Dan Melson's Blog, page 18

First Draft Excerpt from The End of Childhood

There was one thing I hadn't been able to do without forcing Asto to choose between his family and me: Take our kids home to Earth to meet all their cousins. My niece Tina had helped me with them and my pilot module, and they'd met her older brother Peter Junior who ran the Imperial end of Earth Dogs, and once their brother Joe and his wife Asina. That was it as far as meeting my relatives. My siblings alone had about three prime descendants now in the time since I'd left. Start including my uncles' and aunts' descendants, and it was probably three or four times that. I'd been back exactly once in the last twentyeight Imperial years - about eighty of their longer years on Earth with the time differential - and that was when I was only a couple days pregnant with Esteban. Since putting Asto in a 'no win' situation wasn't concern at the moment, I was going take advantage of the opportunity. A plan was already forming in my mind. Perhaps not a very smart plan, but it could take advantage of some excellent distractions.I knew the reasons why the Scimtars kept their children mostly sequestered. I even agreed with those reasons. But my kids also needed to get out and see how the rest of the Empire lived - not just the completely tamed major system that was Indra. My children ranged from ten to almost seventeen Imperial years of age - seven to eleven and a half Earth years - and they'd never visited their Earth cousins. It was past time to change that. The war had begun; I was on a sabbatical to allow me to look for Asto - time to take advantage of that while everyone else was distracted, too.As soon as we emerged into the Imperial Home Instance, I sent Asto's splinter a message Please meet me in the park with the children in an hour. Bring Mischief and Scarecrow as well. I knew Asto had constrained the splinter to do whatever I said regarding the children. The little dogs would be perfect camouflage for what I intended. It would be a dirty trick to take the kids away from them, but it couldn't be helped..When we were on landing queue, I used a graycode to buy a cutter. Cutters were small, cheap, little craft reminiscent of NASA's old space shuttles, delta wings to either side of a central tube for passengers and cargo. They were capable of seating four in the cockpit and up to about twelve in the cargo bay, depending upon configuration. This was a standard model right out of the catalog, already sitting in a parking garage across the Straits from Sumabad. Soon as we touched down and I finalized the rent for the Explorer Cruiser with TorGethaz, thanked the crew, and teleported directly to the nearest portal. A quick jump to a shopping area in a nearby arcology, and took less than ten minutes to purchase a few extra things, just in case. They were a little more expensive than usual due to the recent invasion, but not a significant difference for me. Then I dropped my package off and took possession of my newly purchased cutter, linked my datalink to it and began a security and readiness check while taking care of the physical inspection. I had up to four days to move it out of their garage; that would be plenty.The whole idea was not to draw any suspicion from the other Scimtars, especially Anara. Asto's mother was at home in the apartment right next to ours the majority of the time, and strong as she was, her perception radius was big enough to cover our entire apartment. Soon as I walked through the door, she'd want to know how the search had gone, and then she'd want me to go back to work finding covert traitors. But if her son's splinter took the kids to the park while I was still out, that was simple daily routine. Particularly if the dogs were involved. Mischief was Queen of the Park by virtue of attitude, and Scarecrow was a crazed ball dog whose favorite locale for the game was the park where he could play with other ball dogs.The first rule for plans is to keep them simple. Complex plans that depend upon multiple factors all going in metronomic precision are going to fail. They seemed awesome in mass media when I lived on Earth, but despite my in-laws' predilection for planning, one thing I'd noticed was all of their plans were simple, with no more than a few steps to the goal. If that goal was reached, there would be a second plan to reach a second goal. Maybe the individual goals were small steps, but add them up, and they became overwhelming. I needed a ship they didn't control, and I needed a few minutes away from direct observation by their grandmother to get the kids away. Simple, easy goals, put together in sequence. This most especially applied to my military experience. The good commanders were the ones who had simple goals that built on advantages to the point where they were overwhelming.When I arrived at the park, I simply collected the children, told them we were going on an outing, and asked Asto's splinter to cover for me. "Stay here with the dogs another fortyfive minutes before returning home. Don't try and obstruct anything, just don't help. We'll be back in a few days." I wasn't kidding myself it would take the Scimtars long to figure out where we'd gone - I'd bet Earth would be the very top of their list - but it's easier to get forgiveness than permission. They knew I wouldn't keep the kids out more than a few days, and Earth's roughly four to one time differential meant maybe only a day or so was likely to pass in the main part of the Empire.This was the key part of the whole thing. "We're going on an excursion," I told the kids, "But we've got to keep it secret. No telling anyone except Daddy's splinter. Not Grandmother Anara, not Grandfather Gilras, and definitely not Grandfather or Grandmother," meaning Scimtar or Helene. We walked out of the nearest exit to avoid the park's portal having an obvious record, then portaled to the garage on the far side of the Straits. Into the cutter by teleportation - the days of the kids being more hindrance than help in teleportation were behind us. I told Alden and Imtara to strap into the third and fourth seats in the control cabin, where I could keep an eye on them, and tell the three oldest to find seats in the back and keep their hands off anything. "The trip should be over in a five minutes, unless you do something to make it take longer!"For their part, the kids were excited. They never got to leave the Residence except for trips to the alternate Residence, over on Major Habitat Two. Who they interacted with in either place was controlled. All of their play friends were children of important House Scimtar employees, who also lived in the Residence. The older ones remembered our occasional excursions back when I'd had the pilot module, when they might meet anyone. "I'm taking you to meet your Earth cousins," I told them, and they actually cheered! The Great Houses were all built on the idea of 'family', but the paranoid isolation of the children cut off more than half of theirs.Then it was time to maneuver out of the parking garage, get clearance for lift with immediate Vector, which was approved. BlinkWe emerged in interstellar space, halfway across First Galaxy, nobody nearby on sensors. We were away clean. I set an Interstitial Vector for Earth's Instance below the plane of the ecliptic about as far out as Saturn, double checked that my interrogatory was functional and programmed correctly, then fed the energy in for the jump.BlinkCopyright 2021 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

