Rumpleton Flunks Out Of Teddybear Academy!

Vitamin Deficiency Suspected

 

The following announcement is brought to you by Terrie Leigh Relf's flash fiction story "A breath before diving."  She hopes you will read the story [it follows the announcement below] and will consider voting for it as your favorite].  Now this.

 

WHITBY, ON [SDP] -- The Whitby Finishing Academy for Teddy Bears announced today that Rumpleton, a well-meaning but imperfect and rather plump teddy bear, has finally accumulated enough demerits to flunk out of the academy.  Almost immediately Rumpleton's cause was taken up by local People For Ethical Treatment of Stuffed Animals [PETSA][pronounced "pizza] representative Joel A. Sutherland, who relates the events surrounding Rumpleton's dismissal and subsequent harrowing flight in the short story "The Teddy Bears of Tomorrow," published as a trade paperback released on 1 October 2007 by Sam's Dot Publishing.

          Intended for younger readers [but of all ages] and for parents who read to their children, "The Teddy Bears of Tomorrow" is a tale of trial and error in which hope plays the big role.  Aided by Jove, a helpful mouse who likes to throw things, Rumpleton finally finds his lot in life--if only he could get to it. 

          Exquisitely illustrated by Marge B. Simon and Lillian Kopaska-Merkel, "The Teddy Bears of Tomorrow" makes an excellent gift this holiday--or any time of the year.

          So:  Find out what happens to Rumpleton by ordering a copy of Joel Sutherland's "The Teddy Bears of Tomorrow" from The Genre Mall.  Simply click on the cover icon below. 

 

 

         

A breath before diving

by Terrie Leigh Relf

 

He was exhausted, so laid his head against the Martian night, dreamt of breasts so filled with milk, that they offered themselves without supporting hands. What a curious dream, he thought, then returned to digging through blood-red ice, stopping on occasion to wipe dust frozen to his goggles.

 

His efforts were at last rewarded. Ice gave way to slush, slush to frigid water.  He splashed about, marveled at its pristine clarity, then noticed something floating toward him from the corner of an eye.

 

He took a breath before diving, exhaled slowly, then inhaled again before fitting the breather into his mouth. He had no need for a flashlight, as phosphorescent creatures appeared to guide him beneath the crackling ice.

 

Such a wondrous landscape was revealed! Crystalline sea grass parted to reveal the undulations of translucent eels, the flip of pale fins, followed by the soft curve of a woman’s shoulder.

 

She was a hideous beauty with skin a blue for which he had no name. Her hair fanned out like an aurora of tentacles…so delicately these unfurled, then curled back as if to beckon him.

 

But it was her breasts he reached for--touched, yes! It was her breasts he suckled at, until needing air, unable to find a rent in the ice, he thrashed about until she took his hand, led him deep, then deeper still. His final breaths rose to the surface, formed a cairn of glistening ice.