I slid through the night with the ease of long practice. Darkness and I had always been friends, but something in the air tonight set my teeth on edge. I stopped in the deep shadows cast by a partially collapsed wall and surveyed the target building in front of me.

Twenty stories tall and one of the few buildings still standing after years of war, the former office building loomed like a shadowy monolith out of the sea of rubble surrounding it. My sense of unease grew.

The building looked as dark as a tomb. I would’ve expected at least a few lights, especially in the top floors. Had they blacked out all of the windows or was I operating on bad information?

Or perhaps the Quint Confederacy knew I was coming.
…

The Queen’s Gambit: Chapter 1Read More »

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.