Blurb and Excerpt from The Man From Empire

A duel in the shadows as echoes of an ancient war wash up onto a new planet!Life in the Empire has finally settled down. The last of the ston rebels have taken amnesty, and re-joined civilization - or have they?A massive terrorist attack kills millions and the trail leads the investigator straight to a remote world with no known Imperial contact - a world known to its inhabitants as Earth******Overall, Riverside's not a bad town. I've got a small apartment not too far from the UC campus. The complex is full of students with a smattering of old fogeys too poor and too stubborn to leave, and working class stiffs, not to mention hybrids like me. The ones I've talked to were alright.But this wasn't there. The warehouse sits in a commercial district near where the 91 dies and turns into the 215 at the 60 merge. There are some rough people nearby, in the old twenties and thirties housing they threw up back before tract housing. Tiny lots, old decaying houses, ancient plumbing and wiring, never updated. Paint cracked, chipped, and peeling. Calling them Craftsmen would be implying a level of charm that simply didn't exist. Streets jammed with old junker cars. Chain link fences, neglected lawns, junk left wherever someone dropped it because it was too much effort to clean up. An occasional abuela put in a few flowers that just made the rest of the neighborhood look even more pitiful. Rough people, mostly poor hispanics with the occasional white trash or black, human refuse that just didn't have what it took to get ahead in the world as it had become. Some were disabled, most simply never applied themselves much. Get a second or third generation in there, and you got some real gangbanging. Easy path to see, damned near impossible to make it work into a real life worth living. Enough to make me appreciate my parents, who escaped that world and made sure I knew enough not to fall back.The gangs had been cooped up inside most of the previous ten days. El Nino storms came through one after another. Maybe they wouldn't drown or freeze you, but they were cold, wet, and miserable - at least by the standards of California weather. Nobody came out when it was raining without a good reason why they had to be out there and then, but once it stopped a light jacket would keep you warm, and the hoodies would be out looking to burn off some energy. It's not like they had anything better to do.And here I was, a 28 year old woman leaving the building all by myself in the dark just after eight-thirty with no one around. Just bad luck the four guys in jackets walking up the other side of the street at the exact wrong time. No key to get back in - damn "Call me George" to hell. I picked up my pace. If I could get to my car - beater that it is - and lock the doors there was a chance I'd be able to drive away. Mistake. The hoodies started to run. Now there was some effort in it for them, things were looking worse for me. Cell phone, you say? I could grab the phone and push the number to dial 911, but it wouldn't do me a bit of good. Typical response time was thirty minutes. By the time the cops showed up, it would be long over. I was about to do it anyway when it happened.I swear on my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ that this happened. He looked like an Angel of the Lord, minus the wings. Hanging up there in the air. Well, not hanging - he was falling, though not like he was getting pulled - more like he was riding an escalator that wasn't there. At least six five, thin as a rail, with a softly glowing sword of all the improbable things. Wearing what looked like some kind of uniform, dark with lighter trim, cut like nothing I'd ever seen.I don't know what he did to call attention to himself, but all of a sudden the 'bangers noticed him. Not just the 'bangers, but everything's attention was wrenched towards him as if someone grabbed our heads, sunk hooks into our eyeballs and made us look. Right down to the rats in the dumpsters.That was enough for the 'bangers. They hauled out their guns and started banging away. The visitor looked puzzled for an instant, then the sword vanished, and I saw a flash from him. Something in his hand - didn't did get a good look at what it was. The gang members fell over so fast it was over before I could twitch. Damn! The guy was fast. I'd never seen anything like that even in the movies.One look showed four lifeless bodies with blood starting to pool. The visitor lit with catlike grace, apparently as unconcerned as if nothing had just happened. I had a decision to make, and I did. I jumped in my car and got the hell out of Dodge. I didn't want to be anywhere in the neighborhood when the cops finally got there. I didn't stop to say thanks, I definitely didn't talk to him, I just jumped in and went. I didn't slow down until I was home. I might have run a red light or two; I really couldn't tell you with any certainty.COPYRIGHT 2013 Dan Melson All Rights Reserved.The Man From Empire is available from Amazon or the Books2Read retailers in either paperback or e-book (from any of them)

