Carol Van Natta's Blog, page 15
June 17, 2019
Send a MOBI File to Your Kindle Device – Instructions
Last updated June 2019
So you received a MOBI file from your friendly independent author for review purposes :-), or you bought it from a website, or won it as a prize in book giveaway, and now you want to read it on your Kindle device. Here are instructions, complete with screenshots.
You could also check the Amazon website for instructions, but they tell you how to send all sorts of things, but are kind of short on details.
To get the .MOBI file onto your Kindle, you’ll need to know the email address for your Kindle device, and you’ll need to tell Amazon it’s OK to accept files from your email address.
Here’s how:
Log into your Amazon account. If you have more than one, choose the one you used to buy or register the device to which you want to send the MOBI file.
From most any Amazon.com shopping page, use the menu in the upper right and click on the Account & Lists button. About two-thirsd down the page on the right-hand list, select Your Content and Devices.
Click the Devices item.
Amazon lists every device you've ever had, plus things they want you to have. Find your target device and make sure it's the the correct type — Fire, PC, Kindle for [something].
Click the small gray button all the way to the left of that row. In the popup window, you'll see the email address you'll need.
WARNING: You must send the email with the MOBI file from an email that you told Amazon about.
Go back up to step 3 above, but this time click Preferences. Scroll down to the “Personal Document Settings” heading. Click it to see the list of your devices and emails, plus the list of “Approved Personal Document E-mail List” of emails that can send MOBI files, PDFs, etc., to your device.
Note that the list of your devices above it is another way to get at those target email addresses for your devices, but they may be cryptically named and they have no dates associated with them. That's why I had you find it via steps 1-5 above, where you get much more information.
To add an address, scroll to the bottom of the approved email list (if any) and click the “Add a new approved e-mail address” link.
Now you're ready to send the MOBI file to your Kindle device
From one of the approved email addresses, send your file to the target device's email. NOTE: It doesn’t matter what you put in the subject line or the body of your email, because Amazon will ignore it. For your records, you might want to put something like the title and author, e.g., “Overload Flux by Carol Van Natta,” in case you ever need it later.
Wait about 15 minutes, then check your device. You may need to manually “Sync and Check for New Items” (and remember to take it out of Airplane mode). Amazon automatically converts the MOBI file for the type used on your device.
Voilá! A new book for you to read!
The post Send a MOBI File to Your Kindle Device – Instructions appeared first on Carol Van Natta - Author.
June 14, 2019
Big Damn Story Arc
I recently appeared on a writer's panel at the 2019 Denver Pop Culture Con. The panel's goal was to give the audience tips and tricks on how to write a bingeable series. My esteemed co-panelists, Trai Cartwright and Marin Lepore, are both screenwriters and film/TV producers. I represented the novel-writing side of things. We came prepared with concrete examples, and encouraged audience participation and questions. It was quite a lively session for a Sunday afternoon on day three of a mega-con. I got several questions about the Big Damn Story Arc in my Central Galactic Concordance space opera series, so I thought it would be worth talking about in more detail here.
Q: Did you know the Big Damn Story Arc when you wrote the first book?
Yes and no. My muse, quirky creature that it is, thinks in series. Even when my lofty author brain is convinced I'm writing a standalone story for a specific purpose, my impish muse is busy in the background, dreaming up the whole universe, the other characters, and what's happening to them.
I need to know the characters and have a loose outline before I start any story. I think of it as a roadmap wherein the actual route will probably change by the time I get there. The same goes for my series. I need that loose roadmap so I know where I'm headed. For the Big Damn Story Arc, that means I knew it was about how humans respond to an evolutionary change that's no longer affecting just a select few. Two hundred years of galactic peace are about to come to an end. {Cue ominous but exciting music.}
Now that I've completed four novels and am two-thirds done with a fifth, I've met a lot of fascinating characters who point me to things I never considered. Such as who is the scarier antagonist—the narcissistic sociopath who deserves everything that happens to him, or the smart, efficient administrator who believes she's doing what's right for humankind? I'm also inspired by reader questions and comments about the characters they love and their guesses for what's coming.
Q: Did you think the series would be 10+ books long?
No. I thought maybe five or six. My author brain imagines it knows how long a given story will be, which my muse delights in proving wrong. For example, Zero Flux was supposed to be a short story, not a 17,000-word novella.
