Verum Et Inventa Magazine Issue 08

By Raymond Towers

In Issue No. 8, for October 2019: the conclusion of the serial Snatched Up! Also, more short stories from Variant Worlds 1 and a 30 page excerpt from work in progress Tales From The Savage Lands 8. The main article is Before The Moon Existed, Parts 4 through 9, plus an addendum showing that NINE different cultures from around the world remember a time before the moon! Rating: HIGH controversy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raymond Towers
• Release date: Sep 26, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463253489

Raymond Towers

Raymond Towers is an author of fantasy, horror and science fiction that strays away from the mainstream, plus a little in the way of true paranormal and other genres. He has written and independently published over forty titles, most of them full-length novels and collections, with several more on the way. The author has been a lifelong resident of warm and sunny southern California, a location that pops up frequently in his writing. At the moment, the author is looking for ways to reach new readers all over the world, in addition to pursuing his great love of writing and taking it to the next level.

Book preview

About the cover: The cover image is titled Forest Girl. It was produced by Andrew Kudrin and can be found on Flickr. The image is being used under a Creative Commons BY License. (The young lady in the picture represents Janey from Snatched Up!) Font: Batang.

In Issue No. 8, for October 2019: the conclusion of the serial Snatched Up! Also, more short stories from Variant Worlds 1 and a 30 page excerpt from work in progress Tales From The Savage Lands 8. The main article is Before The Moon Existed, Parts 4 through 9, plus an addendum showing that NINE different cultures from around the world remember a time before the moon! Rating: HIGH controversy.

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History is (re)written by the victors. - RT

Diversity is (Rothschild) strength. - RT

Hope is for suckers. If you see something wrong, you are morally obligated to do something about it. If you have the means, do this in an outward way. If you happen to be stuck due to your circumstances, as I am, use your mind and creativity to spread your message. Just make sure that message is Truth. - RT

Verum Et Inventa

DARK FICTION BY RAYMOND TOWERS

This is a magazine of dark fiction, mostly, in the genres of fantasy, horror and science fiction. Primarily, I am here to promote my fiction writing, but I am also looking forward to including submitted material from other writers with similar styles or non-traditional ideas, as well as contributions from reviewers, commentators and, hopefully, one day, even fans. In addition, and following what you might be familiar with from print digest-type magazines, I will also include articles based on my personal research, or the research of others, many of which will be controversial and difficult to absorb for the normies. Honestly, there are plenty of other outlets out there that pull their punches or whitewash what is true and promote what is fabrication. Verum Et Inventa is Latin for Truth And Fables, or Truth And Fiction, if you will. If you’ve come to read an adventure, I will give you one. If, after that, you want to read an article that might cause you to see things in a different way than before, I’m aiming to provide that as well.

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2019 Raymond Towers

Smashwords Edition, License Notes: Thank you for downloading this free e-book. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form. If you enjoyed this book, please return to your favorite e-book retailer to discover other works by this author. Thank you for your support.

All of the characters in this e-book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, whether living or dead, is purely coincidental.

This is issue number 8 of Verum Et Inventa magazine, with an official release date of October 1st, 2019. This magazine is produced on an erratic schedule (not kidding!), with a minimum of 100 pages of content per issue. Links to back issues of this magazine can be found on the Freebie page at Raymond Towers Dot Com or on Smashwords under the author’s name of Raymond Towers.

Rating: This issue contains a LOW to HIGH amount of controversial subject matter.

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Table Of Contents

Editorial

Modern Fantasy And Science Fiction

From Variant Worlds

Snatched Up!

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Epilogue

Conroy’s Job Search

The Alien

Junior Hypnotherapy Gone Wrong

Medieval Fantasy With A Modern Twist

Tales From The Savage Lands 8 (An Excerpt)

Story Starters

Vee, The Bounty Hunter

Non-Fiction Section

Articles

Before The Moon Existed; Articles 4 Through 9, Conclusion, Addendum

Media Reviews

I Want Contributors!

About The Publisher / Author

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Editorial

Welcome, readers.