Excerpt From First Draft of Moving The Pieces

We knew it was going to be a disaster before it happened.If it had just been the frontal assault, I think the second layer of First Wall's defenses would have held. Starshells were already up and burning; the defenders now had an extra two sixty-fours of paces to kill the charging demons. .43 Caliber machine guns reached out from the second curtain wall even before the first wall blew up, and individual riflemen could pick targets. Mortars kept lofting explosives and caltrops on preset targeting. Entire waves of manesi vanished into the meatgrinder that was First Wall's defenses, legions at a time. Asina was near the middle of the wall; the defenders kept the direct wave from reaching second curtain at her location until the evacuation.But the direct assault wave wasn't the only attack.Captain Teroas was a good soldier. He had flamethrower jeeps out to the north as skirmishers, while the mortars at the northern end of the line laid caltrops and pressure sensitive submunitions. The jeeps were as vulnerable to them as the manesi; they had to exit to the east outside the impromptu minefield. Their usefulness as well as their ability to escape would be compromised between the curtain walls anyway. Instead, his men were on the second and third curtain walls as well as in hollow rectangular formations between and behind them. The men knew they were likely to die; Captain-Major Alomar had correctly decided to sacrifice a small portion of his forces in the hopes of preserving the majority, and they'd drawn the short straw by reason of being in the best position to make it count. This was the reason desertion in the face of the enemy was a capital offense in every military in history; any individuals attempting it would be shot down immediately by their fellows. As a result, they all stood and fought.I had Asina's eyes and ears to make sense of the defense, as well as the orbital sensors. The first reports came in from the airborne Molitors as they bombed demonic formations before they ever came into contact with the defenders on the ground. The accuracy wasn't so good at night; our technology just wasn't up to starlight scopes and the like yet, and demons didn't show up on infrared anyway. But the Air Guard tried their best. One plane would drop a small portion of their napalm load for illumination and confirmation of a target, and then the entire squadron would unload on the targets revealed, then head back to Yonskarr to be refueled and reloaded. There was no way for the Calmenans to know how effective it all was at first, but the Imperial sensors in orbit showed a decent casualty rate among the legions they bombed.By the second run for the Molitors, the flamethrower jeeps had made contact on the ground and could be used as spotters. It still wasn't perfect, but it was a lot better being able to use the fires ignited by the jeeps together with radio to know where to hit. Local measure was a drum, about thirty-five liters Earth measure, and the jeeps had eight to ten drums worth of napalm; the planes had thirty to forty times as much. But the jeeps had it under pressure where it could be used to spray maybe eighty meters or a little more from the jeep; it made marking edges of targeting areas easy. Just before dawn, one of the jeeps apparently scored a hit on one of the brakiri wonder weapons that had downed our plane a few days before; it lit up the jungle in a premature sunrise. I was told it rained demon parts for better than two eights of breaths, and there was a crater the size of the city of Yalskarr in the jungle where it happened. The Molitors who reported the explosion said there must have been four legions destroyed at the cost of a maniple of jeeps.By the time the demons hit from the north, it was starting to get light. Had the demon commander been worried about its troops, it likely would have held in the jungle until sundown. But for whatever reason, both the frontal assault and the flanking attack from the north continued into the light of day.Copyright 2021 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved

