Jack Chaucer's Blog - Posts Tagged "nikki-blue-source-of-trouble"
BOOK RELEASE PARTY!!!
Sharks, 300-degree temperature swings and 180-degree story arcs. NIKKI WHITE: POLAR EXTREMES is out today!!! Read the first chapter (yes, the one with the sharks) in its entirety right now on my author blog ... https://queensarewild.wordpress.com
Special thanks to all my Goodreads friends and reviewers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First time I've been called a badass author level 10 in a review!
"Ren the Booknerd" from the Philippines recently posted this 5-star review of "Nikki White: Polar Extremes" and called the Nikki series "mind blowing" ...
"You would never expect the series to end like that if you just read Streaks of Blue. In my reviews of the first two books, I said that I dont think they should be in the same series. Boy was I wrong! You have to finish the whole series to figure it out. This series is mind blowing. My head is still boggling from all those twists and surprises. I truly enjoyed reading this book, and I'm glad that the writing style of the author has improved a lot. How do you do that, Jack Chaucer? How do you go from just your average author to badass author level 10 ?"
"You would never expect the series to end like that if you just read Streaks of Blue. In my reviews of the first two books, I said that I dont think they should be in the same series. Boy was I wrong! You have to finish the whole series to figure it out. This series is mind blowing. My head is still boggling from all those twists and surprises. I truly enjoyed reading this book, and I'm glad that the writing style of the author has improved a lot. How do you do that, Jack Chaucer? How do you go from just your average author to badass author level 10 ?"
Work begins on NIKKI RED: MARS COLONY AGATHA
I will be writing a NIKKI RED to go along with the previously published NIKKI WHITE (2017) and NIKKI BLUE (2015), as well as the prequel STREAKS OF BLUE (2013), so I've begun toiling on the opening scenes from the fourth book. It will pick up right where NIKKI WHITE: POLAR EXTREMES left off, in the skies over the North Sea on Sept. 8, 2022.Let’s just say things won’t be going as Nikki had expected, per usual.
The goal is to have this one published by July 4, 2020 — so very Red, White and Blue — well before humans actually set foot on Mars.
So far, there is a two-part PROLOGUE featuring Nikki and Thomas in one part, and South Pole legend Sam “Snowbow” Archambeau in the second part.
There’s also CHAPTER 1: AN INTERNATIONAL CHORUS and CHAPTER 2: EPIC DECISION, starring Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX.
The first line of Chapter 1 will be a short one … “Scheisse!”
That’s the German word for “shit.”
Stay tuned …
Six chapters completed so far for NIKKI RED: MARS COLONY AGATHA (NIKKI #4)
CHAPTER LIST SO FAR
1. AN INTERNATIONAL CHORUS
2. EPIC DECISION
3. A LONG, LONG WAY
4. THE LINK
5. RED ZEPPELIN
6. PARKING LOT REUNION
(8,276 words completed)
THE CAST SO FAR
Nikki Janicek, specialist
Sam “Snowbow” Archambeau
Thomas Harvey
Adam Upton
Roger Janicek
Lynn Barrett
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO
Jane Rushmore
Xander Vermilyea, commander
Jo Giguere, pilot
Ulysses “Pluto” Parker, specialist
Eddy Etergino, specialist
Susan “Sunny” Wilkes, specialist
1. AN INTERNATIONAL CHORUS
2. EPIC DECISION
3. A LONG, LONG WAY
4. THE LINK
5. RED ZEPPELIN
6. PARKING LOT REUNION
(8,276 words completed)
THE CAST SO FAR
Nikki Janicek, specialist
Sam “Snowbow” Archambeau
Thomas Harvey
Adam Upton
Roger Janicek
Lynn Barrett
Elon Musk, SpaceX CEO
Jane Rushmore
Xander Vermilyea, commander
Jo Giguere, pilot
Ulysses “Pluto” Parker, specialist
Eddy Etergino, specialist
Susan “Sunny” Wilkes, specialist
Nikki and the crew get interviewed in low Earth orbit before the burn to Mars
A scene from the upcoming novel NIKKI RED: MARS COLONY AGATHA by Jack Chaucer …
“Are any of you scared to put Earth in your rear-view mirror and travel so far away?” “CBS This Morning” host Norah O’Donnell asked the astronauts aboard Crew Dragon.
