Writing

The Queen’s Gambit Announcement

/ Serial Fiction, Writing

The Queen's Gambit

With the holiday season approaching, I wanted to do something to thank you all for your support and enthusiasm. And because I think we could all use an occasional break during this hectic time of year, I figured a new story would be the perfect thing.

The Queen’s Gambit is a science fiction novella set in its own universe. I’ll be posting it in a serial format, with new installments each week. I hope to post a chapter a week, but if I get buried in edits, it may end up being a little less.

The first chapter will be posted very, very soon. :)

Story posts will show up like normal blog posts with extra formatting, but you can also check the story page to see the blurb and the list of posts (once they start).

Without further ado, The Queen’s Gambit blurb, copied here for your convenience:

When the Quint Confederacy and the Kos Empire went to war—again—young Queen Samara wisely kept her Rogue Coalition out of the conflict. But staying neutral in a galactic war doesn’t pay the bills, not when both sides refuse to trade with neutral sectors.

With her people on the brink of starvation, Samara hatches a daring plan to snatch the kidnapped Kos Emperor from the Quint mercenaries holding him. The Kos Empire will pay a fortune for their emperor’s return, enough to feed the Coalition’s citizens while they wait for the return to a begrudging peace.

But when her plan goes sideways, Samara finds herself evading Quint mercenaries with the very man she intends to capture. And the more time she spends with Valentin Kos, the more she realizes that he’s not the coldly indifferent villain she imagined. Torn between duty and desire, Samara must decide if saving her people is worth giving up the one thing she’s always wanted.

One note: this story is first-draft quality. It will be coming directly from my brain to your eyes, with no other editors involved. If you can’t stand the occasional typo (I do my best, but they’re pesky little things), you might want to skip this one.

NaNoWriMo 2017

/ Writing

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). It’s a month-long event where the goal is to write at least 50,000 words of a novel. For some genres, 50k might be an entire novel, but for a lot of adult fiction it will be half or two-thirds of a novel.

I love NaNo because it gives you permission to make time to write for an entire month. Sometimes all you need is a nudge to get that novel you’ve always wanted to write started. Plus, there are generally tons of meet-ups where you can write with like-minded people who will support and encourage you (and you can return the favor).

This year, I’ll be writing as a NaNo rebel. My goal is to write at least 25k words, split between the serial and book two. …

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Polaris Rising Snippet

/ Snippet, Writing

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a Polaris Rising snippet, and Cindy M. asked for a new one, so here you go. I hope you enjoy this little peek at Loch and Ada. Happy reading!

“So eager to be rid of me?” Loch asked. He stood and stalked towards me.

Yes. “No, but the faster I’m off-planet, the easier it’ll be for me to hide,” I said. I ignored his approach and snapped the cot into place.

He stopped close enough that I brushed up against him when I reached up to raise the safety rail. I refused to back away. I met his gaze with a flat stare of my own. …

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A Peek at Fall and The Queen’s Gambit

/ Life, Writing

Yesterday, the weather was breezy with a temperature in the low seventies. I wanted to put on a sweater. To be fair, when the temperature has spent the last six months hovering near 100, seventy feels plenty cool. :)

This morning the temperature dropped to fifty and the house was chilly when we woke up. Fall is finally starting to take hold, though the forecast promises that it’ll only last a couple days, so I’m not turning off the air conditioner yet.

The return of Fall means the return of hot tea. There is nothing better than a steaming cup of tea on a crisp Fall day. I may be something of a tea hoarder, though I prefer connoisseur—it sounds better. …

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Materials Girl: Part 2

/ Short Story, Writing

This is the second half of the short story I wrote for the XPRIZE contest. Read the first half.

Samantha took the box from me and led me out of the building. I focused on her colorful dress and intentionally tried to block out everything else. She headed towards a waiting line of the same sleek vehicles I’d seen on the traffic camera.

Up close, the vehicles looked even more alien that they had in the video. The wheels were made out of a complex webbed matrix that had to have been 3D printed. They didn’t have any visible lug nuts, and there were no inflated rubber tires, just a solid strip of darker material around the circumference of each wheel.

As we approached, the vehicle’s single door slid open, like the door on the side of a minivan. Inside, three bucket seats faced forward and three faced backward. There was no steering wheel, nor any visible controls at all.

Samantha climbed in and sat in one of the seats facing backward. I sat across from her, my carry-on beside me. I clutched my purse like it was the life raft that would save me from this sea of strange. …

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