Wreck (A stand-alone novel)
Some dreams die a natural, lonely death ... others get ripped away from the dreamer, torn and bloody.
Ricardo Sandoval, captain of an obsolete asteroid-mining ship, now reduced to merely prospecting for large mining conglomerates, still dreams of striking it rich and returning to his home planet a success, and rubbing that success in the faces of those who doubted him.
While fighting to hold onto that dream, he makes first contact with an alien intelligence -- an AI in charge of a badly damaged alien ship. The AI needs his help so the wreck can complete its mission; he needs the wreck for the fame and fortune it will bring him if he takes it home.
Only one of the two can see their dream come true, for time will not permit both to succeed -- and the stakes make it a life-or-death matter for both.
Ricardo Sandoval, captain of an obsolete asteroid-mining ship, now reduced to merely prospecting for large mining conglomerates, still dreams of striking it rich and returning to his home planet a success, and rubbing that success in the faces of those who doubted him.
While fighting to hold onto that dream, he makes first contact with an alien intelligence -- an AI in charge of a badly damaged alien ship. The AI needs his help so the wreck can complete its mission; he needs the wreck for the fame and fortune it will bring him if he takes it home.
Only one of the two can see their dream come true, for time will not permit both to succeed -- and the stakes make it a life-or-death matter for both.
PARTISAN OF PELGRAFF
TRADING IN SECRETS
TRADING FOR WAR
ONE TRADE TOO MANY
Book 3 of The Yrden Chronicles
Newly promoted to the captaincy of the Yrden tradeship Blue Powder, Clay Yrden, along with his wife Colleen get word that the Damarg Empire has invited them to open a trade route into their space, something that the Family Trading League has desired since first becoming aware of the Damargs.
But there are others who frown upon the Yrden success, and have made plans to take down the Family. Clay and Colleen must discover who they are and who they represent, and why the enmity before their enemy can succeed in destroying and Yrden ship -- perhaps theirs -- while dealing with an alien bureaucracy that might accomplish that same goal.
TRADING FOR A DREAM
TRADING FOR THE STARS
The Yrden Family traders have two mottos: “Fair Trade” and “We Pay Our Debts”.
“They plan to kill you, steal your cargo, and crash your shuttle to mask their deed. Forget about trade. Just get in your craft and fly away. Tonight,” Colleen Newborn tells the young trader, Clay Yrden. A fair trade for his life, she figures, would be passage away from the small town of Glencayther, and the planet Erin itself.
But nothing ever comes easily for Colleen. Clay fails to believe her, having had others use this ploy to get him to take them into space. This leaves her no option but to save his life, regardless, and to do anything necessary to ensure that he accepts that helping her to escape is a fair trade, a debt owed.
A mayday call, which the Yrden Family ship answers, complicates matters, leaving the two of them planet-bound, where the slightest mistake might cost them their lives.
Trading For The Stars -- Available at Amazon
Trading For The Stars -- Trade Paperback at CreateSpace
Read sample now on Amazon.com
A THRONE AT STAKE
Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery) 110,000 words (approx 320 pages)
Pledging herself to Prince Parsigul’s quest to gain his rightful place on the throne of his deposed father, the beautiful Lady Galinia risks violating one – or both – of the two commandments that every sorcerer learns in the Halls. First: With sorcery, aid no man in a fight against another man; and, second: Never cast a weave against another sorcerer.
Violate the first, and a caster risks the trust slowly and painfully built up between sorcerers and the world of men over the generations; violate the second, one opens the possibility of a wizard’s war – the original cause of the loss of trust – unleashing untold violence and destruction.
Tasked by Parsigul with preparing the way through non-aligned territory, Lady Galinia runs afoul of her opposite number, Hadryl, a sorceress attempting to stir the population against her prince and his army. With a throne – and her future position as queen – at stake, Galinia prepares a trap, setting the stage for a confrontation that she and her prince can ill afford.
Hadryl, having suffered at Lady Galinia’s hand, takes refuge on a farm, taken in by a rough farmer, Grath. She waits there for her moment to revenge herself upon the Lady Galinia, no matter the cost to herself. Grath, with a war at hand, decides to use Hadryl's presence to further his own ends.
