Category: Hidden Stuff

Turtleduck Press is looking for new members—independent-minded science fiction and/or fantasy writers who have a polished manuscript and are interested in joining a co-operative publisher. The Turtleduck Press brand assures the reader that the work in question has met the standards of the members, all of whom are staking their own writing careers on the quality of the work that TDP as a whole releases. For more about us, see our “About” page. For examples of what we publish, see our list of novels and anthologies. Membership We are an indie press working on a co-op model. Think of it like renting a selling space inside a store. You get the benefits of the store—bigger audience, brand recognition, associates with experience—but retain the ability to sell your wares the way you’d like and for the price you set. At TDP you get the benefits of publishing through a small press while still getting the perks of self-publishing. Members are charged only a share of the website hosting and P.O. box fees (around $45 per year). All royalties remain with the author. Benefits of membership include: Two rounds of rigorous editing by an experienced editor at no cost. Access to the expertise of the existing members to help you format, design, publish, and market your book. (You will be expected to contribute according to your skills.) No cost involved. Use of the TDP brand, including an author page on our website, our logo on the back of your book, and participation…

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Chapter 1     JOE   The woman lay in the cemetery on a bed of snow. Snowflakes clung to her blonde hair and sparkled like diamonds. Slivers of moonlight touched her serene face. Her skin was the blue-tinged skin of the Fey. After turning up the heat in my coat, I reached out to touch her and immediately recoiled. She was so cold that I’d gotten a taste of frostbite, the cold stinging my fingers. Was she dead? Pixie, a German Shepherd who was my companion and familiar, whined. She was right to lead me here, her thoughts urgent in my head. She poked the woman with her nose. The woman did not move, did not even twitch. Pixie whined, poking the woman again. There was no rise and fall of her chest. There was nothing. “What do you think, girl?” I asked. Pixie gazed at me with eyes that reflected sympathy and intelligence. The thought – Pixie’s – unfurled in my mind. Not dead. Must save. My heart thudded. I was Fey Touched, a Hunter of her kind. Technically, she was my enemy. I had the right to kill her on sight. Why didn’t I? I didn’t like the Fey as a rule. There were Hunters who believed that all Fey were evil and must die. I was open to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, they were wrong. Maybe some of them weren’t evil. That even without mana – a soul – they could be good. Maybe…

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  Dreams settle into shadows as we cling to each other –   Our time is finite damp with absence, a wish thrown into sunset. How I want to see you, as you rise from mundane hours and find me, trapped in the satin of sky, holding starlight promises.   We steal small eternities – the pieces of existence we can’t mold into words, the shape of regret.   Love is only a memento plucked from our somber nights and pressed into memory. It haunts us in our dreams; it whispers through dark spaces.   Eyes like pendulums, we’re dancing shadows, bleeding stars.  

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ESSENCE I ask myself:what is the essence of me? Is it in each heartbeat and breath I take,or is it the invisible, the intangible, the something, my soul?They probe every darkened corner of my brain,they navigate the vast map of neurons, synapses, memory. They record every beat of my heart, my voice, my echo. They search for that something, the elusive malfunction,what resonates within the vessel walls, what reverberates,what stops. They use big words to describethe most mundane of things. But within each new word lies not one clue,not one answer to one very important question. To map and study my internal workingsis not an accurate representationof the essence of me. My something. So, I walk through shadows, and watch thelights dance for me in the most mundane places. I live my days always falling, never stilled, never without motion. I collect names of ailments and bury themalong with soured fragments of hope I once carried. I watch as my world gets dimmer and my balance fails me. I wrap myself in promises that snap shut, answers that may never reveal themselves. I hope to find the one thing that I cannot touch: the Truth.     Return to Life as a Moving Target page.

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