So a little background:

I keep a long list of interesting story ideas that I want to pursue at some future date, when inspiration strikes and time slots come open. (This is doubly important since I made the commitment to write at least one short/medium story every month, while pursuing my novels. There will be slots every month to fill.)

Several years ago, for an anthology, I wrote The Shipwrecked Mermaid, which is a short story about Rick, a felon working as part of a cooking crew after a major earthquake and tsunami in the PNW. It is a pure Sci-fi piece, about an alien scout in the shape of a mermaid, who gets stuck inland and needs Rick’s help to escape and survive.

Love that story. Compact, silly, exotic. When I decided to start writing novels, Imposters was the first one I did, picking up Rick’s story a year later, six months after he got out of prison and opened his own bistro with help from some unlikely friends.

This is important today for two reasons. First, I have a new bundling project coming up in a little while, and they asked for Imposters to be included in it. It is a stand-alone novel, but the story is so much richer when you understand where that damned travel mug in the first scene went off to, and then returned from.

So I would like to help everyone get the richer experience. I’m putting this out here in the hopes that it makes its way across the whole interwebs and people getting ready to buy the bundle see it and respond. And any of you that haven’t yet read Imposters, too.

You don’t have to buy anything. Just send me a note so I have the right email address, and I will send you the mobi and epub (Amazon, not Amazon) of The Shipwrecked Mermaid so you can be prepared for Imposters. And maybe go buy the bundle, or just buy the novel individually.

Second, and why this is at the top my mind today, is for a special project I am working on right now. Won’t share any details, because we are WAY too early in the process, but I’m planning out the next story in The Collective universe, which will be a short story entitled Queen of Hearts and continue Rick’s adventures. It will come out sometime in the fall of next year (publication lead times for stuff like this drives me to distraction, but can’t be helped.) and eases me back into making this an on-going thing, rather than a one-off.

I’ve been very busy this year with Science Officer books, finishing off Season One to keep ya’ll entertained. At the same time, I’m about halfway through the next Jessica Keller novel: The Red Admiral, which should come out next summer, if all goes well. I’m not done with Javier Aritza, by a long shot, but I’m giving him a little break before I start working on Season Two. Already have part of book 9 done, and literally today I’m editing on 7 & 8, The Hammerfield Gambit and The Hammerfield Payoff, both coming out December 10th.

And, one of these days I will actually finish this arc of Jessica Keller’s story. I won’t say I’m done with Jessica, but the nine novels will tell a complete story and let me start other series where I can turn out several pieces in a row, rather than bouncing all over the place and confusing and boring people.

I just completed the first short story in a new sequence in a new timeframe for the Alexandria Station universe, taking place in 10,396 CE, during the height of The Concordancy War. This series will be the first that does not include Suvi, because she is already on Kel-Sdala at this point, preparing for the events of The Librarian.

The story is Last Leaf Falling and includes a cameo instead by CW (Concord Warship) Kinnison. Those on the ball will recognize the name as a derelict Jessica and friends toured on Bunala, towards the end of Queen of the Pirates. So I do tie all the threads together and make the entire extended universe a fun place. I’m also planning at least a few stories in the Gas Sailors era, right at the dawn of interstellar flight. I went into a lot of detail about them in the two Hammerfield stories coming up, so I wanted to use the notes to expand things.

I could continue writing Alexandria Station stories for the rest of my life and not run out of places and people. For example: Jean-Pierre will be born in 14,942 CE and have his first encounter with Suvi in 15006 CE. Or about sixteen hundred years after Jessica Keller dies.

So, yeah. Lots, and I will.

But today, The Shipwrecked Mermaid. Let’s start there before we go off on tangents. Imposters will be in a bundle shortly. Read the mermaid first. You’ll thank me for it.

shade and sweet water

bd

West of the Mountains, WA