Rana- Teenage Queen @Liza0Connor

Blurb

Rana is only sixteen when she becomes queen. Her first challenge is to quell an internal coup while a massive army storms the gates of her castle. Her enemies believe her to be a child, but she has powers they’ve never suspected. She also has great dreams for her people, and she will do whatever is necessary to make them happen, even marrying a prince she does not want.

Excerpt

Rana knew the moment she entered her mother’s room something wasn’t right. 

While the thick stonewalls of their castle always radiated coldness, today it felt like a tomb.

“Mother?” Frost swirled in the air from the breath of her word. She tensed upon seeing blackness where she expected a glowing fireplace. Her mother always had a fire in her room, even when she planned to be out for the day, even in the hottest month of summer. She loved the way fire danced and altered its colors. It reminded her of home.

She would have left the room upon seeing the dead fireplace, only a horrible sense of wrongness filled her body.

“Mother?” She waited until her eyes grew accustomed to the darkness and then made her way carefully in the direction of the window, not visible because the curtains had yet to be pulled open today.

She remembered the words her mother had told her when she became a woman. “Never run from trouble, Rana. You may be small, but you are not defenseless. There is great power within you. Power that you must hide from your father and the others, but power I will teach you to access.”

Always being chosen last in games, always being given the worst position, never thrown or kicked a ball, never invited to celebrations when her side won, Rana had thought her mother was just feeding her a line to make her feel better about being four foot two at the age of sixteen.

The average citizen of their kingdom was six foot five. Her father was seven foot, with shoulders almost as wide as she was tall. Of the adults, only her mother was shorter than she, being a mere four feet tall.

Yet her mother showed no self-consciousness about her height. She always behaved not as if she were perfectly normal, but as if she were special. And she was! Father declared her the most enchanting woman in the entire planet of Hope, a woman of mesmerizing beauty and extraordinary intelligence.

None of which, apparently, Rana had inherited. All she got was the dreaded shortness, or so she thought until she learned the truth about herself upon her sixteenth birthday six months ago. She still remembered the shock that filled her when her mother confessed that she wasn’t human, that Rana was only half-human, but to her eye, not even that.

Her mother’s words horrified her at first, but then she realized she wasn’t a sorry excuse of a human, but a different entity. That made her special!

Her mother’s race had been on this planet since the beginning of time, or so their legends claim…Rana had rolled her eyes when her mother first said it.

However, the more she learned about their ability to manipulate time, the more probable and also less meaningful that statement became. It turned out she could go back to the ‘beginning of time’ herself, so the fact that some of her people wish to hang out and watch life evolve into its earliest forms didn’t really surprise her. In fact, it sounded like a nice way to spend a week or two.

Only she was never allowed to manipulate time because ‘Father wouldn’t approve’.

So instead of being allowed to use all of her fabulous powers, Rana remained an undersized, physically inept young lady. At least now she was too old to play games—thank God for womanhood!

Finally reaching the cold stonewall, she felt for the thick velvet drapes that were currently closed to keep in the heat, if there had been a fire. Locating the sticks on each side—which allowed her mother to pull open and close the drapes—she opened the curtains, blinking as the white light ripped at her eyes.

She turned away from the light, staring across the room at the bed, now illuminated from the window.

Her mother lay above the blankets, her arms crossed over her chest, her porcelain skin, which normally glowed a vibrant white, today seemed gray and dull.

“Mother?” She ran to the bed and the source of wrongness she’d been feeling.

“Mother!”

Her beautiful mother was cold to the touch. Dead.

But why? Mother had told her their kind lived for hundreds of years. And she was only thirty-four. She couldn’t be dead.

“Mother, wake up!”

Yet, she was.

Rana uncrossed her arms and pressed her cheek to her chest. She should have been able to tell the cause of death by doing so. It always worked on humans. She had been able to read the cause of a person’s death even when she was a child, but today… nothing.

Pulling her mother up by her shoulders, Rana tried to make sense of this nightmare. Her mother’s head fell backward and lay at an impossible and disturbing angle. Rana felt the back of her mother’s neck where the head now bent.

The neck bone had been broken. The lack of blood or cut skin left her to conclude it must have been twisted until the neck bone snapped.