The original Big Damn Story Arc outline started with what is now book 4. As I started thinking about those characters, each of whom had been used and broken by the same government agency, I realized I was in trouble. Either the book would have to be a 200,000-word space opera epic, or I needed to write a small encyclopedia about the universe, the history, the major players, and how the powder keg got packed and fused in the first place.
So instead of those options, I backed up four years on my timeline and wrote Overload Flux. A couple of years later, I backed up even farther to write the novella Last Ship Off Polaris-G to explain an incident that sets a future main character on the path that forces him to a make a critical choice.
I've also written a couple of “sidebar” novellas, Pet Trade and Cats of War. They're contemporaneous to the story arc, but not a part of the action. They first appeared in the Pets in Space anthology series. I might write more of them, too.
Q: What will you do when the Big Damn Story Arc is done?
Celebrate, of course. Life's little victories should be celebrated, because the big ones don't come along that often. That said, it's a big galaxy, and there are plenty of other characters—all my stories start with characters—who can get into a lot of trouble.
Thanks to my muse, I have an ever-growing collection of series plot bunnies to choose from. I also have the Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series that's more open-ended. It has smaller, looser plot arcs that cover three or four books at a time.
I've always been a forward-looking person, so I'm excited by the possibilities. 
June 7, 2019
All Ice Age Shifters Books at All Booksellers
Last year, I released my new paranormal romance series in Amazon's Kindle Unlimited program. A lot of readers are in the program, but not all of them. Therefore, I didn't renew the enrollment. The books are now free of the exclusivity requirement, so I've published all the Ice Age Shifters® books at all booksellers. Hooray!
Here are all the books with all the vendor links in one spot, for your one-stop-shop convenience. By the way, new this year will be the opportunity to buy directly from me here at my website. Hooray again!
✸ ALL ICE AGE SHIFTERS BOOKS AT ALL BOOKSELLERS ✸
Shifter Mate Magic (Ice Age Shifters Book 1)
Lonely bear shifter Trevor must convince a woman on the run that he's her mate, and their only hope is a magical sanctuary town. Jackie doesn't trust shifters. But with a corrupt feline pride hot on her trail, Trevor might be her only chance for survival. Even his indomitable prehistoric bear may be no match for a dangerous enemy seeking retribution.
Barnes & Noble ~ Apple Books ~ Kobo Books ~ Google Play
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon CA ~ Amazon AU
Paperback: Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble
✸ ALL ICE AGE SHIFTERS BOOKS AT ALL BOOKSELLERS ✸
Shift of Destiny (Ice Age Shifters Book 2)
There is no such thing as magic, or sexy shifters. Or… is there? Moira doesn’t believe in magic, despite being chased by a crazy billionaire for her supposed “gifts.” Chance, prehistoric lion shifter, believes in Moira, his true mate. He’s determined to protect her and help her find the magic in her blood. But even a top predator can’t guess the lengths to which a desperate billionaire will go to get what he wants.
Barnes & Noble ~ Apple Books ~ Kobo Books ~ Google Play
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon CA ~ Amazon AU
Paperback: Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble
✸ ALL ICE AGE SHIFTERS BOOKS AT ALL BOOKSELLERS ✸
Heart of a Dire Wolf (Ice Age Shifters Book 3)
Skyla, prehistoric dire wolf shifter, and Nic, sexy tiger shifter, recognize their true mate in each other. Problem is, they’re prisoners of an underground auction. To stay together, they must escape captivity, avoid ruthless hunters, and figure out how to work together if they’re going to crack the secrets of a mysterious new-old sanctuary town. And they better hurry, because the greedy wizards are after the fabled treasures of this vulnerable sanctuary town—and them.
Barnes & Noble ~ Apple Books ~ Kobo Books ~ Google Play
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon CA ~ Amazon AU
Paperback: Amazon
✸ ALL ICE AGE SHIFTERS BOOKS AT ALL BOOKSELLERS ✸
Dire Wolf Wanted (Ice Age Shifters Book 4)
The magical world stands on the brink of war, unless two extraordinary shifters can bridge the gulf between them. Dire wolf shifter Rayne Chekal works to take down an illegal auction house that trafficks in shifters. Arvik Inuktan, secret mythic shifter, infiltrated the auction staff with the same mission. The attraction is instant… and impossible. War is coming. When Rayne and Arvik meet on the battlefield, can they overcome their differences and work together to stop the evil, or will this war engulf the magical world?
