Kenny's Chronicles and Bob's Books

Chapter Five - Admissions

Jesse looked across the emergency room just in time to see a ragamuffin figure slip in through the sliding glass doors. The woman wore slightly tattered sweatpants, a blue sweatshirt with the hood up, and mirror shades. Jesse’s first impulse was to go take the woman in hand. If she was a victim, she needed help and encouragement. If she was unstable, she needed guidance. If she was dangerous, she needed to be watched.

Jesse took hersel...

Drag.Race, Chapter Nineteen - Mic

Micah trudged through snow. A few days before, he'd managed to pick up some boots at a small general store in a town he'd come across. They'd had jackets, but he didn't need warmth. Traction, however, he couldn't do without. He also bought some maps, some rope, and a compass. Fortunately, the owner of the store was too fascinated by the tiny demon perched on his shoulder to ask him how he'd gotten to this point without freezing to death. Micah...

Chapter Four - Wireless Networking

John Walker looked down on the Earth from above. He wished he could spend his life in the sky like this. He found peace above the strife, the politics, the people.

Above the atmosphere.

He wished he could live in space, but working here wasn’t a bad start. After a final wistful look at the scenery, he turned and started working on the exposed controls of the satellite he’d been ordered to adjust. Time left in the cold vacuum of...

The plans! They do nothing!

Okay, hopefully not nothing. It's taken me a while to really get a handle on how much I can do without leaving myself bed ridden for a week, but I think at this point I've mostly got a handle on it.

So, since I figure you guys might want to know (and have some feedback regarding priorities) I'll list stuff out here.

First, my limits; I can generally write one chapter and edit two per day, or maybe write two chapters if I'm feeling ...

Drag.Race, Chapter Eighteen - Genius Loci

Ricardo knew he was not a brave Pixie. Not like his muy macho X. He did what he did very well, but his passion was clothing, accessories, and above all shoes. He loved shoes. The bane of his existence was that he never got to wear any originals. All he could wear were knock-offs made to imitate the creations of Blahnik, of Louboutin, of... Choo.

Of course, the shoes on his feet right now were the greatest imitation he'd yet seen...

Chapter Three - Players and Pawns

Steve looked across the tiny break room and watched Jesse play with her sugar glider, Cory. The little rat bugged him. It would hide in her pocket and jump out at the least opportune times. Still, she doted on the thing. Charlie kept telling him to make a play, but it seemed too weird. She was almost a coworker, and that never went well.

Looking for something to distract himself, he grabbed the remote for the television and flicked on th...

Chapter Two - Stages of Grief

Time slowed down, and Angela Merylin stared at the skylight. The screaming injuries, the crying children, the angry voices of two dozen stressed people all faded into the background. One by one, she sifted through possibilities until only one remained. Closing her eyes, she checked the facts against remembered diagnostic charts. Satisfied, she opened her eyes and looked back at the patient.

“Mr. Gerard, you have a headache.”

�...

Chapter One - Damage Control

Drew Williams stared at her bathroom mirror in disgust. Six years on the force wasted. Four years of college, four years of graduate school, all shot to hell by one stupid bust. Fog crept up the mirror as the reprimand played over and over in her head. The rhythm of the words settled into the pounding of her pulse, reinforced the headache that dragged her from her bed.

She reached groggily for the medicine cabinet door, even that slight ...

Drag.Race, Chapter Seventeen - Visitor

Half an hour after Phil started, after a succession of images, names, and questions, she had entered almost all the museum staff in the new system. She’d identified the security guards, entered the frequencies of their walkie talkies and the numbers of their cell phones on file. The staff in the gift shop, the volunteers on the information desk and the students who earned class credits giving tours each had their own info in the system as we...

Drag.Race, Chapter Sixteen - Dragon

Matt leaned back on the hard surface of the courtyard. The lights off the pyramid in front of him were nearly as beautiful as the tiny woman at his side, and far less likely to blush when he stared. The two of them had taken a break, sitting directly on the ground. When Michaela sat on benches sized for normal adults, her legs dangled like a little girl. When Matt did, his knees stuck up around his ears. One of the few things they agreed on co...

