Michelle L. Levigne's Blog, page 125

Book of the Week: SLIPPING THE WEAVE

A Commonwealth Universe novel
A Khybors story
From Writers Exchange

Khybors fled to Norbra for a safe place to raise their children, far from enemies who wanted them declared non-Humans, and either enslave them or annihilate them entirely. 
Like the selfish, arrogant queen of legend for whom the planet was named, Norbra had a reputation for destroying all life. Elin and those who settled the planet believed and hoped that no one would want the planet, and their enemies would leave them in peace and wait for Norbra to destroy them.

However, Khybors were made to survive. They made Norbra their home and used the dangers of the planet for their own defense. Then as the generations went on, they made a long-range plan for survival, because they knew their enemies would not give up. 
The only way for Khybors to survive as a race was to go so far away that the Set'ri and other enemies would never find them, and in time, maybe even forget about them.

Rorin Pace came to Norbra to win Elin's heart, follow his dream of pilots "becoming one" with their ships, and find a way to protect all Khybors.

Kheeran, their daughter, reached new dimensions as a pilot.
Banjer, their son, dove deeper within the computer world and discovered the vital element in the long-range plan of escape to the far reaches of space for Khybors.
Zeph, a Wrinkleship pilot, allied with the Khybors in building their fleet and brought them a damaged ship full of prisoners and pirates and a growing artificial intelligence: the Nova Vendetta. 
Errien, Kheeran's daughter, led the pilots who searched for new gateways to other universes.
Meanwhile, their enemies grew stronger and came closer, and the countdown began to the destruction of the Central Allied Worlds.

Off the Bookshelf: NAMELESS, by A.C. Williams

NAMELESS is Book 1 of the Destiny Trilogy.

I recommend you get hold of the free short reads offered by A.C. Williams and Crosshair Press, the publisher (at least, they were free when I got hold of them) to get to know some of the crew and the relationships on the bounty hunter ship, Prodigal, before you read the book.

The title refers to a lost girl named Xander -- and she only has that name because it was on the jacket she was wearing when she was found.

No memory, no identity, no money, no friends. She does have some pretty nasty people out to capture her -- why, no one knows. And considering how powerful and nasty those people are, she's better off not knowing. Her quest brings her in contact with an assortment of people who, for a while at least, make the reader wonder if all of human society is going downhill in the future. Nobody is willing to help, everyone is out for themselves, and quick to jump to the worst conclusions possible about Xander. Even the crew of the Prodigal. Of course, people jump to the wrong conclusions about them, too, because "everyone" knows that bounty hunters are the worst of the worst.

This is a gritty, painful ride of a story, and doggone it, I want to know what happened to the starship Destiny -- where the trilogy gets its name -- and why those nasty people want Xander so badly when, as far as anyone knows, they have the ship. What's going on?

Thanks a lot. The last thing I need (sarcasm here, folks) is yet another series where I need to and must obtain the other books, ASAP -- yeah, and just add to my to-be-read list. Maybe I should just not do any writing for the whole summer, so I can catch up ....

GIZMOS, Beauty & the Beast fan fiction

REMEMBER: You can find ALL my fan fiction on Wattpad:  

Four hours later, his head swam from the lectures he had heard. Mouse knew he was smart — he could figure out any gizmo Helpers and Tunnel people brought to him. So why did these lecturers speak a language he couldn't half understand? He would have got up and fled to the display halls, except the girl next to him sat there, listening with that gleam in her eyes that meant she not only understood every word, she enjoyed it. He had to step in front of her to leave and he didn't want to disturb her. Mouse wondered if his head would burst before the break was called.
Now he fled to the exhibit hall. He let his gaze wander over spacecraft models sitting next to DNA diagrams, and tried to put all the odd words and concepts from the lecture into some kind of organized whole in his brain.
"Maybe not so smart," Mouse muttered after he reached the end of the hall and couldn't remember anything. He followed the traffic flow to another room.

His confusion faded as an electronic chorus met his ears. The room was long, narrow, and every square foot of wall space was lined with video games. Mouse wore a delighted grin and he walked up and down the room with slow steps, filling his eyes and ears with mechanical wonders. This was more like it!
A crowd stood around a game at the far end of the hall. Mouse gradually joined the students, pressing his way closer in to see the game. He recognized Robin at the controls, whizzing her way through level fifty-eight of Tempest.
"Another player," a boy standing in front of Mouse grumbled. The game let out a burst of music and spilled lights over the watchers. "That makes five." He gave Robin a disgusted look and walked away. Three followed him. Mouse stepped closer and watched.
He watched until the other onlookers left. Robin didn't pay him any attention. Mouse grew dazed by the geometric puzzles the game threw at her. He winced every time she miscalculated. When she finally lost all her men -- at level eighty-nine -- her score was 60,000 points higher than the posted high.
"How do you do that?" Mouse sighed in admiration.