Who would do that?

Her mother was good and kind to all. Everyone always claimed to love her.

Someone didn’t. Someone must have found out she was a fairy and killed her for it. Her mother had warned her humans would object to having fairies living among them.

But why couldn’t Rana tell who did this? Why didn’t they leave their anger upon her?

Select your preference from the many sites through D2D  

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AMAZON

https://www.amazon.com/Rana-Teenage-Queen-Liza-OConnor-ebook/dp/B01N222XLJ

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet throughout her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

There is over sixty now.

The Enemy Within @Liza0Connor

THE ENEMY WITHIN

By Liza O’Connor

Book3

BLURB

MAC, the computer that controls the SkyRyder Corp discovers that soldiers within its ranks wish to stop its Breeding Project to make superior flyers. When a great many of these special talents are murdered over a two-week span, MAC quickly gathers the remaining assets, modifies their fingerprints and alters their looks, then sends them to the last place in the world that anyone would look for them.

Welcome to Fort Dismal, Alaska,

The absolute worst fort in the Americas.

EXCERPT

A month later, the doctors declared Eliza fit to leave. Eliza was so pleased she wanted to leap from the bed and run out the door, but she feared that would only change their mind.

They lectured Colonel Polanski on a thousand things she was not ready to do yet. She stopped listening after they ran through every possible sex act. Clearly, the doctors were not happy men and did not wish anyone else to be happy either.

When he handed her a fly suit with the zipper in the back, she looked up at him. “Will I be riding on your back.”

“Very good.” He smiled. “What else can you deduce from your suit?”

She studied the fabric intensely. It felt odd…almost metallic. She petted the fabric across his groin and pulled her hand away before he could remove it. “I don’t think I’ll be saying good-bye to anyone.” Angie and she would never get to say good-bye.

“I’m sorry, but you won’t. The doctors have cleared you to leave tomorrow morning, but we’ll be leaving now. How did you know?”

“The suits…I think they must be the ones that turn invisible.”

“Right again,” he said. “Anything else?”

“This face mask has oxygen feeds. So, we must be going somewhere far away, and we’ll be flying the high winds to get there in a single flight.”

He kissed her on her lips. “That is an impressive brain hiding behind that beautiful face.”

“Not so beautiful anymore,” she complained. The doctors had reconstructed her face, but it was a very different face than she previously had. She did not mind the dark skin, but she preferred her prior perky nose and round eyes to her current narrow eyes and wide flat nose.

He gently caressed her cheek with his massive hand. “You’ll never stop being beautiful to me.”

She laughed and petted his eyes closed. “Poor Colonel, you truly must be besotted then.”

He nipped her hand playfully. “I am completely besotted with you, but fortunately that played to my favor. It meant MAC chose me to protect you.”

“I expect it was all those badges that impressed MAC, not your capitulation under torture.”

He laughed. “Probably true.”

Eliza smiled. “I have a gift for you.”

His brows furrowed. “Is it small?”

She nodded.

“Then bring it with you. We have to leave now.”

Eliza sighed, disappointed she could not present it first, but she did as he commanded. However, her suit had no pockets in the front, so she had nowhere to put it. She handed it to him. “Will you hold it for me?”

He took the small package and studied it. “May I peek at it now?”

She shook her head, not wanting the opening of the present to be rushed.

Tucking it into his pocket, he handed her gloves and a facemask. He helped her put on her mask, taking great effort not to hurt her tender nose in the process.

With her hand securely in his, he disappeared right before her eyes. She reached out and touched him, laughing because her hand was as invisible as his arm.

“No more giggles,” he warned her. “You must remain completely quiet.” He then opened the door and led her out in the darkened halls. It was past midnight and there was no one around except for the security guard at the desk.

The colonel slowly nudged a pen off the edge of the desk and when the security guard leaned over to retrieve it, the colonel pushed a button on the panel. He then led her to the door and waited…and waited.

Eliza worried they’d stand here all night. Finally, the guard rose and locked down his board. He then walked down the hall on his nightly rounds.

