Weekend Writing Warriors (Tourist Trap)

It’s Sunday today, and you know what that means. Lots of snippets from lots of different authors, some of whom can be found by clicking on the logos above and below.

Today’s snippet is from my second published book, Tourist Trap. Here’s the blurb.

A vacation with his three best friends from slavery and a manhood challenge: Roi is given the graduation present he has dreamed of. Dogsledding, hang gliding, a chance to see Pleistocene animals transplanted to a Terraformed vacation world, horseback riding, sailing … all the sports he has returned to with his recovery from paralysis, and a few new ones to learn.

They’re prepared for danger from weather, wild animals and extreme sports. But none of them realize that Roi’s half brother Zhaim, determined to recover his old position as Lai’s heir, intends to kill them if he can—and he’s decided that the dangers of the trip will make a perfect cover for his schemes.

How long will it take them to realize that the “accidents” they keep running into are more than just accidents?

For today I’ve picked a relatively sexy snippet, though it’s not human sex. We’ve already established that Token. one of the saddle horses, is coming is season and becoming difficult to handle as a result.

The little meadow was open and gently cupped, with no place in creance range where a horse could be hiding. Roi opened his mind to the horses’ sensory impressions and quickly found Raindrop, Freckles, Dusty, Splash and the three pack horses, but no trace of Token. He called them all in with a suggestion of the grain in the packs, and reached farther for Token. He picked up the massed senses of a wild herd, perhaps an hour’s ride to the west and then, nearer, a flood of rampant equine sexuality.

“Oh, hells,” he groaned. “A wild stud did come in here, and he’s driven her off. I can feel her, but I can’t get through to her to bring her back. Flame, if I ever said you had a one-track mind, I apologize.”

Tourist Trap is available from iUniverse, from Barnes and Noble and from Amazon, but compare prices. Last time I checked, Amazon was still charging way too much for the Kindle version. The publisher e-book price is under $5.

Weekend Writing Warriors, Tourist Trap

It’s Sunday again, time for Weekend Writing Warriors (click the logo above) and Snippet Sunday (click the logo below.) As I said last week, snippets will be random for a while, and this one is from my second published book, Tourist Trap. The setting is Falaron, a planet terraformed to resemble Earth during the Pleistocene, and the animal is a flat-headed peccary, common in Pleistocene North America and considerably larger than any peccary now alive. A herd has invaded the travelers’ campsite while they slept, and a young sow has gotten her head caught while trying to get the last of a bucket of honey.

They dived in from opposite sides of the mad, blind creature, shoulders brushing as Timi’s weight collapsed the animal’s hindquarters and Roi landed atop the shoulders. The peccary’s frantic squeals, amplified and directed by the bucket, reverberated in Roi’s ears, and its odor was rank in his nostrils. Its coat was as rough and bristly as it looked, harsh against his hands and arms.

It wasn’t totally blinded, Roi saw. The handle if the bucket was caught behind the sow’s ears, and the eyes were set so high in the skull that he could see them, rolling wildly, from where he lay. But it could not see ahead of itself. Roi opened his mind and used his physical contact with the animal to force his own awareness into the animal mind, controlling its struggles and he had quieted the three horses during the storm. “Hang on to the rear legs until I tell you to let go,” he told Timi, and began struggling to get the handle of the bucket back over the flathead’s ears.

Tourist Trap is available in hard cover, soft cover, and ebook at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. For some reason I can’t get through to Amazon that I’ve lowered the ebook price to below $5, so the Kindle version is ridiculously expensive relative to the Nook or the publisher price. Complain to Amazon; they aren’t listening to me.

Next weekend Horse Power will be free on Amazon, and I’ll have a little more of the stampede.

Zhaim Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Zhaim is Lai’s oldest R’il’noid son, and as long as he has the highest fraction of active R’il’nian-derived genes of any of the R’il’noids alive, he is his father’s heir – if anything happens to Lai, Zhaim will take over. He took this position from Derik (who was just as glad to be rid of the responsibility) when he came of age several hundred years ago, and has come to define himself in terms of how he will improve the Confederation when he takes over from his dowdy and senile (in his opinion) father.

Zhaim is quite handsome in his way, vain about his appearance, and very fashion-conscious. His complexion is dark bronze, like his father’s, and his hair is black. His eyes are almost clear with silver veining – “ice and silver” is how they are often described. His hobby is making “artistic” sculptures out of living things (including slaves) and he considers himself a great but misunderstood artist. He likes and admires cats, but is violently allergic to them.

