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I’m so glad to hear that things aren’t as stressful this time around! I’m happy for you.

I’m pleased to hear that Book#5 is proceeding well despite the silence surrounding the Edits for Book#4. Are you planning to ‘prod’ the publishers to find out why things are taking longer?
As you said, now that you are familiar with the process the Edits (usually) aren’t as major as when you started writing. It sounds as if your new writing methodology is paying dividends!

You haven’t said anything about Sales figures recently and I’m assuming that they are still good both for the new IoM series and for Alex Verus series too?!

Snake-Eaterby T. Kingfisher
What is it about:From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author T. Kingfisher comes an enthralling contemporary fantasy seeped in horror about a woman trying to escape her past by moving to the remote US desert—only to find herself beholden to the wrath of a vengeful god.
With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.
Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.
Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.
What did I think of it:If it's possible to call something cozy horror, this book is it.
I love Kingfisher's writing style, fell in love with her horror books, then fell in love with her Fairy Tale reimaginings, her Fantasy Romance, and now this book.
It's mostly cozy magical realism with hints to something more horrific, but for me it never got too dark.I loved discovering Quartz Creek and its inhabitants together with Selena. There are a couple of really interesting and fun characters, as well as some surprises I didn't see coming. There's a pleasant cozy pace to this story and world, only disturbed by Snake-Eater. ( I will confess I felt some sympathy towards Snake-Eater even while realizing Snake-Eater is the evil that needs to be banished for Selena to find happiness.)All in all a story and setting I totally fell in love with. I hope Kingfisher keeps the books coining, because I want more.
Why should you read it:It's lovely, cozy horror. 

Raymond F. Jones was born in Salt Lake City on November 15, 1915. He studied engineer and English at the University of Utah before working as a radio engineer. He later suggested that getting an English degree is one of the worst things a writer could do. He had a reasonable amount of success as an author, with his novel This Island Earth being the work he is best known for. It was adapted into a film in 1955, starring Jeff Morrow and featuring Russell Johnson, who would go on to portray the Professor on Gilligan’s Island, and Richard Deacon, who played Mel Cooley on The Dick van Dyke Show.

According to Jones, he was introduced to science fiction in 1927 when he read H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. He decided he never wanted to read it again because he was afraid it couldn’t live up to the “thrill of that first contact with the realm of imagined science.”

After graduating college, he served on a mission in Galveston, Texas and worked installing telephone exchange equipment for Western Electric in Texas, but after marrying Elaine Kimball on June 27, 1940, he took a job with the Weather Bureau to cut down on travel. During World War II, he used his radio engineering degree at Bendix Radio in Baltimore before settling in Arizona after the war.

Jones’ first short story, “Test of the Gods,” was published in the September 1941 issue of Astounding, in which it was overshadowed by the cover story, Isaac Asimov’s “Nightfall.” This is a pattern that would be repeated, leading Gerald W. Page to note that while Jones was a “writer of surprising versatility. But the price of this seems to be that too often he came on the scene with a perfectly good story that was still second best to the similar works of someone else.”

Jones wrote 15 novels in addition to This Island Earth, beginning in 1951 with the novel Renaissance (which was reprinted as Man of Two Worlds).

In addition to This Island Earth, two other stories by Jones were adapted by Hollywood. “The Children’s Room,” originally published in 1947, was an episode of the anthology series  Tales of Tomorrow in 1952, and 1950’s “Divided We Fall” was adapted for the anthology series Out of This World in 1962.

His 1950 story “Tools of the Trade” is believed to be the first description of 3D printing.

Jones not only wrote science fiction, he also wrote non-fiction, with four juvenile science books ranging from The World of Weather to Animals of Long Ago. He also wrote the study Ice Formation on Aircraft.

Jones was a Hugo finalist in 1967 for his short story “Rat Race,” which lost to Larry Niven’s “Neutron Star.” In 1996, his story “Correspondence Course,” was remembered by enough people to earn him a Retro-Hugo nomination, where he lost to Hal Clement’s “Common Sense.”

Elaine died on July 23, 1970 and on May 2, 1973, Jones married Lillian Wats. Jones and Elaine had five children and eighteen grandchildren. When he married Lillian, he gained five step-children.

Jones died in Sandy, Utah on January 24, 1994 after suffering from pancreatic cancer. For no reason other than the same first name, I tend to think of Jones along with author Raymond Z. Gallun (1911-1994). Coincidentally, both of their obituaries appeared in the same issue of Locus, with Jones coming in second to Gallun’s.

I reviewed Jones’ short story “Death Eternal” in 2018 as part of my Birthday Reviews series on Blackgate.

Steven H Silver is a twenty-one-time Hugo Award nominee and was the publisher of the Hugo-nominated fanzine Argentus as well as the editor and publisher of ISFiC Press for eight years. He has also edited books for DAW, NESFA Press, and ZNB. His most recent anthology is Alternate Peace and his novel After Hastings was published in 2020. Steven has chaired the first Midwest Construction, Windycon three times, and the SFWA Nebula Conference numerous times. He was programming chair for Chicon 2000 and Vice Chair of Chicon 7.

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Length: 538 pages
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: November 4, 2025
ASIN: B0FW17TZ45
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the Meow: Magical Emporium of Wares series
Source: eGalley from Netgalley
Rating: 4/5 stars

“When Sable answers a too-good-to-be-true job posting—cozy bookshop, perfect espresso machine, adorable black cat, and an apartment upstairs—she thought she’d finally caught a break from her crushing student loans.
But the ink on the deal is barely dry when Sable realizes that the contract is very literal. She cannot leave. Also, her new feline companion talks, the bookstore itself is a sentient enigma with an excellent espresso machine, and magic isn’t just for storybooks–it’s woven into her new reality.

Bound to the shop as the mystical Cat’s voice and hands in the human world, the bookstore’s true purpose begins to unfold, and Sable must choose. Will she embrace the impossible magic blooming around her, or cling to the mundane life she thought she wanted, risking the fate of the shop and its curious inhabitants?”

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Meow: Magical Emporium of Wares series. I got a copy of this on ebook from NetGalley from review.

Thoughts: I really liked the premise behind this book and really enjoyed the day to day adventures and intriguing characters. I definitely plan on continuing the series. My only complaint is that the story started to drag some in the middle and started to feel a bit repetitive.

Sable shows up for a job interview at an amazing bookshop that appears too good to be true. The pay and benefits are wonderful, and there is an adorable cat in the store. She gets the job on the spot and can’t believe her luck. However, maybe she should have read the contract a bit better. Sable is not allowed to leave MEOW (Magical Emporium of Wares) for a year and must answer to The Cat. Suddenly, Sable’s days are filled with odd magical visitors and events and she never knows what to except next!

This book has serious cozy vibes, and I really enjoyed the characters and how you never knew what was going to happen from day to day. I loved how Sable just rolled with all the odd day to day happenings in the shop. Initially, the story starts with Sable being anxious and surprised by the next encounter each day brings, some of them fairly normal and some of them of the more magical variety. All the while, Sable is trying to figure out the mystery of The Cat and the bookshop itself. The layout of the bookstore changes, dishes are washed, and it’s all very mysterious.

