Small fractures Fissuring my muscles and veins Each comment degrading Pushing me deep Further away from what I can know Each comment living Upon my flesh Taking shape Gaining a personality of its own Volition My muscles depreciating under the pressure My veins collapsing Time to veer Reconstruction I live not knowing about The shape these lichen create Affecting me Growing me to an unknown Until I am no longer mine own entity A duplicate thriving inside me A counter character existing Alive as my skin Not me but we Is who you meet Can you see the lichen The debris with a foundation upon me Do I protest Or can I get away with this disguise I keep on living The heavy lichen burdening Until I lay in the sun Revealing And one by one the scales fall away original poem by Lisa Karasek

I've got this sci-fi novella that I'm told doesn't know what it wants to be. A couple of scenes are too much for YA, apparently. I could soften or remove them and I might have a marketable YA thing. Anyway, its set on a generational star ship, crawling towards Proxima Centauri. The characters in the story will never make it there, because its going to take another hundred years at least. I thought that might be interesting to explore. Just imagine your whole life and existence played out on board a ship going somewhere you'll never see. That would be enough of a story in itself. (kinda like that movie "Passengers" but my story is quite different). But apparently good stories need conflict and tension, and yadda yadda... so... There's been a reactor meltdown, way back in the past that's isolated the people living in the rear of the ship from the those in the front. And those in the front have succumbed to a pair of vampires, whose predecessors sneaked on board back when the ship left Earth generations ago. Because... who doesn't like vampires in space, right? lol We have a heroine by the name of Thief, who earned the nickname by being small and savvy enough to sneak into the front of the ship and steal stuff that her community at the back needs to survive. And we have our villains, the vampire siblings. Sebastian and Bianca. The other main character is the ship's AI, Mary. She is just a floating voice coming from speakers in every part of the ship. Here's a little scene with Sebastian and Bianca, both somewhat unhinged. ---- Deck 11. Front section C. Bianca’s boudoir Sebastian stood in front of the full-length mirror, inside Bianca’s cavernous walk-in wardrobe. He performed a twirl in the pretty pink frock and blew himself a kiss. “Delightful! Now, which shoes, do you think, Mary?” Mary, constrained by her programming, had no choice but to cooperate. “White pumps, of course. But I don’t see the point of this Sebastian.” “You don’t see the point of looking nice?” Sebastian asked as he scanned his sister’s shoe racks, “that’s because you have no physical form.”

You're welcome to read this, but it was really just to test the length limit of posts. it appears to be at least 11,000 words lol. Chapter One: If the Dress Fits Frey marveled at her surroundings as she was escorted to the royal table. Opulence oozed from every corner of the banquet hall. Grandiose chandeliers, burning hundreds of candles, hung from the vaulted ceiling. They cast a flickering golden hue over the rich tableau below. “How did they light those candles all the way up there?” She mumbled to herself as a servant pulled her chair out. She stepped towards the table and waited for the chair to be slid under her before lowering her bottom as delicately as possible. “They winch them down, light them, and winch them back up,” the servant replied in a low whisper as he leaned over and spread a napkin across her lap. “You might see the pulleys attached to the cross beams if you look hard enough.” Frey blushed and chastised herself. She should be more careful. A proper princess would, of course, know how they lit the candles. Or, more likely, wouldn’t care. Keep your mouth shut, silly girl! Beneath the chandeliers, white linen dressed a dozen long feasting tables. Their silver and crystal place settings reflected distorted images of the diners taking their seats. Bedecked in exquisite fineries, the kingdom’s richest and most influential characters were earnestly engaged in high society chatter and gossip. They canoodled and cackled while waving their goblets at scurrying waiters. She admired the gowns worn by the ladies. She knew from her mother that fabric of any blue shade came at great expense, being the most difficult dye to procure from nature. Here there was a predominance of blue and indigo, violet and mauve on display. Clearly, these people enjoyed exhibiting their wealth. Almost as much as they enjoyed the King’s wine. But the garments were nothing compared to her own dress. An azure cloud of mulberry silk floated around her. Without breasts large enough to hold the strapless garment aloft, handmaidens had used hidden tape, stuck directly to her skin. Frey fought the urge to scratch her itching chest.