Kate Sheeran Swed's Blog, page 4

Best Reads of 2022

It’s that time of year again: time to look through my list of read books from 2022 and highlight my favorites!

I don’t track my books on Goodreads anymore, but I do keep a journal. It was fun to look back and remember everything I read this year.

These are books I read in 2022; a lot of them came out a while ago.

Some of these links are affiliate links, which means I get a small portion of any sales (with no extra cost to you). But that doesn’t change the fact that I heartily recomme...

Mission Log 1:12 – Everything’s Under Control

I don’t know if you need reminding, but at this point a step forward—toward the murderous mist—put Ford right onto the bridge. Which spanned a deep chasm, with only a couple of low rails to protect us against a fall. One misstep, and down we’d go.

The fog looked like it could reach out and grab an arm. Pull us into the abyss.

But Ford took a step toward it, and all the tendrils whipped back up out of the cabin in a snap, as if to protect the jungle. Someone gasped behind me, but otherwise ...

Mission Log 1:11 – Unnatural

The whole way back from the jungle, we discussed keeping the place under wraps. Or I did, anyway; Cane’s not much for talking, and Ford couldn’t get a word in edgewise as I spoke at length about how we needed to convince everyone that exploring and scouting would keep us safe in a strange place.

Nothing ever stopped the man from jumping into a conversation when he wanted to be heard, or so I’ve learned over the past few days. All the way across Cane’s bridge and through the jumbly market sect...

Mission Log 1:10 – Too Good to Be True

Standing in the shadow of the magically activated staircase, Cane gave me a wry smile. I didn’t even know the man’s lips could bend that way. “No? I’m beginning to.”

“It’s the wrong way,” Ford pointed out. Unnecessarily, but that’s Ford for you.

“It’s also the only way,” I said.

“There’s an open bridge on the other side of the perimeter,” Cane said. “It connects our part of the station to that middle bit. If we can’t get that door to open, we can skirt around to the other side and follo...

Mission Log 1:09 – Great Eagles Would Be Better

I’m no climber, Colonel. As I followed Arthur Cane down that rope and into the sleek-sided gorge, I could only be thankful that transport piloting requires a certain amount of mechanical knowledge. And a certain amount of parts-hauling.

I’m stronger than what I look, is what I’m saying.

Still, I’d barely dropped down from the ledge before my arms were aching, annoyed with the sudden demand that they support my body weight. Couldn’t blame them, really.

“I don’t see how this is safer than...

Crooked V.2 Author Interview: Frasier Armitage!

Jessie Kwak wants more sci-fi crime stories, and 18 authors rose to the occasion. The result? A volume packed FULL of futuristic pirates, time-traveling heists, and general bad behavior. (Sometimes in space! My favorite.)

My story, ‘Ace in the Hole,’ starts with an illegal poker game on an intergenerational spaceship. It’s also a precursor to the Interstellar Trials books, which I’m kickstarting now.

Today I’m interviewing Frasier Armitage, author of the story Good as Gold. It takes place in a cit...

The Interstellar Trials is LIVE on Kickstarter!!

Note: back the campaign before 12pm EDT tomorrow (that’s October 5th, 2022) and you’ll get a free short story. Click here to pledge now!

Sometimes, I hold a book in my heart so long that by the time it goes out into the world, my heart is practically bursting with it.

The Interstellar Trials falls into that category.

Yes, a version of it did go out last summer through Kindle Vella — but the medium is niche, and I never quite felt that it reached my usual audience. (If you DID find m...

Mission Log 1:08 – Yellow Brick Road

I’ve spent more one-on-one time with David since this disaster started than I have with anyone else in the group, which isn’t saying a whole lot. But as soon as we started toward the core of the station with our little expedition, I realized I how little that actually meant, in terms of actually knowing the guy.

As evidenced by the fact that, as soon as we got moving, he started to talk. But not to me.

David must have some social training I’m unfamiliar with, because he managed to move up ...

Mission Log 1:07 – Alpha Sharks

Sleep wasn’t an option after David and I guided Ethan back to our little camp. Feels weird calling it a camp, with the dusty air and the vacuum swirling—or not swirling, I guess—outside the windows. But that’s what it is, everyone all hunched up on transport blankets, using their suitcases as pillows.

Oh, the kid fell asleep easily enough. He’d worn himself out after all that sobbing and passed right out on David’s shoulder when we returned. But David and I just sat there. Awake. Silent.

W...

Mission Log 1:06 – I Don’t Believe in Ghosts

I don’t get it, Colonel. You want me to live out here on this station like a regular civ, but you’re also ordering me to send my homework along every night like a good soldier.

Maybe you’re testing me. Maybe you want to see if I’m capable of falling in line.

I can, Colonel. I really can. Here’s today’s log.

David woke me early this morning with a hand on my arm. I was dreaming about cursed coins and pirates, so he’s lucky I didn’t punch him in the throat.

I sat up, and he was crouchi...