The Exodus of Boars (11 Mar 2023 Status)

As is customary of a Saturday Morning, I’ve put new fiction into the world over on my Patreon. I Hear The Call is a weird, slipstream-esque science fiction tale about a golden beam of light that calls to the inhabitants of a small, isolated Aussie town and slowly lifts them into the sky. We join the story several months into the event, when the military has erected a cordon to prevent anyone from leaving and the younger locals are doing their best to kill time by any means necessary.

1.

Outside, in the backyard, Lucas and Micky are shooting at DVDs they nailed up to the fence line. I don’t know where they got the guns, and I don’t really think it matters. We all collect stuff now, something to kill the hours. You just pick a focus and go house-to-house, sifting through the detritus of other people’s lives. It started with Mickey and coffee mugs, then collars from pets long disappeared. Lucas decided on guns, found too damn many of ‘em. Rifles and handguns and this antique SLR that Micky’s grandfather brought home after his time in the army.

It’s been three days since they brought the guns home. It’s a small blessing nobody’s said boo about fighting our way past the cordon, but that won’t last. It cannot. It cannot. None of us want to be here anymore.

All of us are desperate.

2.

Mikey got the idea to host a housewarming, complete with bonfire. I carved up the table with a chainsaw, while Deke invited every remaining woman our age and a handful of the woman that weren’t. He told them about the fire, and he told them about the games room, and he told them about the dope and then we were rolling.

The party was epic. Big fire, big buzz, the sickly sweet odour of pot in the air. Stereo turned up loud, ‘cause our nearest neighbours were three blocks away, and it’s not like the cops were going to come around and stop us.

The party is where it started. Katie Marduk proposed the game, and we were all stoned enough to buy in…

As ever, you can read the story over at Patreon for as little as a buck a month—which gets you all thirty-eight of the stories thus far—or grab it when it comes out in a forthcoming issue of the Eclectic Projects magazine.

ON THE DOCKET

Today is an admin and chores day, where I run the profit and loss for the last few months and figure out what the next three months will look like. It wouldn’t be a lie to say February was grim from a publishing point of view—it’s not my best sales month at the best of times, and selling books is a lot harder when the economy is bad—and the teaching/mentoring income definitely shored up the weaknesses on the publishing side of the business. March promises to reverse that trend, thanks to the duel release of Bites Eyes and Gorgons Deserve Nice things on the Brain Jar side of things.

Also on the list today: newsletter drafting, some website tinkering, continuing on with the proofing. The flat needs to be vacuumed and the kitchen needs cleaning. Laundry, and thinking through next week’s routine, as I’m getting worse at managing what gets done when with the constant switching of tasks during my week. My spouse is off taking care of family today, so I’m mostly trying to get as much done as possible before they return.

PETER M. BALL INBOX: 38

BRAIN JAR INBOX: 16

BRAIN JAR SUBMISSION QUEUE: 5