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M. Darusha Wehm

Explorer of Worlds Real and Imagined

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    • Fire. Escape. – Sample
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  • Science Fiction
    • Beautiful Red
    • Children of Arkadia
    • Andersson Dexter
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      • Act of Will
      • The Beauty of Our Weapons
      • Pixels and Flesh
    • Modern Love and other stories
    • The Voyage of the White Cloud
    • Retaking Elysium
    • The Qubit Zirconium
    • Hamlet, Prince of Robots
  • Mainstream Fiction
    • Devi Jones’ Locker
      • Packet Trade
      • Sea Change
      • Storm Cloud
      • Floating Point
    • The Home for Wayward Parrots
  • Anthologies
    • The Stars Beyond
    • Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction & Fantasy, Volume 4
    • KeyForge: Tales From the Crucible
    • Trans-Galactic Bike Ride
    • Fireweed: Stories from the Revolution
    • Year’s Best Aotearoa New Zealand Science Fiction and Fantasy: Volume I
    • The Dame Was Trouble
    • Dystopia Utopia Short Stories
    • Science Fiction Short Stories
    • Procyon Press Science Fiction Anthology 2016
    • Use Only As Directed
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Beautiful Red

Beautiful Red

January 29, 2007

The future is boring. Technology has solved most of the world’s most pressing problems, leaving people with tedious work and mundane play. Jack is a Security Officer Class 5, which sounds important, but isn’t. However, her banal life as a cubicle worker by day and tinkerer by night is interrupted when she discovers that her employer’s computer system has been invaded.

Jack enlists the help of her only friends – her co-worker, Gilles and Adrian, an online friend she’s never met – to help her track down the source of the invasion. Her investigation leads her to a shadowy group called the Red, where Jack learns that not everyone lives a life of quiet servitude.

Even though she believes that the Red are responsible for a series of gruesome attacks, Jack begins to become attracted to their worldview. In her search for the people responsible for the attacks, she confronts the leaders of the group as well as her own burgeoning sense of self-awareness.

[button url=”http://darusha.ca/book/beautiful-red/”]Learn more[/button]

Filed Under: Beautiful Red, Books

Beautiful Red is a Parsec Award Finalist!

August 26, 2008

The podcast of Beautiful Red was nominated for a Parsec Award for Best Speculative Fiction Story (Novella Form), and I’ve just found out that it is a finalist.  I am in amazing company – works by Timothy Callahan, Patrick McLean, Mur Lafferty and Scott Sigler are also nominated in this category.  I couldn’t be happier to be thought of in the same category as these authors.

The Parsec Awards celebrate excellence in speculative fiction podcasting, and will be held at the Dragon*Con convention in a few days.  I won’t be able to attend, given that I’m only a few weeks out from departing on a long world sailing trip, but my thoughts and well-wishes go out to all the nominees.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red, News

Episode Twenty-Three

January 2, 2008

Episode Twenty-Three

01001

I am (two)

living together

in the same mind

My body is my own

and not my own

    {

    sometimes

    it breathes

    without me;

    }

There are lights

that flash in my memory

    {

    when I sleep,

    they light my way;

    }

I do not control them =

    those lights in my mind

they control me =

    like a puppet

    like a host

they are my parasite == my saviour

I see it all the time now

the new world they created for me (and the compulsion it creates)

why would anyone choose to live

    {

    in a world of death

    when there is more

    so much more;

    }

hiding within

The cost is so small

    {

    this life for another life

    control for purpose;

    }

we would choose this freely

if we still had choice

just give us the lights

    {

    the guide, the statements,

    the direction;

    }

and we will follow forever

the leader == the follower

we are one now

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-23/BeautifulRed-23.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg

    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Episode Twenty-Two

December 26, 2007

Episode Twenty-Two

>>It looks bad, Jack. There’s enough evidence to convict you of a couple of major crimes, and sweet fuck all to prove your allegation against the Red.

>But…

>>Just don’t, Jack. I tested my theory. I’m sending a log of some correspondence one of my aliases had with a couple of law enforcement branches. I’m going to have to abandon that identity now, since it has zero credibility left. I was laughed out of town, and you will be too. Only you’ll be laughed right into court. I mean it Jack, you have to drop this.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-22/BeautifulRed-22.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg
    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Episode Twenty-One

December 19, 2007

Episode Twenty-One

“Do you know what we believe in,” Lars started off by asking her. “What the core us of in the Red believe, what started it all?”

