The Villain Redeemed by AR DeClerck

We all know him. The man in the dark mask. The shadow that lurks just out of view. The harsh laugh that foretells the doom of the hero. The VILLAIN. Every well-rounded story has one to some degree, and it’s a very basic part of literature.

What is it about the villain that captures our imagination? Whether the villain be male, female, AI, or something all -together alien, there seems to be certain qualities that all villains possess.

Number one: the motivation. This is the main point the villain hopes to achieve. Revenge? Riches? Power? Knowing your villain’s motivation can help you create the basis for the character. This is the thing that your character will do anything to achieve or obtain. The AI in Asimov’s I Robot hopes to bring about the safety and continued existence of man by creating a world in which man has no free will.

Number two: the nemesis. Every villain has a nemesis. A hero with a heart of gold. The light to his dark. Without the hero’s illustrious good character the reader could never realize the villain’s true darkness. Some would argue that we would never know the true depths of Moriarty’s depravity without the shining example of Holmes to compare him to.

Number Three: A deep, dark secret. This is your villain’s deepest secret. The one thing that no one knows, and may, in fact, redeem the villain in the eyes of the reader. (I’m a huge fan of the villain redeemed, and love it when the villain gets his own HEA). This is a story of the villain’s past that even the hero does not know. The wrong done to the villain, or the abuse suffered, that has warped the villain in some pressing way.

Number Four: Some tiny speck of humanity. Your villain has feelings. Your villain had a mother, a father, and perhaps a loved one. Your villain was once a child, and has suffered. (In most cases. Sometimes the villain is a robot, but then you might argue that he was at the mercy of his creator for his evil ways). There are outside forces that have acted on your villain to make him/her into the person they are today. This acts on your character’s motivation. Maybe your villain has a soft spot for girls with green eyes because they remind him of his sister, or maybe he kills them on sight for the same reason. Know your villain’s emotions and know that he feels things just as deeply as your hero.

Whatever your character’s motivation, your villain is an important part of the story. Whether the reader needs to know him as intimately as the hero depends on the story, but the author should know everything about him. Let your villain become as three dimensional as your hero, so that your hero’s victory is that much sweeter. Or, redeem your villain and bring him into the light as a main character at a later date.

Amy R. DeClerck

Author AR DeClerck

AR DeClerck is a mother, wife and dialysis technician who lives in the Quad Cities, IL. An avid reader, reviewer and writer she favors sci fi and scifi romance genres. She attributes her love of books and all things literature to her mother, who always has a book nearby.

Current SFR novel available:

Forged in Fire by AR DeClerck via Nevermore Press Dec 2014

http://www.amazon.com/Forged-Fire-AR-DeClerck-ebook/dp/B00R3B0ZFE/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1420499403&sr=8-2&keywords=Ar+Declerck

New Member Jael Wye

Everyone please give a warm welcome to our newest Brigade member! 

Jael Wye, reporting for duty. Thanks for the welcome aboard. 

Please tell us a little about yourself.

I am a painter, writer, book addict, houseplant enthusiast, dedicated mom, and my rocker husband's number one groupie. I live in the beautiful northeast, otherwise known as Red Sox Nation. Though I love science fiction with the white hot passion of a thousand nerds, I'm allergic to technology in real life. Seriously, it's all I can do to turn the coffee maker on. It's crazy.

We’d love to hear more about your book.

I'd love to tell you. My first novel, Red Ice, is a retelling of Snow White, set on Mars 300 years in the future. It's a story of political intrigue, high tech, and true love. I'm currently in negotiations with a publisher for it, and when I have more to report I'll be sure to, er, report it.  Here's the blurb.

Red as Mars, white as ice, black as space. . .

Shy, brilliant Bianca Ross has one ambition; to finally go back home to the Mars space elevator her father built, the great orbiting space station where she was born. Instead, her father’s second wife has exiled her down to the surface of the planet and assigned her to take over a mining operation for her family’s company. Now she somehow has to keep the mine’s gorgeous playboy owner at a safe distance, while at the same time uncovering his dangerous secrets.

Cesare Chan will do whatever it takes to save his mining company from the tyrannical Ross family, and to protect the escaped Earther slaves he has taken in. Tracking Bianca across the deserts and canyons of Mars, he is shocked to discover that his lovely, maddening enemy needs his help as much as he needs hers.