Initially this is very light on characters, you have Sable and you have The Cat. However, as the book continues, we are introduced to more and more intriguing characters. I really enjoyed them all. This book has a very adventuring feel to it despite the fact that Sable can’t leave the book store, and I really enjoyed that. I also liked the glimpses I got of Sable’s family but hope we get to see more of her family as well in future books.

The only downside to this book for me was that the day-to-day format started to feel a bit repetitive despite each day being somewhat different. The story picked up towards the end of the book again as Sable learns more about The Cat and gets pulled into a broader story. So while I adored the concept and the characters, and enjoyed the story as well, I thought the pacing was a bit off. However, the way things picked up at the end really had me intrigued to read more of this series.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I really enjoyed this book it is a fun and cozy read with a creative concept, intriguing characters, and an entertaining story. It does drag a bit in the middle, but it quickly picks up again towards the end and really had me wanting to read more about this magical book store and these characters. The second book is supposed to release in early February (so very soon) and will be titled “Keeper and Kindred”. If you enjoy cozy fantasy with cats, books, dragons, and magic, I would recommend!

Robert McCammon will be one of the speakers at the 2026 Impact Book Festival in Fultondale, AL. The event takes place on Saturday, April 18, 2026. He’s scheduled to speak at 1 PM CT. More information can also be found on the website for Alabama Writers’ Forum.

The final “old” list! I finally got here. I had books stacked all over the condo, magazines falling off tables, because I got so far behind. September’s list is the final one to catch up on, and after that, I’m current. If you’d like to see the most recent list (December’s), click here.

In the final week of August, I started my one-per-semester class at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, which meant I had time to read short stories at my (middle of the afternoon) lunch. I caught up on reading the best-ofs. Honestly, I don’t remember a lot of the stories in the 2024 Penzler mystery volume. I think I skipped quite a few due to kid/pet danger. I remember being frustrated that writers and editors seem to believe that good stories put innocents in danger for suspense. (Sigh. And yes, I’m a hypocrite, because I do the same thing sometimes.)

The other news for September? I finished my McManus binge.

I did have a pile of magazines here, but I ended up blogging on my Patreon page about a lot of the articles that interested me, so I decided not to repeat them here…in the interest of finishing!

So much of what I have here I can’t say much about because I might spoil the stories for you. So just pick them up. Here’s what I recommend from my September reading.

September, 2025

Daw, Stephen, “A Force For Good,” Billboard, June 21, 2025. The cover story for one of the June Billboards is an interview with Cynthia Erivo. She’s an amazing woman with a great head on her shoulders. She has a lot to saw about being a queer Black woman in this modern world, about being an artist, and more. Read this.

Floyd, John M., “The Last Day at The Jackrabbit,” The Mysterious Bookshop Presents Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024, edited by Anthony Horowitz, Mysterious Press, 2024. Good titles get you into a story and remind you of what you just read. “The Last Day at The Jackrabbit” is a good title for a marvelous story, filled with surprises. I won’t say much more, so that the story can surprise you. But it’s worth reading.

Gilbertson, Nils, “Lovely and Useless Things,” The Mysterious Bookshop Presents Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024, edited by Anthony Horowitz, Mysterious Press, 2024. There are a couple of stories set in the past in this volume. One is so far off on its history that I found it almost laughable. This is not that story. This one is a rather perfect presentation of a time and a crime gone by. 

McManus, Karen M., The Cousins, Delacorte Press, 2020. This is one of McManus’s books that end on a “gotcha!” which I blogged about in August’s list. The ending kinda works, but kinda doesn’t. I don’t know if I’d pick up more of her books if I had read this one first. Having read a bunch of the others, though, this was candy for me. Family secrets, an island, lots of hidden mysteries. Lots and lots of fun, but don’t start here.

McManus, Karen M., You’ll Be The Death of Me, Delacorte Press, 2021. And this is one of those “gotcha!” endings that works. We don’t need anything more. But what’s here, a story of close friends who walk into the scene of a murder, is wonderful. One of my favorite of the books I binged this fall.

Methos, Victor, “Kill Night,” The Mysterious Bookshop Presents Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024, edited by Anthony Horowitz, Mysterious Press, 2024. Very creepy, very well done story. Another one, filled with surprises that I will not spoil for you. Read it.

Padura, Leonardo, “A Family Matter,” The Mysterious Bookshop Presents Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024, edited by Anthony Horowitz, Mysterious Press, 2024. Story translated by Francis Riddle. Amazing short story that creates an entire world. Extremely well done…and again, I’ll spoil it if I say more.

Reed, Annie, “Dead Names,” The Mysterious Bookshop Presents Best Mystery Stories of the Year 2024, edited by Anthony Horowitz, Mysterious Press, 2024. I’m the original editor on Annie Reed’s “Dead Names,” so I’m a bit biased. Annie has really hit her stride as a writer these past few years, and I’m extremely pleased that the story got picked up for the best of the year. The story deserves it, as does Annie.

 

Well, this posted early. Because I’m an airhead. So I’m just going to add to it as the rest of the month goes on. Whoops!

I took 8 days of my leisure reading time to watch Season Five of Stranger Things, and now I regret it. The show’s always been a tough watch for me–children in danger—but I got hooked in the first season and I stayed with it.

SPOILER!

They whiffed the ending. The validation went on too long and became boring. Yes, the Duffer Brothers can write cliffhangers, but they have no idea how to wrap anything up in a satisfying manner, so they gave us at least five endings, most of which were not satisfying at all. (I tell my students: don’t time jump at the end. Don’t give us how they grew up. Let us imagine that. Make us realize they’ll be all right. And if there’s a surprise, well then, set us up for it.) This show was set up for the “it’s all a long D&D campaign ending” which I’m glad they didn’t do, but everyone went back to normal too easily. I spent two days thinking about it, and in the end, decided that they didn’t stick the landing, and I’m not happy. I still think it was a good and ambitious show, but I feel like I wasted time better spent doing something else this year.

That something else is reading, and I was happy to get back to it.

The first book I finished in January was a rather dull romance novel that I’d been reading slowly just before bed. This was by design; I need sleep and staying up for “one more chapter” was, at that point, counterproductive. But as I looked at the book the morning I finished it to decide if I wanted to recommend it, I decided against it. Characters were great, but wow, nothing really memorable except a penguin wood carving that served as a McMuffin. 

The second book I finished, which I blogged about a bit on my Patreon page in another context, was written by a British author for British readers. He assumed they knew a lot about World War I in great detail, and I’ll wager they did. Me, I’m struggling along, going…Did Lloyd George succeed Asquith as Prime Minister? When? and I thought Gallipoli came later in the war. I recognize the book’s structure. It’s a shocking (to some) and small (ish) story set against a horrible backdrop. If it had been a novel about the American Civil War, it would have worked for me, since I knew the details of the backdrop. As it was, it was an interesting read with no ending at all (but apparently shocking to the British reviewers). So I’m not recommending it, although I considered it. British readers, you might want to follow the link to see which book I’m vague-booking about.

Anyway, these are the things I liked in January.

 

January 2026

Belanger, Steve, “The Producer Who Hoodwinked Half of Hollywood,” The Hollywood Reporter, October 22, 2025. After Dean and I discovered that a once-trusted employee embezzled from us for years, I find myself quite attune to stories like this one. Most people believe that embezzlement is simple: someone takes cash from your bank account. Dean and I were always very careful with our accounts. We were embezzled through a quirk in the payroll system that allowed extra money to taken as non-taxable income in a paycheck. No getting into the bank accounts at all.