Excerpt from The End Of Childhood

This is from the first draft rough. Copyright 2021 Dan Melson All Rights Reserved.The first warning we had was the general alarm.I hadn't expected a marching band. The Imperial military is built on lightning strikes, and fast responses to catch those strikes before they achieve their goals. Vector Drive meant that space warfare was about concentrating firepower and directing it usefully - position meant nothing. Even planetary surface troops got used to the idea that when an opponent could rig a portal or hijack an existing one, they could be anywhere.But it's disconcerting to get the 'all recipients' message on your datalink: "Warning!: Demonic elements have been reported in your area, and most other areas of the system! Be prepared to respond appropriately." Impersonal as hell, and no information as to how close they were, or exactly what sort of 'elements'. Were we talking about manesi, which were easy meat for anyone with modern weaponry, or were we talking about an elite corps of spraxos or basileus?In the absence of specific information, I had to assume it was the same sort of mix generally encountered. I'd been working more than a full day already, tagging fortyseven potential traitors who'd recently interacted with demons on Sharanna. Asto's splinter had been taking care of the children, as much as they needed taking care of. I'd managed to check in for quick hugs in the breakfast hour, and then right back to tracking demonic contacts.What was most important was clear - continuing my checks for demonic contacts. However, my uncle's old adage about trying to drain the swamp when you're up to your backside in alligators also applied. Trying to make a spak recording in the middle of a firefight would be problematic. Not to mention that I didn't care if my husband's splinter was more capable than I was, or for that matter the children themselves - I was going to guard my children myself. It wasn't that I didn't trust him, House security, or the children themselves for that matter. It was simply that I was their mom. A quick portal home was all it took.Esteban took my arrival as a matter of course, I found a cooperative website tracking all the engagements.Absolutely not. The five of you are protected by the fact you are legal children. It would be acceptable to defend yourselves, especially here in the residence, but if you go looking for demons you're declaring yourselves adult.Esteban meant we could use it to track how close the demons are, Asto's splinter intervened.Good. We have five children here who are not ready to assume adult risks.Go on, Mom! We'll be fine! This was Ilras. You don't want to miss all the excitement, do you?Even if 'the excitement' held any special allure for me, I would not be willing to leave the five of you unsupervised during this crisis. Especially not you, mister energy cannon, planar explosives, and automatic needler!The others has stashes, too! The others aren't treating this like some sort of simulator game!Patience, Esteban counseled, I'm sure we'll all get our fill of action once we're adults.Absolutely right! I certainly have!Grandfather says you find enough trouble for any three people, Alden interjected.Just what I needed - the older generation making it difficult to manage my family. Whether he meant Scimtar or Gilras wasn't important. I certainly don't go looking for it! Yet somewhere in the back of my mind a little voice asked 'if the truth makes it difficult, does it make more sense to look at others or yourself for the solution?'Yet if you keep finding it, doesn't praxeology tell us you must be doing things to attract it? That was Ilora, the sensitive one who didn't even like playing Natural State Survivor against 'live' opposition. I had to admit she had a point - but more importantly, if she was sniping, it was a sure bet that Ilras would do something outrageous as soon as I wasn't watching him full time.Whatever you might think, young lady, we're going to shelter here and hope that this invasion passes us by without endangering five children who might happen to be Seventh Order Guardians someday, but for now are half-trained and not capable of understanding the risks they want to take.You all heard your mother's decision, Asto's splinter lowered the boom. They might argue with Mom, who after all was only a Fourth Order Guardian from a little barbarian planet in the back end of beyond. When their father agreed with that kind of finality, it meant debate was over. We all have our personal weapons. We're going to monitor the situation, and try to stay out of trouble.