Colonel Polanski triggered the door to open and the invisible colonel tugged her through the opening. Once outside, he caressed her body, and while his friskiness surprised her, she liked it. A moment later, he lifted her into his arms. Determining the location of his neck, she wrapped her arms around him and held on tight as he jogged across the field with her in his arms. When he almost tripped, she whispered in his ear, “I could ride on your back or run on my own.”

He stopped and guided her to his back and then continued to run. She was glad she had suggested the change. He would have killed them both if his hands had not been free when he leapt across the ravine. Even so, she thought it the eeriest experience in her life, to fly across the ravine on the colonel’s invisible back.

She could hear his breath only faintly when they finally arrived at the edge of the woods. He lowered her to the ground. Suddenly a snap of a twig alerted her they weren’t alone.

“Sloppy approach,” he chided someone.

“Sorry,” muttered the reply.

Someone touched her shoulder. “Well, I’ve found the package, but where are you?” the voice complained.

She felt the colonel move away from her. Next, she heard the clanking of gear. She suspected by the shuffling noise, that the colonel was putting on his flight gear.

Someone touched her breast, then worked his way to her arm. Upon realizing the person was trying to assist her into her own gear, she helped as much as she could. Still, she found it very hard to attach her halter without being able to see it. Frustrated, she muttered soft curses. Soon someone with warm calloused hands took over the job.

Eliza liked the feel of invisible hands running over her chest, verifying all the straps lay flat and the belt properly buckled. It was only when the person helped her onto the colonel’s back and clipped her in, that she realized the hands had not belonged to the colonel. Finally, the invisible person located her right ear and placed an earpiece inside the canal. Then an oxygen mask covered her face.

Someone whispered in her ear, asking if she could breathe.

She started to nod but realized no one could see her. Amused at her own silliness, she replied verbally that she could breathe.

Finally, someone declared her good, and a second later, she rose into the sky.

D2D

Links for many booksellers

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet throughout her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

There is over sixty now.

Storm Watch @Kyndra Hatch

BLURB:

The dead speak from their moment in time.

Love at first sight doesn’t exist. Maimed in a car accident years ago,

Anna has had enough rejections to know. Then she falls into another world.

Beyond space, out of time, and into the arms of a man that says he’s known her

his entire life, Anna finds the love that has eluded her.

But she must return to Earth for her most prized possession: a stone that

her grandmother gave her. She does not know why, but the Stone calls to her,

a pull that cannot be ignored.



Koryn does not want her to go. Speaking of an arduous, painful journey his own

grandparents warned about, he tells her he would find his true love during

this task. But his true love is with him, so his grandparents were wrong—


Weren’t they?


Returning to Earth, Anna retrieves the Stone and returns to Koryn’s world.

But she cannot find him. Learning that one hundred years have passed,

she is devastated. Whispers speak of his death, but even the dead can’t find him.


A storm is brewing, something ancient and powerful awakening.

A mysterious swamp witch foretells the dead aren’t really dead,

that Anna will find the answers in the Eye of the Storm.


Will Anna be reunited with Koryn? How?

What must she endure to find their moment in time?

Attachments area

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Watch-Kyndra-Hatch-ebook/dp/B07ZY9XW12/

Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id1485975780

Nook: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/storm-watch-kyndra-hatch/1134627070?ean=2940163706150

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/storm-watch-9

Cassie's Troubles - @Liza0Connor 4

Blog 4

Cassie's Trouble

Blurb

The SkyRyders are no longer the best-skilled fliers in the sky, and MAC is determined to rectify the situation by breeding better fliers. However, the introduction of an exceptional flier into the project brings an underlying cancer to light. Convinced the Corp removed a maneuver so a female could pass the flight exam, the male cadets in the Academy revolt. Sensing chaos and mutiny at the Fort, the enemy cartel gathers a force to annihilate the entire West Coast forces.

EXCEPT

       The general laughed softly. “Everyone feels that way at first. Come back in six months and if you still hate it, I’ll get you transferred into a regular Corp unit.”

“Six months?”

“A cadet as determined as you—you can survive anything for six months, can’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You’re not still a virgin, correct?”

Cassie felt her cheeks warm. “No, sir.”

“Generally speaking, did you enjoy your sexual experiences?”

Cassie was certain she was now beet red. “Yes, sir, they were okay.”

