Tag: fiction

  • Barb and Park talk about The Malay Mysteries series written by Jai Sen

    Barb and Park talk about The Malay Mysteries series written by Jai Sen

    The newest book, entitled PURNAMA (referring to the full moon, which has a key role in the story), will be number 6 in the series, and will be coming out in the fall (of this year).

    Jai Sen is someone Barb and Park have known for some time now– we first met him years ago at a con.


    Recently he sent us his latest work that’s about to come out, Purnama, which will be #6 in the Malay Mysteries series, and he asked us to give him feedback about it.

    But… we couldn’t, exactly. I mean, we both read it… although it was hard for Barb to start and then to finish because she knew once she’d read it it would be DONE and she had no idea when she’d get more.

    And then after she DID finish reading Purnama, she couldn’t start writing down thoughts about it because she was like “how do you critique something that’s perfect? 10/10? perfection? No notes? How do you give notes on that?”

    So we did it chat style. Like this:

    BARB: Let’s talk about Jai’s new book. It is, of course, astounding.

    The quality of his work is consistently great. I’m always eager to read anything he writes. I think his masterpiece is The Golden Vine, which I hope that he reprints someday soon, as I’d love to have a digital copy of it.

    But his Malay mysteries are so on my wavelength.

    He effortlessly combines folk horror, pan-Asian horror, world mythology, and history.

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  • Song to the Siren

    Song to the Siren

    This is just a preview of the very start of our prose novel SONG TO THE SIREN:

    ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

    ♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫

    CHAPTER ONE

    If I reply to this email, thought Samantha, I’ll have to tell them what really happened. The whole thing. The slow way. Because if I just came out and tried to explain the truth to them all at once, they’d… She stared at the email that was waiting, on her computer screen, for her to reply to it…

    Dear Ms. MacNamara… it began…

    Samantha frowned. What would they do… if I really tried to explain what happened back then? What would anyone do? It’s why I’ve never told a single living soul...

    She looked up above her monitor, at the wall of her home office, at the framed photograph of a handsome young man holding a guitar. His long blond hair was flying around as he played. He was smiling at the camera, at the person taking his picture… In the background was the rest of the band, with the drum set that bore the stylized logo of the Big Carnival. “Am I really sure I want to be interviewed, Reed?” Sam asked the young man in the photo. “Music press people, diehard fans, even people I trusted, I’ve never told anyone about… what happened. It’s amazing that after all of these years, people are still interested in you and the Big Carnival.”  

    (more…)
  • “Learning Curve”

    “Learning Curve”

    by Barb Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper

    **********

    The spaceship landed in an empty field.

    A car happened by… and slowed down… and stopped by the side of the road.

    “Oh mi’God,” said the young woman in the car on the passenger side, “it’s a real UFO.”

    “We should call the police,” said the young man driving.

    “They won’t believe us without pictures– I’m getting out of the car,” said the young woman.

    (more…)
  • “Discovering Your Maine Heritage” –A Dark Shadows Story

    “Discovering Your Maine Heritage” –A Dark Shadows Story

    by Barbara Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper

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    **********

    Transcript: Discovering Your Maine Heritage (Episode 95 (S5 E15) now with added Update)

    Findley (vocal over images of trees, the Portland skyline, waves breaking on rocks): …You’re watching Channel 10, Portland’s own public television station.

    Findley (a thin, elderly man with silver hair and a white beard and glasses, wearing slacks and a sweater and a blazer and loafers) (outside a large mansion, with a slight breeze blowing): I’m James Findley, and as always, I’m your host… for Discovering Your Maine Heritage.

    Findley (vocal over sitting at a large wooden library table near a large window with a man in his late 30s, with brown hair and haunted eyes): I’m here today with David Collins, of Collinsport, Maine. We’re exploring David’s family history.

    (more…)
  • “I Hate Asparagus” –a story set in the SONG TO THE SIREN series

    “I Hate Asparagus” –a story set in the SONG TO THE SIREN series

     “I Hate Asparagus,” by Barb Lien-Cooper

    (based on a piece of writing advice by Shirley Jackson)

    ●●●●●●●●●●

    “I hate asparagus,” Louise MacNamara said to the kitchen clock on the wall.

    All the clock said in response was tick, tick, tick.

    “10:03 already. The morning’s just slipped away from me… I simply must get to the grocery store. …Where is my list…?”

    She found it by her purse. “Milk, eggs, bacon, bread…” she said out loud.

    And asparagus.

    “I hate asparagus,” Louise said.

    Asparagus was always a difficult vegetable to get right, her mother had always told her. Cook it too little, it’s chewy. Cook it too much, and it’s bitter and slimy.

    I’m bitter because my husband is slimy, Louise thought.

    (more…)
  • DS Fiction: “Mysterious Circumstances”

    DS Fiction: “Mysterious Circumstances”

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    by Barbara Lien-Cooper

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    “You look troubled,” I said to Roger. “And you’ve hardly eaten your food.  It seems silly to bring me to one of the most lovely restaurants in Bangor and then not touch a bite of your food…”

    “Ah, well, you’re far lovelier than this place, my dear…” said Roger.

