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All Books By This Author:
- When The Spirit Moves You
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Arlene Watson and her girlfriends intended to spend most of their summer vacation at the beach among friends, and naturally boys, before returning to high school for their senior year.
But on one particularly hot and lazy afternoon in late June, Arlene consents to perform tarot readings for her closest friends. Her minor talent for 'fortune-telling' had seemed to mature dramatically since receiving an unusual hand-painted tarot deck as a gift from her sister. Since then, whenever she gathered socially with friends, someone would beg for a reading.
Repeated attempts at finding answers in the cards on this occasion only produced more questions. In frustration, Arlene gives up. Hoping that contact with a real spirit from the 'great beyond' might help clarify ambiguous responses from the cards, she convinces the others to join her in an experimental séance at a deserted mansion where a ghost is reputed to roam the grounds each evening.
Waiting until security patrols end for the day, the four young women sneak onto the estate and manage to enter the house. Their efforts at contact appear to fail, but as they prepare to leave, the spirit arrives and shows them how foolhardy they were to tamper with metaphysical forces beyond their ken.
The spirit pursues them through the house, finally cornering them in a front vestibule. As it approaches, they collapse into unconsciousness.
When they awaken, nothing is familiar; not even their reflections in a mirror. Everything is as real as anything they've ever known, yet they appear to have traveled more than a hundred years back through time. The body of an unmarried, desirable, and very eligible young woman has replaced the body each has known all her life.
Trapped in a nightmare from which they can't escape, they are at first desperate to reestablish a link with the reality they know. But as romances with young men of the period blossom, they slowly realize that it might not be so terrible if they can't find a way home. Can four twenty-first century girls, used to speaking their minds freely and behaving independently, assimilate into a Victorian period where women don’t even possess the right to vote?
It's said that love conquers all.
Author note: This is a time-travel tale like few others. The overall theme is paranormal because a ghost is responsible for the journey, while the light, romantic sub-plots in a Victorian era provide the conflicts that propel the story forward. Please don't confuse it with a Harlequin Romance type tale.
- Genres: Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Romance, Science Fiction, Suspense
- A Galaxy Unknown (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 1)
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June 6th, 2267 - A life-pod, missed by rescuers following the mysterious explosion of a Space Command vessel a decade earlier, is discovered by a passing freighter in deep space. A young officer, still cocooned in stasis sleep, is found inside. When revived, Ensign Jenetta Carver learns of the lawlessness that now suffuses interstellar space. Pirates and slavers seem able to attack and pillage with impunity. Space Command has committed its full resources to stopping the anarchy, but criminal groups have grown immensely powerful.
Although determined to rejoin SC as soon as possible, Jenetta is captured by pirates before that can happen. At first she fears for her life, but when she's indelibly marked as a pleasure slave, she gets mad; fighting mad. And when they tamper with her DNA to make her appear sexier, she gets even madder; killing mad.
Can a petite blonde, cut off from Space Command, create more mayhem among the criminal elements than a full decade of SC effort? You'd better believe it!
From the back cover:
For all of her young life, Jenetta Carver had dreamed of cruising between the stars in a powerful spaceship, but nothing in her visions of a bright future even remotely resembled the perilous situation she now faced.
Lt. Sabella, her face slightly flushed from physical exertion, returned from her task of readying the ship’s weapons and crossed the bridge to stand by the left arm of Jenetta’s command chair. “What’s the plan, Captain?” she asked. Though an anxious look swathed her face, there was unmistakable resoluteness in her voice.
Jenetta breathed in deeply and then released it before answering in a voice lowered so that it only carried to her XO. “We’re going to have to slash and burn,” she replied.
“Slash and burn?” Gloria questioned, equally sotto voce.
“We don’t yet know what we’re facing, so we can’t prepare anything tactically sophisticated. We certainly won’t be able to arrange for a convenient artificial mountain as cover this time, and it’s a given that whatever Raider ships we’re about to face are considerably better armed than we are. So— surprise will perforce serve as our main weapon. I intend to slash our way in with as much speed as practicable, dump our envelope, and then burn down any enemy ships that we encounter before they can do the same to us.”
“That’s it?” Gloria asked, wide-eyed. “That’s your whole plan? Shoot them before they shoot us?”
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult, Military/War
- Valor At Vauzlee (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 2)
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A captured Raider officer, eager to secure his freedom, informs Space Command Intelligence of a planned attack on a convoy by a massive Raider armada. An effective spotter network and intelligence system usually allows the pirates to avoid SC warships, so for the first time in Galactic Alliance history, a task force of Space Command warships might have an opportunity to engage a fleet of pirate ships in mortal combat.