There are secrets on Mars that neither Cesare nor Bianca know, and murderous intrigues at work that could kill them both. Betrayed by their allies, hunted by a psychotic assassin, and adrift on a planet as beautiful as it is deadly, Bianca and Cesare must use all their wits and all their hearts to fight for each other, and for the future of Mars itself.

Would you like to share any upcoming projects?

Absolutely. Red Ice is the first book in a series of five scifi/fairy tales. The second book, based on Jack and the Beanstalk, will be finished by the fall.

What do you like about writing SFR?

I like taking existing trends and extrapolating them forward to guess at the wild changes the universe has in store for us centuries from now.  And I like to use the endless possibilities of the future to explore things about human nature that will never change, no matter how smart our computers get or how fast our spaceships go. Things like honor, and lust for power, and of course, love.

What do you find challenging about it?

Trying to predict what's important today that won't be in a few years, and what we're barely aware of now that will someday be absolutely critical. Predicting is hard, especially about the future, as Yogi says.

.

What is your favorite SF book or movie?

Red Mars, by Kim Stanley Robinson. Magnificent hard scifi with mythic themes, huge in scope, decent in execution.

Favorite mode of fictional travel?

Dragonback, like the Dragonriders of Pern!

Thanks,

 Jael Wye

New Member, Kathleen Scott

Please give a big welcome to our newest member, Kathleen Scott.

Please tell us a little about yourself

Gee, I don't know where to start. It's always hard for me to talk about myself. Ask me about my books and I'll run on forever. Myself, not so much. 

Let's see, I cut my writing teeth on high fantasy, though I've always had a love affair with science fiction. I come by that naturally as my father was a huge sci-fi fan. I think I got hooked first watching original Star Trek reruns back in the late 60's early 70's and I never stopped loving it. 

My first published book was a novella for Red Sage Secrets titled, Fatal Error, a futuristic that had a megalomaniaccomputer running the government and a hot geeky hero trying to stop the program he'd created- because why wouldn't I have that? Right? I'm a complete softy for a geek. I even tend to get all gooey over physicists. I once composed an email to Michio Kaku to ask about trans-dimensional travel and multiverses, but had a complete fangirl meltdown before hitting send. I never did send the email. Ha!

I guess my love of geeks is why I married one. He's a comic book artist/writer/V.O. actor who works at a DIY store to support his creative side. We share our home with a beautiful mutt with more love than sense, but she's a sweetheart. 

We’d love to hear more about your book, 

 

I generally write several books at the same time crossing genres and timelines. I've just finished the second book in my Sophite series (which started with Bad Religion) for Loose ID. The working title is Sacred Sacrifices and follows the journey of Sophite priestess, Jerella. Here's a blurb:

Sophite adja Jerella Montegro has crossed the length of the Sangrah Provinces to connect with a Unarion she’s only communicated with in her mind. Hunted by the theocrats on an order of execution, she has risked everything to come to the aid of the psychic sect she’s only heard of in stories. To bring them into the rebel fold with the Sophites and Drumas, it’s worth any price—including her life.

Unarion psychic Veric has spent the last few years mourning the betrayal of his lover, Keis, to the theocratic guards. Now, with the construction of a tower near the borders of his homeland, and the rift of a nexus opening in the city of Rimfel, he needs Jerella’s help to defeat the theocrats and their sinister plans once and for all. 

Guard General Keis has given his all to the uniform he wears if only to bring his secret agenda to fruition. With Jerella and Veric in his crosshairs, he can’t lose. For what’s the promise of the future without a few sacrifices?

Would you like to share any upcoming projects?  

My novel Water Mark comes out in print from Samhain in May. That's the second in my Jumpers series about a U.S. military team in the future who run missions to the other dimensions that connect with ours. Lots of intrigue, action and romance. 

http://store.samhainpublishing.com/water-mark-p-6859.html

It's also available in ebook in various formats. 

What do you like about writing SFR?

Oh, geez, what's not to like? I get to explore cultures and star systems and tech. I can let my imagination run wild...or at the speed of light...and still be home in time to cook supper. I can get as weirdly off the hook as I want to be and make sense with it. 

What do you find challenging about it?

