Hello, and happy August!
If you’re reading my blog, it stands to reason that you’re already familiar with my first novel, The Princess Key. If you’ve ever wondered how you can help get my author thing even further off the ground, nothing helps more than leaving a review. If you got my book through Amazon, you can leave a review here:
If you subscribe to my newsletter you also get a free—did I mention it was free—ebook based in the Shattered Worlds universe called Pathfinder Worlds. That one’s not available through Amazon, because it doesn’t cost anything. The only way to get it is via the link in the welcome newsletter:
It’s a book—relatively short—that asks the burning and eternal question: What if Jimi Hendrix was a scientist who owned a starship?
If you’d like to leave a review for Pathfinder Worlds, or you’d like to leave yet another review for
(or you didn’t buy it on Amazon, so you can’t leave a review there) you can leave one on my page at Goodreads:
https://www.goodreads.com/search?q=Rick+Clogston&qid=dIBKB4T…
Rick’s Recs:
Rick’s recommendations for this month are about two books that I really liked. And just so you know, listening to the audiobook is considered reading it. Which is what I did in both these cases.
Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, by Jesse Q. Sutanto
I LOVE Vera Wong, and the author, Jesse Q. Sutanto. Can’t get enough. Ms. Sutanto has become one of my favorite authors. She has a wicked sense of humor, and you don’t even realize how deep she’s pulled you into real-life pain until you’re standing in it. You will learn a lot about living in San Francisco’s Chinatown reading this book. You’ll laugh, but it will also touch your heart in unexpected ways. I’ve read both Vera Wong books and am eagerly anticipating the third. I’ve also read two other of Ms. Sutanto’s novels, and love them. (Don’t mess with the Aunties.)
Dream Of Kings, by Sharon Hinck
Short review: I loved this book. It’s a fantasy novel, and very well done. A gripping story. I’ll let Ms. Hinck tell you about it:
In the glacial nation of Norgard, Jolan the Dream Teller serves every seeker, whether peasant or high lord. Though she loves using her gift, she struggles to navigate the corrupt and dangerous court and the jealousies of the Guildagard.
When an old man’s nightmare imparts a dire warning, Jolan realizes her entire nation is in danger. But before she can sound the alarm, she is betrayed by the guilds and sold into slavery in a rival kingdom far to the south. As a slave in a foreign land, at first Jolan can’t see beyond her singular focus: return home to warn Norgard of the coming calamity. After facing new dangers, making new friends, and forgiving old wrongs, she must fulfill the purposes the Provider has set before her.
Only then can she face a decision that could cost her the man she loves, her calling, and her freedom—all to save a people who abandoned her.
Fiddly Bit:
Part of what I think about when writing science fiction is what life must be like in those hard-to-imagine future times. The first person Lisa and Ciji meet when they arrive at The Hague Space Station is the chief medical officer, Lieutenant Doctor Dan Schofield. This is the story of how he and his family got there.
Rae and Doctor Dan
Nairobi, Kenya – nine years before The Princess Key
The tall, athletically built black man strode into Rae Waweru’s hospital room. One hand was jammed into a pocket of his lab coat; the other bore an X-ray. He smiled at the patient, reclined on the hospital bed.
“Good afternoon, Ms. Waweru, I’m Doctor Schofield. I am pleased to report that your leg is not broken. However, your ankle is badly sprained, which I’m afraid could take even longer to heal.”
Rae winced. “Oh. Um … Yippee, and oh, no?” She looked down at where her shapely brown leg emerged from the hospital gown, then disappeared into the plastic boot held together with Velcro straps.
The doctor laughed. “Frankly, you’re lucky. That car hit your bus right where you were sitting. I mean, where your bus seat was, not your, ahem…. It could have been a lot worse.”
She nodded. “I’ll stick with yippee, then. When do you think I’ll be able to go back to work?”
“That depends on what you do. I want to keep you here for a couple days, just in case. Internal injuries can be sneaky.”
“I work for Gunther Gustavo. I was on my way to the office when my journey was …” She flicked a finger at her bandaged leg. “Rudely interrupted.”
The doctor’s brow furrowed. “Gustavo? Is that the, uh, fashion guy?”
She nodded. “That’s him.”
“Oh.” He quickly looked her up and down. “If you’re a runway model, I’m afraid your leg’s going to be tightly wrapped for several weeks. I wouldn’t recommend putting any weight on it for a while.”
