times Festival of the Books this weekend signing the Plastic Girl trilogy along with the Mary Shelley’s School for Monsters graphic novel. I’m sharing space with three other talented horror, fantasy, and sci-fi authors includes Matt Harry
and .I have been planning to produce the Plastic Girl trilogy in audiobook format for some time now. Recently, I decided I wanted to publish a chapter at a time here on Substack first. This is a test to see if I want to do the narration myself or not.
I will start with the prequel novella, Plastic Girl: Evolution.
Evolution’s blurb:
Set against the backdrop of a planet ravaged by acidic waters, toxic air and polluted lands, this sci-fi climate novella acts as a cautionary tale for adults and a hopeful one for youth, affirming that every end, even the darkest, makes room for new beginnings.
Eva, one of Earth's last inhabitants, is a lonely girl searching for companionship and evidence that life might return to Earth. What time she doesn't use to survive her harsh environment, she spends searching for life, stewarding the lake around her cabin and making sculptures of extinct animals out of found materials. One day, while checking on her island, she discovers something alive that shouldn't be, something she can transform and that can also transform her. She embarks on a grand and dangerous scientific journey that ultimately will birth a new era and provide her with the companionship she so desperately needs. Through Eva's engagement with this new life, readers will discover that to save the world, humanity may have to become something else entirely or disappear completely.
Here are links to a Foreword Review and Kirkus Review of Book 1 of the Trilogy. I’ve done school and library workshops around the books and climate, and am very proud of these books.
I’d like to gage interest with you as I start this endeavor so please share your thoughts in the comments.
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Here is Prologue of the novella:
Bullets blasted straight through a rusted tin can and into the concrete wall of an abandoned gas station. The can spun off an old milk crate and clanked to the ground.
Cheers and laughter filled up the empty station. Two near-feral boys sprinted along the gas station, slapping the faded adverts that hung like wraiths on the windows.
The larger boy kicked the can out of reach of the smaller boy who had leaned over to pick it up.
The smaller boy shoved the kicker hard.
“Don’t do that!”
The larger boy shoved him back. “Or what?”
The smaller boy slugged the large one in the nose. Blood gushed from his nostrils down his lip and into his mouth. He howled and lunged at the smaller boy, taking him to the ground with a loud thud.
The smaller boy’s head hit the corner of the sidewalk with a crack. He went limp. The larger boy was on top of him and pulled his arm back to punch him.
Boom.
A bullet hit the cement right next to the two boys.
“Knock it off, jerkwads. We need to find food and shelter for the night,” a gruff voice barked.
An older boy with long tangled black hair, green eyes and a dangerous smirk glared down at them, gripping a pistol, resting the barrel on his forearm while touching the trigger menacingly.
The larger boy smacked the smaller boy’s shoulder as he stood up.
“Yeah, knock it off.”
The smaller boy didn’t move.
The larger boy glanced back. “Come on, Griff, stop playing.”
A pool of blood expanded under the smaller boy’s head.
“Griffin?” The larger boy ran back and leaned down.
“Come on, man, wake up.”
The older boy holding the pistol laughed a mean laugh. “I guess that’s one less mouth to feed tonight.” He turned and stalked toward the small town about a quarter-mile in the distance.
The larger boy touched the smaller boy’s face. He shook him, but the boy remained limp. The larger boy’s bloody lip quivered, and tears created dirty streaks down his face.
“Let’s move, Jake, or should I just put you out your misery now?” The older boy shouted.
Jake rubbed the blood, tears and dirt off his face with his sleeve. The smaller boy’s fingers twitched a few times and then went limp completely. His eyes were open, lifeless. The large boy choked back a sob as he turned and hurried to catch up.
As the boys disappeared behind a hill, the door of the gas station creaked open. A small, completely covered figure stepped out, clutching a quart of motor oil. A red scarf and goggles concealed her face and head. She wore waterproof fishing boots, long rubber gloves and a bright red parka with a hood.
She approached the boy’s body and knelt down, avoiding the expanding pool of his blood. The girl closed his eyelids. She spotted his satchel and carefully opened it.
Inside were a few cans of food, a bottle of water, a pocketknife and a photo of a family with two very little boys, one could be the dead boy before her, the other was probably the larger boy who had run off.
She took the two cans of food and shoved them in her bag along with the oil. She picked up the family photo again and gazed at it for a long time. She placed it on the little boy’s chest, closed her eyes and whispered a prayer.
“I can’t believe you forgot to grab his bag, do you want to starve? I tell ya, I have half the mind to leave you here-HEY! What the-stop! Get her, she’s stealing our food!”
The small girl’s eyes shot open, and her head jerked toward the voice. The older boy was pointing his pistol at her. She sprinted away as bullets started flying past her, barely missing.
She veered off the road into a neighborhood, hopping over a fence. She dodged through a couple of yards, zigzagging between houses with swift and familiar steps, quickly putting a few houses between her and the boys.
She crept into a garage and shut the door behind her. She stood perfectly still and quiet. The boys ran through the yard and past the garage and into the next yard. She peered out of a dirty windowpane and watched them search the adjacent yard for her as they kept jogging in the other direction.
When they were out of sight, she slipped out of the garage and retraced her steps back through the neighborhood until she arrived at a thicket. She glanced back toward the abandoned neighborhood. The boys were nowhere in sight. She ran quietly through the trees until she stepped onto the garbage-covered shoreline of a debris-filled lake. She shoved a fishing boat into the mucky waters.
The angry, but now muffled shouting of the older boy faded slowly as the boys searched for her deeper into the neighborhood. She gripped her oars and began the hard work of rowing her boat through the thick, tar-like water, putting as much distance between her and those boys as possible.
She stared down at the shotgun at the bottom of her boat and gagged, swallowing the bile back down that had risen up in her throat. It wasn’t the first time she had seen someone killed, but it didn’t make it any easier.
If you are a print reader, you can order the paperback or hardcover Plastic Girl books from any of your favorite online retailers or bookstores. Same goes for ebook readers.
Looking forward taking this next step with you!
Love the audiobook idea!