Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

The Horties: An Invisible Novel
The Horties: An Invisible Novel
The Horties: An Invisible Novel
Ebook318 pages4 hours

The Horties: An Invisible Novel

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars

()

Read preview

About this ebook

In the future, when Darwin's laws of evolution are judged insufficient by the minds of the creatures they have produced, an artificial intelligence is assembled to seek out a new set of characteristic traits suitable for perpetuating human life. "The Horties" brings a happy American family of four, average in every respect save that they are all invisible, into the focus of this investigation. The members of this family, known only as Dad Hortie, Mom Hortie, Girl Hortie and Boy Hortie have their own ideas regarding the merits and drawbacks of invisibility. They are unwillingly drawn into a izarre web of relationships involving Poison Pie, Man of the Mushroom People; Seventeen, formerly a robot; Alton, a reluctant zombie; and Eugenia, a sorceress intent on casting the last, great spell to reduce the sum total of misery on planet Earth. Each is interested, in their own way, in understanding the relationship between invisibility and the suffering that pervades human existence. However, some of these individuals view the well-being of the Hortie family as a necessary and acceptable sacrifice in pursuit of ambiguous goals that are only unveiled in fits and starts as the investigation unravels.

All of the major characters in "The Horties" have been rendered in felt fingerpuppet form and can be viewed at the Poison Pie Publishing House.

LanguageEnglish
PublisherDavid Keffer
Release dateFeb 20, 2013
ISBN9781301073689
The Horties: An Invisible Novel
Author

David Keffer

David J. Keffer was born in Kansas City, Missouri. He pursued a technical education earning a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida and a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota. After a year as a post-doctoral scholar at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in Washington, D.C., he began his career as an engineering professor at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, where he remains today. He has published about 100 technical papers in archival journals. He was awarded a Fulbright Grant to learn and to teach about sustainability in Seoul, Korea.Outside of engineering, David Keffer studied world literature and creative writing. He has published analytical articles on the works of Primo Levi and Kobo Abé. He created various reading aids to several classical Chinese novels. Over the past two decades, David Keffer has been active writing novels, poetry and stories. Several novels and illustrated stories are available from the Poison Pie Publishing House at http://www.poisonpie.com.Beginning in 2012, David Keffer began teaching a course on the subject of non-idiomatic improvisational music, of which he is a devoted listener and a topic which has led aided him on an investigation of a literature of non-idiomatic improvisation.David Keffer lives in Knoxville, Tennessee with his wife, Lynn, and two children. As a family, they enjoy hiking through the local mountains and are always on the look-out for poison pie and other ambivalent mushrooms that dot the landscape.

Read more from David Keffer

Related to The Horties

Related ebooks

Science Fiction For You

View More

Related articles

Reviews for The Horties

Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings

0 ratings0 reviews

What did you think?

