Cora Buhlert's Blog, page 100
February 19, 2016
New Release: Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime
One of the 31 stories I wrote during the July short story challenge last year was a science fiction short called “Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime”. It was a story about a young couple celebrating their first Valentine’s Day on a newly settled planet and was inspired by a piece of SF art showing two spacesuited figures standing hand in hand on an alien beach.
Until now, “Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime” remained unpublished and uncollected, because it didn’t really fit in with any of the other stories I wrote during that challenge.
However, with Valentine’s Day approaching, I dug up the story again and expanded it somewhat (the original was very short) so it could stand alone as a science fiction holiday story. Because on of the strengths of indie publishing is that it allows us to put out stories to coincide with holidays, etc… without months of preparation.
I had planned to announce the story on Valentine’s Day, but unfortunately two major vendors decided to take their time in putting the story online – apparently, there was a public holiday in the US and another in Canada just that very weekend.
And so here it is, Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime – a bit late, but still a nice story about a couple trying to hold on to their personal traditions in a radically different environment. Oh yeah, and it has Welsh people. In space.
By the way, Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime is also today’s featured new release at the Speculative Fiction Showcase, the indie speculative fiction blog I run together with Jessica Rydill. We featzre new indie speculative fiction releases, author interviews, guest posts, link round-ups and much more several times per week, so check it out.
And now get ready to celebrate…
Valentine’s Day on Iago Prime
Kai and Maisie are about the celebrate their first Valentine’s Day on the planet Iago Prime. However, the holiday traditions they established back on Earth such as celebrating Valentine’s Day with a picnic on the beach are impossible to maintain in the hostile environment of their new home. But in spite of the many limitations imposed by living on Iago Prime, Kai pulls out all the stops to give Maisie an unforgettable Valentine’s Day.
This is a science fictional Valentine’s Day story of 2200 words or approx. 10 print pages.
More information.
Length: 2200 words
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.
Send to Kindle
February 12, 2016
New release: Our Lady of the Burning Heart
I have a new release to announce for today. Though it’s not quite that new anymore, I just forgot to announce it and only remembered, because I have another new release to announce in the next few days.
It’s a bumper edition of two crime shorts which deal with issues of faith, fate and coincidence. “Our Lady of the Burning Heart” is another of the stories to come out of the July short story challenge, while “Lucky Harry” is the English language version of “Harry im Glück”, my contribution to the German indie anthology Kurz Geschichten für Zwischendurch.
Our Lady of the Burning Heart
Two stories of crime, chance and coincidence
Our Lady of the Burning Heart
Liam is a small time criminal in a world of trouble. Cause he owes twenty thousand dollars to local gangster Dan “the Man” O’Brien and if Liam doesn’t pay back him within twenty-four hours, he’s in for a whole world of pain.
Liam does not have twenty thousand dollars. All he has are four dollars and forty-seven cents and a plan. For there is a horse running tonight, a horse sure to win him the missing twenty thousand dollars and more. If Liam only had enough money to bet on it.
So when Liam passes the church of Our Lady of the Burning Heart and finds the door open late at night, he does what a good Catholic boy like him should never even consider. He ventures into the church, intending to rob the collection box.
But a statue of the Virgin Mary with an eerily glowing heart, a forgetful priest and a lost bus ticket conspire to rescue Liam from Dan “the Man” and return him to the path of righteousness…
Bonus story: Lucky Harry
In former East Germany, Dennis has robbed a bank and has found the perfect hiding place for the loot, an old soap factory deserted since the unification. But his plan is thwarted by homeless Harry, a bottle of Soviet era vodka and Lenin’s birthday…
More information.
List price: 0.99 USD, EUR or GBP
Length: 4900 words
Buy it at Amazon US, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, Amazon France, Amazon Netherlands, Amazon Spain, Amazon Italy, Amazon Canada, Amazon Australia, Amazon Brazil, Amazon Japan, Amazon India, Amazon Mexico, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Apple iTunes, Scribd, Smashwords, Inktera, txtr, Thalia, Weltbild, Hugendubel, Buecher.de, Libiro, Nook UK, DriveThruFiction, OmniLit/AllRomance e-books, Casa del Libro, Flipkart, e-Sentral, 24symbols and XinXii.
Send to Kindle
January 30, 2016
Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for January 2016
It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.
So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some December books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.
Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. We have space opera, military science fiction, science fiction romance, paranormal romance, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, post-apocalyptic science fiction, dystopian fiction, young adult fiction, short fiction anthologies, shapeshifters, demons, time travel, questing knights, captive princes, wish granting djinni, drug-smuggling gnomes, hospital ships, were-squirrels, adventures on Mars, the battle of the sexes and much more.
Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.
As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.
And now on to the books without further ado:
Zero Hour Part 3: Revelations by Eamon Ambrose:
The acclaimed post-apocalyptic saga continues as our two heroes continue their journey, but it soon becomes clear that the odds are against them. Will they reach the Facility and find the answers they need?
Caught in the Rush by Eva Chase:
Fiona Wilde has always lived up to her last name, but a night in the emergency room was more than she bargained for. Now six months clean and sober, she’s thrown herself back into the only job she feels qualified for—guarding the emerging stars of L.A. from the demonic Glowers—while getting the rush she craves from casual encounters, always leaving before anyone can leave her. When her teen TV star client’s hot older brother Will arrives home for spring break, she sees the perfect opportunity for a fling with a built-in end date.
Then the Glowers launch an unexpected attack, leaving Fiona scrambling to keep her client safe even as Will steals past the walls around her heart. With the demons closing in and the starlet rebelling, the stability Fiona has clung to is slipping away. Her growing connection with Will might be the thing that saves her—or the thing that tears her apart.
The second book in The Glower Chronicles, a steamy New Adult paranormal series.
Each book in The Glower Chronicles contains a stand-alone romance, but it is recommended that you read them in order to best appreciate the ongoing subplots.
Singularity by Taitrina Falcon:
The Temporal Response Unit (TRU) has one purpose: find time travelers and stop them in their tracks. It’s not because there is a timeline to protect, for the future is unwritten. The time travelers can’t change their past, but their actions impact our future in ways we can only guess.
TRU Agent Lucas Weiss is on his first case, charged with finding the time traveler and stopping him. Within an hour of the time traveler’s arrival, the town has its first murder of the year. On the eve of announcing a new cancer miracle drug, the victim is none other than prominent Leomins BioTech cancer researcher Dr. Lowe.
Finding the time traveler and learning his motives will require more ingenuity and know-how than Weiss may be prepared for, especially when the clues lead him to an even more elaborate scheme with far more operatives at play. As the TRU team searches, a showdown begins with potentially devastating consequences.
