Freedom's Light: Short Stories Read online

  Freedom’s Light

  Short Stories

  Contents

  Disclaimer

  Story Synopses

  Foreword

  The Stories

  1. The Tenth Righteous Man

  About Nitay Arbel

  2. Martian Sunrise

  About Matthew Souders

  3. Backwater

  About Lori Janeski

  4. The Birthday Party

  About Daniella Bova

  5. Dollars on the Nightstand

  About Bokerah Brumley

  6. The City

  About A.G Wallace

  7. The Nomod

  About Henry Vogel

  8. Sara

  About Chris Donahue

  9. Room to Breathe

  About Marina Fontaine

  10. Victory Garden

  About Tom Rogneby

  11. The Unsent Letter

  About Brad R. Torgersen

  12. Credo Man

  About Carol Kean

  13. The Fighting Beagles and the Attack at Dawn

  About Nick Cole

  14. Shirt Story

  About Arlan Andrews

  15. Polk’s Prophetic Property

  About W.J. Hayes

  Freedom’s Light: Short Stories

  Copyright © 2017

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photographic, or otherwise, without the prior written consent of the publisher.

  victoryfiction.com

  Book design by Logotecture.

  Edited by Contagious Edits, Kia Heavey, & Matthew Souders

  ISBN-13: 978-1520400242

  “About CLFA” by Marina Fontaine and Kia Heavey, copyright © 2017 by Marina Fontaine and Kia Heavey. Used by permission of the authors.

  Foreword by Matt Margolis, copyright © 2017 by Matt Margolis. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Tenth Righteous Man” by Nitay Arbel, copyright © 2017 by Nitay Arbel. Used by permission of the author.

  “Martian Sunrise” by Matthew Souders, copyright © 2017 by Matthew Souders. Used by permission of the author.

  “Backwater” by Lori Janeski, copyright © 2017 by Lori Janeski. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Birthday Party” by Daniella Bova, copyright © 2017 by Daniella Bova. Used by permission of the author.

  “Dollars on the Nightstand” by Bokerah Brumley, copyright © 2017 by Bokerah Brumley. Used by permission of the author.

  “The City” by A.G. Wallace, copyright © 2017 by A.G. Wallace. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Nomod” by Henry Vogel, copyright © 2017 by Henry Vogel. Used by permission of the author.

  “Sara” by Chris Donahue, copyright © 2017 by Chris Donahue. Used by permission of the author.

  “Room to Breathe” by Marina Fontaine, copyright © 2017 by Marina Fontaine. Used by permission of the author.

  “Victory Garden” by Tom Rogneby, copyright © 2017 by Tom Rogneby. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Unsent Letter” by Brad Torgersen, copyright © 2017 by Brad Torgersen. Used by permission of the author.

  “Credo Man” by Carol Kean, copyright © 2017 by Carol Kean. Used by permission of the author.

  “The Fighting Beagles and the Attack at Dawn” by Nick Cole, copyright © 2017 by Nick Cole. Used by permission of the author.

  “Shirt Story” by Arlan Andrews, copyright © 2017 by Arlan Andrews. Used by permission of the author.

  “Polk’s Prophetic Property” by W.J. Hayes, copyright © 2017 by W.J. Hayes. Used by permission of the author.

  Disclaimer

  Net proceeds from the sale of this anthology will be donated to the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending liberty, freedom of speech, due process, academic freedom, legal equality, and freedom of conscience on America’s college campuses. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of all of the contributing authors, nor of the organization(s) designated as the recipient(s) of the publication's proceeds.

  Story Synopses

  The Tenth Righteous Man (Nitay Arbel)

  A warrior from an ancient noble family had sworn fealty to the ruler. Torn between his oath and mounting horror at the ruler’s terrible deeds, he finally decides to pay the ultimate price to stop him. Will he succeed?

  Martian Sunrise (Matthew Souders)

  Kay’s mission to Mars is interrupted by a terrifying storm - not the sand storm outside her enclosure, but the tempest raging in her heart. News of her mother’s death revives years of buried resentment and pain which she must now confront. Will she come to terms with her mother’s ill-spent life and let the storm subside?

  Backwater (Lori Janeski)

  A group of farmers on terraformed Mars want nothing more than to be left alone in their long-settled, rural homes. Unfortunately, the Interplanetary Commonwealth defines freedom quite differently. With their way in life in peril, what sacrifices will they be willing to make to save it?

  The Birthday Party (Daniella Bova)

  Adela, a widow, recalls the summer of 1923, when she was a young girl living in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. That summer, she discovered a trail of family secrets that stretched back to the Civil War and faced oppression for the first time. Though only twelve, Adele met evil face to face at a birthday party and the lessons she learned are still with her, looking back on it all, in 1964.