Book of the Week: NORBRA'S CHILDREN

Commonwealth novel
Khybors story

From Writers Exchange

            “Hello, be-u-ti-ful!” A tall, lean figure in the sloppy, eye-aching purple fatigues of the Wedge, the exploration-and-rescue arm of the Galactic Fleet, stood in the doorway of the next checkpoint.
            Elin nearly barked a response that bordered on crude, but she knew she was under surveillance as much as she kept those idiots at the last checkpoint under surveillance. She was a Khybor, and no matter how valuable her services to the government, no matter how flawless her record, she still had her family reputation to live down. Her multi-great grandmother had been the first Human to successfully carry bio-crystal in her blood. Kheeran had been classed a rebel and a danger because she refused to let the paranoid military lock her in a dark box for the rest of her life. All her descendants had proven themselves just as stubborn about freedom and personal choice, and just as willing to seriously damage anything that stood in their way. Even though Elin’s great-grandmother had forged a profitable, useful alliance between Khybors and the government of the Central Allied Worlds, the so-called voice of civilization and Humanity, that didn’t mean the family had given up its dedication to fighting for what they believed in or wanted. Elin’s mother had taught her to watch her mouth whenever she was around the unenlightened. Who knew, after all, when the Set’ri would decide that a foul tongue meant Khybors were mentally defective, therefore unstable and a danger to Humanity?
            Elin shoved aside the constant complaint about elitists and paranoid cowards that ran at the back of her mind in a subliminal grumble, and offered a wide grin and wide-spread arms to Colonel Rorin Pace as he strode down the walkway toward her.
            “Fi’in bless me, but I must have done some clean living for a change,” he declared as he scooped her up, held her tight against him and spun them both around two revolutions. “You look good, bratty kid.” He set her down, but didn’t step back right away.
            “You don’t look so bad yourself, mud-grubber.” Elin ducked when Rorin reached to yank on her long, bronze-colored braid. She stuck her tongue out at him, earning a roar of laughter.
            “If I’d known you got the short straw this duty shift, I’d’ve come down to personally escort you,” he said, as they strode up to the last checkpoint before Elin could enter the ship.

            “Why?” She saw the answer in his eyes before he opened his mouth. “More Set’ri threats?”

Book of the Week: NORBRA'S CHILDREN

Commonwealth novel
Khybors story

From Writers Exchange

            Elin hated it when her duty rotation required her to mediate yet again between a Wrinkleship pilot and the spaceport authorities.
The pilots didn’t bother her. They were decent enough people, even the worst of them, even when they acted like elitist snobs. Part of the problem, she knew, was that she did consider them people, while a growing percentage of the officers and officials and technicians she had to pass on her way through security levels to get to the Wrinkleships, did not. Wrinkleship pilots, according to the proponents of the pureblood radical genetic dogma of the Set’ri, were mutants. Mutants had to be destroyed, to prevent them from contaminating the true Human genome, according to the Set’ri. However, Wrinkleship pilots were necessary to the expansion of the Central Allied Worlds, so they weren’t destroyed at birth, or when their mutations manifested at adolescence.
Lucky for them. Or maybe not so lucky.
            What did it matter that their bodies were so malformed and defective that by the time they entered their second decade, most of them needed life support? According to all the ethics books Elin had studied, and the inherited memories of her ancestors, the mind and soul determined if a life form was Human, not the viability and performance of the body. Elin had enough experience – her own, as well as those imprinted in the Khrystal in her blood – to convince her that the converse of the Set’ri dogma was true, and a great many who looked Human did not qualify for the title.

The War Room

July already?

Where did June go, and how did it go by so quickly?

Part of the answer, I know -- I was busy writing and revising and polishing!

I completed the 1st draft of the 1st book in a new humorous fantasy trilogy I call Magic to Spare. "Magic and Thorns" is the working title for the first book -- basically how a princess with a lot of potential is turned into a spoiled brat, blunting her magical potential, so that it takes all of the 2nd book, "The Kindness Curse," to reform her.

ALSO:
I revised and polished and turned in a new contemporary romance for Desert Breeze Publishing, due out in February 2018. "Killing His Alter-Ego" deals with Kyle and Raine, who met while filming a TV series. His instant stardom went to his head, and she was a hyper-sensitive 16-year-old with an inferiority complex. After hurting her feelings and messing up each time he tried to make things right, they went their separate ways, until the power of fandom revived the show and brought them back together. Could he finally become the hero for her that he had always wanted to be? That might be hard with all of fandom watching them, confusing them for the characters they had played years ago. And even harder when certain rabid elements in fandom were determined that they, and their characters, would never be reunited.


Want to win a FREE BOOK?
Go to Goodreads, starting July 10, and enter the drawing to win 1 of 3 print copies of my SF romance from Desert Breeze Publishing: BLUE FIRE.

Book of the Week: NORBRA'S CHILDREN, Commonwealth Universe

Commonwealth Universe novel
Khybors story

From Writers Exchange


Before the Commonwealth, there was First Civ, and then the Downfall, an age of barbarism when the galaxy-spanning civilization shattered and colony worlds were abandoned to die or to survive by their own strength.