A Throne at Stake on Amazon
Read sample now on Amazon.com
PELGRAFF:
On a planet peacefully and harmoniously populated by both humans and the gorilla-like Pagayans, civil war has broken out, fostered by a third species, the Damargs. None of Earth's ex-colony worlds want to hear about it, much less get involved. But one member of the space-based Trading League, Colleen Yrden, is raising an Interplanetary Brigade to fight on Pelgraff.
Alan McLean left the New Brittain police service under a cloud: he killed a man under questionable circumstances. His need to belong to something, anything, drives him to accept Colleen's offer of employment--to help train the Interplanetary Brigade--despite his natural disgust at the endeavour and his dislike for the Pagayans. It doesn't hurt that she believes in him where all others have turned their backs.
Though he signs on to train men in weapons and tactics only, he finds himself drawn into the conflict and his growing hatred of the brutal Damargs--as well as his unrequited feelings for Colleen--holds him on Pelgraff even as politics makes the prospect of eventual victory increasingly unlikely and his bigotry towards Pagayans makes equally unlikely a relationship with Colleen. Others may leave, but McLean is determined to stay to the end, however it turns out.
Pelgraff on Amazon -- Digital or Trade Paperback
Pelgraff -- Trade Paperback at CreateSpace
Read sample now on Amazon.com
COURTESAN
She needed a ship to escape pursuers; he a companion on a trip to the stars. The deal seemed straight-forward, but neither told the other everything.
Jaswinder Saroya believed that her research in the area of Hyperspace Field Theory would benefit everyone: Family Traders, the InterPlanetary Corporations, Earth's Colonies and governments alike. She erred in not considering commercial and political consequences. Now, someone wants to steal or bury her research and, perhaps, her with it. With no way to fight this unknown foe, Jaswinder knows she has but one chance--complete her research and publish. To do that, she has to stay alive and stay free.
Pilot Johannes Yrden desires a courtesan, someone to keep him company on the 8 month trip to the planet Liberty and back. He wants someone not from the Yrden Family spaceship and to hell with his brother, Captain Matt Yrden, who believes the TransPlanetary Corporations will stock his line-up with spies.
Yrden's plan runs afoul of circumstance, which throws him together with one 'Jazz Saro', a woman on the run. Forced to run with her, Yrden allows her to convince him to sign her on as courtesan. He needs a companion; she needs a ship, a place to hide. It seems a simple enough arrangement.
Jaswinder thinks she's found her perfect solution: a hiding place in hyperspace, where she can complete her research using the ship as her laboratory. Unfortunately, she hasn't reckoned on the possibility of one of her pursuers booking passage, forcing her to maintain the fiction of her alias. The pilot's family, with troubles of their own, grow suspicious and it becomes apparent she cannot complete her research openly. That leaves her the choice: Do what she needs to do to in order to save Jaswinder's life or become Jazz Saro.
Courtesan on Amazon.com
Read sample now on Amazon.com
GHOST FLEET
Ghost Fleet - military SF 104,000 words
The superstitious call them Ghost Ships. Experts say they are scanner echoes tossed out of the past by the Phenomenon. The rumors and a cryptic entry in an ancestor's diary propel Lieutenant-Commander Mart Britlot of the Confederation navy into the dangerous Sivon sector of space. There, Britlot hopes to find help for the Confederation, now facing a two-front war.
As the last living Confederation descendant of the Adian nation, Britlot is obsessed with finding the ghost ships, believed destroyed during a mass emigration 300 years in the past. He dreams of riding to the rescue at the head of the never defeated Adian fleet; he dreams of finding family after the death of all his near relatives at the hands of the Combine. He'll drive his ship and crew beyond endurance to achieve this.
The felid Tlartox Empire, eager to avenge their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Confederation, has voted to annul the long-standing peace treaty. The glory of The Hunt beckons. Admiral Tood Tlomega has focused on the human planet Lormar, with its great naval base, as a fitting target for retribution. She will return dignity to the people of Tlar. She will return them to the path that Tlar illuminated so many centuries ago.
