Wednesday 29 November 2017

New Book in the Legacy Hunter Series!

Legacy Hunter is a multi-book scifi-adventure series with romantic elements in the vein of Indiana Jones meets Farscape. It is suitable for teens and adult readers. It is co-authored by Chris Heinicke and Kate Reedwood

Book 1, Queen Killer, available in ebook and print July 29th 2017 on all platforms.
Book 2, Star Keeper, scheduled for release November 29th  2017
Book 3, Dark Horizon, scheduled for release March 29th  2018


Book 1, Queen Killer
Blurb:
Stardrives 
Powerful, beautiful, bio-mimetic energy in its purest form. A benevolent gift meant to launch humanity into a new age of space travel.  They were the hope for the future. The key to the next stage in human discovery. 
But every gift has its price. 

Nearly a thousand years after Earth took its place in the network of galactic commerce, the planet is depleted of resources and on the edge of collapse. Can stardrive technology bring the Earth back to life? Adventurer Axel Ryan is betting his life that it can. But there aren't any stardrives left to be found on Earth, and ships capable of interstellar travel are hard to come by. His only choice is to enlist the aid of mercenary pirates to steal one. With the stakes high, and the future of Earth on the line, does it matter he'll have to betray the love of his life? 

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer has always been Element Cruz's motto. And it couldn’t be more true with Axel Ryan. Drugged, abandoned, and her ship stolen, she's more than ready to let the price on his head kill him. Except Axel holds the key to saving humanity. And if there's one thing Ellie can't refuse, it's the chance to win.

E-book: 0.99 cents
Print: 14.99US
Buy links:
BOOKS2READ UNIVERSAL LINK: https://www.books2read.com/queenkiller
Excerpt:
What the hell had he done? No ship was worth this. 
“Warning, hull breach imminent.” 
“Escape pod. Now!” he shouted. Built for two, the women would be protected by the automatic defense system on board, while the pod sped them to the safety of the nearby Terran colony on Europa. 
“Oh God,” Rose said, panic clear in her voice as she checked Ellie over. “I think it’s her leg.” 
“I’ll bring her. Just go!” Axel picked up Ellie, ignoring the way she winced and screamed as her left foot banged his thigh, and hurried in the direction of the escape pod. 
Smoke was seeping in around the edges of the main door, making the red light of the emergency system a hazy mist. The sound of stressed metal reverberated throughout the room. As did the resonant hum of blasters being fired. 
“This is all your fault, you bastard!” Rose screamed at him, speaking aloud what Axel already knew to be true. It was his fault. All of it. The betrayal. The hurt. All of it. 
The pod door slid open with the touch of Rose’s hand. Her expression sparked with hatred as she pressed herself into the upright harness of the cylindrical tube and reached for her daughter. Axel helped Ellie into the other tether as he counted the seconds in his mind, willing the main door to hold just a heartbeat longer. One, two, three— 
Boom! 
The stressed metal exploded, breaching the room. 
“Axel!” Ellie screamed. She reached for him, her green eyes wide. 
“Only room for two,” he said and hit the release button. 
The capsule door slammed shut, separating the two women from his view. Then it was gone, disappeared down the launch tube. 
Safe. 
Axel gasped for breath in the thinning atmosphere of the room and raised his hands into the air. 
If there was one thing in life he found impossible to mistake, it was the cold hard steel of a blaster, pressed to the back of his head.


Book 2, Star Keeper
Blurb:

Axel Ryan is running for his life.
Pursued by bounty hunters with a price on his head, he should disappear into the stars to hide and continue his search for Stardrives. But his soulmate, Element Cruz, has resurfaced and after spending the last six months searching for her with no luck, finding her again is worth gambling his life. She’s putting her own in danger by infiltrating an illegal slave auction where the Star Keeper of Endaria is being sold; a woman with empathic abilities, worth more credits then Axel can legally gather.
It should be an easy mission. Crash the auction, save his girl, and fly off into the galaxy to live happily ever after together. But the universe has another destiny in store for Axel, one he’ll need to embrace to save them all, or die trying.




E-book: 0.99 cents pre-order/release day special, regular price $2.99
Print: 14.99US (available soon)

Buy links:
BOOKS2READ UNIVERSAL LINK: https://www.books2read.com/starkeeper/

Excerpt:

