Hey, gang.
Long story, cut down to reasonable size: I’m in a new story bundle called Space Travelers.
Unlike previous bundles I’ve been in, my novel (WinterStar) is not going to get published anywhere else until sometime in 2020. Hint: if you want to read it, you better buy it now. Or offer up some pretty good bribes.
Originally, we were going to put up Longshot Hypothesis, but had some issues and a small whoops at the last minute, so we reached into the vault and pulled up WinterStar instead. This is a Book One in a whole new series, in a new universe, in a new everything. I’ve finished book two (SeekerStar) and the Star Tribes books are tentatively scheduled for the slots after “Shadow of the Dominions” of which Longshot Hypothesis (which is out) is book one. Think April 2020 at the earliest, most likely.
WinterStar is something kind of grand and huge, with lost civilizations, ancient mad gods (sort of. He thinks of himself that way), super weapons, and general craziness as well. It’s almost more of a space fantasy than hard SF, only in the sense that I went some places and did some bizarre science that just won’t be adequately explained anytime soon. At least I don’t think so.
Can’t be too sure, because I’ve only written book two so far, and I’m largely making things up as I go, rather than having plotted out the whole arc of the universe, like I did with Jessica. More fun this way.
Figuring I’ll write at least four of them. Maybe six. Dunno. Got lots of story to tell. WinterStar was largely self-contained, as any book one in a long series should be, but SeekerStar kind of cliff-hangers a little and leaves all sorts of places where book three can go, when I get to it.
And the main character is an ethnically-Algerian French chef on a distant colony, who has a serious mid-life crisis in chapter one and walks away from his restaurant and the Golden Diamond of excellence it has.
Nothing, however, has prepared him for life aboard the warship WinterStar, where he’s the personal chef for the woman in command, Kathra Omezi, and her entire, female comitatus of bad-ass, Amazon, warrior, fighter pilots. Or the shit that happens after that.
It was a lot of fun, because he’s such a fish out of water hero, who rises to become a true hero, but never forgets that he’s a 5’7″ tall Algerian chef surrounded by twenty-odd women, most of whom are taller than he is and don’t like men. (The whole tribe is 85% female, plus a sperm bank freezer.)
You gotta read it to believe it. And you’ll have fun.
There’s also an issue of Boundary Shock Quarterly in there: Grand Theft Starship, which contains the first Handsome Rob story: Can’t Shoot Straight Gang. Can’t Shoot Straight Gang Returns is book 2, and I’m currently writing book 3, Hunting Handsome Rob. And writing notes on book 4
Again, worth your time, especially as the bundle contains a Fiction River Presents, as well as three other stories that are bundle exclusives (meaning not available anywhere else yet.)
You don’t have to run, but you shouldn’t walk, because these bundles only run for three weeks and then they are gone forever. And in my case, you won’t get another chance at WinterStar for nine months or more, until I’m ready to drop the whole series.