“No, I’m one of his designers. We’ve got a spring show coming up in Paris, and then another in Johannesburg.”
“Whew! That’s a lot of travel. I recommend that you do it in an anti-grav chair.”
She sighed. “Oh, well. I’ll just tell him: doctor’s orders.” She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes and smirked slightly. “You thought I was a runway model?”
His ears turned pink. “Uh, well, I’m, er, no expert,” he stammered. “But …” He smiled. “You could be.”
Rae felt her heart flutter. “If you don’t mind my saying so, you sound like you’re not from this neighborhood.”
“I’m not. American, Los Angeles.”
“Oho! Tinsel-town.”
He laughed. “Guilty as charged.”
Now, she looked him up and down. “How did a Hollywood movie star end up in Kenya?”
A shy smile. “They had an opening for a surgeon, and I figured things, you know, career-wise, might move a little faster in Nairobi. Plus, I’d never been to Africa. Sounded exotic, and I’m the restless type. And ancestry and all that. Look, uh …” He scratched the back of his neck. “Could I possibly talk you into … I mean, would you be interested in … having dinner with me?”
Rae grimaced. “Hospital food?”
“Not necessarily. I found, believe it or not, a great little Mexican place on the next block. Reminds me of home. I can get take-out and bring it here.”
She gave him a sparkling laugh. “How can I refuse?”
He grinned. “Good. Good! What would you like?”
She grinned back. “I know absolutely nothing about Mexican food. But I do like … spicy …”
“You’ll have to trust me, then,” he said, and garnished it with a wink.
She put on a demure smile. “I place myself willingly into your hands.”
His face grew a smile that came from the soles of his feet. “Back in two shakes,” he said, and strode out of the room.
As she watched him go, she sighed. Our kids are going to be magnificent.
~ ~ ~
Seven years later
Rae Schofield couldn’t help but smile every time she got out of her car in this driveway. She loved their little house. It was just big enough for her, Dan, and their two magnificent children: Susan and Benjamin. There was just enough of a back yard to put up a swing set; enough lawn all the way around to justify getting a lawn mower. Technically, it was her turn to make dinner, but it was Friday, so she grabbed some take-out from that Mexican place they loved so much.
Then she realized that it wasn’t her mother’s car beside hers in the driveway; it was Dan’s. Dan never beats me home. This made her nervous.
She went around to the back of the house. The kids were playing on the swings and greeted her warmly. She waved back and went into the kitchen. Sure enough, there was Dan, seated at the breakfast nook. He looked as nervous as she felt.
“Oh, hey, babe,” Dan said. “I sent your mum home early. I think the kids ran her ragged today.”
“Hi, sweetheart. Whatcha doing home so early?” She gave him a hug from behind his seat and kissed his head.
He sighed. “We need to talk.”
“Okay.” She put the bag with the take-out on the table. The smell of cumin and jalapenos wafted from the open end. He didn’t even glance at the bag. Whoa. Dan—not noticing food? Uh-oh.
“What’s up?” she asked, taking the stool next to his.
“I’ve been offered a job.”
Rae nodded. “Where?”
“The Hague.”
Eyebrows up. “In Denmark?”
“Actually, I think that ‘The Hague’ is in the Netherlands. But no, not that one. It’s a space station.”
Her jaw dropped. “So this offer literally dropped out of the sky. How far away is this … space station?”
“Fifty lightyears …” He pointed straight up, then adjusted his finger’s aim a bit. “That-a-way.”
Her gaze drifted off into space. “Fifty … lightyears …”
“It’s near the edge of Interplanetary Association space,” he continued. “Within shouting distance of the Kra’Naghyr Empire, the Vasindi Trade Confederacy, and the unaffiliated territories. The station staff and residents are mostly Human, but about twenty different species travel through on any given day. It’s on a busy trade route.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Aren’t we at war with the Kra?”
“Not for years. Just little border skirmishes. It’s a civilian station, but the IA Defense Fleet has a presence. They do border patrols, provide station security … and medical facilities.”
Now, her eyes widened. “So you’d have to join the Defense Fleet?”
“I’d go to Cairo for eight weeks of military training. When I graduate, I’d be given the rank of lieutenant. They want me to be the chief medical officer of the station. You remember Pat Greenwood, my old roommate from Stanford? He recommended me.”
“Hmmm. What about me? Do the kids and I get to go with you?”
