Mar 3 2013

Weekend Writing Warriors – Wreck of the Nebula Dream – More Distraught Passenger

Continuing on with the scene in the shuttle, on the way to the cruise liner Nebula Dream, here’s another excerpt as Nick continues to deal with the distraught passenger who had the premonition of disaster. So far the shuttle is continuing its ascent to the larger ship. There’s been some back and forth between the crew, Nick and the husband about whether to turn around or not; the other passengers stared and gossiped; her pet came to join them (much to Nick’s annoyance) and now…

The young wife wept, occasionally responding to Nick with broken sentences about her dreams and her unborn child being at risk, to which he told her in halfway fluent dialect she must do what was best for the baby.

She drew in a hissing breath and clutched dramatically at her abdomen, closing her eyes, biting her lip. He raised his voice, and put an edge on it, to cut through the squabble. “Gentlemen, you’d better decide something.”

The husband and the pilot glared at him, both equally annoyed at the interruption.

Nick didn’t care. Events might be about to overtake them. “I’m far from being an expert, but I think she’s going into labor here.”

So, do you think they go back?

The story:

Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he’ll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets.

All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship’s malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction.

But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he’ll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?

A note: WRECK was loosely inspired by the events of the Titanic sinking…..

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read a variety of terrific excerpts…

WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, a 2013 SFR Galaxy Award winner, is available for kindle, as an audio book or a paperback at Amazon. The audio sample is here.

Feb 10 2013

Weekend Writing Warriors – More from SciFi WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM

This week I’m going to post 8 sentences from WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, my science fiction adventure with romantic elements, which received a 2013 SFR Galaxy Award. In honor of Valentine’s day I thought I’d post a little moment between Nick and Mara, as they’re searching the ship’s hold for some essential gear. There’s not a whole lot of time in this novel for the two of them to (ahem) actively further their romance, given that the ship may explode at any moment, the alien enemy is on the way and pirates are hovering….but romance CANNOT be denied LOL! Nick is speaking as the excerpt begins:

His courage had never failed him in combat, but he was reluctant to risk rejection from her. “You may change your mind, once we get to Sector Hub, and the adrenalin of this crisis wears off. Maybe we should forget it for now, see how the idea of dinner strikes you after we’re rescued and we return to our proper orbits in society.”

Mara wasn’t having any of his self doubt. She placed one hand on the carton he was about to toss aside, stopping him. Gently, she caressed his cheek with her other hand. “Nicholas Jameson, don’t be an idiot. I know what I’m doing – I wanted to have dinner with you long before this misbegotten ship took its detour and plowed into an asteroid field, or whatever the disaster was.”

The story:

I love and appreciate your comments and feedback! Go here to find all the other Weekend Writing Warriors and read a variety of excerpts…

Apr 8 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Here’s the last excerpt from my new book Wreck of the Nebula Dream, science fiction with romantic elements, available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Thanks to everyone on the Six Sentence Sunday hop for being so wonderful & supportive!

The situation: Nick Jameson, Sectors Special Forces, has unexpectedly wound up traveling to his next assignment via a new luxury liner. The ship has problems early in the voyage but then suffers a catastrophe of Titanic proportions. The excerpt comes after Nick and Mara and their party have been through a lot (no spoilers so I can’t explain why Nick’s voice is raspy but trust me, the man has endured a harsh ordeal)… but still aren’t safely off the ship.

“This is one weird damn voyage,” Nick said, his voice raspy from the hours of tortured agony.

“I certainly never had any other business trip like it, ” Mara agreed, with a small smile. “Even if we don’t make it out of here, I’m not sorry I took this journey with you.”

He gazed at her, a matching smile spreading itself across his face. Just looking at this woman makes me happy – I don’t care if that sounds hokey. “Neither am I, lady, neither am I.”

Go to http://sixsunday.com/ to find all the other great excerpts!

Apr 1 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Here’s one more excerpt from my new book Wreck of the Nebula Dream, science fiction with romantic elements, available from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Continuing with introducing some of the other characters my hero Nick will have to risk his life to save.

Prior to all of that, on the shuttle up to the Nebula Dream, Nick casually notices a small family group, not realizing how important the two children are going to become to him when disaster strikes:

The young boy, probably eight or ten, had bumped into Nick once, playing some game in the shuttle’s open aisle. He’d apologized politely. His younger sister stayed in her mother’s lap, sucking on her thumb and clutching a large, old fashioned stuffed animal of some kind. Her big, soft brown eyes, fringed with extravagant lashes, kept closing sleepily. Then some sound would reawaken her with a jerk.

