FIREFLY is not only a great story, it’s a great writing teacher, too

Join me today at the blog home of Viviana MacKade, where I discuss the power of the series FIREFLY, lessons writers can learn from it, and an excerpt from HORIZON SHIFT for you to enjoy! Check it out here!

Is reputation everything? SFFS Oct. 26

Hello, sci-fi fans and friends! I’m finally getting things back on track after a whirlwind summer from hell that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. (Well, maybe on my WORST enemy. Just sayin’.)

I’ve been nose-deep in the second novel in the Horizon Crossover series, and just now am coming up for air, about to submit it for editing. Those of you who are writers may sympathize with the issue, in series writing, of trying to get back into the flow of a cast of characters and a setting after you’ve worked on other things in between. *raises hand* Learned my lesson here. So I’ll go right into book three, HORIZON DYNASTY as a NaNoWriMo project so I can kick out the first draft while I’m still immersed in these people’s lives.

Today’s snippet is set in a repair and parts shop in the city of Roandock, on planet Marriel. Under-the-table dealer Jowalt Edwards has been approached by Temms Rogers and his mercenary captain friend C.T. Dutton for information about some mysterious alien artifacts associated with the Ancients. Rogers has previously learned that the Ancients seeded the universes with their progeny and are actively trying to re-engage with those left behind.  Jowalt, however, is less than excited about that:

***
Jowalt rolled his dark eyes. “Yeah, you want to harvest the artifacts and build yourself a superweapon.”

            Temms couldn’t have been more surprised if Jowalt had punched him in the face. “I—what?”

Jowalt’s gaze darted from one of them to the other like a vole hyped up on speed. “That’s what the scuttlebutt says–you hunted down a gob of those artifacts already, and you used them to destroy an empire where you came from. You’re looking for these so you can challenge the Agency and you’re going to destroy the worlds.”

            A shocked silence settled over the room at his pronouncement, then C.T. started laughing.

            “All this time I’ve been associating with a destroyer of worlds, and I didn’t even know it? Hey, Temms, why haven’t you just singlehandedly blown up Agency headquarters by now?”

***

It sure would have saved a lot of time, I suppose, but that’s obviously not what happened. 🙂

Hope to be here more regularly, with new material. You’re all still plugging away–I’m proud of you!

Never a dull moment…

Happy Saturday scifi and fantasy fans! Hope you have something lovely planned–here in beautiful Crawford County, it’s the last night of the huge fair…demolition derby and fireworks! Highlight of the backwoods week. 🙂

But out in space, book two of the Horizon Crossover series is slowly coming together. HORIZON STRIFE picks up a year after Temms Rogers and his crew burst through a wormhole into a new universe. They face new issues and new enemies:

After his sudden, shocking arrival in the Mariel star system, his ship broken and crew decimated, Captain Temms Rogers has fought his way back to self-sufficiency, even prosperity, in a new universe with his new crew. Over the months, he’s established a reputation as a fair and competent mercenary ship—if someone’s got a job, he can handle it. His fledgling alliance with the powerful Consortium has opened many doors for him, and he repays that support with his loyalty.

As time goes on, what appeared to be a rosy future begins to pale. First, the Consortium’s system rival, The Agency, takes notice of Rogers’ efforts to rally the other independent ship owners against them, and trouble isn’t far behind. Worse, those officers who crossed over through the wormhole with Rogers have begun to fall ill, victim to a local virus or germ to which they’ve never been exposed or developed immunity.

 Just when he needs his ship at full battle readiness, Rogers finds his crew incapacitated, one by one, leaving the new recruits from this side of the barrier to try to rescue them from impending death.

Even as he deals with these possibilities, Rogers finds he has to face a horrifying fate worse than that of his crew: a lovesick doctor determined to marry him—or else!

So here’s today’s snippet, from the opening chapter:

The door slammed open, and the two men, blindfolded and bound, were shoved inside, bouncing off the hallway’s narrow walls. “Keep moving!” barked the man who’d brought them. He planted a hand firmly in the back of the second in command of the ship Ramman and pushed him ahead into the darkness.

“Captain, what do they want?” the second gasped between clenched teeth.

“Shut up,” his captain replied. Jak Moster had been around this cosmos for nearly sixty-five annuals, forty of those dealing with the financial monster called the Agency. The organization controlled the way free captains did business in nearly the whole interplanetary sector, on an unofficial basis. The local governments couldn’t—or wouldn’t—take action against them.

He had a pretty good idea what was wanted here–most important now was the ability to stay alive through this encounter. It might happen, too.

***

Poor Jak. Not a good time to be wrong.

If you haven’t read HORIZON SHIFT yet, it’s still available. Check it out here:

PAPERBACK LINKS:
| Alibris.com
| Amazon.com
| Amazon.UK
| Barnes & Noble

or also on Kindle.

For more wonderful snippets for FREE, check out the rest of today’s list at Science Fiction and Fantasy Saturday!

 

 

Too many stories, so little time–Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday for March 2

Four books releasing in March? What the heck was I thinking???

Oh yeah, I remember. I’m going to That Book Place for  an Author’s Fair in Madison, Indiana, and I wanted to be able to take new books with me. *headdesk*

So I have the fourth book in the Clan Elves series, THE ELF GUARDIAN:

And a story, “A Recipe For Success,” in SIDEKICKS, the new speculative fiction anthology from Alliteration Ink (writing as Alana Lorens):

And a new contemporary romance called BY ANY OTHER NAME coming from Desert Breeze Publishing   March 23…(also writing as Alana Lorens)

Holy Mother of bacon and blueberry muffins, Batman!

I feel like I’m tied to one of the fans on a windmill, spinning around trying to see which book I’m talking about THIS time.

Oh, wait. I know. I’m talking about the first book in the Horizon Crossover series, HORIZON SHIFT.

Here’s the blurb: When Captain Temms Rogers of the Confederation spaceship Doubtful disobeys orders to attack innocent civilians, he and his crew become hunted rebels. In the midst of a desperate space battle, they risk using an experimental alien device that opens a wormhole which hurls them into a new universe.

(Yes, the name of his ship is the Doubtful, and yes, there’s a good reason for it. It’s in the book. 🙂  )

Captain Rogers has a lot on his mind, what with trying to save what’s left of his ship and his crew in the new universe. Even his sleep is troubled with worries:

When he finished saying grace, the children passed bowls of food and chattered about school as Connie corrected their grammar and manners. He could only watch–he couldn’t move.

Connie said something about the Confederation school and Tommy bragged about how he couldn’t wait to become a Confederation officer like his dad.

Temms wanted to tell Tommy he was forbidden to go. Tommy passed the tray of broiled meat, and small marks appeared on his shirt, red marks that got bigger and more liquid. Blood.

Tommy babbled about joining the Confederation corps as he slowly bled out and Connie looked at Temms, accusing him.

“How could you let this happen? How could you?”

He couldn’t move.

****

Here’s another snippet from December 2012 from HORIZON SHIFT, and here’s where you can catch a whole bunch of assorted free snippets from authors around the world at Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday– come by and read them all!