The Nexus has been formed.
Wit Fallo, a white gnome, is a shiftless and lazy boat captain who loves money, but hates working.
The boat captain thinks he is presented with an opportunity of a life time to live the free and easy life when a drug kingpin hires him to be part of his narcotics trafficking operation. All Wit has to do is a four or five drug smuggling runs a week between three islands in the Brown Triangle on the Earth Realm, and in no time he would have more than enough money to do whatever he wanted without any worries or consequences.
Unfortunately, things do not work out as well as Wit hoped when three of the drug kingpin’s more senior people are killed in his office and he is the only survivor.
Instead of seeking revenge, the drug kingpin decides to retire and sells his narcotics trafficking network to Tom Bolden, a halfling, and crime lord based in the Fairy Realm.
Wit realizes with the retirement of the drug kingpin that the possibility of the free and easy life will not become a reality, and he will remain a boat captain in the Brown Triangle.
Tom Bolden, however, has other plans for the white gnome. Tom paid a lot of money to acquire the narcotics trafficking network, and someone has to pay him back. Wit is the person who has to pay Tom back because of what happened in his office.
Wit has no choice but to agree to become a messenger and enforcer for Tom as a way to pay him back.
The problem is Wit is ill-equipped and does not have the necessary skills and talent to be of any use for Tom.
The even bigger problem for Wit is despises living in the Fairy Realm because everything is based on magic. He hates magic. Pixies, brownies, fairies, and other types of fairy folk because they are made of magic and use magic. He hates pixies, brownies, fairies, and the rest of the fairy folk because of their connection to magic. Wit, unfortunately, has to work these fairy folk because they are trusted members of Tom Bolden’s organization.
The biggest problem for Wit, even with how he hates living in the Fairy Realm, is he still has to pay the money he owes Tom Bolden.
Nuts About You by Kate Lowell:
Nathan’s been crushing on one of his regular Bulk Mart customers for a while now. In squirrel form, he sits on Vince’s bird feeders, munching on seeds and enjoying the eye candy. Until the day Vince notices him raiding the feeder…
Three Wishes by Lisa Manifold:
Who wouldn’t want a do-over?
That is the question that twenty-six year old Tibby Holloway is asking herself. After a long night of eating too much ice cream and going over all her missed chances, she’s surprised by a visitor. A free-lancing djinn who makes her the offer of a lifetime. He’ll give her three chances, three wishes, to go back and change her life. She can change her career, find the man she loves.That could be a problem as there’s at least two in the “man she loves” category.
There’s also a catch. A Really Big Catch.
She can’t stay in any of these new lives her wishes create. Once she’s gone back three times, the djinn will decide where she ends up. He’s firm on this – she’ll have no say in the matter. After deciding which points in her life she wants to do over, she must then decide if it’s worth risking all she may achieve. Because to find out what might have been, she has to give up all control over what will be. Would it be better to not even know?
It will all come down to her
Three Wishes
Valley of the Shadow by Christina Ochs:
A captive prince. A desperate princess. An alliance that will shake the foundations of an empire.
In the wake of battle, Kendryk finds himself the prisoner of Empress Teodora. As war ravages Terragand, Kendryk’s guilt is matched only by his fear that he will never see his family again. Gwynneth, in possession of a valuable captive but sworn to keep him close, faces Teodora’s wrath as she waits in anguish for relief.
But when Gwynneth’s rescue comes, the empire will never be the same again.
A tide of religious upheaval sweeps across the land, bearing men and women toward their fates. The delicate joy shared by Janna and Braeden will be shattered; the king of a neighboring kingdom will walk the edge of madness; and an oath of vengeance will bind three unlikely allies together in a desperate attempt to curb Teodora’s ambitions once and for all.
The Desolate Empire, Christina Ochs’ epic fantasy series, continues in Book 2:Valley of the Shadow.
Of One Skein, Part 2 by P.J. Post:
This romance brought to you by the end of the world…
The Del Ray Motor Inn isn’t real.
Zombies, they aren’t real either.
But Jem and Pixie, they’re real, and so is their pain.
Last night he was torn between saving the lost children, and selfishness, ignoring everything and racing back to Emily, to Sam, but none of that matters now.
He’s infected and isn’t ever going to see his friends again, his reason, his love.
But now, in his last days, Fate has given him one final chance at redemption; to get Jem and Pixie somewhere safe before the fever comes, before the black-eyed sickness comes – before he comes for them.
Author’s Note: Feral is an ongoing serialized story.
The End of the Trail by Louis Rakovich:
A barren land of salt and snow; a castle where underground paths twist and turn in endless circles and a reclusive king has not shown his face in years; a forest where few things are what they seem. An unnamed hero must navigate through these places as he takes on the task of tracking down a supposed witch, in a story that blends dream and reality, rumor and truth, danger and hope.
Love Hurts: A Speculative Fiction Anthology edited by Tricia Reeks:
Twenty-six brilliant speculative fiction stories about love, and the pain that so often accompanies it. Enjoy a cornucopia of imaginative tales, wondrous settings, and unforgettable characters—such as the disillusioned time traveler who visits ancient Japan to experience a “Moment of Zen,” the young woman from planet Kiruna who can only communicate in song when the moonlet Saarakka is up, and the sorcerer who loses their happiness in a bet with a demon.
Rich and wonderfully diverse, this collection spans many speculative fiction genres: from SciFi to Dystopian, from Fantasy to Magical Realism, from Steampunk to Superhero, from Horror to Weird. Sometimes funny, occasionally happy, frequently gut-wrenching—these stories will take your heart on a wild emotional ride.
Stories by Jeff VanderMeer, Hugh Howey, Karin Tidbeck, Charlie Jane Anders, Holly Phillips, Aliette de Bodard, A. Merc Rustad, Steve Simpson, Mel Paisley, J. D. Brink, Matt Leivers, Michael Milne, Michal Wojcik, Carla Dash, Terry Durbin, Michelle Ann King, Kyle Richardson, Leah Brown, G. Scott Huggins, Dan Micklethwaite, Victoria Zelvin, Shannon Phillips, Keith Frady, Jody Sollazzo, David Stevens, and Morgen Knight.
“After exploding with rage and injuring some Caliphate marines, Tanner is sent to the Barony Hospital ship on a ninety day observation to see if he’s really sane. At the same time, he is challenged by his doctors and psychiatrist to see if he can defeat his alcohol addiction and to combat his PTSD too.
