BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT Excerpt: Alice, through the Wormhole

This excerpt comes from our Alice-in-Wonderland inspired anthology, BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT and is written by popular YA author Charlotte Bennardo. 

Alice, through the Wormhole

It was seedy, even for a bar; dim enough to hide the dirt, smoky enough to blur faces, and loud enough not to overhear the illicit trading. Drinks were overpriced and watered down, but for making deals that were best kept secret, this place was golden.

The scariest aspect was the clientele. Murderers, slave traffickers, drug dealers, and mercenaries – all in a mix of worse scum. Keeping one hand on her blaster was a justifiable precaution. It also let anyone who looked her way know she wouldn’t go without a fight.

An Oryctolagian, a species resembling a white rabbit once popular on the now-dead Earth but here as big as a human, hopped past, his gravity boots clunking heavily on the stone floor. She had no use for the creatures. Sneaks, thieves, and liars, they fit in with these bottom-feeders. The only good Oryctolagian was a stuffed one – on the dinner table.

Alice rolled the grimy glass between her hands. No way would she drink it. Everyone knew that consuming anything in this place carried a certain risk. One never knew what might happen. Bartenders could be bought off to slip something in that would knock you out, alter your appearance – or kill you. But to not buy anything would insult both the bartender and the mysterious owner who’d appear by hologram to remind you that you hadn’t purchased a beverage or worse, a dish, from this fine establishment. It was safer – and cheaper – to order the swill. As always, before she left, she’d “accidentally” spill it onto the table sticky with previously slopped libations and leave a generous tip to cover the housekeeping expense. 

She looked at her chronometer again. 

Her dealer was late.

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Author David Turnbull of BEWARE THE LITTLE WHITE RABBIT

David Turnbull's ALICE, LAST OF THE BEATING HEARTS is an exhilarating adventure that will give science fiction fans a thrill. One of our international contributors, David crafted an exciting world ruled by machines and challenged by a strong-armed Alice wielding quite a weapon!

Born in Edinburgh, David now lives and works in London. His short fiction has been published in numerous magazines and short story anthologies, both in print and online.

His first novel, a children's fantasy  adventure entitled THE TALE OF EUAN REDCAP, was released under the Pixiefoot Press imprint of Essex-based Wyvern Publications in 2012. In addition to being featured in Salt Publishing’s BEST BRITISH FANTASY 2014, his most recent short fiction has appeared in DIFFERENT DRAGONS II (Wolfsinger Publications) and SOLSTICE SHORTS (Arachne Press). He is a member of the Clockhouse London group of genres writers.

Find David online at:
https://clockhouselondonwriters.wordpress.com/
http://www.tumsh.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/EuanRedcap?ref=hl



Ready to venture into Alice's world? Great! Here's a bit of David's story, and the art from his title page!

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Books That Go Bump in the Night

What is our fascination with ghosts? We both fear them and also secretly hope our loved ones become one. I suppose the fear of death drives our obsession. We hate the idea of leaving this world behind after death, but we also fear those who haven’t “moved on.”

And of course, now that I’ve noticed ghosts, I seem to be seeing ghosts all around me – at least in fiction.

I have recently found myself reading a series of ghost books. There was the YA,  Lockwood & Co, and a milder, younger version of a ghost mystery, Constable & Toop. And then if that wasn’t enough, I read the thirteen stories of Spirited.

Spirited represents a wide variety of ghost stories, from those that border on horror, to those that are sweet. I liked that there were stories that could be considered contemporary, stories that could be fantasies, and everything in between.

Most ghost stories can be roughly divided into two types: those with “good” (non-threatening) ghosts and those with “bad” (threatening) ones. Of course there are works that fall in between where the threatening ghost is the good one. Anna Dressed in Blood brings that particular type of ghost into play. What’s nice is to find an anthology where all of these different types of ghost stories read smoothly together. Personally, I think an anthology where all the stories are about one type of ghost could be a fairly dull read. I like books like Spirited that mix things up.

If you are like me, then I must warn you that Spirited isn’t the kind of book to read just before bed. Threatening or not, ghost stories are still ghost stories and are best read on a beautiful, sunny day. At noon. When there are clearly no ghosts around.

ABOUT THE BLOGGER

Madeline Smoot is the publisher of Children's Brains Are Yummy Books, a micro publisher of fantasy and science fiction for children and teens.