I was at the supermarket for the usual round of shopping. When I finally went to pay there were two checkout lines, 2 and 4, both pretty long.
So I picked mine, number 2, but kept my senses alert for the announcement,  and sure enough, not a full minute later, one of the cashiers summoned a colleague to open checkout number 3. As I nimbly stepped out of my own line to be the first to occupy the coveted spot, a chap from the other line, just as nimbly, did the same.
Noticing he had a mere handful of groceries while I had one of those plastic trolleys I had packed so full it was hoping to die and be reborn as full-size cart, I was the first to apologise and bade him to take the lead.

“Thanks, I’ll set my stuff on the counter,” he said, “but you can go first. I still need to grab a chocolate bar.”
My eyes darted towards my trolley…I too had chocolate on my list, but had forgotten it!
The trolley stared back, daring me to even think of stuffing it any further.
My brain scrambled for a solution.  Losing my twice-won spot for just one missing item was out of the question.
But then again…it was chocolate we were talking about…

In the mild panic caused by the thought of being without my brown soul comfort, two entirely unrelated neurons, who had hitherto never had the chance to work together, bumped against each other and, before I could double check the solution they came up with, I blurted out the following phrase:
“Oh, would you mind getting me one too?”
Despite the fact that a total stranger had just asked him to do shopping for him, the other guy did not skip a beat.
“What kind?” He asked.
I could tell, from the tone of his voice, that he was grinning under the mask.
“Lindt, 70%, thank you.” I was grinning too.
“Gotcha!”
So here I am, savoring my chocolate, and thinking I would never be able to use a dialogue like that in my books because “real people don’t act like that”.

I’m still grinning and this chocolate never tasted better.

Views: 1026

The post CAN I THINK OUT OF THE BOX? appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Yes, I know there’s a “create page” button right there, silly. That is not the problem. The problem is you, or rather your perception of yourself.

Bear with me for a couple of paragraphs.

Have you ever listened to your own recorded voice? It’s a weird experience. Most people will not recognize their own voice and a good majority will outright hate it. That’s because you are not used to hearing your voice with your ears. What you hear is mostly the vibration going directly to your eardrums after traveling around your skull and, in my case, picking up echoes of vast, empty spaces within…

The same happens with more or less everything else about us. We know who we are, but we don’t have the objective, sensory perception others will have of us. That is the main issue when you set off to create yourFacebook page. It should not be a personal page, it should represent your author persona as you wish it to be perceived by others. In order to do so, even before you click that “create page” button, you need to go through a couple of preliminary steps:

Find your brand

What are you all about in your books? Do you feel like you’re continuing the work of a famous author of the past? Are you creating something entirely new? What makes it unique? Do you identify with one of your characters?

The answers to those questions will help you begin to define your brand. The final result can be as simple as getting an author photo dressed as a steampunk vampire or merely adding a tagline, like “Sci-fi, fantasy, fortuitous humor”.  I chose the latter after trying the vampire thingy and deciding it sucked.

The more time you dedicate to defining and perfecting your brand, the easier it will be for you to come up with your image, the combination of logo, color palette and message you want to convey through your Facebook page. This step can be a toughie, so it’s recommended that you proceed to step two:

Find successful similar brands and study them.

Unless you’ve invented a whole new genre, you can safely assume there are other author pages out there which you can check out and draw inspiration from. Do you write noir thrillers? Mark Dawson’s FB page might put you on the right track.  Maybe you’re into historical fiction with a Christian twist, in which case Author J.B. Richards has a page you may want to explore. Do you write science fiction and fantasy mysteries with unexpected humor? don’t even think of hijacking my style because I will cut you. Nah, just kidding. You can check me out too.

Create your brand material

All right. You’ve figured out what you’re all about. You know how you want to appear before your readers. If you can dabble with computer graphics you can probably conk out a decent logo and a convincing Facebook page banner. It’s best if you get someone else to check your work out and, in case, suggest you hire a professional graphic artist. It shouldn’t be a huge expense but it is definitely a good investment. Also, please have a decent author photograph taken. In the end, your face is part of your image and I assume you’ll be wearing it at book signings and  video interviews. You might find a smooth looking mugshot among your selfies, or more probably something taken by your friend or spouse (or both you lucky totterpot). Please don’t settle for “human-looking”.  If you need a professional photographer find just the right light to  bring out your best, get it done.

