A new series, set on a space station, yay! by Vijaya Schartz

Read the latest sci-fi romance release from Vijaya, ANGEL MINE

Announcing a new sci-fi romance series set on the Byzantium space station. Byzantium books 1 and 2 will be out next year, and Book 3 in 2020. Each book will be a complete story with high octane action and a hint of romance.

The Byzantium series is a spin-off from the Azura universe and will cross paths with it many times. The space station figures prominently in the Azura Chronicles series, the first book of which, ANGEL MINE, was released in May of this year. Book Two, ANGEL FIERCE, is set for Februrary 2019, and Book Three will come out in 2020.

But this imposing structure in space called Byzantium, is a character in itself. It deserves to serve as the setting for many more stories. It’s a tourist destination, has many casinos and gambling dens, and the slums harbor the most dangerous gangs and illegal drugs and weapons traffic rings. It’s also a large trading port and contains a high security prison holding the most dangerous criminals in the galaxy.

So, starting next year, you will meet more strong female characters, some in uniform and others in full body armor. There will also be more genetically engineered cats. You can never have too many cats on a space station. How else would you get rid of all the vermin? New brave heroes will visit Byzantium, some human and some not. Some will rebel against the crushing authority of the GTA (Galactic Trade Alliance), others will exploit the turmoil for a higher purpose. Others yet might embrace the broken system and try to change it from the inside.

As usual in my stories there will be a bitter fight between good and evil… although sometimes, it’s difficult to tell which is which. Things are never quite what they seem…

In the meantime, hurry to read the first book in the Azura Chronicles series, ANGEL MINE, where you get a glimpse of what Byzantium is all about. Oh, and there will be angels on Byzantium as well. Here is the blurb for the latest release:

What in the frozen hells of Laxxar prompted Fianna to pursue her quarry to this forbidden blue planet? Well, she needs the credits... badly. But as if crashing in the jungle wasn't bad enough, none of her high-tech weapons work. She'll have to go native, after the most wanted felon in five galaxies. It's not just her job. It's personal.

Acielon has never seen an outworlder like this fascinating female, strangely beautiful, and fierce, like the feline predator loping at her side. He always dreamed of exploring the universe, despite the legends... and the interdiction. Is it truly a hellish place of violence, lies and suffering? If it spawned this intriguing creature, it must also be a place of wonders, adventure and excitement...

Fianna's instincts tell her someone is watching. Sheba, her telepathic feline partner, doesn't seem worried... yet, something on Azura isn't quite right.

"I don’t know how Vijaya continues to write books that both aggravate you to no end and keep you on the edge of your seat. You can’t put it down until you know what happens next. Before you know what happened, you are at the end of the book and wondering how you got there so fast. It is hard not to get caught up in and lost in the imagery created on the pages of the locations. You can even smell what is in the air. Yet another page turner I couldn’t put down! Thank you Vijaya for keeping me entertained." 5-stars - Beverley J. Malloy on amazon

Happy reading!

Vijaya SchartzHigh Octane Romance with a Kick

http://www.vijayaschartz.com  

A few of my scribbles--Tricia McGill

Find purchase links to this and all my other books here on my Books We Love Author page

It’s cold wet and dreary in my part of the world as I write, so here are just a few snippets of Aussie whimsy from my collection of scribblings to cheer things up.

Glorious Day

I set out for a walk on a fine spring day

The flowers I saw in merry profusion

Into a lake ran a stream so fey.

I thought it was a grand illusion

Beneath my feet the grass was green.

From new mown fields I smelt the hay

It really was a peaceful scene.

Oh glorious world. Oh glorious day.

Children ran by—so full of joy,

picking flowers and singing beneath the sun

I bent to smile down at a tiny boy,

but he took off away at a sprightly run

How carefree they were, these girls and boys

Like splendid shafts from a sunny ray

Not worried unduly, but sharing their joys.

Oh glorious world. Oh glorious day.

A horse in a paddock called out to me.

A dog barked from a farmhouse just over the hill

Some magpies flew up to the branch of a tree.

Kangaroos were feeding near a windmill

Some joeys amongst them prepared for flight.

A kookaburra laughed loudly, and then flew away

To soar on the wind to a magnificent height.

Oh glorious world. O glorious day.

The woes of the world are all left behind.

On days such as this my cares slip away

Problems disperse like dust in the wind.

Oh glorious world. Oh glorious day.

The Stockman

The bush and plains are the stockman’s home.

The pine clad mountains and valleys to roam

His hat rests low on his proud set head

and covers his hair of the brightest red.

His dog lopes close by his horses’ side,

and the pair never tire through a long day’s ride.

Old Irish has dreamed since he was a lad

of riding all day across this wide land.

His mother and father had both been rovers.

His dad was a man well known by the drovers

They’d died up along the Murrays’ side

and were buried near that great river so wide.

