This is the seventh chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar.

Chapter Seven

Eridanus, The Dust Moon, Pandema & the Madrugada

Karl the Weasel stood before an enormous scrim, fifteen feet long by ten tall. He rode on a personal grav-sled, moving about to check various parts of the display that filled the scrim. On closer examination the picture turned out to actually be 18 separate monitors ranged around a circular navigation field. As Karl touched different screens, entering and re-entering information, the pattern of lines connecting them changed. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the sixth chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar.

Chapter Six

In a City on a Planet in the Perseus Arm

Stratsimir stood before the mirror, applying foaming Harris soap to his face with his ivory-handled Kent badger-bristle shaving brush. He wasn’t a particularly hairy Bulgarian vampire space captain, but he was Bulgarian.

He couldn’t see himself in the mirror, of course, but he thought it good form to shave in front of one. Plus, it was just over the sink. It had the additional benefit of a quicksilver monitor in the upper right-hand quadrant. So, when the knock came at his ready room door, he wiped off the steam with a squeak to see who had come calling. The monitor showed the entire crew standing massed at the door, shuffling their feet. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the fifth chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar.

Chapter Five

At the College of the Exegetes on Pandema

Stratsimir pressed the intercom on his chair.

“Patches, everything ready for the carrier wave?”

“Yes, Cap. I’ve programmed it as part of the slip. It’ll cascade out of the slip before us and throw us out at the phase variance you requested,” replied the engineer.

“Dem, any notion of how the ride will be?” asked the captain.

The pilot hooked an arm around the back of his seat and turned to face the captain. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the fourth chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar.

Chapter Four

On Hiero Eridanus

They docked at a slip on Ring Eight, the big industrial wharf where the ships that needed repairs berthed. They had flown into the atmosphere over the Western Hemisphere of Eridanus at dawn, just when the turquoise sky was rough-plastered with whorls of salmon clouds. After docking and customs inspection, they all sat outside the ship on the catwalk, breathing real, if not pristine, air for the first time in several months. Only out under the clouds, above the city, did they realize how increasingly claustrophobic the Madrugada had become. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the third chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar.

Chapter Three

Into the Sculptor Void

Captain Stratsimir seemed to float up through the lid of his coffin, up to the ceiling of his personal quarters, through the decks of the Madrugada and into open space. He rose through stars, though events, cosmic and otherwise, some of which he recognized, like the Solar Fountains of the Bútscutin Confab and what momentarily appeared to be the bar at the San Francisco Press Club; others were unknown to him, a triple quasar that ran to the blue, a line of red giants, the engine room of a paddle-wheel streamer. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the second chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar. 

Chapter Two

Earthward of the Curtain

 Captain Stratsimir lay in his coffin, arms crossed and eyes closed. He was stretched out at length on a sheet of blue silk, picked out in red-gold fleur-de-lis. The sheet kept the soil he lay upon separate from the clothing he lay in. Read the rest of this entry »

This is the first chapter of my novel, “Ainadamar, or The Fountain of Tears: The First Flight of the Madrugada.” It details the adventures of a spaceship called the Madrugada, crewed by a Bulgarian space vampire, a lady barbarian, a 17th century French mountebank, a shape-shifting chef, a giant kitty, an empath, Morgan La Fey, an octopus surgeon, a cowboy, and the early 20th century Spanish Republican poet and martyr, Federico Garcia Lorca. I publish a new chapter each week. To read other chapters, click on the category Ainadamar. 

Chapter One

Point of Origin

When the Madrugada popped through the film, it was into a storm of color. At first, the crew thought the chaos was the result of the slip. None had been through a slip that long before. In fact, no one at all had ever been through a slip that long before, so far as any of them knew. Read the rest of this entry »