Kris Longknife’s Bad Day
Kris Longknife’s Bad Day
Kris Longknife Short Story #3
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: April 2, 2017
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You knew when Kris asked for a desk job that it wasn't going to be pretty. Well, here's the bad, the worst, and the ugly. Budgets! This short story started out as the opening chapters to Kris Longknife: Emissary, but hey, we all know how bad an office job is. Who wants to start off a science fiction action adventure yarn with just another day at the office? So, I cut it. But, I know there are some of you out there who must have wondered if a bad Longknife day at the office was as bad as yours. Who has wondered what Kris had been doing for the last (mumble, mumble) years? So here is it is. Enjoy, you masochists.
My first government job was with the Navy department in the budget section of a bureau HQ. I kind of got carried away starting Emissary but my wife put on the brakes and I cut this out of the book. Still, anyone who has experience in DoD will hear the echoes of their experience in this little story. This belongs at the beginning of Emissary.
Kris Lognknife’s Maid Goes on Strike: Life on Alwa Station
Kris Longknife’s Maid Goes On Strike: Life on Alwa Station
Kris Longknife Short Story #4
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: June 1, 2017
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You knew it had to happen sooner or later. Abby goes on strike. Of course, it took a lot to drive her to that extreme. Just saying. Here you find out exactly what that extreme is.
This was written to provide a teaser before Kris Longknife's Relief came out. However, it was just so much fun to let Abby get her own story for a bit. Read it between Replacement and Relief.
Kris Longknife’s Maid Goes on Strike & Other Short Stories
Kris Longknife’s Maid Goes on Strike and Other Short Stories
Short Story Collection #4
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: October13, 2017
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This collection of 4 short stories under one cover: Kris Longknife’s Maid Goes on Strike, Ruthie Longknife's First Christmas, Among the Kicking Birds, and Kris Longknife’s Bad Day.
This is separate from my other Short Story Collections because they are all separate from Ace and are published by me.
I was told that if an independent writer wanted to be taken seriously by Amazon, they needed to publish something every month.
I started off in December 2016 publishing a short story one month, then a novel the next. I managed to keep that up for eight months.
Unfortunately, I just can't write that fast in Kris's universe. And I don’t think I'm all that good now with short stories. Still, here are the two stories I wrote specifically for those even months, plus a major cut out from Unrelenting as well as the opening chapter to Emissary. Once again, I didn't start with the action. (Even after this long, I got it wrong.) Still, anyone who has ever dealt with the military bureaucracy will get a hoot out of Kris's experience with it.
This collection is for those of you who want all of Kris’s short stories in one place.
Part IV
The Iteeche War Stories
These stories are set before Kris Longknife’s time. In these stories we see the development of Granny Rita and how her Grandpa Al comes to be. More importantly, we learn about an alien species that no one is too sure of, eventually known as the Iteeche.
Rita Longknife - Enemy Unknown
Rita Longknife - Enemy Unknown
Rita Longknife Series #1
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: March 1, 2017
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The war is over. Hurray! Half the fleet is back in mothballs. But out on the rim of human space, ships are disappearing. Some are merchant ships going about their business. Others are exploration ships on deep space probes. What's happening to them?
Captain Rita Nuu Longknife is ready to take the heavy cruiser Exeter to space and see what's out there. She may have a nursery next to the captain's cabin, and a two-month-old baby on her hip, but she's taking a warship out there and nobody better get in her way.
I started Enemy Unknown as soon as I finished To Do or Die. I wanted to see what happened next. I'd been putting all the pieces in place for the Iteeche War and I've never read anywhere else where First Contact was made by the outlaw elements of the two species. Of course, the legal, *cough, cough* powers that be would have a major problem both believing in what's happening and facing the cost of doing something about it.
I also had a kick letting Rita be an echo of what Kris would be like. Or is it the other way around? Anyway, you can see in this book that Kris comes by her attitude honestly.
Rita Longknife - Enemy in Sight
Rita Longknife - Enemy in Sight
Rita Longknife Series #2
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: August 31, 2017
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The victory parades are over and half the fleet is back in mothballs. The Navies better start getting them back in Commission! Rita Longknife, commander of the heavy cruiser Exeter, has proof. Proof that there is something else out there. Proof we are not alone in the galaxy. Aboard her ship is evidence that we have blown up an alien ship, and they have blown up one of ours. So far, contact with the aliens is being made by pirates, the worst scum humanity has. How do the rational people take over the conversation? Is there already too much bad blood between us? Have we already blown first contact?
