On the planet Fortune, tech is low, tensions are high and heroes as unlikely as they come.
Wrongly convicted of treason, Gideon Quinn spent six years harvesting crystal under the killing suns of the Morton Barrens. When a general of the Corps arrives with an offer of freedom and the chance to clear his name, Gideon doesn’t have to think twice.
With his pet draco Elvis on his shoulder, Gideon takes ‘ship for Nike City on a quest for justice (or, failing that, revenge). What he finds is a dodger named Mia, a city steeped in corruption, and a menace at the heart of the Corps which could bring Fortune’s new and fragile peace to an explosive end.
And that’s just his first night in town.
Targeted Age Group:: 13-100
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I like genre, quirky heroes and rollicking adventures. I also like being able to share those with my kids, so I decided it'd be great fun to create a world that the young and young at heart could all enjoy. My hero, Gideon, is a man in his forties who, with the aid of 12 year old Mia, navigates a corrupt city to solve a dark mystery, meeting a colorful array of characters on the way. Basically, something for everyone.
How is writing Science Fiction different from other genres?
Scifi, especially the kind I write, allows me to hold onto as much Earth culture as I want while giving me freedom to create new worlds, new civilizations and, you know, boldly go.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
I used to be an actor, so I always start with the character in a scene and discover them from how they respond to where they are. Sometimes I have a visual of the character, sometimes they evolve as I go. The most important thing for me, writing, is to have that character's point of view.
Book Sample
MORTON BARRENS
MAXIMUM Security Penitentiary
GIDEON QUINN CONSIDERED the cards in his right hand. Since said cards were so faded he could barely see the original suits, and since what was visible tended to waver in the glare of the setting suns, they required some serious considering.
While he considered, his opponent — a Nikean the Outside world had known as Dr. Ephraim Rudd but in Morton answered to Doc, Prisoner 64326, or ‘Hey, You!’ — shot one finger out to catch the drop of perspiration sliding from his nose and brought it to his tongue.
Gideon, long since sweated dry by the day's labor, tried not to envy Doc the pittance of moisture.
The two men were perched on opposite sides of the sandstone slab which served as their table. Both were near in height, though Gideon topped Doc's six feet by an extra two inches. Both were tanned by the unrelenting suns of the Barrens and both bore touches of silver in their hair, despite the fact Gideon was at least a decade younger than Doc. Though they shared the genetic trait of blue eyes, Doc's were of a soft, lake-like hue while Gideon viewed the world through eyes as sharp and dangerous as live crystal. They both also had the look of men who lived on the prison's notorious rations, but where the doctor merely looked underfed, Gideon's spareness was of a harder, more feral nature, as if all excess had been burned away by some inner fire, one as potent as the suns which left him covetous of another man's sweat.
"I'll see your bet," Gideon said once said sweat was safely recycled, "and raise."
"Raise with what?" Doc gestured to the pot, composed of two cigarettes, one and a half rolls of toilet paper and nine salt tablets, piled haphazardly between himself and Gideon on their slab-slash-table. "Since I'm fairly sure I see all your worldly goods before me, already. Unless you're willing to put Elvis in the pot."
Hearing his name, the draco, currently stretched on the hot sandstone next to Gideon's thigh, raised one of his lids.
"Elvis is off the table." Saying this, Gideon scritched his reptilian companion between the folded wings until the half-open eye closed again. "Okay, technically he's on the table but — you know what I mean."
"Being a fairly intelligent sort, yes, I do know what you mean," Doc replied with a vague smile.
Gideon always found it something of a wonder that the doctor managed to retain a sense of humor, despite having been incarcerated a good five years longer than Gideon.
It no doubt helped that Doc didn't work the crystal fields, where the sub harmonic thrum of the volatile silicate could — and often did — drive those harvesting it to pure, frothing insanity.
No one knew when or if the madness would strike. A con might harvest crystal his entire sentence and remain untouched, while some drone, fresh off the barge, would be hearing voices and gnawing at his own arm in a week. Sensitives — those with high psionic ratings — were particularly susceptible, to the point the Corrections Board sent only the worst of the worst Talents to the Morton Barrens.
In six years, Gideon had seen two Sensitives come through Morton's gates. One disappeared into the desert a month after her arrival. The second — well, he tried hard not to think about the second.
But Doc, being possessed of a top-flight medical degree from Chandrasekhar, spent his days tending to the sick and injured (and mad) inside the prison walls, sparing him the potential loss of self so many of his patients suffered.
