I'm continuing my podcast this year. This week, it's an excerpt from a science fiction mystery short story. Enjoy!
The Podcast:
The Transcript:
This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for January 2, 2026, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress.
This is part of a science fiction mystery story.
The Space Bar wasn’t really a bar. It was this immense alcohol cloud in the middle of the Milky Way. And now that the Explorer had come out of FTL, it was easy to see the various ethanol colors—mostly pinks, purples, and little pops of pale blues. Since she wasn’t a chemist, she had no idea why the Space Bar had all these colors, but she could see out of a monitor just fine, thank you very much.
The air filtration system kicked into a higher hum. She felt cooler somehow, even though her uniform was supposed to keep her body temperature comfortable. Maybe it was the lack of coffee. She really hoped the HVAC system here was not on the fritz, also.
That’s when she noticed the air smelled a little like metal crossed with rum. Sweet rum.
Not stale, burnt coffee. Something sweet and alcoholic. Like those umbrella drinks some people liked to drink at the pubs.
The Video:
The video link is here.