Also on the ship is the Barony Secure labs where the research teams are trying to find the Ikarian virus vaccine to give longevity to the RIM—and the Baroness is interested in their success.
While the Caliphate continues to try to find a way to steal the vaccine, they end up using a vacjumper—someone who can go right out into outer space with no suit and attempt to break into the lab that way.
Called on to forget about his illness, Tanner must rise to heed the call to defeat the vacjumper and to do that he must jump out into space on his own. Death, virus vaccines and love all play a part for him and his quest…”
The Last Giant by Frances Smith:
Corona is besieged. Princess Ameliora can see her enemies gather beyond the walls. It has been many years since Ameliora abandoned the Captain-Generalcy of the Corona Firstborn, years since she donned her armour or took up her sword. Now, with all the warriors dead and the city gripped by terror, the aged warrior must take up arms and armour one last time, and usher an age of heroes to its close.
A story of 10,000 words.
With Aydia lurching ever closer to a general war, old loyalties are being stretched to the breaking point, even while radical new allegiances are taking shape.
Now on the run together, Rayson and Saira desperately strive to form a coalition opposing the dark forces sweeping their planet. Forced to work directly with both the Kax and the Alliance governments, the two former lovers must also finally acknowledge the scandal of their high-profile past.
Meanwhile, the details of that history continue to assert themselves. Fifteen years before, the Save Saira movement nearly destroyed the young Srendian. How can Saira possibly hold everyone at bay, even as the most damning fallout from her innocent college liaison remains secret?
Fusion is the second book in The Aydian Series, with the story picking up right where it left off at the end of Aydia.
Gen was angry and she knew it. Angry about her overprotective parents, angry about the way she was teased about her height, and angry about the dirt and grime that infested every corner of Mars. But soon, she’d be on rotations. Too few went Outside on purpose anymore, just to shiver against the icy cold or feel the pressure in the slowly thickening air. But an ancient prophecy of destruction came to her in haunting visions, and now it’s up to Gen to warn them all – and maybe even save worlds.
Falling As She Sings by C.J. Sursum:
In the not-so-distant future, the rise of terrorism leads to a new and chilling subjugation of women. But as civilization breaks down, one wealthy woman builds a massive, walled-in enclave, and outfits it with the technology to be completely self-sustaining.
Her sole stipulation: only women are allowed in. Within the enclave walls, these women—Vestals—lead lives of culture and ease, free of the burden of husbands and children. Outside the walls, men have devolved into feral, violent Brutes roaming the surrounding wilderness. The Vestals need them for one purpose only—to reproduce themselves.
But Menna, a beautiful Vestal scientist in charge of breeding, makes a disastrous mistake while extracting one captured Brute’s seed. Disturbing interactions with him shatter her preconceptions of Brutes, and her image of herself. Ultimately, she is forced to choose between her comfortable, sterile existence and a harsh, brutish unknown.
Powerful and profound, Falling as She Sings is at once science fiction adventure, spiritual thriller, and visionary love story. It’s a searching, funny commentary on the eternal, yet ever fresh and compelling forces driving relationships between the sexes.
Burned by Magic by Jasmine Walt:
In the city of Solantha, mages rule absolute, with shifters considered second-class citizens and humans something in between. No one outside the mage families are allowed to have magic, and anyone born with it must agree to have it stripped from them to avoid execution.
Sunaya Baine, a shifter-mage hybrid, has managed to keep her unruly magic under wraps for the last twenty-four years. But while chasing down a shifter-hunting serial killer, she loses control of her magic in front of witnesses, drawing the attention of the dangerous and enigmatic Chief Mage.
Locked up in the Chief Mage’s castle and reduced to little more than a lab rat, Sunaya resists his attempts to analyze and control her at every turn. But she soon realizes that to regain her freedom and catch the killer, she must overcome her hatred of mages and win the most powerful mage in the city to her side.
Reckoning in the Void by J.T. Williams:
The world falls towards darkness.
Magic is awakening in the north and the Grand Protectorate retreats after its bloody defeat at Srun. Sviska stands with the Island Nation against the evils of The Order and the Itsu Priest as the allies of magic make plans for their push against the capital city of their enemy. But all is not as it seems.
The Itsu Priest is tightening his grip on the legions of the north changing them from men to unholy beasts. The Saints of Wura must move quickly to save Garoa’s daughter from his evil clutches but some fear she could already be dead. Furthermore, hundreds have been kidnapped as sacrifices for a dark ritual and the time for the incantation draws near.
Sviska is moving closer to unlocking the powers of his Dwemhar ancestry but as the blood curse ensnares his mind, he can only pray he is powerful enough to resist the will of The Order.
He made a stand against a dark evil in the icy mountains of Elinathrond but now his life, and that of those he has grown to call friends, may be forfeit.
Send to Kindle
January 24, 2016
Photos: More Magical Hoarfrost
The snow and frost that held most of Germany in its grip last week is gone by now, but before it left, it still gave us a beautiful morning with bright blue skies and hoarfrost covered branches.
Hoarfrost usually doesn’t last long and indeed it was gone by noon. However, I was able to take some photos beforehand. No special locations, just my weekly grocery haul.
The view from my front door this morning.
Every tree along the street is covered in hoarfrost.
It’s the same in the other direction. Hoarfrost covered trees all along the street.
Hoarfrost covered trees.
Another hoarfrost covered tree.
Hoarfrost most typically forms on bare branches, but this oak tree next to my home, which doesn’t lose its leaves until spring, got frosted over as well.
The Groot colony that has taken root on Brinkum cemetery, got frosted as well.
A close-up look at some hoarfrost covered branches.
Hoarfrost covered trees, a parking lot and a long defunct Chinese restaurant in Brinkum-Nord.
Hoarfrost covered trees surround this 1950s house in the Bremen neighbourhood of Kattenturm.
Wolfskuhle (wolf pit) Park in Bremen-Kattenturm looks like something out of a fairy tale.
A look at some hoarfrost covered branches.
Send to Kindle
January 21, 2016
Photos: Magical Hoarfrost
Our current cold spell is still continuing with temperatures as low as minus nine degrees Celsius last night.
My students, who hail from Syria, Iran and Eritrea, are not used to such weather at all and a lot of them were notably unwell today. “Is winter in Germany always like this?”, one of them asked me. “Not always, but sometimes”, I said.
However, the winter also has its pretty sides. And today it showed one of them, for I woke up this morning to find all trees and bushes in the neighbourhood covered in hoarfrost. And since that sight is quite rare, I also took some photos:
A hoarfrost covered tree
Looking up at the hoarfrost covered branches of a birch tree.
