Unnatural sound - Snippet from TRAPPED for #WeWriWa #SciFiRom

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But when a sandstorm buried their shuttle under a thick layer of sand, they had to dig to the surface to call for help. Maya was pulled out of the sand by a blue scaled alien with curved claws.  

In last week’s snippet, Maya’s ungloved hand was being examined by the blue scaled hero of the story - https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/03/give-me-proof-snippet-from-trapped-for.html

In fact, I had skipped a few lines for better continuity in these short snippets. Maya’s teammate Jack had preceded her to the surface of the sand. Before she answered the Blue, she had seen Jack’s body lying by a Red. Reds are the laborer caste and are massive, all muscles and rust-red scales, and never speak to other classes. [You can find a couple of noteable exceptions in the second Book in this series.]

Please excuse minor misuse of punctuation to fit.

     While her interrogator was examining her hand, she pointed at Jack; “Is my comrade injured?”

     “Your Green attacked my Red,” an ice-cold, implacable answer.

     She swallowed hard; was Jack dead?

     The beeps of an incoming call rang from Jack’s com.

     The Blue swung toward the unnatural sound and snapped an order. Instantly, the Red plucked the com from Jack’s belt and crushed it between clawed finger and thumb.

     “No,” Maya cried. Too late. The Blue merely scowled at her.

Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.

     Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.

     Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. He cannot leave them to die in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as workers, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house. 

     An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.

Pre-order Trapped on Vkani at Amazon  Apple  B&N  Kobo  GooglePlay

for release on March 22nd

The first books in this series are:

The Lady is Blue, Book 1, Still 99c Amazon  iBooks  B&N  GooglePlay

SciFi Romance. Feisty scientist solves puzzle of scaly aliens. 

Dragons of Vkani, Book 2  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay

St Patrick’s Day Special:

Meet Irish heroine, Katrina Sligo aka Mistress Trina, daughter of Ambassador Sligo, aka Grey Kat, code thief. Sparks fly and spaceships crash when she is captured by pirate Captain Black Hawk.

Watch for the lucky Shamrock near the end of the tale!

Captured by the Hawk is 99c at Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

Give me proof - Snippet from TRAPPED for #WeWriWa #SciFiRom

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But when a sandstorm buried their shuttle under a thick layer of sand, they had to dig to the surface to call for help. Maya was pulled out of the sand by a blue scaled alien with curved claws.  

In last week’s snippet, Maya was able to communicate with the blue scaled hero of the story - https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/03/worm-snippet-from-trapped-for-wewriwa.html

He (actually she doesn’t know its gender yet) doesn’t believe Maya comes from another world. The last sentence was: The Blue growled, “Impossible.”

I’ve skipped a few lines.

     Fixing her gaze on the Blue, she pointed at the ruddy clouds in the sky, and tried to explain, “Our world lies far beyond the moon, the Red Child.”

     The Blue rocked back onto its heels. The hood fell back, exposing its prominent brows of thick blue scales and tall crest of blue spikes. Its nose and mouth were covered by a strip of blue cloth. It lowered its ridged brows and narrowed its eyes as if considering her statement. Finally, it demanded, “Give me proof of your claim.”

     She couldn’t risk removing her mask in the dusty air. Instead, she unfastened one glove and revealed her brown hand without scales or claws.

     The Blue pressed the tip of one claw on her palm, creating a dimple, but not piercing her skin. It rotated her hand and tapped a claw on her fingernails.

Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.

     Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.

     Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. They will die if he leaves them in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as slaves, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house. 

     An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.

Pre-order Trapped on Vkani at Amazon  Apple  B&N  Kobo for release on March 22nd

The first books in this series are:

The Lady is Blue, Book 1, Amazon  iBooks  B&N  GooglePlay

SciFi Romance. Feisty scientist solves puzzle of scaly aliens. (Still 99c on Amazon)

Dragons of Vkani, Book 2  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

Worm! Snippet from TRAPPED for #WeWriWa #SciFiRom

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But a sandstorm buried their shuttle under a thick layer of sand. Their air supply is low, and they have to dig to the surface to call for help.  

In last week’s snippet, Maya met the blue scaled hero of the story. You can read their dramatic first encounter here - https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/02/large-blue-claws-snippet-from-trapped.html

Excuse my misuse of punctuation as their interaction continues.

     It barked a word, an incomprehensible command. Stretching a blue-scaled hand with clawed fingers toward her face, it gripped the neck of her mask.

     “No!” she cried, jerking into a sitting position and raising her flattened hand to stop it. Fear sharpened her memories of lessons in the Atrapako language, Kavkani, and she said in halting tones, “Need to breathe.” Not quite correct, but she couldn’t remember their word for nose filter, if such a term existed.

     Gripping the hilt of its sword, the Atrapako crouched on one knee at her side and grated, “Worm.” Its voice was as harsh and arid as the landscape of the Deadlands; “Worms crawling out of the dunes; what are you?”

