Late December Update

It’s been a while since I posted a writing update on this blog, but seeing as I intend to blog a lot more actively in the coming year, I suppose I should start with an update.

First off, my current WIP. I’m making good progress on Gunslinger to Earth, and should finish it in early January. I’m also revising it as I go along, which means that it should be ready to send off to my editor by then as well. Right now, I’m planning for an April book release. So if you’re enjoying Gunslinger to the Galaxy, which I published just a couple of weeks ago, you’ll soon be able to read the thrilling conclusion to that trilogy as well.

That’s not the biggest thing I’ve been working on, though. The biggest thing would have to be rewriting my business plan in preparation for 2019. I’ve put a lot of work into it, and I think I’ve got it to the point where it needs to be, though I anticipate that I’ll be making a lot of other changes to it as the year progresses.

I can honestly say that I’ve built a business that can sustain itself. The problem for the last few years is that it’s not yet at the point where it can sustain me. But with the perspective I’ve gained from rewriting my business plan, I think that I can change that. The trouble is that it’s going to require a massive investment of time and energy, more than just money.

To make a long story short, I’ve sold off some investments and put it into the business so that I can go full-time for the next six months. If I can grow my writing income six-fold within that time, then I can keep writing full-time indefinitely. This is a huge leap for me, and I have no idea if it will work, but it’s better to have a bad plan than no plan at all. If I fail, I’m sure I’ll learn a lot of valuable lessons from the experience. And if I succeed, then I’ll basically be living the dream, at least until that next tier of success. Onward and upward!

What this means for you is that you can expect to see a lot more writing from me in the future. I’m also working on my short fiction game, which I plan to blog about soon. Currently I’ve got 40 active submissions, and since I plan to write a new short story every month, that number will grow accordingly. Expect to see some more short story publications in the coming months and years, hopefully a couple of high-profile ones.

Ideally, I want to get to the point where I always have a novel up for preorder. That means one new novel each quarter, or four novels per year. Besides that, I’ve got a large backlog of short stories and a few bundles that I intend to publish soon. Also, the blog.

Lots of stuff coming out. You can expect to see a lot more from me in the coming year. The best way to keep up with it all is to subscribe to my email list, so if you haven’t done that already, be sure to do so. Thanks for reading, and see you all next year!

Yes, I still exist

Wow, it’s been more than a month since the last time I posted on this blog? This needs to be rectified, and by more than a solitary post.

It’s been a bumpy few weeks. Not rocky, but not smooth either. Between working unpredictable odd jobs and unexpectedly finding myself in a romantic relationship, it’s been difficult to get into a productive writing and publishing routine—hence, the less frequent posting on this blog.

That said, I’ve seen a marked increase in book sales recently, which is encouraging. Getting a couple of Bookbub featured deals definitely helps. By my calculations, I have about six months of expenses in my business savings, which includes things like Bookbub deals and convention costs. The goal, though, is still to build my email list, and that’s proceeding a lot slower than I would like. I need to find new and better ways to get my books in front of the readers who will love them.

Writing-wise, things are proceeding at a slow but steady pace. I’ve put Queen of the Falconstar on the back burner for the time being, to work on Gunslinger to Earth. If all goes well, I should be finished with that WIP by mid-January, and release it in April. That will complete the Gunslingers trilogy!

I think it might be cool to release a few excerpts in audio as well as on this blog. What do you guys think? Record a few MP3s of my own narration, release them as downloads. Or maybe put them up on YouTube. It’s a bit ironic, because Gunslinger to Earth is a first-person book from Jane Carter’s perspective, but still, I think I can pull it off. It will also be good practice for audiobook narration, which I hope to do more of in the following year.

In other news, I’ve decided to hold off on self-publishing any more of my short stories until I’ve sold the first publication rights. Up until now, I’ve been fitting them into my publishing schedule for the months when I don’t have a novel release. But I think that holding off to publish them traditionally, even with a market that pays semi-pro rates, is better than self-publishing them just for the sake of having something to release.

Don’t get me wrong: I still want to self-publish my short stories, I just want to sell them to a magazine first. In the short term, this means that I won’t have as many things to fill out my publishing schedule. In the long-term, it means that I need to write more short stories now in order to have more content to submit to the magazines, and ultimately to fill out my publishing schedule later.

So my goal from now on is to write at least one short story a month, on top of my regular WIP schedule. Some of these will be in the same universe as my novels, much like Starchild or Jane Carter of Earth. I’ll probably self-publish those first, to promote my new releases. But the other stories will stay on submission until they sell, preferably at professional rates.

I really need to up my short game. Speaking of which, Larry Correia just released the cover art for his second short story collection, and it is hilariously badass, much like Larry himself. I love the fact that his wife is in it too.

Looking ahead, I hope to get back into a semi-regular blogging routine, with more book reviews. I’ve read quite a few books recently, and it would be good to share a few reading recommendations. And I’m still writing regularly. Just because I’ve neglected the blog doesn’t mean I’m neglecting everything else.

That just about does it for now. Take care, and thanks for reading!

End of summer update

It’s been a couple of months since I wrote a blog post that wasn’t just a new release, or a bunch of book promos. Life got a little bit insane for a while, and I neglected the blog to take care of other things.

Life is still pretty crazy, but it’s starting to fall into more of a routine. Thankfully, even though I dropped the blog for a while, I’m still writing—in fact, I’m writing more than ever. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote the first draft of Gunslinger to the Galaxy, and I should be finishing up with the revisions in the next couple of days.

Also, I started work on Queen of the Falconstar, a bridge novel between Sons of the Starfarers and Gaia Nova. This is my first real attempt at making a detailed outline, and if the outline turns out to be true, it will be my longest novel yet. The deadline is February 2nd, 2019, and I hope to do three revision passes as I write it.

It’s all very organized, which is a relatively new thing for me, since I always used to think of myself as a “pantser” or “discovery writer.” But my opinions on that whole paradigm have changed, which will soon be the subject of a lengthy blog post.

I also ran my first BookBub promotion last week, with some pretty incredible results. I definitely hope to do some more promotions with them in the future. Retooling things to make that possible.

So that’s what I’ve been up to. I’ve got a new release scheduled for every month from now to December 2019, with all-new full-length novels to come out every four months for the forseeable future. My writing schedule is booked from now to May 2020. Again, it’s all very organized, and that organization is starting to bear fruit. Now I just need to make more time to read, seeing as I have a tendency to acquire books faster than I can read them. Also, it would be fun to post some book reviews.

WIP excerpt: Gunslinger to the Galaxy

Gunslinger to the Galaxy

Phase:1.0 Draft

100%

MyBookProgress by Author Media

I’m happily at work on Gunslinger to the Galaxy right now, just coming up on the halfway mark. With my new writing process, I make all the revisions as I go along, which means that the first chapter is more or less in a presentable state.

(As a side note, someday, I should do a blog post on my new writing process, because it’s radically different from the way I used to do it. Still got to work out some kinks, which I’m doing right now with Gunslinger to the Galaxy, but once I’ve got it down I should be able to produce publishable books on the first draft, in only a few weeks, as opposed to taking multiple drafts over the course of several years. Exciting stuff.)

In any case, here’s an excerpt from the first chapter. Enjoy!

In Which My Dear Husband and I Return to Earth

My name is Jane Kletchka, and I’m here to set the record straight.

By now, you’ve already heard my dear husband’s account of the Gorinal incident: how we were stranded in the armpit of the galaxy when the Gorinal jumpgate went down, how we both got caught up in an outcast Immortal’s million-year vendetta, and how together we thwarted it and stopped the galaxy from falling into a civilization-ending war. If only we’d known what we’d unleashed by doing so.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. As I’ve already said, my name is Jane Kletchka. I graduated summa cum laude from Earthfleet Academy with a double major in xenolinguistics and history. My parents urged me to pursue a graduate degree planetside, but I took the path less traveled and became a freelance xenologist. After gazing down on Earth from Luna for so long, it just didn’t make sense to clip my wings for another four years. I figured I’d spend a few years traveling the galaxy, do my part for intergalactic peace, then come back, find a nice Mormon boy, and settle down to raise a family.

Instead, I found my dear husband on the far side of the galaxy. If you’d told me only a year before that I’d marry a gunslinging mercenary, I would have laughed in your face. But so it was. Needless to say, settling down wasn’t in the cards anytime soon.

Still, as an old-fashioned Earth girl, I insisted on introducing him to my parents. So once our work at Gorinal Prime was complete, we set the Star Runner on a course for Sol.

* * * * *

“Sixteen days,” said Sam, shaking his head in disbelief. “Can you believe it? Sixteen f—”

“Ah ah,” I said, stopping him before he could swear. I love my dear husband, but he has a tongue as wild as the colony of New Texas where he was born.

“Sorry, honey,” he said, putting an arm around my waist. I tousled his dirty blond hair and glanced out the cockpit window at the starry warp-bubble that surrounded our ship.

“How long did it take when you first left Earth space?” I asked.

“Ten freaking months,” he said, catching himself. “Took a third-class berth on a Hyadian star crawler headed straight for Aldebaran, and by the end I was so bored I half-considered shooting myself for the diversion.”

“I’m glad you didn’t,” I said, stroking his back with my fingertips.

Down by my legs, a calico cat meowed. The Star Runner is a cozy little ship, designed for a crew of two with room for only one passenger. That was why Imutab had taken her cat form. A shapeshifter empath from the Silver Diadem, she’d signed on with us shortly after the Gorinal incident. As newlyweds, we didn’t mind her, so long as she was discreet.

“Uh, Jane,” said Tarak from the copilot’s chair. “Sam’s thinking about—”

“Thanks, but I’ve got a pretty good idea.”

Unfortunately, “discreet” does not accurately describe Sam’s copilot and first mate. Tarak is a Myadian, a race from the Scutum-Crux arm of the galaxy. They look a bit like hairless satyrs. Being telepaths, others tend to distrust them, so they mostly keep to their own kind. Tarak fell out with his clan, making him doubly the misfit. He’s a good person, though. It took a while for Sam to come around to him, but even he had to admit that it can be useful to have a telepath as your first mate, no matter how awkward or annoying he can be.

I leaned over and gave my dear husband a rather lengthy kiss. Imutab purred contentedly, while Tarak thankfully refrained from any more unwanted commentary. A cozy ship like the Star Runner makes everyone feel close.

“Let’s come out of warp before we’re inside Luna’s orbit,” I said. “I want to let my parents know we’re coming.”

“Sure thing, honey. We’re in no rush.”

“Also, I’m sure that Earthfleet will want to debrief us.”

“Debrief?” he said, frowning, “Honey, we’re private citizens.”

“Private citizens with a warship and a letter of marque and reprisal that goes straight to the top of Earthfleet itself. Or have you already forgotten all the upgrades we got from the EFS Auriga?”

“Don’t tell me you never dreamed about marrying a pirate.”

“Actually,” Tarak interjected, “Jane never—”

“That’s enough, Tarak,” I said, leaning over to give my dear husband another kiss. Imutab’s purring grew louder.

* * * * *

Returning to Sol was the easy part. Getting to Earth was much harder.

First, we had to get permission from Earthfleet to approach the planet itself. The Star Runner was originally a Setarni ship, which meant that the authorities didn’t recognize us as human at first. Even after we showed them the letter of marque and reprisal, they still insisted on an escort—for our “convenience.”

At least the debriefing was relatively painless. Since we fell in a category somewhere between mercenaries and pirates, they moved us along as quickly as possible. The same can’t be said of the authorities at Earth.

I won’t bore you with all the catch-22s of the bureaucratic nightmare we had to endure just to set foot on our beloved homeworld. Since since Sam had lost his passport and Earthfleet didn’t officially recognize us, we spent almost thirty-six hours waiting on a temproary ID from the colonial consulate. When the customs agents found out about Sam’s numerous firearms, they tried to force him to register them all, which threw him into a fit. I can’t remember how I managed to smooth that one out.

Eventually, we worked out an arrangement that left the Star Runner in high orbit, technically still in Earthfleet’s jurisdiction, and agreed to teleport onto the main spaceport for a shuttle to the surface.

“I don’t see why we need a shuttle when we’ve got line of sight to the surface,” Sam muttered as we made the final preparations for our departure.

“Because the only place we can register is on the spaceport,” I told him. “If the authorities pull us over when we’re planetside, and we haven’t—”

“I know, I know.”

I gave him a quick kiss, which seemed to help. Tarak keyed the teleporter, and the next we knew, we were surrounded in a conduit of shimmering blue light.

Teleporting is never a pleasant experience, but I take to it better than Sam does. As the light dissipated to reveal the spaceport concourse’s teleport pad, he made a face like he’d swallowed his own vomit. Thankfully, that was the worst of it.

The first thing about the spaceport that stood out to me was the sheer number of humans that filled the place. There were very few aliens in the crowd, and most of those were Hyadians. After spending so much time on the far side of the galaxy, it felt weird to be surrounded by people who look just like me. The second thing that stood out was just how crowded the spaceport was. Between the teleport receiving pads and the security checkpoint, people were packed almost shoulder to shoulder.

A haggard security officer with a permanent frown and bags under her eyes ushered us off of the platform. “This way down, this way down,” she said with practiced monotony. “The checkpoint is directly ahead, on the right.”

I’ve never seen Sam so tense outside of a combat situation. I took his hand.

We passed through the security scanners without incident. There was some confusion on the other side when the officer failed to locate his ID implants, but the documents from the consulate checked out and we proceeded to customs and registration.

Here, we were not so lucky. The customs officer refused to recognize Sam’s documents and called up his supervisor, who detained us for questioning. I rubbed my dear husband’s back and ignored his muttered cursing as we waited in the windowless interrogation room.

At length, the door swung open. “Greetings,” said a short man with brown skin and slanted eyes. His navy-blue uniform was wrinkled but clean.

Sam said nothing, so I smiled and offered my hand.

“Hi.”

He pointedly ignored my gesture and took a seat across from us.

“Your documents show that you are Sam and Jane Kletchka, from New Texas.”

“From Earth,” I corrected. “Sam is from New Texas, I’m from Earth.”

“Yes,” the officer muttered, checking his tablet. “Your ID checks out, miss Jane Elizabeth Carter. However, we have no record of marriage to a Mister Sam Kletchka.”