The hoarfrost covered branches of a bush in the neighbours’ garden.
Send to Kindle
January 19, 2016
Photos: Snowy Winter Woods 2016
Last weekend, we had snow again, quickly followed by an extended period of frost. And since I had the time and inclination, I took the opportunity to go for a stroll through the snowy winter woods.
The woods in question are Westermark forest near Syke, which is a favourite hiking spot of mine and which has been featured in these pages before.
Of course, I took my camera as well and snapped some photos of frosted branches and snowy winter woods:
The main path through the Westermark woods in all its snow-covered glory. Note the big piles of timber along the side of the path.
One of the timber piles viewed through the snowy woods.
A close-up look at one of the timber piles. The timber was stacked some three metres high here.
A fork in the road.
A snow-covered woodland path.
The field that lies at the centre of Westermark forest in its full snow-covered glory.
A snow-covered field at the edge of the woods.
The farmhouse at the edge of the woods.
Because sometimes, you just need to write your name into the virgin snow covering a wooden bench.
Snow-frosted branches seen close up.
A bit of blue sky glimpsed through snow-frosted branches.
A snowy, wood-rimmed field between the villages of Nordwohlde and Fesenfeld.
Send to Kindle
January 11, 2016
SFF, Romance and Abuse Narratives
Yesterday, I came across this great post by Foz Meadows about the frequency of abusive romance narratives particularly in media aimed at teenagers. The post is a response to a post by someone named The J. Gatsby Kid, in which they point out that Rey/Kylo Ren shippers tend to be primarily teen girls, because Kylo Ren is exactly the sort of tortured, brooding and abusive figure that YA romances present as boyfriend material to teen girls.
Much as I would love for Finn and Poe Dameron to end up together (though that wouldn’t make them the first gay Star Wars characters seen on screen, since it’s pretty obvious that Obi Wan is gay), it also triggers a “Please, don’t have Rey end up with Kylo Ren” reaction, because Kylo is a relationship disaster waiting to happen, regardless of the potential incest that some fan theories suspect. No, better for Rey to follow in the footsteps of Jedi celibacy (and I was never a fan of Jedi celibacy, never mind that the films themselves point out that it doesn’t work) than to end up with Kylo of all people.
It’s not just Rey/Kylo shippers either (and there are shippers for pretty much any conceivable and inconceivable pairing out there). When Jessica Jones dropped in late November (and I should probably do a post about Jessica Jones some time), a fandom sprang up that focussed on Kilgrave, the mind-controlling villain brilliantly played by David Tennant. Now Kilgrave is probably one of the vilest characters to pop up in popular culture of late. Kilgrave makes Kylo Ren seem like a whiny little emo boy by comparison and yet there are fans who have a crush on him. And yes, I know that the fact that both David Tennant, who plays Kilgrave, and Adam Driver, who plays Kylo Ren, are handsome men (though neither does it for me personally) certainly has something to do with their transformation into romantic figures for a subset of the viewership of the respective works.
Nonetheless, Foz Meadows and the J. Gatsby Kid are right. The proliferation of narratives that romanticise abuse and abusers is troubling. If anything, the situation has gotten even worse in recent years. Because until fairly recently, growly alpha males and flat-out abusers as romantic heroes were on their way out, at least in the romance genre, as reader tastes finally shifted away from the rapetastic bodicerippers of the 1970s/1980s and the Harlequin Presents type tycoon/billionaire romances with their ultra-possessive heroes. But then the success of Fifty Shades of Grey and to a lesser degree Twilight brought the growly, ultra-possessive, borderline (and frequently crossing the border) abusive alphajerk back with a vengeance and the rise of the so-called “new adult romance”, which pretty much exclusively features these jerky heroes, has only exacerbated that trend. As a result, I’ve largely stopped reading romance except for a few trusted authors.
Now a lot of the time, whenever someone dares to criticise Fifty Shades of Grey and its copycats or rapestastic bodicerippers or growly, ultrapossessive alpha heroes or Rey/Kylo Ren shippers or Jessica/Kilgrave shippers, the response is, “How dare you criticise other women for their sexual fantasies?”, usually followed by an explanation how rape and domination fantasies are extremely common and what that signifies.
So no, I’m not criticising other women for their sexual fantasies. If you want to fantasise about Christian Grey or Edward Cullen (who doesn’t really belong into this company, for while Edward’s behaviour is problematic, it’s not outright abusive and/or rapey, as with the other characters) or Clayton Westmoreland or the hero of Stormfire or Kilgrave or Kylo Ren, then fantasise away. I won’t stop you nor can I.
Nonetheless, we still need to ask ourselves whether the reason that rape and domination and “Heal the abuser” fantasies are so very common may be that our pop culture is absolutely saturated with such stories. Because, as Foz Meadows points out in her post, we quickly internalise the common patterns in the stories that we consume to the point that she was initially confused when she came across King’s Dragon by Kate Elliott in which the handsome but abusive guy is the villain and not a romantic hero, because that was not how the story was supposed to go.
Worse, because narratives romanticising abusive relationship dynamics are so pervasive in our culture, they also tend to become invisible, even to those of us who are pretty attuned to problematic relationships in the fiction we consume.
A few years ago, there was a space opera series with a strong romance element that I liked a whole lot. I eagerly devoured the series until about halfway through the fourth book, when the heroine’s lover (and the couple had already been through hell and back in the previous volumes) suddenly decided they had to call it quits for the greater good and began behaving abominably towards a woman he claimed to love. I somehow finished the book, increasingly angry, and started the next one, only to see that it was more of the same – hero and everybody else mistreating the already psychically damaged heroine – and stopped reading. There was one more book in the series which I never read at all.
Now a few months ago, I suddenly got a hankering for space opera with romance and a strong female protagonist. And since there aren’t a whole lot of those around, I remembered the series I had abandoned and thought, “Why don’t I read the last two books of that?” After all, I had really enjoyed that series when it was still good. And who knows, maybe the problems I had were really just a temporary blip caused by the need to artificially keep the central couple apart, because happy couples are considered boring, even if they free slaves and fight flesh-eating aliens and all that. Never mind that there are plenty of series that prove that happy couples are not boring at all and can still have adventures. See Eve and Roarke from J.D. Robb’s In Death series, Hawk and Fisher from Simon R. Green’s eponymous series (plus John Taylor and Suzy Shooter are together and mostly happy for several of the latter books of Green’s Nightside series) or Silas and Lainie from Kyra Halland’s Daughter of the Wildings series.
To refresh my memory, I grabbed the previous books in the series and began to reread the relationship bits. And was horrified, because I realised that the great love of the heroine’s life had not suddenly become a jerk halfway through the series – no, he had pretty much always been one.
