Supernatural Underground

WINNER of the 2012 NK Hemming Award for SF & Fantasy...

To CELEBRATE my win of this prestigious Aussie Award for Excellence in the Exploration of Themes of "Otherness" in the human condition through SF & Fantasy (e.g. race, gender, sexuality, disability etc) , I'd love to giveaway a signed copy... So I'd love to hear from you about a significant moment in your life when you felt like an outsider...  


And to whet your appetites, here's an excerpt:


Hindsight: Chapter 1: Severing Serenity

Mira noticed the body on the beach from halfway across the new bay bridge.

Jogging across from Likiba Isle to the mainland, trying not to look like an escapee from the sanctuary, she wore a cotton sundress instead of a track suit and stayed alert to every sound in the rising fog, and every shadow. Dawn chased her with the first sharp blades of the day but as she drew nearer to the body, she paused with her hand on the damp rail.

Heights and bridges always made her sway. Her violet sunshades helped to some extent; the darker hues making everything appear more solid and real. Still, she couldn’t help the feeling that the bridge might evaporate out from under her at any moment, leaving nothing between her and the stunted mangroves that dotted the small cove and its crooked inlet.

Gripping her shades with one hand to prevent them from falling, she clamped tighter onto the ghostly rail and looked down along the small beach below.

Through the violet haze, she saw a young blonde woman, much like herself, lying on her back, and except for one soggy jogging shoe, she was naked.

Mira clasped a hand over her mouth, feeling ill. The fresh corpse wasn’t the first she’d ever seen, but it was the first woman. Sunrise bathed the body in a soft ghostly glow, while the shallow waves of the incoming tide licked obscenely higher along the dead woman’s thighs. Semi-adrift against a patch of scuffled sand, her arm pointed above her head to a spilled bucket of fish, with a basket of tackle uphill and a long rod, still upright in the sand at the water’s edge. The line hung slack with the bait and hook bobbing at her knee, almost as if she’d caught and landed herself. Or perhaps netted. Her leather bikini was twisted around her mouth and head. However, it was the blast marks in her chest which had obviously put an end to her struggles. Three rounds at close range. Her hands were punctured and blown out too, as if she’d seen the shots coming and tried to shield herself.

A trail of scuffled sand stretched from the body to the bridge, disappearing below Mira into murkier shadows. Men’s voices came to her through the thinning fog too; the derelict tram bridge nearby now muttering with local fishermen.

A purple seagull swooped down past Mira’s shoulder, startling her. It landed on the dead woman’s face, and in reflex, Mira hissed at it before she realised she was too far away, and far too late. The bird preened its wings, oblivious. Then rumbling beneath Mira’s feet, the long bridge trembled with the approach of a heavy rig.

Anyone who recognised her outside the sanctuary could pose a risk. Gate pass or no gate pass, it was unusual for anyone to make it so far on foot and alone at such an early hour. Questions would be raised, and such delays were the last thing she needed today.

Glancing about, she calculated the chance of making a dash off the nearest end of the bridge onto the mainland. She might make it to cover in time behind a grassy dune or picnic bench. Or she could stay and maintain the pretense of normality; just a local cane farmer’s daughter, out for a walk. However, at such an early hour as 6am, she reassured herself it was common for delivery trucks to be as keen as she was to escape Serenity after unloading; time enough for them to get through the security checkpoint and make it off the isle completely before any of the most dangerous clients were let out of their wards for morning exercises.

Sea hawks squawked a warning overhead, invisible against the violet sky. Mira heeded them and spun her back to the road, hugging the rail and shielding her glasses just as a gust of small stones and sand whipped past her from the speeding wheels. She heard a series of jolts as the truck accelerated off the bridge, but by the time she uncurled herself from the rail, the engine was already fading inland, dissolving into foggier swamplands and cane farms towards the interstate freeway. Within seconds, she heard the familiar growl of another engine – Bennet Chiron’s old Camaro headed her way, this time through the maze of cane fields.

Mira hurried for the overgrown picnic area to meet him, but the meandering footpath led her closer to the beach first as it followed the low dune towards the old public parking area.

A horn sounded and brakes squealed as Ben slewed against the kerb to her right.

‘Mira!’ he called above the rough rumble of his engine. ‘What’s the deal?’

The car backfired, making her jump.

‘You okay?’ His door clanked as it stuck open. She heard him jogging over, leaving the engine chugging, but she didn’t bother turning to greet him. No point, since she couldn't see anything unless it happened to coincide with its exact position and movements a fortnight ago. Her crystalline eyes filtered out everything else from the present. 

He stopped a short distance behind her. ‘Does Matron Sanchez know you’re out here?’

She shrugged, and a cold shiver caused her to hug herself. A platinum pass gave her authority to come and go from Serenity any time during the day so long as she returned in time for meals and other scheduled activities, but no walking distance ever seemed far enough if she could still see Likiba Isle. As a gloomy backdrop to the dead body, it seemed almost inevitable that someone would die here.

‘Hey, Mira,’ he said, with a cautious step closer. ‘Are you with me?’

She nodded, wishing she never had to go back there...

But she was blind, officially, and where else did she belong, thanks to her "delusions" of seeing history - except a health sanctuary, once known as the Serenity Asylum.   

{Buy with free postage and great discounts any time from Fishpond.com}