The Solstice Pudding

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Part of the The Pudding Protocol Universe series:

Chief Engineer Shandi Leavenworth has been crushing on Major Tyra Sur ever since she joined station staff, though the laconic customs officer doesn't give up personal information easily. A few scraps of information lead Shandi to the perfect Solstice present, until of course everything goes horribly wrong.

Major Sur took the job on Onwa Station for the stability, the quiet, and out of a need to be useful. It's been all of those things up until the moment the woman she's been quietly flirting with at the bar puts in a desperate call for help. There's no question they need to save the station, but Tyra's not so sure about saving their budding relationship.

Published: December 17, 2019
Publisher: Mischief Corner Books
Editors:

Gregg Sewell

Cover Artists:

Catherine Dair

Genres:

Sci Fi, Sci Fi - Alien Races, Sci Fi - Comedy, Sci Fi - LGBTQ+, Sci Fi - People of Color, Sci Fi - Romance, Sci Fi - Space Opera

Tags:

format - novella 15k-40K, identity - lesbian, what - condition - ptsd, what - topic - multicultural, what - topic - secret, who - type - alien

Tropes: Aliens Among Us, Cross-Species Friendships, Interspecies Adoption
Word Count: 24000
Setting: Onwa Station, Space
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Same Universe / Various Characters
Tropes: Aliens Among Us, Cross-Species Friendships, Interspecies Adoption
Word Count: 24000
Setting: Onwa Station, Space
Languages Available: English
Series Type: Same Universe / Various Characters

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Word Count: Information not available

Summary: “Libling’s assured, quietly menacing debut [is] based on his World Fantasy Award–nominated novella of the same title. . . . Fans of Stand by Me and the like will find much to enjoy.” —Publishers Weekly It’s the 1960s, and Gus Berry is coming of age in Trenton, a small town on the north shore of Lake Ontario. The place isn’t known for much—unless you count the menacing stray dogs, plant explosions, plane collisions, and regular drownings. The adults seem to take it all in stride, but Gus can’t shake the feeling of impending doom. His friend Annie Barker doesn’t share Gus’s dark thoughts; she believes in things. So Gus goes about his days, surviving school, trying to live up to his widowed mother’s expectations, and growing increasingly obsessed with movies and TV shows. Indeed, he scripts his life to make it way more exciting and adventurous than it actually is. Gus is clearly a boy who wants things, which makes Jack Levin the perfect friend. He’s a local hero famous for finding stuff : a message in a bottle, a meteorite, a long-lost wedding ring. And when Jack makes his most mysterious discovery yet, Gus and Annie are drawn with him into an investigation of Trenton’s past. Guided by their curiosity, they soon uncover a malignant darkness behind the town’s senseless tragedies. In Hollywood North, World Fantasy Award–nominated author Michael Libling “spins a tale of movies and memories, nightmares and nostalgia, with such a frightening secret at its core, that you’ll understand why, even though you can go home again, you might end up wishing you didn’t” (Ian Rogers, author of Every House Is Haunted). “[A] fine first novel . . . Bradbury might have sketched out this mode in the darker parts of Dandelion Wine and the entirety of Something Wicked This Way Comes, but contemporary authors such as Libling are showing us refinements of sensibility and sense of wonder that the old Waukeganian never dreamed of.” —Locus