Now the hero’s jerkiness was obscured by the fact that the series is written in the first person from the heroine’s POV and she is not always a very reliable narrator. She is deeply traumatised, not to mention paranoid in the first book, so I was inclined to dismiss her fear of the hero as the result of her unfounded paranoia (so does the heroine, once she is no longer afraid of him). Except that the heroine’s paranoia was not unfounded, because the hero had explicitly threatened her in the dialogue.
And once the narrator has fallen in love with the hero, she idealises him to the point that she is blinded to his very obvious faults. And because the novel puts us firmly in her head, so are we. What is more, the romantic bits are really, really well written, so we root for these people to get together, though come to think of it, I never liked the hero all that much as a character. Okay, so he is no Kilgrave or even Kylo Ren and he does have his good bits, e.g. he is nurturing and protective towards those he cares about (and indeed an interlude caring for an alien infant in the first book goes a long way towards redeeming the character) and does some genuinely heroic things. Nonetheless, the relationship is deeply problematic. And in fact, I mainly liked the hero because the heroine loved him and because these two deeply damaged people seemed to be good for each other.
Of course, it’s quite possible that the heroine decided to ditch the hero in the end – as I said, I didn’t read the last two books. And there definitely were other romantic possibilities for her, which I for one would have preferred.
Nor do I intend to rag on this particular series (which you’ll note I didn’t name, even though you may be able to guess, if you’ve read it), since I have enjoyed other works by the author. No, my point was to illustrate that these problematic and downright abusive relationship dynamics are endemic in our culture, so endemic that they can become invisible, especially when there is enough to like about the work in question otherwise. And so it’s really no surprise that a lot of women and girls fantasize about taming the domineering, growly alpha hero and redeeming the tortured abuser, because our culture keeps feeding such stories to them.
Even if you try to avoid such stories – and I do, because I’ve never liked abusive jerk heroes – it can still be damned difficult, because this stuff is everywhere. Trigger warnings only offer a limited help, especially since a lot of the time, there was zero warning at all about problematic relationship dynamics, even if I read reviews beforehand. Quite the contrary, often heroes described as “swoonworthy” in reviews turned out to be abusive and controlling jerks, when actually reading the book. What is more, sometimes the abusive dynamics only become apparent upon rereading.
So is it any surprise that many women will write the sort of stories they have internalised, whether as fanfic or profic? Especially when there is economic pressure involved and writers are clearly told that beta heroes don’t sell, cause no one wants to read about them (never mind that plenty of people do like beta heroes). I don’t even exclude myself here, some of my early stories have problematic gender and relationship dynamics as well, particularly those written for a specific market which liked that sort of thing and bought pretty much everything I sent them. I usually kept the outrightly abusive behaviour confined to the villains. And there is a reason that Hostage to Passion ends the way it does, because at that point the hero does not deserve the heroine. I always intended to write a sequel and I still may on day, but at this point in my life that story is no longer as appealing as it was when I first wrote it more than ten years ago.
Nowadays, I make a point to write positive relationships, particularly in ongoing series, but also standalones like Christmas Gifts and Christmas Eve at the Purple Owl Café, which happens to be my bestselling title in two languages. Because there are plenty of ways to generate conflict without artificially keeping a couple apart or having one or both characters resort to controlling or outright violent behaviour. It’s even possible to write about darker themes without resorting to standard “love and heal the abuser” narratives.
For example, I am currently working on what will eventually become a space opera series with strong romantic elements (because there aren’t nearly enough of those, so I have to write my own) and a central couple. Now the hero and heroine start out on opposite sides of a conflict and the hero does some things that are unquestionably wrong. He lies to her, captures her and she even finds herself his prisoner for a while. However, what the hero does not do is abuse her in any way. And in fact the realisation that the people he works for are planning to abuse and very likely kill the heroine is a large part of what causes the hero to turn against them. Nor does the heroine forgive him that quickly, though once she does they face everything I can throw at them as a couple.
Of course, I still write problematic relationships on occasion, but only in contexts where it is clear that this relationship is far from ideal. For example, no one could mistake Alfred and Bertha von Bülow for a model of a happy couple (plus the Alfred and Bertha stories are pretty obviously parodies). Several of the stories in Bug-Eyed Monsters and the Women Who Love Them parody the problematic gender dynamics of golden age science fiction, including such ugly tropes as forced breeding, while Kiss of Ice has the supposedly evil queen turn the tables on the knight sent to slay her. And the relationships depicted in the The Milk Jug (the second crime shot in Spiked Tea) and the two crime shorts collected in Seeing Red as well as the marriage from Family Car are so clearly problematic that they all end in murder. And no, I have no idea why I have the tendency to write domestic conflicts that escalate into violence and murder.
The question remains, what do we do about the proliferation of abuse narratives disguised as romance? Shaming people for their fantasies and reading choices is obviously not okay, but nonetheless we should call out problematic content when we see it. Even or especially if we otherwise like the work or the author. After all, the romance genre had largely moved away from the excesses of the bodiceripper era largely because a lot of readers, critics and writers began to call out and discuss problematic things in the books they read. And it is possible to criticise a work and its problematic aspects without shaming those who happen to enjoy said work.
Send to Kindle
January 3, 2016
First Snow of the New Year 2016
After an exceptionally mild December, we are currently experiencing a cold spell. And last night, it did not just get cold, it also began to snow. Over the day, the snowfall only increased.
I would have loved to go hiking in the snowy woods, but I didn’t have the time for that today. Though I did forego watching the umpteenth rerun of NCIS to take a walk around the neighbourhood this evening.
I also took some photos of the first snow of the year and here they are:
A somewhat moody early morning shot of the neighbour house with lit windows.
The same view as above, only by daylight and after more snowfall.
A look out across the snowy yard and back garden. Note the snowdrifts formed by the heavy wind.
Else, a department store mannequin I bought at a going out of business sale a few years ago, is looking pensively out at the snow.
A shiny star ornament in the window with the snow seen behind it outside.
Black hellebore a.k.a. Christmas rose in full bloom. This was taken on New Year’s Day before the snow came.
And another shot of the black hellebore plant in full bloom.
Send to Kindle
December 31, 2015
New Year’s Night 2015/2016
2016 is approximately five hours old where I am, so a Happy New Year to all readers and followers of this blog.
As always, WordPress/Jetpack offer a yearly report and the 2015 report for this blog may be found here. I do notice that I have been less active than in previous years due to a combination of being very busy and preferring to spend whatever time is left over on writing fiction rather than blogging.
