Another piratical pair: Masumi and Theolonia

Two more of the six pirates in Avast!

The final two will be along shortly.

Story of the Week: Weird and Wondrous Worlds

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Predominantly planetary stories of science fiction.  Visit these weird, wondrous worlds.

The Element of Surprise
Comrades in arms Meg Nichols and Allie Oshikawa just want to enjoy the concert during their brief leave on Jupiter’s moon.  Some local rabble, though, mistakes the soldiers for easy targets.

Weights and Measures
Technology:  the best—if not the only measure—by which to judge a planet?  If not, what other criteria apply?  And how much weight should they carry when a new world petitions to join the interplanetary union?

Line of Duty
Seven generations of women.  Seven generations of soldiers.  With the youngest about to graduate from the academy, her grandmother and great-great-grandmother strive to make it to the ceremony on time..

Treasure
Thieves take advantage of a careless captain and highjack his cargo of precious gems.  His friends chase after it, trying to recover it before anyone else learns of the theft—and before the thieves sell it.

Quarry
Ten-ton spiders already call the planet home.  The incoming colonists discover the arachnids, with deadly consequences.  Can the humans communicate before the natives eat all of them?

Starburst
One young commander on a remote interstellar base stands between Earth and all-out invasion.  She fights to keep the aliens at bay, even if it costs her her life.

I Don’t Step on Ants
Evacuating a dozen scientist before catastrophe strikes:  no problem.  Preventing the moon-sized asteroid from slamming into a planet teeming with life:  huge problem.  And the researchers there expect a war-weary captian to help them solve it and avert the extinction of an entire world.

Invisibility
A group of people flees, wanting only solitude to avoid any and all threats to their pacifism.  When another starship discovers their hiding place, their secrecy clashes with the other crew’s wish to leave.

Crystal of Souls
An ancient artifact with religious significance and perhaps even mysterious power.  Religious leaders want it to unite the planet.  Military leaders want it to stop a war.  Their enemies want it to prevent both.

Yay! Debbie Viguié’s Nevermore now available!

Kindle                       Nook

Stories of the Week: Two Tales of Patel

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Two short stories gathered in one volume. One name, but two adventurous women in two different centuries who carry on the family tradition of fighting ghosts, demons, or whatever insidious evil threatens.

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Sapphire Guardians

A murderous band of thieves. A vengeful horde of ghosts. Jungle guide Amina Patel and her friend (and force of nature) Victoria race to find Amina’s twin brother first.

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An Ancient Key

The Patels: a family of globetrotting troubleshooters over several generations. Amina Patel inherited far more than just her name from her great-grandmother. Relying only on each other, Amina, her husband and their twins, race to prevent members of the ruthless Crimson Talon from unleashing the Demon Lord on the world.

Story of the Week: Tuagi

As a mediator and freelancer, I sneak.  I spy.  I use pretty much any method to gather information.  I avoid fights—not like freelance warriors, women bulging with muscles, unlike me.  And I avoid falling in love—most especially not with a prince, the grandson of the queen.

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Latchkeys #4 on the horizon!

Courtesy of Crazy 8 Press.  From their blog:

From Pixies to Poe to the Roaring Twenties—

(and everything in between, below, beyond, beside)

By Kris Katzen

My first reaction when Steven Savile sketched his concept for Latchkeys:  WOW!  WAY COOL!

My second reaction:  me, too, please!

Steve graciously included me in with his diverse group of writers who are all scary talented.

Writing is so often solitary that when an opportunity comes along to collaborate with a bunch of pros on a project, it’s a great joy and a ton of fun.  With everyone’s vastly different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives, we set out to fill in some of the blanks Steve had left and build a framework we all could use.  It wasn’t contention-free, but all the debate and the back and forth made for something much different than any of us would have come up with alone: something exciting and unique to the Hive.

Which brings us to those Roaring Twenties, in the form of The Bootleg War, also known as Speakeasy Part One.  This story contributed a piece to our shared world, but more than that, it served as the first half of a story to be concluded by a different author in the group.

James Reasoner.

James is a gentleman through and through.  It was a huge pleasure to work with him.  We consulted and planned, shooting questions back and forth, figuring out exactly what story we wanted to tell, then deciding how to break it down, and what pieces to put where.   We hope we came up with a fast-paced thrill ride through the era of gangsters and molls and prohibition in New York City.

Many of the Latchkey‘s episodes showcase a particular character or two.  Unlatched introduced Tanglewood not just to the readers, but to Matt as well.  Kaitlyn played a major role in The Ugly Little Bloke and Jeremy took the lead in Nevermore.  For this story, we wanted a team effort from the get-go.  The rest of the Wardens are already seasoned adventurers.  Matt’s fitting right in with them.  James and I wanted the dynamic of all of them working together, showing how they all have fantastic skills, but together add up to so much more.  Upcoming installments will give Mercy, Marguerite and Will—and even Amina and Emmaline—their due.

For The Bootleg War, though, I spread around the action and gave everyone plenty to keep them busy—and get them into a heap of trouble.  Which I then passed to James to get them out of.  He did a masterful job, but that’s for him to talk about next month.

For now, I can’t praise the rest of the Hive enough for all their contributions to the project, and for everyone’s incredibly helpful and thoughtful comments which improved my story immensely.  I’m thrilled to be in such good company.  Special thanks to Steve for letting me play in his sandbox, and to James whom I worked with most closely on doing the actual writing.

While James worked on part two, part one went to Paul Kupperberg for another look, so HUGE thanks to him for all his work and the immense help he provided as well.

Finally, any litany of thanks would be sorely incomplete without mention of the wonderful artist Vance Kelly and the lovely covers he’s done.

Meet two of the pirates: Adaeze and Nikki

Just two of the six pirates in Avast!

The other four will be along shortly.