This could be the last issue of this magazine that you see for a while. Why, you might ask? First of all, I skipped creating a September issue because this month has been an especially trying one for me, over the course of the last nine years, believe it or not. Things tend to fall apart for me in September, and to avoid that, I hunkered down, basically, and swam with the flow, unlike every other month where I go against it in the hopes of breaking out of paradigms and carving out my own path. The reason you are reading this now is because of my sense of completion. I simply couldn’t leave two open-ended cliffhangers in the conclusion of the Snatched Up serial, or in my Before The Moon Existed series of articles. Both of those are taken care of in this issue, so I do hope my sleep tonight will be restful.

For the time being, I have taken down all of my e-books. I tend to do this every couple of years, as the sense of frustration becomes overwhelming for me due to low sales, very little feedback from readers, fans and / or critics, and a number of projects with other creative types, including amateur movie directors, digital artists, promoters, Youtube channels, fellow writers and even minor radio personalities that always fall through with zero results. For example, I know my book covers aren’t that great, but I don’t see the point in spending $300 to $500 dollars for a professional design, when I have something like 70 books to worry about, and when I could use that money to do something socially beneficial, such as feeding the homeless or buying shoes for a needy kid or something like that.

The only title I currently have available is RITA 0 - Non-Retrieval. You can read the full novella in Verum Et Inventa, issues number 2 through 4. If you have liked anything you’ve read in this magazine over the course of its short life, I encourage you to head over to Smashwords, download a copy of Non-Retrieval, read it and leave a message of positive feedback for me.

Enough with the griping! What do we have in this issue? We’ve got the final few chapters of Snatched Up, plus a couple of sci-fi themed short stories from the Variant Worlds 1 collection. One of those stories is titled Conroy’s Job Search.

Let me tell you about Conroy’s Job Search. I originally wrote that piece when I was reading sci-fi digests like Asimov and Analog. I found the stories in those digests to be very bland at times, of people yapping back and forth with each other and no real action going on. I started writing the Conroy story, and about halfway through I got mad and felt like shelving it. No, no, I thought. I started this story and so I have to finish it! Well, I got through the story, and I read it, and I didn’t like it, and I got mad all over again. I love everything I write... Except for that one story. Sometimes I hate it, while at other times I will tolerate it, barely.

Conroy’s Job Search was a pivotal story for me. Before I wrote it, I tried to emulate what other contemporary writers were doing. I wrote stuff that was like the stuff I was reading in the digests, in sci-fi genre magazines and in recent anthologies. Reading that story made me realize that I wasn’t writing in my true voice, but in the voices of other writers that I sometimes found lackluster and even boring. I wanted to read space adventures with strong characters, wild rides and imaginative twists. Instead, in both Asimov and Analog, I got to read stories written by scientists that were about scientists, or written by engineers and about engineers.

Some of the stories were very dry and highly technical, but okay, I can respect that and read it to the end. Other stories were, in my opinion, not worth the read and even downright stupid. A scientist working on a complex problem visits a primitive tribe, where the chief hands him a seashell and suddenly the scientist gets a new perspective on the universe... boring! An astronaut gives a flower to a little girl before going out into space. Why? So that while he is in space and subject to relative time, the girl grows up and into a woman. When the astronaut comes back, he asks her out on a date... boring! A scientist invents a time machine, so he can go back and forward in time and get laid... Huh? That story wasn’t even sexy. It was a comedy short with the sort of humor you find in Disney cartoon movies. A lot of the humorous stories in those digests read as if they were written by a high school nerd with a college vocabulary.

That wasn’t my writing voice, I decided. I was no longer going to follow the herd and write in their styles. I was going to do it my way or not at all, and I started with my very next writing project. This led to the horror collection Demonic Murmurs, and a semi-fictional account of a real paranormal event I titled Two Bedroom Cottage For Rent. Thanks to Conroy’s Job Search, I left the mainstream behind and haven’t really looked back ever since. I no longer wrote plain fiction, but the sort of dark fiction you’ve read in past issues of this magazine. No regrets.

All right. The rest of this magazine includes a Story Starter set in the fantasy medieval genre, and a sneak preview of the project I’m working on now: Tales From The Savage Lands 8. SL8 is medieval as well, with modern day characters in the mix.