He is an important character in both Homecoming and Tourist Trap and will continue in the trilogy. Here he is speaking from the Bounceabout, early in Homecoming.

The Bounceabout. Ha! The Nausea would be more appropriate. And twice in one day?

Damn the old man! He knows how those rough jumps affect me. And he damn near ordered me to come. Blast Derik. I should have been the one left on charge, not that soft-headed fool. He’s even older than my father!

And now my father even admits he doesn’t have the slightest idea of where he’s going. Just that some possible jump points feel more “right” than others. Well, I knew it was a useless quest.

Still, he has a habit of being right. And if there’s even a chance of other R’il’nai out there …. If one of them were female ….

Damn it, the R’il’noids are better than either race! We’re smarter than the Humans; more practical and creative than the pure R’il’nai. We don’t need the R’il’nai any more. But if the old man finds others ….

I’m his heir, the son who has inherited the most of his R’il’nian genes. He mustn’t have a child by a pure R’il’nian!

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

 

Wif k’Roi Laian (A to Z Challenge)

Wif is the son of Roi and Feline (feh-LEEN), conceived when both were forced into a sex show as slaves. As a result of this episode and its aftermath, Feline was not quite sane and was extremely possessive of the child. Roi carries the Coven gene and is barred by the Genetics board from having any other offspring, but Wif did not inherit this from his father and as an adult has numerous offspring. He looks strikingly like his grandfather, Lai, except for an eye color that matches his father’s: gold with flecks of metallic gold. In our time, that of the upcoming trilogy, he has become the Guardian of Earth.

He appeared briefly as a baby in Homecoming (where he played an important role as a catalyst) and again when he is three and a half years old at the end of Tourist Trap. I am letting him speak shortly after the end of Tourist Trap.

I rode my pony all morning, even when we cantered! And I wasn’t the least bit tired. Well, my legs were just a little stiff. But this afternoon Daddy said we’d go in the canoe on the river, because he wanted to show me some fish like we don’t have on Central. I had to promise not to jump up and down, though.

I don’t know why Mother didn’t want me to come to Falaron. She never wants me to do anything that’s fun. Even my pony back home. She kept screaming about how dangerous it was, even with Flame leading me. I like auntie Flame better’n Mother, but Daddy says I mustn’t tell her that. He says I have to be polite to her. Even Grandma Marna says that. Grandma Marna made Mother let me come, though.

Oh, look at that bird! It just swooped right down and caught a fish in its feet. Talons, Daddy says.

Flame and Penny are leading my pony and Daddy’s horse along the bank. There’s a path there. I like Penny. She doesn’t scream like Mother. She says I ride really well, and she showed me how to put on my pony’s bridle. Not the saddle, though, I can’t reach that high.

I wish Penny’d come back to Central and be my Auntie, like Flame. I asked her if she would, after lunch, but she just turned red. So did Daddy. Did I say something wrong?

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Penny Ansdor (A to Z Challenge)

Penny is a guide who works for the Falaron Company, hoping some day to become a trekmaster. She has been assigned to guide Roi and his three slaves (who to her surprise do not even consider claiming their freedom on Falaron) on a Challenge journey from the Spine Range down the Surprise River to the port at the river mouth. She has broken up with her boyfriend, who resented how her job brought her into close contact with off-planet men. She is speaking from near the beginning of Tourist Trap, after the first day on the trail.

So far, so good. They’re certainly not the spoiled brats I usually get – no problem at all getting them to help with the camp chores. In fact, they seemed to enjoy bringing in snow to melt and wood for the fire, and helping feed the dogs. And for a group that admitted they were new to dog sledding, they did a darned good job of handling. Of course the helpfulness may disappear once the novelty wears off!

And if I didn’t know Roi was free and the other three were slaves, I sure couldn’t tell from the way they behaved. If anything, Roi seems the most willing to put himself out for the others.

At least they’re all in good physical condition, and if the way they took to dog-sledding is any guide, they should be able to handle the things they’re supposed to be experienced with, like the hang gliding and horseback riding. Sailing – well, Timi’s supposed to be good, but he’s the one that bothers me most in terms of attitude. I’ll have to teach them how to handle the rafting and rock climbing, but they seem willing to learn. Not like some of the clients I get.

Of course that’s assuming everything goes all right, and we don’t have any problems. Since it’s a Challenge, I can’t call in help unless it’s a real emergency. Well I hope we don’t have any.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

P.S. I’ve been so busy keeping up I haven’t bothered to check how may posts I’ve put out. Knew I was approaching 1000, but it turns out this is number 1018!

