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Floating Ink: Part of the Morning Motivation Short Story Series
"Things get weird, in a good way. Ruth is on a strange and wondrous adventure, if at times a bit scary and confusing to her. Ruth meets more unusual people in her journey and by the end, things may not be as we think it is." - DabOfDarkness
The world was cookie cutter ready for an alien invasion. Xenophen leveraged humanity’s growing into a knowledge economy. To control us, they simply needed to offer a better education. Meet Ruth; a homeless woman whose only means of survival is serving humanity's destruction. As she sees mankind's noose slowly tightening, she scrapes for any means of escape. She flees with restricted knowledge, in the hope it can unravel our doom.
Other books by James Livingood
Morning Motivation Series
Pale Rider
Vampire Caving
Moonlight Motor
Floating Ink
Swamp Monster Voodoo
Summer Sword
Frankenstein IT Support
Magic Factory
Lucy Series
Lucy The Easter Bunny
Lucy The Hiking Bunny
Lucy The Pumpkin Patch Bunny
Think Like a Skinny Person Series
Think Like a Skinny Person
Think Like a Skinny Person Quotes
Other Books by James Livingood
Vampire Caving 2
Janus (Book 2 of Zombies vs Dinosaurs)
Upcoming Books by James Livingood
Lucky Coin
The world was cookie cutter ready for an alien invasion. Xenophen leveraged humanity’s growing into a knowledge economy. To control us, they simply needed to offer a better education. Meet Ruth; a homeless woman whose only means of survival is serving humanity's destruction. As she sees mankind's noose slowly tightening, she scrapes for any means of escape. She flees with restricted knowledge, in the hope it can unravel our doom.
Other books by James Livingood
Morning Motivation Series
Pale Rider
Vampire Caving
Moonlight Motor
Floating Ink
Swamp Monster Voodoo
Summer Sword
Frankenstein IT Support
Magic Factory
Lucy Series
Lucy The Easter Bunny
Lucy The Hiking Bunny
Lucy The Pumpkin Patch Bunny
Think Like a Skinny Person Series
Think Like a Skinny Person
Think Like a Skinny Person Quotes
Other Books by James Livingood
Vampire Caving 2
Janus (Book 2 of Zombies vs Dinosaurs)
Upcoming Books by James Livingood
Lucky Coin
- GenresScience Fiction
42 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 6, 2016
1 person is currently reading
14 people want to read
About the author
James Livingood
42 books108 followersJames was born in Montana, raised with three brothers, and provided trouble for two parents. In his 20's he fell in love with the Pacific Northwest. He then moved out to Seattle after college and started a life. In 2014, he started the writing adventure.
Check out his books here: http://www.longtailwriting.com
Check out his books here: http://www.longtailwriting.com
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
January 9, 2022
This is a 2.5 star read.
I am going to be the dissenting voice here unfortunately. Whilst very well written, it left me utterly perplexed. I understood the first part of the story and then it zoomed off into "bad trip" land - I really couldn't fathom it. Now I like weird as much as the next person but not so weird that my brain hurts trying to understand it.
I am going to be the dissenting voice here unfortunately. Whilst very well written, it left me utterly perplexed. I understood the first part of the story and then it zoomed off into "bad trip" land - I really couldn't fathom it. Now I like weird as much as the next person but not so weird that my brain hurts trying to understand it.
October 31, 2016
Floating Ink by James Livingood Ruth, once an orphan living on the streets, became employed by the aliens that invaded Earth. The Xenophen made her a Caretaker, giving her special abilities. Even as she appreciates her security as an adult, she still doesn’t trust the Xenophen. She stumbles upon an odd pattern in a series of numbers. Under threat from the Xenophen for her discovery, she flees!
Once again, James Livingood brings to us a new take on an old theme: alien invasion. Opening on an outdoor celebration, the story shows a young Ruth organizing and putting to use scraps of things. Then the unexpected aliens, which look something like giant floating ink blots, come and change everything. At this point I was intrigued but still expecting a pretty straight forward alien invasion story.
The story flashes forward a bit and now a young adult Ruth spends her days in service to the Xenophen. She’s not happy about it, but a chunk of humanity is in the same boat as her, like her human boss. When Ruth comes across the peculiar code and reports it, she is immediately visited by a Xenophen. It makes it’s threats clear – her Caretaker abilities will be taken away (which could be quite messy and potentially fatal) if she pursues this any further.
At this point I want to give a nod to the alien tech incorporated into this story. The Xenophen use some sort of ‘bubble’ tech that allows Ruth and other human workers to float info in front of them while they work, like we would have several computer screens up in a control room. Also, flattened bubbles act as platforms that carry the workers around, like very fancy elevators. This was all well done in such a short story, the author using imagery quite well to get it across quickly to the reader.
Yet one more thing goes awry and Ruth’s old street instincts kick in. She flees into the nearest woods. There she meets Henry, a well-meaning if a bit judgy sort. While he’s only in the story briefly, he serves as an example to Ruth of what it is to live away from the Xenophen influence.
From here on out, things get weird, in a good way. Ruth is on a strange and wondrous adventure, if at times a bit scary and confusing to her. Ruth meets more unusual people in her journey and by the end, things may not be as we think it is. Or perhaps that is just one more trap laid by the Xenophen? The story ends on an open note, leaving me ready for the next installment.
I received this book free of charge from the author.
The Narration: Rebekah Amber Clark’s narration is fantastic. She does this multi-voice thing for the Xenophen. Also, Ruth’s voice ages as her character does. Clark even went to the trouble to make a PA announcement sound like it was really coming over a PA system. I love it when narrators make these little extra efforts on short stories!