Irish knows well how to laugh and to cry;

to share life’s sorrows ‘neath God’s clear blue sky

He knows all there is about herding cows,

about riding all day when the wind just howls.

Once on a trek though the great desert land,

he almost got lost as for gold he panned

Old Irish has been where black parrots fly,

where the mulga and scrub reach well past the thigh.

Past rivers so dry that the cracks split the earth

and no one can say what the red land is worth

He’s been where the ‘roos jump high in the air,

where wallabies roam over land green and fair.

He thought once of settling, of taking a wife,

but decided with forethought that wasn’t the life

No drover would fit in a life in the city;

to leave all this space would be more than a pity.

In a place like Sydney or Melbourne or Darwin

where the people all flock and there’s plenty of sin

No woman in town would put up with his roving,

this need to be moving, and constantly going

To the back blocks and endless wide open plains,

far away from the city and shops and the trains

There’s no female around who’d put up with the hide

of a man who yearns just to be free to ride.

The man who knows joy in a good horse beneath you,

a dog for a pal and restrictions so few

The hard times and good times; the dust and the heat,

where no man gives in to a thing like defeat.

The bush folk have ways the townsfolk don’t know.

They’ll greet you with pleasure, and then let you go

To wander the wide open plains that you love,

where at night all the stars fairly blaze up above.

On a night when the air is crystal clear,

you’ll sit ‘neath a sky where the stars seem so near

You can reach out and touch them in the frosty sky

and be closer to God than you’ll be when you die.

A stockman knows all about drought dust and heat,

but in his way of life won’t put up with defeat.

His life’s filled with pleasures no town man would know.

Old Irish is off where the wanderers go.

This last one is set in the doc’s waiting room, where I seem to be spending far too much time of late.

The Doctor’s Surgery

Are you shorter than you used to be?

A strange but smart enough query

It’s listed there with many more

on the inside of my doctor’s door

With other questions about your health,

asked bluntly and without much stealth

Do you require a cholesterol check?

Or some acupuncture for a pain in the neck?

Perhaps the others that sit with me

In this my doctor’s nice surgery

Have bunions or wind, are feeling weak,

or maybe like me have come to seek

A reason for what is making them crook,

why they often feel dizzy while reading a book

Did that one over there wake up with a pain?

Perhaps she is simply feeling the strain

With a boy who plays up, shouts and screams

She’s probably coming apart at the seams

Ah, here’s the doctor, I think it’s my turn,

to unload my problems so I can learn

What’s wrong, what’s the trouble with me?

It will all be unfolded in his surgery

He’ll tell me I’m well, I’m fit and fine, 

and I’ll leave with a smile until the next time

When I want the assurance of someone so wise,

who’ll look in my ears, down my throat, in my eyes.

Some reassurance will see me right,

Some kind words of comfort; some doctorly insight

I’ll leave his office on jaunty feet,

glad to get out on the sunny street

It’s good to know that I’m fit and whole.

I know I feel fine for my doc told me so.

 

My Web Page

Walk On The Urban Side

https://books2read.com/u/4AwQve

Walking. One of our joys. Many days three to four hours. Some days six or seven hours.  In Victoria it was a breeze, an ocean breeze and cooler temperatures that made the strolls grand.  The skies are blue-mostly-in Toronto during the month of August. Temperatures are in the high  twenties or low thirties. With the humidex it feels like +40 many days. This is not weather made for a   walker.A hot day and miles and miles of concrete absorbing the heat equals, well, yikes.  What would one do to get our strolling fix? Walk at five AM. Nah. I’m asleep at that hour.  One has to adapt. Toronto may not have an ocean breeze. However, it does have something close,   real close. Outside our window is Lake Ontario with miles and miles of parkland and walking trails.  With careful research. OK, it wasn’t that difficult. After all there were only two direction to head  once you were at the lake shore. I find strolling west is best. Although I do like Leslieville once   you get there heading east. West takes us to High Park an amazing place with blossoms in the   spring and trails to keep you moving.One must never forget the coffee stop. A street near the park  is loaded with local coffee houses and delicious beverages.  Ah, the lake shore. A place of five degrees cooler temperatures. Only the most vicious heat   would stop my hikes. Frankly, there haven’t been any yet. The walks are not lightening quick,   but they are paced. Now, where would one settle down to rest for a bit? I know. How about in one   of Toronto’s hundreds of Adirondack chairs. Fine, they call them Muskoka chairs.   Don’t tell them but they are Adirondack chairs. 

When I said that there are only two directions to walk I fibbed a bit. We simply have to hop
on a ferry and walk around amazing Toronto Island.

Whew. Looks like we landed in a great part of Toronto.

Um, winter is an issue. It is quite a bit cooler beside the lake. Oh boy.