“I am,” Nikki said, “but I wouldn’t be human if I weren’t, so you embrace that fear and blast right past it to a place no human has been.”
“I feel like a conquistador, myself,” Eddy boasted to laughs all around. Then he grabbed his larger friend. “Pluto Parker, here, is disappointed we’re stopping at Mars and not going to his home planet … ice-ball dwarf, whatever it is.”
The 12 chapters of Part 1 are now complete:
CHAPTER 1: An International Chorus
CHAPTER 2: Epic Decision
CHAPTER 3: A Long, Long Way
CHAPTER 4: The Link
CHAPTER 5: Red Zeppelin
CHAPTER 6: Parking Lot Reunion
CHAPTER 7: Sisters in Space
CHAPTER 8: No Softballs
CHAPTER 9: Last Supper on Earth
CHAPTER 10: Mars is a Lucky Guy
CHAPTER 11: Dancing with the Stars
CHAPTER 12: Space High
Words completed: 15,674
“Are any of you scared to put Earth in your rear-view mirror and travel so far away?” “CBS This Morning” host Norah O’Donnell asked the astronauts aboard Crew Dragon.
“I am,” Nikki said, “but I wouldn’t be human if I weren’t, so you embrace that fear and blast right past it to a place no human has been.”
“I feel like a conquistador, myself,” Eddy boasted to laughs all around. Then he grabbed his larger friend. “Pluto Parker, here, is disappointed we’re stopping at Mars and not going to his home planet … ice-ball dwarf, whatever it is.”
The 12 chapters of Part 1 are now complete:
CHAPTER 1: An International Chorus
CHAPTER 2: Epic Decision
CHAPTER 3: A Long, Long Way
CHAPTER 4: The Link
CHAPTER 5: Red Zeppelin
CHAPTER 6: Parking Lot Reunion
CHAPTER 7: Sisters in Space
CHAPTER 8: No Softballs
CHAPTER 9: Last Supper on Earth
CHAPTER 10: Mars is a Lucky Guy
CHAPTER 11: Dancing with the Stars
CHAPTER 12: Space High
Words completed: 15,674
A planet without lawyers ... move-in day on Mars
Just completed Chapter 26 for my upcoming novel, "NIKKI RED: MARS COLONY AGATHA." Here's a little tease from that chapter ...
After entering the airlock, testing the seals and checking the pressure levels with a wand gauge, Pluto smiled and waved his wand at the three women from a little square window on one wall. Jo stepped up the small ramp, pushed the red button on the door and it slid open.
The four astronauts soon laughed and embraced after the airlock shut tight, the pressure changed to a human-friendly level and they prepared to enter their new home on Mars.
“Hey, our real estate agent never showed up!” Sunny cracked.
“Yeah, no lawyers either for the closing!” Jo added.
“Lawyers? Wow. I’d already forgotten all about lawyers,” Pluto mused.
“A planet without lawyers,” Nikki pondered. “Amazing.”
A second later, the airlock’s inner door opened automatically and they charged ahead like schoolchildren being let out for recess.
With inadequate solar power thus far and their multi-umbrella-shaped nuclear-powered heat field not erected yet, three of the astronauts were wise enough to keep their warm helmets on while celebrating.
But Pluto couldn’t help himself.
He reveled in what they had built despite being down two men. He pointed toward the sun shining through the diamond-ice dome, popped off his helmet and sang with gusto:
“There is ... a dome ... on Mars
They call the Rising Sun …”
The extreme temperature quickly turned Pluto’s bluesy vocals into blue lips, so he restored his helmet and rejoined the ladies as they planted their gloves into the frosty ground, and spun into some light-gravity, light-hearted cartwheels.
Concussion syndrome be damned.
It was move-in day on Mars.