Once again, James Livingood brings to us a new take on an old theme: alien invasion. Opening on an outdoor celebration, the story shows a young Ruth organizing and putting to use scraps of things. Then the unexpected aliens, which look something like giant floating ink blots, come and change everything. At this point I was intrigued but still expecting a pretty straight forward alien invasion story.
The story flashes forward a bit and now a young adult Ruth spends her days in service to the Xenophen. She’s not happy about it, but a chunk of humanity is in the same boat as her, like her human boss. When Ruth comes across the peculiar code and reports it, she is immediately visited by a Xenophen. It makes it’s threats clear – her Caretaker abilities will be taken away (which could be quite messy and potentially fatal) if she pursues this any further.
At this point I want to give a nod to the alien tech incorporated into this story. The Xenophen use some sort of ‘bubble’ tech that allows Ruth and other human workers to float info in front of them while they work, like we would have several computer screens up in a control room. Also, flattened bubbles act as platforms that carry the workers around, like very fancy elevators. This was all well done in such a short story, the author using imagery quite well to get it across quickly to the reader.
Yet one more thing goes awry and Ruth’s old street instincts kick in. She flees into the nearest woods. There she meets Henry, a well-meaning if a bit judgy sort. While he’s only in the story briefly, he serves as an example to Ruth of what it is to live away from the Xenophen influence.
From here on out, things get weird, in a good way. Ruth is on a strange and wondrous adventure, if at times a bit scary and confusing to her. Ruth meets more unusual people in her journey and by the end, things may not be as we think it is. Or perhaps that is just one more trap laid by the Xenophen? The story ends on an open note, leaving me ready for the next installment.
I received this book free of charge from the author.
The Narration: Rebekah Amber Clark’s narration is fantastic. She does this multi-voice thing for the Xenophen. Also, Ruth’s voice ages as her character does. Clark even went to the trouble to make a PA announcement sound like it was really coming over a PA system. I love it when narrators make these little extra efforts on short stories!
January 15, 2017
Rorschach Inkblot Aliens & “Tiny Bubbles” (Audiobook)
In Floating Ink, Echo on the Water by James Livingood the alien (called Xenophen and resembling floating ink blots) invasion is in the form of educating the humans to be able to accept and use advanced technology. Insidious floating beasties, as I suspect there is more to come in future editions of the series. Fortunately for mankind a woman named Ruth develops some unexpected and interesting abilities that trigger her curiosity, cause confusion and slowly broaden her understanding. I enjoy this different slant of an alien invasion and appreciated receiving this book in exchange for an honest review.
The beginning of this story is very visual and entertaining. We are introduced to Ruth just prior to the Xenophen invasion, the story opens with, “Ruth was the queen of rats and the trend setter of black soot stains.” And even though I winced a bit at the mention of her cockroach subjects in the next sentence I did snicker.
Narrator Rebekah Amber Clark has a nice range of voices. She definitely got across the variety of emotions that Ruth underwent during this short story. I also enjoyed the mechanical alien voices, perfect.
In Floating Ink, Echo on the Water by James Livingood the alien (called Xenophen and resembling floating ink blots) invasion is in the form of educating the humans to be able to accept and use advanced technology. Insidious floating beasties, as I suspect there is more to come in future editions of the series. Fortunately for mankind a woman named Ruth develops some unexpected and interesting abilities that trigger her curiosity, cause confusion and slowly broaden her understanding. I enjoy this different slant of an alien invasion and appreciated receiving this book in exchange for an honest review.
The beginning of this story is very visual and entertaining. We are introduced to Ruth just prior to the Xenophen invasion, the story opens with, “Ruth was the queen of rats and the trend setter of black soot stains.” And even though I winced a bit at the mention of her cockroach subjects in the next sentence I did snicker.
Narrator Rebekah Amber Clark has a nice range of voices. She definitely got across the variety of emotions that Ruth underwent during this short story. I also enjoyed the mechanical alien voices, perfect.
November 28, 2021
I loved it. It is a quick fun read for children and adults alike.
May 12, 2022
Aliens come to earth and enhance one human, then decide to disintegrate her. She remains alive, and is determoned to resolve everything
August 11, 2022
A intriguing fast paced story of an alien style abduction, that deals in dementions of time space and imagination. I loved it.
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February 10, 2017Young Ruth is enticed by the offers of the Xenophan, but she can also see right through them. A gift from the Xenophan that's backfired...
I have to first say, this book has an amazing cover! The depiction of the aliens is near exact to what the author described. It's covers like this draw me in. It's eye-candy.
Sadly, this story was all over the place and very hard to understand. Ruth starts off speaking as though she's a Queen. I'm thinking the girl (I couldn't quite tell what age she was) was enjoying dreams of grandeur when the floating ink creatures attacked. But it was never stated. Then things take a turn, where I can't quite say I understand what happened. And why did the Xenophan's have to obtain our planetary money to start up corporate businesses? Especially when they ran the world anyway- I was just confused.
I originally purchased the audiobook, but it was so bad I returned it and purchased the ebook, thinking I must have missed something. I walked away from this book terribly confused.
I don't know what to really say about Floating Ink. It's definitely a different sort of tale, but not one that held my interest. You may enjoy it though.
*For the full review: visit www.areneehunt.com
March 22, 2017
Definitely an interesting book. I was a bit lost on the reality bubbles but I enjoyed a new take on alien invasion. Looking forward to book 2 and hoping to find the reality bubbles explained. Good narration by Rebekah Amber Clark.
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October 25, 2016Review to come.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews