official website of Erin M. Klitzke, historian and author of Awakenings and Epsilon: Broken Stars
I’ll be trying something new around here and that’s something that we’re going to call “Snippet Sunday”–when I reveal a snippet of something I’m working on or have already released, depending on the mood.
For the inaugural Snippet Sunday, we’ll be paying a visit to the universe of Falling Stars and Epsilon: Broken Stars with this bit from the current draft of Epsilon: Redeemer.
Excerpt is after the break.
Continue reading “Snippet Sunday – Epsilon: Redeemer snippet”
The idea for the UNSETIC Files has been rattling around in my brain for a very, very long time–nearly as long as I’ve been writing. Part of what stopped me from writing stories about the organization and the men and women in it was largely the fact that I didn’t think that most of their stories would rate book-length (80,000+ words) manuscripts. I felt that many of the tales would be done a disservice by adding additional “fluff” to inflate the word counts. The advent of e-publishing and the rise in popularity and acceptability of novella-length fiction (short novels and long short stories, defined by a recent issue of The Writer as works of 15,000-80,000 words [see “Ask the Writer” in the February 2013 issue]) have given me more freedom to explore the characters, their stories, and their world.
The world of the UNSETIC Files is a braided universe, and by that I mean that there are common threads (characters and occasionally organizations) that bind the universe together. It overlaps with the Lost Angels universe (especially in the person of James McCullough initially and later characters like Ridley Thys and a few others), but within its own fabric has several characters that tie the stories together. As more stories are added to the universe, this will become increasingly clear.
As of this writing, I’m not sure how successful my little experiment will be–Bering Songs and Silence and Between Fang and Claw have only been out for about a month or so and there have been no reviews thus far, so it’s hard to say how well things are going or how clear the connections are. I’m looking forward to the day when people begin to see the connections and talk about them–but that day’s not here yet.
Someday, though, I hope they will. In the meantime, I’m going to continue this little experiment in episodic fiction and hope that the gamble pays off in the long run.
I have a confession to make.
I turned thirty this past November, but in all of my years, I had never purchased my own computer. Part of this is a byproduct of the field my father works in (yes, he’s in the tech industry) and part of it is a byproduct of not having a job that would allow me to afford to purchase my own PC. An e-reader or a bicycle with my tax refund money, yes, but a computer? Not a chance. The closest I ever got prior to this was last year, while I was still working at the store and had quietly been putting away money here and there because I needed to replace my slowly dying laptop (it was nearly six years old at the time and had been through quite a bit–replaced screen, upgraded RAM, and I was looking down the barrel of trying to find a way to replace the fan). I mentioned off-handedly to my father that I was looking at netbooks because at the time I was really starting to get out of the gaming scene and all I really needed was a machine that would let me surf the internet and write. He looked at me and said “Well, do you want one for your birthday?” I just stared at him.
Then I asked in this little, small voice, “Can I get a purple one?”
He laughed.
That was how I ended up with my cute little purple HP Mini, which I’ve been using reliably as my primary PC since November of 2011. It came on Black Friday, a very happy surprise for me after a very, very long day at the store. The extra money I’d saved went to student loans and Christmas gifts for the family.
I started to realize that maybe I needed a new desktop (my first since 2000) in May 2012, when I started to play around with doing my own print book layout with Adobe InDesign and doing more intensive graphics work for my book covers. My Mini, unfortunately, has two major failings–processing power and screen real estate. I feel the pain of the latter more than I feel the pain of the former, but the lack of processing power was enough to convince me that instead of just getting a monitor, I should think about getting a full PC. Unfortunately, desk space for me is at a premium and I don’t like the idea of putting my tower on a carpeted floor–especially when I have cats cavorting around in my bedroom at all times of day and don’t get to vacuum as often as I should. That meant that I needed an all-in-one, which would save me desk space and give me the desktop screen size and computing power I need.
