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Finish a Book, Get Free Beer

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Space Rogues 8 WIP – Done

So, this is a new one, and I have ZERO objections :)

Given that we’re moving into winter, and that Denver (and CO, and most of America) are racing towards new COVID-19 surges, Nicole and I went to one of our favorite breweries to do some “work from a patio, with beer,” work.

I was almost done with the first draft of “Here There Be Monsters” the 8th book in the Space Rogues series. An hour or so after we sat down, I typed “The End” and so took the above picture to celebrate, posting it to my instagram feed. Of course, being the good social media citizen I was I tagged my location, Empourium Brewing.

A few minutes later one of the staff comes out to offer virtual high fives and elbow bumps. It took me a second to realize she’d already seen my post!

We hung out for a bit more (hours and beers) then headed to our next stop (another brewery that was doing a sushi pairing!).

When the crew brought our bill out, they also gifted us a 4-pack of the beer Nicole and I were drinking!

A first for sure, and a trend I have no complaints with continuing forever. Might have to have the crew visit if they make it back to Earth again.

So anyway, that made my weekend!

Oh, by the way, I write Thrillers too.

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Island of Secrets Cover

Lesson learned, release two books really close to each other, while also running conferences, means something will not get the love it deserves.

In this case, it’s my action/adventure thriller ‘Island of Secrets‘

I decided to branch out a bit from science fiction to write something a little more down to Earth. A team of treasure hunters going where they’re paid to go to find treasures and secrets long lost.

It came out last week, go grab it if you’re a can of Clive Cussler style adventures

Release Day! A Guy Walks Into A Bar

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A Guy Walks Into a Bar

It’s here! It’s here! :)

Space Rogues 7: A Guy Walks Into A Bar is officially released! You can read it on your favorite eReader or (once Amazon gets their shit together) Paperback.

I love release day, especially now that I have a bit more idea what I’m doing. :) The book is written, edited, covered. And now people are reading it.

This one was a ton of fun to write and took a little inspiration from a guy’s trip I took to Disney World. I won’t get into the details (Spoilers!) but yeah this might be one of my favorite tales of the crew of the Ghost.

I hope you enjoy it!

WIP Thursday (7/9) Space Travel has Down Time

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Lots of down time. FTL is great, but unless your entire story is blink of an eye travel, you gotta deal with getting from one place to another.

An hour or so later Steve walked into the common area, Naomi and Lori were on their second pot of coffee, “Morning all.” He rubbed his dark brown hair then ran his hand down his face. He looked at the two women, their eyes boring holes in
Lori looked up, “Good morning to you too.” Something in the way she said those five words caused Steve to blush. He quickly turned away, reaching into the cupboard to grab first one, then a second coffee cup.
Jax walked in, “Morn—“ Steve shoved a cup of coffee at him.
Both women turned their stares from Steve to a new target. Jax sipped the coffee, then looked at the two women, “What?”
Steve sidled towards the lounge area the long way around. Lori I waggled her eyebrows, but said nothing. She tilted her head towards the other woman on the sofa and winked. Jax groaned but said nothing. He turned and looked at Rudy, still in his charging port, “Rudy.”
Rudy made a mechanical sound, “If the hormone parade is over,” he disengaged from his charger and rolled to stand in front of the wall-mounted entertainment screen. “My understanding is that we need to get things planned.” He turned to Steve, “Your order of cabling should be delivered in thirty minutes, I’ll have Baxter accept it.” Steve nodded dumbly looking from Jax, the droid, and the two women.

Travel time is a great opportunity for a writer. Whether it’s FTL or the brave companions crossing the valley on horseback, it’s your chance to world build, to establish details, and to just let yourself have fun. Maybe it’s movie night, maybe a character is amateur chef, and each meal is an adventure.

I’m having a blast exploring Jax and his friend’s personality and preferences. I can’t wait for you to read this new series.

WIP Thursday – This is Awkward

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Somewhere in the first half of the adventure

I’m really enjoying this new series. It started as a “I gotta get this story bit out of my head” but already I’m thinking of the next adventure for Jackson and the others in this universe with a freshly minted Empire.

When Jax came up the stairs, he found mister Ichiko and Lori sitting at the small table near the kitchenette looking over a tablet while Steve was watching what looked like an episode of Star Trek: The New Adventures. Not one of the better episodes Jax noticed. “Oh good, you’re all here.” He made a come-on motion, “This is uh, my, er, girlfriend. Naomi.”
“Your—“ Lori started.
“Girlfriend?” Naomi finished, then coughed, “Girlfriend, yeah, hi. We met a few weeks ago, one of those hookup apps.” She looked around the room, “Couldn’t get enough of him after that.” Jax pointed toward the forward bulkhead and the hatch leading to the head while studiously examining something on the ceiling.
When the hatch closed behind Naomi, Steve paused the vid, “Girlfriend? Couple weeks? Wouldn’t that be around when…” His face had a red hue, but Jax wasn’t sure if it was an angry or embarrassed blush.
Jax ran a hand through his hair, “Uh yeah. Anyway, she’ll make herself useful and won’t get in the way.” He made sure to not make eye contact with Steve.

New Series Fun

I’m normally ‘a finish the first draft then revise’ person. But I got towards what I thought was the end of this story and realized it wasn’t the end. I’d recently introduced a character that was going to be a throwaway, and a few pages in was like, “No, she’s a keeper.”

So I stopped where I was and went back to the start to re-engineer the entire beginning of the story to include this new character and to delve a bit deeper into the backstory of this universe. I’m far and away happier with where things are now.

Also, I’ve decided to try to work on my character descriptions more, so this book is my go at it. I’m really excited about this new series! You can join (if you’re on my list you won’t be 2 emails, but I want people to opt-into this sub-list specifically) my Grand Human Empire mailing list to stay up to date on this new series.

WIP Tuesday “Make New Friends

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Jackson “Jax” Caruso doesn’t have many human friends. He certainly doesn’t welcome just anyone into his circle.

Jax took a sip of his beer then said, “Looks like we’re down a Delphino, any chance they’ll let you adjust the food order?” He took a bite of the burger. Even though he knew it wasn’t beef he closed his eyes and let a low moan escape his lips.
“Uh, what’re you doing?” His nav droid friend asked. “You better not be —“
Jax swallowed, “I’m eating lunch you perv. Can you change the order?”
“I’ll see what they say, but don’t hold your breath. Oh, you had a visitor.”
“Yeah?” Jax pressed. He took another bite, careful that time to conceal the moan of pleasure. Lucas had a gift for spicing the vat meat enough you’d never know it grew on a meter tall frame with nutrient sludge pumped into it.
“Governor Singh came by, said you should visit her sooner rather than later.”
“Weird she didn’t just call me.” He looked at the screen and tapped to his call log, “oh, she did, six times while we were on Mariposa, oops. Ok, anything else.”
“Nope that’s it.” Rudy said, then closed the channel. The screen on Jax’s phone lit up then returned to the home screen.
“Well if it isn’t Jackson Caruso.” A woman said from behind Jax. He looked up as Naomi Himura slid into the booth opposite him.
“Wait, wha?” Jax stumbled over his words.
“Miss me?” The Asian woman asked taking his mug of beer and sipping from it.
Jax regained his composure, “Not even a little.”

This is from book one of Still unknown Series or book name LOL. I’m almost done with my first draft, but had to take a pause to see where I wanted it to go, so have been shuffling things around. I like the new direction I’ve settled on and the flow of the story. I should be able to send it to beta readers in another month or so.

I’m excited to get a new series out into the world, and hope folks enjoy it.

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