K. Jenet Helenbrook

[kjenethelenbrook]

Eccentric Orbits

Okay, so this story was originally meant for romance anthology featuring characters over 40.

That didn't end up happening, but I still really like this story. It was the first original bit of fiction I've written in decades.

and. You know what? I like it. Is it any good? Who knows.

Was it fun getting invested in these two assholes? Absolutely. Here's how we begin.

“That fuel reg system still givin you grief?” Hax grits her teeth. Elbow deep in the ‘Folly’s guts and now she has Darra to deal with. Seems like every time she clips in to the Station needing repairs he’s here. She rips a section of worn tubing from it’s clips, plastic so brittle it crumbles in her gloved hands, drops of gunked coolant falling on her upturned face, cold rill on her brow running into her hairline instead of her eye, thank goodness for small favors. “She’ll get me where I need to be-“ “I got a XT-6,” says Darra, “”Should be back compatible if I’m not mistaken-“ “And what would this lovely bit of equipment cost me?” “No cost at all,” says Darra, “A gesture of goodwill between two friends.” Fucking Darra. He seems to turn up when things are going wrong, offering a friendly face to talk to while wheedling drinks or creds or consumables. Saw through his bullshit years ago, except some part of Hax always forgives him, at least a little. Enough to shove herself from under the ‘Folly’s exposed workings, the dolly’s wheels squealing over the deck plating, enough to give him the benefit of eye contact. “There’s a trick,” “No tricks,” says Darra, and places a greasy parcel in her hands, “Heard you were havin some difficulties and just happened to have to parts on hand. You’d do the same for me.” That little scruffy smirk crawls it’s way up his face, but doesn’t touch his eyes at all. “I appreciate it, Darr. Let’s see if it’s actually back compatible. Hold the light. This is gonna take two hands.” And suddenly it’s like old times, him holding the light and giving unsolicited advice while she ignores it, a familiar groove they once ran in, junior-most crew on the Eidolon given the shit jobs, but that was the price, wasn’t it? Cargo swing from Station to Luna, wild nights in Imbrium’s entertainment district, fixing whatever is going wrong and listening to Darra yack, only this time he is quiet. Darra is never quiet. Hax unfolds the greasy paper from around the pre-compressor. Unicorn, the message reads. Hax closes her eyes. Unicorn. A term from the old days whispered behind hands, every rock hopper’s dream. “Prime the autoseal and hand it to me.” Hax dips her finger in the puddled coolant and writes 1650 LST, make it look good. She takes the autoseal, and pushes the bit of greasy paper into his waiting hand. “Throw that away for me, would you?” “Sure thing,” says Darra, “Got somewhere else I need to be soon. Fly true, yeah?” “Always.”

[kjenethelenbrook]

Never Have I Ever:

I’ve never heard this song.

Precious Things but isn’t.

I’ve heard this before.

I haven’t.

I’ve never driven the secret road that will get you to the falling down house

the water pissing in when it rains

the floors that shift and buckle

I’ve never seen the black tower

I say Tori what the fuck

This has happened before

I graduated

i took that english class

I quit smoking

I never saw the dead boy’s face underneath the sink in the house i grew up in

i never saw the red star

i never saw the way his baby stubble looked like exclamation points on his dead cheeks

Never found the sex dens beneath the city

Never hid it because it never happened

I never flew from rooftop to rooftop under my own power.

Never saw the ships in the sky.

Never saw the wolves in the back yard.

[kjenethelenbrook]

I've had a horror story about merfolk brewing for a few years now. What if a mer's bite can turn a person like being bitten by a vampire or a werewolf? A bite or a kiss? What if you start finding scales around the shower drain? what if your menstrual cycle brings a harvest of glistening eggs?

[insomniamamma]

So you all might have noticed that I haven't been as active lately, but that's a good thing! I think I may have mentioned this in passing, but I used to run an art studio/gallery with my best bud. He's a paper maker and book binder and we used to work together and do art festivals and things.

then the pandemic happened and all of that stopped. But now we're back! He's been taking on a lot of repair work and he's going to start teaching me how to repair/rebind books, but for right now we are making mixed signature journals to sell at an upcoming book festival.

What you see are the finished covers awaiting their insides! What makes these books special is that they are repurposed library books. A library near our city was discarding it's old periodicals and my bestie picked up a truckload of vinyl book covers. The pages had been stripped out but the boards and spines were still intact.

So what we're doing with these is stripping off some of the vinyl while preserving enough of it to use for corners and new spines. Each journal will come with the books original spine cut down and repurposed as a bookmark.

some of them even have the old check out card pockets which will be glued back in on the end pages!

I hadn't done anything book related in years, but i really missed it, and when we were regularly doing festivals we made decent (if not entirely predictable money). And now we have a small studio space and i usually put in a couple hours a night after my shift at work.

It's the kind of precise, fine work that I love doing. I'm so stoked to be doing what I love again!

[kjenethelenbrook]

Wow. Nothing like attempting to edit my own work and realizing that I just casually chuck things like punctuation and capitalization and tenses right out the window.

Girl, what the fuck are we doing?

[kjenethelenbrook]

Here is a little bite of an original story i've been working on for @anisalarkwood-author's over 40 anthology.

The whole frame is warped, Darra’s voice tinny over his suit mic, It’s like someone took her and twisted her. The bridge windows reflect dull in the flitter’s lights, milky blue like dead eyes. Hax feels her chest tighten, ship-glass is harder than anything that occurs in nature, and it has been scoured? Altered? I’m gonna try and shine a light on the name-plate. XC-1197a-V1. Eurydice. “Darra, what the fuck have you gotten me into?” Hax slaps the cylinder out of the port like it’s radioactive, faint noise of it bouncing off the deck-plating and rolling off somewhere under one of the folded up jump seats. “What the fuck did you DO?”

[kjenethelenbrook]

writing original fiction for the first time in 20 years lets go!!!!!

it's a science fiction flavored love story.

Hax flies a cargo ship on the Galileo Loop, boring but steady work so she can support her family back home.

An ex-lover from her rock-hopping days shows up in the maintenance bay with a much needed part for repairs and a passed note with one word.

Unicorn.

[kjenethelenbrook]

Is this thing on? Look it's baby's first sideblog. This blog will be for original fic, assuming I can get out of my own way and write it. My main is @insomniamamma. Original works (hopefully) coming soon!