Meanwhile, we had a lovely, if quiet New Year’s Eve. Like the past few years, we had dinner at Ristorante Romantica, a great Italian restaurant in Brinkum, North Germany. You can see the menu in the following photos:
Starter: A mixed antipasto platter.
Second course: Fetuccine with pesto and parmesan
Main course: Roast lamb with potatoes and Mediterranean vegetables.
And finally, a cup of hot chocolate with cream.
I also posted the photos live on my Instagram feed, to the amusement of my family (“What is this?” “What are these other photos?” “Why did you take a photo of that?”). I would have livetweeted the pics as well, except that I had exceeded my smartphone data budget for December, so my provider put me in the slow lane. Instagram still works, tweeting photos doesn’t.
We were home at around eleven PM and switched on the TV to watch the great party at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin for the final hour or so. At least, the Berlin party still took place, unlike the New Year’s Eve paties in Munich and Brussels.
Meanwhile, in her New Year’s address, Angela Merkel thanked both volunteers and professionals for helping the refugees who have come to Germany. This is actually the first time that a politician has ever addressed me and thanked me for my work, albeit indirectly. A pleasant change from e.g. Merkel’s predecessor Gerhard Schröder, who infamously called teachers “faule Säcke” (lazy sacks). I particularly liked the fact that Merkel did not forget the many professionals working to give refugees a new home, since so far politicians have only thanked the volunteers. Not to discount the great work that volunteers are doing, but administrative personnel, doctors, nurses, police officers, teachers, etc… are also doing great work and it shouldn’t be discounted, just because they are paid for it. Angela Merkel’s speech is very good in general, so why don’t you just watch it?
There was a time where I’d have been stunned to even manage to watch a New Year’s address all the way through, because they were usually boring blather. Though I did see Helmut Kohl’s infamous mixed up 1986 New Year’s address (a technician got the tapes mixed up and the TV station broadcast the previous year’s address) live on TV and even remember saying to my parents and their friends, with whom they were celebrating, “Hey, did you hear that? That idiot just wished us a good 1986. He’s so stupid he doesn’t even know what year it is.” None of the others had even caught it, since no one was listening.
Now Helmut Kohl had something of a reputation as clumsy and a little thick in the first term of his reign, so everybody assumed the 1986 bit was a slip of the tongue. And of course, it’s telling how very samey those speeches were that no one (except Mr. Kohl himself who was reportedly furious) realised that they were broadcasting the wrong speech, until Kohl got the year wrong. Even the background and the suit look the same, only the tie was slightly different.
Back to 2016: At midnight, we had champagne and then went outside for the fireworks. We had a package of rockets and a fountain/battery type thing with sixty shots. Fireworks batteries are getting increasingly popular and they look lovely as well. Total 2015 fireworks budget: approx. 15 Euros.
It was somewhat foggy, not to mention smoky from the fireworks, but nonetheless, I managed to get a few good shots:
The fireworks battery launches a shot into the sky.
Another rocket launches, this time in green. Note the smoke trails from previous shots.
Another shot launches, this time purple and rather phallic.
Finally, sparkle stars.
A rocket captured in the second of its explosion.
Another shot that came out really well.
This is probably my best fireworks shot for this year. The multiple explosions are due to (someone else’s) fireworks battery.
Send to Kindle
December 30, 2015
Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month for December 2015
It’s that time of the month again, time for “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”.
So what is “Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month”? It’s a round-up of speculative fiction by indie authors newly published this month, though some November books I missed the last time around snuck in as well. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author. So far, most links only go to Amazon.com, though I may add other retailers for future editions.
Once again, we have new releases covering the whole broad spectrum of speculative fiction. We have space opera, military science fiction, paranormal romance, epic fantasy, urban fantasy, weird westerns, Steampunk, cyberpunk, post-apocalyptic science fiction, fairy tales, werewolves, dragons, aliens, empaths, ice maidens, doomed knights, demon hunters, transgender time travellers, black magic outlaws, monkey queens, spaceships next door, Wild West mummies, South East Asian steampunk and much more.
Don’t forget that Indie Speculative Fiction of the Month is also crossposted to the Speculative Fiction Showcase, a group blog run by Jessica Rydill and myself, which features new release spotlights, guest posts, interviews and link round-ups regarding all things speculative fiction several times per week.
As always, I know the authors at least vaguely, but I haven’t read all of the books, so Caveat emptor.
And now on to the books without further ado:
If it weren’t for his Digital Life Assurance, Toronto Police Detective Finsbury Gage would be dead—smeared across the highway by a crazed man in a stolen urban assault vehicle. Finsbury hung together long enough for the recovery team to arrive. His wife wasn’t so lucky.
Now, six months later, his mind restored to a prosthetic brain, wrapped in a healthy new body, and technically immortal, Finsbury is back to a life that no longer exists. He’s all alone, his home a shrine to everything he lost. He’s been reassigned, knocked from Homicide to busting bit-heads and chasing after lost minutes of the idle rich. And his thoughts connect directly to the internet.
The only thing keeping Finsbury from blowing his plastic brains out is the memory of his wife’s death. It’s 2.57 seconds long and plays on repeat, every time he closes his eyes. But from within this loop of pain and grief he discovers a reason to go on—the haunting glimpse of the wild-eyed man responsible for his wife’s death.
Finsbury’s gonna find this guy, no matter what he has to do.
But Finsbury isn’t the only one on the hunt. Something is coming for him. Something like the world has never seen. Something that will force Finsbury Gage to abandon everything he believes—everything he is—to survive.
The Winter Knight is sent out to execute the Ice Maiden who has already killed countless men. So far, none of those sent to bring the Maiden to justice have ever returned. But the Knight is confident that he will succeed where they failed, for he is protected by powerful magic.
When the Winter Knight finally reaches the castle of the Ice Maiden, she is strangely calm in the face of death and does not even try to resist. But has the Winter Knight truly succeeded where so many before him have failed or does the Ice Maiden still have a trick or two up her sleeve?
This is a dark and wintery fairytale of 4700 words or approximately 16 print pages altogether.
“I want to be a hero. Like the Monkey Queen.”
Michiko Koyama, the hero known as the Monkey Queen, and her partner in adventure Beth McGill are happily adjusting to finally being more than friends. But Beth has made a new friend, student and fellow geek girl Abigail Main-Drake, and Michiko is trying very hard not to be jealous.
Meanwhile, a rise in assaults by ogres is putting Emigre communities in danger. A hero has risen to help defend them, the swashbuckling sorceress who calls herself Redblade. Michiko is thrilled to have a new ally, but Beth is feeling left out, unneeded.
