Wednesday, October 17, 2012
SNEAK PEEK of STAR CRASH
BLURB:
When Planet of the Apes meets Star Trek what's a girl to do?After recon pilot Cora Daniels crash lands on an alien planet she finds herself a prisoner of the Flock: a race of birdlike humanoids. Trapped in their zoo she discovers they intend her to mate. To breed. To be part of their human herd.
She's placed in a cage with a man - a powerful, virile man, but not just any man - Alexander. Was he her lost love, who'd disappeared so long ago? Here he was: naked, glistening, a warrior trained by the Flock to fight for their amusement. How could the brilliant man, the tender lover she remember have become this animal born to dominate and destroy? Was he a pawn of the Flock or would their flight to freedom be a long-sought reunion?
STAR CRASH
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Excerpt
Oblivious to the warm fire burning
in the hearth, the tantalizing aroma of roasting meat and fresh-baked bread,
Cora paced the comfortable single women's quarters in short angry strides.
"Stupid. Stubborn. Wrong-headed.
Men." Her words kept time with her steps. With each pass, as if she were
some exotic wild beast thrust into their presence, the girls flinched away in
prudent caution.
A hand touched her shoulder.
Startled out of her tirade, Cora swung her arm at the offender. At the last
moment she reached out and kept the girl from falling.
"Analyn. I'm sorry. You
caught me off guard. Are you all right? Did I hurt you?"
"I'm fine. You did me no
harm," Analyn assured her.
"What are you doing here? I
thought this was the single women's quarters."
"It is. We came to speak
with you." She pointed to another woman. Cora recognized Nala, the woman
who'd been with the little girl, Lana. "Sit with us, please." Analyn
patted the seat beside her. "I and my sisters wish to know what's
happening."
Nodding in agreement, their fear
of Cora forgotten, the girls crowded near. Cora looked at the dozen or so girls
ranging in age from early teens to the oldest of twenty. Here in the single
women's quarters they had shed their robes and veils, revealing the real,
vibrant young women beneath. "You're all sisters?"
Analyn laughed. "Only in the
sisterhood of all women."
Women? Hah! They were girls, mere
babies. Kept in a gilded cage by their fathers and brothers as they waited to
be sold to the highest bidder as brood mares. In their treatment of women, the
Erathians were little better than the Flock.
Analyn leaned toward Cora.
"Is it true you and the warrior came from the sky in that silver
transport? That on your world women are equal to men?"
"Yes, tell us," another
girl prompted. "The men tell us little or nothing. We only know what we
glean through gossip and eavesdropping."
"They think us too
simpleminded and weak to understand," a third added.
"They make decisions that
affect our lives without consulting us." Tears wetted Nala's cheeks.
"The council ruled against my husband's petition for Lana and gave her to
another clan. They claimed our clan already has its quota of female children
from the raids, but the truth is that the other man offered more in trade. It's
not fair."
Cora smelled a rebellion brewing.
Apparently Erathian women were not as meek and biddable as their men believed.
She grinned as a plan grew in her mind. Alex wasn't the only one who could make
treaties and forge alliances.
"Ladies, ladies." She
held up her hand. "One at a time. I'll answer all your questions."
She quickly explained the
situation to the women, who caught on quickly. Then she used everything she'd
ever learned from Alex about handling people to sway the women to side with her
against their men. Awestruck, they listened as she spun them tales of Earth and
the freedom women had there.
It didn't take much convincing.
In a short while she had them agreeing to help her, and she laid out her
hastily conceived plan.
"Are you sure you understand
how dangerous what we're going to do is?" she asked Analyn one last time.
Despite her young age, the girl was the obvious leader of the others, maybe
because of her position as wife to the head of the council, but more likely due
to her strong personality. Doubts about her plan churned in Cora's gut. Did she
have the right to ask them to take this risk? She gave one last warning.
"A lot can go wrong. If we're caught, your men will be angry. You'll face
punishment from them. You could lose what little freedom you have now."
"It isn't true freedom if
someone gives it to you. Freedom must be taken," Analyn said.
Cora wondered how the girl had
gained such wisdom at so early an age. "And if my plan succeeds the stakes
are even higher--death or a life as a Flock breeder."
The girl smiled grimly. "I
may be young, but I'm not stupid. Though Ro'am's a good man and I love him now,
I didn't come to him by my choice. My father arranged the match. As did or will
the fathers or brothers of all of us here. We wish more from life for our
daughters." Determination rang in her young voice.
"Okay then." Cora
glanced at the women, for despite their tender years she revised her previous
opinion. These were women, not girls. "Everyone know what they need to
do?"
She watched in satisfaction as
the women nodded in agreement. She pulled the hood of her robe up to cover her
pale hair, and for the first time since arriving among these people secured a veil
across her face. "Let's go."
STAR CRASH is the first book in my Star Chronicle series.
STAR RAIDERS is also available.
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1 comments:
What a wonderful peek of your book! I've always loved Planet of the Apes, especially the original with Charlton Heston.
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