The Elves in Gates to Faerie

Their ancestors were human once - humans who lost a war and were enslaved by the Elemental Lords, their genetic structure twisted into knots to the point where they have trouble breeding, even with each other. They are largely dependent upon the blessings of The Mother, an Earth goddess who has given them a fertility ritual they utilize at the eight turning points of the year (Solstices, Equinoxes, and halfway between each). Even with it, they aren't very fertile, but they are long-lived, and they do have native elemental powers - at least the full-blooded ones.There are seven varieties:Phantom Elves or Mist Elves have largely reverted to feral state. They live in small communities of primitive hunter/gatherers, largely pushed to the edges of habitable zones. They are rare in the analog of the western half of the United States, and almost non-existent on our side of the veil. They are almost entirely mixed-breeds that have lost any native power, but there is a strain of primitive magery among them. They have a wilderness skill that makes them hard to spot or find.Wood Elves are also mixed breed, tending to live apart from Elvenmentals and often treated as an inferior race. They have lost their native powers, but there are a fair number of sorcerors and a small number of true mages among them. Skin color is usually light brown or earthy green, but can favor any of their ancestral breeds.Dark Elves are mixed breed, but are still considered Elvenmentals, having decided service to the darker powers is worth the power they grant. Some can pass for the purebloods of their ancestry, but they are reviled by all the other breeds except perhaps Mist Elves, who keep to themselves. Communities of the Dark Elves have been driven deep underground, and it is rare that they interact with any other elven communities, the West Elves being by far the most commonly subject to issues with them. Skin color can be anything from pasty white that looks albino to any of the colors of the other Elvenmentals.Sea Elves have water powers. They prefer to live in sea-going vessels, and spend a large amount of time in the water, but they do have shore-bound communities, including a moderate sized city on the alternate Catalina and a smaller enclave near the alternate Santa Monica. Skin and hair tend to be green or blue.West Elves have earth powers. They prefer to live close to the Earth, either in farm burrows or single-story dwellings where more band together. Their name comes from the fact there was a significant concentration of them in the westerly areas of alternate Eurasia and Africa before they colonized the alternate New World during what was the latter part of the Roman Empire on Earth. Skin tones tend to the darker browns; hair is almost always black or close to it. Their mages tend to be burrowers as well.Bright Elves have fire powers, and tend to live in hot arid areas and near volcanic activity. The alternate Mediterreanean was their classic area of concentration; now they inhabit most of the Pacific Rim of Fire on the alternate world as well. Skin tones tend to brighter pinks or even fiery orange, hair is usually orange or actual red. They are comparatively rare, but mages are common among them and sorcerers very common.Star Elves are the rarest of all. On the other hand, they have the strongest and most common strains of magery among the Elves, possibly excepting the Dark Elves. They have Air powers, and tend to live on high mountains. Skin tones are pale, usually with pastel tint, hair and eyes tend to be light blue or light violet or pale pink.Gates to Faerie can be be purchased either e-book or paperback, from either Amazon or the Books2Read retailers. The sequel, Gifts of the Mother, will be my next project

