Karen Chance

Short Story

Karen Chance — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 21:58:46 +0000

Came across this short I wrote ages ago. It seemed weirdly appropriate at the moment.

The Same Old Shit

“What do you think this was?” I held up my latest find.

Jack never even glanced at it. “Don’t know; don’t care. You know what we’re looking for. And stop playing.”

“Playing is how I find the best stuff.”

That did win me a glance, if a sardonic one. “Is that what you call it?”

“I call it fun.” I put the stained and dirty item over my shoulders. It looked something like a horse collar, except that it was open in front. I couldn’t figure it out because that would let the neck pop through.

I looked up to find Jack watching me, a smile twitching his lips. “What?”

“You should take that off.”

Something in the way he said it made me narrow my eyes. “You know what it is.”

“Might’ve seen one, once or twice.”

“Where?” I asked skeptically. Because Jack saw the same things I did, day after day: wheat, corn, and oats, fields and fields of them, the ones that weren’t serving as grazing land for cows or pigs, that is. And the one-horse town—literally, as all the rest had been taken by the army—where we both lived. There was nothing interesting there.

“Guess.”

“Guess?” I frowned slightly. Jack wasn’t the guessing type. He was the strong, silent, pragmatic type, with black smudges all over his hands and forearms as he wrestled with the guts of the machine we were trying to harvest.

“You wanted to have fun,” he pointed out. He pulled a bandanna out of his back pocket and wiped some sweat off his brow. It ruffled up his jet-black hair, which was already a mess, and set off the startling blue of his eyes.

If he was a girl, they’d have taken him for the courtesan corps for sure, I thought, not for the first time.

I glanced around.

“No, it wasn’t here. That would be cheating,” he said seriously.

Jack didn’t believe in cheating. He was too much of a straight shooter. I, on the other hand, cheated every chance I got and was proud of it.

I pondered the problem while he wrestled with the rusted monster’s metal guts. It was bigger than most, a half-yellow, half-oxidized orange hulk slowly sliding back into the land, and until recently, a hatchery for bunnies. I eyed the nest by one deflated tire, which was now just a wallow of flattened grasses.

Damn. Rabbit stew sounded good, with some potatoes that I could make sure fell off a wagon. That was the good thing about potatoes. Yields were never that precise, and a tater or two gone amiss would never be missed. Plus, they filled the belly nicely, especially if it had a good gravy surrounding—

“Are you going to guess or not?” Jack asked impatiently.

“How many guesses do I get?”

“Three.”

“Not here, and not on the farm, or I’d have seen,” I said. His family’s place was just up the road from ours, and had nothing but big, old-fashioned, tilt-nosed pigs, more’s the pity.

You couldn’t shove one of them off a wagon.

“Not here, and not on the farm,” he agreed.

“In town then.”

“Which town?”

My eyes widened. “You don’t mean Bayswood!”

He nodded. “Went there with grandad, when I was six.”

“You never told me!”

“I don’t remember much about it. Just pieces, here and there. And half of that I’m not sure I saw, or if somebody told me later, and I think I saw.”

“Bayswood,” I said enviously. It was the biggest town in the region, where the governor lived and the local musters assembled. I’d always wanted to see it. “This thing is important, then.”

“Guess it depends on how you look at it.”

I frowned and took it off to look at it some more, but there were no clues to be had. Just a piece of that weird plastic stuff the old ones had liked, and that we kept digging up in fields, hanging up the plow. Only this was thick and slightly squishy on one side.

Like a horse collar. I kept coming back to that, although I knew it wasn’t right. It was too small.

“A pony collar?”

He actually laughed at that. “Close. Although fit more for an ass.”

I frowned. I didn’t get it. Until he told me.

I threw it on the ground, and almost squealed before I caught myself. This place was deserted, except for the birds that nested in all the towering old ruins, but it never paid to be careless. “You bastard!”

“I told you to put it down.”

I looked at it again, where it had come to rest beside some piled-up wreckage. “I don’t believe you. They sat on that to—why?”

“For padding.”

