Sonia Lyris
Excerpt
I open the cupboards and pull out the rice and little packages of soy and start the water. It's good, I tell myself. It's food. Stuff of life. People have been eating rice for ages, you know. It was good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
I take some of the water out for tea, brewing it strong. Next door someone is yelling in Italian, or maybe he's just talking. I can't really tell, but it's familiar so almost comforting.
I'm feeling better now, now that I can forget about the lousy interview and the lack of real prospects for tomorrow. Can't do anything about it tonight, just sit back and let the television take me somewhere no one worries about food and roaches and models in the wrong neighborhood.
I'm thinking the tea is pretty good and that really, if I don't think about it too hard, I'm happy enough. I kind of like this simple life, and who needs money anyway, and something will come along. I'm feeling pretty good, telling myself this stuff and almost believing it. That's why I explode in panic and knock over the tea when a knock comes at the door.
Thing is, no one knocks. Not here. You either phone from outside, or you ring the bell from downstairs, or you live here and you open the door with your goddamned key.
Another knock. I tiptoe over to the door. I look out the peephole. My heart tries to stop, fails, then kicks into high gear.
It's her. My heart is pounding. So why am I not surprised?
Bio
My fiction has appeared in Asimov's, Pulphouse, Expanse, and various anthologies. My second novel was published in 1996 by HarperPrism. (The first, of course, is hiding under the bed.) In addition to writing, I develop software, consult on businesses, teach, and dance Argentine Tango. I am a 1992 Clarion West graduate and I like bittersweet chocolate and freshly picked piano music.
Publications
Yes, I'd like some featured publications. Thank you.
Writing Description
Uhm. It's got words. Sometimes -- often, really -- I use punctuation. I appreciate paragraphs and how they clump sentences together, so I use them too. I'm pretty fond of paragraphs, with the breaking apart of thoughts, the forcing a kind of pause, so that's cool, too. Beginnings are fun, endings are really cool when I can find them. Middles are -- well, I don't know. I suspect middles might be overrated. But I'm usually just happy to have some words strung together that someone wants to read.
Goals
I'm thinking that shadowing Clarion West means a story a week. So that's what I intend to do.
I'm not saying they'll be long, or very good, but that's my goal.
You can donate pennies. We all have too many. I really do think that chickens should be allowed, too, though I know from personal experience that they take a lot of work, and they can be kind of messy, so I'd check first.
Website