Set up your FB page

All right! Time to hit that “Create page” button! Go through the steps to create your page. Select the categories which, quite predictably, are “Author” and “Writer”,  and upload your pics and produce your first post, then sit back and enjoy the result of your hard work and try not to focus too much on that “Zero followers” detail. Followers will come, because now it’s time to…

Link to and from your author website.

Because you do have an author website right? If you don’t, do not panic, Setting one up with Wix or WordPress is fairly easy and, as a plus, you already have your brand and image figured out. Make sure your website displays the links to all the social media channels in which you wish to appear as author. Start sharing your author page posts around and be patient.

All, right, you’re not patient. You want followers, you CRAVE page follows like some social media intoxicated Gollum. And that’s when Facebook’s wicked little algorithm sidles up to you and asks you if you’d like to promote your page

Do NOT advertise.

Never advertise a Facebook page. You may want to promote a post, if you really want it to get extra visibility, but most of the time, because of how dispersive Facebook is, you’re wasting money which you could have spent on that profile photo.

Luckily, I have another article where I walk authors through some very effective strategies to get hundreds of engaged, interested followers without spending.

Let me know if you appreciated this article by liking, commenting, retweeting/sharing and generally clicking all the other clickable social thingies for my posts!

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For my latest novel, “To Cipher and to Sing”, I chose to focus on the few key elements I wanted. Like giant cog-wheels for a clock that had yet to be built. No matter how complex the rest of the mechanism, those wheels had to remain in place, and spin in the direction I’d planned.
Did it work?
Well, almost. I got one wheel, one plot point to remain in place (the murder mystery). Another one had to take a different spin when one of the characters who wasn’t supposed to die, did, and the last plot point encountered a quantum-level paradox and now occupies all my books at the same time, but only at lunchtime on Wednesdays.

The draft, as a result, was a murder mystery surrounded by sudden twists and turns, sometimes at right-angles with reality.
But that’s fine. And the point of this article is just this: keep a good hold on the main plot points and let the story find its way around them. I don’t think I would have been able to plan ahead for some of the more surprising and unexpexted events in the book.
As a result, my re-write was similar to a detective’s job. Discovering and connecting clues to the mystery itself to make sure they didn’t contradict each other. Figuring out which of the characters became more suspicious for the reader, and subtly changing dialogue and actions to reinforce such impressions. Leading, but especially misleading, all the way to the next twist.

I stand by my clumsy, failed planner method. It’s true that for the final edit I spent a week patching plot holes the size of Ohio, but the result is a novel which entertained me both writing it and editing it.

“To Cipher and to Sing” is now available for pre-order on Amazon, Book two should come up around June.

I hope that’s the right date.

I’m a terrible planner…

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You’re an indie author. You heard someone talking about building a reader base and raking in those likes, so off you go and create your author page on Facebook. Facebook, by the way, barely even has a page category for authors. “Writer” and “Author” are there, but there is no way to let people know what genre you write, or even that you write novels and not cookbooks, or road signs.

Anyway.

There you are with your author page, you’ve picked a nice mug shot and, I’m guessing, the cover art from your latest book for page background. A couple memes and a dozen Amazon links.

And of course you invite all your friends and family. And then you sit and stare at your page stats. 38 page likes in one day.

And the number stays the same the next day and the day after that. Damn relatives and friends, betraying you and not inviting the thousands you deserve. So you look at the competition, and see they have followers in the tens of thousands. What do they do that you don’t? Well money, of course! They must be spending shazillions in Facebook ads. You timidly check the promotion options and hey, that’s not so bad…Facebook promises to get your page out to the world and only charges you a few pennies for each actual like!

Ready to start your first page campaign?

Stop.

Don’t even start down that path. I am not saying it won’t work. Believe me it will. I tried it on my first author page and it worked wonders. In a week I had three thousand likes. I felt so famous. Now my posts and especially my Amazon links would reach my trusted readers.

I went on for a few months like that, thinking I would be getting incredible sales anytime now. I didn’t.