I'll be honest, my books run more to space opera than hard science. Though I love hard science, I don't necessarily want to lecture my readers on the principles of faster than light travel or the equations behind such theories. I love reader authors who do that and my hat goes off to them, but I have to be true to me. My main goal is to tell a good story and transport the reader to a different time and place. That's the challenge no matter what genre I'm writing in, it never changes. 

What is your favorite SF book or movie?

There are so many, I can't pick just one, but I have often said I want to live on Deep Space Nine. More recently, I've decided I'd also like to live in Eureka. 

If you could have a robot that did one chore/task and only one, what would you choose? 

*snickers* That's such a loaded question. 

What SFR book would you most like to be stranded in and with whom?

I love Catherine Asaro's Skolian Empire. 

Favorite mode of fictional travel?

In Water Mark there is a jumper ship called the Nautilus. I think I'd like to travel in that one. It might not get me off-planet, but it does get me to several dimensions. 

 Bio: Kathleen Scott lives and works out of the area of New Jersey known as the Highlands, where she spends most of her time dreaming of space pirates and intergalactic jaunts. When not writing she is earth-bound with her hubby, Dave and loving canine unit, Lily. You can find her on twitter @MKMancosKScott or Facebook under Kat Mancos. website: www.MysticKat.com

Meet New Member, Linda Andrews

Today we have an interview with new Brigade member, Linda Andrews. Welcome aboard, Linda!

Please tell us a little about yourself.

I think my bio says it best: Linda Andrews lives in Phoenix, Arizona with
her husband, three children and a menagerie of domesticated animals.
While she started writing a decade ago, she always used her stories to
escape the redundancy of her day job as a scientist and never thought to
actually combine her love of fiction and science. DOH! After that Homer
Simpson moment, she allowed the two halves of her brain to talk to each
other. The journeys she’s embarked on since then are dark, twisted and
occasionally violent, but never predictable.


We’d love to hear more about your book, Blue Maneuver. 

After destroying
the world in my apocalyptic novel, Redaction, I needed a break from doom
and gloom. Since I had just spent the summer watching every ancient
alien/ufo/conspiracy show on Netflix, I thought it would be funny to write
about aliens on Earth. Then to add a twist by having a heroine who not
only didn't like scifi but didn't believe that aliens existed.


Would you like to share any upcoming projects?

 I am currently writing a contracted paranormal romance centered around Valentine's day.
Then I'll be self-publishing two SFR books in a series around a human and
a cyborg.


What do you like about writing SFR? 

I love that my imagination can take me
anywhere, there are no limits. Plus I get to look things up so I can
extrapolate for the science part. Yes, I am a nerd.


What do you find challenging about it?

 Getting the words to describe the
images in my head so that readers can see through my eyes.


What is your favorite SF book or movie? 

My favorite book has to be Hope's
Folly by Linnea Sinclair, but my favorite movie is the original Time
Machine by HG Wells.


Favorite mode of fictional travel? 

Interstellar spaceship. If there was a
way for us to leave Earth to explore the universe, I'd be on it.

Here is the book blurb for Blue Maneuver:

The extraterrestrials have landed and they’re human.
Rae Hemplewhite didn’t believe in aliens until a close encounter with
out-of-this-world technology drags her into the extraterrestrial security
program. Helping alien refugees adjust to life on Earth is difficult
enough, but her first clients have a price on their heads. Plus, her new
partner seems torn between the urge to kiss her or kill her.
And that’s the good news.
The bad news: Alliances are forming in deep space. If Rae doesn’t keep her
witnesses alive long enough to transfer their top secret information to
the right faction of humanity, Earth will become a battlefield.

It is available at:

amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006VOKXME/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwlindaandre-20

Barnes and
Nobel:http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blue-maneuver-urban-scifi-fantasy-linda-andrews/1108181682?ean=2940013738331&itm=1&usri=blue+maneuver

Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/121154

New Member, Janet Miller

We have a whole roster of new recruits this week! Our next new member to greet is, Janet Miller. Welcome, Janet, to the Brigade. 

Please tell us a little about yourself

I am Janet Miller, who also writes as Cricket Starr. Originally the Cricket Starr name was just for my erotic books but my Cerridwen titles were all made Cricket Starr back when Ellora’s Cave decided to move books from Cerridwen to an imprint of EC called blush. So some books are Cricket and are not erotic.

Yes, it is confusing. But there we are.

