On Whetsday (18 page)

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The ship, whose name was not actually Cataclysm, but Revelation, shook off the soil of the planet called Rask and rose up on a tower of lightning and thunder. It took only seconds before Jukal Plex was lost to sight, and seconds more before the whole planet was a green-gray dot, and seconds after that the red star and the blue star had merged together into a tiny purple-white point as the ship moved away, and away, and away.

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Whetsday

On Whetsday, Denny danced between the stars.

About the Author

Mark is the author of a bunch of novels, lots of short stories, and essays. His novel
Devil’s Tower
was nominated for the World Fantasy Award, and his
News from the Edge
series was turned into a TV show called
The Chronicle
, which aired on the Syfy Network. Mark has held nearly every job known to man, including coal miner, USGS cartographer, newspaper photographer, and database architect. He has dug for dinosaurs in South Dakota. And he used to know the genus and species of every freshwater fish in the United States.

When he isn’t writing or working or blogging, Mark enjoys paddling out on the lake in his kayak and watching the resident osprey hunt for his breakfast. The lake used to contain a lake monster, but Mark hasn’t spotted him in a while.

Fun Fact

I wish I had good writing habits, but I don't. I don't write at a particular time. I don't write to a particular length. I get easily distracted. I find that I eat a ton of cereal when I'm writing. Always cereal. I don't care if it's Special K, Love Crunch Granola, or giant bags of Marshmallow Mateys (yes that's a real cereal). I down it at a rate of about a bowl a page. So my writing is extremely high in carbohydrates. Sometimes I stop eating cereal long enough to eat a plate of 1) hard bread, 2) dates, 3) dried mango, and 4) hard, sharp cheese. Those are the writing food groups: cereal, and dried fruit on a plate with cheese. Note that I can't promise that this will work for you in terms of making pages. However, it will solve any problem you're having with putting on weight.