APOCALYPTOGENESIS NOW

I found a security breach as we were leaving. A snail had gotten inside the shutters of our living room window.

As we headed north, clouds brushed the mountain tops. The rain had created impromptu rivers and waterfalls. I kept expecting to see a yeti hitchhiking to Shangri-La.

We had breakfast under two Kent Bash prints at the Galaxy Diner. Kent did illustrations and covers for Amazing Stories when Elinor Mavor was editor, back when she bought my first published story. Make way for the Synchronicity Express . . .

We ended up in Flagstaff because we took a wrong turn turn as Em told me of her recent sacred apocalyptic kachina dreams.

There was foamy, café au lait water everywhere.

Later we had burgers at the Cowboy Club in Sedona. Was that a real gun that busboy was wearing? Could be. This is Arizona, after all . . .

In a shop window down the street, we saw Christmas lights made from shotgun shells. At the motel we caught the news that Trump wanted more nukes. What a brave, new world . . .

The wi-fi stopped working. A hard rain was a-falling.

The next morning we watched the sun slowly illuminate the fantastic view out our window. We sipped coffee and snubbed the news. Clouds caressed the red rocks. Colors grew more intense.

Clouds embraced the hills all over. Sedona had become Shangri-La. We had breakfast at the Coffee Pot, watched over by kachinas. Any yetis must have been in disguise.

Some of the busboys wore post-manbun poofs like the topknots in High Aztech.

We saw a big, fat rainbow. It ended in the middle of a street. There was no sign of a pot of gold.

On a twisty mountain road, we saw a white pickup that was flying a full-size American flag. But then, maybe it was something else – instead of red, white, and blue, it was black and white. A political statement? The banner of a new nation? A visitor from an alternate universe?

In Jerome there was a hand-painted sign saying GOD HELP US, and building labeled GRUMP TOWER.

We drove home under low clouds, taking a “scenic route” that was often totally obscured as we drove through the clouds, into a mysterious white void, to the future, and home.

CHICANONAUTICA GIVES PACO COHEN AN INTERPLANETARY IDENTITY CRISIS

Paco Cohen has hijacked Chicanonatuica, over at La Bloga.

It's all about Mars (sort of):

Mariachis:

21^st century normal:

And Latin@ Rising (formerly spelled Latino/a Rising):

LATIN@ RISING IS HERE!

Look, I got mine! You should get yours, or even give them for gifts this season!

That's Latin@ Rising: An Anthology of Latin@ Science Fiction and Fantasy, edited by Matthew David Goodwin, with an introduction by Frederick Luis Aldama, with a wonderful selection of imaginative fiction by authors of the Latinoid diaspora including, Kathleen Alcalá,

Sabrina Vourvoulias, Junot Díaz, Daniel José Older, others you'll be glad to know, and – oh yeah – me.

Here's your chance to read, “Flying Under the Texas Radar with Paco and Los Freetails,” another adventure of Paco Cohen, Mariachi of Mars. This one's a prequel about his early life in Texas, and why he decided to take off for Mars. And it's suddenly timely!

So buy it now, while this sort of thing is still legal!

CHICANONAUTICA PHONES A CHICANA ATTACKED BY A MONSTER

The Terrible Twelves on Tapastic is announced in Chicanonautica, at LaBloga.

It's the story of a young Chicana:

Who has monster problems:

In a new frontier for books:

You can read it on your phone:

READ THE TERRIBLE TWELVES ON TAPASTIC

The Terrible Twelves cover art by INOGART

You can now read -- with the help of modern technology -- a new novel by me, and my wife the fabulous Emily Devenport.

It’s called TheTerrible Twelves, a YA about Bea Garcia, a girl from a Chicano family, who starts getting attacked by a monster on her twelfth birthday, so she has to go live with her aunt and uncle in Arizona. Then she finds out just how unusual her family is . . .

(Note: The Terrible Twelves is a work of fiction. It is NOT based on a true story. Any resemblances to persons or families living or dead are purely coincidental!)

And it’s not a book or an ebook, or even an audiobook! You can read The Terrible Twelves through the modern miracle of Tapastic -- a website that now features mostly comics, but is expanding into other things. Once you get the app, a whole new universe of entertainment is open to you.

Yes, this is another experiment on the new frontiers of publishing, in the tradition of BrainpanFallout, because we’re such hearty pioneers.