  Dollars on the Nightstand (Bokerah Brumley)

  When Gail Barrett retreats from the corporate world to her rural, East Texas home she reconnects with her father, Bill, and with life on his farm sharing good food and good company. When the pair encounter a family friend, now a patrolman from the latest government oversight agency, they become suspicious as events take a turn neither of them expects. Gail must decide who to believe and how to react.

  The City (A.G. Wallace)

  The bots that manage The City do not make mistakes. Kiral has been raised in their perfect society, but something seems less than perfect on the day everyone makes ‘The Progression’. Kiral’s cohort is moving to Gen2, and the bots are obeying their highest commandment: Providing humans with the right to choose. What choice will be given, and what will Kiral choose?

  The Nomod (Henry Vogel)

  A typical man in a twisted reality, one genetically unmodified person struggles to make his captor understand the mistakes his race have made. But what place does an unmodified human have in a world of genetically designed and government raised people? And what will the nomods do to recover?

  Sara (Chris Donahue)

  Delta-F-S316a19 spends her life as a homogenous unit in a worker’s paradise. That is what the law demands: perfect conformity. But some evenings she dares all to be a bit more, to be a person.

  Room to Breathe (Marina Fontaine)

  Home. Family. Friends. Daniel remembers when those words meant something: before the new laws and the forced relocation to The City. Home offers no comfort now; friends are appointed by school counselors; and his parents are lost in despair. But Daniel has a talent for painting and dreams of living in a brighter world. When a chance encounter with a neighbor develops into friendship, he finds out his dream may not be impossible after all.

  Victory Garden (Tom Rogneby)

  John lives
in the decade after next, where the government provides for its subjects and decides for them what is and what is not acceptable. When he chooses to defy his masters, he discovers a gift from his father - one that challenges him to take his defiance further. Now he must decide whether he is truly ready to risk what little he still has in hope of regaining what he has lost.

  The Unsent Letter (Brad Torgersen)

  An Army soldier returning home from deployment discovers a mysterious envelope and pictures wedged in the back of his locker at a demobilization site in Texas. This eventually leads both he and his family on a journey to discover the letter’s origins, and ensure that it reaches its final destination.

  Credo Man (Carol Kean)

  A time-traveling German tries to save as many people as he can from the ash heap of history. He likes being seen only from the point of view of others. Here, he shines the spotlight on Sally Burger, a sensible woman, except for that fantasy she never outgrew where she runs away from home. How much trouble can a middle-aged mother get herself into, anyway?

  The Fighting Beagles and the Attack at Dawn (Nick Cole)

  Maybe it never was. Maybe men didn’t use to be men. Maybe the revisionists are right. It was always terrible and getting better if you’ll just vote for our guy or gal this cycle. If you believe that, listen to this war story of manly derring-do about a war that never was and times not remembered. And if there’s a little bit of that antiquated notion of good and evil in the battle against the Nationalist, a little bit of “stiff upper lip” and “carry on” ‘til it’s over “over there”... we’ll then, perhaps we really were something once. You should’ve see us then. We were amazing.

  Shirt Story (Arlan Andrews)

  In the future World Order after the Near Civil War, all citizens are mandated to interface with their respective cyber-governments via wearable interfaces, called “SHIRTs.” Naturally, hackers have other ideas. When a man charged with finding and arresting people who refuse to comply, he discovers something he didn’t expect.

  Polk’s Prophetic Property (W.J. Hayes)

  Buchanan Polk, a man who is watching as his homeland collapses into tyranny, must confront the horror that wishes to appropriate his property. He debates economics with his adversary and his prayers for smiting by errant space debris go unanswered.

  About CLFA

  Marina Fontaine & Kia Heavey

  The Conservative-Libertarian Fiction Alliance (CLFA), is an online community of readers, authors and other creative individuals who want to see more freedom-friendly storytelling in the marketplace. We provide our members with networking opportunities as well as a safe, friendly and open environment for both political and creative discussions. Since launching in December 2013, we’ve grown into a community 1,200 members strong, with new participants joining us on a daily basis.

  The goal of CLFA as a group and a movement is to reduce the power of ideologically driven gatekeepers in big publishing. Those gatekeepers have kept talented authors from fully developing their potential and prevented conservative and libertarian-friendly fiction from finding a larger audience. We want to see stories that inspire, celebrate the American values of individualism and indomitable spirit, and most of all, entertain.

  With the growth of self-publishing, there has never been more exciting time to be an author or a reader. The amount of raw talent is amazing. However, having a support network is crucial to success, and this is where CLFA comes in. Authors in our group can find anything from beta readers to technical advice to professional editor and artist referrals. Best of all, because we all share the goal of more and better freedom-friendly storytelling, we are incentivized to help and encourage each other—something often lacking in traditional author groups.

  While we have many published authors in CLFA, Freedom’s Light anthology is our first collaborative effort. It showcases a small sample of the diverse talents and voices of CLFA participants and supporters. We hope you enjoy this collection and, to quote our slogan, join us in building a better world, one story at a time!