     Mentally, she translated the accented Kavkani, and her confidence rose. Looking into the shadowed eyes, she said with improved fluency, “We are not Atrapako; we traveled from another place, a world far from Vkani.”

     The Blue growled, “Impossible.”

Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.

     Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.

     Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. They will die if he leaves them in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as slaves, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house. 

     An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet. 

Book 3 of Atrapako on Eden

Pre-order on Amazon  Apple  B&N  Kobo for release March 22nd

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

Large Blue Claws - Snippet from TRAPPED for #WeWriWa #SciFiRom

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But a sandstorm buried their shuttle under a thick layer of sand. Their air supply is low, and they have to dig to the surface to call for help.  

Last week’s snippet introduced the hero, who plans to loot the ancient ruins with his crew. You can read it here –  https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/02/alien-beasts-snippet-from-trapped-for.html

This week, I’m skipping to the next chapter where the two groups collide. Read on for the least romantic meeting of hero and heroine I’ve ever written. 

Maya has left the buried shuttle and she is struggling through the sand in Jack’s wake. She has just broken onto the surface.

Glaring sunlight blinded her.

Someone grabbed her arms and yanked her out of the sand.

Lying face down, she blinked in shock. Her restricted view centered on a set of curved claws; large blue claws on the five toes of a scaled blue foot. She stifled a scream.

The alien person rolled her onto her back and bent to examine her.

She stared into deep-set blue eyes peering from under a hood. It must be Atrapako, one of the humanoid inhabitants of the planet. A Blue Atrapako, the dominant, leader caste in their color-stratified society, its scaled body was concealed by a hooded cloak of dark brown leather. It wore a sheathed sword on its belt and a short tube strapped over its shoulder.

Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.

Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.

Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. They will die if he leaves them in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as slaves, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house. 

An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.

Pre-order on Amazon for release March 22nd

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NKTVHFJ

The first book in this series, The Lady is Blue, will be 99c for the rest of February at Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay

Dr. Lucy Stannis’ quiet life as the chief biologist in the small human colony on Eden is interrupted when an alien spaceship arrives. She is thrilled to meet the captain, the formidable Sa Kamizan. But, arrogant scaled Atrapako plan to subdue the puny humans, and conflict threatens the peaceful populace. Lucy must employ all her skills to discover the aliens’ secret and save the colony.

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

Alien beasts - Snippet from TRAPPED for #WeWriWa #SciFiRomance

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But before they landed, a sandstorm smashed into their shuttle. Now, they are trapped. The shuttle is buried under a thick layer of sand, they cannot communicate with the space station, and their supply of air is running out. 

You can read last week’s snippet here – https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/02/a-likely-prospect-snippet-from-trapped.html

This week, I’ll give you another snippet from Chapter 2 in Sa Vittaran’s pov.

Note 1: This alien society has color-coded castes. Blues are at the top and really stand out in the landscape of red rocks.

Note 2: His steed is an alien animal that runs on two hind legs. 

As the clouds of sand dissipated, he turned to look down at his crew and raised his hand. At his signal, the two Reds tightened the leading reins of the yushos and slapped the armored flanks of the large beasts. Each yusho carried a pair of empty panniers to hold his loot. The beasts swung their heavy heads, their side horns butting at their handlers. The old Green rose from his seat on a boulder and massaged his spine. He stretched his arms, pulled his hood over his gnarled head and slung the sack over his shoulders. Sa Sumakis was slowing with age; he might be incapable of making the trek to the Deadlands in the next season.

Giving a mental shrug, the Blue leaped down the steep slope to his pekron. The glossy black steed lifted its short forelimbs and snuffled, begging for a treat. The lively thoroughbred, prancing in its eagerness to move on, was his sole concession to luxury.

Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.

Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.

Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. They will die if he leaves them in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as slaves, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house. 

An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet.

Pre-order Trapped on Vkani at Amazon for release March 22nd

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NKTVHFJ

The first book in this series, The Lady is Blue, will be 99c for the rest of February at Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay 

Dr. Lucy Stannis’ quiet life as the chief biologist in the small human colony on Eden is interrupted when an alien spaceship arrives. She is thrilled to meet the captain, the formidable Sa Kamizan. But, arrogant scaled Atrapako plan to subdue the puny humans, and conflict threatens the peaceful populace. Lucy must employ all her skills to discover the aliens’ secret and save the colony.

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  
Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

A likely prospect - Snippet from TRAPPED for #WeWriWa #SciFiRomance

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

I’m continuing my new story, Trapped on Vkani, and hope to set up a pre-order soon. It will be book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Maya and her team had planned to explore the ruins of an ancient civilization in the radioactive Deadlands. But before they landed, a sandstorm smashed into their shuttle. Now, they are trapped. The shuttle is buried under a thick layer of sand, they cannot communicate with the space station, and their supply of air is running out. 