“Our marriage was performed at Gorinal Prime by Captain Isiatuk of the Silver Diadem,” Sam told him calmly.

The officer frowned. “Gorinal Prime? That doesn’t sound familiar.”

“It’s in the Scutum-Crux Arm,” I explained. When that failed to register a response, I added: “Of the galaxy.”

“Ah,” he said, raising an eyebrow. “I take it that isn’t in Earthspace?”

My dear husband frowned so deeply that his mouth disappeared into his beard. Things didn’t get any better from there.

I’ll spare you a blow-by-blow. Once again, the colonial consulate had to smooth things over, and we very nearly spent a night on those hard plastic seats in the interrogation room.

Eventually, though, we boarded a planetside ferry shuttle. Exhausted from the ordeal, we did so without a word, joining the mass of other zombie-like travelers who crowded the aging shuttlecraft like so many human sardines.

Mid-May update

Holy cow, it’s been forever since I’ve written a proper update. For a while there, it seemed to be nothing but more of the same. Then I got caught up with all the other things that come along with writing and publishing, and the blog sort of fell by the wayside.

Don’t worry, I’m still writing. In fact, I’m only a couple of scenes away from finishing Victors in Liberty, the last book in the Sons of the Starfarers series. A couple of days ago, I wrote a scene that I’ve been waiting to write for the last four years. Good times.

I was hoping to have this book up for preorder right now, but I think it will be better for the delay. Still aiming for a release date in July. My editor says he’s got an open slot, so I should be sending it out to him before the end of the week.

The more pressing stuff has all been on the marketing end. The GDPR has half the indie writing community in a tailspin, and I had to do a bit of research and make a few changes, like uploading my email list software. The GDPR, in case you haven’t heard, is the EU’s latest attempt to shoot sparrows with howitzers. It’s a series of data regulations aimed at big corporations like Facebook and Google, but it’s really the small businesses who are feeling the crunch. Let’s just say that my first-generation Czech immigrant ancestors made the right choice when they told the rest of Europe “y’all can go to hell—we’re going to Texas!”

Fortunately, everything is more or less in order as far as GDPR goes, or at least clost enough. The truth is, nobody knows. It’s stuff like this that made me want to write about the Outworld frontier in the first place, where there are no laws or government bureaucrats to control you. But I digress.

On a much lighter note, I’ve taken advantage of this opportunity to reorganize my email list. Specifically, I’ve split it into three lists of approximately 2,000 subscribers each, which I hope to eventually grow into five. The idea is to spread out my email campaigns over the course of four or five days, so that instead of getting a huge sales spike (which the Amazon algorithms tend to push back against), sales will be a bit more even, hopefully leading to better alsobots and other favorable treatment from the algorithms.

Being the eclectic nerd that I am, I have given these lists the following names:

LEGIO I PIA FIDELIS
LEGIO II VICTRIX
LEGIO III FELIX
LEGIO IV FIRMA
LEGIO V FULMINATA

And now I’m going through all my titles, updating the backmatter to add a signup page for my list along with the teaser chapters and other links.

So that’s what I’ve been up to, mostly. I’m also reading a lot more, and will have some book reviews real soon. Also, there’s the secret project, which I anticipate will take the next several months, possibly even years, to come to fruition.

Next WIP: Gunslinger to the Galaxy!

April update

Sorry to go dark for so long. I’ve been sick off and on for the last two months, first with a sinus infection, then with a lung infection, and lately with a persistent stomach flu. Thankfully, I’ve been functional through all of it, but not at 100%, which is why I’ve neglected the blog.

I have been writing, though. I’m currently about a third of the way through Victors in Liberty, and should finish it within the next few weeks. I’m also revising it as I go along, so as to have a publishable final draft. We’re still on track for a July release date.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been crunching a lot of book sales numbers and formulating a better business plan. The goal is to make the writing profitable enough to pay myself more than sweatshop wages. I think I’ve figured out a way to get there before the end of this year.

I also recently discovered Jordan Peterson, and have been listening to many of his lectures while doing mindless chop-wood carry-water tasks. He’s an incredible guy. One of the last few sane and reasonable people in the world with a large enough platform to counteract the constant assault of insanity that passes for today’s news cycle.

I’ve also published a double novel bundle for Bringing Stella Home and Heart of the Nebula. I originally published it exclusively on Kobo, to get around Amazon’s price matching policy so I could run useful promotions with KWL. But the Kobo promotions use coupon codes now, which means there’s no reason not to make this title available everywhere.

Nothing Found

I’m also experimenting a lot with my email list, trying out a new style for my newsletter and cycling through promotions more regularly. Makes a lot more work, since Amazon won’t make a book free unless you price match it first, but hey it’s not as bad as digging ditches.

Lots of other stuff going on behind the scenes, which I’d rather not get into just yet. When there’s significant movement, I’ll be sure to let you know.