26 chapters are now complete:
PART 1
CHAPTER 1: An International Chorus
CHAPTER 2: Epic Decision
CHAPTER 3: A Long, Long Way
CHAPTER 4: The Link
CHAPTER 5: Red Zeppelin
CHAPTER 6: Parking Lot Reunion
CHAPTER 7: Sisters in Space
CHAPTER 8: No Softballs
CHAPTER 9: Last Supper on Earth
CHAPTER 10: Mars is a Lucky Guy
CHAPTER 11: Dancing with the Stars
CHAPTER 12: Space High
PART 2
CHAPTER 13: Black Aces
CHAPTER 14: Song in a Letter Box
CHAPTER 15: Hazed
CHAPTER 16: What Now Genius?
CHAPTER 17: 12-Story Horror
CHAPTER 18: No Further Communication
CHAPTER 19: Is Matt Damon Here?
CHAPTER 20: This is Mars
CHAPTER 21: Backflip and Cartwheel
CHAPTER 22: No Interplanetary Sexting
CHAPTER 23: Ups and Downs
CHAPTER 24: Agatha F. Christie
CHAPTER 25: The First Cemetery
CHAPTER 26: Dome of The Rising Sun
Words completed: 27,300
After entering the airlock, testing the seals and checking the pressure levels with a wand gauge, Pluto smiled and waved his wand at the three women from a little square window on one wall. Jo stepped up the small ramp, pushed the red button on the door and it slid open.
The four astronauts soon laughed and embraced after the airlock shut tight, the pressure changed to a human-friendly level and they prepared to enter their new home on Mars.
“Hey, our real estate agent never showed up!” Sunny cracked.
“Yeah, no lawyers either for the closing!” Jo added.
“Lawyers? Wow. I’d already forgotten all about lawyers,” Pluto mused.
“A planet without lawyers,” Nikki pondered. “Amazing.”
A second later, the airlock’s inner door opened automatically and they charged ahead like schoolchildren being let out for recess.
With inadequate solar power thus far and their multi-umbrella-shaped nuclear-powered heat field not erected yet, three of the astronauts were wise enough to keep their warm helmets on while celebrating.
But Pluto couldn’t help himself.
He reveled in what they had built despite being down two men. He pointed toward the sun shining through the diamond-ice dome, popped off his helmet and sang with gusto:
“There is ... a dome ... on Mars
They call the Rising Sun …”
The extreme temperature quickly turned Pluto’s bluesy vocals into blue lips, so he restored his helmet and rejoined the ladies as they planted their gloves into the frosty ground, and spun into some light-gravity, light-hearted cartwheels.
Concussion syndrome be damned.
It was move-in day on Mars.
26 chapters are now complete:
PART 1
CHAPTER 1: An International Chorus
CHAPTER 2: Epic Decision
CHAPTER 3: A Long, Long Way
CHAPTER 4: The Link
CHAPTER 5: Red Zeppelin
CHAPTER 6: Parking Lot Reunion
CHAPTER 7: Sisters in Space
CHAPTER 8: No Softballs
CHAPTER 9: Last Supper on Earth
CHAPTER 10: Mars is a Lucky Guy
CHAPTER 11: Dancing with the Stars
CHAPTER 12: Space High
PART 2
CHAPTER 13: Black Aces
CHAPTER 14: Song in a Letter Box
CHAPTER 15: Hazed
CHAPTER 16: What Now Genius?
CHAPTER 17: 12-Story Horror
CHAPTER 18: No Further Communication
CHAPTER 19: Is Matt Damon Here?
CHAPTER 20: This is Mars
CHAPTER 21: Backflip and Cartwheel
CHAPTER 22: No Interplanetary Sexting
CHAPTER 23: Ups and Downs
CHAPTER 24: Agatha F. Christie
CHAPTER 25: The First Cemetery
CHAPTER 26: Dome of The Rising Sun
Words completed: 27,300
Nikki and the crew view geysers at Martian South Pole
Parts 1 and 2 of NIKKI RED: MARS COLONY AGATHA are written, Part 3 still to go. It's been a trip, pun intended, trying to conjure up the future just a few years ahead of reality.
Here's an excerpt from the Martian South Pole ...