You can read last week’s snippet here -https://auroraspringer.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-answer-snippet-from-trapped-for.html

This week, I’m skipping to the second Chapter where we meet the hero, a native of the planet. He will collide with Maya and her team in Chapter 3 in one of my favorite scenes.

[Note, minor change in punctuation to fit 10 lines.]

     On a ridge on the border of the Deadlands, a hooded figure peered through spyglasses at the desert. Sa Vittaran Viktu bared his teeth in satisfaction. A storm of that size could scoop out tons of sand, exposing long-buried ancient ruins. He had scavenged many strange treasures in this region during the last three seasons. By his calculations, he could risk one more raid before making the long journey to his house for the hot season. Once the cloud settled, his crew could search until noon; enough time to delve into the ruins, whilst leaving a safe margin against overexposure to lethal radiation.

     The tornado whirled away, spinning deeper into the Deadlands, and he adjusted the magnification to zoom onto the trail of destruction. The squared outline of a wall hinted at a likely prospect within an hour’s journey.

     As the clouds of sand dissipated, he turned to look down at his crew and raised his hand. At his signal, the two Reds tightened the leading reins of the yushos and slapped the armored flanks of the large beasts.

Marooned on a desolate planet, joining forces with the enemy is their only hope.

     Maya Pandita spent years preparing for an expedition to the Deadlands. But her dreams of unearthing ancient artifacts are shattered when her shuttle is buried by a violent sandstorm, and her team is abducted by the scaled inhabitants of the planet. Maya and her companions must try to outwit their blue captor and call for help before they die in the toxic atmosphere.

     Sa Vittaran has a problem in his claws. Along with treasures from the ruins, he has retrieved three smooth-skinned foreigners. They will die if he leaves them in the desert. Yet the puny creatures have little value as slaves, except perhaps for the impudent woman who claims to be their leader. He plans to keep her. Her knowledge of the ancient texts will be an asset if she can survive the long trek to his house. 

     An attack by marauders forces Maya and the Blue leader into a wary alliance. They must work together to thwart the bandits and reunite their company. Can Maya convince Sa Vittaran to help her team? If she fails, they are doomed to a short unpleasant life on the desolate, war-torn planet. 

Pre-order at Amazon for release on March 22nd. 

The first book in this series, The Lady is Blue, will be 99c for the rest of February at Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay 

Dr. Lucy Stannis’ quiet life as the chief biologist in the small human colony on Eden is interrupted when an alien spaceship arrives. She is thrilled to meet the captain, the formidable Sa Kamizan. But, arrogant scaled Atrapako plan to subdue the puny humans, and conflict threatens the peaceful populace. Lucy must employ all her skills to discover the aliens’ secret and save the colony.

Note, this story has puns (including the title), violence ( one or two deaths), and sex (fade to black). 




As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  

Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+

Storm in the Deadlands - snippet from WIP for #WeWriWa #SciFi Romance

Welcome to another Sunday with Weekend Writing Warriors. Meet writers in various genres and read 8-10 sentence snippets of their stories. Find a new author and sample their work. Enjoy!

This week I’ve decided to throw my new story at you. It will be book 3 in my series Atrapako on Eden. The settings are two remote planets: Eden, a terraformed planet with a colony of humans; and Vkani, an inhospitable planet with scaled human(oid) aliens. You can read about the planets and their inhabitants in my Blog Post HERE.

Here are the first, unedited, lines. I’m not sure I have the right balance of action and introduction yet.  

The sandstorm whirled out of the desert and plowed into the shuttle.

Red grit rattled on the windshield. Startled by the noise, Maya flinched. Surely the transparent screen wouldn’t crack? The delay bothered her more than the storm. Her team was about to land and explore the ruins, remnants of an ancient civilization destroyed millennia ago in a nuclear catastrophe. She glanced at the tablet embedded in her armrest. Their instruments had detected the walls of a city under the sand, and she had pinpointed a landing site in the center of a large complex. But, they had overshot the outlined walls and were shifting further away.

The shuttle bucked in the violent gusts.

My tentative title is Trapped on Vkani. It is Sci-Fi romance with a new pair of main characters. 

As advanced preparation, the first book in Atrapako on Eden is on sale for 99c. I wrote The Lady is Blue about 3 decades ago and finally published it in 2014 at the beginning of my career as an author of fiction. 

SciFi Romance. Feisty scientist solves puzzle of scaly aliens on the remote planet of Eden.

The Lady is Blue, Book 1  Amazon  iBooks  Kobo  B&N  GooglePlay   

As always, I’ll be happy to reply to your comments.  

Please return to www.wewriwa.com to sample the works of the other writers.

Find a catalog of my published stories HERE.

Join me on Facebook  Twitter  Google+