None of my posts were getting much engagement. Not even my absolutely hilarious memes. (I have a very high opinion of my sense of humor. The mere thought makes me laugh every time.)

Three thousand followers and maybe five thumbs up for my awesome posts. Not a single link click on “buy my book” posts. Not even when I had a freebie giveaway.

What was happening was that I was not targeting people interested in me as an author or in my books. Despite spending hours refining my audience and reach, I was not reaching the people who click on something they like.

I was reaching a lot of click farms. Click farms are batches of accounts which, through affiliate marketing, get a small portion of money back for liking paid links.

When I realized that, I deleted my page and started from scratch. This time I vowed to never use Facebook page ads again. Instead, I created a second page dedicated to people who like famous authors and genres close to my own writing style. A page dedicated not to buyers, but to fans. I write sci-fi and fantasy humor, so I made a page called “The BookLover’s Guide to the Galaxy” or “BLG2G”. I dedicated some time to that page and watched it grow quickly, from a few dozen to nearly two thousand followers. I never spent a single cent on it.

Oh, and I never invited any of my family members in there either. Those who liked the page simply discovered it because I shared some of the stuff on my personal page.

In the meantime I created my new page, and started sharing some of my material (never buy-me links) to BLG2G. Some followers trickled from there to my author page, where they were able to “discover” my writing style. Just a few dozen, that’s true, but their response to my posts was amazing. Their shares brought a few more likes. I looked at the profiles and saw they were active in many groups dedicated to sci-fi, fantasy and funny stuff.

And here’s the next move: I joined those groups. As my author page where possible.

Whenever I posted something which was in line with the topic of one of those groups, I shared it there. If you are careful and pick the right content, usually a meme, a quote or an interesting link, you have a 99% chance of getting your post approved.

What happens next is better than any Facebook boost: I got likes, hundreds of likes, and next to them, a little button saying “invite”.

That’s right. If you share as your page and someone likes the post, you can invite them to like your page. About 20% – 30% of the people who liked your post will be inclined to accept the invitation. You usually retain 80% of those likes.

I now have about 1,800 page likes on facebook.com/authorlahey, about half of what I originally had with paid likes. But the response is absolutely incredible. Each one of my posts gets hundreds of likes and tens of shares. My average post reach easily hits the thousand mark, and I’ve had a few posts go viral and exceed 300’000 views.

In exchange for this, as a sign of respect for my tribe, I don’t flood them with “buy my book” Amazon links, also because good ‘ole Facebook catches those posts and throttles their visibility. Instead I give insights on my writing, share my absolutely outrageous sense of humor hahahaha, and, of course, some of my free short stories from my author website. As a result, when I’m not reaping invites from the groups I get a steady flow of new followers every day.

In conclusion, fewer is better, get engaged followers, not paid clicks, but make sure your content is worth their attention. Your tribe will reward by liking, sharing and, yes, actually buying your books.

If, while doing all this, you actually remembered to write some.

hahahahahaha.

The basis for this article comes from the Rule 300 concept. You can find more about Rule 300 here.

Don’t forget you can get a free short story just by signing up to my newsletter. You will also be invited to virtual book fairs and get the opportunity to promote your book for FREE and even win a $25 Amazon gift card.

Views: 979

The post Paying Facebook for page likes? appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

There’s no beating about the bush. COVID-19 has affected the sales of pretty much everything, from cleaning products to crude oil. Some go up, and some go down. What people believe to be essential goods go up, including, rice, water, hand sanitizer and, for some goofball reason, toilet paper, while all that is thought to be non-essential is left on the shelf.

That includes, of course, fun stuff. In moments of perceived crisis people will lay off the entertainment and focus on the essential needs. They will not buy new entertainment, and focus on what they already have, which includes Netflix and other streaming services, which are going crazy with views. Reading is of course a popular form of entertainment and you’d think that, what with Prime Video and other useful products that get delivered at home, Amazon would also prove to be the go-to place for books. Apparently though, that is not always the case.

Some indie authors are definitely feeling the wind of change regarding the current situation, although it too seems to be blowing in different directions. Some have noticed little change, some have reported dramatic drops and others have tried to make hay while the sun shines and quickly patched up guidebooks on how to survive coronavirus, which were so roguish Amazon decided to restrict their sales.