Drag.Race, Chapter Fifteen - Pursuit

Micah stopped halfway up the cliff face. It had been a while since he did any free climbing, but it came back to him quickly. He looked a question at his left shoulder, and the ugly imp perched there shrugged.

"She's still up there. I got no idea why. Not my lookout. I just tell you where she is."

Micah shook his head in frustration, then started climbing again. Not for the first time in the past few months, he cursed himself for a...

Drag.Race, Chapter Fifteen - Security

From her sanctum in Micah's office, Phil watched the museum. The dedicated server running the advanced security software was hidden away under lock and key, protected even more heavily than the artwork. Micah's desk PC allowed her access to the cameras, but in order to do anything other than look she would need to go to one of the specialized kiosks now spaced throughout the museum.

The system had a voice interface, but Phil couldn't bri...

Drag.Race, Chapter Fourteen - Louvre

Matt looked down at Michaela as she led him toward what was possibly the most famous museum in the Western world. He wasn't upset about going, but he hadn't expected to visit until they'd had a week or so of wandering around Paris.

"Why the change in itinerary, angel?"

She tilted her fedora back and looked up at him. "You just love calling me that, don't you?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I do. So why are we here this soon?"

Michaela p...

Thank you!

Just a quick thank you to everyone who has subscribed! I know I've been slower than I want to be about getting things up here, but everyone in the house is sick (including me), so I'm working with less spoons than usual. Never fear, I will get more up here as quickly as I can!

Thanks again for all of you who have subscribed!

Drag.Race, Chapter Fourteen - Performance

Tee drifted through the galleries, stopping every few steps to clean, to straighten, to admire. In time, every sculpture, every painting, every bit of art in every gallery eventually got her attention, her care, and her admiration. She didn't think about what she was doing or why she was doing it. It was just the right thing to do. Tama-sensei had drilled that into her until it was part of her, right down to the bone.

She stopped in the ...

Drag.Race, Chapter Thirteen - Names

"I still think there's a connection."

Matt shrugged his reply and sniffed at the wine in his glass. The Air France jet transporting them from Saint Petersburg to Paris had fabulous accommodations, including a fantastic wine selection. Matt's father had rebuilt him with the keenest senses available within the animal kingdom. That was a boon where investigations were concerned, but it had spoilt his palate for anything but the finest of fo...

Drag.Race, Chapter Twelve - DevA

Ophilia sat at Micah's old, worn desk. She focused on the smells that permeated the room, the smell of leather, of paper, of varnished wood. The faintest hint of his cologne drifted through the air. The room smelled of him, and she reveled in it. It comforted her, made her feel at home. She felt like she could drift off to sleep, a feeling she normally only had when she was in his arms.

But she had work to do tonight. Some of it needed t...

Drag.Race, Chapter Eleven - Sammy

Micah walked down the long, winding alleyway that led to Sammy's nightclub. Less than four blocks from City Hall, yet few mortals even knew it existed. The city’s club scene crowd talked about it in hushed whispers. Some even claimed to have been there. Since cell phones with GPS tracking became widely available, Sammy had been far more choosey about who he let in.

The line that used to stretch almost two city blocks was only half a bl...

What Not to Fear

The most recent version of book two of Artifice

Drag.Race, Chapter Ten - Art

Tee drifted through the museum, a ghost in faded coveralls, trailed by a utility cart that rolled along the hardwood on silent wheels. In every room she policed the floor and all the crevices for litter, swept the wood for dust, dirt, and debris, then emptied any rubbish bins before she got to her favorite part of the job. Once she completed all her other tasks, she picked up a small container of polish and an old, soft rag. Moving with the sl...

Drag.Race, Chapter Nine - Glow

Micah and Ophilia lay entwined on the couch in his office. Her fingernails trailed idly across his chest. They didn't leave any welts behind. She sighed in relief, then frowned when she caught sight of one of her blackened silver studs. She spoke before she could fall prey to her melancholy again.

