QSFer Benjamin W. Feliciano has a new queer YA sci-fi book out (bisexual): Bound: For Greatness.
Fourteen-year-old Charlie Mintrose is a young man orphaned under mysterious circumstances.
His placement with a new set of foster parents brings him from the crowded home where he lived in downtown Denver to the suburbs north of the city. With the help of his new friends Caleb and Ripley, he becomes involved with a government agency that protects the world from spirits by capturing them in books, and begins to unravel the details of his forgotten past.
As Charlie learns to connect with his new foster parents, he must balance his newfound responsibility with questions of loyalty and reality and hone the power to bind spirits into fiction.
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Excerpt
…III. What is forgotten may never be recalled.
The bottom of the page had lines for each of their names by Marietta’s signature (beneath which was written “Acting Director”) and the smooth strokes of her signature showed little pooled dots of still-wet ink at the tops and bottoms of each letter where the pen changed direction. Charlie laid the contact back onto the table and reached for the blue pen, twisted it open, and signed his name. The pen was raised between Ripley and Caleb and held their attention like a stationary hypnotist’s pendulum. The two shared a look and Caleb winced slightly as Ripley reached out for the pen to sign her name as well.
Marietta walked back into the room at that moment, a tray of mismatched mugs and teacups tinkled softly as she laid the tray onto the desk and placed one of the drinks in front of everyone before sitting down, cupping her hands on her own mug for warmth, and glancing at the sheet to see who had signed so far. Caleb looked to his friends, the paper, up at Marietta, and back down to the sheet before sighing and sitting back down. “This is crazy. I’ll listen to what you have to say because they’re ok with this but I’m not signing anything.”
Marietta nodded, leaned forward in her chair, and placed her mug on the table. “Then I’m afraid whatever you hear for the rest of your time in this building will be forgotten once you leave. This contract allows memories to be retained about the spirits, any interactions with them, and any related interactions with agents of this bureau.”
“You’re going to erase my memory?” Caleb again stood, defiant.
Mary smiled, “No, but it will be rewritten. The mind is wonderfully adept at correcting aberrancies to what it understands reality to be. Your mind will rewrite everything that this contract otherwise circumvents and allows one to remember.” Caleb quietly pondered this as he sat back down confused and defeated, for a moment he appeared to rethink his choice not to sign but then nodded resolutely.
Mary set her tea down, collected the pen and paper, placed the contract in a manilla folder, the pen in a nearby mug filled with highlighters, scissors, and other utensils, then stood up. She opened the top drawer of one of her filing cabinets, flipped through the dividers, placed the file inside, and looked over to Charlie again. “This is going to feel a bit strange. You have much to remember.” The sound of the drawer made a metallic sliding sound, ending with a clack as it locked into place.
Author Bio
Benjamin Wesley Feliciano is a Denver-based author, lead singer of the band Younger Than Neil, founder of The Ideology Art Collective, painter, and a conceptual performance artist. He has an orange cat named Toast.
| Author Website | https://benfeliciano.art/ |
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