So what can you do if your book isn’t selling well right now? Surprisingly, the answer is “What does ‘now’ have to do with it?” – wait that’s not an answer, that’s another question. The answer to THAT question is: nothing. Book sales are not a fixed point, they change with the market, with the taste of the readers, with what’s trending in movies or in media. The way Amazon had to actually stop people from throwing their money away on virus survival guidebooks made from copied articles found on the web is a lesson on how fluid the situation can get. So what you CAN do, to answer the original question, is dedicate some time to develop a more solid and constant asset: your brand.

Your brand is what defines you as author. Not just your name or your genre. It is your overall literary footprint. Who do you think about if I say “elves and dwarves?” Tolkien. His fantasy creatures have become the blueprint for all other such characters in fantasy novels. Also, Tolkien actually tweaked the correct plural form “dwarfs” into “dwarves” which is now an acceptable alternative, so he injected his brand in the English language, the sly devil.

What is your brand? A fictional place where all your stories take place, like Pratchett’s Discworld? A strong character which identifies your entire genre, like Sherlock Holmes? A niche genre only you write, such as fantasci-fi fortuitous humor? (Sorry, that one’s taken). If you are not sure about this, your readers will not know how to reach you, they will be drawn to more identifiable brands.

Once your brand is clear, look at your social media. Are you presenting yourself in a way that is coherent with your brand? Will someone who lands on your webpage or your Facebook page know it’s the same author?

Will they just find a long list of posts with Amazon links slapped on to them? Do you know how many indie authors share the “Amazon Link Spammer” brand?

In moments like this, where you’re stuck at home and the grimness of the situation is eroding at creativity and writing moves along slowly, and you look at the sales and (some of you) suddenly wish you hadn’t, dedicate your time to polishing your social brand. Unify your presence on the Internet and make your voice, not your links, be heard. Social networking is more for you, and less for your books, that’s more of a job for websites and newsletters. Once you have defined your identity and made your literary footprint, readers will come to your website and subscribe to your newsletter.

P.S. If you need a little incentive for your writer’s block, check out my article about authors and their egos.

Thanks to author Slaven Vujic for the inspiration.

Views: 713

The post Has Coronavirus Affected my Book Sales? appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Matt Murphy is a private eye. When Matt investigates, cases get solved. Or shit gets real ugly. On good days he manages both.

Today he’s just got himself locked in a room by someone who shut the door behind him while he was exploring.  It’s a panic room so no windows… and the door is bullet proof.

Yep. The shitty part is moving along just fine.

The room’s not his, nor is the house around it. It’s his client’s. Miss Candy Kleinhart’s.

Miss Kleinhart came to him the evening before. “They want to kill me,” she said. Her pleading eyes did the rest.

That and five hundred a day plus expenses. Miss Kleinhart has the money. And the looks.

And now she’s safe and sound in a motel, and they don’t have her.

They have Matt Murphy, and Matt Murphy has a gun.

He knows what they’re thinking, he knows they wanna ask him where the hell he put the sexy bimbo, so he makes them feel confident. He lies down on a small sofa and waits. After a while a key softly jingles before unlocking the door.
There’s a creaky floorboard right in front of the sofa and when it creaks he springs up, grabs an arm and down the body comes under him. Pinned by his butt and his caliber nine. Both deadly weapons.

“Hell!” he says, “What are you doing here?”

It’s the sexy bimbo.

Miss Kleinhart says, “I got a call on my mobile. Thought you were in trouble.”

“We are now, they’re already in the house, or around it.” he looks at the open door.  Nobody there. Yet.

“What’s that hiss?” says Miss Kleinhart.

He looks up and sees the white smoke pouring out of the air vent. “Shit!” He pushes her out of the room and bounces backwards on the couch.
A split second later he emerges from the room trailing sweet smelling wisps.

“Did you breathe it?” she asks.

“A whiff. Run!”

They rush to the front door. Closed.

“Keys?” he says.

“They were in the door.”

“Gone now.” he says. His vision is blurring.

Multicolored flashlights outside. “They’re coming!” she shouts.