“Well,” Jack began, “it seems pretty obvious that you want to bring back the natural human being, reduce our reliance on technology, and question our place in society. I’d say that’s a pretty good summary, don’t you think?” She didn’t want to get sucked into philosophical arguments, but knew he would have to tell her his story in his own way.

“As Rackham would say, two out of three ain’t bad for a noob.”

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-21/BeautifulRed-21.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg
    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Episode Twenty

December 12, 2007

Episode Twenty

The system was different. At first Jack nearly panicked when she realized that her three D rendering engine couldn’t handle the configuration of the Red system and showed her nothing but an empty blue void. But, after backing out and viewing the system using her terminal emulator, Jack was able to navigate the system. She got a feel for the layout, finding her way through the hierarchical structure. Eventually, she banged up against the point where her dummy user’s permissions ended.

She breathed deeply, and turned away from her task for a moment. She had an assignment from the shift captain, and she guessed that if it didn’t get done they might come checking up on her. She pulled out her bag of tricks and quickly modified a script to do her job for her. She got it running under her own user id and set it to notify her when it was done so she could check the work. She switched back to the dummy id, and held her breath.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-20/BeautifulRed-20.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg
    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Log #7

December 7, 2007

Nanowrimo is done, and I won with a day to spare.

Lots of people have been sending emails, which is awesome; keep it coming.

There was a problem with some of the files (this time, not my fault!). It’s fixed now, but if you encounter any trouble downloading or the files sound wonky, please let me know.

You should absolutely check out Mur Lafferty’s Playing for Keeps. I’ve been subscribed since day -3 or so, and it really does rock.

If you’re so inclined, follow me on twitter. At the moment, I do the regular here’s what’s going on kind of posts, but I also do a haiku of the day and Quotation Wednesday.

Direct Download

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BRLog-07/BeautifulRedLog-07.mp3]

Filed Under: Beautiful Red

Episode Nineteen

December 5, 2007

Episode Nineteen

Jack didn’t know what to do. It was BlackEye for sure, chatting with some dour looking guy just two tables over. It was the first she had seen of him, and although she had imagined before she arrived that he would be leading the group in some kind of bizarre incantation three times a day, once she had been here for awhile the community nature of the group made her doubt even the existence of a leader. Of course, leaders aren’t always of the “do it my way or get out” variety, and she noticed that everyone else in the bar deferred to BlackEye when they interacted with him.

“Do you know who that guy is?” she asked Susanna, who was already starting to get an unfocussed look about her.

“Which guy,” she asked after a brief pause to understand the question.

“The one-eyed man with the hair wings. Over there,” Jack jerked her head in the direction of the table. Susanna looked over, and studied the two men carefully for some time before answering.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-19/BeautifulRed-19.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg
    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Episode Eighteen

November 28, 2007

Episode Eighteen

The thought of Estella Rowan reminded Jack of her purpose at the compound and renewed her resolve to find out who was behind the consciousness programs. She had her first work shift after lunch and was hopeful that whatever they would have her doing as a programmer would shed some light on the situation. She agreed to meet Susanna for dinner at the middle sitting, and headed off to her room to find out where she was supposed to go for her work shift.

The morning class had been interesting and compelling, but now as she walked all the way back to her room to find out a piece of information that would take just a second on the nets to retrieve, she was becoming less enamoured with the whole Red philosophy. It was nice to play historical and pretend not to have everywherenet or integrated systems, but there was a good reason everyone adopted those technologies in the first place.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-18/BeautifulRed-18.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg

    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Episode Seventeen

November 21, 2007

Episode Seventeen

Jack stuck her key in the viewer’s slot and when the friendly voice said, “Hello, b0xenjester, how can I help you?” she replied, “Show me the meal schedule for today.” She saw that there was a late sitting that evening for dinner, and asked the viewer to remind her ten minutes before it was time to go. She then asked to see the schedule of classes for the next two days.

There was a huge selection of programs available, and at first Jack had trouble believing that it was possible for even a large and well organized group to deliver this many courses and workshops over two days. Then, on closer inspection, she realized that only a small portion of the offerings were live, in-person events. Most of the programs were downloadable tutorials or immersive simulations. For a group that had a strong anti-progress component this seemed odd, but Jack suspected that few of the people involved in the beginner’s events fell into this category anyway.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-17/BeautifulRed-17.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg
    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Episode Sixteen

November 14, 2007

Episode Sixteen

Jack woke up with a start, and for a moment didn’t know where she was. The motion of the train was so even that it was as if the train were still. The seats were fairly wide and comfortable, so she wasn’t even being jostled by other passengers. Her confusion was fleeting, though, and she checked the time. SleepingJuice was amazing – at that point the train would be arriving in about fifteen or twenty minutes.

