science fantasy

Blaine’s Short Story Blurbs

~ Blaine Arcade ~ 3 Comments

Well, they aren’t quite blurbs, given that these stories are, you know, short, but now that we’ve got descriptions for our books and novellas available, it’s time to move onto these.

If you don’t know me, I’m Blaine Arcade, a speculative fiction writing hobbyist, and I write lots of out-there science fiction, fantasy, science fantasy, and some horror.  All of my stories are available here and free to read, so please check them out if you’re interested.  Happy reading!

Jesus has the Wheels

Jesus has come to town in his big black SUV.  He says it’s time for the rapture.  The only problem is that this is white Jesus, and he isn’t so friendly.

Continue reading →

Blaine’s Book Blurbs

~ Blaine Arcade ~ 4 Comments

In doing a little reorganizing around here I realized I don’t have blurbs up for my work.  I’m adding them in order to put my best foot forward, and collecting them here in this post along with links to the work.

Please give them a read, and if any of my speculative fiction nonsense sounds interesting you can check out the whole works here and free of charge.  This post is all my novels and my gamebook, with novella blurbs and short story descriptions found here.

Labor of Ruby and Pearl

A pact struck in the distant future, after mankind has colonized dozens of worlds and diversified into engineered subspecies, saw the death of guns and missiles.  With the new stigma of ‘farcoward’ weapons comes a return of the sword, shield, and bow.

Dana Rudolph is a grumpy travel writer hopping world to world, keeping to himself until date of publishing, when he is pulled into a vast, and surprisingly icky, conspiracy where he must do his best to protect the ‘appearl’, an anomalous learning gem that formed on its own inside a supercomputer.

Follow him and his sword as he teams up with an amazon and a leprechaun to dismantle the supposedly divine, forcing him to confront his traumatic past. Continue reading →

Snakewaist (Part Two)

~ Blaine Arcade ~ 1 Comment

(Part One)

(reading time: 1 hour, 20 minutes)

“Barf! Barf, barf, barf!” Clandestiny cursed into the channel.  “What do we do?”

“I don’t know; I wasn’t expecting this,” Drupe admitted.  “Quick, under there!”  The fairanquin tiptoed across the sidewalk and threw itself under a wood-slatted bench at the edge of Piston City’s one tiny park.  Its limbs retracted as much as possible.  The sun had been down for several hours, and most of the bumblers were asleep in their beds, but not the crowd gathered around Wallup Tower. Continue reading →

Snakewaist (Part One)

~ Blaine Arcade ~ 5 Comments

(blurb)

Fairies exist, and they’re surprisingly tech-savvy, with their own magical internet, smartphones, and even giant transforming mech suits that can combine into powerful warriors… about the size of a short man.

Chaxium is just your average sour loner fairy, enjoying workouts and long conversations with her none-the-wiser human best friend online, but when a disgusting tycoon with an anti-environment agenda is elected president, she has no choice but to team up and use her family heirloom, the transforming snake machine Snakewaist, to put a stop to his plans.

Eventually joined by her best friend Ladyspiller, they must also take on a cryptocurrency demon and the wild hunt when it invades a fleet of self-driving cars in this trilogy of urban fantasy novellas.

(reading time: 1 hour, 2 minutes) (reading time for entire novella: 2 hours, 22 minutes)

Snakewaist

by

Blaine Arcade

Exercise

Inbox:

(NEW)(Ladyspiller): Hey, how’s my favor…

(NEW)(Podcrown): Chaxium, we really need…

(NEW)(Podcrown): This is urgent Chaxium,…

(OLD)(Leafshroud): Has Podcrown told you…

(OLD)(Podcrown): You haven’t gotten bac…

(OLD)(Podcrown): We have an offer for yo…

A bubble, tiny and blue, rose out of Chaxium’s pants pocket.  It kept pace with her brisk walk as it rose to her face and popped in front of her eyes.  She ignored it.  Another bubble squeezed out and popped on the other side of her face.  It was just going to keep going like that until she checked it or changed her settings.  Chaxium stopped.  There were others walking behind her, so she had to move over to the railing to let them pass. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #35: 1986

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Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience voting to determine the path of the story.  The underlined phrases in the choice of three were the winning pathways.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d ever like to participate in our interactive fiction.

Psycho Clown                  Epic Playlist                    The Guy Run Over by the Bus

He didn’t remember the destruction, as he’d never lived it, but he felt like he should have. The event was so cataclysmic, so volcanic, that it probably shook most of the world. People from a continent away did report hearing the boom. Raery Jeed was not one of them. This was not his experience, so he walked through it as cautiously as he could. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #17: Exigecki’s just a Hoax

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Regular Romp is an interactive fiction activity over on our Twitch stream where I ask a regular a series of questions before turning their answers and a corruption of their username into a short story.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d like to participate.

starring

Secksigeeki

He leaned over the edge of the boat, letting a rope of orange-stained drool drop into the sea and drift away. His name was Bob Badcork, and this was, if his stomach was telling the truth, the sixth time he was going to vomit that day. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #15: Ozmick Zord vs. Tanglecord

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Regular Romp is an interactive fiction activity over on our Twitch stream where I ask a regular a series of questions before turning their answers and a corruption of their username into a short story.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d like to participate.

starring

Cosmiczord

According to the automatic calendar, the soft paper-turning fwip sound of which served as Zord’s alarm click, it was the six thousandth five hundredth and thirty second day of freedom. Everything the robot had done with those days was visible in their small apartment hidden beneath an active machining facility. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #10: The Controlled Burn of Frykeesh

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Regular Romp is an interactive fiction activity over on our Twitch stream where I ask a regular a series of questions before turning their answers and a corruption of their username into a short story.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d like to participate.

starring

Dwaiquiche

“Turn it up,” the young chef ordered. She stirred the vegetables around in the wok, waiting for the right shade of char marks to appear. She leaned in to scrutinize the zucchini, but there was a sudden flash of heat, forcing her to pull back and wipe the sweat off her face with a hand towel. “Not that much!” Continue reading →