Planting the Shell-Bones

Halfway to Better #3

by Susan Kaye Quinn

SHORT STORY

Living in a flooded lighthouse is probably illegal, but no one has come to kick her out, so she keeps furtively tending the oyster beds and feeding the crows. But when a storm brings an unexpected—and unwelcome—visitor, her time in this final refuge might be at an end.

Planting the Shell-Bones is one of six short solarpunk stories in the Halfway to Better collection.

If you enjoyed the optimistic climate solutions in Kim Stanley Robinson’s Ministry for the Future or the cozy cooperative future in Becky Chambers’ Monk and Robot series, you will enjoy Halfway to Better.

Genres: Science Fiction

29 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2024

About the author

CLICK HERE for a FREE STORY

Susan Kaye Quinn has designed aircraft engines and researched global warming, but now she uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from hopeful climate fiction to gritty cyberpunk. Sue believes being gentle and healing is radical and disruptive. Her short fiction can be found in Grist, Solarpunk Magazine, Reckoning, and all her novels and short stories can be found on her website. She is the host of the Bright Green Futures podcast.

SOLARPUNK
collections
Bright Green Futures: 2024 (edited by SKQ)
Halfway to Better

novels
Nothing is Promised series
When You Had Power
You Knew The Price
Of Kindness and Kilowatts
Yet You Cry When It Hurts

short stories
A Moon Goddess to Watch Over Me (Luna Station Quarterly) (hopepunk)
It's in the Blood (Reckoning 8)
Once and Future Kilowatts (Solarpunk Magazine)
Rewilding Indiana (Little Blue Marble)
Seven Sisters (Grist)
The Joy Fund (DreamForge Magazine)

SCI-FI
Singularity Novel Series
The Legacy Human
The Duality Bridge
The Illusory Prophet
The Last Mystic

Stories of Singularity
Restore
Containment
Augment
Awakening
Harvest
Defiance
Resistance

YA SF
Mindjack Series
Open Minds
Closed Hearts
Free Souls
Locked Tight
Cracked Open
Broken Wide
Mindjack Short Story Collection

WATCH the award-winning live-action Mindjack Book Trailer!

STEAMPUNK ROMANCE
Royals of Dharia
Third Daughter
Second Daughter
First Daughter

CYBERPUNK
Debt Collector
LIRIUM (Season One)
WRAITH (Season Two)

WATCH the Debt Collector Book Trailer

ANTHOLOGIES
Synchronic
Telepath Chronicles
AI Chronicles
Dark Beyond The Stars
Future Chronicles
Cyborg Chronicles
CLONES: The Anthology

MIDDLE GRADE FANTASY
Faery Swap

WATCH the Faery Swap Book Trailer

CONTACT SUSAN
Susan's Website | Sue on Bluesky | Sue on Mastodon
Susan's Email: sue@twistedspacepub.com

Reviews

[John Gilbert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very short futuristic story about climate change and one woman living illegally in a lighthouse trying to restore oyster beds. I love this series. 4 stars.

But you don't get to seventy without a few skills and, more importantly, zero fucks to give. pg 7

[Sandy S · Rating 4 out of 5]

PLANTING THE SHELL-BONES is the third short story in Susan Kaye Quinn’s collection of solarpunk short stories. This is seventy year old Vivian Moore, and Ranger Zeek Martin’s story.

Told from first person perspective (Vivian) PLANTING THE SHELL-BONES follows Vivian Moore in the not too-distant future as she is battling the elements that are destroying the Earth. The water levels have risen such that much of the shore lines are now under water, and our heroine struggles to rejuvenate the oyster beds one clam shell at a time but there is a massive storm approaching, and with the insistence of Ranger Zeek Martin, Vivian must come to terms to what is happening and why.

PLANTING THE SHELL-BONES is a fast paced, short story focusing on an environmental disaster rapidly destroying the world. A thought provoking and cautionary tale of a possible future we could all be facing.

[A.M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I so admire the author’s ethos.

Watching news stories that crow about how they can grow coral in a lab; doesn’t matter if the ocean is too hot. How can you know so much about coral and also know nothing about coral?

And oysters. They clean the water for us, if we let them.

So if one woman with time on her hands and an old fashioned method can make a difference, maybe we all can?

[Bearing in mind that your carbon footprint thing was invented by the big polluters to push guilt onto everyone else.]

4 stars

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

An intriguing story, quite a gently one really. I guess I just felt at the end that I wanted to know a little more, for the story to go a little further, but I guess that is not the nature of short stories.
Very different to the last short story in this unusual collection, and as I particularly loved that one it was rather a hard act to follow.
This story did raise some ideas that got my brain thinking. And I was pleased to find out what the title meant!

[OldBird · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another thoughtful cli-fi short story in the Halfway To Better collection, this one has the added appeal of being voiced by an older character than your usual (can we get a yeah for 70 year old badass climate activists who just want to do their quite little bit for the world?). A cozy kind of tale about thoughtful characters.

[Christinaraven · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another short story set in the near future where we get to meet Vivian and learn about her quest. Just a nice quick read that made me think. A story that made me laugh a few times too especially at the end.

[T.M. Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great tale

This is the third short story I’ve read by the author this week. Didn’t quite make 5 stars. This one had a few more scientific references that went over my head. But when the dialogue kicked in the story picked up a bit.

[DOUGLAS J BERRY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solar punk.

A short story about a crabby hermit. A person can change the world slowly and surely. Cowabunga and good night.

[Jeanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hope punk climate stories. Very Short.