Barnes & Noble ~ Apple Books ~ Kobo Books ~ Google Play
Amazon US ~ Amazon UK ~ Amazon CA ~ Amazon AU
Paperback: Amazon
✸ ALL ICE AGE SHIFTERS BOOKS AT ALL BOOKSELLERS ✸
Ice Age Shifters Collection, Books 1-4
Four magical paranormal romances with action, smokin' hot romance, thrilling adventure, and Ice Age shifters who defy the odds to protect their true mates from anyone and anything that stands in their way.
Contains Shifter Mate Magic, Shift of Destiny, Heart of a Dire Wolf, and Dire Wolf Wanted. Buy the box set and save.
May 31, 2019
Real Life Events Become Magical Secrets
World-building is one of my pleasures as an author. Since I write science fiction and fantasy genres, I get to do a lot of it. For my Ice Age Shifters paranormal romance series, I delight in discovering fun facts in my research, so that real life events become magical secrets in my stories.
Earthquakes in Real Life, and their Magical Secrets
Fort Collins, my home base in Colorado, sits next to the seismically active Rocky Mountains. Geologists consider any area that had earthquakes in recorded history to be “active. While it's a reasonable designation on a geological scale, it's not quite as helpful to put Fort Collins, with one significant earthquake in the last 200 years, in the same category as Los Angeles, with dozens of small earthquakes every month, including some whoppers. Nonetheless, that one earthquake in 1882 was 6.6 on the Richter scale and felt for 1,000 miles around. It was likely a slip in a mid-crust fault. A smaller earthquake with a similar cause took place in southeastern Wyoming in 1984. At least, that's what humans think…
In my Ice Age Shifters world, the Wyoming earthquake and aftershocks resulted from a magical battle between the denizens of Kotoyeesinay and a vicious gang that wanted to capture or kill a woman who had been granted sanctuary. Luckily, although lots of humans felt the shaking, none of them saw the actual battle. Therefore, covering it up was just a matter of nudging a few scientists in the right direction. These kinds of problems are why magical species agree on only one rule in the modern world: keep secret the existence of the magical world.
Other Calamities with Magical Impacts
In Heart of a Dire Wolf, the Tunguska event in Siberia became the historical battlefield in the latest (but probably not the last) conflict between the polar fairies and the arctic elves. In the upcoming Shifter's Storm, book 5 of the Ice Age Shifters series, a hurricane is a catalyst for the events in that story. Hurricanes are natural phenomena (usually!), but they affect magical species, too. There might be a secret magical cause for a future Bomb Cyclone, too.
Each time I do research for a particular topic, such as current best safety practices for indoors during an earthquake (standing in doorways is out; crouching under a sturdy table or similar location is in), I stumble across fun little facts. For example, the fact that deep-crust earthquakes don't have surface land damage to help pinpoint the epicenter or cause with great accuracy. They all go in my virtual file of real life events that can become magical secrets.
And then the fun begins.
May 24, 2019
More Ice Age Shifters This Summer
Yes, in answer to several recent reader queries, there will be more Ice Age Shifters this summer.
May 17, 2019
Ancient Horses, New Horses
Humans (and some dogs) love digging around in the dirt. We never know what we'll find—roots, rocks, earthworms, buried treasure, a 42,000-year-old foal from an ancient horse species…
In Siberia, scientists found a foal preserved in the permafrost. Under the right conditions, cold can preserve a lot of things, including humans, but this foal is special. It still has liquid blood. This news story caught my eye, of course, because I write a paranormal romance series that includes some rare shapeshifters who can become extinct Ice Age ancestors of modern animals.
If this were the movies, we'd extract the DNA and make a clone… except, we can't, because red blood cells don't contain a nucleus, where all that fascinating genetic information is stored.
That isn't stopping Russian scientists, however. These are the same folks who found a woolly mammoth and have been trying to clone it, as described in a 2014 Smithsonian TV special. Finding un-degraded DNA is a needle-in-a-haystack problem. And that's just the first step on a long and largely untested road for developing a viable zygote of an extinct animal. From ancient horses, new horses arose, but by evolution, not because we invented test tubes.