The Space Command Admiral at Higgins SCB pulls out all stops to surreptitiously assemble a force of ten ships, the most that can be secretly diverted, to face off against the Raider ambushers. One of those ships happens to be the Prometheus. Jenetta Carver, the newest Lt. Commander in Space Command, on her way to Earth for a medal ceremony for acts of outstanding valor, finds herself again caught up in a life or death situation. The Prometheus arrives at the rendezvous point, a month from Higgins SC Base, to await the arrival of the other ships, and a call for help from the convoy.
Only two other ships have reached the RP when the convoy is attacked. Captain Gavin of the Prometheus, in his capacity as task force commander, decides that they can’t wait for the others, so the three SC warships race off to face a Raider warship force they expect will number forty plus.
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Suspense, Military/War
- The Clones of Mawcett (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 3)
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While digging through the ruins of a long dead civilization on the planet Mawcett, a team of Terran and Nordakian archeologists find an underground tunnel leading to a door in such extraordinary condition that it could have been fabricated as recently as that morning. They labor throughout the day, using every modern device available to them, but are unable to gain entry.
Then, in the early hours of the new day, seemingly in response to the screams of a frustrated, over-tired scientist, the door slides noiselessly open. Upon passing through the entranceway, the archeologists are stunned to find an elaborate complex in pristine condition. Summoning the courage to venture further, they enter a large circular chamber lined with strange electronic equipment, and immediately become engrossed in examining strange symbols etched into the floor near the center of the room. Suddenly, they're bathed in a strange light that paralyzes them where they stand. They watch in frozen terror as a clear, circular wall rises up around them. When the enclosed area begins to fill with a dense ocher gas smelling of persimmons, the dig site laborers, who had witnessed the activity from the periphery, run screaming for the entrance.
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Military/War
- Trader Vyx (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 4)
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Advanced weapons manufactured for Space Command are being offered for sale on the galactic black market. Trader Vyx, an undercover operative for Space Command, the military arm of the Galactic Alliance, has been sent into the Frontier Zone to procure several weapons from an Alyysian arms merchant, as part of an effort to trace the serial numbers and end the thefts.
All is going smoothly until a Tsgardi mercenary enters the room. He utters a profanity as he recognizes Vyx and immediately reaches for his sidearm. Vyx grabs for his own sidearm, but then has to dive for cover as the weapon merchant's bodyguards open up, turning the room into a killing zone of deadly crossfire.Vyx manages to kill the mercenary and escape, but is hotly pursued by bodyguards who believe him responsible for the shooting incident that severely wounded their boss. The chase continues through the small Gollasko Colony as Vyx uses all of his skills to evade guards bent on ending his life. Each time he thinks he's lost his pursuers, they turn up again.
While Vyx is fighting for his life on Gollasko, Commander Jenetta Carver is facing problems of her own in another part of the galaxy. The Galactic Alliance has decided to expand the border, and Commander Jenetta Carver is venturing into the new territory as captain of a prototype scout ship. An onboard accident sends the small ship flying wildly out of control. They find themselves in a disabled ship, unable to contact anyone, with life support systems beginning to fail. When a passing Raider warship happens across the apparently derelict ship, Jenetta must face the question of resistance or surrender.
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Suspense, Young Adult, Military/War
- Milor! (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 5)
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Terrorists are creating a climate of fear on the planet Arrosa, and although no demands have been made, nor claims of credit taken for the attacks, the Prime Minister believes that the government of their neighboring planet, Selax, is solely responsible. As commander of the only Space Command base in that part of space, Captain Jenetta Carver is responsible for maintaining the peace, and the task of preventing a system-wide war falls squarely upon her shoulders. Since the dispatched diplomatic corps hasn't yet arrived at the base, she must resolve the disputes without their assistance. The people of the two planets share a common genus and ancestry, and Captain Carver manages to convince the two planetary governments to accept binding arbitration, but one party ingeniously stalls the talks for their own purposes.
Meanwhile, several Milora have been discovered in the company of an arms merchant's Tsgardi henchmen. The Milori, an ugly warlike race often compared more to cockroaches then humanoid life forms, come from a home planet well outside Galactic Alliance borders. There's an old saying in Space Command that, like cockroaches, if you see one Milora, there're probably a thousand more concealed nearby. And Jenetta knows that a thousand hostile warriors in GA space can only mean serious trouble is brewing. She immediately dispatches a ship to investigate an Intelligence Section report of Milori sightings near a planet in the GA's Frontier Zone.