This is the story of Elin, a direct descendant of the first Khybor, with the future of her race resting on her shoulders. When the Set'ri wanted to declare them non-Humans and have them exterminated, and other factions in civilization wanted them declared a slave race, Elin led the way to a desert world called Norbra, where Khybors had a chance to live free and to raise their children in peace and safety.

But their enemies followed them...

Off the Bookshelf: GAMES WIZARDS PLAY, Diane Duane

I LOVE the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane.
Loved it before a certain British wizard showed up.
There is just too long a gap between books.

In GAMES WIZARDS PLAY, a competition has been announced for bright young wizards to bring out their most clever and useful and imaginative spells for judging. It's a competition with an incredible prize: to study with Earth's Planetary -- the wizard in charge of all the wizards on Earth. Pretty big-time stress.

Our three favorite young wizards don't compete -- they have an even more stressful duty, mentoring two of the competitors. They get to go over the spells and help refine them, weed out the possible problems and pitfalls, the gaps, and help with presentation for the judging. And in some cases, help iron out big personal problems for these brilliant young minds. There are several games being played here, and not all are fun.

Some loose threads from previous novels get tied up, the Lone Power tries to stir up the pot again, and Nita and Kit put a few more toes into the troubled waters of adding boyfriend/girlfriend to their wizarding partnership. Great fun to read, along with some wow-worthy explorations of planetary science-from-a-magical-viewpoint. As a writer, you gotta love the world-building woven together here. How does she DO that?

So now the clock starts ticking for the next book. Umm, someone want to loan the author Hermione's time-minder, so she can get it done faster? Please?

GIZMOS, Beauty & the Beast fan fiction

For July, we have a Beauty & the Beast fan fiction piece I wrote for On Wings of Light, a fanzine devoted to B&B, Starman, and the Phoenix.

Of course, you can read the WHOLE story on Wattpad ... www.Wattpad.com

Enjoy!!


Mouse blinked as the lights dimmed in the lecture hall. He looked around as a girl settled into the seat next to him on the aisle. A man walked out onto the stage and the hum of talk in the auditorium faded.
"Did I miss anything?" the girl whispered.
"Just somebody saying welcome." Mouse glanced at her. His eyes adjusted enough to read her badge. Robin. He was glad he had borrowed a peel-and-stick label and made his own name badge to match everyone else.
"Great. I'm always late." Laughter touched her voice.
"Me, too." Mouse grinned at her. He grinned more when she leaned forward to read his badge.

"Pleased to meet you, Arthur."

Book of the Week: KHYBORS: IN THE BEGINNING

            “You will be seeing the latest generation,” he continued as he led the military representatives into the central lab of the family compound.
            The monitor bracelet on Kerin’s wrist buzzed twice, in the simple code used when unwanted visitors showed up without warning and their scientist family had no time to check on the status of the various projects before dealing with them. She tapped the tiny screen on the bracelet twice, pause, twice more, signaling that all was well. The bio-crystal hadn’t produced any new strange outgrowths or let off any new frequencies suspiciously like brainwaves. That was the goal after another ten generations of growing, programming, and tinkering: mimicry of Human brain activity, so crystal would augment the body’s natural healing ability and bridge the gap where there was nerve damage, to give movement and feeling back to the paralyzed, hearing and sight to the deaf and blind.
            She looked upward, in time to see her father step onto the edge of the clearsteel dome over the pit of the growth lab. What were her chances the visitors would content themselves with staying on the observation level today? Dr. Nicorazon’s voice came through the speakers as he rested his hands protectively on the clear shell that provided the growth lab’s outer defenses.
            “The scanners must clear all of us for entrance.” He smiled and gestured at the spectrum camera directly below him. Behind him, the lights dimmed and took on a faint bluish cast. Kerin went back to her work, satisfied that the lab’s defenses hadn’t been overridden by the military, and the sensors were checking for spying mechanisms, bacterial intrusion, and weapons. “The crystal is presently in the fourth stage,” her father continued, the changing location of his voice indicating he was walking around the dome toward the short flight of stairs down to the growth lab, “transferring to the fifth stage of growth and testing. Thus far, our readings are well beyond our expectations.”
            “What happens in the fourth stage?” Colonel Areyzi asked.
            Kerin flinched at the sound of his voice, and looked up to the monitors. His gaze roved, focusing everywhere and on everything in the room, except for the face of the man he spoke to. That was typical. Colonel Areyzi trusted no one, and scientists least of all. Kerin wanted sometimes to shake him and shout in his face until he listened -- just because the Nicorazon-Leto family were scientists studying the Human body did not mean they supported the extremists who had begun to make themselves heard, advocating total control -- legislated and mandatory -- over the definition of what made someone Human, what gave them value. Bad enough that for the last two generations the government of the Central Allied Worlds required citizens to earn the right to reproduce, either through the contributions they made to society or their genetic perfection and inborn gifts. Her parents had brought her and her brothers up to believe in making full use of all the variations in the Human genetic spectrum, not culling and pruning and taking authority out of Fi’in’s hands, to decide what was truly Human and what should and could be destroyed.