Okay, these aren't ancient horses, but they're equally extinct
Ice Age lions that probably hunted them for dinner
Just Because We Can
We learn from every effort. Failure isn't fun at the time, but it's informative. If nothing else, it tells us what not to do. History is replete with thrilling tales of humans stubbornly trying things for months, years, or lifetimes, and finally achieving the hypothesized result. None of this takes into consideration whether we should achieve the desired result. Nor does it tell us who should be making that judgment. Politicians? Priests? Popular vote?
Cloning extinct animals could be a way to recover species we humans have so carelessly exterminated, such as by habitat destruction or outright killing (check out the passenger pigeon or the Tasmanian tiger, for example). But it could introduce new-old exotics into an already fragile ecosystem, or bring back big, hungry dinosaurs that escape from their island…
Ethics is an ephemeral hill to stand on, and often takes hindsight to make an informed decision. It's no longer considered ethical to enslave humans for any reason, but that's a very recent change in 30,000+ years of human civilization. We're still struggling with the tangled mess of prejudice, ethics, rationalization, religion, and science fact that center around skin color or gender identity. However, all of this is way above my pay grade as a simple science fiction and fantasy author.
Fantasy Vs. Fact
My job—and my pleasure—is telling stories. Asking “what if,” then exploring the consequences. Science says psychic powers such as telepathy and telekinesis probably don't exist. But what if humans evolve to develop those abilities in the far future? And how will we react when not everyone has them, the same way not everyone can play the violin or run the four-minute-mile? That's the starting point of my Central Galactic Concordance space opera series. Similarly, in my fantasy romance world, what do Ice Age shifters gain and lose by being who they are?
None of my stories have yet involved horse shifters (although in Shifter Mate Magic, a truckstop outside of Cheyenne, Wyoming is owned by a Texas longhorn bull shifter), but it's news items like ancient horses and new horses that spark my muse.
The post Ancient Horses, New Horses appeared first on Carol Van Natta - Author.
May 10, 2019
More Ice Age Megafauna Illustrations
Last week, I showed you the illustrations for the first two books in my Ice Age Shifters series. This week I'll show you more Ice Age megafauna illustrations for the second two books in the series.
As with the whole series, we don't have living examples or photographs of the really big animals that flourished during the Ice Age. We do have fossilized bones and we have artists. When I conceived the idea for my Ice Age Shifters® series, I commissioned excellent illustrator Nyssa Juneau for the illustrations for my books.
Even More Ice Age Megafauna Illustrations for My Books
I know you'll be surprised to learn that both Heart of a Dire Wolf and Dire Wolf Wanted feature dire wolves.
May 3, 2019
Ice Age Megafauna Illustrations
When I conceived the idea for my Ice Age Shifters® series, I imagined that certain, rare shifters were born as throwbacks to the days when mammals grew big. Really big. Paleontologists dubbed them “megafauna” to signify their size. Not as big as dinosaurs, of course. That's a different conversation altogether. There are no living examples, which is probably good for those of us who don't want to be their dinner. But that means no photos, either. Fortunately, artists have filled the gap with Ice Age megafauna illustrations.
I commissioned fantastic illustrator Nyssa Juneau for the illustrations for my books. She is also the illustrator for the Pets in Space anthology series, which is how I discovered her wonderful talent.
Ice Age Megafauna Illustrations In My Books
Shifter Mate Magic features an Arctotherium. In his human form, he is Trevor Hammond, independent trucker. In his shifted form, he is a huge, shaggy bear with big teeth and wickedly long, sharp claws. His modern bear-shifter parents sent him to live with is aunt in Appalachia because they couldn't handle him. More to the point, his very existence as a throwback was ruining their chances for social advancement in their bear clan.
Arctotherium, a.k.a. Ice Age bear
Arctotherium bears are the South American equivalent to the short-faced bear in North America. They're both taller and heavier than the biggest living bears today, grizzlies and polar bears. The “short-faced” part has to do with the cranium, as compared to the longer, pointier snouts of today's bears. We don't know anything about Arctotherium's coat, coloring, or musculature, so I get the fun of making that part up.