“Ellie!” Axel screamed as he raced through the door on the left of the corridor he was in. Through a meter-wide window, he saw the tired face of Element Cruz. Relief collided with panic and turned to rage. She was still alive, but for how long? And why the frell did she have a fist-sized welt on her cheek? The mark was dark red and stark against her skin, swollen and painful.
He ran up and touched the window, her face on the other side. “Who the frell hit you?” he yelled, not sure if Ellie could hear. When she stared at him blankly he shook his head and added, “I will get you out of there!” He could dole out justice to whoever had harmed her once he knew she was safe.
She gestured at her comm where it hung useless and broken from the collar on her suit and put her hand up against the window too. She mouthed the words, “It's a trap,” clearly enough for Axel to understand the lip movements. “Get out of here!”
He glanced around the room he was in. Some kind of observation chamber, he guessed. But for what purpose, he had no idea. Shiloh had led a peculiar existence. The room itself was divided, a couch and table on this side with a glass partition separating him from the other where Ellie and Iris and Shiznit were held captive.
Iris had escaped her own bindings and was working on undoing Shiznit’s restraints with her fingers. Ellie banged her fists against the glass. “Leave!” she screamed.
Axel ignored her and tried the cell’s door, first with a tug on the handle, then with his blaster, but the laser fire bounced off the glass without doing any discernable damage.
Axel turned back to Ellie, so close to him but separated by safety glass that would take more fire power than he could muster right now to break. She may as well be on the other side of the galaxy.
But he refused to give up and let her and the others die. Darius wasn’t going to win.
The charges. Where were they? A blinking light caught his eye by the edge of the cell window. Rectangular and about the size of his palm, the explosive charge had been attached to the wall. One of several, in fact, he realized.
He moved to the charges and studied them. He was no expert, but the arrangement seemed simple enough. Square casing. Couple wires. Blinking red light, the flashes increasing in speed. A countdown in progress? Shit.
The others banged on the window. Axel glanced at them but ignored their frantic expressions and pleas for him to leave. He needed to focus on diffusing the situation.
“Who am I kidding, I've never done this shit,” he said out loud. He did know the red digital display was just that, a display, but that there was some type of timer inside that was counting down to zero. The nearest charge had been placed at his height, and he knew that the first thing he should do was try to pull one of the wires out to disrupt the circuit. But which one? Black or red? And if he picked wrong, would it instantly detonate and set off the others?
Sweat poured from his brow like a slow dripping tap, and he quickly wiped it with the back of his hand.
He could stand here and wait, or he could take a chance and act. The others were shrieking frantically, banging on the glass. The right wire would save them. They were dead for certain if he stood here letting time run out. Fifty-fifty chance. Life or death? Red or black? Which future did fortune favor?
He chose black.
Pulling with all his strength, he broke the wire free of the charge with a snap. The blinking stopped and became a solid red light, glaring at him with its brightness. A high-pitched whine filled the room.
“Oh shit.” I’m so sorry, he thought. “Ellie! Get back!”


  
Author Bios


Although working as a baker for many years, writing has been a passion for Chris for some time, starting in high school and reigniting again in 2006, when he first got the inspiration to begin writing 'The Man In Black.'

After completing that project eight years later, he took part in NaNoWriMo in November 2014, culminating into a project named 5PM. Deciding to self-publish, 5PM came out in February 2015, and then The Man In Black in August.

2016 saw the release of 7PM, and in that same year, his writing path met with that of Canadian author Kate Reedwood. A mutual respect of each other's work ignited an interest in working together, creating the Legacy Hunter series, the first of which to come out in July 2017.
Apart from writing, Chris enjoys travelling, reading, watching movies and all things geeky. He resides in Coffs Harbour with his wife and three children.

Chris will be at Nexus Con on July 29 celebrating the release of the first book in his Legacy Hunter series.



Kate Reedwood, also know as Felicity Kates, is a mild-mannered manager by day. At night, she trades in her high heels for bunny slippers and lets her imagination run wild. 

A trained artist and writer, Kate enjoys writing stories that combine humor with strong characters who know what they want and aren't afraid to go get it. Every story is an emotional journey where the characters must struggle to find their happily ever after. But they do always reach it in the end, no matter the time or place in the universe. 

She lives off of coffee and dreams and enjoys going for walks along the shores of Lake Ontario, taking pictures of whatever catches her eye. A romantic at heart, she loves to snuggle under a blanket with a good book to warm up the cold Canadian winters. 

When not dreaming up new worlds and books to write with Australian author Chris Heinicke, she can most often be found enjoying the quiet company of her husband and son.

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Friday 24 November 2017

Friday Flash Fiction 11/24 - "Wanyuuugh"

Today's letter is F, brought to you by Elizabeth Lister's Friday Flash Fics :)   
Each week a group of authors write a 500ish word snippet about the same photo. 
Be sure to check out the other authors contributions!! 
I'll put the links in below my submission. 

Some days Kyle wished he hadn’t gotten out of bed and up until ten seconds earlier, he’d believed today was one of them. That was until he came across a beautiful man in the hallway of his apartment building, wearing nothing but a book for modesty.

Kyle opened his mouth to say something but the man lifted one finger against his lips asking for silence. An easy request to grant as Kyle couldn’t think of a single thing to say. He stood there and blinked, not entirely certain if he was dreaming or not.