Now that I'm writing the Iteeche War, I'm finding that I backed myself into a few corners. I've talked a lot about it, and I've got various wounds on folks that I'm going to have to account for. Oh, the fun! Unfortunately, the Iteeche War books have the lowest sales, so they will have to wait until I can find time to write five books in a year.
Part V
Grand Admiral Santiago on Alwa Station
These books deal with Kris’s replacement on Alwa, Sandy Santiago. We met Sandy back in the early ACE books and she was reintroduced the new story arc that started in 2018. We see her as Kris Longknife’s Replacement, then Relief, and Successor on Alwa, the planet with Granny Rita, Cats, and the Birds!
Kris Longknife’s Replacement
Kris Longknife’s Replacement
Sandy Santiago Series #1
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: January 5, 2017
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Kris Longknife has been ordered back to human space.
Sandy Santiago is a woman with a whole lot of problems. She's ordered to replace Kris Longknife, but can any mere mortal fill the shoes of a Longknife . . . and Kris Longknife most of all? Follow Sandy as she's introduced to the mess on Canopus Station. Watch her as she meets cats (with nuclear weapons!), birds, and vicious alien raiders. Oh, and she has to share Alwa Station with Rita Nuu-Longknife. How does a gal get so lucky?
Once I made up my mind to go independent, I knew that not only could I publish more than the one or two books Ace wanted a year, but I really needed to. As mentioned before, I came home and knocked this book out in less than 30 days.
Alwa was such a fascinating place. And we also had the Cats as well. Giving a wonderful character like Sandy the job of trying to fill Kris's shoes just looked like too much fun to pass up. Also, a lot of Kris's original gang stayed behind on Alwa. Like Kris, they'd grown. They had lives and roots on Alwa that were just too good to leave. Thus, we began these stories after Unrelenting. They have no bearing on the Kris books after Emissary. They take place during the period between Bold and Emissary.
Kris Longknife’s Relief
Kris Longknife’s Relief
Sandy Santiago Series #2
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: July 1, 2017
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Sandy Santiago has problems coming out her ears. Granny Rita is out of control. The workers are out on strike. Worse, the murderous alien raiders are testing Alwa's defense perimeter. Once she has h
er house in order, Sandy is strongly thinking of getting her own good look at what appears to be the alien home world. Last time Kris Longknife visited the place, she threw some serious shade on the aliens. Dare Sandy return? Might the aliens be waiting for her? What could a serious, organized scientific look at this world tell Sandy? Assuming she survives the look!
I thought I'd established that the planet with the pyramid was the alien home world, but I ran into some readers who still weren't sure. Sending Sandy with a serious research team was just the ticket to settle that. It also allowed me to show a bit of the internal mess that the alien leadership was falling into. They've managed to avoid change for a hundred thousand years. Sooner or later, that was going to catch up with them, and the stress of fighting the humans and losing is bound to make their perfect world fray around the edges.
Kris Longknife’s Successor
Kris Longknife’s Successor
Sandy Santiago Series #3
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: February 1, 2018
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This is the third book with Grand Admiral Sandy Santiago serving as Kris Longknife's Relief, then Replacement, and now Successor on Alwa. Grand Admiral Santiago has all the challenges a gal could ask for. Granny Rita is on the rampage, and the cats have gone on strike. Leaving the Colonials to deal with Granny Rita, Sandy heads off to work with the Cats, only to discover she is not the only one who has a bone to pick with them - alien monsters have a vendetta as well! It's all in a day's work for someone who is Kris Longknife's Successor.
The Cats just had too many loose ends. They also weren't at all likely to play nice in the sand box. Of course, there was also the problem of how to bring them into the community without them scratching people and plucking the birds. This let me take some of the minor admirals whose viewpoint had never been used and give them have some time in the sun.
There may be more stories in this part of Kris's universe. I know there are plenty lurking there. I just need to get them to talk to me.
Part VI
The Vicky Peterwald Series
Vicky was created as the arch-enemy of Kris Longknife. It wasn’t long before such a personality needed a place of her own. The first three books: Target, Survivor, and Rebel, were published with ACE. The newest books, out in July of 2018, Dominator, and 2019 Implacable, was with my own independent press, KL & MM Books.
Target
Vicky Peterwald – Target
Vicky Peterwald Series #1
Publisher: ACE
Date: June 24, 2014
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Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Victoria Maria Teresa Inez Smythe-Peterwald, daughter of wealth and power, was raised to do little except be attractive and marry well. Then everything changed—her brother, her father’s favorite and the heir apparent, was killed in battle by Lieutenant Kris Longknife, daughter of the Peterwald’s longtime enemies. Vicky vowed revenge, but her skill set was more suitable for seduction than assassination, and she failed. Angry and disappointed, her father decided she needed military training and forced her to join the Navy.