Matt fumbles for her hand. “Lead! Hide us!”. He has trouble thinking now, and he’s hallucinating.

A small herd of orange buffaloes gallop by his side. He hears a jingling noise with every step. The buffaloes start humming “jingle bells” to it.

Miss Kleinhart turns sharply right and they’re in a dark room. She closes the door and crouches behind him. “Can you shoot?”

“Think so,” he replies, “quarter past eleven,” he adds, the polite llama in a business suit thanks him and disappears.

Something in the back of his head nags at him.

“Footsteps!” she says. “Kill him!”

He lifts his shooter and points at the door, still the nagging feeling.

Miss Kleinhart screams as the door is flung open.

Matt Murphy drops his gun and holds his open hands high against the bright light.

“What!…  Why?” She shrieks.

“I don’t kill cops.”

A police officer is standing in the doorway. “An anonymous letter in my car windshield said a murder was being committed here.”

“Nearly so,” Matt replies.  He stands up, still woozy. “do you know this woman?”

“Yes. I’m investigating Candy Kleinhart’s business for fraud.”

“So you organized this so I could eliminate him and stop the investigation, right?” Matt says, but Miss Kleinhart remains silent until she’s handcuffed and ready to get into the police car, then she looks at him.

“How did you find out?”

“A lot of small things, but especially this:” he takes her by the shoulders and gives a good shake. The house keys concealed in her bra dance with the rest of its contents.

“Jingle Bells.” he says.

***

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The post Matt Murphy Private Eye appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Because I have a channel, also a camera, also no shame.Have fun!

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The post New video on my Youtube Channel appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Maybe I have my Alexa too close to my head when I sleep. And lately it’s been making some whispering noises. The fact is, the other night, Jeff Bezos came to me in a dream.

“Ian,” he said, “you’re an indie author, right?
“Yes,” I replied, “I have many projects, about sixteen, one of which is a funny speculative scifi where the protagonist has Tourette’s and-“
“Ok, fine, and how do you promote your work?” he said, cutting me short.
“Amazon ads and Facebook,” I said. That’s what everyone else does too, I thought, so I didn’t worry much.
Jeff nodded. “I bet you use Facebook more than Amazon, don’t you?” He had that look on his face which said ‘I’m Jeff Bezos, and I know what you do. Alexa’s been telling me’. I couldn’t lie.
“Yes, you’re right.”
“Well you shouldn’t rely on Facebook so much.”
“Are you trying to sell me Amazon ads in my dreams? Is this some new kind of annoying ad system, like the ones that show up in videos exactly when the action’s getting interesting?” I said.
“No,” he said, “you just shouldn’t put my Amazon links on your Facebook page.
That seemed unreasonable. “Why not? That’s where all the people are. Amazon is hardly social you know, apart from the few comedians who write those priceless mock reviews. And Goodreads is slow and unengaging. You wanna know why?”
“Why?” he asked.
“Because all the Goodreads users are busy checking out Facebook!”

He paced around in what I realized looked like an office. One of the walls had a shelf with my books, while the other walls had picture frames. Each picture frame held one of my Facebook posts.

“This is your Facebook office,” he said.
“Not bad, right?” I replied, quite satisfied with the overall looks of the place.
“No, but something is happening. Look at the shelf.”
I looked. The shelf was getting thinner. “My books. They’re gonna fall!” I said.
“Yes. Facebook is restricting Amazon links.”
I heard some crashing noises behind me. Some of the frames had fallen off the nails. They were the posts with my book links in them. “But why?” I asked.

“Simple,” Jeff replied, “Facebook does not own Amazon, and does not profit from Amazon sales. You can work your ass off to bring together people who like your genre. You can create a group of thousands of followers interested in reading sci-fi and fantasy books. Facebook makes that very easy.”

“That’s what I’m doing, in fact.”
“I know. Alexa’s been telling me.”
“Oh.”
“But dropping your own book link in those groups? Believe me: Facebook is less than thrilled when you do that. They have already started limiting the range of those posts. If you insist you will be flagged for spam and your account may be blocked. It’s your books, but it’s Facebook’s members, and shameless self-promotion will be stopped.”