Shift of Destiny‘s Ice Age shifter is a Panthera atrox, better known as an American Lion. Chance McKennie was born of the true-mate pairing of a rare, magical white cougar shifter and a grey wolf shifter. Their mating was barely tolerated by their respective pride and pack, but their Ice Age lion offspring threatened to start a war. Ice Age shifters can't be dominated by modern alphas. The local leaders were afraid he'd want to rule them all. So for Chance, it was either stay and fight, or take himself out of the picture. That's how he became a roving carpenter. Lucky for him, he ended up in the sanctuary town of Kotoyeesinay, Wyoming, where he met Moira, the woman of his dreams. Too bad she doesn't believe in magic…
Panthera atrox
Based on the fossil record, American lions are half again as big as a modern mountain lion or leopard. They're also taller and heavier than a Siberian tiger, but not longer. Paleontologists argue about whether or not the males had manes like African lions, but have no evidence. The paleolithic drawings in the Caves of Chauvet may offer a clue. I got to exercise my artistic license in describing Chance's shifted Panthera atrox form.
The Ice Age Shifters series continues this summer with three all new stories. In addition to Ice Age shifters, the stories will feature mythical shifters. I'll tell you more about them next time.
The post Ice Age Megafauna Illustrations appeared first on Carol Van Natta - Author.
April 26, 2019
Cats of War Excerpt #3
I love the idea of pets in space. Humans are hardwired for pets. I’ll bet you a small moon that when we humans finally make it to the stars, we’re taking our pets with us. And if we find other alien lifeforms that don’t eat us, we’ll try to make pets of them, too.
My story in 2018’s USA TODAY bestseller, Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3, was CATS OF WAR, for which I blame my cats. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before: They insist all space opera is vastly improved by the inclusion of cats in the stories. They’re put out that Spark Transform, the next novel in the big damn story arc of my Central Galactic Concordance series, doesn’t involve cats at all, so they prevailed on me to make it up to them with the creatures in this story.
Cats of War Are Special
The genetic engineers who created the “cats of war” took features from several species, but mostly felines. The designers took advantage of feline strengths of stealth, silence, and patience to create creatures who could be spies and thieves. In the story's “restitution facility”—a.k.a. prison—the guard dogs include hellhounds. These are genetically altered dogs designed to track and retrieve human targets.
Pet Trade, another space opera romance novella, explores the shady pet trade industry that developed the genetic alteration techniques. In the CGC, it’s illegal to experiment on humans, but animals aren’t so lucky.
Cats of War, Excerpt #3
The excerpt below introduces Ferra Barray, the human heroine of the story, to the cats. She’s been plagued by dreams of creatures in trouble and wanting her help. Determined to prove to herself she’s just stressed, she sends a small orange-striped robot outside to investigate.
The standing white-legged boxes for the container gardens looked bigger than she remembered them from her first-day tour. She skirted around to the left, under the hanging tree branches. Slower, fatter raindrops drummed on her hood.
The closer she got to the corner of the fence, the more she became convinced she had visitors in her mind. Not telepaths, because they used words, and not empaths, because they were all about feelings. The two thought patterns were lost, and cold, and hurt. They’d called and called, and finally found someone to hear them.
Great, now she was dreaming while awake in the middle of a rainstorm.
She aimed the torch for the dark hulk that had to be the repair bot. Sure enough, there were Oran Mòr’s orange stripes.
It turned its head, opened its eyes, and meowed softly.
You came.
Ferra nearly stumbled to her knees. The torch dropped to the ground and winked out.
A creature rose to its feet and shook water everywhere.
Help us.
A picture blossomed in her mind of another dark catlike creature, waiting in the dark beyond the fence, unable to fly over it because of a broken wing.
She lit one of the small hand lights on her wrist. The creature in front of her stood knee-high at the shoulders and had the hint of an orange-striped bat-type wing folded flat along its side.
“You’re real.” It was all she could think to say.
The creature switched its long tail in annoyance.
Yes. Help us. Help him.
Once again, the image of the injured creature flashed in her mind.
She’d never imagined sentient animals, not in her wildest dreams. It was too cold and damp to be a dream. And too cold and dangerous for an injured creature to be stuck outside.
She eyed the midnight-black creature. “If I raise the perimeter fence, can he crawl under?” She visualized the memory of lifting the fence to push the yellow crate outside.
Yes.
Edging closer to the inner fence, she considered her options. Somehow, she needed to get her multitool to the bottom of the fence line. Any human on the walkway would make the overhead lights come on. However, the motion sensors were trained to ignore animals, or the lights would be blinking on and off all night.
I can do it.
She looked down to see the creature sitting at her feet, looking up. The gold eyes mesmerized her for a moment. She got the impression the creature was female and anxious, and wanted comfort. Just like Ferra.
