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Check out my science fiction series - The Fall of the Altairan Empire

Monday, August 19, 2013

Excerpt from book 4 - The Kumadai Run

I've been writing lots of stuff lately, just not fiction.

Want to read a review of a book chapter titled "The Architecture of Instructional Design"? It's been rewritten at least a dozen times now. Yeah, I didn't think you would. I found it an interesting topic, but then that's the graduate program I just started.

How about a handout that I created for a Cub Scout Leader Powwow on teaching cubs astronomy? Maybe? Drop me a note and your email address and I'll send you the pdf.

How about a snippet from my book four in my series? Kumadai Run is now available!

Kumadai Run, Chapter 1
If you ever find yourself as crew on a small ship with newlyweds, don’t go.
I winced as another thud sounded against the wall. Jasyn and Clark had been married a little over a month. The first couple of weeks were peaceful, for me, because they were off on their honeymoon. I had the ship to myself.
Things had gone pretty well the week after that. We were headed out of the Cygnus sector and into a part of the Empire where I’d never been. Hopefully, the Targon Syndicate didn’t reach that far. I still had a price on my head.
Another thud sounded against the wall, along with some muffled shouting. I swiveled the pilot’s chair and leaned back to close the door of the cockpit.
I heard more muffled shouting. I didn’t want to know what it was about. I’d made the mistake of getting involved in their first fight, something about socks. I refused to even listen to either of them now. It was their fight, they should resolve it.
Things got ominously quiet. I stared at the streaks of light on the viewscreen and wished we were a lot closer to our destination. We still had at least five days of hyperspace travel.
We were hauling a load of medical equipment and supplies that needed to get to Parrus as soon as possible. The shortest route there, the Kumadai Run, was the trickiest, passing through two active nebulaes and skirting at least one black hole. Most people didn’t even attempt it. We were promised a huge bonus if we could deliver the supplies in less than ten days. Jasyn, the navigator and co-owner, said it wasn’t a problem. I signed the contract.
We were over halfway there and so far the only problems had been between Clark and Jasyn. The ship flew smoothly and the route hadn’t given us problems. Five more days and I could find some excuse to get away from them for a while.
The door slid open. Clark dropped into the copilots seat. I snuck a look at him. His green eyes, normally full of mischief, were angry.
“She locked herself in the cabin again,” he said. “I don’t understand her.”
I stared at my controls and wished he would go away. I didn’t want to be dragged into their fight. I didn’t want them to insist I take sides. He didn’t get my subliminal message.
“Dace, help me. You know her. You tell me why—”
“I don’t know what to tell you to do.”
He sighed heavily and lounged back in his chair. “She’s so unreasonable about things.”
I would have got up and left but there really wasn’t anywhere else to go. He was going to make me part of the argument whether I wanted to be or not.
“She asked me how she looked in that new dress she bought. So I told her and she started throwing things at me.”
I sighed and put my head in my hands.

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