I have a mind control gift. At least, I think it's a gift. Originally I thought it was a curse. The mind control is very limited in target and duration but it does have some long-term effects. Also, I'm not really in control. In fact, no one is in control. So is it mind control? Confused? I'll try and explain.
At fourteen, Janine Simm's rosy family life turns for the worse when her mother dies of cancer. She is left to alone with her baby brother and her drunk abusive father. We become witness to the rising perversity of the father as Janey's body begins to mature.
People can tumble into an isolated valley, but they can never leave. The original pair multiplies to make a thriving community. Then an infection robs all males of both virility and fertility. Community survival depends on a few men with normal sex drives who fall in. For some reason they all die during their sixth night (though they don't believe they will). Women have mixed feelings, but they make the most of the time the men have.
Anne is a fourteen year old girl who thinks she is too plain to attract her handsome father. She finds out a girl doesn't have to be a trophy wife or a porn star to be sexy. I like this character more than most I've written. She is tough, determined, and willing to go after what she wants. She realises that she is responsible for her own happiness. Treating everyone with respect and accepting the validity of teenagers' sexual desires is a major theme. I hope you enjoy this short story
Where's Waldo? It was a popular kids game back in the eighties, but now I'm playing it for real, against a very determined opponent, with my marriage and my happiness hanging in the balance.