Bothered by his own painful memories, Nick averted his gaze from the cozy family group, sampling the drink again, crunching an ice cube.

Go to http://sixsunday.com/ to find all the other great excerpts!

Mar 21 2012

Wednesday Whimsy – Shipwrecks! – Photos & Quotes

This week’s Wednesday Whimsy is in honor of my new book Wreck of the Nebula Dream, a reimagining of the Titanic disaster, set in the far future among the stars, available now from Amazon for the kindle and Barnes & Noble for the Nook! The sinking of the Titanic was nearly 100 years ago, on April 15th.

It is better to meet danger than to wait for it. He that is on a lee shore, and foresees a hurricane, stands out to sea and encounters a storm to avoid a shipwreck.
Charles Caleb Colton

The man who has experienced shipwreck shudders even at a calm sea. Ovid

Each man makes his own shipwreck. Lucanus

“Words convey the mental treasures of one period to the generations that follow; and laden with this, their precious freight, they sail safely across gulfs of time in which empires have suffered shipwreck and the languages of common life have sunk into oblivion.”

Anonymous, quoted by Richard Trench

Mar 20 2012

Titanic in Space? Wreck of the Nebula Dream!

So is my newly published novel Wreck of the Nebula Dream meant to be the Titanic in space? The answer is both yes…and no…

I think there will be certain similarities to any catastrophe at sea, or in the vast ocean of outer space. Just recently the Italian liner Costa Concordia went astray and sank with tragic loss of life, which – while thankfully not on the scale of the Titanic – was still deplorable and sad.

Growing up, I was fascinated by the events surrounding the sinking of the Titanic (and this was wayyyy before the James Cameron movie), partly because my grandfather always said he had a relative on board – a Second Class passenger who survived, which made me feel closer to the events. She even rescued a steerage baby! Now, as an adult having done some internet research, I’m not convinced she actually is related to us but her story had a profound influence on me as a child.

What do you do? Stay on board? Take a lifeboat? If you’ve waited too long and there are no more lifeboats, how do you try to survive?

Inevitably, given the family legend, some time ago I had the idea to write a novel loosely inspired by the events of Titanic . Since I have a science fiction kind of mind, I set the story in the far future, out among the stars, using a luxury space liner rather than an ocean going cruise ship. In the beginning I naively thought I’d stick rather closely to the historical events of the Titanic’s last few hours, reinterpreted for the spaceship and her passengers. Well, as any writer will probably tell you, the characters have minds of their own and they grab the plot and guide it in unexpected directions – LOL!

I made my ship Nebula Dream the newest, biggest, most state of the art space liner, complete with new engines, a crew that hadn’t sailed together before, pressure from the front office to set speed records…and set her loose in the spacelanes to meet her Fate.

So there I was with my Sectors Special Forces hero Nick and my no nonsense businesswoman heroine Mara, and the assorted other characters who make up their small group of hopeful survivors…and the story took turns that have nothing to do with how the Titanic sank. I HOPE you’ll find the account of their struggle exciting. I put in respectful nods to the Titanic events wherever I could….

As my hero observes at one point: “Disasters in space tended to be abrupt, over with in a violent moment. Whatever had happened to the Nebula Dream, it was nothing short of amazing they weren’t all dead already. Can’t push luck too far.” So my little band of people soon realize they are stuck on this vessel drifting in space, without enough lifeboats and no rescue ship coming any time soon, racing against the clock and other forces, hoping to escape with their lives…

Available from Amazon for the kindle

Mar 18 2012

Six Sentence Sunday

Here’s the fourth and final excerpt from my new book Wreck of the Nebula Dream, science fiction with romantic elements, available NOW from Amazon for the kindle. Nick Jameson, Sectors Special Forces, has unexpectedly wound up traveling to his next assignment via a new luxury liner. The ship has had problems already on the voyage but now has suffered a catastrophe of Titanic proportions.

At a certain point in the struggle to reach safety, Nick is faced with a difficult choice between his oath as a military officer and his desire to save his companions (trying to avoid spoilers here). Mara is speaking first:

“Do your duty if that’s the path you have to take, don’t worry about us.”

“How exactly am I supposed to abandon you, Mara? I’d give anything to get you out of this mess. I’d gladly die to save you.” Nick glanced at the oddly assorted little group, as important to him now as any team of Special Forces operators had been in the past. “All of you.”