Tap to rate

Review must be at least 10 words

    Book preview

    The Horties - David Keffer

    Vcbook_preview_excerpt.html\K$qJrG4H0 Rh`.2*PC~ LtD=Ȍn+?=}4}wk8VT}U4cj>ojKSW]?WxI]uO ]? Mœ*UC7Usdn2jj{؜aS']¿Oc{S1CsRXaXTRwS Ts_ƪP\ut0ypu͗p#/мƼ)r-ܶn]:󧺚z 37æ1b0`aLaw?R8cմ\ˆtpPIokcNեj ;zz\MSe6#]ۏ]?k4AN5LIl"1b뉓| Wajm5f@uy[4/ܰSxx))چ{~vNp.xK,4/ Q; }O'w X $F{L3Wtu!]zMa 6$0_#찦~0WzK&@ǸTξdqt]ws0ƽZOb JySgl!>)ٞ.aadzVC\wW,|Ⱥgc9tsdp4fhN3dS"@i&<素.w07j67M-M\P)h8ԏ‚#LS v v8<h*ImtہaUp:;V_}ihŘnKNp>rrǠ3XhH[DOvC>0s:hOK;q#9l\W=rJYs/M\z8ٞk2)0@:.|::c:e,~8nyFj1# ˲F S͘(9ŴPi^s Gʵn[i!V=yf4O p즪&El{j@\ LJom*rab)<(K)ckAH|b仇c }W]Q 6Cs-q`;?n~$z7['eEAfߣO;P+fؕiP' ly]oT3ް ] M6aP6ȨaH=<v㲆×Cm#  M3ꝿמU㘃yTWkXzxw"0ة{[xLyx^aa, ?kq8Khݠ 42&\8p'ȚI\fᘈv}G"=zGӴB2"CE0κ[UC\.WaH'0 # 04KDj AVs 11,n#6/wuOh^<~foJ(ծ4bWEӿ̠F%ns@,2-e '*f:JK\r*:R!n~Lo]#UێC\dĪWu2h?r:UZ!F8:(O40[ȴdDyv/q_uώՂ9H2t <拑ZZû:qJ (HlRynXT}\`FܧWw$y:LKK'H?j @#CM}$d?1~K_[RS&w8"sd̩򿫎id9Q-]@5sA)g!);ha^GtJGEB4T鵰mQjۥSa6fzQq2v+L۽oW f9d\5(A/:k@Sг^;4EeYh9nb#? 1r0 NK{a: fŋkp?]fK u+Bbp]Oѣ#b"D-z@*i%m V">,Gn%egZ0ϞeM~HI^mZږ #-``*0jP!7gAǒJ4~wI}on{]I;O Ku!Bya JQMpRs,vl@bT*4f h *,\?PG*o֗YYo. }Bgv÷L閑CH]_NfN9D~JlLT0.j)ػx݃5\:1;qz8Tq EX@l+}&bJ ɬf .$N[ xPHnU ؛;eI@+3N"/DjƐ:"<7Id ؁.iƌqΪRFDtvK̡Qv=F5U+Wv@FyzF[>R`BhH y8NKYy0IRM%<٨6 uo޵A%<'qwKRp@`rhe]_.?]k9BYt'=%nr [|H۽O`@^? m*kѯ'6h!X UcڟT3Yeﯘ5}p%{Chn 5V0q yλlBX$)t#9dH4Dث&@! )*|mXDTIMmϝXEd]/$' ^)mIR\Pw]ۅ֗@]%LסVɶo>dsxoG <1}# ~'D,փ؀V79j h-}Qtا7WFA0Q/zZ&eE?S@qʹO+fアPбb" *lZzn'L>4ҭGx͗3!lY5& )gg/quz|(6ˠ1Nɚřdk!ZmL*[Lw 52znXBY62I׉F8 pOU)eCɤ){c!wT}Yzi|;"!f/VTR#fxbR4[ؽ(>(";u pY{፧~͛g1<3k [ ^sAbZp! e_ow4(uIgZ:˩!KOI4D _LZ:@olNj0Bܲ:5z9]^*{n*Ks@l=IEE"U>SHhpwnee<[Um@YɂލxVlƂ АdTLfXl7@ {8kg7ђ!>R@+Ie7He8TE3#,( ݒ97V[k00bz 4EǾ;z_9ncU=X]zJ{FyDyF_1hE4jvysX-}\G?()U)d%#CA^I6Rw5j4c>CFX}Iqgߝ&ӡY sRvX[#SC%yc 6MsZ l) $iOPGNw9凉r&p<@6*凭qy'ha=8\x04 /9=P"!BxsiqQx,%Gމ˾@|H8*O<,i 1+(q\a>'?bYEyP=VQ΢ťcJ~6|Gmp a˙SQ}wl/%'8gJrG<]YOdiwr^}wʾ[iybq#E(|:f|j$J8꼔"\U<( ޸ DHX=ic;Ȼ rB<04c};NĢ"杬;߹KibWov^R?MNAcehqh R2- )xSMs3=G?KxjZ"eUo2}JCgZA\qak%{yuj}L(~U+J3ٴi=I8E#:v(+GNe:ŗ-m7>H4̒V|uݽTaI4pU cn~ӿ̟U$aXGWҤv̲:7B&0M0JYFMPu/*n Y9!i7z"??"O,Om)6.Eg➙\?6]tw٬5 WZx v*)4o;/ccE5m>/rrIiqr6Wٮ;>C ~mѾY2~4QQ,`;T'E.Ɔ{VWdID/q>E#'0GdnSe7E|?הZU
    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1