But a small band of Tlartox subversives intend to rake a claw across the plans of the war-mongers, and give both the Empire and the Confederation something they hadn't counted on.
Ghost Fleet on Amazon.com
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IN THE COMPANY OF COWARDS
Fantasy; 79,500 Words
Young Rel Panace, son of the First Councilor to the Thane of Greltin, finds himself running like a coward from hoodlums who would beat him, perhaps to death. Trapped in a blind alley, right arm useless, his pursuers catch him. Only the timely intervention of Coll, a man with a brand upon his left cheek, saves him.
Rel discovers this brand marks those found guilty of cowardice on the battlefield, and that many more men in the city carry this mark. They call themselves the Rookschlo, an ancient word meaning "The Betrayed". Drawn to Coll, Rel hopes to learn the skills he needs to survive in the city, to find in himself the inner strength that this 'coward' seems to have.
But other forces are at play, and soon only Rel and the Rookschlo stand between the city and disaster.
In The Company of Cowards on Amazon.com
Read the sample on Amazon.com
THE STEADFASTING
Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery) 94,000 words
Saddled with a woman he neither trusts nor wants, Karsten has good reason to regret agreeing to take on the role of Steadfast. Now, he must find a way to rid himself of her without mentioning his mission, which has nothing to do with the trader façade he maintains.
Arialla so desires to leave Kellok's Crossing and her own secret behind that she accepts the Steadfast, though he seems both a man without honour and a coward. In addition, she discovers he believes, as she feels a child might, in Sorcerers, Woodsies and Lehr Cats.
Unless the two can come to terms with each other and their unexpected and unwanted partnership, they may not survive what lies in wait for both.
The Steadfasting on Amazon.com
PILTON'S MOON/VENGEANCE IN MINE
Two short Novellas. Total word count: 40,000
PILTON'S MOON: Brendon Kinso has come to Tarlton's World to bury his brother. From his first step on the planet, Kinso feels hunted. He hires Callie Torbold, a local detective, to discover the validity of this feeling. Now both are on the run, and to survive they must solve the mystery of Pilton's Moon--the war which took the lives of every man, woman and child on that mining colony. And to do this they must deal with the Tswentap, the spider-like race which perpetrated the massacre and has no love for humans.
VENGEANCE IS MINE: The Vocem never wanted humans in space. A sudden and overwhelming attack wipes out the Earth Fleet--except for 'Candlelight', an undermanned and crippled scoutship captained by Lt. Carlton Voss, whose love died in the attack. Voss swears vengeance.
Flying his ship straight into another war, he becomes a hero to an unknown species. He decides, against the wishes of his crew, to mold his new allies into the instrument of his vengeance--even should that destroy the species.
Pilton's Moon / Vengeance is Mine on Amazon.com
Read sample on Amazon.com
PREY (free story)
Science Fiction short story. 6000 words
Krin Tlento,of the felid Tlartox, finds herself on the run from the bulls of the barendi herd she was hunting. Her radio sabotaged, she has but one option: to face death with honor, as befits one of the People of Tlar, with her fangs in the throat of a barendi bull. In the unlikely event she should survive, her second priority is to retake her ship from the mutineers who left her to die.
Prey on Amazon.com
COLDSLEEP
Science Fiction Short Story -- 6300 words
It takes eleven months for a supply ship to make the Earth-Liberty run. With colonists in ColdSleep and cargo handlers supplied by the space stations, the supply ship Restful travels with a minimal crew. The boredom of the long flight encourages laxity on the part of the crew, but when time comes to waken the sleepers, that has to change and Captain Jeffers, responsible for ship, crew and colonists, finds himself fighting an uphill battle.
On top of that, Jeffers worries about 'The Sickness'. Rumours about the effects of ColdSleep have surrounded the program. It is said that no one comes out mentally unchanged.
ColdSleep on Amazon.com
ENEMY OF KORGAN
SF novel; 109,000 words.
He was prospector, smuggler and spy. And then things became complicated. What can a man of honour do when he finds himself working for both sides?
When Lorne witnesses the ambush of a caravan, he ends up protecting those he would otherwise consider enemies. Taken in by the hated Korgans, honoured as a hero, Lorne begins to work for them even as he plots their destruction. Living a lie is no life worth living and, torn by promises made to both sides, he struggles to find a way out that doesn’t entail the breaking of his word—even to one he has sworn to kill.
