Hello friends and readers,

Last week we talked about Firefly, and I do mean we talked. I've rarely received so many responses to an email. Love it. Thanks! (I am still trying to catch up!)

This week is a little more about what brought that subject up. A very talented and successful writer I met at the Smarter Artists Summit in Austin, Texas last spring queried me about a collaborative series he has been wanting to start but got too busy to move forward. Part of that conversation was that it had a Firefly feel to it.

Over the last several months I've been asked to do a lot of short story anthologies. At first, I'm like, "No problem! I can bang out a short story a lot faster than a novel."

One invitation becomes two; two becomes four; then there is an avalanche of great new projects complete with deadlines! The invitations are very flattering and I am not sure how I went from submitting manuscripts that get rejected to being invited to more than I can do. I hope the truth is that I can write a good story and turn it in on time.

EXPLORATIONS: WAR

One of these word parties is the third book in the Explorations anthology series: Explorations: War. I submitted The Hand of Empyrean, which is one of the best shorts stories I've written for a while. Think space opera meets action adventure. The protagonist is an assassin named Pyr who has made a deal with ... well let’s just say a really bad, nearly god-like power, and it is coming back to bite her. Thinking she is the last of her race, she finds a young girl named Eva and her father – who she needs to manipulate and / kill in order to complete her mission. The choice she makes has long term consequences (and I think sets me up for future stand alone stories or novels with her as the protagonist.).
 
Please check it out and give the anthology some love. There are a bunch of talented writers in this one (and many of them write significantly "harder" science fiction than I do if that your thing. They're a lot smarter than I am.)

The battle for Sol is now

The sphere ship gave Earth knowledge of the universe, but it came with a warning to stay away from the Star. After losing two children to the First Contact Federation, Empyrean sends a fleet of plasma ships and allies to Sol. Their one mission: to destroy humanity.

Can Earth defend itself against the imminent threat, or will they be destroyed so soon after starting to explore the universe around them?

Join many of today's top indie science fiction authors as they each write a story about the battle for Sol in the most ambitious shared-universe collection to date.  

Prologue - Nathan Hystad
Nine Thousand Seconds to Earth - Robert M. Campbell
Field of Fire - Ralph Kern
A Million Points of Light - C.C. Ekeke
Friendly Fire - C. Gockel
The Hand of Empyrean - Scott Moon
Minimum Safe Distance - Scott McGlasson
The One Who Waits - Scarlett R. Algee
Shot in the Dark - Richard Fox
The Path to War - Josh Hayes
The Last Battle - Jay Allan
Epilogue - Nathan Hystad


THE FOUR HORSEMEN UNIVERSE

I will also have a short story on the Four Horsemen universe (Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey). I will be in Four A Few Credits More on September 15th. Meanwhile, right now, The Golden Horde is their latest release. The Four Horsemen universe is all about mech warriors and mercenary races battling across the universe.

UNIVERSE IN FLAMES

I was recently introduced to the work of Christian Kallias, who has a series of highly reviewed books and has done some excellent book covers various authors in the genre. (Sorry, I always geek out on book covers. I’ve always been a big fan of art in general.)
 
Kallias writes space opera with a bit of Greek Mythology. The last time I chatted with him, he was in Greece. The second Universe in Flames Trilogy will be out August 15th, but should be up for pre-order. You can have a look at trilogy 1 here and trilogy 2 here.

Kallias has agreed to come on Keystroke Medium for an interview, but we haven’t picked a date. Should be interesting.

MY SINCEREST THANKS TO YOU

This has been a long email full of calls to actions, aka sale-sy / market-y stuff. Many people hate these kind of emails and many more simply ignore them.

Thank you for not rejecting me out of hand for doing one of the things I need to become a commercially successful writer. My goal is to support myself with writing, not get rich quick or take over the world. I wrote fiction for over thirty years before publishing my first book. (I'm kind of a slow learner...and stubborn.)

I appreciate your patience and hope you week is going well. If not, I hope and pray it gets better soon.

Take care,
Scott

Here is a list of my science fiction books to date:
The Chronicles of Kin Roland Trilogy
Enemy of Man
Son of Orlan
Weapons of Earth

SMC Marauders
Bayonet Dawn

Grendel Uprising
Proof of Death
Blood Royal
Heavy Weapons

All my books
 

Scott Moon Writer

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