I’ve been writing for about a dozen years now and have 27 titles currently listed on my website of which 11 are science fiction romance. Which means it is one of my favorite genres to write in.

My day job is a software engineer and I also have a background as a medical researcher so I know a bit about science. When I was younger I loved reading Anne McCaffrey’s books like Restoree, which I know some people have argued is the first real Science Fiction Romance book.

We’d love to hear more about your book, Promises To Keep, book 1 of the Gaian series.

Promises to Keep is my first story in the Gaian series and essentially introduced the world I’d built. This also means that is it the book where I started making this world up and getting a handle on what it was and was not, and is thus the book I use for my story bible.

My tag line for Promises To Keep is “Mars Needs Women meets the Love Boat.” The Gaian men have kidnapped a group of Earth women on their way to find husbands in the Outer Colonies in order to make them their own wives. Gaian men are impotent until they find the right woman to attach to so they are highly motivated to take wives. That’s where the Mars Needs Women story line comes in.

The action takes place on “the Promise” which is the flagship of the Gaian military fleet, so that’s why I mention the Love Boat. Besides I though it sounded funny.

The planet Gaia was a colony of Earth before it staged its fight for independence, during which a lot of young women were killed when a girls school was deliberately destroyed by the Earth military. So there are all sorts of conflicts going on in the book, particularly between Doctor Sarah Johnson, who lost her best friend in the war, and the Gaian leader General Garran Doranth, who lost his wife and child when the school was destroyed. But that doesn’t stop Garran from attaching to Sarah and wooing her while masked.

I guess I won’t be spoiling anything if I say stuff does eventually get worked out. It is a romance after all. It is also pretty inexpensive since Amazon has it in Kindle format for $2.99!

There are three other published stories in the Gaian world, starting with Beloved Enemy, about a pair of fighter pilots on opposite sides of the war getting trapped on a planet together and having to work out their differences. That book was a Romantic Times Top Pick and nominee for their Reviewers Choice Award. A third book is Beloved Traveler, which is about a Gaian woman meeting the brother of the heroine in Beloved Enemy.

Then there is A Promise Made, a novella also about a pair of doctors at the beginning of the war, who meet and fall in love. That book gets its title from the fact it takes place on The Promise, just like Promises To Keep.

Would you like to share any upcoming projects ?

I’ve recently sold a new Gaian story to Samhain Publishing called Beloved Stranger. This book is the story of a young woman from the Outer Colonies who many years earlier had been kidnapped along with her sisters and taken to a Gaian prison/mining colony for an illegal marriage meet. Sonja got away but her sisters had ended up as wives. Now Sonja is back to rescue her sisters and is willing to do anything, including marrying a Gaian prisoner to find them.

Here is the blurb: Six years ago Sonja Deems had to leave her sisters behind when slavers forced them into the illegal Gaian marriage meets at the Ares Five Prison colony. Now she’s back to retrieve them and is willing to do anything, even marry one of the prisoners to get access to them. She figures she can get in and out on her own but doesn’t count on Roan Dumas being the man who attaches and marries her, a man who can scheme even better than she can but whose honor will make it difficult for her to leave him behind.

            I plan more books in the Gaian world and hope to make Samhain my home for them.

What do you like about writing SFR?

Well, I obviously love writing romance or I wouldn’t do it so much. But I also enjoy imagining what the world will be like in 50, 100, 500 years. I expect that there will still be men and women finding each other and falling in love, but on spaceships, or strange planets instead of on Earth.

What do you find challenging about it?

The most difficult part is keeping the believability. You don’t want the reader to get thrown out of the story by something that doesn’t make any sense. For example let’s suppose our hero wants to increase the light on his planet. If the author said “Let’s move the sun closer by tying a rope around it and pulling” I would not believe that was possible. You want to describe a future that is probable, not impossible, otherwise you are writing fantasy, not science fiction.

What is your favorite SF book or movie?

I have so many favorites it is hard to pick. But if you want just one, I’ll go with Wall-e. Outstanding beginning, best use of “show don’t tell” ever in an opening, and I’m a sucker for a love story with robots.

If you could have a robot that did one chore/task and only one, what would you choose?

Well, remember what I said about a love story with robots? Actually I did write a story about that, Partners, which has synthetic people who end up asteroid mining together, as well as a lot of other stuff.

Seriously I’d want a robot that washes dishes. I mean all dishes, not just what a dishwasher does but the fragile stuff you can’t put into a dishwasher.