Now Ensign Vicky Peterwald is part of a whole new world, where use of her ample charms will not lead to advancement. But her father is the Emperor, and what he wants he gets. What he wants is for Vicky to learn to be efficiently ruthless and deadly.
Though the lessons are hard learned, Vicky masters them—with help from an unexpected source: Kris Longknife.
As hard as it is to believe, I started this project wondering if it was only a short story. Then it became a novelette. When it passed novella length, I knew I had a lot of things to cover. I scoped out a trilogy and sold it to Ace. Well, actually I was planning on publishing it myself but after I made the New York Times best seller list, Ace wanted everything I was writing.
This book is the other R rated book in the series. There was just no way to make Vicky's book anything but racy. I'd been writing Kris for eleven years, the quintessential good girl. I wondered if I could write a bad girl and if I could bring her to redemption. That was the challenge I gave myself. In Target, Vicky had to be the girl who had been raised in the palace, ignored by her father, and teased by her brother. How would she deal with the challenges that came her way? Maybe she didn't handle them well, but she did handle them.
Survivor
Vicky Peterwald – Survivor
Vicky Peterwald Series #2
Publisher: ACE
Date: May 26, 2015
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Seeking revenge for her brother’s death, Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald underwent an unlikely transformation — from pampered heir to naval lieutenant. Now a new challenge looms: Vicky will need to use both her military and political ranks to rebuild war-torn planets, planets ruined both by the Peterwald Empire and by Kris Longknife’s revolutionary quests.
But not everyone shares Vicky’s goals. When the death-before-dishonor code of the Navy meets the anything-goes-to-win motto of the Imperial family, Vicky must confront, outwit, and conquer both revolutionaries and her own family to stifle galactic disorder.
And nothing stops a Grand Duchess, on or off the field.
This is very much a continuation of Vicky’s adventures in Target, and easily flows into Survivor. Vicky is moving slowly from a victim and pawn to at least be able to survive. Again, I was enjoying the way my bad girl was figuring out how to be something other than a bed partner. In Survivor, Vicky has to tread carefully as she crosses minefields set for the political, military and even her heart.
When I made the deal with ACE for these books, it was for one, then three, Vicky books. While a good read, Vicky has never earned as much as Kris and her friends. She often takes a back seat in sales; this is why she only gets a book every 18 months or so.
Rebel
Vicky Peterwald – Rebel
Vicky Peterwald Series #3
Publisher: ACE
Date: May 31, 2016
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Vicky Peterwald is no longer just the heir apparent to an imperial dynasty. She survived naval training and proved her mettle in combat to help the starving people of the ravaged world of St. Petersburg. Now, she is truly a Grand Duchess, leading a growing battle fleet in a rebellion against the tyranny of her stepmother, the Empress.
Determined to stop her spoiled stepdaughter’s betrayal from upsetting the balance of power within the Peterwald Empire, the Empress is leading her own armada to St. Petersburg, intent on killing Vicky and every soul on the planet that gave her refuge.
But Vicky is her father’s daughter, and it would be a grave mistake to underestimate her...
In both of these two books, Survivor and Rebel, you can see Vicky growing. Sure, she's got the help of quite a few good men (sorry, but the Greenfeld Empire doesn't let many women into the center of power.) Slowly, she goes from following orders to giving them. All the time, hanging in the balance is the question: is she a dictator or can she learn to be a constitutional leader? With Mannie capturing her heart, the conflict takes on a physical presence. I feel that by the time we end Rebel that Vicky can stand toe to toe with Kris. She is not Kris, but she's quite capable of running half an Empire.
With Bold, Vicky's story and Kris's flow back together, and yes, the girls do get to dish the dirt for a few evenings, even with a war to end.
Dominator
Vicky Peterwald – Dominator
Vicky Peterwald Series #4
Publisher: KL & MM Books
Date: July 1, 2018
* * *
Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald has everything. A loving fiancé who's soon to be her husband, adoring crowds, and she gets to share her golden wedding carriage with Kris Longknife. What more could a girl want?
Well, the Emperor, her father, could have showed up to walk her down the aisle, but she's not really bothered about that. Then suddenly, she is. It turns out that he didn't make the wedding because he's broke and living nearly homeless in an abandoned, half-built, palace. How'd th
at happen?
News isn't coming out of Dad's side of the Empire, so it looks like Vicky may need a battle fleet to go pay Daddy dear a visit. Oh, and with four or six brigades of infantry and tanks. Somebody should have known better than piss Vicky Peterwald off. Now they have, and she won't let anything get in her way of being Vicky Peterwald: Dominator.
Writing with Mike Shepherd Page 5