This particular case in this article focuses on embezzlement and fraud committed by a well respected producer. His method was equally sideways to the one above. From the article:

Ozer was accused of embezzling more than $200,000 from the production budget. He did this, the indictment said, by creating phony invoices from dummy companies and forging his accountant’s signature on backup documentation. Because Ozer had emailed some of these falsified documents, it was considered a federal crime under the Interstate Wire Fraud Statute.

Because this guy took a plea deal (a sweet one at that), he’s already in jail, even though his crimes were discovered only a few years ago. I can tell you that other cases (like ours) move very slowly. And recovery is hard. Most people don’t recover financially when they’ve been victimized like this. Dean and I are slowly coming out of it, but it’s been 2 years since we discovered exactly what was happening. (And there were other issues as well. [heavy sigh])

Cerná, Pavlína, “Are You Still A Runner If You Cannot Run?” Runner’s World, Fall, 2025. Great short essay on the doubts runners (and heck, writers too) have if they’re unable to do the thing that defines them. Cerná injured her leg and couldn’t run for a while, and got all tangled in her head. I know how that feels, because it happened to me in March. Timely and well written. (And oh, I love her “To be a man” comment.) (NOTE: I can’t spell her name properly because my Word Press program won’t allow me to put the proper first letter on it, so I had to default to a “c.”

Conklin, Melanie, “Chasing The Story with David Maraniss,” On Wisconsin, Summer 2025. I had no idea that legendary reporter David Maraniss failed to graduate from the University of Wisconsin. His high school sweetheart got pregnant. He married her and got a job at the local paper. (He’s ten years older than me, but I can attest to the fact that in Madison through the 1980s, you could get a job in the news based on writing ability alone.) He went on to an amazing career, chronicled here. (And yes, he’s still married to his high school sweetheart.) Great reading about a great reporter. There are too few of them these days…or rather, there aren’t enough outlets for them anymore.

Goodman, Carol, The Bones of the Story, William Morrow, 2025. The blurb calls this a locked room mystery, and I guess it’s that, but not really. I had a realization as I was reading along that I didn’t believe any of this, and then I chuckled. I’m known as an sf/f writer. Everything is unbelievable. But a group of people being murdered for old things…well, yeah, no. This is a cozy and cozy usually aren’t my thing, but with all the stuff going on in the world, I’m not having much success reading romance as my relaxation reading. So I went to this. I knew whodunnit and why right away, but the characters are marvelous and the story is compelling, so I kept reading. This is also (for those wondering) a good example of Dark Academia.

Goodman, Carol, Writers and Liars, William Morrow, 2025. Ignore the totally stupid log line (“They’ll Kill For Inspiration”) which has nothing to do with the book at all. This is a riff on Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None, which is like catnip for writers. (I wrote one too, in the Spade/Paladin universe, Ten Little Fen, which we’re going to rebrand as soon as I get the time.) These writers are having a reunion on a Greek island and everything goes wrong from the start. The island itself, with its labyrinth is so completely cool that I want to see it someday. (It does not exist.) It makes the book, however, which is almost too cozy for me. (Cozies often have people acting in unbelievable ways for the sake of the mystery. And yeah, here too. But I don’t mind that much.) A fun and quick read.

McDonough, Michael, “Grandpa Jellybean and The Power of Perseverance,” Runner’s World, Fall 2025. A beautifully written essay about being a lifelong athlete and the people you inspire. Read about someone remarkable here. (And the writing is good too!)

Miller, Shannon,“Pro Bono Pros,” Las Vegas Weekly, October 23-29, 2025. I’m sure there are people like this all over the country, working with limited resources and fighting the good fight. But Shannon Miller at Last Vegas Weekly brought the struggle alive, so I’m sharing it with you folks.

Robbins, Dean, “Farewell to Paul’s Book Shop,” On Wisconsin, Summer 2025. Don’t hate me, Madisonians, but I hated Paul’s Book Shop. It was disorganized, smelled of mildew, and the staff bordered on rude. And yet when I saw this piece, that this State Street staple closed after sixty-some years, I felt a moment of sadness. It’s pretty amazing that a bookstore could be around that long, and with a single owner. Things change, sadly…

Robbins, Dean, “The Scholar and The Superstar,” On Wisconsin, Summer 2025. I’ve been reading about Bad Bunny’s tour now for a year in places like Billboard and various economic journals. His tour generated millions for Puerto Rico. He’s one of the biggest stars in the world, and he’s doing all kinds of cool things. But I didn’t realize until I read this that he asked UW professor Jorell Meléndez-Badillo to collaborate on a Puerto Rican history project tied to the album and the tour. Read this. It’s soooo cool.

Rodriguez, Gabriela, “Street Royalty,” Las Vegas Weekly, October 23-29, 2025. The value of reading as widely as possible from many different sources. I knew that there was a car show in Las Vegas in October, but I didn’t realize it was for lowriders…and I didn’t realize that lowriders are an art form all their own. This article focuses on the history, the community, the art, and the people behind it all. There’s even a podcast recommendation if you want to learn more after reading the article. I love finding pockets of culture I knew nothing about. I learned when I started writing the Smokey Dalton books thirty years ago that you can’t depend on the white corporate media to report things correctly. Back then, my research was showing me who the Black Panthers really were as opposed to what the media said when I was a little kid. This lowrider culture is another example just like that. Read this.

Schmitt, Preston, “Quantum Leaps in Education,” On Wisconsin, Summer 2025. I found this article so inspiring that I wrote an entire Patreon post about it. In short, this piece put the AI debate into context for me. AI isn’t going away, and the arts are dealing with theft on a grand scale. (For the record: I’m part of the Anthropic settlement. Yes, my works were stolen.) But AI is part of our future. Whether it will be a Segway or a smart phone remains to be seen, but it’s there. So see what a major university is doing about it.

Steinhoff, Jessica, “The Supermom Myth,” On Wisconsin, Summer 2025. A few years ago, Jessica Calarco went viral with this statement: “Other countries have social safety nets; the U.S. has women.” It seems like something random people might say on social media, but she brought the receipts. She has made a study of what women are doing that is stretching them much too thin. Steinhof explores Calarco’s research, her book, and her solutions in this interesting piece.

Zeitchik, Steven, “Emotional Support Cinema,” The Hollywood Reporter, November 5, 2025. I can’t find an online link (even a paywalled link) to this article anywhere online, yet it’s in my copy of the magazine. So I put it here for you to find. He’s talking about the ways that the current suggested crop of nominees this award season (and nothing had yet been nominated when he wrote this) reflect the nervousness of our times. Worth reading, if you can find it.

Terraforming Mars by Jacob Fryxelius (FryxGames/Stronghold Games, 2016)

About a year ago, I added Terraforming Mars to my collection of board games, fascinated by the premise. At the very end of the year, a local friend proposed to get together and try playing it. On 2 January, three of us sat down to a first game, using the beginner option of everyone playing a standard corporation and keeping all ten of their initial cards without having to pay for them. Four and a half hours later, we started counting up scores.