Character Interview: Joseph Bernard in Moving The Pieces

1. Go ahead and introduce yourself.I'm Joe. Husband of Asina, father of three adult children we don't get to see as much as we'd like2.Tell us where and when were you bornI was born in Virginia Beach while my father was stationed there, but don't remember it at all.3. How would you describe yourself?About two ififths forty five, two square seven. Roughly five foot eleven and 220 pounds by the Earth measure I grew up with; I'm a Second Order Guardian so I'm heavier than I look.4. Tell us about where you grew up.The place I lived in the longest was Temecula, a suburban city of about 100,000 at the time in Southern California, before Imperial Contact with Earth. We moved there after my dad retired from the navy and went to work at NWS Fallbrook as a contractor.5. How old are you?I am 174 Earth years old. That's 249 Imperial years, or 438 of the short years of Calmena, where my wife and I live.6. Did you have a happy childhood? Why/why not?Very happy, even by the standards of the United States I grew up in. Married parents who loved me, four siblings and we all got along, huge extended family with plenty of money.7. Past/ present relationships? How did they affect you?A few girlfriends, nothing serious. Bed buddies, most of them. My aunt was the first person to have real contact with the Empire; I went to work for her about a year before official contact. Since what I did had to be secret, no real opportunity for a relationship for that year. Then VSC hired me as engineer and legal commander for the first voyage of Golden Hind. We stubbed our toes on Calmena, and I met Asina. With one thing and another, here we are, 150 Earth years later.8. What do you value above all else in life?My wife Asina and our children.9. What are you obsessed with?Obsession is a mental defect. But my wife and I have been working to rid Calmena of the fractal demons most of the last 150 Earth years.10.How do your beliefs make life better for yourself and the people you care about?I was raised Catholic, but am mostly lapsed. Haven't been to church or confession since I left home, but it's still a large part of my moral framework.11. Biggest fear?That the Empire loses the upcoming war.12. What line will you never cross?I will never ever do anything that betrays Asina.13. What is the best thing that ever happened to you? The worst?The best thing has been Asina. The worst is harder. Getting caught with marijuana on my Aunt's dog farm was embarrassing, but she handled it. Getting caught violating an Imperial Interdict was stupid, but it worked out into my current career and Asina finding me again. The various demonic counter-assaults have been ugly, but we got through them.14. Most embarrassing thing that ever happened to you?The day my mother happened to find out that Asina had been shagra-my and understood what it meant - basically a breeding slave. Mom is straitlaced, and didn't understand it wasn't Asina's choice. I was embarrassed about my mother in front of my wife, and had to threaten to cut her off from our kids to get her to calm down.15. Biggest secret?The Calmenans cannot know that the Empire exists, or that there are people here helping them learn to free themselves from the demons.16. What is the one word you would use to define yourself?Making the transition as a grown man from pre-contact Earth to an Imperial citizen, the word that enforces itself is 'responsible.' It was rare to so much as hear the word on pre-contact Earth; the Empire runs on responsibility.17. What is your current goal?Help the people of Yalskarr and the rest of Calmena survive the coming war

First Draft Excerpt from Moving The Pieces

Copyright 2021 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved"Are they gone?" A young girl peeked her head out of a back room at the far end of the hall, then came into the hall when she saw the three of us. I saw Makis tense, and understood why. There had been fur on the back of her hands and partway up her arms. The 'little girl' was a shapeshifting likahn. Once she came inside my usual perception range, there wasn't any doubt. 'She' wasn't even a three dimensional being.Ghent, however, was clueless. "Hello, what's your name?"Why they let that idiot fly a fighter is beyond me, Asina remarked, can't think his way out of a paper bag and doesn't notice what's right in front of his face.Maybe that's why, I told her, He qualified as a pilot, but here and now, fighters are the easiest and least important planes, and the first chance they got, they fobbed him off on us."Talana," the 'girl' told Ghent. It wasn't a common name, and it meant 'hidden treasure' in demonic.Makis couldn't contain himself. "Ghent, get away from that thing! She's a likahn, not a human! She's got fur on the back of her hands, her hair can't make up its mind whether it's blonde hair or brown bristles, and the damned thing has hocks on its legs!""Nonsense! She's a normal little girl, just a bit frightened is all!""Makis is right, Ghent," I joined in. "She's a shapeshifting demon! Don't give it a chance at you.""They're scaring me! Guardsman, don't let them hurt me!""See, you're frightening her! Stop it this instant! Poor kid's been through enough!""Girl, what were your parent's names?" Makis asked."Mommy and Daddy, of course!"I thought the 'of course' should have been a giveaway for even the densest of jocks, but it didn't register on Ghent. "See, she's just a little girl!""Ghent, this is not the city," I told him, "People who live out here have to be alert to the differences and nuances. She's given herself away eight times over, and if we weren't here, you'd be dead already. The only thing keeping you alive right now is this 'little girl' knows if she attacked you, the two of us would kill her immediately.""Preposterous!""Ghent, you don't have any children, do you? A real little girl would have just said 'mommy and daddy' if she didn't know their names. Which at her current age, she would. She's heard other adults call her parents by their names their whole life.""What would it take to convince you this is a little girl?""A blood sample that looks human," I said."Barbaric! She's already been through an invasion of demons and you want to hurt her?""Just a couple drops from the end of a finger should be enough. If she's human, it will be red and stay red. But she's not human, are you 'Talana'?"Her jaw set, and distended just enough to spoil the illusion. Ghent gasped, Makis drew and fired in one smooth motion, splattering blood everywhere. She fell, tried to rise, but opening her mouth showed a mouthful of sharp needle-like teeth. She lost control of the shape-change at that point, as her body began returning to its default state, but it didn't get very far before Makis fired a second time, this time a head shot that served for an immediate kill. The body twitched and resumed its natural form, a low-slung vaguely wolf-like creature, but the likahn was dead."It seems I owe the two of you my life," Ghent acknowledged. Give him that much. Most people would still be in denial and blaming us for killing a supposedly innocent girl who was in reality a demonic scout."I'm glad you understand that now, but it's not getting us out to the main road where Asina will find us.""You still haven't explained how your wife even knows we've been shot down," Ghent accused.I'd known we'd have to face the music on that one since the beginning. "We're both agaani. We've been together a long time. Our minds connect, even when we're apart. I think someday we're going to find out agaani can do a lot more than we know about yet." If that's not the most comprehensive understatement I've heard in a while... Asina observed drily.Not helping, my love."It can't hurt to see if the farm truck starts," Makis opined, "But it's time to get moving before any more scouts find us."