  Facebook: facebook.com/groups/CLFAgroup/

  Website: conservativelibertarianfictionalliance.com

  Twitter: @FictionAlliance

  Foreword

  MATT MARGOLIS

  Politics is downstream from culture.

  -Andrew Breitbart

  Freedom’s Light is a collection of short fiction from a diverse group of conservative and libertarian-leaning authors. The contributors believe that in order to preserve, for posterity, the philosophy of America’s forefathers they must take a more active role in a culture that seems to have forgotten much of those values.

  According to a recent survey, a mere 55 percent of millennials agree that “communism was and still is a problem”, compared to 80 percent of baby boomers and 91 percent of the elderly. The majority of current college students think the United States invented slavery, rather than being one of the earliest adopters of radical abolitionism. A third of millennials believe George W. Bush killed more people than Stalin. And far too many young people believe the extreme rhetoric surrounding the issue of climate change uncritically and without any understanding of the science. Most alarmingly, fewer than half of college freshmen in one survey could identify Ronald Reagan, and less than twenty percent could name even one Supreme Court justice, but eighty percent knew Kim Kardashian. Such unfathomable misinformation and historical ignorance is a product of popular culture, not politics.

  But there is hope yet for our culture, and it is found in compilations like these that are part of a rising tide of alternative cultural expressions. As Adam Bellow, co-founder of Liberty Island Magazine, wrote in National Review back in 2014:

  Andrew [Breitbart] didn’t live to see it, but conservatives are making their own culture. They are writing and publishing their own books, recording their own music, and making their own videos and films. It is Breitbart’s Revolt.

  This outpouring of creativity on the right doesn’t just represent the emergence of a new genre or market — though it is both in my opinion. Taken together, it amounts to nothing less than the rise of a new counterculture. Only this time it is coming from the right, and not, as in the Sixties, from the left.

  As a conservative who reads a lot of fiction, I concede that conservative-leaning fiction may not be rare, but, it’s virtually impossible to find in the mainstream. Conservative ideas rarely get through the big house publishers’ filters. When Nick Cole (a contributor to this anthology) delivered his book Ctrl Alt Revolt! to his publisher (a book they had requested), it was rejected over what essentially amounted to a couple of sentences that clashed with left-wing orthodoxy. The publisher rejected the book and terminated Cole’s contract. Cole ultimately self-published his novel with tremendous success, winning the 2016 Dragon Award for Best Apocalyptic Novel.

  There are a few examples in the entertainment industry where conservative values aren’t vilified. Television shows like Last Man Standing (ABC) and The Ranch (Netflix) feature conservative main characters in a positive way. Rather than being reduced to negative caricatures of how liberals perceive those on the right, they are portrayed as people who value family, faith, fairness, and hard work … and, of course, hunting and Ronald Reagan. In other words, they are portrayed accurately, without malice or agenda. It’s a small victory, to simply not be portrayed as villainous, but it’s a victory nonetheless.

  But, as Adam Bellow noted, mainstream popular culture “is still largely driven by books.” Breitbart’s Revolt will not be won if we can only cite Ayn Rand and George Orwell as the best writers whose work conservatives should read. That’s why I came to help put together this anthology of short fiction. I don’t write fiction—I write nonfiction. This was my chance to move upstream a bit, to be a small part of Breitbart’s Revolt, by deploying a slate of talented writers to the front lines of the culture war.

  We’re not just competing with bestsellers and blockbuster movies; we’re competing with the entire market of popula
r fiction, which the gatekeepers have made into a safe space for left-wing ideologies until the advent of viable self-publishing through ebook retailers like Amazon. Conservative writers are ready to break down the gates and introduce something radical to popular culture: diversity. Not “diversity” in the sense propagated by the education establishment - the regressive notion that our society should obsessively focus on trivialities like a person’s skin color, their nationality, their religious affiliation, or their sexual orientation. True diversity is the diversity of thought and expression once cherished by the American left and now long forgotten.

  In addition to all the talented writers who contributed work for this anthology, I would like to recognize the founders and curators of the Conservative-Libertarian Fiction Alliance, Kia Tsakos Heavey and Marina Fontaine, for their tireless work in building a supportive guild for conservative writers and their fans. The CLFA made this work possible. I’d also like to thank Tom Tinney, the man responsible for the idea that inspired this collection.

  The stories in this anthology vary in genre and style, but all share conservative/libertarian themes. These once-universal themes have been pushed out of the mainstream for years, effectively redefining our nation’s values, shaping public opinion, and distorting history. If you share the core cultural values of the new conservative counterculture, or if you are open-minded enough to challenge your beliefs, do your part to bring diversity of creed back to the western world and enjoy this entertaining salvo of short fiction!