I am so ready to finish the Sons of the Starfarers series. It’s been difficult to write at times, but I’m excited with how the last book is turning out and think it will provide an excellent ending to a story that has turned out better than I expected it to. Really looking forward to get it out there.

That’s just about it for now. Don’t worry about me: life is good and I’m still writing.

Early January Update

The holidays are over. Blergh.

I don’t generally do well when my routine gets broken up by outside forces, which is why this blog has fallen by the wayside for the last week or so. I’m also not very good at creating structure in my life where none exists, so during times like the holidays I don’t tend to do very well. This is definitely a skill that I need to work on.

In any case, the holidays are over, which means it’s time to get back to work. Thank goodness!

I am about 10,000 words from finishing my current WIP, An Empire in Disarray. With the work on my friends’ basement finished and my roommate starting school in Salt Lake today, there shouldn’t be any more interruptions between now and the end of next week. This bodes well.

When that’s done, I’ll jump right into work on Victors in Liberty. I’ve got to admit, there are other projects I’d really like to work on right now, but finishing Sons of the Starfarers takes priority.

The series was supposed to be finished way back in 2015. But I underestimated the volume of work I’d taken on—and that was before I got a girlfriend. I fell behind on my writing as the relationship got really serious, and then we broke up, which didn’t help with productivity either.

Long story short, I did a lot of things wrong back in 2014. But I learned from my mistakes, and I think my books are better because of it. So instead of finishing up Sons of the Starfarers in 2015, I’m finishing it now in 2018. And then I’m moving on to other projects.

Edenfall is at the top of that list. It’s been years since I started the Genesis Earth trilogy, which is another ball that I’ve dropped. Genesis Earth does stand alone, but I’ve been promising to finish the trilogy since I published it in 2011, and judging from the reviews (as well as the slow but remarkably steady trickle of sales), this is a WIP that deserves to get priority.

One thing I’m really trying to do this year is to get better at structuring things: my writing, my publishing and marketing efforts, my daily routine, etc. Towards that end, I’ve put together a publishing schedule for 2018. Here it is as it stands at the beginning of the new year:

JANUARY — Patriots in Retreat (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 6)
FEBRUARY — The Janus Anomaly: A Short Story
MARCH — A Queen in Hiding (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 7)
APRIL — Time and Space in Amish Country: A Short Story
MAY — An Empire in Disarray (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 8)
JUNE — Lizzie-99XT: A Short Story
JULY — Victors in Liberty (Sons of the Starfarers, Book 9)
AUGUST — Edenfall (Genesis Earth Trilogy, Book 2)
SEPTEMBER — Sholpan
OCTOBER — The Sword Bearer (The Twelfth Sword Trilogy, Book 2)
NOVEMBER — In the Beginning: A Short Story
DECEMBER — Gunslinger to the Galaxy (Gunslingers Trilogy, Book 2)

Lots of book 2s and finishing series. I suppose you could say this is the year where I start to finish what I’ve started.

And while the schedule may seem a bit daunting, the first four books are already ready to go, with Patriots in Retreat and A Queen in Hiding already up for preorder. Of the ones that are left, half are already written. So even though it seems ambitious, it’s actually quite doable, even if something crazy happens and I end up eloping to Mongolia before the end of the summer.

So that’s what I’m up to. I’ll get back to blogging as I can, but my first priority is writing, followed closely by publishing. Lots of behind the scenes stuff happening which I don’t have time to get into right now.

Take care, and thanks for reading!

Joe

Yeah, about that deadline…

They say that every battle plan falls apart upon contact with the enemy. Well, it seems I have misjudged mine. Not only are the holidays upon us, but my friend needed an extra hand on his crew to finish another friend’s basement, and I could certainly use the extra cash. An Empire in Disarray is going to be on hold until the new year.

The good news is that this shouldn’t impact the release schedule. Patriots in Retreat is finished and set to release on January 19th. The important thing now is to get A Queen in Hiding up for preorder before then.

Things are going to be a little crazy for the next couple of weeks, and not only because of the holidays. Take care!

One week left and right on track

An Empire in Disarray

Phase:1.0 Draft

Due:8 years ago

70%

MyBookProgress by Author Media

I’ve got exactly one week left on my deadline for An Empire in Disarray (book 8 of Sons of the Starfarers), and surprisingly, I’m actually on track to finish it on time. You have no idea how satisfying it will be if I can actually pull this off.

People tell me that I’m a prolific author, but I never feel like it because I almost never hit my own deadlines. For a long time, I thought that was because of a lack of discipline, but I’m starting to discover it’s more of an issue with my prewriting. As I mentioned in my previous post, I’m retooling my writing process, especially with the prewriting, and it’s making a tremendous difference.

This WIP is a proof of concept. For the last book, Victors in Liberty, I’ll see if I can replicate it. Over the next few WIPs I expect I’ll refine it even further.