Blurb and Excerpt from The Gates to Faerie

Mark Jackson's problems begin when he wakes up with his ex-wife's mummified corpse.Seven years ago, she walked out on him and vanished. Now she's back desperate for help. She claims a cult cured her cancer. Now they want to kill her. Sceptical, Mark agrees to help. But when she knocks on his door, she looks like a teenager. They patch things up and one thing leads to another...In the morning, she's a mummified corpse and LAPD thinks Mark did it. The solution to his problems can only be found in The Gates to Faerie.******"Hello Mark?"It had been seven years since she abruptly served me with divorce papers and promptly disappeared. "What do you want, Diane?" I replied, not bothering to conceal the hostility I felt. It had been a decent enough day until now."I'm sorry, Mark. I know I hurt you, but it was the best thing I could have done. You don't owe me, and I don't have any right to ask, but I'm desperate and there's nobody else to ask. I need a place to stay for a few days. Is there any chance I can borrow your couch? I'll sleep on the floor if I have to. You're not with anyone are you?""I pay you plenty to afford a place to stay, Diane. What's this really about?" Being an ex-husband in California wasn't quite like being a field hand in Alabama before the Civil War, but it wasn't far off, either"Mark, if I go home, they'll kill me. If I use a credit card, they'll find me.""And this is bad because...?" I asked, callously. I mean, no more alimony."I suppose I deserved that," she admitted, "Goodbye, Mark. I wish I could have explained, but I didn't want to drag you in. For what it's worth, I'm sorry.""Wait, Diane," I told her. It was close to ten already. "You can stay here tonight. Tomorrow, you need to find something else." She had to have another friend somewhere. I'd put her on a bus if I had to. I started to give her my address, then stopped. I'd changed my cell number when she left. "How did you get this number?""Mark, I'll be there in half an hour. I can't explain much without dragging you in, but what I can, I will. I know where you live. Thank you!" She hung up. Well, shit. She'd suckered me again. Seven years since she just vanished (well, except for the lawyer that worked the divorce for her). I hadn't been able to make a go of any relationship since, and I knew exactly why, and she'd still suckered me.Damn.She'd said half an hour, but it was only eighteen minutes before she knocked softly. I didn't even finish berating myself for my own stupidity and lack of balls to tell her no and make it stick.I wanted to just sit there and pretend I wasn't home. But I'd told her she could stay the night. Reluctantly, I levered myself off the couch and slouched my way to the door.At first I didn't recognize the woman standing there. Honey-blonde hair where Diane had always been a medium brunette, a face that looked like it might have been eighteen but probably belonged to someone younger. Then I took in the green eyes, the pert nose that was somehow smaller but still hers, the immaculately perfect eyebrows, the lips I'd kissed so many times. It was her.The rest of her looked somehow younger as well. The breasts were perkier and smaller than I remembered, she'd shed a few pounds and looked even more stunning. I knew this woman was forty-two - three years older than me - but she looked like a teenager and I didn't know how.She saw the recognition in my eyes. "I can't explain, Mark, but it's me. It's been a while."Copyright 2021 Dan Melson. All Rights Reserved.