BIO: During the weekday Janet Miller, sometimes better known as Cricket Starr, is a mild-mannered software engineer who writes code and design documents. But at night and on weekends she turns to the creation of offbeat stories about imaginary pasts, presents, and futures, where ladies become warriors, or go to the stars to find love, and a man really can save a struggling software company.

But no matter when the story happens, or where the hero or heroine is, there will always be adventure, humor, and meaning to the tale. 

Her writing has won her multiple awards, recommended reads, stars, unicorns, and hearts and even a couple of trophies that look really good on her bookshelf next to her printed books.

See more at her website: http://www.cricketstarr.com

Book summary:

In the distant future, with Earth near barren and men willing to commit to marriage almost non-existent, a group of young women leave to find husbands in the Outer Colonies. On their way they're hijacked by men from a rebel planet called Gaia.

Gaian men can only make love to a woman they match and Dr. Sarah Johnson turns out to be the match for the most hated Gaian of all, General Garran Doranth. To keep their promises, these two must look beyond what they think they know and learn to trust what they feel for each other.

Buy link for $2.99:

http://www.amazon.com/Promises-Keep-Gaian-ebook/dp/B003XYEVIW%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJBDF5XQBATGDX4VQ%26tag%3Dspea06-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB003XYEVIW

Meet New Member, Cynthia Woolf

Please join me in welcoming Cynthia Woolf to the Brigade. She has stopped by for an interview and to share some info on her brand new release, Centauri Midnight.

Please tell us a little about yourself

I'm a Colorado native and have been writing something poetry, stories, papers, essays and eventually books, since I was a kid.  I found my local chapter of RWA in 1990 and they have been a tremendous help.  I decided to self publish my books last year and will continue to do so.  It has given me the freedom to write what I want to and not worry about fitting into a traditional publishers mold of what they think is going to be selling 1 year or more down the road when the book would actually hit the market. 

 

Now when I've finished a book, gotten the cover and had it edited, I upload it myself and it's available to the public the next day.  If I don't like a cover I just reload it and voila, it's changed.  The freedom is adicting.

We’d love to hear more about your book, 

My latest book is called Centauri Midnight.  It is set on the planet Gregar.  Here is the blurb:

Kitari ‘Kiti’ Dolana wants justice for her murdered brother. She’s trailed the man responsible to a distant planet where swords outmaneuver blasters.

Garrick Marcus, Spaceship Captain, is on a mission to hunt down a ruthless killer. The same man Kiti is after.

But Kiti and Garrick discover an explosive attraction that makes it hard to keep their minds on their goals.  As they try to bring down the killer, they find that love and vengeance are a volatile mix.

Would you like to share any upcoming projects (and links) 

I'm working on 3 more books that take  place on the planet Gregar which is where the majority of Centauir Midnight takes place.

What do you like about writing SFR?

I like being able to create my own world.

What do you find challenging about it?

Creating my world means keeping tract of everything, all the different words, animals, cars, weapons.  That can be difficult even with a "bible".

 

What is your favorite SF book or movie?

I like most sci-fi movies and have a lot of favorites.  Forbidden Planet is one of my very favorites.  Who can forget Robbie the Robot.  The original Star Wars trilogy with Luke, Leia and Han are classic.

If you could have a robot that did one chore/task and only one, what would you choose?

I'd have it clean my bathrooms.

BIO:

Cynthia Woolf was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in the mountains west of Golden.  She spent her early years running wild around the mountain side with her friends.

Their closest neighbor was one quarter of a mile away, so her little brother was her playmate and her best friend.  That fierce friendship lasted until his death in 2006.

Cynthia was and is an avid reader.  Her mother was a librarian and brought new books home each week.  This is where young Cynthia first got the storytelling bug.  She wrote her first story at the age of ten.  A romance about a little boy she liked at the time.

She worked her way through college and went to work full time straight after graduation and there was little time to write.  Then in 1990 she and two friends started a round robin writing a story about pirates.  She found that she missed the writing and kept on with other stories.  In 1992 she joined Colorado Romance Writers and Romance Writers of America.  Unfortunately, the loss of her job demanded the she not renew her memberships and her writing stagnated for many years.