So yes, maybe his good temperament was a direct result of his removal from the crystal veins, but there was also a chance Doc's serenity came from accepting his incarceration, as a man guilty of murdering his wife might do.
Not that Gideon had ever asked. One didn't ask such things in Morton.
In fact, there were a lot of things one didn't ask about in lockup, along with Did you do it? Things like, Are you gonna eat that? and Mind picking up that soap?
The end result of this universal ban on curiosity was that, even after six years, and even though he counted Doc as a friend, Gideon knew next to nothing about the man beyond his having once been a famed neurophysiologist, currently an overqualified prison medic (this last gleaned from the many times he'd stitched Gideon up over the years) and an exceedingly sharp card player.
"But," Doc, unaware of Gideon’s musings, was nodding at the pot, "as Elvis is at least metaphorically off the table, what do you have to bet?"
Gideon glanced about. Satisfied they remained unobserved, he drew from his shirt pocket a thin sheaf of grubby, many-times thumbed over pages. "Got chapters six through nine of 'Curse of the Amazons.'" He made sure Doc got a good look at the pages before tucking them back into his pocket. "Good enough?"
"Honey from the Keepers," Doc judged. "Call."
"Quinn!"
Gideon's eyes darted up to spy not one, not two, but three corrections officers approaching. Dust puffed like smoke from all six feet as they crossed the Yard, making it appear, in the red light of the setting suns, as if the entire prison were on fire.
"Prisoner 66897," the foremost CO called out, not quite looking at Gideon — it was one of the tricks all the screws were taught — don't make eye contact with the prisoners because if you make eye contact, they might remember they're human. "You are requested in the warden's office."
Elvis, waking, hissed.
"Can't it wait?" Gideon soothed the draco with one hand and waved his cards with the other. "We're in the middle of a game, and I'm sitting on an apiary that'll net me enough TP to last out the month."
"You're sitting on a full hive, at best," Doc reproved mildly.
"Only one way to find out," Gideon grinned across the slab.
"Cut the crap, Quinn," the second CO, a long-timer named Finch, said with the weariness of familiarity. “You know what day it is. The review board is waiting."
"You didn't say it was your anniversary," Doc’s brows rose in surprise. “What are you waiting for? Go. I'll watch Elvis."
"And take a peek at my cards?"
"I wouldn't dream—"
"That's enough, Doc," the third CO cut in, not even tilting his head in the older man's direction. "And you," he grabbed Gideon by the collar, "on your feet, drone."
Because the third CO was a de-mobbed airman who'd not been on the job in Morton long enough to know any better, he was on the ground before he knew what hit him.
The first CO, on the other hand, knew exactly what hit him, as he moved to subdue Gideon and ran neck first into the prisoner’s rising elbow. A heartbeat later, the guard was bent backwards on the slab-slash-table, gagging while Gideon's forearm held him down.
For a moment the only things that moved were Elvis, flapping to safety atop of the Yard's enclosing wall, and one roll of toilet paper, leaving a white trail through the red-tinted dust as it made its escape.
"You'll want to back off, Quinn," Finch's shock stick hummed to life even as the sirens began to wail lockdown.
Wordlessly, Gideon released the gaping CO and dropped to his knees with his hands on his head.
"Guess that's the game,” Doc said, joining Gideon on the ground as yet more guards flowed in from the inner gates, forcing every inmate in the Yard to the ground.
"Dammit, Quinn," Finch shook his head at the prisoner, "are you trying to tank your chance at parole?"
"Grow up, Finch," Gideon said flatly. "They're never going to grant me parole."
About the Author:
Former actor, former fight choreographer, former HR drone and current parent, Kathleen McClure has always been fierce devourer of genre (read 'escapist') fiction.
She is the author of Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure, also first of The Fortune Chronicles, a series of adult adventures for the young at heart, and will soon be releasing the second book, Outrageous Fortune, with Kelley McKinnon.
She has short stories published in Timeless Tales Magazine, Lorelei Signals and, with K. Ceres Wright, contributed to Diner Stories: Off the Menu, an anthology celebrating the American Diner (though of course Ceres and Kathleen put their diner in space).She has also embarked an a science fiction pulp series with fellow writer L. Gene Brown, to be seen later this year.
Kathleen currently lives in Austin, TX with her tolerant husband, two consistently entertaining kids and three cats.
Links to Purchase Print Books
Link to Buy Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure Print Edition at Amazon
Link to Buy Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure Print Edition at Barnes and Noble
Link to Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure Print book for sale at CreateSpace
Links to Purchase eBooks
Link To Buy Soldier of Fortune: A Gideon Quinn Adventure On Amazon
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