Sept. 22, 2023
Planum Australe, Mars
They bounced west, two space trucks weaving and wobbling up rough terrain until they parked side by side atop a broad and exposed mesa. Down below, a sea of geysers spouted salty, brackish sand in spider-web patterns all over the glazed polar cap.
This was the true South Pole, shedding more of its white with each sol as the late-spring sun climbed in the Martian sky and warmed the CO2 gas until it erupted through vents in the surface, creating thousands of sand sprinklers across the panorama.
Scientists on Earth were aware of them, observed their dark deposits against the ice in blurry satellite images, wrote articles about them and conjured up illustrations from their overactive imaginations.
But Nikki, Sunny, Jo and Pluto just had to step out of their trucks, crunch their black boots to the edge of the overlook and stare west.
This show was reserved for Martians only.
31 chapters are now complete:
PART 1
CHAPTER 1: An International Chorus
CHAPTER 2: Epic Decision
CHAPTER 3: A Long, Long Way
CHAPTER 4: The Link
CHAPTER 5: Red Zeppelin
CHAPTER 6: Parking Lot Reunion
CHAPTER 7: Sisters in Space
CHAPTER 8: No Softballs
CHAPTER 9: Last Supper on Earth
CHAPTER 10: Mars is a Lucky Guy
CHAPTER 11: Dancing with the Stars
CHAPTER 12: Space High
PART 2
CHAPTER 13: Black Aces
CHAPTER 14: Song in a Letter Box
CHAPTER 15: Hazed
CHAPTER 16: What Now Genius?
CHAPTER 17: 12-Story Horror
CHAPTER 18: No Further Communication
CHAPTER 19: Is Matt Damon Here?
CHAPTER 20: This is Mars
CHAPTER 21: Backflip and Cartwheel
CHAPTER 22: No Interplanetary Sexting
CHAPTER 23: Ups and Downs
CHAPTER 24: Agatha F. Christie
CHAPTER 25: The First Cemetery
CHAPTER 26: Dome of The Rising Sun
CHAPTER 27: Badge
CHAPTER 28: Throwback Girl
CHAPTER 29: Space Truckin'
CHAPTER 30: Sucker Punch
CHAPTER 31: For Martians Only
Words completed: 33,544
Here's an excerpt from the Martian South Pole ...
Sept. 22, 2023
Planum Australe, Mars
They bounced west, two space trucks weaving and wobbling up rough terrain until they parked side by side atop a broad and exposed mesa. Down below, a sea of geysers spouted salty, brackish sand in spider-web patterns all over the glazed polar cap.
This was the true South Pole, shedding more of its white with each sol as the late-spring sun climbed in the Martian sky and warmed the CO2 gas until it erupted through vents in the surface, creating thousands of sand sprinklers across the panorama.
Scientists on Earth were aware of them, observed their dark deposits against the ice in blurry satellite images, wrote articles about them and conjured up illustrations from their overactive imaginations.
But Nikki, Sunny, Jo and Pluto just had to step out of their trucks, crunch their black boots to the edge of the overlook and stare west.
This show was reserved for Martians only.
31 chapters are now complete:
PART 1
CHAPTER 1: An International Chorus
CHAPTER 2: Epic Decision
CHAPTER 3: A Long, Long Way
CHAPTER 4: The Link
CHAPTER 5: Red Zeppelin
CHAPTER 6: Parking Lot Reunion
CHAPTER 7: Sisters in Space
CHAPTER 8: No Softballs
CHAPTER 9: Last Supper on Earth
CHAPTER 10: Mars is a Lucky Guy
CHAPTER 11: Dancing with the Stars
CHAPTER 12: Space High
PART 2
CHAPTER 13: Black Aces
CHAPTER 14: Song in a Letter Box
CHAPTER 15: Hazed
CHAPTER 16: What Now Genius?
CHAPTER 17: 12-Story Horror
CHAPTER 18: No Further Communication
CHAPTER 19: Is Matt Damon Here?