She gave herself a mental shake. Solve the problem. Deal with the mysteries later.
She fumbled under the rain slicker to find the vest pocket. She wrestled out the tool, selected the correct setting, and turned it on, then offered it to the creature.
We are not creatures. We are cats. Unmistakable pride accompanied the declaration.
“Of course you are,” she whispered. “Everyone knows cats are telepaths and have wings.”
The cat took the multitool in her mouth. We are superior cats.
Read the rest in CATS OF WAR
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About Cats of War
A tarnished military Subcaptain, a repair technician hiding from her past, and two genetically engineered cats join must forces to save an important factory.
Military Subcaptain Kedron Tauceti counts the days until he can leave the rare metals factory and his current duty station as the liaison to the galactic government’s Criminal Restitution and Indenture Obligation system. The post was protection—and punishment—for exposing a theft ring during his previous assignment. He's more than ready to get his career back on track on a new base halfway across the galaxy, even if it means leaving behind the one person who makes him want to stay. Not that he's told her, because technically, he's her warden.
Former financial specialist and current indenturee Ferra Barray, hiding from her past, only has three months to go on her restitution sentence. She's lucked into a tech repair job. If she keeps her head down, she'll soon be free to figure out her future. Unfortunately, the local shark behind every illegal scheme in the facility wants her to steal for him, and she's running out of excuses. And now the heroically handsome Tauceti, who she hoped could help, is transferring out.
Everything changes when Ferra discovers two genetically modified cats. Saving them takes incredible risks. She doesn't know what she'll do if she can't convince Tauceti to rescue the cats and keep them until she's free to come for them.
But when trouble erupts at the factory, it might just be the cats who save them.
Find out what happens in this exciting standalone novella from Carol Van Natta's award-winning Central Galactic Concordance space opera series.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
NOTE TO READERS: Cats of War debuted in the limited-edition Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3 anthology. It has been edited for clarity, but is substantially unchanged from the original. If you already have the anthology, you don't need to buy this story again (unless you like your books standalone). For fans of the Central Galactic Concordance series, the events in Cats of War take place after Jumper’s Hope, but are not part of the ongoing big damn story arc.
Buy CATS OF WAR today:
Amazon ~ Kobo ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Google Play ~ Apple Books
The post Cats of War Excerpt #3 appeared first on Carol Van Natta - Author.
April 19, 2019
Cats of War Excerpt #2
Cats of War released yesterday—hooray! My Central Galactic Concordance (CGC) space opera series has a grand, sprawling plot going on about evolutionary change and rebellion. I love all its twists and turns, but sometimes I like to take a break and visit the unexplored places in my CGC universe. Novellas, such as CATS OF WAR, which debuted in the 2018 limited-edition Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3 anthology, are my chance to play. In this case, I explored future crimes and punishment, and their implications for the galactic civilization at large. And, of course, wrote another story with cats.
My previous Pets in Space novella, Pet Trade, centered on shady pet trade industry. For CATS OF WAR, the backdrop is the CGC’s Criminal Restitution Indenture and Obligation (CRIO) system.
For lesser crimes, convicts must pay fines, or be sent to the CRIO system to work off their obligation. The CGC government partners with private industry and assigns indenturees to provide the labor. Like any other human-created institution, the CRIO system can be gamed, and there are rumors of hellholes.
One of the better CRIO installations is the setting for CATS OF WAR. The facility itself is in the middle a swamp. It filters rare-earth metals from mountain water runoff, which the government uses for building faster-than-light stardrives. On paper, it’s a win-win. Reality is more complicated.
The hero of CATS OF WAR, Subcaptain Kedron Tauceti, is the military liaison for indenturees who are veterans. He had no more choice in his assignment than did the heroine, indenturee Ferra Barray, who is doing restitution time for property damage.
Ordinarily, they’d have no reason to interact, but they are brought together by the unlikely arrival of two mysterious creatures who need their help—or might be the help that both Kedron and Ferra need when trouble comes to call.
Here’s a little excerpt from CATS OF WAR:
Cats of War, Excerpt #2
While Kedron wouldn’t miss the Argint d’Apa facility, he would miss the swamp. He’d disliked it at first, the same way most staffers still did, but it had grown on him. He’d spent time studying its ecology and gone with the biodiversity scientists on a few sample-collection expeditions. Living so close to untamed nature made it easier to understand how everything, from the majestic giant trees to annoying clouds of gnats, had a place. Maybe he did, too, even if he couldn’t see it.
