Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. On the surface, it’s a web ring of authors who post snippets of their work for comment. In reality, it’s a close-knit group of friends and colleagues working together to support and encourage one another and promote the science fiction and fantasy genres.

This week’s snippet is a backhanded return to the ‘verse of THE BLACK WING CHRONICLES. This is from UNDERNEATH DEAD STAR. This is the novel tie-in for Blade Devon’s breakout holofeature role. I have two incomplete manuscripts which provided the titles and storylines for Blade’s holofeatures UNDERNEATH DEAD STAR is the one I’m sharing here. It’s currently in development and may or may not ever see the light of day.

Without further ado, I introduce you to Rubicon P. Schuyler, “Rube” to his friends. What is the “P” for? Effect.

***

Hello, my name is Rubicon P. Schuyler, and I’m a grunt. I hate when I have to introduce myself to a new supervisor. I always feel like one of those ultra-dependent types at a self-help meeting. The only difference is that being a grunt is not exactly a condition, it’s more along the lines of a disease. It’s the military’s term for perpetual screw-up. If I had enlisted thousands of years ago, they’d have made me a foot-soldier. I’m a man with no talent or ambition beyond surviving and propagating the species. Well, let’s just say I try to propagate the species whenever the opportunity presents itself.

They, the evil military leaders who decide assignments and transfers for the good of the Galactic Commonwealth, sent me to certain death at the asteroid station they called Dead Star.

***

Well, that’s the Saturday Snippet for this week! Please don’t forget to comment by clicking on either the blog title or the little quotation balloon in the upper right hand corner. Tell your friends. Stop back here next week for another!

***

If you’re interested in more about:

SOVRAN’S PAWN

United by extortion, divided by duty, someone wants them both dead. They want each other. The catch is, nothing is what it seems…

Convicted of treason and sentenced to be executed, Bo Barron is the last person who should be infiltrating a Sub-socia weapons auction. But when her father is kidnapped and the ransom demand is the schematics to an experimental weapon, she has no choice but to go under cover with her uncle to get it.

Nobody counted on former-government-agent-turned-holofeature-hero Blade Devon’s infatuation with her. A botched assassination under the guise of a bar brawl leaves Bo blind and Blade wondering if there isn’t more to this job than he was led to believe.

Never able to resist playing the hero, Blade tends her injuries and delves deeper into the intrigue only to find this mission isn’t about a weapon at all. It’s about two Sovrans’ maneuvering for control, with Bo and Blade as their pawns.

All Bo and Blade have to do is figure out how to survive the game they didn’t know they were playing.