    I smiled at him.  Roger might not have been other women’s romantic ideal; he was balding, and his countenance often seemed grim.  But he had a fine mind, and he’d always been every bit the gentleman, especially to me.  I’d known him for almost five years.  We’d met soon after his first wife, Laura, had died under mysterious circumstances; he’d come to Bangor on business.  He always seemed to have a lot of financial reasons to visit Bangor, something to do with his family’s business ties…  He wasn’t the owner of whatever company or companies his family owned—his sister Elizabeth seemed to have the lion’s share of the stock in the concern, and he just managed things.  I once asked Roger about the family’s financial arrangements… he told me quite honestly that he’d spent his money on having fun.  Since he didn’t like talking about it, I was never sure quite what the family business was—something to do with lumber, or canneries, or perhaps both… “I appreciate the comment, Roger, but it concerns me that you’re not eating.”

    “Family troubles again,” said Roger.

    “When is it anything else?  Is it David again?”

    “No, not my son, not this time…”

    (more…)
  • His Way

    His Way

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    by Barbara Lien-Cooper and Park Cooper

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    For Randy M. Chertow

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    1968 was a watershed year, people say. But it didn’t feel like it to me at the time, stuck behind my desk the way I was.

    My career always consisted of being stuck behind a desk. During the halcyon days of the studio system, I’d been a big man. I’d worked with everyone from Errol Flynn to Jerry Lewis (I still don’t like thinking about working with Lewis). But TV killed the old studio system. I thought, “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em,” and I got a programming job with NBC. Not the worst job, but I resented where I ended up.

    “I know nothing about teenagers or their tastes,” I protested. “I’m an old white guy. I like Cole Porter and Frank Sinatra.”

    “Believe me, Charlie, so do I,” my boss’d said to me. “But no one else around here knows what these crazy teenagers like either, so it might as well be you, so it’s either you do this job, or you retire.”

    I couldn’t imagine retiring. Retirement meant death. I’d seen too many old executives retire and then fall over of a heart attack.  I liked living, so I took on the job like my life depended on it, which I felt like it did. 

    “Charlie, we think we have a winner here,” my boss said to me one day. “It’s Elvis Presley—he’s interested in doing a TV special. Or at least that’s what his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, says. So read through this script and tell us what you think.”

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  • “A Little Witch in Every Woman” — A Dark Shadows Story

    “A Little Witch in Every Woman” — A Dark Shadows Story

    In the great house of Collinwood, in the study, Julia Hoffman sat reading a book. It was a psychiatric book about new techniques in group therapy for which she’d promised to write a review for a scholarly journal.

    She had trouble keeping her mind on it, though. Its language was no more dry and academic than any other book of its type—perhaps a little better, really—but even though there was a pleasant fire burning in the study’s fireplace, the wind was blowing just enough that the sound of the phenomenon called “The Widows” was occasionally happening.

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  • Fiction: A Hungry Ghosts story: “The Well” –THE CONCLUSION (part 2 of 2)

    Fiction: A Hungry Ghosts story: “The Well” –THE CONCLUSION (part 2 of 2)

    (Note: Here’s the rest of the Hungry Ghosts short story from two weeks ago!

    If you missed reading the first half two weeks ago, go here and read it now!

    Fiction: A Hungry Ghosts story: “The Well” PART ONE (of two)

    Okay, so now, here’s the conclusion (read below)! )

    ~~~~~~~~~~

    “I tried to see Tokubei, but he was off inspecting his lands and attending to business,” said Eisai-sama. “So I asked to see Osono. I was told that she would not see me. So, I asked to see her father, a man named Mosaku. I was led to his quarters… I was surprised to see prayer sutras all over his room… and he looked scared of something. When he found out that I was a monk and that I had seen a face in the well water, he begged me to say prayers over the well. I did so…”

    “It didn’t work,” I guessed, although since I knew the well was still haunted, it was a pretty easy guess.

    (more…)
  • “Toujours” — A Dark Shadows Story

    “Toujours” — A Dark Shadows Story

    by Barb Lien-Cooper

    FOREWORD:

    Like a lot of Dark Shadows fans, I was not a fan of the character of Roxanne Drew. I eventually realized that the reason I had no emotional connection to her was that she had just sort of showed up one day in Parallel Time. Usually, when the DS writers introduced a new character, the new character either had a major tie to the Collins family, or a tie to a character on the show that wasn’t a Collins, or the new character would be a major player in the plot that was going to be introduced. None of this seemed to properly apply to Roxanne. The writers had Barnabas say he was falling in love with her, and we, the viewers, were just supposed to accept that idea.

    I said to my husband once that I had an idea for a story concerning how Roxanne could’ve been introduced to the audience in a way that might have worked better, which is how this story came to be.

    However, much later, as I was writing this story, the idea I had turned into something else: the story of a very unusual friendship.

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