Terraforming Mars is a game about economic investment and its returns, like Race for the Galaxy, one of my long-time favorites. The premise is fairly hard science fiction: Several corporations have been granted charters by Earth’s world government to begin — as the title says — terraforming the planet Mars: raising its temperature and oxygen and giving it bodies of water. When these reach specific designated values, the game ends and score is taken. There are no violations of fundamental laws of physics such as faster-than-light travel; the departure, so far as there is one is not qualitative but quantitative, in the rapid progress of terraforming, though in some compensation, play is divided into “generations,” which implies a time scale on the order of centuries.

[Click the images to terraform them.]

Back cover of Terraforming Mars

The rule book for the game is 16 pages, but that includes introductory material, illustrations, and several game variants, including a solitaire version. The actual rules are in easily readable type and can be read through in a few minutes. Most of the complexities are strategic and are expressed in the text and graphics of game cards. Along with these cards, each player has a personal game board that keeps track of resources, and players share a larger board that’s a map of one hemisphere of Mars, where tiles can be placed to represent cities, oceans, vegetation, and other special achievements.

The map is also used to keep track of various scores and accomplishments. Reading the map is a little complicated, like watching the screen for character status in a computer game; on this first session we took a while to figure out some of its sections. But I think it can become familiar quickly.

In a way comparable to Race for the Galaxy, each generation in Terraforming Mars is divided into phases. A generation begins with each corporation receiving four cards from a deck, which represent newly acquired capabilities if the player wants to pay for them (“‘Take what you like,’ said God; ‘take it, and pay for it.'”) After that, players perform various actions, many but not all enabled by the cards, and some of which add tiles to the large board. Spatial arrangement of tiles is important and is partly restricted by the game rules.

Race For the Galaxy by Tom Lehmann (Rio Grande Games, 2007)

Some cards are used up by one action; some are kept and displayed in front of the player, and some of these can be used for a new action in each generation. All of this costs credits, and sometimes other resources! At the end of the generation, players engage in “production,” which provides more credits (based partly on their terraforming scores) and sometimes other resources that can be used to advance terraforming, directly or indirectly.

One thing that’s largely omitted from the game is violent conflict; most of the time, the various corporations are competing in an enterprise that theoretically benefits all of them (moving them toward a fully terraformed planet). There are a few moves that advance one player while imposing costs on another. An economist would call these “externalities”; a historian might call them “acts of war.” But as with, for example, Settlers of Catan (another European game), players have the option either of cutthroat competition or of deciding that that makes playing the game less fun, and avoiding it.

One of the three of us found the game rules a bit too complicated and hard to follow, so this may not be a game for everybody. It’s certainly not a casual game! But the other two of us enjoyed it a lot. In The Psychology of Everyday Things (published 1988), Donald O. Norman set out principles for ease of use, and pointed out that well designed games are deliberately a little difficult to “use” successfully (that is, to win); otherwise they become boring when the player solves them. I don’t see Terraforming Mars as likely to become boring.

Many games have an implied story. Sometimes this is very abstract, as with chess (a game about feudal warfare) or bridge (a game about capitalistic competition and cooperation); sometimes a kind of story emerges from the play of the game. (And sometimes, as with Dungeons and Dragons, telling bits of story is an actual move in the game.) Terraforming Mars has a fairly strong story aspect: It tells about how humanity moves out into the solar system and makes other planets humanly livable, in the style of classic science fiction writers (a clever joke in the rule book is to give examples of play with three players named Kim, Stanley, and Robinson!), of recent video series such as For All Mankind, or of the proposals of billionaires.

If you like that premise, or are willing to accept it, you’ll find Terraforming Mars a well thought out representation of a lot of its scientific details. I expect that as we play more games, and move on to using more than the standard starting corporations, we’ll find interesting bits of added flavor in the profiles of other corporations. And I may try playing the solo version when I have a few hours free; it seems likely to be entertaining.

William H. Stoddard is a professional copy editor specializing in scholarly and scientific publications. As a secondary career, he has written more than two dozen books for Steve Jackson Games, starting in 2000 with GURPS Steampunk. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas with his wife, their cat (a ginger tabby), and a hundred shelf feet of books, including large amounts of science fiction, fantasy, and graphic novels. His last piece for Black Gate was a review of Whose Body? by Dorothy Sayers

Today we bring you two more stories of writers realizing they wanted to be writers.

Alyssa Day

The moment everything changed for me was when I volunteered to pick up an editor (Kate Seaver, then at a small indie publisher, now at Penguin Random House) from the airport for a writers’ conference. We chatted on the drive to the hotel, and I told her about a novel I had in mind. I was working all the time, and I had two small children, so I’d been dithering about writing it. Did anybody really want to hear my stories? (I’d already published a nonfiction book about being a military family during wartime, but I’d wanted to be a fiction author since I was a little girl reading Nancy Drew.) I didn’t even have a title for the novel yet. I just called it Tuna Fish Girl, because the heroine liked tuna sandwiches. (Yes, I know. Awful!)

But I told her about it, and she laughed so hard and said, “If you can write like you can tell a story, that’s going to be a wonderful book.” After that conference, she kept in touch with me, and kept saying, “Send me Tuna Fish Girl!”

So, finally, I did. My agent sent the editor my proposal (a synopsis and 50 pages) on a Friday, and I had an offer to buy it Monday morning. They wanted to launch their new chick-lit line with my book! We even went to auction with other publishers wanting to buy it. (No, everything in publishing does NOT go this well. Think: roller coaster.) I was so ready to quit being a lawyer and try writing full time, so I jumped at Kate’s offer. 

I’ve never changed my mind about being an author, even during the tough years. It’s hard sometimes, making this job work, since I have chronic bouts of clinical depression, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I love creating worlds and inviting readers into them, and I will never get over the wonder of writing.

Alyssa’s Featured Release

NOBODY’S QUEST

(June 2, 2026; adult romantasy)

Prophecy insists that nobody will defeat the goddess of war.

Meet Nobody.

For a hundred years, Altarra has burned. The goddess of war, Morrigan, has conquered kingdom after kingdom, leaving only ruin in her wake. Every prophecy says the same thing―nobody can defeat her.⁣
⁣
And after a century of failure, someone finally takes that literally.⁣
⁣
When the goddess Artemisen chooses Soli Graymind―a nobody from the lowest caste who suffers from chronic depression―to lead one last desperate quest, the world laughs. But Soli won’t be alone. She’s joined by five others just as broken, just as lost:⁣
A thief with no Guild.⁣
A noble with no wealth.⁣
A sorcerer with no hope.⁣
A warrior with no morals.⁣
And a prince with no kingdom―the one man she can’t stop thinking about, even when hope itself is dying.⁣
⁣
Together, they are Altarra’s last chance.⁣
⁣
Because maybe being a “nobody” is more powerful than anyone imagines―including themselves.⁣

LEARN MORE Stephanie Burgis

The first time I realized that becoming a writer was an actual possibility – that real people wrote all the books that I loved, and wrote those books as their actual grown-up JOB (whoa!!!) – I was seven years old, and the discovery BLEW MY MIND. I still remember turning to my mom that day, as we drove out on an errand, to share my epiphany: 

“I’ve found something I love even more than reading: writing. I’m going to be a WRITER!”

Of course, because my mom is a smart and practical woman, she responded instinctively, before she could stop herself, “Oh, God. Really?”