Why didn’t I get a second laptop? Well, the answer to that is pretty simple–I don’t need another laptop. My Mini is perfect when it comes to being out and about–it’s small enough (even in its case) to slip into my purse with my notebook, wallet, e-reader, a hardcover and a few magazines–even with its charger and mouse (and my iPhone with its charging cord and the cord for my e-reader–believe me, I did this more than once while flying to and from Texas and then to and from Pennsylvania in November and December!) and doesn’t take up much space on desks, tray tables, or cafe tables at my local Starbucks or Panera Bread. It’s ideal for a lot, save the failings I mentioned above.
In between working on the next chapter of Ashes to Ashes and starting the edits on Between Fang and Claw, I started browsing for a new all-in-one computer and discovered that HP had a couple of quick-ship options that would meet my needs. After a consultation with a few friends who are slightly more tech-savvy than I (I’m dangerous when it comes to making computers do tricks, but when it comes to the actual composition of them, I start to get a little shaky), I purchased a new Pavillion all-in-one.
My first computer that I bought by myself with no help from my family.
Kind of exciting, don’t you think?
As I sit here watching Once Upon a Time (and cheering on Belle as she embarks on a “solo” adventure back in fairy-tale land, apparently with Mulan as suspected), I’ve decided to punch up an update on the goals I announced a couple weeks back.
Stay tuned for more updates….
I’m thrilled to announce that Bering Songs and Silence is now available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords as an ebook!
Here’s a taste of what’s in store when you step into Naval officer Brigid O’Connell’s head and hear her story about her first mission with UNSETIC…
Click below the cut to catch a preview from the first chapter of Bering Songs and Silence, the story of Brigid O’Connell and Timothy McConaway’s first mission together…
Continue reading “Preview: UNSETIC Files: Bering Songs and Silence“
I learned my lesson with this past year–setting a schedule for myself when it comes to projects doesn’t work, in large part because I get too ambitious.
A lot has changed for me in 2012, especially my employment situation. I went from a part-time retail position to a full-time office/customer service position that’s also had me traveling in the past couple of months. It’s been an amazing experience for me so far and I’ve already learned a lot in the eight months I’ve been with the company. However, the 8-5 (sometimes 10-7) position hasn’t afforded me the same opportunities to write that I used to have. I’m still adjusting my sleeping schedule and sorting out exactly how much sleep I need versus how alert I will be in the morning. It’s getting better, but it’s not quite there yet.
This being said, I’ve got some goals for 2013.
I’m not willing to get any more ambitious than that–and even that’s probably more ambitious than I should be, considering that I will be starting up Legacies of the Lost Earth again shortly with Ashes to Ashes and continuing to keep up a schedule on Awakenings.
It’s important to have goals–but it’s also important to have goals that are achievable. Otherwise, they mean nothing at all.
For probably the fifth or sixth time, the story hasn’t ended just because I cracked 50K–or, in the case of this year, the stories. This year’s project, In The Beginning, is a collection of how key members of UNSETIC got their start in the United Nations Supernatural and Extraterrestrial Investigative Corps, including James McCullough and Bryn Knight, Timothy McConaway and Brigid O’Connell, AJ McConaway, Antony Bridger (brother of Lost Angel Chronicles character Hadrian Bridger and his wife, Ky), “Angel” Ridley Thys, and details the addition of the Portal Corps to UNSETIC’s banner. The first story in the collection, Between Fang and Claw, is the story of how James McCullough got sucked in–and his first adventure with UNSETIC–and has clocked in at 35k itself and it’s not quite done (still have a chapter or two left to right, including a couple of climatic fight scenes).
Each story in the collection will be released on its own as an ebook once it is ready for sale. They will later be collected into the In The Beginning collection for both e-sale and print sale. I’m really excited about this collection, and while it’s not the direct sequel to What Angels Fear that some may have been waiting for, it is in the same universe and if you pay attention, you’ll see quite a few of the characters showing up–and end up with a deeper understanding of what’s going on with the Institute as well as what happens to some characters (such as Ridley Thys) in the future.
From the opening of Between Fang and Claw:
“I don’t think I ever thanked you for coming down to help us out on that case.” I watched as the Federal agent across from me dunked his sandwich in a little plastic cup of au jus. “Not sure we could have cleared it without your expertise.”