“Well, I hope you will find them better than okay during your six months. After all you should get some reward for sticking it out. You were explained the rules of engagement?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Could you tell me what they are, so I can be certain you’ve understood them all?”

“There are to be twenty-four men on my list. I am to couple with no less than two a day until the medic certifies I’m pregnant. No one can force me or take me if I’m not properly stimulated. However, I must allow the men the right to touch me so that I can be stimulated. I think that was all.” Cassie finished through clenched teeth.

“You seem angry now,” he observed.

“I am. I get angry every time I think about this ‘job.’ You know, back before the Terror Wars, women had equal rights. Now, we’ve fallen back to medieval ways. I joined the Corp, so I wouldn’t be sold into a marriage with a man I didn’t even know so I could breed him children. And yet the Corp expects me to do the same damn thing, except now I’ll have twenty-four damn men to please!”

“Now you see, there is a difference. The Corp doesn’t expect you to please twenty-four men. It expects twenty-four men to please you. You have the upper hand, Cadet Brown. You get to select the twenty-four men you want on your list. You get to decide when and where you want your pleasure. You are the one in control, because you are part of the Corp’s most important project.”

Cassie stared at him in disbelief.

“I can see you don’t believe me yet, but I give you my word, if you sincerely try to do this job, then in six months, you can have a transfer if you want out.”

“In six months, I could be pregnant,” she muttered.

“If you are, once the child is carried to term, you will receive a promotion of one rank and a transfer.”

Cassie was shocked. A promotion—that would be worth six months of torture in itself. “I’ll try it for six months, sir.”

“I hope that means you’ll try with the same dedication you’ve applied to flying.”

“Yes, sir.” She stood up, tugging down her skirt.

“Then, let me help you get off on the right foot before your commanding officer comes in. Underwear is not part of your uniform.”

Cassie blinked in confusion. “Are you saying I’m not allowed to wear underwear, sir?”

“No bra beneath the jacket and no panties beneath the skirt. Both impede the objectives of the program,” he explained. “You might want to get rid of them quickly, or you’ll start your new career off with a hundred demerits when Arial sees you.”

  

D2D

Links for many booksellers

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet, through her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

Cassie's Troubles @Liza0Connor 3

Cassie's Troubles 3

Blurb

The SkyRyders are no longer the best-skilled fliers in the sky, and MAC is determined to rectify the situation by breeding better fliers. However, the introduction of an exceptional flier into the project brings an underlying cancer to light. Convinced the Corp removed a maneuver so a female could pass the flight exam, the male cadets in the Academy revolt. Sensing chaos and mutiny at the Fort, the enemy cartel gathers a force to annihilate the entire West Coast forces.

Excerpt

Twelve months later, Cassie glared at the grey walls of General Adams’ waiting room. Of all the betrayals in her life, this was the hardest slam, and because of her twenty-year contract she signed, she didn’t see how she’d get out of it.

What angered her most was she hadn’t even seen it coming. Yet, she should have. The signs were there. She had noticed the absence of women captains, yet she let her captains distract her with lectures to focus on herself: “Apply yourself and you’ll go far.”

Well, she applied herself, and look where it got her, in some Ryder’s version of a medieval harem. She had flown herself right into the Corp’s dirty secret that no female recruit ever heard about.

Dare to exceed and the Corp turns you into a breeding cow to make future fliers.

“Cadet Brown, the general will see you now,” the male admin announced.

Cassie stood up and tugged at the ridiculous short skirt she wore. She longed for her fly-suit.

General Adams surprised her. He was both younger and better-looking than the general at Dix, and the expression on his face, she had never seen on a general’s face before. He looked at her with an expression of kindness. It still didn’t change her resolution not to be part of this breeding program. She had not signed up for harem duty.

“Sit down, Cadet Brown,” the general ordered.

Cassie sat in the chair on the other side of his desk and tugged at her skirt.

He smiled at her sympathetically. “It’s just a uniform, cadet. I find all this braid about the neck quite irritating, myself.”

“If you want to trade uniforms, sir, I’m game,” she replied.

He gave her a slight smile and walked around the desk. Leaning against its edge, he studied her. “You aren’t particularly pleased with your new assignment.”

“No, sir, I’m not,” she replied curtly.