Enemy of Korgan on Amazon.com
Read sample on Amazon.com
Book 3 of The Yrden Chronicles
Newly promoted to the captaincy of the Yrden tradeship Blue Powder, Clay Yrden, along with his wife Colleen get word that the Damarg Empire has invited them to open a trade route into their space, something that the Family Trading League has desired since first becoming aware of the Damargs.
But there are others who frown upon the Yrden success, and have made plans to take down the Family. Clay and Colleen must discover who they are and who they represent, and why the enmity before their enemy can succeed in destroying and Yrden ship -- perhaps theirs -- while dealing with an alien bureaucracy that might accomplish that same goal.
TRADING FOR A DREAM
Newly married and just
getting used to her position in a space-based trading family, Colleen Yrden
looks forward to her honeymoon on Liberty Station before she and husband, Clay,
join their new ship and start their new life. Her plans don’t include getting
on the wrong side of the station’s crime boss, but an inadvertent good deed
puts her in his crosshairs. She should take Clay's advice to distance herself
from the man she helped, but something about him resonates with her and, for
better or for worse, she cannot.
Adrian Telford has the
reputation of a man you don’t want to get annoyed at you. A hired killer who
has killed once too often, Telford wants to leave the life, but his boss has
other plans that don’t include letting Telford go. A kindness given by a woman
who sees the man and not the reputation has Telford dreaming of a different
life – but the woman already has a husband. He should walk away, but he owes; paying
off the debt might cost his very life.
Read the sample on Amazon.com here
Read the sample on Amazon.com here
TRADING FOR THE STARS
The Yrden Family traders have two mottos: “Fair Trade” and “We Pay Our Debts”.
“They plan to kill you, steal your cargo, and crash your shuttle to mask their deed. Forget about trade. Just get in your craft and fly away. Tonight,” Colleen Newborn tells the young trader, Clay Yrden. A fair trade for his life, she figures, would be passage away from the small town of Glencayther, and the planet Erin itself.
But nothing ever comes easily for Colleen. Clay fails to believe her, having had others use this ploy to get him to take them into space. This leaves her no option but to save his life, regardless, and to do anything necessary to ensure that he accepts that helping her to escape is a fair trade, a debt owed.
A mayday call, which the Yrden Family ship answers, complicates matters, leaving the two of them planet-bound, where the slightest mistake might cost them their lives.
Trading For The Stars -- Available at Amazon
Trading For The Stars -- Trade Paperback at CreateSpace
Read sample now on Amazon.com
A THRONE AT STAKE
Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery) 110,000 words (approx 320 pages)
Pledging herself to Prince Parsigul’s quest to gain his rightful place on the throne of his deposed father, the beautiful Lady Galinia risks violating one – or both – of the two commandments that every sorcerer learns in the Halls. First: With sorcery, aid no man in a fight against another man; and, second: Never cast a weave against another sorcerer.
Violate the first, and a caster risks the trust slowly and painfully built up between sorcerers and the world of men over the generations; violate the second, one opens the possibility of a wizard’s war – the original cause of the loss of trust – unleashing untold violence and destruction.
Tasked by Parsigul with preparing the way through non-aligned territory, Lady Galinia runs afoul of her opposite number, Hadryl, a sorceress attempting to stir the population against her prince and his army. With a throne – and her future position as queen – at stake, Galinia prepares a trap, setting the stage for a confrontation that she and her prince can ill afford.
Hadryl, having suffered at Lady Galinia’s hand, takes refuge on a farm, taken in by a rough farmer, Grath. She waits there for her moment to revenge herself upon the Lady Galinia, no matter the cost to herself. Grath, with a war at hand, decides to use Hadryl's presence to further his own ends.
A Throne at Stake on Amazon
Read sample now on Amazon.com
PELGRAFF:
On a planet peacefully and harmoniously populated by both humans and the gorilla-like Pagayans, civil war has broken out, fostered by a third species, the Damargs. None of Earth's ex-colony worlds want to hear about it, much less get involved. But one member of the space-based Trading League, Colleen Yrden, is raising an Interplanetary Brigade to fight on Pelgraff.