CHAPTER 20: This is Mars
CHAPTER 21: Backflip and Cartwheel
CHAPTER 22: No Interplanetary Sexting
CHAPTER 23: Ups and Downs
CHAPTER 24: Agatha F. Christie
CHAPTER 25: The First Cemetery
CHAPTER 26: Dome of The Rising Sun
CHAPTER 27: Badge
CHAPTER 28: Throwback Girl
CHAPTER 29: Space Truckin'
CHAPTER 30: Sucker Punch
CHAPTER 31: For Martians Only
Words completed: 33,544
Shooting for Jan. 1, 2020 release date for MARS COLONY AGATHA: NIKKI RED
At last, I have completed the story for MARS COLONY AGATHA: NIKKI RED. I’m flipping the title around for this final installment of the four-book series to emphasize Mars more from a marketing standpoint, though Nikki continues to be the MC as she has been for the entire series.
Now that the story is complete and there should be plenty of time for editing and polishing this summer, and the formatting/cover shortly after that, I’m moving up the anticipated release date to January 1, 2020. Why not kick off the next decade in style? This story is set from 2022-2026, just a few years ahead of what's happening now, and Elon Musk and his Starship/Crew Dragon definitely have a major role to play in this book.
I’ve already posted the chapter titles for the first two parts of the book. Here they are for the third and final part:
MARS COLONY AGATHA: NIKKI RED
BY JACK CHAUCER
PART 3
CHAPTER 32: Distant Early Warning (a little shout-out to Rush!)
CHAPTER 33: Water and Wine
CHAPTER 34: Full Medical Disclosure
CHAPTER 35: Lifesaver
CHAPTER 36: Don’t Call Me Betty
CHAPTER 37: Sea Hag’s Secret
CHAPTER 38: Prescription Laughter
CHAPTER 39: The Perfect Sandstorm
CHAPTER 40: Fourth Rock from the Sun
CHAPTER 41: Captain Uranus
CHAPTER 42: Dearly Beloved
CHAPTER 43: Population Twenty-three
CHAPTER 44: Aggy
Total words: 50,955
Now that the story is complete and there should be plenty of time for editing and polishing this summer, and the formatting/cover shortly after that, I’m moving up the anticipated release date to January 1, 2020. Why not kick off the next decade in style? This story is set from 2022-2026, just a few years ahead of what's happening now, and Elon Musk and his Starship/Crew Dragon definitely have a major role to play in this book.
I’ve already posted the chapter titles for the first two parts of the book. Here they are for the third and final part:
MARS COLONY AGATHA: NIKKI RED
BY JACK CHAUCER
PART 3
CHAPTER 32: Distant Early Warning (a little shout-out to Rush!)
CHAPTER 33: Water and Wine
CHAPTER 34: Full Medical Disclosure
CHAPTER 35: Lifesaver
CHAPTER 36: Don’t Call Me Betty
CHAPTER 37: Sea Hag’s Secret
CHAPTER 38: Prescription Laughter
CHAPTER 39: The Perfect Sandstorm
CHAPTER 40: Fourth Rock from the Sun
CHAPTER 41: Captain Uranus
CHAPTER 42: Dearly Beloved
CHAPTER 43: Population Twenty-three
CHAPTER 44: Aggy
Total words: 50,955
Will first Mars mission turn into AND THEN THERE WERE NONE? Find out 1-1-20 ...
Nicole Janicek already has stared down high school shooters, a cult of criminal ex-Scientologists and six months of frigid darkness at South Pole Station in her young life, but now she risks it all attempting to ride a rocket to Mars in 2022. After the Red One mission quickly aborts in the skies over the North Sea, Nikki gets a surprise phone call from Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX. What follows is a euphoric, historic, tragic and heroic mission to establish Mars Colony A, dubbed by some in the media as “Mars Colony Agatha” when misfortune strikes. While doubters predict the dangerous mission will morph into “And Then There Were None” by Agatha Christie, Nikki and her crew are determined to write their own story. Through it all, Nikki is surprised to learn just how strong her connection to those she loved on Earth remains despite the chasm of time and space.
… COMING JANUARY 1, 2020
… COMING JANUARY 1, 2020