In 2000, she saw an ad in the paper for a writers conference being put on by CRW and decided she'd attend.  One of her favorite authors, Catherine Coulter, was the keynote speaker.  Cynthia was lucky enough to have a seat at Ms. Coulter's table at the luncheon and after talking with her, decided she needed to get back to her writing.  She rejoined both CRW and RWA that day and hasn't looked back.

Cynthia credits her wonderfully supportive husband Jim and the great friends she's made at CRW for saving her sanity and allowing her to explore her creativity.

 My back of book summary is shown above.

website: http://www.cynthiawoolf.com

Amazon:  http://amzn.to/w2m66F

Barnes & Noble:  http://bit.ly/zHMwF6

Smashwords:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/120997

All Romance eBooks:  http://bit.ly/wwyzDN

EXCERPT

CENTAURI MIDNIGHT

by

CYNTHIA WOOLF

“Audra, please.  You’re my queen, but you’re also my friend.  You must grant me this last request.  Let me go after him.  Please you know how much this means to me.”  Tensign Kiti Dolana paced the Her Royal Highness’s beautiful sitting room.  Bile rose in her throat and threatened to strangle her.  Finally, she collapsed into a chair its soft cushions swallowing her as she sat across the small, highly polished and gleaming, coffee table from the Queen of Centauri. 

The Queen, pregnant with triplets, her beautifully distended abdomen disallowing much frivolous movement, reclined on the couch.  She sat up to pour the tea but had trouble reaching the tea pot in the middle of the coffee table.  “Kiti, would you pour our aeta?  I’m a bit like a beached whale right now.”  Audra was anything but a beached whale.  Kiti knew the colloquial term from her study of Earth. 

Her queen was radiant.  Her long, chestnut hair fell in waves to her waist, gathered on one side of her head.  Her clear silver gray eyes shone bright in her pale face.  She wore a beautiful royal purple empire-waisted dress that highlighted her pale features.  She was beautiful.  Kiti remembered a time, on their trip back to Centauri from Earth, when she’d not thought so, because she was jealous. 

That was before Audra’s marriage to Darius, when she’d still been betrothed to Anton.  Kiti had thought herself in love with Anton.  They’d been seeing each other for years, and Kiti was jealous of Audra.  Some of the things she’d said had been unkind, but Audra had seen her jealousy for what it was and forgiven her the words.  They were now best friends.  

Kiti poured the tea and continued to beseech her queen.  “Audra, you have to let me go after him.  Tybold killed my brother, Joridan.  His actions directly led to Anton being captured and tortured.  I need to see they both get justice.  They deserve it.”

“And you are sure it’s only justice you seek?” Audra softly asked.

“Damn it, Audra.”  Kiti got up and paced the room again.  Her long black hair, tied in a high tankipa tail, swung back and forth, slapping against her back with each step.  The thick, plush carpet kept her boots from clicking on the floor.  “I’m begging you to let me go with Garrick Marcus.  It’s not just revenge I need.  I need closure.  I’m the one who should deliver Tybold to the authorities.  Garrick Marcus is the best captain in the fleet and I know Darius is sending him after Tybold.  Joridan needs us both to avenge his death.  To bring his murderer back to Centauri for justice to be served.”

“Kiti, are you combat trained?  We don’t know what to expect from the Gregarians.  By this time, Tybold could have convinced them we are conquerors and he’s their only salvation.  We don’t know.  It could be a suicide mission.  I don’t want to lose my best friend.”  She went on.  “I know you’re grieving.  Joridan’s loss and Lara’s return has been very hard on you.”

“Stop.”  Kiti held up her hand.  “I know what my life has been like.  I mourn the loss of Joridan and I’m still angry about Anton’s capture and torture.  Joridan was my little brother.” she smiled at that.  “Even though he was a head taller than me, he will always be my little brother.  I still smell Joridan’s scent in his room.  Sometimes it’s so fresh it’s like he just passed by.”  Her eyes filled with tears.  “I miss the closeness that Anton and I once shared, but I do not bemoan him finding Lara.  I’m very happy he found his lifemate.  It was something he never thought to do.  After the torture both Anton and Lara suffered at the hands of the Slavariens, it’s amazing they found each other.  I wish I had a lifemate out there somewhere.

“Audra, I’m a historian and anthropologist, but first I’m Dragonera.  Of course, I am combat trained.  All Dragonera are.  We are the Royal Guard.  The best soldiers Centauri has.  For that matter, the best anywhere.”

