For the Sake of Art

By Barry B Begault

Jack Landry, a notable wire-form artist seems to not be feeling like himself.
He woke up one morning and discovered he was a robot, or more correctly, an android!
Talk about waking up on the wrong side of the bed!

He enlists the help of his brother Bruce, who is an MD to help him get to the bottom of this problem.
Jack has all his human memories and experiences. So what's going on???

Part of my "Snack Reading" series that can be read in about an hour.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Barry B Begault
• Release date: Aug 22, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465734167

Barry B Begault

I started thinking about writing when I was in High School. I wrote a short story about a black horse that was trapped in a burning barn that was ignited by a bold of lightening in the middle of the night. There were other horses in the barn as well. The black stallion (naturally for a 17 year old!) kicked himself out of his stall, and kicked the gates of all the other occupied stalls to release the other horses to safety. But when he attempted to leave the barn, a roof timber fell blocking his escape route. I ended my story there because it was supposed to be a 500 word story. The class, including my teacher, demanded that complete the story. They wanted to know what happened to the black stallion. Not until the late 80's did I start writing novelettes (7,500 - 24,000 words). But I never really completed these works because publishing novelettes to paper was not an easy task in those days. Too long for magazines; too short for a book. Now with the advent of eBooks and self-publishing, the market is really heating up for writers like me. Opportunities are now open to me that were closed in the paper publishing days. I have worked in IT since after my NAVY days. I find that IT people have a very attuned intellect and an IQ that can speak on many different and diverse subjects and mostly on scientific matters. Plus we ITers seem to have that creative spark to write. I also find it highly unusual that in my IT department there are two other aspiring authors besides myself. One is an accomplished, published writer, Jeff Brackett, who has a novel on a post-apocalyptic event and centers around Houston, TX., which is very good. The other writer is working on a fantasy with dragons, other worlds etc. The other aspiring authors in my IT group have fired me up to complete the six or so novelettes I have started and to continue to develop the 20 or so other odd novelette stories. I like writing Twilight Zone type stories and aim for an audience that likes light Sci-Fi reading that has a little humor, does not take itself too seriously and is not the dark “entire-human-race-is-in-peril” type of stories. I like to leave my readers with hope for humanity, a smile on their face and a positive outlook in life. My beta readers come from all types of demographics from young adults, divorced mothers, and Canadian IT managers. I like to think of my stories as "Snack Readings" since they are short enough to read in under an hour usually. Good for dentist/doctors waiting rooms; waiting for tires to be put on your car etc. To me, reading a nice, positive, story in the middle of the day is very uplifting. Like a snack, it energizes the rest of the day.

Book preview

By

Barry B. Begault

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PUBLISHED BY:

Barry B. Begault at Smashwords

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For The Sake of Art

Copyright 2011, 2013 Barry B. Begault

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

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Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

About the Author

Chapter One

Jack woke to a slight tremor that ran though his studio and sat bolt upright in his bed. The tremor was barely strong enough to rattle a few glasses in his studio home. These little tremors were part of living in northern California like hurricanes and tropical storms are part of the Gulf Coast. Some worse than others.

Since living here though, he'd only experienced a few tremors that rattled his dishware significantly enough to cause him some alarm. But he still hadn't become as nonchalant about the tremors as his brother, Jack. They still gave him cause for alarm. His brother could replace his equipment if destroyed or damaged, but Jack couldn’t replace his works of art. They were all a one of a kind, unique.

He shrugged it all off his sat up in bed and rubbed both eyes with the knuckles of his forefingers in an attempt to sweep the previous night’s sleep from his eyes.. The tip of his right index finger no longer hurt where he shocked himself the night before on a bare wire from an old extension cord. He had grabbed it on his front porch to unplug his boom box and got a surprising jolt. His skin was still little a little discolored around the shock area.

The aroma of fresh brewing coffee from his preset coffee maker, wafted though his studio and enticed Jack out of the comfort of his warm bed like the sea sirens who beckoned sailors to the reefs. He swung his feet off the left side of his bed and into his waiting fuzz lined slippers. He stood up and stretched his arms and back and twisted his torso left and right to help alleviate the sleep cramps from sleeping on his left side. Down the short hallway behind his studio he shambled to his kitchen, still yawning and stretching his arms, for that first cup of dark Cajun brew.

In the kitchen he reached up and grabbed a heavy, white, ceramic, mug from the cabinet above the coffee machine. After rinsing it in hot water he poured a mug full of fresh, hot, java, and added a no calorie sweetener packet, and a generous blob of fresh milk. Now his day was pre-flighted.

His closed his eyes briefly as he sipped his morning beverage.

Ah. Now that's good coffee. he announced to his studio at large.

He walked into his studio to watch his morning ritual of the sunrise dispelling the black cloth of the previous night. He stood in the mostly dark studio and only the shapes of objects could be determined but not their details. The increasing brightness of the emerging day slowly revealed the depth and the contents of his studio.

I like to watch my creations appear out of the darkness.

The sunrise energized Jack every morning. It gave him inspiration for