Flames devour the clouds, while we stare in open horror. I do not know if there will be any more rainbows during my lifetime, because I do not know if there will be any more rain. I heard a rumor that some corporation signed a deal that was read to grant the cloud herders the right to do this, to vaporize our clouds and chase the vapors into their ( Read more... )

The no-parking signs no longer stood sentinel against cars. With the incoming tide and the rising of the water level up to a good three feet in the former parking lot, they had become anchor points for people to tie their canoes up against. It was one of the benefits of living in a former city, everybody agreed--the sheer prevalence of signs for ( Read more... )

We're all stars now, or at least that’s what the advertisements say. The gear and hookups are free, and after that it's just a matter of waiting to see if any credits flow in while you carry on with your ordinary life. That's how it's pitched. In reality, 9/10ths of the kind of people who sign up for the hookups have their own plan of how to make ( Read more... )

The "vigilante drug" they called it. It wasn't, not really, but it was an even catchier title than the "loner drug" that they tried hanging on it first. I don't know if it really could be called that, either. Sort of, I guess. What it really did was detach that part of a person that wants to be part of a community, that really, truly cares what ( Read more... )

The object of the game was to capture the state, and the way it was played was by wagering everything: family, money, power, and love. Love, you say? Well, as much love as a person of discipline would allow themselves to have when they were playing the game of states. That is what I would have said before I met and fell in love with her, the ( Read more... )

When the plague came, we lost most of our doctors before we realized that the plague had a dark sense of humor. No, really! Wear a bio-hazard suit and it went after you twice as hard, three times as hard, calling in all the neighbor pathogens until it got you. The scent of alcohol sanitizers brought it running (the only way they figured that one ( Read more... )

I am obsessed with paper. I think this would be easier if I lived in another country, one that shared my obsession. Japan, perhaps. Paper walls, paper folding--it would fit. America is more difficult. Paper is thing to be thrown away, not to be treasured, ironed flat, and saved. Usually not even to be recycled. We have trees; we can just make more ( Read more... )

Performing live without being allowed to look at the audience that you're performing for is a heck of a lot harder than you might think. Sure, normally when you're up on stage with the lights shining in your eyes, you don't see much more than blurs and maybe a few rows in the front anyway, but that's totally different than being forced to basically ( Read more... )

Sign on the dotted line, pass the telegenic test, and you could be queen for a day of a small island in the Pacific. During that time, you get to pass five new laws or repeal ten, you get to wear fashions that you could never afford in your life, you get the best treatment, the best food, the best entertainment, the best everything-you-ever-wanted ( Read more... )

The world was a joke, but nobody told the peoples who purchased it and immigrated en masse. Or rather, plenty of people told them, and in turn, the people told them right back that they didn't care, that it was their only option for a world of their own. It happened to be true. Earth no longer had space for reservations, no matter how serious the ( Read more... )