As a mom now myself, let me tell you: I get it. What loving and practical mother would want their kid to pin their hopes onto such a scary-sounding, unreliable-paycheck of a career? My family didn’t know any novel writers. We knew vets and math professors and civil servants and other people who made their living with steady, reliable salaries. Good, safe jobs. (Or at least, so they all seemed at the time. All of my friends in academia are laughing hollowly at this point.)

By the time I was an adult, I knew just how unlikely it was that I would ever really be able to become a professional author. But that just made me all the more determined to put my whole heart into becoming the best that I could be, applying for competitive writing workshops, searching out reliable critique groups, and researching publishing even as I majored in different subjects in college and made firm plans for dayjobs to pay my rent.

I sold my first trilogy of novels when I was 31, 17 years ago. Since then, I’ve published a surprising number of books in more than one genre, and I’ve even won a few awards – but even now, every time I sell a new series to a traditional publisher or get a good review for one of my self-published books, I still find myself thinking with tentative hope, “Wow. This really might work out after all!” 

I don’t ever take this career for granted…but I’m incredibly grateful for it every single day.

Stephanie’s Featured Release

WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN

Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing: to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.

When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a little strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin singe, well…

Little does Saskia know that the “wizard” she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he’s in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?

LEARN MORE

The post The Moment Everything Changed: Part 3 first appeared on ILONA ANDREWS.

LitStack Spots – Other Titles by Tayari Jones Other titles we recommend by Tayari Jones,…

The post Spotlight on “Kin” by Tayari Jones appeared first on LitStack.

 

Sea of Charms (Spellshop #3)by Sarah Beth Durst
Marin is a supply runner with her own boat that she sails from island to island, delivering whatever anyone will pay her to deliver: letters, flour, even the occasional enchanted lemur. It’s a lonely life, but it’s hers, and she wouldn’t trade the freedom of the sea for anything. Her only companion is a sea serpent, Perri, whom she saved from a fisherfolk’s net.
One day, she sails to Alyssium and discovers the city is on fire. There’s been a revolution, and the empire has fallen. Marin, with Perri, begins transporting refugees, finding them new homes where they can start over. One such refugee is Dax, a composer who refuses to leave behind his instruments, no matter how much she tries to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, and his charming smile, Marin discovers perhaps she isn’t saving him ― maybe it’s the other way around.

Expected publication July 28, 2026

loving the books! cant wait for november

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Chapter 5

 

New Tau Metropolis, Tau sector

 

Shelby felt like the pieces were beginning to fall into place, but they could easily come apart at any moment.

Obadiah had his yard dogs humming with the rebuild project. Admiral Irons’ idea to draw in the support of the worlds around the naval base had proven enormously helpful. The representatives and senators had gone to bat on the hill in support of the base… naturally of course since they saw it as an opportunity for their businesses and trade to thrive.

That had sold the project on the hill despite opposition from Bek.

They had also pushed for the base to the north. That was an ongoing project she knew. She hated that the communication lines were so fragmented there at the moment. Hopefully Cynthia was okay. She wouldn’t feel comfortable until there was an ansible in place and Rick was up there.

She was still on the fence about bringing the Taurens in. On the one hand, they may need all hands on deck. But on the other… they’d been shooting at each other not so long ago, and the Taurens had a loyalty issue still with their aborted civil war.

“Penny for your thoughts ma’am?” Boni, her AI asked whimsically.

“Just… thinking that the enemy of my enemy is my friend. And some things make for strange bed fellows,” Shelby replied.

Boni smiled on her HUD.

“How are we with the troops?”

“Another saying for you, a body in motion…?” Boni replied. “So far so good. They are marching to the sound of the guns, which is the important thing at the moment.”

“Are there guns sounding off on T-15?” Shelby asked.

“A recent artillery strike on refugee vehicles. No other shots fired at the moment. They are contained.”

“I doubt that,” Shelby murmured. “Somehow, I doubt that very much.”

<<(O)>>

Purple Nights

 

Secretary of State Moira Sema was cautiously pleased with the long hours of work with her Tauren counterpart and their respective staffs on the new treaty. The new agreement with the Taurens was for mutual defense against the Xeno-Necron alliance to the north.

The Confederation was still getting their house in order but Admiral Irons and the Tauren President’s broadcast about the threat had ended a lot of insurrection overnight. No one wanted to rock the boat. In fact, many personnel who had resigned in protest over the surrender or had refused to fight their own people were asking to be let back in.

She shook her head. That was not her problem of course. The Taurens had to figure it out on their own. Clearly trust would be a long term issue. What was her problem was to make it all work somehow. Give them a framework to shape protocol to keep everyone in line and on their best behavior.

They were about to test the waters with the agreement for Ninth Fleet to transit through Confederation space. Transiting through Confederation space would cut the transit time to the north by months. It also would allow the fleet to show the flag, which would hopefully put any further thoughts of rebellion to rest in the restive territory.

Picking up some Confederation ships to ally with them would be nice. They were still working on that. They did agree to have guides to escort the fleet, however the navy was concerned about the Tauren ships being able to keep up.

From what her people were reporting, the Taurens had similar concerns.

<<(O)>>

Minox IV

 

“So… what gives skipper?” Sergeant Bolt asked with a frown as he came up to the lieutenant. He flick his long ears at his boss.

“We’ve been reassigned,” the lieutenant said. She looked a little nonplussed but then interested.

The Serval blinked. “Okay…?” he drawled.

The LT eyed him. “You heard about the mess in T-15?”

The Neocat nodded. His long ears flicked again and then went back as the implications sunk in. It was going to mean a long transit in stasis as a popsicle and then possible combat.

“They are giving an ollie ollie in free call to all troops in the area. So, we’re going.”

Bolt blinked. “So, the contact and inspection mission?”

“On hold. Clearly the Taurens here are behaving themselves. We’ve recruited some of their alien population to do the job for us.”

Bolt nodded. They had established that much. There had been some strides in integrating the various species too. Not great ones, but some strides.

“We move out in two hours, so get your people squared away and to the LZ. Oh, and we’re not going alone.”

“Ma’am?”

“We’re taking a couple squads of Taurens with us.”

The Serval blinked in surprise at that news and then his eyes narrowed.

“It is going to get crowded in Marine country, at least until we get into stasis. I want everyone on their best behavior. We need to be one big happy family.”

“Aye aye ma’am,” the cat said with a wary nod. This is going to be… interesting, he thought with a slight shake of his head as she dismissed him.

<<(O)>>

President Scar Chin studied the reports and then sat back and rubbed his brow. It was a lot to take in.

His peripheral vision caught movement. He turned and noted a distant ship was moving under power. He puzzled over it and why it was triggering something in his mind before he realized it was most likely the Feds.

The Fed cruiser was moving their Marines out to T-15 as quickly as possible. They were even taking a squad of Taurens with them.

He wished them luck. They were definitely going to need it.

<<(O)>>

Sergeant Bolt nodded to his troops.  They'd left one fire team behind to man the embassy, such as it was. Hopefully, the brass would send in additional people soon.

The serval's eyes moved to the Taurens. He flicked his long ears. They seemed uncomfortable, but it wasn't because of the enclosed space. None had been on a Federation ship, and they had been shooting at each other not so long ago.

There were two squads of them. Some were young, only two were older. Only one was a noncom. He had yet to get together with the bull. He hoped that they'd get along; he didn't need a pissing match.

He glanced at the Marines across from the Taurens. Come to think of it, some of his people weren't too comfortable with them on board either.