FIrst Draft Excerpt From The End of Childhood

I apologize for being a little late with this. We got some bad news about Julia, our oldest dog and only one we raised from a puppy. Copyright 2021 Dan Melson All Rights Reserved******Undertime or' not, entering striking range of the six-armed demon struck me as a very bad idea. Not only were there six arms holding six weapons, she outmassed me at least ten to one. I'd seen how that worked out with ScOsh. My chances were better keeping my distance and fighting with mindbolts.It's not a basileus, love! It doesn't have the same ability to accelerate! Asto could be counted on for helpful information. And it gave me the idea for a plan.The spraxos even began playing into it, starting towards me as if to box me against the wall. Silly when I think about it now - I'd just demonstrated that I could teleport. Maybe she thought she could damper me, I don't know. But she came towards me, brandishing her six swords. She also summoned two more nephraim, which I dispatched with my needler before they could orient themselves to the situation. Four more brakiri also entered through the one door to the rest of the building, but brakiri had no special defenses. Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Four needles, four dead brakiri. I was starting to wonder if I'd brought enough ammunition, but I hadn't used half of my first magazine yet and I did have a spare. The laser that was my backup weapon was only good for about sixty shots, and one shot with a laser might not kill.I pulled energy hard with matra, and let go with a bigger mindbolt than any I'd thrown earlier. WHAM! It impacted the spraxos' shields. It staggered her a little. I could feel her mind 'fuzz out' for a moment. Maybe I just needed to try a little harder. If victory really was that easy, I'd take it. But I suspected it wouldn't. Battle plans not only didn't survive contact with the enemy - the enemy was just as capable of springing more surprises as you were. Judging by the spraxos' likely age and experience level, she was probably more capable of that than I was.That wasn't going to stop me from trying, though. I shot twice at the demon with the needler, only to have the shots pushed off target to impact upon the walls behind her. Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Dust and debris erupted from the impact sites, further hampering visibility and adding a hint of chalk and burned insulation to the already foul air of the room. But I used the time to good effect, pulling hard again with matra, saving up enough for a really good mindbolt. She continued to advance, while I moved to evade - intentionally poorly. I wanted her to think she was outmaneuvering me.Unfortunately, she hit my shields with a mindbolt of her own as I was almost ready to let mine go, but it was poorly focused - 'fuzzy' in the parlance of the operant - like she hadn't had the endless practice in focusing her bolts to a fine point for maximizing the mental damage it could do. It impacted too broad an area to penetrate my shields and do any damage. I kept pulling another half-beat and hit her with everything I had saved up. WHAM! Perfect placement, blew right through her shields and bored into her brain. I kept pulling more power with matra, building my power reserves.It didn't kill her, but I could feel her mind crumple for a moment. Which meant it was time for the main surprise. Shift into full undertime, use my augmented muscles at full strength to bind the demon's weapons with my own, roll off when I had them pushed out of the way, and remise right through two of her arms and into her head, slicing the brain-case neatly in two as well as dropping two severed forearms onto the ilestar flooring.Well, a little too neatly. Damned demon actually started to heal from that - so I brought my weapon around for another strike before she could recover either physically or mentally. This time I turned the sword in the wound, making sure to disrupt brain function. Then I shot her four times in the head with the needler, just to make sure. Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Gobbets of demonic flesh and ichor fountained outwards as the antimatter exploded in what had been her brain. Scratch one spraxos.Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the fight. Two more brakiri and a nephraim entered the room as I was coming down from undertime. I wasn't done, and I wasn't safe yet. But brakiri weren't really threats, and nephraim weren't in the league of a spraxos. Ffsshht-PLOW! Ffsshht-PLOW! Two needles took care of the brakiri, and wham! another mindbolt dropped the new nephraim in its tracks. I didn't really want to use mindbolts more than I had to, but this one had his defenses up. The goat-horned demon's body joined the growing pile on the floor.I wanted to capture Jonilo.

My Published Works and the Series Order (and Upcoming Work)

I get requests for which books follow which, or in which series, so here they are. All of these are available in either e-book or paperback, from either Amazon or any of the Books2Read retailers.Set in The Empire of HumanityRediscovery Series (complete)The Man From EmpireA Guardian From EarthEmpire and EarthWorking The TrenchesPreparations For WarPreparing The GroundBuilding The PeopleSetting The BoardMoving The Pieces (will be the final book)Politics of EmpireThe Invention of MotherhoodThe Price of PowerThe End of Childhood (forthcoming) Set in the Connected Realms: (multiple worlds fantasy)Connected RealmsThe Fountains of AescalonThe Monad TrapSet in Gates to Faerie: (urban fantasy/crossover)The Gates To FaerieMy non-fictionWhat Consumers Need To Know About MortgagesWhat Consumers Need To Know About Buying Real Estate