The Sky of L.A. is Yellow/Grey

By Eric Burns-White

Amanda is an ordinary girl in an extraordinary world. Raised with the secrets of the backworlds and behind-the-scenes spaces of our reality, she has grown into a confident, normal person. But, when she falls in love with the son of a Locus -- a cornerstone of reality -- Amanda must prove she can be as remarkable as any heroine. But, with the Duchess of Los Angeles and the Scion of the Desert Winds set against her, Amanda's task is remarkable indeed.

A story of the Mythology of the Modern World, an often satirical, sometimes bittersweet look at the mythological underpinnings of our mundane world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Eric Burns-White
• Release date: Oct 9, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301639229

Eric Burns-White

Eric Burns-White is a writer, editor, games developer and poet originally from Northern Maine. He has worked for Steve Jackson Games and Decipher among others, and has produced work for In Nomine, Star Trek: The Roleplaying Game and other such things. He was one of the primary authors of Sidewinder, a roleplaying game nominated for the Ennie for “Best d20 Game.” Sidewinder: Recoiled won the Golden Ennie for Best Electronic product in 2004. Burns-White is best known as the creator and one of the principal writers for Websnark (http://new.websnark.com), a critical commentary blog. He produces fictional work – including the Mythology of the Modern World – at Banter Latte (http://banter-latte.annotations.com). In his civilian identity, Burns-White is a systems administrator at a private, not-for-profit secondary school in New Hampshire, where he lives with his wife, cat, and an increasingly large population of plush, Transformers and Monster High dolls.

Book preview

The Sky over L.A. is Yellow and Grey

Copyright 2013 by Eric Burns-White

Published at Smashwords

For Fade Manley,

who asked the question,

and for Wednesday,

who answered it.

Some people know more about the world's hidden corners and unseen facets than others. I don't mean the loci -- those men and women who become something more than human for various reasons. No, I mean everyday human beings. Sometimes, they have insights or intuitions that teach them about the side of the world that most of us don't know anything about. Other times they are taught, by experience or happenstance or a relative.

That, by the way, is an example of zeugma. But I digress.

As an example, I give you a girl named Amanda. Surnames are unimportant in this case, but suffice it to say Amanda grew up in a small town and had small town ambitions. She had steady if boring work as a house painter. She wanted very little out of life -- enough money to be comfortable, friends she could hang out with, a place to call her own, maybe a cat....

And love, of course. She wanted love. But that wasn't unreasonable, was it?

In any case, Amanda was typical to the point of boredom. If it hadn't been for her Uncle Al, there would have been little reason to even discuss her. But, as we have implied, she did have an Uncle Al and so we do have a reason to discuss her. As it works out, her Uncle Al was one of these people who knew a lot about the world just beyond the edge of perception, and also as it turns out he taught Amanda quite a bit about it. He taught her by telling her stories as