Guys—if this actually works, I may be able to triple my creative output. Triple it. Instead of taking years to write novels, it will take months. Instead of agonizing over lengthy revisions and multiple drafts, I’ll be writing clean first drafts that are ready to send to the editor without making a second pass.

All this time, I’ve been using a needle and thread, and now I just got a sewing machine.

So yeah, I’m pretty excited. Also, An Empire in Disarray is on track to be finished by Christmas. I’ll still do a standard revision pass, just to make sure it’s publishable, but still.

Huzzah!

WIP excerpt: A Queen in Hiding

The arrival of the starfarer caused stirred a great deal of excitement at Little Gaia. Eve couldn’t remember the last time a man from the stars had visited their humble space station. As one of the few unmarried and eligible girls, she took extra notice of the rumors.

Old bald Thomas, the station’s geneticist, said that the starfarer’s arrival was a miracle. His wife Ethel was the matchmaker, and together they did more to determine the fate of the colonists’ lives than even the station master himself. They were the ones behind every betrothal and wedding. They were the ones with veto power over any proposed marriage. Before she could even walk, the course of Eva’s life had already been set, with her choice of suitable husband reduced to only three. Two of them were already married men more than twelve years her senior, and the last was a childhood friend that she would almost certainly have to share.

So when the mysterious starfarer declared his intention to settle down permanently, it provoked no small stir of commotion.

Almost at once, Eve’s life began to turn upside down. Ethel and old bald Tom immediately selected three young women for the starfarer, but the first of them refused. Predictably, this outraged old bald Tom, causing a small scandal.

“I hope you won’t be so obstinate,” he told Eve privately. “It’s been almost a generation since we had an opportunity like this. Without new blood, our colony is doomed to perish.”

“Don’t worry,” she reassured him. “I’m happy to wed the starfarer.”

“Good. And I hope your union will be blessed with many children. Stars know that’s what we need.”

The second woman was Astrid. She was only two years older than Eve, though growing up, they had never been more than friendly acquaintances. Eve had never expected to share a husband with Astrid, so she had never made a special effort to be close to her. Now, all that had suddenly changed.

Astrid reached out to her first, shortly after the engagements had been arranged. They met privately in Eve’s family apartments, the stars spinning silently through the windows underfoot.

“I sincerely hope you harbor no hard feelings for me,” said Astrid. “Please know that I have none against you.”

Eve smiled and gave her future sister wife a reassuring hug. “Of course I don’t, Astrid. I always expected to share a husband.”

“I wish I could say the same.”

Astrid’s grandfather had been a star wanderer from beyond the Good Hope Nebula, giving her some of the best genetics in the colony. From the way she had kept herself aloof in her earlier years, Eve had always assumed that she held this above everyone else. The desperation in Astrid’s voice surprised her.

“Can I ask you a question?” she asked.

“Certainly, Eve.”

“Why choose to marry the star wanderer? With your gentics, you could have your pick of almost any boy on the station. Why him?”

Astrid swallowed. “If you’re asking why you have to share him with me, I—”

“No, no, not at all,” said Eve, putting her hand on Astrid’s arm. “Please don’t take it that way.”

The moment passed awkwardly. Astrid smiled, but the tension still hung in the air.

“There’s more to matchmaking than genetics,” Astrid said at length. She didn’t offer any more of an explanation, and Eve didn’t push her for one. They spent the next two hours talking to each other, and by the end, they were much closer than before. But still, the unspoken questions hung over them like something rotting in the bulkheads.

Before the marriages could be solemnized, the laws of Little Gaia stated that the betrothed must be given an hour alone together, in total privacy without any outside interference. Afterwards, if either of them desired to cancel their vows for any reason or none at all, it was their legal and moral right to do so. Of course, Astrid and Eve weren’t to go in to the star wanderer together. Each would have their hour alone with him.

Astrid went first. The station master’s office was the designated room, since it was one of the few living areas on the station with soundproof bulkheads. She wore her finest red silk dress, handed down as an heirloom from her grandmother, with a silver girdle inlaid with opals. Eve didn’t have anything nearly so fine.

The hour passed like a neverending eternity. Eve sat outside the office, her emotions vacillating from fear to impatience and back again. She’d heard stories about what couples did in their alloted time alone together, up to and including sex. Things that wouldn’t otherwise be permitted were fair game, since no one would ever have to know.

The hour finally passed. Eve stood breathlessly at the door, waiting for Astrid to emerge. When another full minute passed without any indication from inside, Eve wondered if perhaps she should knock. But before she could, the door slid open and Astrid stepped out.

“Well?” said Eve, her heart pounding nervously.

Astrid stared off as if distracted by something down the hall. Her hair was a little messier than it had been before she’d entered, and her dress was wrinkled ever so slightly. Eve’s gut began to clench.

“Astrid?”

“Oh,” said Astrid, suddenly noticing her. She gave her a smile, which Eve weakly returned.

“Well?”

“Eve, your face is pale. Are you all right?”