But what Michiko and Beth don’t know is that Abby is Redblade. And that secret, and the magic sword Abby carries, could spell doom for the Monkey Queen.
Join the adventure with Michiko and Beth in this fifth book in the Monkey Queen series, written with new readers in mind! Fantasy with heroines, humor and heart!
The Spaceship Next Door by Gene Doucette:
The world changed on a Tuesday.
When a spaceship landed in an open field in the quiet mill town of Sorrow Falls, Massachusetts, everyone realized humankind was not alone in the universe. With that realization, everyone freaked out for a little while.
Or, almost everyone. The residents of Sorrow Falls took the news pretty well. This could have been due to a certain local quality of unflappability, or it could have been that in three years, the ship did exactly nothing other than sit quietly in that field, and nobody understood the full extent of this nothing the ship was doing better than the people who lived right next door.
Sixteen-year old Annie Collins is one of the ship’s closest neighbors. Once upon a time she took every last theory about the ship seriously, whether it was advanced by an adult ,or by a peer. Surely one of the theories would be proven true eventually—if not several of them—the very minute the ship decided to do something. Annie is starting to think this will never happen.
One late August morning, a little over three years since the ship landed, Edgar Somerville arrived in town. Ed’s a government operative posing as a journalist, which is obvious to Annie—and pretty much everyone else he meets—almost immediately. He has a lot of questions that need answers, because he thinks everyone is wrong: the ship is doing something, and he needs Annie’s help to figure out what that is.
Annie is a good choice for tour guide. She already knows everyone in town and when Ed’s theory is proven correct—something is apocalyptically wrong in Sorrow Falls—she’s a pretty good person to have around.
As a matter of fact, Annie Collins might be the most important person on the planet. She just doesn’t know it.
Twiceborn Endgame by Marina Finlayson:
Half human, half dragon, all vengeance.
No one said being half dragon would be easy, but Kate O’Connor’s life has gone completely off the rails. She thought she’d won the succession war between the daughters of the dragon queen, until a shocking betrayal changed everything.
Now seven new sisters have joined the fray, a sinister government taskforce is gunning for her, and the Japanese queen has hit town, bent on snatching the throne for herself. Worst of all, her beloved son has been abducted.
The shifter world has never seen a proving like this one, but then, there’s never been a dragon quite like Kate before. She’ll need her human ingenuity as well as her dragon magic to save her son and everyone she holds dear. The final moves in the deadly endgame take her from goblin caves to Japanese palaces as she races against the clock to snatch victory from the dragon jaws of defeat.
Twiceborn Endgame is the third book in the urban fantasy trilogy The Proving.
I’m Cisco Suarez: necromancer, shadow charmer, black magic outlaw. Sounds kinda cool, doesn’t it? It was, right until I woke up half dead in a dumpster.
Did I say half dead? Because I meant 100% dead. Full on. I don’t do things halfway.
So here I am, alive for some reason, just another sunny day in Miami. It’s a perfect paradise, except I’m into something bad. Wanted by police, drenched in the stink of dark magic, nether creatures coming out of the woodwork, and don’t get me started on the Haitian voodoo gang. Trust me, it’s all fun and games until there’s a zombie pit bull on your tail.
I’m Cisco Suarez: necromancer, shadow charmer, black magic outlaw, and totally screwed.
The Bizarre Half-Life of John Fortune by James Gideon:
John Fortune is a street kid made good. Thanks to a genius for maths and physics, he carves out a successful career in interstellar engineering. But there’s something not quite right about John. Something not quite human. His one true friend, Frank Patterson, is sure he knows the secret. Frank can’t afford to be wrong. Mankind’s survival depends on it.
This 10,000 word short SF story/novella is perfect for fans of Ray Bradbury and Mike Resnick.
Omega Baggage by Eileen Glass:
Liam doesn’t have a plan, but he’s got the basics covered. As far as food, shelter, and clothing are concerned, he does right by his omega. But still the smaller wolf flinches from him, never speaks. And every mild suggestion is obeyed to the letter. Something’s not right, he knows that, but maybe it’s for the best.
Skye wouldn’t stay if he learned the truth.
Baggage is a novella of about 26,000 words.
The Sea is Ours: Tales from Steampunk South East Asia, edited by Jaymee Goh and Joyce Chng:
Steampunk takes on Southeast Asia in this anthology
The stories in this collection merge technological wonder with the everyday. Children upgrade their fighting spiders with armor, and toymakers create punchcard-driven marionettes. Large fish lumber across the skies, while boat people find a new home on the edge of a different dimension. Technology and tradition meld as the people adapt to the changing forces of their world. The Sea Is Ours is an exciting new anthology that features stories infused with the spirits of Southeast Asia’s diverse peoples, legends, and geography.
Mission Improbable by J.J. Green:
In the deepest reaches of the galaxy there are places and beings that aren’t impossible, just very, very improbable.
Carrie Hatchett is a low-achieving daydreamer, and the last person on Earth who should be resolving disputes for the Transgalactic Council. After providing a good home for her butt-ugly dog and psychotic cat, her biggest challenge in life is to avoid being fired, again.
But a strange green mist sucks her beneath her kitchen sink, and an unusual clerical error leads to an offer she foolishly doesn’t refuse.
In settling a conflict between the mechanical placktoids and the mysterious oootoon, Carrie reveals a threat to the entire galaxy.
Mission Improbable is Book One in the light-hearted, fast-paced Carrie Hatchett Space Adventures series.
Flowers in a Dumpster by Max Allan Gunnells:
Seventeen Tales to Frighten and Enlighten
The world is full of beauty and mystery. In these 17 tales, Gunnells will take you on a journey through landscapes of light and darkness, rapture and agony, hope and fear.
A post-apocalyptic landscape where it is safer to forget who you once were… An unusual support group comprised of cities dying of a common illness… A porn star that has opened himself up to demonic forces… Two men battling each other to the death who discover they have much in common… A woman whose masochistic tendencies may be her boyfriend’s ruin… A writer whose new friendship proves a danger to his marriage and his sanity.
Let Gunnells guide you through these landscapes where magnificence and decay co-exist side by side.
The Fredorian Destiny by Adair Hart:
The timeline is wrong. This is discovered when Dr. Albert Snowden and his niece, Emily, travel with Evaran to a galactic cultural exhibition event on Kreagus, the capital home world of the Kreagan Star Empire and galactic superpower near Earth. The Fredorians should be presenting an ancient artifact, known as the Arkaron, to the Kreagan emperor. The problem is they aren’t. Evaran has decided to step in and help the Fredorians achieve their destiny while stabilizing the timeline.
