Kalfona 1: Escape the Aviary goes to print!

Find it on Amazon.

Write a review or email me what you think. Meanwhile, it's time to start banging on the keyboard to finish Kalfona 2: Bird in the Syrup.

Cheers!

The Kingdom of Kalfona knows it survives upon the ruins of an ancient, high-tech civilization. Official interpretation declares nuclear war was the harbinger of the Breeds Disease, the sinking landscape, and the fall of ‘Ancient Merka’, but historians who study the evidence don’t buy the party line.

In Kalfona: Escape the Aviary, Charlie Banta has thirsted for a career in history all her life, yet when she comes of age to work, the kingdom decides her fertility is more important to the dwindling human race than her book smarts. Charlie’s journey begins inside a privileged commune where she must learn how to think ‘outside the cage’ in order to secure her right to study Merkan history. With the help of the four men on the History Team, Charlie struggles for balance on the fine wire between behaving and breaking the law so she can also earn the right not to have children.

Meanwhile, peculiar Merkan artifacts are trickling into town, and these objects should be a lot more decayed than they are. It was hard enough to get the government to allow a woman on the History Team, now she must convince them to let a woman risk her ovaries on an archaeological expedition into the wilds of Kalfona.

Kalfona 1 : Escape the Aviary is now seeking literary agents!

Thanks to the valiant weed-whacking skills of Editor Katie Kennedy, the custom art drawn by Patience Gonzales, the awesome website work of David Eastham, and my too many to list proofreaders who dutifully drove me to insanity, Kalfona 1: Escape the Aviary has begun its rounds about the country in search of an agent. You can read the sample here. Remember to add your email to my list on the Contacts page so you can get updates on its adventurous path into print.

To mark this momentous occasion, I give you one of my favorite poems of all time:

Thou ill-formed offspring of my feeble brain,
Who after birth did'st by my side remain,
Till snatcht from thence by friends, less wise than true,
Who thee abroad exposed to public view,
Made thee in rags, halting to th' press to trudge,
Where errors were not lessened (all may judge).
At thy return my blushing was not small,
My rambling brat (in print) should mother call.
I cast thee by as one unfit for light,
The visage was so irksome in my sight,
Yet being mine own, at length affection would
Thy blemishes amend, if so I could.
I washed thy face, but more defects I saw,
And rubbing off a spot, still made a flaw.
I stretcht thy joints to make thee even feet,
Yet still thou run'st more hobbling than is meet.
In better dress to trim thee was my mind,
But nought save home-spun cloth, i' th' house I find.
In this array, 'mongst vulgars may'st thou roam.
In critic's hands, beware thou dost not come,
And take thy way where yet thou art not known.
If for thy father askt, say, thou hadst none;
And for thy mother, she alas is poor,
Which caused her thus to send thee out of door.

Special thanks to all my friends who have supported, heckled, poked, bugged, and bothered me to get it done.

~Cass

Some years back, I ended up at a diner for a 3 a.m. breakfast with my crotchety old uncle Joe, a triple-divorced Viet Nam veteran from El Paso, who ordered his meal as such,

The waitress rolled with it so well she didn’t even crack a smile. “And how you would you like your aborted chicken fetuses cooked?”

The moment made a good launch point for a project I did for a college film class. You can find the script and film Meat Eater on the Shorts page.

The gang had a great time putting it together. Thanks for your help, (from left to right) Barb Shapiro, Danielle Setherley, me, Patience Gonzales, Megan Kennedy. You guys rock.

~Cass