Outer Council (A to Z Challenge)

The Councils were originally formed to provide the R’il’nai some feedback on how the Human population of the Confederation would react to R’il’nian actions. All members showed strong R’il’nian traits, but until the development of the Çeren index (which measured the fraction of active genetic material of R’il’nian origin) membership was rather helter-skelter. By a century after the Çeren index was developed, it was formalized: those with a Çeren index of more than 72 (1/2 the active gene R’il’nian-derived) were considered R’il’noid; those with more than 108 (3/4) were called High R’il’noids and expected to act as part of the Outer Council when on Central, and the Inner Council was made up of those with Çeren indices of 120 or greater (7/8). By the time of Homecoming, the Inner Council was effectively running the Confederation, though Lai as the last surviving R’il’nian retained veto power (which he rarely used, recognizing that all too soon the Inner Council would be on its own.) The Outer Council was an advisory body for the Inner Council and its members were on call for assignments throughout the Confederation, as were all R’il’noids.

It must be emphasized that both Councils were concerned strictly with Confederation law, which dealt with R’il’noids and relationships between planets and between species. Individual planets had their own laws and governments and aside from a few things that were requited to join the Confederation (such as not trying to settle or exploit a planet with a native sentient or near-sentient species,) any form of government was accepted and could not be interfered with by the Confederation. Think of the United Nations with absolute power to stop wars between member states, but absolutely nothing corresponding to the declaration of human rights.

Thus Central, for instance, though the seat of the Confederation for historical reasons, was under the control of an elected assembly of Humans, and slavery was accepted there. On Falaron, the vacation planet in Tourist Trap, slavery was illegal.

Confederation law did trump planetary law, and R’il’noids were not subject to planetary law. There was actually good historical reason for this: R’il’noids trying to do their job had been executed for inadvertently violating some rather strange local laws. But by the time of Homecoming some R’il’noids were taking advantage of this fact.

Although the Inner Council met regularly, the Outer Council was convened only under extraordinary conditions. Such a condition might be an amendment to the Articles of Confederation. To quote Carina, the oldest member of the Inner Council and the expert of Confederation law, when she as asked about amendments:

“Part of the original Articles,” she said without opening her eyes. “Yes, it can be changed. Two-thirds of the Inner Council—not two-thirds plus—and a simple majority of the entire Council, inner and outer combined. Then two-thirds of the planets in the Confederation have to ratify it. It can be done, but it’ll take time—probably several years, if not decades.”

But for the most part, the Outer Council serves as the eyes, ears, hands, and feet of the Confederation.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. Bold type indicates that more information has been or will be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Galactica (A to Z Challenge)

Tourist Trap: 2012 fiction book of the year, Reader Views.

Galactica is the lingua franca of the Jarnian Confederation. It is a language based on sound and hearing, and one almost all humans can learn to produce and understand.

Certainly there are variations. On some planets the language has drifted so far that they have developed their own languages, and Galactica has to be taught as a second language. But all children who are taught to read are taught to read Galactica, though planetary dialects may make Galactica spoken on one planet very difficult for the native of another planet to understand. (Think of the varieties of English before radio or television.)

Natural linguistic drift has been balanced by the very long life spans of the R’il’nai and many R’il’noids. When there is a living speaker of a language who learned it several millennia before, pronunciation shifts are very slow. New words, however, are readily incorporated. Probably not as fast as in English, since the pace of technological change is much slower. This relative technological stagnation is also due to a R’il’nian talent: conditional precognition is invaluable in recognizing unforeseen consequences.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Flame (A to Z Challenge)

Flame is slave-bred, a redhead with green eyes and a very fair (but not freckled) complexion that sunburns easily. At the time she is speaking from, she has never been outdoors and has never seen the sky. She is an important character in Homecoming and Tourist Trap, though she does not appear in Horse Power. She is the least intelligent of Roi’s companions, but the most loyal. She has an eidetic memory: she can recall every detail of something seen once. She is a bit of a clothes horse, and she has the height and figure to pull it off. Here she speaks from before the start of Homecoming.

Of course I can dance. I was bred to dance. Long legs, long body and arms, perfect coordination and I’ve been made to perform exercises that boost strength, coordination and agility ever since I can remember. My breeder was a master instructor in the dance, and when I was old enough he began putting me into his classes.

How old? What do you mean? Years? Numbers? I don’t understand those, just the rhythm of the dance. I’m still growing, I know that.