They must find the three lost Arkaron crystals in order to assemble the Arkaron. To make matters worse, Seeros, a powerful industrialist, has a bounty on their heads, causing bounty hunters to harass them each step of the way.
As if that weren’t enough, an unknown faction is hiring freelance mercenaries to hunt them down as well. Evaran is joined by others, and together, they will have to navigate these perils to assemble the Arkaron and achieve the Fredorian destiny.
Collin is in high school when he is visited by a time traveler – a woman who claims to be his wife in a hypothetical future… only the timeline has been disrupted, and the two will never meet unless he makes four key choices in his life that will guide them together again.
“Choosing You” is a short story in a conversational, first-person voice, about what happens when deciding to love someone becomes a literal choice. It’s 7300 words long and features a transgender protagonist.
House of the Healer by Jim Johnson:
The Scales Are Out of Balance
After surviving a brutal cultist attack on her village, Ruia led the other survivors to the safety of Fort Sekhmet with the help of Tjety, a Ranger of Mayat. With Tjety’s life now hanging in the balance, can Ruia gather enough help and learn to use her newfound hekau magic to heal Tjety before the forces of darkness close in and snuff out all hope?
House of the Healer is the third episode in PISTOLS AND PYRAMIDS, a monthly series best described as an ancient Egyptian-themed weird western with magic. And mummies. Lots of mummies.
Tara is “The Fourth”.
She woke up inside of a cylinder in an underground chamber with no memories. She is told that the world has been devastated by war, disease and mutations. Humankind had evacuated Earth and fled to hundreds of different worlds far away. A quarantine was declared, but this did not prevent pirates and slavers from raiding the villages of the remnant left behind.
Tara feels strangely compelled to “fix” Earth, knowing this could take decades and generations. She is “The Fourth”.
Greyson was born and raised as the only child of a high government official on the world called Roma, which modelled itself after the Roman Empire. The women of Roma are created artificially and have no rights. Thus, Roma is a pariah among civilized worlds.
As a young man Greyson is framed for a crime and his own father exiled him from his home world.
Tara wants to find out what it means to be “The Fourth” and to bring Earth back from the dead. Greyson wants to go home and clear his name. Their paths are destined to cross.
Chaos in the Starless Nights by J. Alex McCarthy:
Time is relative.
For one person, time flies by at a rapid pace. In a blink, hundreds of years pass. A life begins and ends, a million-year-old traitor returns to the place he once betrayed, an eyeless assassin questions his mission as he takes an innocent life.
In a flicker, an omnipotent leader’s rule crumbles beneath his feet, a treacherous woman revels in her plans as they come together to bring down those around her.
In a single second, four paths cross. As each story ends, the next begins in A Universe Without Stars.
Of One Skein, Part 1 by P.J. Post:
This romance brought to you by the end of the world…
Emily.
Samantha.
Cam.
Lost children.
Treachery.
Biological weapons.
Hostages.
The Cart People.
and…
A puppy.
Forgiveness has never been so far away.
This is episode 3 of Feral, an ongoing serialized story.
Snowberry Blossom by Missy Sheldrake:
Follow the knight Azaeli and her best friend Rian the Mage on a quick adventure to seek the Snowberry Blossom, a bloom that holds magic only if picked at midnight on Midwinter’s Eve.
Grab a cup of cider and sit back to read this tale of romance, adventure, and fantasy told Mya, Bard of His Majesty’s Elite of Cerion.
This short story takes place in between Call of Sunteri, book 2 and book 3 of the Keepers of the Wellsprings series, but there are no spoilers and it reads as a stand-alone tale.
Pete might always know when people are lying, but that doesn’t make him a good judge of character. Will he ever find a man who wants to keep him?
Pete’s the kind of guy who gets on people’s nerves. He can’t sit still. He talks too much. He doesn’t know when to shut up. And he always knows when people are lying.
While his talent wasn’t strong enough to get an empath rating from the ESRB, he now has a second chance with the new testing system they’re using. If he makes it, he’ll have some well-paying job offers from people who actually appreciate his gifts.
Maybe this time things will work out. Maybe his life will finally take a turn for the better. With some hot guys in it, too.
The Prime Rift by Veronica Sicoe:
Taryn has risked everything to free the first human colony from the tyranny of the TMC. With the help of her mind-linked ally, the alien warlord Amharr, she has finally succeeded.
Now Taryn must free the other colonies too, before the Ascendancy’s world-crushing ships reach human space.
But when she needs him most, Taryn must let Amharr go, or their Link will kill him. The others who stood by her side have seemingly turned against her. And the sadistic TMC General Hurst, who craves the power of Taryn’s Link, is now hunting her down.
With time running out, Taryn is about to face her greatest challenge yet, and she must do so alone.
Grand Master’s Mate by Aurora Springer:
Young empath, Violet Hunter, and her crafty Grand Master, Athanor Griffin, tackle the villains threatening civilization.
Their worst enemy, the Red Queen, rampages across the galaxy evading capture, while blocked portals restrict normal commerce among planets. Compounding their problems, half the Grand Masters on the Council fear Violet is the agent of their doom as her father foretold, and vow to eliminate her. To restore peace, Violet and Athanor embark on a hazardous quest for a weapon hidden by the ancient psychic masters on one of four planets. But, the weapon proves elusive, dangers lurk in the ancient sites, and new alliances forged with bizarre entities may not be sufficient to foil their enemies and save the galaxy.
Reminiscent of science fiction stories by Frank Herbert and Andre Norton, this rollercoaster adventure offers weird characters and deadly horrors balanced by lighthearted moments. Grand Master’s Mate is Book 3 of the Grand Master’s Trilogy.
Echoes of a World Gone by Elliott Webber:
After finding a mysterious radio signal, Luke and his sister, Ada, journey through the deadly environment of the post-apocalyptic desert, risking everything for a chance of a better life.
Luna Masterton sees demons.
She has been dealing with the demonic all her life, so when her brother gets tangled up with a demon named Sparkles, ‘Luna the Lunatic’ rolls in on her motorcycle to save the day.
Armed with the ability to harm demons, her scathing sarcasm, and a hefty chip on her shoulder, Luna gathers the most unusual of allies, teaming up with a green-eyed heroin addict and a snarky demon ‘of some import.’
After all, outcasts of a feather should stick together…even until the end.
This is volume one in The Bone Angel Trilogy by Mercedes M. Yardley,
Send to Kindle
Cora Buhlert's Blog
- Cora Buhlert's profile
- 14 followers