“You’re right, but I worry anyway.  Must be my maternal instinct.”  Audra patted her abdomen.

Kitty smiled at the thought of Audra as a mother.  She would be a good one, even if she was a might over protective.  At least she was of Kiti.  Kiti could only imagine how she would be with her own babies.

“You know the people of Gregar are centuries behind us technologically.  I’m the only person who can go on this mission that knows anything about their culture.”

“I don’t know,” Audra hesitated.

“Admit it.  Garrick needs me.”

“We don’t interfere in the development of other planets’ civilizations.  You know that.”

“Tybold has already interfered.  I say we’ll be evening the odds for the tribes involved.  And it’s not as though Gregar doesn’t know we exist.  They already trade with other planets.  Just because they’re not our technological equals doesn’t mean they aren’t advanced.”

Kiti saw Audra hesitate again before she answered.  “I’ll have to confer with Darius before I can give you my answer.”

At that moment Darius came in accompanied by Garrick, Anton and Lara.  The three men were in their Dragonera uniforms as was Kiti, the only differences being the color blocking.  All wore the royal colors of amethyst and cream.  Darius and Garrick wore amethyst uniforms with cream colored sleeves, denoting their status as starship captains.  Darius’ uniform also had a cream colored stripe from the left shoulder to the waist, denoting that he was Captain of the Royal Guard.  As a general in the Royal Army, Anton’s uniform was solid amethyst.  Lara, Audra’s twin sister, still had the tanned skin from someone who’d spent too much time in the sun.  She wore the House of Danexx royal colors like everyone else did.  Hers were an amethyst jumpsuit and long cream colored duster.  Kiti’s uniform was solid cream.  Her rank as Tensign was denoted by a patch on her left arm.

 “What do you need to discuss with me?” Darius asked as he took his wife’s arm and helped her to rise from the couch.  She gave him a quick kiss.  Darius rubbed her stomach then bent and said, “Hello, my children.  Are you being nice to your mommy today?”

Kiti swore he expected an answer.

“If you don’t quit that people are going to think you’re crazy,” said Audra.

Darius laughed and kissed her abdomen.

“I am. Crazy in love with my wife.”

Lara made gagging sounds.  ‘Will you two remember that you have an audience?”

“All right.  But you and Anton are just as bad as we are,” Darius said to his soon to be twice over sister-in-law.”

“Never,” retorted Lara.  “No one is as over the moons as you two.”

“I don’t know, I’m pretty much over the moons about you,” said Anton waggling his eyebrows at her.

The banter was not aimed at Kiti.  She didn’t think the two couples even remembered they were not alone.  Kiti glanced at Garrick, who rolled his brandy colored eyes at her.   “Audra, the mission.”  She reminded her queen to hurry by tapping the comulator at her own wrist.

“Oh, yes.  Darius, Kiti has requested to be assigned to go with Garrick to Gregar, to apprehend Lord Tybold.  I told her I would discuss it with you.”

“I don’t know if she will be needed,” Darius responded.

Garrick spoke for the first time since entering the room.  “I think an anthropologist would be very useful on this particular mission.  Tensign Dolana would be a definite asset to me in bringing in Tybold.”

“Thank you, Garrick.”  Kiti was warmed by his words and agreed with him one hundred percent. 

“Very well,” said Darius.  “You will receive your orders tomorrow.  In the meantime, can we eat dinner?  I’m a starving man.”

New Member, Carmen Webster Buxton

We have another wonderful new member here to share some background and great books with the troops! Please give her a warm welcome.

Carmen, we’d love to hear more about your books

I currently have three books available as ebooks. The first two are a very short series: The Sixth Discipline and No Safe Haven. Both are set in the far future on a colony world called Haven. The world was settled by three distinct groups: 

• a New Age cult that believed in meditation and wanted isolation to practice their beliefs. They settled in a remote forest and came to be known as the Sansoussey.
• a group of survivalists/anarchists who wanted to live without government. They settled in the mountains and found themselves scrambling to stay alive. They came to be known as the Horde.
• entrepreneurs and adventurers who wanted get rich without restrictive rules; they established cities and over time, the most successful of them created a new aristocracy.