Agent Thatcher shrugged with one shoulder as he cradled the already soaking chunk of bread and meat in both hands. “Worth it almost for the Italian beef. You can’t get this up north.”
“So I’m told,” I said, smiling humorlessly. I leaned back, idly tapping a fork I wasn’t going to use against the edge of the table. The sense of agitation I could feel coming off of him belied his calm exterior. I shook my head slightly, trying to suppress a frown. “Whatever you’re trying not to say you might as well let loose, Thatcher. I know you’ve got something trapped behind your teeth.”
He looked up from his plate, a brow quirking upward. “How’s that?”
I shrugged slightly. “I just know.”
Thatcher shook his head, glancing at the restaurant’s populace before relaxing a fraction. “I’m beginning to see why you’re a rising star in the Bureau. You’ve got a gift for reading people.”
I didn’t say anything, just waited. More was coming.
He thinks it’s a dangerous gift. Not dangerous to himself, though, or to anyone else. Dangerous to me.
I was hoping he was going to tell me why.
Thatcher continued to stare at me for a moment longer before he shook his head slowly. His voice was quiet. “Body or mind?”
I just smiled vaguely and he shook his head again.
“They’d want you,” he murmured, almost to himself. “But with that article in the Tribune, they won’t be able to make you disappear.”
My eyebrow arched of its own accord. He smiled.
“Your brother,” I said. “Whatever we’re talking about now, it’s got something to do with your brother.”
“Do you remember when Senator Monroe died?” he asked.
“Why does someone from Detroit care about Illinois politics?” I countered, trying to hide how unsettling the question was. What does that have to do with his brother?
Thatcher nodded slowly. “Then you remember.”
“I was twelve and it was all over the news. Big deal, state senator moving up to federal, then killed? Every newspaper, every station carried the story.” I’d have known without all that, though. The senator’s wife had been a school friend of my mother. It’d been nine years since the senator and his wife had been killed, though. A car accident on I-80 killed them both. Not everyone would remember. I frowned. “You know, they had a daughter.”
“Seen her since then?”
“No,” I said. Not since the funeral, anyway. What did end up happening to her? Damn, that was a long time ago. I could remember playing soccer in the yard with the senator’s dark-haired girl, but the memories of that were old, faint and fading. She and Jade had been better friends anyway.
I wonder if she knows.
Thatcher nodded. “Think about that. She was like you.”
“Like me,” I repeated.
“Like you. Gifted. Special.” Thatcher’s jaw tightened. “Like my brother.”
So that’s what this is about. I caught a fleeting sense of anger and pain coming off of him. “You think your parents were murdered.”
“I know my parents were murdered,” Thatcher said. “I think Senator Monroe and his wife were murdered.” He met my gaze, eyes like a pair of flints, cold and hard. “And I think the same people who did all that killing stole my brother and stole Kyle Anne Monroe, too. I just can’t prove it.”
“Not yet,” I said softly. The bare trace of relief that flitted across his face told me I was right in my assertion.
He nodded slowly. “Not yet. Someday. Could be that I could use some help. Think about that.”
I nodded, not quite certain what he was really asking for, or what it all really meant. “Yeah, sure,” I said. “I’ll do that.”
He smiled briefly and went back to his sandwich. I stared at my hot dog.
Stolen.
Does Dad know anything about this?
I frowned to myself and realized that whatever appetite I’d had when we sat down, it’d evaporated when I pried Thatcher’s secret loose. Not for the last time, I regretted talking it out him. It was for the best, though.
Now at least someone else knows the truth. Something. My gaze flicked back toward Thatcher.
If they’d killed a senator, his wife, and two FBI agents to get to their children, what lengths would they go to in trying to silence anyone who even suspected the truth.
I smiled grimly to myself. He’s got to know something. I’m just going to have to find out what it is.
Spot a What Angels Fear character in there? Fantastic. Figure out why McCullough is familiar yet?
Stay tuned for more updates!