He put away his uniform and decided to walk laps on the campus’s wide perimeter walkway, rather than spend another evening alone in the gym. Regulations restricted it to military personnel, and he’d never seen the CPS representative use it.
As much as possible, he kept his interactions with her in virtual space. As a mid-level telepath, she could read thoughts, and as a low-level sifter, she could affect brain chemicals, detect lies, and sense the use of active minder talents. Military personnel caught with minder talents earned an immediate, permanent transfer to the CPS’s Minder Corps.
Kedron’s minder talent wasn’t much, just an ability to use seemingly unrelated information to find things of interest, but he’d rather direct traffic for a city of half a billion or be an indenturee than work for the Minder Corps. Too many private family stories warned of how badly the Minder Corps treated its personnel. He’d learned to hide his talent well enough to beat the CPS Testing Center for mandatory age twelve and seventeen tests, and random ones since, but some sifters were better than the testing equipment. Fortunately, minder talents in the patterner class were hard for even high-level sifters to detect.
He pulled on pants and a specially treated long-sleeved top to ward off biting insects. Last, he stepped into one of his few indulgences—custom-tailored, waterproof, adaptive boots. Even with myriad modern transportation options, Ground Div gunnin, from the lowest ranker to High Command commodores, spent a lot of time walking, running, and marching. Good boots made all the difference.
He looked out the north-facing window of his quarters to check the weather and the path. Non-essential indenturees were on lockdown, and half the staff was busy, so he wasn’t surprised to see it deserted. The tall perimeter fence’s horizontal power lines beyond the road-glass pathway glowed faintly as reminders of their presence. The overhead and glass path lights
blinked on and off erratically, then stayed off. Twilight and mold sometimes messed with the sensors.
Shadowed movement caught his eye. Someone carrying a shallow, rectangular crate stepped off the path toward the exterior powered fence. The figure knelt right in front of the fence and set the crate down. After furtive looks left and right, the hunched figure slid something under the fence.
Instead of zapping the person into insensibility or setting off the alarm, the visible bottom three fence lines between the two posts raised like a curtain, leaving a torso-height gap. The figure quickly extended a pole to push the crate outside the fence as far as possible, until it butted up against the big rock outcropping. He or she retracted the pole and picked up the device from the dirt. The fence line sank and straightened to its usual position.
The lights flickered on briefly. The figure pulled on a hood and hunched forward, but he’d already recognized the face. Ferra Barray.
Read the rest in CATS OF WAR
Amazon ~ Kobo ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Google Play ~ Apple Books
About Cats of War
A tarnished military Subcaptain, a repair technician hiding from her past, and two genetically engineered cats join must forces to save an important factory.
Military Subcaptain Kedron Tauceti counts the days until he can leave the rare metals factory and his current duty station as the liaison to the galactic government’s Criminal Restitution and Indenture Obligation system. The post was protection—and punishment—for exposing a theft ring during his previous assignment. He's more than ready to get his career back on track on a new base halfway across the galaxy, even if it means leaving behind the one person who makes him want to stay. Not that he's told her, because technically, he's her warden.
Former financial specialist and current indenturee Ferra Barray, hiding from her past, only has three months to go on her restitution sentence. She's lucked into a tech repair job. If she keeps her head down, she'll soon be free to figure out her future. Unfortunately, the local shark behind every illegal scheme in the facility wants her to steal for him, and she's running out of excuses. And now the heroically handsome Tauceti, who she hoped could help, is transferring out.
Everything changes when Ferra discovers two genetically modified cats. Saving them takes incredible risks. She doesn't know what she'll do if she can't convince Tauceti to rescue the cats and keep them until she's free to come for them.
But when trouble erupts at the factory, it might just be the cats who save them.
Find out what happens in this exciting standalone novella from Carol Van Natta's award-winning Central Galactic Concordance space opera series.
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NOTE TO READERS: Cats of War debuted in the limited-edition Embrace the Passion: Pets in Space 3 anthology. It has been edited for clarity, but is substantially unchanged from the original. If you already have the anthology, you don't need to buy this story again (unless you like your books standalone). For fans of the Central Galactic Concordance series, the events in Cats of War take place after Jumper’s Hope, but are not part of the ongoing big damn story arc.
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