The muffled sound of something smashing against the other side of the wall caught his attention making Mr. Sexy wince and curse under his breath before meeting his gaze whispering. “I’d wondered who my new neighbor was, but I didn't expect to meet you like this.”

Of course you have to have a delicious accent too. For the love of everything positive in the universe, Kyle, say something!  “Wanyuuugh?” Too late, Kyle realized his tongue had managed to stick to the roof of his mouth. If a massive cavern opened at his feet, he’d quietly step over the edge to his death because nothing could be worse than the embarrassment heating his cheeks.

“Adorable,” Mr. Sexy's lips twitched in a half grin. “You wouldn’t happen to have a towel or even a sock you could spare, would you? It's a little chilly out here.”

"Uh, yyy-es...ah, in...” Kyle struggled with his keys for a moment, forgetting which one opened his apartment, before finally picking the right one and gently unlocking his door. “Do you know what's going on in there?" He opened the door and stepped out of the way allowing his nude neighbor to enter first.

“I imagine they are looking for something I no longer have. Given that fact, I felt it was safer if I hid out here until they left.” His neighbor kept the book in place but walked across the hall as if there wasn’t a single thing unusual about the situation.

“There’s an afghan on the chesterfie...” His brief grasp of English slipped away when Kyle’s  neighbor passed him. His gaze caught the way his back muscles flexed as he moved, a tempting tan line and then the sweetest pale bum. Curved with a light dusting of hair Kyle could easily imagine would feel incredible under his fingertips, 

“You’re quite literally saving my life here, thank you.” His nudist neighbor dropped the book on the coffee table before reaching for the afghan and wrapped it around his hips. “My name is Joel, by the way. And you are?”

“Kyuugh.”


Don't stop here! 
Check out the scenes from all the contributing authors this week.

Jeff Baker
Elizabeth Lister
Jeffrey Ricker
'Nathan Burgoine


Friday 17 November 2017

Friday Flash Fiction 11/17- F*CK

While setting up my second submission to Friday Flash Fics, I somehow managed to wipe out the first one. Ugh! So my slightly elegant, marginally funny opening has been lost to the depths of the internet. 
In a nut shell...Fun times, lots of authors creating scenes from the same picture and bad language ahead. Comments are always welcome. :)



“Fuck.” Jack shook his foot trying to dislodge the slush that had invaded his shoe. Fucking rain, fucking snow, fucking England “ Icy tendrils crept under his arch and wrapped around his toes as the water made its way through his loafer. “I should be on a beach in Spain but no, I’m in fucking London, in fucking January, on the one bloody, fucking day it decides to dump slush everywhere.”
An old lady tisked at him as she passed, forcing Jack to clenched his teeth together in an attempt to stem the free flowing litany of curse words. His gram would have smacked the back of his head at the first fuck had she heard. Shoving his hands deeper into the pockets of his jacket, he continued his trudge along the Queen’s Walk toward Westminster Bridge.
“Kiss your mother with that mouth?” The woman, who carried a frightening similarity to his Gran stopped next to him.
“Pardon me?” He pulled his gaze from the black Thames flowing past. This is my contact? Are they pulling them out of retirement now?
“Here,” she passed him a small bag. “You’re feeding the birds now, lovie. Mind your mouth, all that cursing offends the clergy.”
“Fuck. The. Clergy.” He snatched the bag and shoved it in his pocket. He’d been all over bloody England running errands for those pompous arrogant bastards. Fetching artifacts and delivering summons, all because they couldn’t find one inexperienced guardian. Whomever this guardian was, Jack was markedly envious of his abilities, He’d give his left nut to get out from under the Clergy’s thumb.
“Why does your generation insist on learning things the hard way?” Her eyes narrowed on him and he could hear her inhale slowly through her nose. Whether the icy spike that rain up his spine was from the freezing rain slipping down the back of his neck or the old woman’s gaze he couldn’t be certain. Either way he was fucked and had to follow this through. “Do as you’re told and perhaps you’ll be a Guardian one day too.”
Jack looked up at the endless grey clouds above him, and tightened the neck of his coat. “That’s never something I wanted.” Unsurprisingly, the old woman had disappeared from his side and he wasn’t interested in seeing which direction she’d headed. If they wanted him dead, he’d be dead by now. His usefulness as a go-for hadn’t wined yet.
Keeping his gaze on his surroundings while avoiding slushy puddles, he continued his journey. Removing the small bag from his pocket he opened it and found bird seed? Why am I not surprised? At least I know now my next stop is St Paul’s Cathedral.  He swirled a finger around in the seed and felt something metal brush the pad of his finger. Hooking it, he pulled it out.
Shock punched him in the chest and he clamped down on the initial instinct to fling it straight into the Thames filthy depths.

We’re Fucked! 

Don't stop here! 
Check out the scenes from all the contributing authors this week.

Elizabeth Lister
'Nathan Burgoine
Jeffrey Ricker
Patrick Coulton