“I remember when I first became general here. My supply chain was an absolute disaster. Everyone I put in the job hated it. Each flier I tried to put in the role was worse than the one before. Finally, a wise old general suggested I appoint someone to the job who actually liked logistics. I did, and I’ve never had a supply problem again.”

“That is a very inspiring story, sir.”

“What did you find inspiring about it, Cassie?”

The change in his voice and the use of her first name in such a familiar manner threw her off-guard for a moment, but she rallied.

 “It inspires me to inform you I find my new assignment insulting and belittling, and I will be extraordinarily bad at it.”

The general laughed softly. “Everyone feels that way at first. Come back in six months and if you still hate it, I’ll get you transferred into a regular Corp unit.”

D2D

Links for many booksellers

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet throughout her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

Cassie's Troubles @Liza0Connor bl0g 2

 Blog 2

Cassie’s Troubles

Blurb

The SkyRyders are no longer the best-skilled fliers in the sky, and MAC is determined to rectify the situation by breeding better fliers. However, the introduction of an exceptional flier into the project brings an underlying cancer to light. Convinced the Corp removed a maneuver so a female could pass the flight exam, the male cadets in the Academy revolt. Sensing chaos and mutiny at the Fort, the enemy cartel gathers a force to annihilate the entire West Coast forces.

Excerpt

Cassie called the number on the card. The man who answered invited her to come for an immediate interview. When she arrived, the recruiting officer was both respectful and enthusiastic about her possible careers within the Corp. Because rank was decided by MAC, the non-biased computer that ran the Corp, women could advance up the ranks of the Corp, same as a man. The Corp had a proud history of great women officers, including several Generals. He told her about General Alisha Kane and her meteoric rise.

He then explained the Corp would invest more in a soldier who was willing to make a serious commitment in return. If she were willing to commit the time, they were willing to foot the bill for the special training required to move a soldier from good to great.

Focused on the goal of becoming a general, Cassie enlisted as a SkyRyder with a twenty-year commitment, which placed her on the fast track for training and promotions. She signed the contract, making her safe from her father, her unknown fiancé, and the countless lawyers her father would unleash to get her back.

She was headed to her new base two hundred miles away before her father’s car arrived on campus to retrieve her. She knew she’d never see her family again. But given the choice of the life her father offered to the opportunities of the Corp, she never wavered in her conviction she had made the right decision.

***

Like all recruits, she entered as a first-year cadet. Being a cadet was hard, but she expected it to be hard.

While she wasn’t treated noticeably different from her male counterparts, she did notice all the captains, lieutenants, and every other officer she saw were men. Looking around her, twenty percent of the cadets were women and some of them were damn good fliers. So where were they going? Why weren’t any becoming captains?

Her captain, Captain Dan Torres, told her to stop worrying about the other women and just focus on herself. She had talent, and if she applied herself, there was no limit to how far she might go. He’d tell her these words of encouragement when she lay in his cot at night. During the day, he bellowed and threatened her much the same as he did the other cadets in his squad.

She resented the dual relationship at times, and by the end of her year, she preferred the bellowing to the praises, because when she really started to show progress, their relationship turned downwind, and the sweet praises turned sour, more like belittlements disguised as praise. What her captain didn’t realize was that the more he bellowed, the harder she worked to prove him wrong.

The day she successfully completed her test on the glide maneuver was the happiest day of her life. It wasn’t just that she’d move to a better squad and captain. It wasn’t even that she had learned a maneuver that only a small percentage of fliers ever mastered, and it had taken her one month, not years, to do it. The reason this was the best day of her life was for the first time, she felt real hope. Cassie Brown knew without a doubt she could and would become a general of the SkyRyders’ Corp.

D2D

Links for many booksellers

including B&N

About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet throughout her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

Social Networks

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT

LIZA O'CONNOR

Investigate these sites:

Liza’s Multiverse Blog

Liza's Blog and Website   Facebook   Twitter

All the Many Books Liza has written

Don't believe any thing! Warning from Liza O'Connor

Memories- How reliable Are They?

When I was in college, I roomed with a very strange woman, and together we made the strangest occupants of our dorm hall.

Without even trying, we managed to terrify our dorm ‘mother’ into thinking we were witches. (or so I recall.)

