The Snowflake Chronicles

For April Fantasy Newsletter (deadline)

Editor's Picks

The Transmatic Part 1
Repairing Angel (A Cyberpunk Story)
Steampunk Flashes
The Belly of the Beast
Divided they Fall

The Transmatic Part 1  (E) Chuck recieves a mysterious device in the mail. #1983561 by John McB

The package arrived unrequested. When he first saw it, Chuck assumed it was some new piece of junk his mom had bought. But no, it was addressed to him, Charles "Chuck" Freeman. He tried to remember if he has ordered anything online recently. Perhaps it was new pair of football cleats, or a new basketball jersey. He looked at the return address. CronoLabs? He was sure he hadn't ordered anything from a nerdy sounding place like that. He double checked the address again. Wait, did that say Dr. Charles Freeman? Someone must have screwed up his address with another guy's, probably some old scientist. He set the box down as was about to head down to the court to shoot some hoops, but his curiosity got the better of him. No sense just sending it back without at least opening it.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1983475 by Not Available.

So much to tell I find it hard to figure out where to start, but I suppose it's best to start with a little about me. My name of record is Jonathan Robert Thomas. Yeah, three first names right? Not my fault, my parents were a little out there. Now though, except for a billion or so computer entries about me, I am known as JonTom or JT. Easier on the ears anyway right? A few years back I was a top tier wetware/machine integration doctor and developer for AceMedTech Corp in northern Illinois city-state of Chicago.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1983321 by Not Available.

A place to stash my very short Steampunk ditties. Feel free to peruse these musings. If you enjoy what you read, please feel free to leave a review! Most appreciated indeed.

The Belly of the Beast  (13+) A man witnesses a black out then something a little more terrifying. #1961127 by SQuinn

The moon, a shining disk of permanence, was full in the starless, bright Manhattan sky. The man walked within the crowd, fading into the boundaries of ordinance, and becoming the face of ordinary. Like the others, he did not raise his eyes towards the bountiful sky because within that realm only machines made by man existed anymore. Nothing of beauty, nothing of wonder and constant change. The lights of man's greatest achievement drowned out by millions upon millions of flickering stars.

Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. #1986897 by Not Available.

One alien sat down in his chair and gloated, 'I've abducted more humans than you have cows!'

From the Readers
"Fantasy Newsletter (March 26, 2014)" 

Quick-Quill writes: Thank you for this NL. I was set to self-publish with createspace then ebook with smashwords. Last night I met a woman in the Red Hat group I belonged to. After hearing my work on the novel she was adamant I try to mainstream publish. "Go for it. So what if it takes a year. The way your beta readers have responded to it, I think its worth the try." Now I'm confused. I know nothing about submitting to agents/publishers. This could become a long blog!

StephBee writes: Amazon has a format to self publish. I believe it's free and it does both ebooks and print through Create Space. If anything, if you self publish it's important to take your time and go slow - don't rush the process so you put forth a very professional produc