Alan McLean left the New Brittain police service under a cloud: he killed a man under questionable circumstances. His need to belong to something, anything, drives him to accept Colleen's offer of employment--to help train the Interplanetary Brigade--despite his natural disgust at the endeavour and his dislike for the Pagayans. It doesn't hurt that she believes in him where all others have turned their backs.
Though he signs on to train men in weapons and tactics only, he finds himself drawn into the conflict and his growing hatred of the brutal Damargs--as well as his unrequited feelings for Colleen--holds him on Pelgraff even as politics makes the prospect of eventual victory increasingly unlikely and his bigotry towards Pagayans makes equally unlikely a relationship with Colleen. Others may leave, but McLean is determined to stay to the end, however it turns out.
Pelgraff on Amazon -- Digital or Trade Paperback
Pelgraff -- Trade Paperback at CreateSpace
Read sample now on Amazon.com
COURTESAN
She needed a ship to escape pursuers; he a companion on a trip to the stars. The deal seemed straight-forward, but neither told the other everything.
Jaswinder Saroya believed that her research in the area of Hyperspace Field Theory would benefit everyone: Family Traders, the InterPlanetary Corporations, Earth's Colonies and governments alike. She erred in not considering commercial and political consequences. Now, someone wants to steal or bury her research and, perhaps, her with it. With no way to fight this unknown foe, Jaswinder knows she has but one chance--complete her research and publish. To do that, she has to stay alive and stay free.
Pilot Johannes Yrden desires a courtesan, someone to keep him company on the 8 month trip to the planet Liberty and back. He wants someone not from the Yrden Family spaceship and to hell with his brother, Captain Matt Yrden, who believes the TransPlanetary Corporations will stock his line-up with spies.
Yrden's plan runs afoul of circumstance, which throws him together with one 'Jazz Saro', a woman on the run. Forced to run with her, Yrden allows her to convince him to sign her on as courtesan. He needs a companion; she needs a ship, a place to hide. It seems a simple enough arrangement.
Jaswinder thinks she's found her perfect solution: a hiding place in hyperspace, where she can complete her research using the ship as her laboratory. Unfortunately, she hasn't reckoned on the possibility of one of her pursuers booking passage, forcing her to maintain the fiction of her alias. The pilot's family, with troubles of their own, grow suspicious and it becomes apparent she cannot complete her research openly. That leaves her the choice: Do what she needs to do to in order to save Jaswinder's life or become Jazz Saro.
Courtesan on Amazon.com
Read sample now on Amazon.com
GHOST FLEET
Ghost Fleet - military SF 104,000 words
The superstitious call them Ghost Ships. Experts say they are scanner echoes tossed out of the past by the Phenomenon. The rumors and a cryptic entry in an ancestor's diary propel Lieutenant-Commander Mart Britlot of the Confederation navy into the dangerous Sivon sector of space. There, Britlot hopes to find help for the Confederation, now facing a two-front war.
As the last living Confederation descendant of the Adian nation, Britlot is obsessed with finding the ghost ships, believed destroyed during a mass emigration 300 years in the past. He dreams of riding to the rescue at the head of the never defeated Adian fleet; he dreams of finding family after the death of all his near relatives at the hands of the Combine. He'll drive his ship and crew beyond endurance to achieve this.
The felid Tlartox Empire, eager to avenge their humiliating defeat at the hands of the Confederation, has voted to annul the long-standing peace treaty. The glory of The Hunt beckons. Admiral Tood Tlomega has focused on the human planet Lormar, with its great naval base, as a fitting target for retribution. She will return dignity to the people of Tlar. She will return them to the path that Tlar illuminated so many centuries ago.
But a small band of Tlartox subversives intend to rake a claw across the plans of the war-mongers, and give both the Empire and the Confederation something they hadn't counted on.
Ghost Fleet on Amazon.com
Read now on Amazon.com
IN THE COMPANY OF COWARDS
Fantasy; 79,500 Words
Young Rel Panace, son of the First Councilor to the Thane of Greltin, finds himself running like a coward from hoodlums who would beat him, perhaps to death. Trapped in a blind alley, right arm useless, his pursuers catch him. Only the timely intervention of Coll, a man with a brand upon his left cheek, saves him.