Classes. My owner had me dance at times with those he had in for training, and one of them was really good. Snowy, he called himself, and somehow we both danced better together than apart. Even my owner noticed and he bought Snowy, saying he’d train us as a pair. Snowy thought as he danced, and sometimes he would come up with variations that my owner really liked. I wasn’t so happy when Snowy wanted to add Amber and Timi so we’d have four dancers, but he pointed out that four of us, dancing really well together, would bring a high enough price that we’d likely be treated well or at least not just thrown away. And maybe we could even train other dancers when we got too old to dance ourselves.

That last didn’t seem very important to me, but staying together was. Snowy, and later Amber and Timi, were the first friends I’d ever had.

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Coryn (A to Z Challenge)

Coryn K’Derik Tarlian is Derik’s son and head boy of the 12^th year at Tyndall, a boarding school where most of the students are R’il’noids with esper abilities. Cory is a secondary character in Homecoming, is mentioned in Tourist Trap, and because he is non-aging, will still be around in the upcoming trilogy. Here he is speaking from the first section of Homecoming.

(Incidentally, the R’ and l’ are palatalized, as in Russian. An alternate spelling of R’il’noid would be Ryilynoid.)

I’m not sure why Kim asked me to tutor this Roi. Oh, the older students are always expected to tutor the younger ones, but a paralyzed youngster who everyone says is my father’s catamite? I know he’s dad’s slave. I saw him once on a visit, though he wasn’t paralyzed then. Beat me riding, in fact. But what is he doing here? Dad’s a practical joker, sure, but he doesn’t play that kind of jokes.

Anyway I took him on, though I expect it’ll be a real challenge even if Kim’s right in thinking he’s pretty bright. He’s been a slave; he can’t have learned anything. But Xazhar K’Zhaim, the 10^th year leader, is bound and determined the kid’s going to fail. Xazhar’s a bully. If I have anything to say about it, he’s not going to get his way this time!

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

Amber (A to Z Challenge)

Amber is a character in all three of my published books: Homecoming, Tourist Trap and Horse Power. She is blond, blue-eyed, and pretty, but has a tendency to put on weight. This is how she might have told her story early in Homecoming, when she was still a pre-teen.

Amber is what my parents named me, but of course now I have to answer to whatever my owner calls me. I’m not sure why, because we didn’t even have slavery at home. Home. Where is my home? I don’t know. I can’t even remember the name of my planet.

I do know that I was in school when they came, because I remember how pleased I was at figuring out what multiplication meant. After that things got blurry and when they unblurred again, I was being sold at a slave auction. I was sold again several times, and I think put on another spaceship. This time my new owner asked a lot of questions, and when I said I’d had dancing lessons he sold me again, to a trainer of dancers.

That wasn’t too bad except for the slave collar, but I’d learned by then to do what I was told—fast. Those things hurt and I wasn’t going to give the trainer any excuse to use it! But that was where I met the others.

Timi first. He was a captive, like me, maybe a year older. He was determined not to give in to the collar, and he got into an awfully lot of trouble. He was a terrific dancer when he was cooperating, though. Then a little later Snowy and Flame showed up. They’re about the same age as Timi.

Mostly the slave-breds didn’t want much to do with the captives, and us captives felt the same way about them. Snowy and Flame were both slave-bred, but I noticed right away how they danced as a team. They were good! I think they were there for polishing, but Snowy was watching the rest of us, too. One day he came over and asked me if I’d like to try dancing with them. “I’ve got an idea for a dance for four people,” he said, “and I think it’d be a good one for you. If we can find another boy it might even get us a better owner.”

“Timi’s very good if you can get him to work with you,” I said, and he nodded.

“I’ll see if I can talk him around.”

Well, he did, and after a month of practicing when the trainer was busy elsewhere, we performed our dance when he was watching. Snowy was really good at making up dances, and I think the trainer was impressed. Anyway he sold us as a group, which was what Snowy was after. Our new owner wasn’t exactly what Snowy was looking for, though, and he really watched the guests we were made to dance for. I think he engineered the next sale, without either of the owners realizing it.

So the four of us came to belong to Derik. He’s nice enough, though he has an absolutely rotten overseer. I’m really worried right now, though. Snowy’s sick, and Derik took him away and told us not to worry. Timi’s kind of taken over the leadership, but he can’t make dances like Snowy could. How much longer are we going to be able to stay together? And where’s Snowy?

I’m doing my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I’ll introduce them quickly, say what point of time they’re talking from since their situations change drastically through the books, and let them talk. Background information will vary according to what I’m talking about. All of these blogs will be scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time. Today I’m adding an extra A: Thanks to Arlee Bird, who started this whole A to Z thing.