Frenemies in Space: Stories Set in the world of Sideshow in the Center Ring

by Marian Allen

Connie Phelan was born with no money, no prospects, and no filter. Her smart mouth got her into and out of trouble until she parlayed it into entertainment stardom. But that wasn’t enough. She wanted to lord it over the kind of elites who had made her childhood hell. That led her to Marner, where people are vaguely cat-like and a form of slavery is legal. Smart mouth. Trouble. Some things never change.

66 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 15, 2024

About the author

For as long as I can remember, I've loved telling and being told stories. When, at the age of about six, I was informed that somebody got paid for writing all those books and movies and television shows, I abandoned my previous ambition (beachcomber), and became a writer.

I've worked as a high school teacher, an executive secretary, a soda jerk, a bank clerk, an accountant, and in Red Cross Youth Services. While working for the Red Cross, I met my husband, a widower with three young daughters. We married and had a fourth daughter. Their names are #1 Daughter, #2 Daughter, #3 Daughter and #4 Daughter.

Small town life agrees with me. I like the interconnectedness of everything and everybody. The internet is a little like a small town: I frequently "run into" an old friend in a new venue. I like connecting and reconnecting with people, meeting new friends and keeping in touch with the friends I already have.

My writing reflects this love of network. I try to remember, in my books and stories, that no one exists in total isolation, but in a web of connections to family, friends, colleagues, self at former stages of maturity, perceptions and self-images. Most of my work is fantasy, science fiction and/or mystery, though I write horror, humor, romance, mainstream or anything else that suits the story and character.

I've had stories in anthologies, on-line and print publications, including Oceans of the Mind and Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress anthologies 22 and 23, on coffee cans and the wall of an Indian restaurant in Louisville, Kentucky.

Professionally, I'm a member of Southern Indiana Writers and Green River Writers.