Rel discovers this brand marks those found guilty of cowardice on the battlefield, and that many more men in the city carry this mark. They call themselves the Rookschlo, an ancient word meaning "The Betrayed". Drawn to Coll, Rel hopes to learn the skills he needs to survive in the city, to find in himself the inner strength that this 'coward' seems to have.
But other forces are at play, and soon only Rel and the Rookschlo stand between the city and disaster.
In The Company of Cowards on Amazon.com
Read the sample on Amazon.com
THE STEADFASTING
Fantasy (Sword and Sorcery) 94,000 words
Saddled with a woman he neither trusts nor wants, Karsten has good reason to regret agreeing to take on the role of Steadfast. Now, he must find a way to rid himself of her without mentioning his mission, which has nothing to do with the trader façade he maintains.
Arialla so desires to leave Kellok's Crossing and her own secret behind that she accepts the Steadfast, though he seems both a man without honour and a coward. In addition, she discovers he believes, as she feels a child might, in Sorcerers, Woodsies and Lehr Cats.
Unless the two can come to terms with each other and their unexpected and unwanted partnership, they may not survive what lies in wait for both.
The Steadfasting on Amazon.com
PILTON'S MOON/VENGEANCE IN MINE
Two short Novellas. Total word count: 40,000
PILTON'S MOON: Brendon Kinso has come to Tarlton's World to bury his brother. From his first step on the planet, Kinso feels hunted. He hires Callie Torbold, a local detective, to discover the validity of this feeling. Now both are on the run, and to survive they must solve the mystery of Pilton's Moon--the war which took the lives of every man, woman and child on that mining colony. And to do this they must deal with the Tswentap, the spider-like race which perpetrated the massacre and has no love for humans.
VENGEANCE IS MINE: The Vocem never wanted humans in space. A sudden and overwhelming attack wipes out the Earth Fleet--except for 'Candlelight', an undermanned and crippled scoutship captained by Lt. Carlton Voss, whose love died in the attack. Voss swears vengeance.
Flying his ship straight into another war, he becomes a hero to an unknown species. He decides, against the wishes of his crew, to mold his new allies into the instrument of his vengeance--even should that destroy the species.
Pilton's Moon / Vengeance is Mine on Amazon.com
Read sample on Amazon.com
PREY (free story)
Science Fiction short story. 6000 words
Krin Tlento,of the felid Tlartox, finds herself on the run from the bulls of the barendi herd she was hunting. Her radio sabotaged, she has but one option: to face death with honor, as befits one of the People of Tlar, with her fangs in the throat of a barendi bull. In the unlikely event she should survive, her second priority is to retake her ship from the mutineers who left her to die.
Prey on Amazon.com
COLDSLEEP
Science Fiction Short Story -- 6300 words
It takes eleven months for a supply ship to make the Earth-Liberty run. With colonists in ColdSleep and cargo handlers supplied by the space stations, the supply ship Restful travels with a minimal crew. The boredom of the long flight encourages laxity on the part of the crew, but when time comes to waken the sleepers, that has to change and Captain Jeffers, responsible for ship, crew and colonists, finds himself fighting an uphill battle.
On top of that, Jeffers worries about 'The Sickness'. Rumours about the effects of ColdSleep have surrounded the program. It is said that no one comes out mentally unchanged.
ColdSleep on Amazon.com
ENEMY OF KORGAN
SF novel; 109,000 words.
He was prospector, smuggler and spy. And then things became complicated. What can a man of honour do when he finds himself working for both sides?
When Lorne witnesses the ambush of a caravan, he ends up protecting those he would otherwise consider enemies. Taken in by the hated Korgans, honoured as a hero, Lorne begins to work for them even as he plots their destruction. Living a lie is no life worth living and, torn by promises made to both sides, he struggles to find a way out that doesn’t entail the breaking of his word—even to one he has sworn to kill.
Enemy of Korgan on Amazon.com
Read sample on Amazon.com
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