That’s all I’ve got. If you like this e-zine, leave a review, send me an email, forward it to others, whatever. I’m more likely to produce future issues if I get some kind of feedback, otherwise I’ll assume there isn’t much interest out there. I guess I’ll see you when I see you!

Raymond Towers

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Variant Worlds 1

About the series: New worlds, variant worlds, beckon for you to come and explore them. These worlds are full of fantasy and science fiction. Travel through space, through jungles, into your own backyard and even into your mind. These worlds begin where your reality ends, and they will take you everywhere. In these collections of short stories, you will see, hear and smell the exotic. You will experience everything, and everything will experience you.

About this title: - Welcome to Variant Worlds 1. This is a collection of fantasy and science fiction ranging from short stories to novellas. In these tales, everyday people like you and I must come to grips with the strange and perilous realities that have been presented to them. Only by relying on their inner strength, their wisdom and their humanity will they forge ahead and survive. Rating: MEDIUM controversy.

Variant Worlds 1 was first released on Sept. 14, 2010. It has recently been revised and re-released. Read the first 20% or purchase this collection at Smashwords.

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Snatched Up!

10

An increasingly familiar prodding woke Jesse early the next morning. Don’t tell me you have to pee again?

Already went. Janey’s whispered voice came back at him. Don’t tell me you forgot about our ‘date’?

What date? Jesse sat up and rubbed his eyes. Oh, yeah. I remember now.

Janey straightened up. We’ll meet you outside.

Huh? Who else is going?

Ellis. Now, hurry up and get dressed. Wear all brown so you’ll blend in better. She was gone a second later.

Sluggishly, Jesse got to his feet, when Betty’s groggy voice asked, What’s going on?

We’re going exploring. Jesse admitted. Over by the cavern.

Do you want me to tag along?

Um, Jesse considered. It’s probably better if you stay here. It might be dangerous.

Then why did she call it a date?

She didn’t mean anything by that. Jesse could see what Betty was hinting at. She could have just as easily said ‘appointment’.

I didn’t hear her say ‘appointment.’ I heard her say ‘date’.

Please, do not start this up again. Jesse found his cinnamon tunic, a tough task in the glare of a few tiny candles. He slid it over his head. I’ll see you later.

Stay safe.

I will. He started away, only to pause and glance back. You know, you looked beautiful last night.

You mean when I was wearing my new blouse, or when we were in the burrow naked?

Jesse smiled. Both times.

Jesse, I love you.

He suddenly found himself at a loss for words.

You don’t have to say you love me back. Betty stated. Not until you’re ready to. I just… I just want to be able to say it to you. It means a lot to me.

Okay. Jesse stepped outside.

Ellis and Janey were already geared up when he reached them. A quick flash of a light showed him where his equipment lay. As he was donning his things: tool belt, assorted weaponry, etc. he noticed that the sun hadn’t even come up yet.

He asked, What time do you think it is, five or six?

Something like that. Ellis concurred. We decided to start off extra early, so maybe we can stay a step ahead of whatever has been watching us. That’s why we’re keeping the lights off for the time being, too.

Take a look at the lake. Janey added.

Jesse did, noticing that there was a thick mist hovering over the water. Fog?

Yup. Janey affirmed. It should make staying hidden a lot easier.

Once they were armed and geared, the trio set off. Ellis took the lead with his sharpened, rounded shovel, followed by Jesse and his equally sharpened chopper-scraper, while Janey shadowed them from a few yards to one side and in the brush. Were anything to come directly at the two men, they’d have to deal with her long handled axe as well, and very unexpectedly.

As they traversed the sleepy landscape, they noticed that the mist was drifting away from the lake and marking their progress. It wasn’t until about an hour and a half later that the mist began to filter away. The sun had finally gathered enough strength to dispel it, just a short while before they reached the cave.

Janey joined them and started pointing out where the strange trails were located. This one heads back to the burrow, this one splits off and goes into the cave, and this one… I don’t know where this one goes.

It looks like it stays fairly close to the mountainside. Ellis gathered. At least as far as I can tell.

The adventurers started off in that direction.

I woke Brenda to tell her we were leaving. Ellis admitted. Naturally, she didn’t want me to go.