In The Sixth Discipline, a Sansoussey man named Ran-Del is kidnapped by a city baron and discovers he is intended to be a tool in the Baron's political plans. In No Safe Haven, Ran-Del has learned to live in the city, but he discovers there are dangers there, too.

The third book is called Tribes and it is set on a colony world also, but this one was established by prisoners who formed themselves into gangs that then evolved into tribes. A man with no tribe is a slave, and the story begins with a slave named Hob escaping and being rescued by a woman from a fighting tribe.

Would you like to share any upcoming projects? 

I have a space opera I'd like to bring out this year, but it's not for sale anywhere yet. It has starships, a princess, an evil emperor (he even has a harem!), a spy or two, a soldier, and an interplanetary romance.  I plan to post the opening chapter on my website as soon as I can. 

What do you like about writing SFR?  

I like to imagine settings in which people from different cultures and backgrounds meet. I think the future of technology is pretty hard to predict, and while marriage itself is evolving and changing, falling in love it pretty much the same as it had always been. I like putting the familiar falling-in-love scenario into a new and different setting in every book.

What do you find challenging about it?

When you create a new culture, you give your characters different values from their own. It can be difficult to make a character sympathetic when he or she does something that his own code says is okay but our values say is all wrong.  In No Save Haven, for example, one of the characters kidnaps a child. He thinks his reasons are valid, but it's hard to see him as a nice guy knowing what he has done.

What is your favorite SF book or movie?

I love Shards of Honor, by Lois McMaster Bujold. The later Miles books are good, too, but the love story in that first one is wonderful!

If you could have a robot that did one chore/task and only one, what would you choose?  

I don't suppose "housework" would count as one task?   Well, if not, I guess I want a a robot chef that cooks tasty, healthy meals completely without human assistance. 

What SFR book would you most like to be stranded in and with whom?   

If you had said movie or TV, it would be with Mal in Firefly/Serenity, but since you said book, I will go with Ivan Vorpatil in A Civil Campaign. I find I often (but not always) fall for the non-lead character, and I've always thought Ivan was sweet

Favorite mode of fictional travel?  

I think I like the time travel in Connie Willis' Oxford historians books; it's cool that it's both risky and limited in terms of how it works.

Where can we find you online?

My website/blog is Carmen's Page. In addition to describing my own work and writing the occasional book or movie review, I often post about ebooks, ereaders (especially the Kindle), and self-publishing. 

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Bio:

Carmen Webster Buxton was born in Honolulu, HI and experienced a childhood on the move, as her father was in the US Navy. She has been a librarian, a teacher, a project manager, a wife, and a mother, although not in that order.  She now lives in Maryland with her husband, her daughter, and an elderly beagle who has his own pet cat. 

She is an eclectic reader of science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction, mystery, romance, and mainstream fiction.

She writes science fiction, mostly set in the far future, and with a strong romantic element.

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My books currently for sale are listed below, with their buy links for the major ebookstores.  Cover art for the books and a headshot of me are all attached.

Tribes

Hob is a slave. He lives on a world colonized by prisoners, violent male criminals and militant feminists/terrorists. They originally formed themselves into gangs, and over time those gangs evolved into tribes, each of which is either all male or all female. Girl babies always have a tribe, but when a woman has a boy baby and can't find a man to take him into his tribe, the boy becomes a slave.

Hob escapes the compound where he has been used and abused and is rescued by a woman from a fighting tribe. Jahnsi Han-Lin offers shelter at her father's house, and a glimpse of what family life can be, even with tribal obligations. While Jahnsi and her father and brother plot to keep Hob free, Hob himself is torn between his desire to flee into the wilderness and his growing attraction to Jahnsi.

Kindle, Nook (B&N), iBooks, Smashwords, Sony, and Kobo

The Sixth Discipline

Ran-Del Jahanpur has spent his entire life in the Sansoussy Forest; he's a hunter and a warrior until one morning when he becomes prey for a hunting party with more advanced technology. He wakes up to what might as well be a different world, a city from which there seems no escape.

Kindle, Nook (B&N), iBooks, Smashwords, Sony, and Kobo

No Safe Haven
In the sequel to The Sixth Discipline, Ran-Del still feels bound by the strict code of the Sansoussy even though he has come to accept his life in the city. When his family is put at risk, his training and his principles seem inconsequential when measured against the life of a child.

Kindle, Nook (B&N), iBooks, Smashwords, Sony, and Kobo