"Okay, listen up. We've got a ride to the combat zone. We're going to spend it in stasis. We're going to go into stasis in two days."

The troops looked concerned.

"I'm taking that time to get aquainted. We need to get up to speed on each other and tech. I know it isn't enough. I've asked the captain to wake us one week out from our destination so we squeeze in any additional training. Any questions?"

A few people looked ready to say something but he rolled right over them. Most likely they were protests.

"Good. Remember, one big happy family at the moment. I don't know what our assignments are when we get there but I want us working smoothly when we do. That way we can hit the ground running. Right?"

That last word came out as a command growl. Instinctively, the troops all stiffened and nodded.

"Good," he said with a slight ear flick of amusement. "Kit check-in ten then inspection, then we get to the nitty gritty on the range to zero in and get aquainted. Then we'll break into fire teams to hit the dojo and simulation time. One third on, one third racked out, one third doing our usual duties and rotate. I'm going to see the XO on that. You've got until I'm done to get squared away. Help each other," he said.

He knew there was going to be resentment and even an instinctive desire to let the Taurens hang, also competition. Well, he would deal with each as it came up. He could handle competition. A little healthy competition was good.

"Get on it, people," he growled as he about-faced and left the compartment.

<<(O)>>

"Sergeant Bolt?" the Tauren who came up behind Bolt said.

"Yes … ah ...?" he frowned. He'd instinctively tried to ping the Tauren with his implants but hadn't gotten a response.

"Sergeant Gros. My people are having trouble accessing some facilities."

"I'm noticing that and the why now. I'm sorry we haven't gotten together for a pow wow before," the serval said.

The Tauren nodded. "We were thrown together. I was a corporal up until a few hours ago."

"Well, that solves the question of who ranks who."

"Oh, you do, Sergeant."

"Nice that we've got the pecking order established, the smaller being stated. He felt a bit ludicrious next to the bigger alien. "Do you have a counterpart in the other squad?"

"Sergeant Toa. He's also new. You'll find that we are … green."

"How green?" the serval asked as he crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes.

"As in most of us are straight out of boot?" the Tauren replied.

"Oh, lovely," the serval replied. "Well, at least you haven't picked up any bad habits," he said.

The Tauren nodded. "Toa and I were top of our class. I just finished advanced training and they, well, dumped us in this mission."

"I see. Well, the good news is that we've got time to sort things out."

"Yeah, like access to things? Even the head is locked. It is called a head, right?"

"Yes," the serval said. His mental evaluation of the Tauren went up a point. "Okay, we need to get you ID tags or get your tags integrated with ours." He saw the Tauren's ears droop and then perk up. "Do you have tags?"

"No. We have basic ID tags but not internal like you do."

"Ah. Well, good news is, they are easy. Just go to medical, they program the ID, it is a big pill or two, swallow, and in the morning you wake up with a basic ID and HUD."

"No pain?"

"Nope. It gives us a link to you so the AI knows who you are and will let you into areas of the ship you are authorized to be in. And it IDs you on the battlefield to us and to each other."

The Tauren nodded. "Good to know."

"If you have advanced implants, it gets better. But let's go see what the brass has in mind for you."

"Ah … yeah."

"I know, don't poke the bear or in this case the brass. In this case, it is a decision above our pay grade so we gotta," the serval said with an ear flick. "Let me take the lead."

"Ah, yes, Sergeant." The Tauren nodded.

Bolt nodded and motioned for the Tauren to follow him.

<<(O)>>

Here are seven author shoutouts for this week. Find your favorite author or discover an…

The post 7 Author Shoutouts | Authors We Love To Recommend appeared first on LitStack.

 

Paladin's Hope (The Saint of Steel #3)by T. Kingfisher
What is it about:Piper is a lich-doctor, a physician who works among the dead, determining causes of death for the city guard's investigations. It's a peaceful, if solitary profession…until the day when he's called to the river to examine the latest in a series of mysterious bodies, mangled by some unknown force.
Galen is a paladin of a dead god, lost to holiness and no longer entirely sane. He has long since given up on any hope of love. But when the two men and a brave gnole constable are drawn into the web of the mysterious killer, it's Galen's job to protect Piper from the traps that await them.
He's just not sure if he can protect Piper from the most dangerous threat of all…
What did I think of it:This is my favorite in this series so far!
I fell in love with Piper in Paladin's Grace, so seeing him getting his own book in this series made me so happy. Galen is a worthy love interest, and I loved seeing the two pine for each other. They're the sweetest couple yet, imoI also loved learning more about gnole society, loved the gnole constable who asks Galen and Piper to join him on an investigation, loved seeing Brindle again... well, love for all things gnolish all around!The overall story was suspenseful and fun. I had a great time with the weird situations they get into. 
All in all a delightful read.I'll get to the last book soon, I hope.
Why should you read it:It's a very enjoyable Fantasy Romance

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Paranormal Mystery
Length: 286 pages
Publisher: Sittin’ On A Goldmine Productions LLC
Release Date: November 19, 2019
ASIN: B07YR6RSSH
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series
Source: eGalley from Netgalley
Rating: 3/5 stars

“A beachside stroll. A deadly discovery. Will this psychic sleuth swim or sink?

Mitzy wishes she could turn a blind third eye to her hit-or-miss powers. Instead, while taking her fiendish feline for a walk, they make a stomach-churning find on shore. Despite her loss of appetite, she can’t help but get a closer look at the unique ink etched into the corpse.

Before she can track down the killer, Mitzy must sweet-talk her way off the sexy sheriff’s suspect list. And once again her meddling Ghost-ma is dying to interfere with the case. But when the trail leads to dangerous smugglers who shoot first and don’t ask questions, she could end up in over her head.

Can Mitzy uncover the truth, or will hers be the next body to float to the surface?”

Series Info/Source: This is the second book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries series. I got this on Audiobook from Audible.com.

Thoughts: This is the second book in the Mitzy Moon Mysteries. I got this as a three book bundle on audiobook. Both this book and the first book were okay. They have some fun paranormal elements to them and a who-dun-it style murder mystery. They are fairly short and simple and predictable. The author keeps saying in the afterward that readers say things get a lot better and more engaging from book 3 on. Since I have the third book I will go ahead and listen to it.

Mitzy had a rough start with the police force in Pin Cherry Harbor so imagine her mortification when she and her feline find a dead body washed up on the beach. She just can’t get a break. The dead body is someone well known to the town. Of course it’s a drowning…or is it? Mitzy just can’t stay out of the mystery and uses her amateur sleuthing skills to get herself deep into trouble.

This was okay. The mystery is a bit predictable. I do enjoy the subtle paranormal aspects to the story…Mitzy can speak to ghosts and is showing some budding paranormal abilities. I am still struggling to like or relate to Mitzy as a character. She just seems really immature to me, and the constant lusting after the sheriff got old fast. I would like to say she showed a lot of character growth and started to take her life and responsibilities a bit more seriously, but she really didn’t in this book. I like a lot of the side characters better than Mitzy, but none of them have a lot of depth to their personalities.