I could ask the same of you, Eve thought silently. She shook her head and looked away.

“I’m fine.”

“That’s good.”

An awkward moment of silence passed. There were a thousand questions Eve wanted to ask, but none of them seemed appropriate, and Astrid wasn’t volunteering any answers. In fact, she went right back to staring off at the distance, as if Eve weren’t even there.

“Well,” Eve said at length, “I guess I’d better go.”

“Wait.”

Astrid lay her hands on Eve’s shoulders and looked her in the eye. Her expression was suddenly serious. A chill ran down Eve’s back.

“What is it?”

“Tomas, our future husband, he’s—how do you say?—a telepath.”

She frowned. “A telepath?”

“Yes. Not just him, either. He’s one of many, and now I—I don’t know how to put it. But if you don’t want to go in to him, that’s okay.”

She gently took Astrid’s hands and eased them off of her shoulders.

“Please don’t scare me like this, Astrid.”

“I’m sorry. I’m not trying to—honest.”

“Is he… dangerous?”

“What?” Astrid laughed. “No, of course not. Well, he did used to be a pirate, but those days are behind him now. He just wants to settle down.”

How do you know so much about him?

“Eve,” said Astrid, putting a hand on her arm. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“Then why did you say it was okay if I didn’t want to go in?”

“Forgive me. What I meant is that you don’t have to let him read your mind. If you do, you won’t ever be the same.”

Her words were not reassuring in the least. By now, Eve’s heart was pounding something awful. But she swallowed and nodded, steeling her nerves.

“Thank you, Astrid. I’ll keep that in mind.”

Spontaneously, Astrid gave her a hug. It was one of the most open and honest hugs that Eve had ever received. They held each other for several moments, Eve’s nervous heart still fluttering.

The station master’s office was one of the most richly furnished rooms on the station. An ornate blue and gold rug graced the floor, the geometric design breathtaking in its detail. The table that sat in the center was made from authentic wood, its legs gilded with gold. Hand-woven and highly stylized tapestries depicted the history of the small colony from its founding nearly ten generations ago. Plush, oversized divans ringed the walls, with dozens of tasseled pillows strewn about for additional comfort.

The star wanderer sat on the far side of the room, his arms resting comfortably along the back of the divan. He was healthy and young, with a head of thick brown hair and a trim, attractive figure. The moment his eyes laid hold of her, they never left. Eve stared at the floor demurely, unsure whether to sit across from him or on the same divan.

He gestured for her to join him, which shattered her indecision. Still, her heart pounded as she sat with her knees close together, only an arm’s breadth away. She looked up at him expectantly, but he did nothing to break the silence.

His gaze, for all its intensity, was surprisingly gentle. As she looked into his eyes, she realized there was no need to feel threatened by him at all. His clothes were foreign but simple, a gray uniform shirt that bore no isnignia with a synthleather jacket that had seen considerable wear. They gave him a roguish appearance that only increased his allure.

Should I say something? Eve wondered as the silence rapidly became unbearable. She remembered what Astrid had said about him being a telepath. Was he reading her thoughts even now? If so, what did he think of her.

He leaned forward and put a hand on her knee. A thrill of excitement shot through her body at his touch.

“Hello, Eve,” he said, his eyes never leaving her. “My name is Tomas. Astrid told you about me, didn’t she?”

Eve’s eyes widened. “You—how can you—I thought you couldn’t speak our language.”

“I can, with Astrid’s help. She’s shown me much about your people. I hope that in time, you can show me much about yourself as well.”

He spoke slowly and carefully formed his words, but there was no doubt that he understood them. Eve cleared her throat and sat up straight, her hands in her lap.

“What would you like to know?”

He withdrew his hand from her. “Do you fear me, Eve?”

“No. I’m… just a little nervous, is all.”

“That’s understandable. Things always move quickly when a star wanderer settles down. I take it you didn’t expect to be marrying one?”

“No,” she admitted. “But I’m looking forward to it.”

“As am I.”

He leaned back and crossed his legs. “Astrid told you that I’m a telepath?”

“She mentioned it, yes.”

“Would you like to be one, too?”

Eve paused. “What do you mean?”

He held out his hand toward her. As she watched, a faint blue light traveled up his arm, growing brighter until it reached his palm. She realized that he was offering it to her.

“There is much that I can show you, Eve. But if we are to join minds, it must be your choice, not mine.”

She swallowed, unsure what to do. Astrid’s words came back to her, about how she would never be the same once she let him into her mind. But if they were to be married, wasn’t she supposed to give herself to him anyway? She’d never heard of anything like this, but it didn’t seem too much to ask.

Tentatively, she reached out her hand. As their fingertips touched, the pulse of light ran across her skin, sending chills in its wake. She withdrew and shut her eyes as it passed all the way to her heart.