"Headache gone, lover?"

Micah grimaced, which didn't help her spirits any, but he covered it quickly with a smile.

"No... No, it's...

Drag.Race, Chapter Eight - Drywall

Protect the Art, Protect the Art, Protect the Art, Protect the Art...

Micah leaned back into his chair, his eyes sliding closed. A sigh escaped him. It wasn't like him to be this indecisive. Ordinarily, the Words in his head let him know when there was danger. It hurt, but it never lasted long. The Words gave him a sense of where the problem was, he went there, and he dealt with it.

This time was different. He wasn't being...

Drag.Race, Chapter Seven - Kensai

Michaela really had to tell Matt about the smell she'd picked up in the last gallery they visited, but the case distracted him, and he had all he could following her. Then again, his words from earlier echoed through her head, sending a pleasant thrill down her spine. He would follow her swaying posterior through a construction site if she led him through it. If he thought he was working when she got this damn hotel room door unlocked, he was ...

Drag.Race, Chapter Six - Skirt

"What is it with you, Frank?"

Matt looked down at the diminutive figure of his wife striding alongside him, and despite himself he smiled. Her old nickname for him, based as much on his size and resemblance to Frankenstein's monster as his last name always made him smile a little, if only inside. She'd even said 'Frank' instead of 'Matthew' at their wedding. Habits were hard to break.

No matter how many times he looked at her, it s...

Drag.Race, Chapter Five - Tsunami

On a beach on the opposite side of the globe, a solitary figure sat quietly staring at the sea. The old man was still, his face set in a peaceful smile as he watched the faintly lapping waves. His skin was the color of mahogany, and the only clothing he wore a simple clout. The sand behind him had a single man-sized divot, as if he'd been lying there earlier. The sand on his back and side made that seem even more likely.

The beach showed...

Drag.Race, Chapter Four - Tee

Tee felt like her life was coming to an end. She watched, desperately trying to control her emotions, as her mentor packed his things. He’d already donated most of his possessions to local charities. All that remained were keepsakes, clothing, and a few items he treated with a reverence approaching religious in fervor.

He reached for one of the two tapestries that hung to the left and right of the door. Before he could touch the first,...

Drag.Race, Chapter Three - Souvenirs

Michaela looked across the old palace armory to where Matt moved around an empty armor stand with exaggerated care. Even after so long, it still surprised her that such a big man could move so delicately. He pulled a sample tube from his inner jacket pocket. It looked tiny in his big paws. When he bent down to lift something from the glass shards covering the floor, the object his tweezer picked up was a tassel that looked like it belonged on ...

Drag.Race, Chapter Two - Chair

Deep in the darkness of eternal nightmare stood a chair. Vines occasionally tried to grow up its legs, giving it the appearance of having roots. The vines, long since dead, had turned hard as stone and black as sin. The color matched the material of the chair itself, which gleamed with the soft radiance of old obsidian in the faint starlight that filtered through the bare branches above. Some unknown sculptor had carved the image of a raven’...

Drag.Race, Chapter One - Dynamic

Micah stared across his desk, trying desperately to remember what the man sitting across from him just said. It was no use. The Words in his head drowned it out entirely. There was nothing for it but to bite the bullet and ask.

"I'm sorry, Mister Daughtry, but could you say that again? I didn't quite catch that last bit."

That earned him a curious stare, followed by an arch look. Fortunately, Daughtry was a man fond of his own voic...

Blank: Chapter Seventy-One - Dragon

The bridge of a starship isn’t the only place a Captain can command from; my memories from Captain DeLann showed me that. As Echidna slipped from her pocket into real space, I dropped our last remaining pocket beacon on our emergence point and began a spiraling arc away from it. Above me in the bay I watched as the oldest Juniors, the ones with the most combat experience, slipped one by one out of the bay into space, a scintillating string o...