This was a cute and quick read that was easy to listen to. I have no complaints about the narration of the audiobook. I specifically picked this paranormal mystery book pack because the books are shorter and they have solid reviews.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this was okay. It’s a cute and quick paranormal mystery read. I just also found this very forgettable. Mitzy is a pretty generic free spirited 20 something, the mystery was pretty ho-hum, and Pin Cherry Harbor could be any small town. Part of the issue is that I don’t really like Mitzy as our main protagonist; she seems really immature for her age. However, I did enjoy some of the side characters more. I do have the third book already, so I will give it a listen and see if it draws me in more than the first two books did.

I received a review copy from the publisher. This does not affect the contents of my review and all opinions are my own.

The Murder at World’s End by Ross Montgomery

Mogsy’s Rating: 5 of 5 stars

Genre: Mystery, Historical Fiction

Series: Book 1 of Stockingham & Pike

Publisher: William Morrow (January 6, 2026)

Length: 336 pages

Author Information: Website

And just like that, I already have my first contender for best read of 2026 and it’s a straight-up old-fashioned whodunit. There’s just something deeply satisfying about a mystery that knows exactly what it wants to do, and Murder at World’s End absolutely nails it, delivering a treasure that feels like a love letter to the Golden Age of detective fiction.

The novel is set in Cornwall in 1910, the same year Halley’s Comet sparked widespread panic as a sensationalist media warned that all life would perish as Earth passed through the comet’s poisonous tail. Ensconced in his remote island estate ominously named World’s End, the Viscount of Tithe Hall has a plan for himself and his family to survive the apocalypse. Every window, door, and chimney will be sealed down to the tiniest keyhole, supposedly to protect the manor’s guests and servants from all kinds of dangerous gases or noxious space dust falling from the heavens.

On the eve of Halley’s expected appearance, an earnest young man named Steven Pike arrives at Tithe Hall and steps into a world of utter chaos. Recently released from prison for a crime he didn’t commit, he has come desperately in search of work, knowing how slim his chances are due to his questionable past. With the pre-comet preparations in full swing, however, the place is short-staffed and Steven is hired on the spot. He is then given the curious task of chaperoning Miss Decima Stockingham, the Viscount’s curmudgeonly and foul-mouthed octogenarian aunt who has already driven away all her lady’s maids. Warned that the old lady might not be entirely in possession of her marbles, Steven is surprised to find Miss Decima is in fact far less unhinged than her reputation suggests, with a mind as sharp as her interest in science, though her spectacular temper and lack of tact are unfortunately very real.

Obviously, the world has not ended by the time morning arrives, and the houseguests all emerge from their sealed rooms in a state of collective bemusement and relief—all except one. Sometime in the night, the Viscount was murdered, and his body is discovered alone in a room that had been sealed from the inside. On the surface, the crime appears impossible, though with the island cut off by the high tide, the only certainty is that the killer is someone already at World’s End. As the newest arrival and a former convict, suspicion immediately lands on Steven, but with the help of Miss Decima, the two set out to clear his name by solving the case.

Eccentric suspects, multiple nefarious motives, a literal locked room—The Murder at World’s End has it all. From the very first page, it had me completely hooked, and by its end, I was already giddy with excitement to find this is only the first of hopefully many more Stockingham & Pike books to come. What I loved about the story is how unapologetically classic it feels. This is a proper mystery where the clues matter, the motivations make sense, and the reader is invited to play along rather than be distracted by spectacle. Of course, there are red herrings aplenty, but in my opinion, they are fair ones where the plot never resorts to outrageous twists or last-minute revelations to force a surprise. Instead, the novel features sensible detective work that unfolds with patience and care, rewarding close attention and logical thinking, which made the ending all the more satisfying.

Also, I truly enjoyed the unlikely detective duo of Miss Decima and Steven. The latter’s gradual development is wonderfully handled, portraying his transformation from a skittish young man into a confident go-getter who learns to trust his instincts. And how I loved Miss Decima! Witty, brilliant, and having absolutely no patience for bullshit, she steals every scene she’s in and completely owns it, and yet, while she can certainly be a lot, it never feels too forced or over-the-top like it’s tipping into caricature. What really makes it work, though, is the dynamic between the two characters. Their partnership forms naturally, initially built on shared curiosity and then later mutual respect, eventually evolving into a friendship that was easily the highlight of the entire book.

Historical fiction fans will further appreciate the setting. The looming presence of Halley’s Comet and the hysteria surrounding it serve as such a cool backdrop for the story, giving it an eerie and almost mystical atmosphere. Tithe Hall itself stands as an intimidating presence, and the author uses the environment—the surrounding sea, the dark woods nearby, and even an honest-to-goodness hedge maze—to incredible effect.

In the end, The Murder at World’s End is exactly the kind of mystery I’ve been craving. I could hardly put it down, and every time I was forced to, I found myself jonesing for the next time I could pick it up again. Clever without being convoluted, charming without being pretentious, and most importantly rooted firmly in the traditions of classic detective fiction, this novel is a perfect reminder of why the genre is so beloved and enduring. I would happily follow Steven Pike and Miss Decima Stockingham into as many investigations as Ross Montgomery is willing to write.

I’m delighted to have a guest post by Katie Hallahan to share with you today! She is the author of McKenna Ellerbeck, a contemporary fantasy series starting with The Twice-Sold Soul, which is described as a “queer fantasy romance set in a magical high school reunion” for “fans of Buffy and Charmed.” The second and newest book in her series, The Twice-Wanted Witch, is out in trade paperback and ebook today—and you can read more about some of her favorite […]

The post Guest Post by Fantasy Author Katie Hallahan first appeared on Fantasy Cafe.

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Chapter 4

 

TauR14G6-15 Blue Waters and Gentle Mist

 

Captain Hierl nodded and signed off on the latest report. So far so good, though they had problems.

Wasn’t it always the case she thought and then grimaced.

She had a single platoon of troops on each planet. They’d set up a very wide perimeter and were slowly beginning to tighten it. The navy was beginning to make headway with identifying where Sedu and Shrapnel had gone to ground.

Ninth Fleet was supposedly going to leave in the next six weeks. When it happened, she was going to be on her own for a while. They were going to leave half of the Marines with her and two squadrons of cruisers. They were going to head out to catch up with Ninth Fleet as fresh ships came in to replace them over time.

She had half of the Marines from Ninth Fleet but too many duties for all of them. Six hundred Marines didn’t amount to a lot. Sure, she had half of the drop shuttles from Ninth Fleet but that again was an issue.

She had two squads of powered armor. Again, split between the two planets. They were in reserve at the moment. She had a single squad of Recon troops on the planet. She had hopes that they could identify the HQ of General Sedu and Colonel Shrapnel so they could knock them out. So far the answer was a wait and see.

The problem was that the rest of her troops were infantry and most were green. They were outfitted for security and for boarding actions, not for planetary invasion. The navy had given her some support, but she needed a lot more than what Ninth Fleet had provided before their departure.

Recently they had started to deploy drones to scout and monitor the perimeter. That took a squad of troops to monitor the feeds of twenty-four drones. They were broken into three personnel per shift and two shifts per planet.

She was going to have to cut another squad loose to support them soon. When she did that, they could theoretically each watch over eight drone feeds. That would allow her to double up on her drones.

The industry thing was an issue though. The brass had promised her all the industrial support that she wanted. For the moment, she had raw material and not much else.

The Feds had dispatched an engineering team from the cruisers to look into the Tauren side of that equation.

