Happy Thanksgiving!

Or the day after Thanksgiving, actually. We hope you who celebrate had a wonderful time yesterday with friends and family (not reading blogs, like this one). We did, and among the things we have to be thankful for, our wonderful readers are at the top of the list.

Today, we released another new chapter from Apollyon’s Gambit, our sixteenth so far. We’re happy with the progress we’ve made this month, and we have a clear road-map to completion. We’ll post more about that later.

Enjoy your weekend and, for those of you who subscribe, the newest chapter.

Until next time . . .

August Sales Event Underway!

Now through Sunday, 32 authors are offering their books for free or or $0.99! Check out http://freebookblast.com and beat the doldrums with some new summer reading! With over 40 books from many genres, you’ll be sure to find something you like!

The Morning which Breaks is on sale for $0.99 until Monday, so don’t miss it if you haven’t read it already.
We also released another new chapter of Apollyon’s Gambit today. We will continue to do so until the book is placed on pre-order. Join our email list to receive these chapters and other upcoming goodies! We appreciate your interest!

Yes, the Ninth New Chapter was Released

The ninth new chapter of our fourth book went out last weekend to newsletter subscribers. Sign up if you haven’t to join in the fun.

Life has intervened here with another necessary foray into “Code Hell”. Thus, writing has been slow this past week, and will continue slow through the weekend. Next week, we should be back on track. At present, the draft is approaching 140,000 words.

And this site will be getting a tweak or two in the not too distant future. If there is anything you’d like to see added, sound off in the comments.

Two more chapters & a big Thank You!

First things, first: We had a much better month in July than we expected. Things naturally slow down around this time, and we lower our expectation to match. But July surprised us. More people are reading (and apparently enjoying) the series than we knew. So here’s a big Thank You to all our readers! We will strive to continue to be worthy of your support!

We sent out our latest newsletter yesterday, with two chapters this time, as small celebration. We’ll have another one ready this coming weekend.

In the meantime, is there anything else you’d like us to address here? Neither of us have cats, so I’m afraid cute kitten pictures are out, but sound off in the comments with your thoughts.

Until next time, happy reading!

Sorry for the radio silence! Yes, new chapters await!

Yes, we’ve had a short spate of radio silence here. But we did send out another new chapter last weekend, and we will do the same this weekend! Thanks for everyone who has been following along with Kris on her new adventures!

For those of you who like to keep track of such things, Apollyon’s Gambit is now at 134,000 words, which equates to about 420 pages in paperback.

And yes, we are also working the novella or short novel (“Absalom’s Hundred”), and we’ll have more on that in the not-too-far future. For the time being, we are concentrating on Apollyon’s Gambit.

Heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you!

Another New Chapter Released!

Our third newsletter with another new chapter from our upcoming book just went out! If you haven’t already signed up to receive our newsletter, please consider it. It’s free, easy, and secure.

Enjoy!

Second Newsletter!

Our second newsletter went out last night. So far, we’ve released the prologue and two chapters of our upcoming book to subscribers. So join now to get in on the fun! It’s fast, easy and secure.

And don’t worry: we’ll get you caught up!

Mailing List Success!

We did it! We finally have a mailing list set up! Subscribe to receive free sample chapters of upcoming books, progress updates, and other fun things as they become available!

Right now, we are planning to distribute the free samples as PDFs. Those are easier for us to deal with. If you prefer Kindle format (mobi), sound off in the comments. If PDF is good for you, tell us that too!

We’ve elected to use MailChimp for this service, and your contact info will be protected. So sign up and enjoy!

Announcing: Apollyon’s Gambit

Apollyon’s Gambit

Today we announce the fourth book in the Loralynn Kennakris series!* Enjoy the sample chapter below! Want more sample chapters? How do you feel about mailing lists? Sound off in the comments!


“Go in harm’s way? Like Hell! I’m gonna put them in harm’s way!”