I will state right now, I am not, nor ever have been a witch. However, my roomie later in life did become a good Wiccan. But there was no witchcraft going on during college. We were just two theatrical young women in a very bizarre college where classes would be shut down and all students corralled into giant auditoriums to watch fake healings. During that particular week, I took a puppet ostrich, a pillow, a blanket and the book Elmer Gantry to the never-ending pontification and healing event. There I read aloud the first page of the book, over and over, for a very long week.

I still remember the words: Elmer Gantry was drunk. Lovingly and pugnaciously, he was drunk.

If you google Elmer, you will discover that quote isn’t correct. However, it is what my brain recalls clearly, and I did read those lines over a hundred times.

So why aren’t they right? How could I read a sentence a hundred times, and still have it wrong? When did I start getting it wrong? 

  

I probably had it correct when reading it directly from the book. But somewhere during the week, I stopped actually reading it. I’d just open the book and burst out in oration.

 Thus, it probably started to change then.  I also remember the cult leader, finally seeing me with my pillow, blanket, and puppet ostrich far back in the balcony, and sending his security goons after us, thus requiring us to scatter.

I’ve no idea if that really happened. Before I found out how terrible memories are, I would have sworn it was true. But now, I’m not swearing to anything. 

The human brain is a terrible recorder of facts. 

If you want semi-factual memoirs, write it down as they happen. They’ll still be wrong, but that’s as close to factual as you’ll get to the truth. Unless you are willing to walk around with a video cams & mics attached to you. That would get you closer to the facts.

Turns out you will alter a memory every time you recall it. The more you recall it, the more you change it. Thus, the memories you remember the best are very likely your most inaccurate memories. I don’t know about you, but I find that concept highly annoying and unfair.

As part of my ‘humans can’t remember worth crap’ blogs, I would like to share how I managed to give a friend a PSTD event without actually doing anything but talk.

In fact, I had no idea I had done great harm until many years later when Facebook came to be and we all reunited electronically. She reminded me about the time we kidnapped a cute guy named Steve, tossed him into my roomie’s car and drove around for hours before releasing him.

I did recall the cute guy named Steve and I’m certain my roomie had a car, which I often drove in, but I had NO recollection of kidnapping cute Steve against his will. 

However, my friend did and the guilt of her memories had continued to grow over the years until it had become a major traumatic event in her life. (While she didn’t say so in her comment, for such ‘guilt’ to grow, I’m thinking in her memories we did something more than drive him around Oklahoma for hours. I’ve no idea what we did, because I’ve no memory of the event.)

Wishing to resolve the matter, I contacted my former roomie and asked her if she remembered us ever kidnapping Steve. Nope, she did not remember it. Then I contacted Steve. Surely he would remember? His reply: nope, but sounds like fun.

Clearly, Steve was thinking we’d be doing something more than driving around town, as well, because having my roomie drive us around town didn’t sound fun at all to me. She was a terrible driver back then and her constant braking and then speeding up always made me car sick….or so I remember now.

However, since neither the alleged victim, nor me, nor my roomie remembers the event at all, I let my friend know it didn’t happen so she could stop feeling guilty.

Want to guess how that ended?

She became very angry and assured me it did happen and it altered her life forever! She went on about the pain it has caused her. Then she defriends me.

Until I discovered how easily memories could be created, I had no idea what had just happened. Upon giving the matter more thought, this is what I think happened, but I could be making it up.

 I faintly recall one night the three of us were in our dorm room, and I said “wouldn’t it be fun if we kidnapped Steve…” and then me and my roomie, both being of theatrical natures, would have created an entire event of fun things to do with cute Steve.

I think my friend got so caught up in our imagination, that it settled in her brain and later when she recalled it, the part of it being a ‘wouldn’t it be funny’ idea wasn’t retained, but the kidnapping was. And thus began the foundation of her PSTD event. And while my brain said, ‘You’re just making shit up, I’m not recording any of this’, her brain said ‘let’s record this. It’s a fascinating tale.’

My friend now lives in a remote place, raising llamas, selling llama sweaters via the internet. I hope, trauma memory aside, she loves her life, for I recall her being a lovely person and I feel bad about planting the seed that became her future trauma.