I was beginning to get worried. That shelf was getting thinner by the second. “What can I do?” I asked.
“Get your own office, with your own shelf, and invite your readers over.”
“You mean my author website?”
“Yes.”
“Oh, that. I’ve got that.” I was feeling much relieved.
“And what’s in it that will get people to leave Facebook and visit your site?” Jeff asked. He had that ‘I already know’ look on his face again.
“Well, my books, my bio, a picture of my cat… hmm. I see what you mean.”
“Then you know what to do.” And he flew away like Superman, although I think I saw some cables and heard the buzzing of a drone.

So I realized I’d only done half the work. My reader groups and Facebook ads were giving me the illusion of reach, but my books would never sell because there is an ever tightening choke on them. So I needed a much more attractive website, one where instead of placing a dry, soulless link to buy my book, I could create a page where I explain how it came to be with an extended blurb, but not just that. I can also provide my readers with some free short stories, to give them a taste of my style.
WordPress was my go-to choice, thanks to the good advice from other (brighter and quicker) fellow indie authors. I avoided the commercial wordpress and went for the self-hosted version, because otherwise it’s the same old story again. My work in someone else’s office. Any self-hosted solution is fine, if you do your research and ask around.
In my case Host Author is an author-oriented hosting solution which provided me with the solution I needed, together with amazing tech support and specific tools for indie authors.

The result is right here. Welcome to my website. Please browse around and see what kind of content I’ve been putting online to give my readers (and fellow authors) relevant and useful information, rather than pictures of cats.
It is by all means a work in progress, and any comments from you is as useful as I hope my site is to you, as an example of a working author ‘office’.

Now I want to sleep again. I heard Neil Gaiman’s Alexa is also near his bed…

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The post Are you ready to Face the Bookocalipse? appeared first on Sci-fi humor Author Ian Lahey.

Bad guys these days always seem to share the same DNA: Troubled past, point to prove, fallen hero with twisted principles, good guy going through a bad day, or simply sick bastard looking for revenge. You’ve seen them all and they all do the same dance and make the same mistakes. Of course they need to reveal their plot and complex background, otherwise how would we know how deeply torn and dark their souls were, just before the hero took advantage of their backstory moment to kick their asses straight to hell?

True. Heath Ledger’s Joker was off the record. The character’s unpredictability and ever-changing made-up tale of how he got that scarred smile was thrilling.
For the first twenty minutes, at least.
Then you realize he’s the good guy going through a really bad day, trying to prove the point that everybody goes all killy if you find their breaking point, and he’s still wasting time talking shit to his victims, so cliché all over again.
True, a damn good instance of the cliché, but a cliché nonetheless.

The problem is, we need bad guys, don’t we? Without the antagonist our hero would not accomplish much. It is entirely possible to write a story with no antagonist, but it usually doesn’t end well for the hero. Either the hero falls and turns to evil and then all the forces of good become his enemy and ultimate doom, or the protagonist must face some unknown force of nature, in which case there may be other, multiple (dumb) antagonists who make the hero’s plight even more difficult (read: less boring).
We need villains, but we can’t afford to have them win, so they always have that design flaw don’t they?
The hero is flawed too, of course, but somehow their flaw does not get in their way or, unexpectedly (every single time) turns into their greatest strength.

The villain’s flaw… What if he had none? Could we handle a bad guy who simply goes on with his own evil to-do list, and just doesn’t have time to explain shit to anyone?

Our hero: “There you are Mr. Villain! I will stop your plan, whatever it is. My friends will be here in a mo-“

Mr. Villain: *shoots hero, stuffs him with explosives.*

Hero’s friends, a moment later: “Oh no! Hero is down! You bastard!” *they rush to hero’s body* “Why did you do this?”

Mr. Villain: *toggles detonator* “A’ight. Back to work.”

Not many modern stories could afford a real villain. We seem to like our flawed, broken heroes so much we’d rather dumb down their enemies than have a protagonist we, lowly humans, cannot relate to. Although that is entirely understandable, it is really a sign of our times. We are currently experiencing a period of astoundingly low self-esteem. To the point that we need to believe that we can overcome any bad guy even though our caped savior has PTSD, an alcohol problem and crippling daddy issues.