I looked behind me. I was padded enough. But then, there were splinters sometimes. The outhouse we used was old, and the boards were well-worn down, but some others had bitten me.

Maybe the old ones had been onto something, for a change.

I added it to the junk on the wagon, which we were going to take back home to strip for parts and repurpose for whatever use we could find. And then sell them on the black market, which was the only way anybody made money these days. The army came through and took everything else, for their endless wars and endless greed, even though those were the very things that got us into this mess in the first place.

People would never learn.

I added the squashy seat thing to the rest, as an afterthought. I knew a woman who had just made a new outhouse; maybe she could find a use for it. After boiling it for a while, I thought, grimacing.

It was getting late, and the sun was slanting through the old, ruined towers, those still standing. We hitched up old Pete, who we’d let nibble on the grasses that grew everywhere now, and took off for home. It had been a good haul today.

Maybe we’d last through the winter, after all.

5 Stars for Weird Magic!

Karen Chance — Mon, 02 Feb 2026 21:07:20 +0000

Tome Tender gave Weird Magic 5 stars! “The characters at the center of this book are fierce, funny, and instantly engaging.” Check out their full review.

We Have a Winner!

Karen Chance — Sun, 01 Feb 2026 06:33:11 +0000

We have a winner! The Weird Magic contest winner is the epically named Myth Rowley! Myth, I already sent you an email about how to get your prize. Thanks to everyone for playing, and more contests and fun stuff are headed your way this year. And stay warm to all my fellow East Coast peeps. :-)

Audiobook for Weird Magic!

Karen Chance — Sat, 31 Jan 2026 00:39:34 +0000

Woo Hoo! There’s going to be an audiobook for Weird Magic! More later when I know the release date. Also, get any last-minute contest entries in, as I’m pulling a winner on Sunday!

Weird Magic Contest!

Karen Chance — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 16:29:46 +0000

Weird Magic is out, and to celebrate, I’m doing a contest! Just send your name to Karen Chance at hotmail dot com, and I’ll choose three lucky winners on February 1. Each winner will get a signed copy of Weird Magic and a $25 Amazon gift card! Good luck and happy reading!

Weird Magic is Up!

Karen Chance — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 15:34:43 +0000

Weird Magic, the second Lia de Croisset’s novel is now up on Amazon! You can find it in all formats here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GGJD1M69

I have also submitted it to Draft2Digital, so it should be showing up at Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, etc., before long. Thanks, and I hope you enjoy reading. I think this one is super fun!

Weird Magic is Finished!!!

Karen Chance — Thu, 01 Jan 2026 23:23:59 +0000

Weird Magic, the second Lia de Croissets’ book, is finally finished!!! I will post in about a week, after I do all the boring stuff like formatting and a final proof, and will announce here when it’s live. I hope you’re all having a wonderful New Year!

Audiobook Winners!

Karen Chance — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 22:49:58 +0000

We have winners in the audiobook contest for Tsunami! Congrats to: Em Zimmerman, Sarah Dragoon, Nancy Martin, Raechel Rubiales, Anne Marie Witkowski, Beth Castleton, Fressy Baudrit, Bronwen Hobbs, Sophia Walker, and Sally Chung! You’ll receive an email tomorrow about how to claim your prize. Thanks for playing, and look for another contest for Weird Magic in a few weeks. :-)

Hijack the Seas: Tsunami Audiobook!

Karen Chance — Tue, 16 Sep 2025 15:14:23 +0000

Audiobooks are out! I have ten bright and shiny copies of Hijack the Seas: Tsunami to give away, and by now, you guys know the drill. Send your name, or whatever alias you prefer to go by, to Karen Chance at hotmail.com with “Audiobook Contest” in the title. I’ll do a random draw of names on September 21st for ten lucky winners! Thanks, and good luck!

First Three Chapters of Lia #2!

Karen Chance — Fri, 29 Aug 2025 10:38:40 +0000

The first three chapters of Weird Magic, the new Lia de Croissets book (coming soon), are now available on the Books page of my website! https://karenchance.com/weird-magic/