She stretched as best she could while staying seated, and cracked her neck. She quickly checked her system and found an acknowledgment from Gilles for her report. Good, she thought, at least if they turn me into one of those drooling monsters they’ll both know who to blame. Jack had given both Adrian and Gilles encoded links to contact each other in case of emergency. She allowed them to talk to each other anonymously; she had no interested in dragging them into this any more than was necessary.

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRed-16/BeautifulRed-16.mp3]

Direct download

Music:

  • low level format by Bjorn Fogelberg
    some sonics provided by The Freesound Project

If you have feedback, I want to hear it! Leave a comment on the website, send me an email or call me with your comments at 206-984-2976.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red Tagged With: brpodcast

Log #6

November 13, 2007

I’m still going strong for NaNoWriMo. Check out my wordcount.

I’ve had some technical difficulties with the files at podiobooks.com (my fault, not theirs). Do let me know if you encounter any problems with the files here.

Beautiful Red now has its own facebook page. Come be friends!

Direct Download

[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/BeautifulRedLog-06/BeautifulRedLog-06.mp3]

Filed Under: Beautiful Red

Beautiful Red on Facebook

November 9, 2007

The Beautiful Red podcast novel now has its own page on Facebook.  If you’re a facebooker, go add yourself as a fan of Beautiful Red.  To become a fan, click the “Add to my Products” link on the profile page.

Filed Under: Beautiful Red, News

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Primary Sidebar

Book cover for “Hamlet, Prince of Robots” by M. Darusha Wehm. A blue-green robot skull with a golden crown in the style of a neon sign, over a dark glitchy background. In the top left is a quote reading “Enormous fun and a real gift to lovers of Shakespeare or science fiction or both. Familiar and surprising, clever and moving.” From Kate Heartfield, author of Sunday Times bestseller The Embroidered Book.

Hamlet, Prince of Robots

Like Succession meets Blade Runner … an extremely compelling and satisfying read that allowed me to investigate my own place in our time of communion and interdependence with machines.

—Pip Adam, author of Acorn Prize winner The New Animals

Something is rotten in the state of cybernetics.

Elsinore Robotics is on the cusp of a breakthrough—the company is poised to create the first humanoid androids powered by true artificial intelligence. Their only rival, Norwegian Technologies, lost a publicly streamed contest between their flagship model, Fortinbras, and Elsinore’s HAM(let) v.1.

But when the first Hamlet model is found irreparably deactivated, the apparent victim of wild malware, the field of consumer cybernetics is thrown wide open.

Learn More

Free Stories

Chekhov’s Phaser

I never planned to end up here. I've never planned anything, really. All my life has been like that: I see an opportunity and I take it. Sometimes that works out better than other times. So why should … Read More... about Chekhov’s Phaser

Fame

"Pupusas?" The woman's nasal voice reached Randall at the back of the bus before he saw her pushing her way down the aisle. He could smell the warm, raw meat smell of his own sweaty body, and his … Read More... about Fame

Lucidity

last night I had the most wonderful dream Carly moaned softly in her sleep, and rolled over. She dreamed and dreamed, and when she woke, she found that she still had the lingering shadow of a … Read More... about Lucidity

Publications

  • . ….. ..story .. time
  • A Most Elegant Solution
  • A Most Elegant Solution (audio)
  • A Thorn in Your Memory
  • A Wish and a Hope and a Dream
  • Alexander Systems
  • Fear of Lying
  • Force Nine
  • Good Hunting
  • Home Sick
  • Home Sick (audio)
  • Homecoming
  • I Open My Eyes
  • if ink could flow backward
  • Microfiction @Thaumatrope
  • Modern Love
  • Modern Love (audio)
  • Preventative Maintenance
  • recursion
  • Reflections on a Life Story
  • Showing the Colours (audio)
  • The Care and Feeding of Mammalian Bipeds, v. 2.1
  • The Interview
  • The Stars Above Eos
  • War Profiteering
  • War Profiteering (audio)
  • we are all energy

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Poetry

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  • 140 and Counting
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  • if ink could flow backward
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  • we are all energy

Non-fiction

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Elsewhere

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