The war has flared up again, and Senior Lieutenant Loralynn Kennakris is thoroughly pissed off. On the walking-wounded list with a paralyzed arm and unable to fly, her superiors have decided to give her a meaningless promotion and send her off with a diplomatic mission to Iona. For years, tensions have been ramping up between the Nereidian League and its increasingly powerful former colony. It’s the diplomat’s job to defuse them before they explode. Kris’s job is to act as the mission’s ‘military advisor’—which really means looking decorative, fetching coffee, and keeping her mouth shut.

That is, until someone screwed up.

Caught on the wrong side of a military disaster that threatens the League’s whole war effort and forced into a role she never desired, Kris knows she didn’t start this fight. But she’s sure as hell gonna finish it . . . one way or another.
 


Part II, Chapter One:

Recon Flight Viper Fox, on patrol
Phase Plane Anvil, Mirandan Space

“How many bogies you got, Tanner?” Her voice was cool and smooth, but the med-monitors showed that her blood pressure was already ramping up.

“I got five—that’s five—at tango one forty, nine hundred kips closure.” His voice was thin and tinny over the burst link.

“You got that, Baz?”

“Roger that—got five, I say five. Bearing okay, closure okay.”

Her own T-Synth showed five too—five little red dots starting to spread out in attack formation in T-Synth’s holographic volume. It chewed on their energy profiles and declared them hostile, but she already knew that. “Baz, I make ‘em Halith heavy attack craft. You concur?”

“Oh, they’re Doms all right. Emissions signature looks like Talon-3s.”

“Okay, go to attack pattern delta. Suck it in Tanner, you’re too low.” Obediently, one of the three little blue triangles that indicated her and her wingmen snuggled closer to her port quarter. “Good. Now don’t break it up until I tell you.”

“You got it, Kris.”

The blood chemistry monitors started to light up yellow with stress compounds as her fighter eased down and left. The sphere of the T-Synth rotated as it began to carve maneuver envelopes and velocity vectors through the volume. “I have intercept in four hundred thirty seconds,” she said with a calmness that the med-monitors didn’t reflect.

Asylum Chapters 7 & 8, on deck! (Alpha Versions)

Chapters 7 and 8 are ready for your delectation. If you are on this list, you ought to have received them. If you were overlooked, as always, drop us a line or leave a comment.

Enjoy and fire when ready!

Chapter 7:

The gentle light of the new-risen sun filtered through the heavily laden boughs of the peach trees to fall across Mariwen’s face, accentuating the eloquent curve of her cheek and the perfect shape of her lips, while emphasizing the extraordinary warmth of her flawless latte complexion. It was a famous face—indeed, one of the most famous in charted space—revered for its beauty. Such an inadequate word. To say Mariwen Rathor was beautiful was to state that which was blindingly obvious, and indeed, the multitudes were blinded by the captivating trademark smile, the lambent sensuality, the penetrating look in the dark eyes that could kill at a mile. But those were merely the tools of her trade. The essence went much deeper than that; a sublime quality, richer and more invisible, that defied description—and it was gone. In its place was a look of peace, as serene as this perfect morning with the dew-scented air barely stirring and the tiny droplets on the leaves catching the light in a myriad rainbow glints.

To Antoine Rathor, standing at his sister’s shoulder as she gazed up at something that had caught her attention in the branches above, that was the cruelest cut of all. The peace was manufactured, the serenity medically induced. This early walk in the peach orchard was actually a medical exercise: Mariwen’s time sense remained dislocated and carefully planned excursions like this were calculated to steady her perception of the passing days and hours, and help her sort prior memories from present existence. …

Chapter 8:

Kris opened her locker and, reaching far back on the top shelf, took out the metal case there. It was somewhat bigger than the bronze boxes the CEF shipped off to the families of those killed in action, weighed about the same, and served a related purpose: safeguarding critical items, such as service records, and anything else the owner could fit into it. It was equipped with a recovery beacon and built to survive the most catastrophic events. Officers and enlisted alike called them DMBs: Dead Man’s Bank.

She set it on the compartment’s small desk and sitting, opened it with her ID tag. Most people’s DMB held a few mementos, maybe some credit chips, and for the pessimistic (or well-prepared, depending on one’s point of view) a last letter to be sent to family or friends. Other than her service records and a sheaf of official documents, Kris’s DMB held just two envelopes and a dented tin cup. …