The GSC destroyer Ottawa, following up on the lead, locates a task force of Milori warships exactly where reported, and the captain demands an explanation of their presence in GA space. The Milori respond with action rather than words, leaving little doubt about their intentions, and events begin spiraling out of control.
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Military/War
- Castle Vroman (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 6)
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From inside a giant asteroid, hundreds of light years from Earth, Admiral Jenetta Carver is beginning to look forward to a trip home, and finally receiving command of her own ship. Her five-year tour of duty as the Base Commander of the Stewart SC Base is nearing an end, and the ship carrying her replacement has been underway for more than a year.
However, when the GSC destroyer carrying Admiral Vroman is attacked just a few light years from the base, her plans are quickly forgotten. Rescue ships arriving at the site the next day find only corpses aboard the Lisbon, while a severely damaged freighter with a dead Tsgardi crew floats nearby. There's no sign of the admiral, and most of the SC crew is missing.
The Milori Military Forces, unsuccessful in their first attempt to defeat the Galactic Alliance and annex its territory, are preparing for a second assault. Emperor Maxxiloth has decided he won't be embarrassed a second time and sends every ship available in his empire as part of the new invasion force.
Months later, a shuttle touches down on a primeval world far inside the Frontier Zone, where Admiral Vroman and the senior officers from the GSC destroyer Lisbon are to be marooned by their Milori captors. As the rest of the crew is being shuttled down to the surface, the officers quickly draw up a plan of survival. Left with only the most basic of supplies and equipment, the spaceship crew must learn how to exist in a hostile, planetary environment.
While the forces at Stewart are preparing for an imminent attack by the Milori, the crew of the Lisbon is learning that they have some rather large and particularly nasty neighbors with voracious appetites and predacious habits.
109,000 Words - 322 Pages
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Military/War
- Against All Odds (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 7)
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War has kept Admiral Jenetta Carver far from home for twelve years. With the advent of peace, she takes a well-deserved vacation and returns to Earth for a visit before her duties as Military Governor and Supreme Military Commandeer of Region Two prevent such a trip for more years. She picks up her two sisters on the way home and the three women surprise their mom with the unannounced visit.
Just a week after arriving home, Jenetta receives word that Region Two has been invaded. No war has been declared, and details are sketchy, but Tsgardi Warriors have landed on at least one planet a hundred light years inside the border and begun rounding up, harassing, and in some cases killing the citizenry. Determined not to let the news interfere with her mother's joy of having her three daughters with her, she doesn't mention the invasion at home, but she's summoned to appear at Space Command Supreme HQ to discuss the situation.
As Jenetta begins the trip back to her base, she begins formulating plans and sending orders so that all will be in readiness when she arrives. She's determined to deal with the Tsgardi situation once and for all, and in a manner consistent with the way she dealt with the Milori situation. When an enemy refuses to let you live in peace, the only action you can take is remove their ability to ever wage war against you again. Jenetta doesn't yet know that the Tsgardi thrust into Region Two is just the tip of the lance. Three other interstellar powers have joined the effort to arrogate the new territory before Space Command can move security forces into place. Jenetta's tiny fleet will face an armada a thousand warships strong. It's not just another day at the office.
96,000 Words - 300 Pages
- Genres:
- Return to Dakistee (A Galaxy Unknown, Book 8)
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The same archeological team who uncovered a secret underground bunker on Dakistee sixteen years earlier, when the planet was still named Mawcett, has discovered a new facility. They struggle for months to open the entrance, but the structure defies all their efforts. Finally admitting defeat, they send a message to Admiral Jenetta Carver, beseeching her to come help once again.
In Region Two, Admiral Jenetta Carver is besieged with mundane work. Although she would love to drop everything and head for Dakistee, she can't possibly get away. But she also can't ignore the possibilities of what treasures, or dangers, the facility might represent. Fortunately, the battleship Hephaestus is in port, and the ship's third watch commander is available for a special assignment.
Christa is far from thrilled with the prospect of giving up her seat on the bridge, even temporarily, but when an admiral says go, you go. It doesn't matter that the admiral is your sister. Christa expects to make a quick trip, with a speedy return to the Hephaestus, but as with Jenetta, assignments often tend to take unexpected side trips into unique and dangerous situations.
91k Words, 306 Print Pages
- Genres: Adventure, Science Fiction, Military/War