At the end of the day I believe we need to educate our readers to look up to a better, more capable hero, or at least one who can rely on strong partners (and possibly a shitload of luck) and put them against a seriously reallistic villain. I’m not saying it hasn’t been done. I’m saying I can’t come up with a decent example right now. But I can blame my crippling writer’s block.

Don’t forget to check out my other articles on writing as well as the many other goodies here on ilahey.com. Oh and please consider subscribing. it took me ages to set up the damn newsletter system.

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I can’t see you, I have no eyes.
I can’t hear you, I have no ears.
I can’t touch you.
I can’t remember you.
I can’t love you.
The void has taken everything from me.
Everything but the lingering thought of you.

Ellie opened her eyes for the first time, and all she could see was white.
“(She’s awake)”
She heard a voice, but she could not comprehend what it was saying.
“Where am I?”, she tried to say, but no sound came out of her lips.
As the white light faded away, she found herself face to face with a young man 

“(-a  I do?)”
She heard another voice, again, speaking in a language she could not understand.
“(Let me see.)”
Another face came into her sight, it was that of a wrinkly old man, his features were tense and his brows were arched as if he were mad, and yet she could clearly see kindness in those icy eyes of his.
“Doctor Ghaus.”
She found herself thinking.
And then again: “Father.”
“(Give me the key)”
Her creator spoke.
“(Are you sure you want to do this? I mean, we don’t know what will… I mean, if she starts to…)”
She watched as the old man closed his eyes, thinking.
“Father,” she tried to say.
Nothing.
He sighed, and opened his eyes again, now staring directly at her face with determination.
“(Give me the key, boy.)”
Her father moved out of the way, and she was left staring at nothing but a white wall.
She felt something in her back, like a tickle , and then something in her core shifted, like cogs in a clock; and then her upper back split vertically into two sections slowly rising up, almost as if they were wings.
Suddenly, a sharp pain took over her whole body. She felt herself trying to scream, but again she couldn’t.
“(Shit. This shit is more complicated than I remember.)”
“(Doc. , I think I heard something.)”
“(Shit.)”
Her father took a deep breath, and than another wave of pain took over her.
Again, she tried to scream.
“(Shit!)”
“(Doc.? I think they’re coming Doc.!)”
The sound of someone knocking on metal.
“(Work, damnit! Work!)”
A final wave of pain shook her to the core, and she heard a scream.
It took her a few seconds to realize it was hers.
“(Let us in!)”
She ignored the ominous voice as she concentrated on her hands instead; her own, moving, human hands, with fingers and nails and flesh.
It felt so strange, being able to move.
A loud thud.
A muffled voice from behind the door could be heard.
“(Damn it. Try again!)”
The young assistant’s eyes went wide.
“(Doc.?!)”
“(Shit. Shit. Shit.)”
There was something in their voices; something Ellie recognized as panic.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
The other two barely even had the time to throw her a perplexed glance before the door burst open.
“(Hands where we can see them!)”
A tall, muscular man pointed something at them, something that felt like danger.
Ellie saw her father and his assistant throwing their arms up high, an was quick to imitate the gesture.
Other two man came into the small room and restrained her companions as the large man pointed his gun at her forehead.
“(Oh my God…)” She heard sadness in his voice. “(Don’t! Please, please!)” her father cried but was quickly escorted out of the door along with the assistant, one of the armed men giving a nod to the one pointing the gun at her before closing the door.
“Who are you? Why are you doing this?” she asked.
The man looked surprised for a second, his muscles tensed and Ellie thought he was going to pull the trigger, but then he relaxed, albeit still pointing the gun at her.
“(Can you understand me?)”
Ellie squinted her eyes.
“(Can. You. Understand. Me.)” The man repeated the same exact sounds, only slower this time.
“What are you trying to tell me?”
The man sadly shook his head. He took a deep breath, and then, with shaky voice, he spoke again:
“(Doesn’t matter. Just… I’m sorry, kiddo.)” He looked her in the eyes. “(I promise you won’t feel anything.)”
And he pulled the trigger.

This short story was submitted by my daughter Sophia Lahey. The artwork for the post is hers as well. Please let us know what you think about it in the comments. Thank you.

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