A sudden wave of dizziness made her head spin. Though her eyes were closed, she could clearly see the station master’s office with all of its furnishings. Except it wasn’t the starfarer she saw seated on the divan. It was her.

She opened her eyes with a start. Now she was looking at Tomas again, but she could still see herself through his eyes. She could also see the hallway outside, where Astrid was waiting for her. That wasn’t all. Other images swam before her, of places she didn’t recognize—places she had never been. There was a dark, bare room with bars around the door like a prison, and a spaceous mausoleum with large, windowed coffins lining all the walls. She saw them as clearly as if with her own eyes.

“Take a deep breath,” Tomas advised her. “Put everything to the back of your mind except what you can see with your own eyes.”

She did as he told her, and the dizziness soon passed. At the same time, she felt a whole host of thoughts and emotions, none of which were hers. The cacophony in her mind was deafening, and she soon felt overwhelmed.

That was when the voice of the mother-queen spoke.

Be at peace, Eve. You are among friends.

The voice instantly brought calm to the chaos. It was quiet and still, yet it had a commanding presence that dispelled her confusion and fear. She saw, as if in a dream, a young woman whose body was covered in tattoos. The woman looked straight at her, and she realized it was no dream.

I am Reva, the mother-queen. I am in you, and you are in me. My voice brings peace to the chaos, and light to the children of the stars.

What is this?

You are one of us now, Eve. Your mind is melded to ours.

She instinctively reached out to Tomas, who put a hand on her shoulder. His touch was another point of familiarity that provided an anchor to her. She looked at him, and realized that he could read all her thoughts.

“What is this?”

“It’s a long story,” he began.

In the blink of an eye, his life’s history flashed before her mind. A modest childhood, on a colony much like her own. His departure on his father’s starship, full of excitement for the future. His first year as a starfarer, struggling to make it on his own. But then things began to change. A war had broken out in the frontier stars, spreading like fire from world to world. His starship lost, he had fallen in with a band of fearsome pirates, who had taken him beyond the most distant colonies to a hidden world where no soul had ever been. And there, something wonderful and terrifying had happened.

Reva closed her eyes and guided Eve through all of their collective memories since Star’s End. She seamlessly wove the disparate pieces into a narrative that encompassed the full breadth of their experience, from the awakening of the collective to Tomas’s departure and arrival at Little Gaia.

Eve gasped for breath. She felt as if she’d lived a dozen lifetimes in the space of a few minutes.

“Less, actually,” said Tomas.

“Beg pardon?”

He gently caressed her shoulders, bringing her back to herself. “It’s been less than a few minutes.” We can read each others’ mind, you know.

Is this what Astrid meant that my life would never be the same?

Yes.

Eve paused, unsure what to think about that. Until just a few moments ago, it would have terrified her. But now that her mind had been expanded, she felt as if a concourse of bright and fantastic worlds had suddenly opened up to her. All her life, she had only known the hundred and twenty two people on board her little station. But now, she saw worlds full of faces, friends, and family she’d never known. She felt the pain of loss and the joy of reunion, the thrill of victory and the despair of defeat. It was as if her whole life up to this moment had been cast in black and white, and only now had begun to take color.

It’s incredible, isn’t it?

The last thought came from Astrid. Eve reached out to her and saw, in an instant, all of her apprehensions about sharing a husband with a sister wife. Most of it was simply due to the uncertainty, and as Eve opened up in kind, her anxieties rapidly dissipated.

You really don’t hold it against me.

No, of course not. Why should I?

My mother was in a polygamous marriage, and it made her miserable.

Immediately, Eve saw everything: the years of toxic jealousy and rivalry, all kept scrupulously hidden from the public eye. Years of speaking as little to each other as possible, with passive-aggressive turf wars over every inconsequential thing. It was enough to drive anyone crazy.

Then why did you choose Tomas, when you could have had your pick of anyone?

Because all my life, the other girls have seen me as a threat. That’s the dark side of having good genetics. I would love to have a husband all to myself, but things can change quickly, and I’d rather marry an unknown than be trapped with a sister wife who hates me.

It all suddenly made sense to her. As she looked into Astrid’s mind, she couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming sense of compassion and empathy. She wasn’t the stuck-up girl everyone thought her to be. In fact, she was more like Eve than either of them had realized.

There’s no need to worry about sharing a husband, Astrid. I’ll be happy to be your sister wife.

Out in the hallway, Astrid quietly wept. Her relief was so strong that Eve herself was nearly brought to tears. If they had been in the same room, she had no doubt but that they’d embrace each other.

Thank you, Eve. That means a lot to me.

It’s the least I can do. We sister wives have to stick together.

We certainly will.

Tomas smiled. “I think this is the start of something wonderful.”

“Yes,” Eve agreed, cuddling up to him. He put his arm around her and kissed her long and slow. No longer were they strangers. As one kiss gave way to another, Eve’s fears and apprehensions melted away, and she felt as if she’d known her husband-to-be for a lifetime.