While she did that, a couple of naval spooks and the one Marine ensign who had minored in intelligence gathering were trying to process the mountains of data from the commercial satellites, communication logs, and so on. The ship AI were lending their support but it was a lot of data to process. Lieutenant Adel was the lead AI.

Supposedly, the Tauren Admiral Ree was inbound. When he arrived, she would theoretically hand over some of the duties to him and his troops and then could focus more on the ground problem.

It couldn’t come soon enough.

<<(O)>>

Ensign Tish was assigned to work with the Tauren industry on the stations and in the star system to build what the jarheads needed for the eventual invasion.

Up until they’d been given the go-ahead, the naval engineers had been working strictly in house from the replicators in Ninth Fleet. Now that Ninth Fleet was gone, they had only the two squadrons of cruisers to draw on initially.

Captain Hierl and the joint army-navy-marine task force that was in the process of building up wanted more than what the ship’s replicators could handle.

This was therefore the only fix short of getting someone to ship in what they needed, which wasn’t possible in the time frame that they had.

She made the rounds, met some people, and inspected their hardware. She was not impressed. Their nanites were poorly designed, and there were few in the replicators. Their computer support was pathetic. Their CAD and tooling paths were horrible. In short, they needed a lot of work.

She got them on producing generic material for the moment while she shot an urgent request outlining the problem and her possible solution to the brass.

She wasn’t surprised when the chief shot her an email back that it’d have to go further up the chain and to wait.

What she was proposing probably broke a lot of rules and would make some people gnash their teeth, wring their hands, and probably pretend they had them around her neck at the time. Well, so be it. If they wanted her to get the job done, than they needed to damn well give her the tools to get it done.

They could use the shells and support tech but the Tauren industrial replicators needed a turnkey upgrade to get them up to Federation military standards. It would be hard to do and once done they couldn’t easily undo it without a full flush and reboot.

While the powers that be debated what they wanted, she drew up a list of what needed to be done. When she did get the authorization, she wanted to hit the ground running.

<<(O)>>

The Federation ships took note of the arrival of the Tauren warships from the south. They and their crews were a welcome sight and were greeted.

Admiral Ree was pleased by the greeting and a bit amused by it. He immediately announced that he was there to take custody of the star system. Captain Z’n’ll didn’t even quibble; he immediately began the transfer of authority, much to the admiral’s relief.

He found out as he entered the star system and his people communicated with the newly-operational ansible station that the brass had been coordinating the handover through the ansible. That amused him.

Admiral Lobo, his officers, and senior enlisted were to remain in joint custody. They were still working out how to handle that trial.

His people would have to take over many of the duties in the star system while working with the Feds. They also had to interview all of the former rebels. He wasn’t looking forward to that task but it had to be done. They needed people that they could trust to get things back to normal.

<<(O)>>

Admiral Hunter smiled as he shook hands with Admiral Ree. The Tauren was a bit reserved but that was fine.

"Thank you for coming," Admiral Hunter stated.

"Thank you for taking back our star system," the Tauren replied, putting slight emphasis on the posessive pronoun.

"As soon as you can get your people on board, the better we'll feel, Admiral," Rick said with a nod.

Admiral Ree nodded back. "Let's look into that, shall we?"

"Yes, lets," Admiral Hunter stated.

<<(O)>>

Luna talked to her brother at the usual time. She had five minutes instead of two; she appreciated that.

He told her a tissue of lies about the farm and harvest season wrapping up.

She mentioned the arrival of Admiral Ree. “I don’t know if you saw it on the news, but he’s here and taking over.”

“Ah. I had heard something. I think it was on last night's news or on the net. Huh. Ree, huh?”

“Yeah, the Feds are handing over everything to him.”

“And here people thought that they were here to stay,” he scoffed.

“No way,” she shook her head and then realized he couldn’t see her. “They have a deal with the Confederation. They just want their people.”

“Ah.” He paused for a few seconds. “Huh. Well, they sure don’t act like it.”

“Really?” she asked in disbelief. They are handing everything back over to the Confederation. Their fleet has left.”

“Yeah, but didn’t they leave a bunch of ships in orbit? And take over the stations?”

“And the yard and the ships, yeah. And they stuffed everyone in transit stations until the Confederation got here. Now they are handing everything off to Admiral’s Ree’s herd.”

“Huh.”

“Bro, you haven’t heard about any illegal acts, right?” she reminded him.

“Well, we’re in the back of beyond. We’d probably be the last to know.”

“Oh. True.”

“And they control the media.”

“No, actually they’ve been hands-off there. They just don’t tell them everything that is going on.”

“Huh.” He didn’t quite sound like he believed her.

“Believe it, bro. They have gone out of their way to not antagonize anyone. I’ve met a few of the aliens; I never thought they’d be just normal people.”

“Huh.”

“I mean, not all uppity and judgy.”

“Huh.”

“You say that a lot. That is your default. Oh wait, no, the default is duhh …,” she mocked.

“Funny, sis. You are so lucky you aren’t in arm’s reach at the moment,” he mock growled.

She couldn’t help herself, she giggled. It came out naturally.

He snorted.

“So, when do we expect the carpet baggers to arrive?” he asked.

“Carpet what’s?” she asked in confusion as her brows knit.

“A term I heard in the pub.”

“What does it even mean?”

“I’m not sure. Something about Feds moving in to take over our businesses and then government.”

“Bro, I just told you that they aren’t doing that,” she said patiently. “They’ve got some navy people here on the station and a bunch of those Marine types. I think there are like, six or seven hundred all told of the ones in camo, but don’t quote me on that. Hardly what you’d send as an invasion force, right?”

“True,” he said thoughtfully.

She felt a thrill of fear but took the plunge. “At the moment, there is I think a hundred or so on each planet. I could be wrong.”

“We haven’t seen any,” he said doubtfully.

“Well, it is a big planet,” she responded with a characteristic exasperated response. She felt a little nettled over that reply. He was drawing attention to something she had rehearsed to give to him casually.

“True.”

“And you are on the farm, bro,” she teased she said as she felt more natural about the responses she was giving.

“Also true.”

“So, what are they doing?”

“Waiting for more of the Confederation to show up at a guess. I haven’t heard anything.”

“Well, mom always said you went up there to make friends. Maybe you should.”

“I’m still getting used to seeing aliens every day,” she temporized. “I’m not all chummy and all that. I’m supposed to work with a few starting next week.”

“Well, make friends. You’ve got some right? Girlfriends I mean. Boy friends are not allowed. sis,” he growled.

She chuckled and smiled. “Wouldn’t you like to know,” she teased.

“Me, mom, dad, and the whole herd,” he growled.

“Well, it’s for me to know and you not to find out,” she said wickedly.

“You’ve got to come down for a holiday sometime, sis. Mom will guilt trip you into it, wait and see. And when you do …," his voice turned mock menacing, "I’ll get it out of you.”

She grinned. “As if. I’m faster and smarter than you. You are just a big farm clod. Big and yeah, strong, but I can run circles around you.”

“You’d be surprised,” he growled back.

“Funny.” she saw the countdown switch to red. “My timer is about up. Stay safe. Don’t drink and drive,” she scolded.

“Yes, mom,” he mocked.

She made a kissing sound and then cut the circuit.

After the conversation, she sat back thoughtfully. Friends? Okay, she could look into that …

<<(O)>>