Inside Cell

Jameisaan looked around, assessing the situation. “We’re in an inside cell,” he said calmly.

“Why do you say that?” Fergasse’s voice reached out in the near pitch darkness.

“No windows in the walls,” was the answer.

“None of the cells have windows, as they’re all underground. We could be anywhere.”

“Oh.”

“We’re lucky in one respect,” Fergasse said, as calmly as Jameisaan had been speaking.

“What’s that?”

“They didn’t chain us to the walls.” Fergasse rattled the chains of a set of manacles bolted to the wall.

“That was nice of them,” came the acerbic reply.

“Very nice. The manacles are measured so you can’t sit or lie down.”

“I see. In that case, I’m really glad they decided to forgo the formality.”

“Absolutely,” Fergasse agreed. (From The Siege of Kwennjurat, by Scott Ashby) http://tinyurl.com/nw4lfsb

Not as dumb as he looks

“Hey!”

One of the soldiers, who’d been watching their approach, leaned out over the battlement.

“Hey what?”

“What’s the gate closed for?”

“It’s closed, is all. Especially to you.”

“Well, open it then.”

“Can’t”

“Why not?”

“Because my orders is to keep the gate shut. So if I was to open it and let you in, my boss would be plenty mad, see?”

Fergan nodded his understanding.

“Can I talk to him?”

“Who?”

“Your boss; the one who told you to keep the gate shut.”

“Whaddaya wanna talk to him for?”

“Well, so’s he can open the gate for me.”

The soldier on the wall sighed. Some of his companions hid their smiles behind their hands. The sight cheered Fergan’s heart. They thought him a farmer, and not too bright. Good. (From The Siege of Kwennjurat, by Scott Ashby) Read more here.

Chatting with Scott Ashby

The Electric Scroll will be interviewing authors on a regular basis. You don't have to be published by us to be interviewed. If you're an independent author and you'd like to be interviewed, please contact us at secretary@electric-scroll.com, and we'll be glad to get you set up.

Our first interview is with Scott Ashby, one of our authors.

ES: Tell me a little about yourself as a person.
SA: I’m Scott Ashby. I’m single. I don’t date much. I probably get along with computers better than people, partially because computers don’t go confusing me by changing their appearance. It’s called face blindness, which means I have a very difficult time identifying even good friends when they’ve changed their hair color or style. I’m ADHD. What else do you want to know?

ES: What genre do you write, and Why?
SA: I write SF/Fantasy because I’d rather make up a world to fit my book than try to make my stories fit into a particularly shaped hole in the real world.

ES: If you threw a cocktail party and invited all of the characters in your books, who would be the least likely to come, and why? Who would you really hope to see at the party, and why?
SA: Prince Liammial from Tanella’s Flight and The Siege of Kwennjurat is the least likely to come, because he wouldn’t see any advantages for him in coming. He already knows I don’t like him much. I would hope Lt. Jenna from Assignment to Earth comes, because I’d really like to get to know her better.

ES: If you had unlimited money, what’s the first thing you would spend it on?
SA: A trip to Europe to take awesome pictures of castles for my book covers.

ES: There are an estimated 535,389.7 unique ways to die. How do you hope to meet your maker?
SA: I don’t plan on dying.

ES: If you could have one super-power, what would it be?
SA: I’d like to be able to kwim. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s the ability to teleport anywhere, instantly. Also they should read Fredric Brown’s Martians Go Home.

ES: What’s your biggest fear?
SA: When I was very young, I was climbing a mountain with my parents. It started to rain while we were on the mountain, and as we were coming down, I slid down some of the stairs. Ever since then I’ve been terribly afraid of heights, and also of falling.

ES: What is your favorite color?
SA: Blue.

ES: Tell me about your current work in progress.
SA: Mind Touch is about a group of people called Teeps, with various telepathic and assorted other mind powers in a post-apocalyptic world who are being persecuted by the Normals, and who must work together to solve the most important puzzle ever posed to the people of their world.

ES: Tell me about your most recent published work, and why people should buy it.
SA: The Siege of Kwennjurat is the sequel to Tanella’s Flight; both books deal with the machinations of a man who’s been scheming for more than thirty years to take control of the kingdom and declare himself king. You’ll want to read both books, actually, to find out just how far Liammial’s willing to go in order to get what he wants…and whether he gets what he deserves.
At the moment, they’re still listed under my friend A M Jenner’s name, but soon they’ll be properly republished as mine. You can find out more about Tanella's Flight and The Siege of Kwennjurat at their pages on the Electric Scroll.