“If I’m contracted to Stephen, won’t he object?”
“Shouldn’t think so, I own him.”
JUST HOW POWERFUL IS HE? – from The Khekarian Threat, now out on Amazon.
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Tag Archives: pioneering
Harsh Reality of a Pioneering Planet – Too Few People, Too Few Cops.
Charlie, the Old Man of Cenoth, is a caring individual who knows most of the teams he organizes the traveling routes for – at least one of them he considers family – so when he sees something going very wrong for a newcomer to a relatively new and unknown team, by his very nature, he wants to help.
Aleisha has come to Zumaridi to join Stephen’s team, but now there is some indication that murder has taken place there. It seems it happened on a whim, or for a reason even more obscene, and that worries Charlie very much.
His first thought is to face the team leader about it, and when that doesn’t give him any solution, Charlie takes it to the local constabulary, only to find there is not much they can do, either.
The problem is, on a newly colonizing world, independent villages and towns have the police force they can afford, with only local and limited jurisdiction. Small communities simply don’t have the reach to do anything about crimes hundreds or even thousands of miles away that have nothing to do with them. The population is too sparse.
Sci-Fi and Only Ever Sci-Fi.
Inspired by television science fiction – and mortified by political futurism passed off as sci-fi and thrust upon me to read by my elders – I determined to create a brand new world of space adventures.
Why was everyone so dour in the books I read? I rarely could get near enough to any character to care, and the whole political thing left me cold anyway, although admittedly, I was very young (around ten years-old).
While those old ideas of future oppression are now crowding close around us, with advocates enthusiastically pushing to make it a global reality, I still look for adventure over doom-and-gloom any day.
Of course there’s adventurous science fiction out there now. It’s been a few decades since those sad days when I couldn’t find what I wanted in sci-fi and so determined to write it for myself. I’m pleased to see full human characterization now, not two dimensional anymore. There are adventures and real excitement, individuals coping with whatever they need to on a personal basis with realistic settings and proper human reactions. It’s wonderful!
Office in the Wilderness – TRUE LIFE.
Being modern adventurers we had concerns that original pioneers never had – We were willing to give up grid-electricity, water on-tap, any sort of sewage system and modern conveniences (fridge, freezer, washing machine), and even go without a house, but we wanted to keep our books and computers.
As the computers needed protection from the elements, they got the caravan.
We had an office at each end, mine being the closest to the door (top picture). In the top left of the top picture, above the light switch, you’ll see two battery cables that were fed in through the window. The batteries came later, though. Initially we only had a small generator which ran only the computer system through the day and the TV and video player in the evening.
The air conditioner you see in the picture came with the caravan, but our gen-set (generator) was not strong enough to run it. That was bad news in the Build-Up and the Wet when I recorded 50 C inside the annex (122 F), but I’ll talk about the weather some other time.
THE TRUTH IS OUT! – From The Khekarian Threat, out now on Amazon.
“What exactly did you perceive of me?” he asked.
Not knowing what else to do, she gave him the truth. “That you kill. Women. That you like it. You’ve done it before.”
Moving out into the Wilderness – TRUE LIFE.
It was a decision we seemingly took very lightly – It had been a dream for many years, so when my husband got a substantial pay rise, and I was fed up with my job, I put forward the idea that I quit and actually get some writing done.
“Why don’t we go the whole hog,” Greg answered, easy as you please. “Sell the house and get a block in the wilderness, then you can man it and write there.”
What’s to think about? I said yes straight off and went to work that day with the whole thing at the back of my mind, an exciting adventure waiting to be. I made no mention of it at work, but when the Boss called out that very morning that her husband, in Real Estate, wanted to sell something so that they could go on holiday, such a happy coincidence could not be overlooked.
“Actually, we want big acreage in the countryside,” I said. “House optional.”
“You’re kidding!” she replied, and when assured I was not, made the call.
HAVE YOU KILLED HIM TOO? – from The Khekarian Threat, out now on Amazon.
Sturn gave her another featureless stare.
“Where’s Stephen?” Aleisha asked. “Have you killed him, too?”
“No,” he replied, unfazed. “Stephen hasn’t pissed me off.”
Snakes and Writing – TRUE LIFE.
When you live IN the wild, you live WITH the wild, particularly when you haven’t got a house and dwell in a hole in the ground – my caravan office didn’t give much protection either as it had gaps and holes, and the animals soon moved in there, as well.
The subtropical Top End (Northern Territory) of Australia has its fair share of wildlife. There are wild boar (dangerous), dingoes (dangerous), crocodiles (extremely dangerous), buffalo (dangerous), spiders (yep, deadly) and lots of snakes (you bet, dangerous). In our camp we met Whip snakes, Death Adders, Black snakes, Brown snakes, King Browns and a host of others, all deadly poisonous. Except for one type, the giants on the block – Pythons.
Pythons are actually good to have around. They prey on poisonous snakes and keep their number low, but they also grow to enormous size (much bigger than these photographs show) and prey on other animals, including small wallabies and young kangaroos. We had pets to look out for, so I learned to handle them and move them well out of camp whenever they turned up.
Carnivores in the Dark – True Life!
When the dingoes came around that evening, I was alone. I was stranded on a hillside out in the middle of nowhere with no vehicle, no torch, no weapon and no retreat. My husband had taken the car to go and get a caravan, which would be our temporary home, leaving me by the side of the road with an open trailer of our belongings and two cats to look after.
He was already hours late and the dingoes arrived as the last light was going out of the sky. They moved fast and silently, using the dirt road as their track, not a yip, not a bark, nothing. They were a pack on a mission.
I saw them coming and stood up, not sure what my best option was. They detected me at the same moment. I knew that because, although they kept coming and did not change their pace, they slipped off the edge of the road and disappeared into the dense foliage on the side opposite mine.
I never saw or heard them as they circled around me and kept going. I know they kept going because I would see them again, on other days, coming from the other direction. But on this night, I did not know what they intended or where they went.
Then the night landed for real, and out there, when you’ve got no shelter at all, no light, no distant glow from civilization, and not even a box of matches, you are very aware of carnivores in the dark.
ALIEN WILDERNESS – From The Khekarian Threat, out now on Amazon.
Compound Twelve was situated fifteen miles from the center of Cenoth, out where a forest of ancient trees gave cover and isolation. It contained two domes in an area that was considered very pretty by local standards and breathtakingly beautiful by someone who had really only known the barren splendor of Mars. While Earth had vast spectacular forests, Aleisha had joined SEAS for the promise of alien wilderness.
Bloodstone Sci Fi 