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The Narrator

The skin is the largest organ of the human body. Constantly regenerating, it protects us from wind, rain, and to an extent sun. It helps regulate our body temperature. It protects us from infection, and helps us to navigate our world through touch. No wonder our visitors from other stars have such interest in it. Indeed, in us. What if the narrator of my story is a blogger? Someone maybe who believes... And thus far has only received attention from the dwindling super market tabloid crowd. Someone who cannot be silenced in the interest of national security. Maybe the blog is discovered by a medical researcher who decides to go to Chester to investigate.

Protagonist

Jerika is the central human character. She is a nursing assistant at Chester Regional Medical Center. This is a job which requires physical strength, stamina, and people skills. At the beginning of the story, she's fully alive. Then she witnesses the horrible events during the birth of her nephew. She begins to retreat inside herself. The walls she has constructed around her secrets begin to disintegrate. Soon everyone in Chester begins to realize that no one really knows anyone. The world descends upon them in their dark madness.

Psuedo Political Science

For years I've watched at turns fascinated and bemused by the pseudo science in the stories and films that I love so much. I remember watching the Matrix opening week-end completely enthralled and all the while knowing that I was going to have to watch the DVD 1,000 times in order to actually make sense of it. I've memorized it now, but I still don't understand it. But I know that we all feel like we can row our boats gently down the stream, but merrily, life is but a dream. I want to pull off something like that, but with humor and compassion for a place and some people who were left behind long before the deep recession we've now officially been in for over a year. They may as well be under siege by aliens in Chester, SC. I also believe that the best science fiction has a social-political world view. Plainly, I'm a Democrat so in my story, bigger guns and lower taxes ain't gonna be the solution.

The "Chester Children"

As soon as egg meets sperm to create the bundle of cells that will become a full-blown embryo in days, the cells contain all the information needed in order to develop into the various types of tissue that become our bodies organs and systems. In the "Chester Children", as they become nationally known, the thin translucent form of fetal skin never develops into the epidermis and dermis that make up the skin. All the underlying structures of their tiny bodies are visible, as if they were live anatomical models. In a few cases, the "skin" was composed of other types of tissue - bone, muscle, tooth. None of the newborns survive past a few days, infection being the primary cause of death.

Botanical garden visit today

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Story Town, South Carolina

What happens when a town with unemployment topping 20%, an interstate legal battle over the water supply reaching the Supreme Court, drug and alcohol use spiraling out of control, and failing schools is discovered to be the long term research site of extraterrestrials? It's a mostly true story ya'll.