{"id":763,"date":"2016-10-31T08:53:23","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T16:53:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/?page_id=763"},"modified":"2025-05-18T20:44:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-19T03:44:36","slug":"jack-magic-software","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/other-books\/jack-magic-software\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack and the Magic Software"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Future Fairy Tale by Robert Plamondon<\/h3>\n
\"Jack<\/a>
Buy on Amazon.<\/a><\/b><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Norton Creek Press, October 2016. 12 pages.<\/em>
\nSuggested retail price, Kindle: $0.99.<\/em><\/p>\n

O<\/span>NCE UPON A TIME<\/span>\u00a0there was a lad named Jack. Jack lived with his mother on Sinclair. They were very poor, for Jack’s father had been killed in a Morversarn raid. His mother had to work very hard to keep them both fed.<\/p>\n

One day his mother said, “Jack, I want you to take your father’s space suit to the market and sell it, or we will have no money to buy food.”<\/p>\n

\u201cBut Mother,\u201d said Jack, \u201cif I sell Father\u2019s space suit, what will I wear when I\u2019m old enough to join the High Militia? How will I become a citizen?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you don\u2019t sell the suit we will starve,\u201d she replied, \u201cand then you\u2019ll never join the High Militia either.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Jack bundled up the space suit and walked to the market, where goods from many worlds were bought and sold. There were fish from Myckhaven, brandy from Barigost, machines from Goa, fierce Great Belt mercenaries ready for hire, even (if you knew where to ask, and were very rich) Terran aphrodisiacs and maps to fabled Grenaduve.<\/p>\n

Jack went from booth to booth, but could find no one who was interested in his father\u2019s space suit.<\/p>\n

\u201cOutdated,\u201d said one.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo much wear,\u201d said another.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are bullet holes in it,\u201d said a third.<\/p>\n

Jack tried and tried, but no one would buy his father\u2019s space suit. Finally, late that evening, he turned to leave. \u201cNow my mother will starve,\u201d he said, \u201cand it\u2019s all my fault.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps I can help,\u201d said a voice. Jack looked up and beheld a fat man with fair hair, wearing worn and faded finery of many garish colors. Jack knew at once that the man was a Goan, and put a hand protectively on his wallet (though in truth there was no money in it).<\/p>\n

\u201cI have need of a space suit,\u201d continued the Goan, \u201cand I am willing to pay you well…\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the Exciting Conclusion!<\/h2>\n

Will Jack trade his father’s space suit for magic software? What will become of Jack and his poor mother? There’s only one way to find out!<\/p>\n

Available\u00a0only on Kindle<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Future Fairy Tale by Robert Plamondon Norton Creek Press, October 2016. 12 pages. Suggested retail price, Kindle: $0.99. ONCE UPON A TIME\u00a0there was a lad named Jack. Jack lived with his mother on Sinclair. They were very poor, for Jack’s father had been killed in a Morversarn raid. His mother had to work very … Continue reading “Jack and the Magic Software”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":270,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-763","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-books-by-robert","category-fiction"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P71zFO-cj","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":33,"url":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/other-books\/one_survivor\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":0},"title":"One Survivor","author":"Robert Plamondon","date":"August 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Lost, friendless, and outgunned: Young Beverly di Mendoza knew something was up when her father cut short their Terran layover and changed their route to pass through Barigost, a planet she had never heard of. But she did not expect these events to lead to murder and betrayal.","rel":"","context":"In "Books by Robert"","block_context":{"text":"Books by Robert","link":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/category\/books-by-robert\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/one_survivor_cover_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":270,"url":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/other-books\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":1},"title":"Other Books","author":"Robert Plamondon","date":"November 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And we also have books that don't it into nice, neat categories, that we published because we like them! A Thousand Miles up the Nile\u00a0by Amelia B. Edwards. One Survivor\u00a0by Robert Plamondon. Plotto: The Classic Plot Suggestion Tool for Writers of Creative Fiction\u00a0by William Wallace Cook. The Fiction Factory by\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"1000_miles_up_the_nile_sm1.jpg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/1000_miles_up_the_nile_sm1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6,"url":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/about_us\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":2},"title":"About Us","author":"Robert Plamondon","date":"April 17, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Norton Creek Press is a small publishing house in Blodgett Oregon. We (Robert Plamondon and Karen Black) started Norton Creek Press because most of the books we wanted to recommend to people were out of print. This was frustrating! Also, after trying it both ways, Robert prefers self-publishing the books\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":957,"url":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/privacy-policy\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":3},"title":"Privacy Policy","author":"Robert Plamondon","date":"June 21, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"No one reads these. Hello, robo-bureaucrats! See, I have a privacy policy page! Are you happy now?","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":990,"url":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/ruth-stout\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":4},"title":"Ruth Stout","author":"Robert Plamondon","date":"June 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Ruth Stout (1884-1980) was everyone's favorite gardener and lovable eccentric, and we're delighted to have republished four of her books: Gardening Without Work (in regular and large-print editions). Her most famous book, all about no-work, no-dig, no-chemicals deep-mulch gardening. Company Coming, a book of anecdotes revolving around her many eccentric\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Ruth Stout"","block_context":{"text":"Ruth Stout","link":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/category\/ruth-stout\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/Company-Coming-by-Ruth-Stoutt-098192848X.350px.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":272,"url":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/back-to-the-land-2\/ten-acres-enough\/","url_meta":{"origin":763,"position":5},"title":"Ten Acres Enough","author":"Robert Plamondon","date":"November 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Small-Farm Self-Sufficiency Through High-Quality Produce A Back-to-the-Land Adventure from 1864 By Edmund Morris \"Revived Edition\" Edited by Robert Plamondon Norton Creek Press. ISBN 978-0-9721770-8-5. 176 pages. Ten years after Henry David Thoreau learned how to be a poor farmer, Edmund Morris learned how to be a good one. Ten Acres\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Back to the Land"","block_context":{"text":"Back to the Land","link":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/category\/back-to-the-land\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Ten_acres_enough_cover_sm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=763"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":767,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/763\/revisions\/767"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nortoncreekpress.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}