You should have stayed with her. Jesse joked. What was she calling you last night, snuggle-bear?

Snuggle-butt. Ellis said, distastefully. She’s been calling me that ever since she grabbed my butt while we were dancing. I don’t know if I like my women to be so aggressive, you know what I mean? That’s why I offered to come along when Janey mentioned she might go exploring. Besides, we have a big problem.

What’s that?

We’re out of food. Ellis declared. We’ve got enough snacks and such for today, but sometime tomorrow, we’re going to be completely out. We haven’t found any real sources of protein, and the nearest harvest is still several months away. If we even have a harvest, that is. This expedition we’re on is either going to make us or break us.

That dire, huh? Jesse asked.

I’m afraid so.

They came to a fork in the trail. The path they’d been following kept hugging the mountainside, while another, fatter trail split sharply toward the deep woods.

Which way to go, which way to go? Ellis wondered.

We should stick to the trail we’re on. Janey considered. If we take that new path, we’ll be exposed on all sides.

Right, that makes sense. Ellis nodded. We press on, then.

They might have gone on another half hour, when they reached a new cavern entrance. This one was half the size of the cavern the store was lying in.

As Ellis and Jesse gaped into the dark opening, Janey scouted the area.

I see a lot of trails around here. She called out excitedly. They come out from several spots in the foliage. A lot of these meet up together. There is a lot of maneuvering or positioning, before the trails all join together and head off that way.

Jesse took several strides in the direction she’d hinted at, spotting a familiar object some ten yards away. There’s a shoe over there!

The three of them hurried over, and soon had the Out Of Place Artifact in the midst of their huddle. It was a casual canvas loafer, with no laces or eyelets.

It doesn’t belong to anyone from our store. Ellis decided. It’s possible that someone came out of that cave, got surrounded by whatever made all these trails, and got dragged away somewhere else.

Janey gripped her axe tensely and made as if to rush off. We should follow the trail. Somebody might need our help.

No, wait. Ellis halted her, glancing back towards the new cave. We should go in there first. Maybe there’s another building inside that cave, one that got brought into this world the same way our store did. There might be survivors in there, or supplies.

With mounting hope, the three positioned themselves abreast of one another, and clicked on the lights on their miner hats. They saw a single set of footprints, human footprints, leading out of the cave. These matched the shape of the shoe they’d found outside.

Let’s roll. Janey stated, although her tone was strained with anxiety.

They went in together, becoming quickly aware that this cave was nowhere near the size of theirs.

This isn’t a cavern, it’s a giant crevice. Ellis said. It’s more like a plane hangar.

And right there in the middle of that pocket of darkness and gloom, were the remains of a gas station and convenience store. The small attendant’s building was tilted awkwardly to one side. The eerie location came complete with a massive fallen roof structure, and a number of gas pumps that had fallen over. The stench of gasoline was pervasive.

We’ve got to be careful here. Ellis warned the others.

With their sense of urgency overriding their caution, however, all three ended up rushing to the abandoned store and started poking around.

Anybody in here? Ellis shouted into the open doorway, only to have Janey and Jesse both bulldoze their way past him. Hey, now! No need to push!

Janey paused to sniff the air. Something smells rotten in here. I mean really rotten.

Jesse glanced back and forth trying to illuminate as much of the tiny store as possible. It’s those sandwiches over there. They’re all covered in green mold. And all the milk went bad, too. But look at the bright side, we’ve got chips, dip, candy and chocolate bars over here.

I’ve got crackers and canned food on this aisle. Janey informed them. Plus a lot of sundries like little shampoos and toothpaste. There’s a lot of diapers back here too, for when you and Betty decide to have a baby.

What is it between you and Betty? Jesse sounded peeved, but his countenance softened when he looked at the dozens of formerly refrigerated shelves at the back of the store. Hey, Ellis, we’ve got beer here, man!

Just when I thought I was leaving that poison behind. Ellis groaned. Florie and Russell will be ecstatic to hear that we found half a ton of cigarettes behind this counter over here. Hell, I might even light one up myself. Wait, here’s a newspaper stand. Guys, this paper is dated from over two months ago.