Cassie's Troubles @Liza0Connor

Blog 1.5 for

Cassie’s Troubles

Blurb

The SkyRyders are no longer the best-skilled fliers in the sky, and MAC is determined to rectify the situation by breeding better fliers. However, the introduction of an exceptional flier into the project brings an underlying cancer to light. Convinced the Corp removed a maneuver so a female could pass the flight exam, the male cadets in the Academy revolt. Sensing chaos and mutiny at the Fort, the enemy cartel gathers a force to annihilate the entire West Coast forces.

EXCERPT

Cassie lost her train of thought the moment a squad of SkyRyders dropped from the sky and landed twenty feet to her left. She noticed they wore combat gear. Two of them were young women, and both were armed to the teeth, the same as the men. She liked that.

A male SkyRyder, slightly older and rather “easy on the eyes” with his chiseled looks, approached her as the others folded their catchers into small bundles.

“If you were going to buy drugs on this campus, where would you go?” His lips turned into a seductive half-grin.

She smiled in return. “I’d go have my head examined.” She nodded at the frat house on the corner. “However, idiots who have no appreciation for their brain cells go over to the green house on the corner, but somehow I suspect you already know that.”

“I always like to get a local confirmation whenever possible and especially if it means talking to a pretty young woman.”

She smiled at his compliment. Normally, such a line would piss her off, but not when it came from those lips.

“You wouldn’t happen to know whether they conduct their business in the cellar or the attic, would you?”

Cassie gave this some thought. “I’ve never been in the house, but I have lectured a few girlfriends after they’ve gone there, and I noticed they had cobwebs from the Andillous family on their clothes.

“Cobwebs can be found in both cellars and attics.”

“Not troglobiont cobwebs. They are only found in moist areas such as the Cully River canyon and on rare occasions, basements, if they’ve been extended deep into the rock of the cliffs behind the house.”

He smiled appreciatively at her observation. “That is most helpful.” He then returned to his crew.

She watched as they disappeared right before her eyes. She had heard the Ryders had suits that made them invisible. She had thought it was bullshit, just something to scare little drug-dealers out of a life of crime. Now she saw it was true. Her mind turned to working out how they did that.

A few minutes later, she heard the low rumble of a concussion bomb from within the building and the cliff behind it. Silence followed. Except for a few people near the building running like hell to get away, no one came out of the house. She worried about the Ryders. She should have mentioned the frat house might be well-armed, but then shouldn’t they expect that?

The Ryders reappeared in front of their gear. The captain, however, materialized beside her. He knelt and studied her with his intense blue eyes. Lots of guys took notice of her, but this was different. He seemed to be measuring her worth as an intelligent human being. “What’s your major?”

“Quantum Physics, and Mathematics.”

He nodded with approval and handed her a card. “Keep this card in case you ever want a career with the Corp. It will exempt you from years of screening.”

“Thanks, but I’m going to finish school and become a scientist.”

He smiled and stood up. “Good for you. We hire scientist, you know.” Then he rejoined his group and latched into his catcher. Upon his command, the squad soared into the sky as if they were puppets yanked from the story.

Just as they disappeared, a ping sounded from her laptop, alerting her she had mail. Cassie glanced at the email. It was from her father. She opened it, expecting him to explain why the funds for this semester had yet to arrive into the school’s account. She had already received a second notice. Upon reading the email, she understood why the money had not arrived. According to her father, her education had gone on long enough and it was time for her to take on adult responsibilities. A car would come for her at three today, and tomorrow she would be married to some man she had never met in her life.

She fingered the card in her hand. Life in the Corp sounded a hell of a lot better than her current future.

D2D

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About the Author

Liza O’Connor lives in Denville, NJ with her dog Jess. They hike in fabulous woods every day, rain or shine, sleet or snow. Having an adventurous nature, she learned to fly small Cessnas in NJ, hang-glide in New Zealand, kayak in Pennsylvania, ski in New York, scuba dive with great white sharks in Australia, dig up dinosaur bones in Montana, skydive in Indiana, and raft a class four river in Tasmania. She’s an avid gardener, amateur photographer, and dabbler in watercolors and graphic arts. Yet throughout her entire life, her first love has and always will be writing novels.

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