“Of course! There’s a school with over a hundred kids.” He chuckled.
If you couldn’t go, I’d have already turned it down.”
“Okay, so … what am I supposed to do there? Be a … space housewife?”
He smiled and shifted on his stool. “Well, now, there’s the thing. The station’s got a business promenade. There’s about a thousand people living there, and probably that many going through each day, and they have no clothing store! You’ve been talking about leaving Gustavo and starting your own line.
“Everybody there, right now, if they need clothes, they have to buy ‘em online and hope the supplier gets the sizes and everything right. Plus, it takes about a month to get ‘em. I no more than got off the line with an admiral from Fleet, when the station administrator herself called me. When she saw that I was married to a clothing designer, I jumped straight to the head of the line.”
He grinned. “She’s Mordalan. Three arms, three legs, three eyes, and it’s a nightmare for her to buy clothes in the IA. Mordal’s an unaffiliated world.”
Rae laughed. “Three arms?” She mused on this a moment, put a thumb on her lips, and a slow smile creased her features. “I can work with that.”
“See, you could make whatever you want, sell it all over, and have a retail store on the station. Sell to the residents and visitors—but have your own clothing line, too. Ships go through constantly. You could have a website, shipping wouldn’t be a problem …”
She winced at her husband. “But aren’t you next in line for chief of thoracic surgery at Nairobi General?”
“Sure, but I’m already a doctor of osteopathy, which means I can do pretty much anything. I’m Doctor Jack-of-All-Trades. Plus, I’ve been taking extension courses in xenobiology, since there’s so many alien races on Earth these days. I’d actually get to know my patients, instead of just cutting up a couple of strangers every day. I really like that idea.”
Rae gave Dan a long look and smiled. “You really want to do this, don’t you?”
He chewed his lip. “You know how we used to imagine going off-world when we were kids? The future our great-grandparents dreamed about … Well, babe, we’re living in it.”
“And the kids would get to go to school … in outer space.”
“Yup.” He took her hands. “But I have to let them know by Monday.”
She kissed his cheek. “Tell ‘em, yes.”
~ ~ ~
The Hague—two years later
Rae spread her hands out to the side. “And here we are.”
Chief Petty Officer Akemi Katayama, the station’s head nurse, laughed and shook her head.
“That’s a heckuva thing,” said Za’cijimaa, Dan’s new Dholamite intern. They were having lunch on the station’s Promenade.
“Any regrets?” Akemi asked.
“Not one,” Rae replied. “Yeah, it would be nice to have more access to our families, but we talk to our folks over the quantum comm link every week or so.”
Akemi nodded. “I had a friend at the hospital in London that dreamed about getting a dress by somebody like Gustavo.”
“Well, you tell her, that dress you bought at my shop last week was made by one of Gustavo’s former designers.”
Akemi’s eyes widened. “Oooh, that’s right! Omigosh, she’ll go batshit-crazy!”
Rae waved a finger at Ciji. “That yellow dress you bought, too.”
Ciji gave a weak smile and nodded.
Akemi looked at Ciji. “You have no idea what we’re talking about, do you?”
Ciji shrugged. “Not really.”
Akemi cocked a thumb at Rae. “She’s fashion royalty.”
“Oh,” Ciji said. “That’s nice. It is a nice dress.”
Rae gave a shy smile. “It’s just what I do for a living. You’re the ones saving lives.” She rolled her eyes. “Fashion is kind of a big deal back on Earth, but that’s because of how much money changes hands. Gustavo thinks he’s hot shit.”
Ciji grimaced. “Hot shit?”
Akemi grinned. “Put it that way, it don’t seem so great a thing to be.”
They all laughed.
Doctor Dan strolled up and gave Rae a kiss on the cheek. “Whatcha doin’, babe? Sounds like fun.”
Akemi gave a saucy smile to Dan and Ciji. “We’re inspiring your wife to design some shitty clothes.” She winked at Rae.
“Uh-huh,” Rae said, nodding solemnly. “Taking earth tones to a new level.”
Akemi snapped her fingers. “Like the brown security uniforms!”
Rae’s eyes went wide. “Yes! I can see it now.” She spread her hands in a panorama. “The hot shit collection.”
Akemi threw her head back and practically brayed like a donkey.
Dan blinked rapidly a few times. “O-o-okay.”
Ciji sighed. “It’s a never-ending education, hanging out with you people.”