To my regular blog readers: I recently joined an online community for readers and writers of science fiction romance called Science Fiction Romance Brigade. Since a lot of my books fall under this sub-genre, I figured it would be good to connect with that community a little better. If you’ve enjoyed my Star Wanderers novellas, then check out some of the other authors in the SFR Brigade–they seem to be doing some similar stuff.
To any new visitors: welcome! I hope you enjoy your time here. I’m a self-published indie writer with thirteen ebooks out so far, and a lot more on the way. I’ve been writing ever since I read A Wrinkle In Time back in 2nd grade, and sf romance is definitely one of my favorite sandboxes to play in.
For this week’s SFR Brigade Presents feature, I’m sharing an excerpt from the first chapter of Star Wanderers: Outworlder, the first novelette in my Star Wanderers series. The setup: Jeremiah is a young single starship pilot who arrives at a space station on the Outworld frontier hoping to make some trades. The station master ushers Jeremiah into his family’s quarters, where he explains that a famine is ravaging the system and everyone on the station is probably going to die. He then claps his hands, and his five daughters line up on the other side of the room.
* * * * *
“Choose!” Master Korha bellowed. Apparently defeated, his wife collapsed to the floor in tears.
Jeremiah tugged at the collar of his jumpsuit, sweat forming at the back of his neck. “What? Choose?”
“Yes yes—choose quickly, you take, you go!”
“But this is crazy; how can I—”
“If not take, will die. Choose!”
Jeremiah turned back nervously to the girls. The three youngest ones stared at him in absolute terror. The two oldest ones weren’t quite so frightened, but avoided meeting his gaze directly. They wore their long hair down with glistening sequined headbands across their foreheads, and the innocent looks on their faces cried out to him.
Should I take them both? If they were going to die otherwise, it seemed like the right thing to do—but he didn’t know if he could afford to take even one extra passenger on his ship. And besides, the whole situation had an eerily awkward feel to it, as if he were trading in people, not goods.
“You like? You like?” Master Korha asked, ambling to his side. He pulled the two girls forward to give Jeremiah a better look.
* * * * *
If you want to read the rest, you can pick up a free ebook copy on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, or any of the other major ebook sites.
And if you’ve already read Outworlder, then I’m happy to say that Star Wanderers: Dreamweaver, the parallel novella from Noemi’s point of view, is currently on schedule to come out in the beginning of April! As always, newsletter subscribers will get a coupon code to download the book for free when it’s released. I’m just finishing up with the revisions now, and am really excited to get this story up!
That just about does it for now. Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to see you again soon!
Interesting snippet, I wonder who he’ll choose.
Intriguing indeed. I am getting the novella, since it’s free. I’m a total sucker for romance from his POV. I prefer it.
Thanks! I hope you like it.