Nomad Omnibus 01: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (A Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Omnibus)

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Nomad Omnibus 01: A Kurtherian Gambit Series (A Terry Henry Walton Chronicles Omnibus) Page 59

by Craig Martelle


  “The horses?”

  Gerry turned to Kiwi and she nodded. “Better grazing here than back home. They are happy to have a few days of casual riding, I think.”

  “Thank you,” Terry started, standing because he thought better when pacing. “Here’s the plan. Char and I will take three horses and return to New Boulder. Then we’ll bring everyone here. I’d like to think we’ll be back in five months, but it could be a year. The rest of you will stay here, get the power plant operational, and prepare for the arrival of the townsfolk. Redundant food supplies in place, water sources established and clearly marked, and if possible, power. We’ll go after the nukes when we get back and have the engineer and the mechanic to keep the plant running while we’re scavenging. Warrant Officer Timmons will be in charge with Corporal James as his second. There’s more work than you can do in the time you have, so get as much as you can done without burning yourselves out. Pace yourselves and when next we meet, we’ll be bringing humanity back to civilization”

  The next morning at dawn, Terry and Char waved goodbye to the others as they rode away from the place they determined would spark the rise of a new world.

  The End of Nomad Unleashed

  Terry Henry Walton will return in Nomad Supreme,

  February 2017

  Author Notes - Craig Martelle

  Written January 28th, 2017

  I'm a lifelong daydreamer and student of human interaction. I have some degrees, but those don't matter when it comes to telling the story. Engaging characters within a believable narrative- that's what it’s all about. I live in the interior of Alaska, far away from an awful lot, but I love it here.

  It is natural beauty at its finest.

  A couple shout outs to people as I named some characters within the book. I accidentally copied over the acknowledgements in Nomad Redeemed, so here it is, one book late. For Sue Catherman in honor of her 39th birthday (ahem), I named one of the She-Wolves Sue. Sue plays a role in this book as well and should continue as we go forward.

  Micky Cocker did me a solid and gave me two names on short notice – Roman and Cassandra. As you see those characters, remember that Micky got to name them because she was so cordial as to buy a short-story anthology that I had put together – The Expanding Universe.

  Norman Meredith came up with a nice plot link for the next book. Will Terry Henry Walton find his white whale? We shall see and it will make sense.

  How many other people have helped me on this journey? Holy crap! The list is nearly endless – thanks to Diane & Dorene. They gave me a thumbs up just past the half way point. They have infinite patience in reading my unedited work to check character development and story symmetry. My editor, Mia Darien puts up with me. When she tells me it’ll take seven days, I always ask for six.

  Some reviews that were humbling and that I really liked.

  “I like the way Char just does what She needs to do, no messing around just do what you gotta do!!!!!! I gave a five star rating because I was impressed by the story!!!!!!This book is suitable for readers aged 15 to however old you get to!!!” – Thank you Doc for the very kind words.

  “Craig Martelle takes on from Michael Anderle's Kurtherian Gambit Series and continues with Terry (TH) about (25 - edited) years after Bethany Anne left. I can't say enough how good this new series is. The Author has a fantastic story line, great character development and I love where he took the Weres, especially the new love interest Char (Bethany Anne would love her). TH has some work to do before BA gets back, and I can't wait to see how he gets civilization back on track. Bravo Craig Martelle and Michael Anderle!” – Thank you, Jakeybg. Our intent was to fill the gap in time and space with material that stayed true to TKG and TQB, while being a little different. I am very happy with how these novels have turned out and more importantly, with how well they’ve been received by the readers.

  “Yeah, it's pulp fiction. But I grew up on one of the greatest pulp fiction writers, Louis L’amour. You're in good company Michael, keep up the good work and I'll keep reading the stories.” – Thank you, Van Powers! When I first started, I knew that my style was pulp. Michael and I mesh perfectly in that the stories are important and we give them to you at Edgar Rice Burroughs speed, a pulp author that I’m happy to follow. I’m good with being called a pulp author, and I know that we don’t have to trade quality for speed because we use a rigorous review and editing process to ensure that you get a technically sound story, as well as engaging characters within a compelling plot.

  “I'm amazed that the KG universe gets these amazing authors to bring new ideas and a fresh perspective to an already outstanding series. This was a great read from the beginning, and was one the best books I've read in awhile. This turning out to be a must read series. Highly recommend this one!” – Thank you, Dstars2797. TKG is a great series! I’m honored that Michael considered me to help tell TH’s story.

  “This series is really good. I really like how Char and Terry's relationship is slowly building into a romance. The characters in the book are well rounded and have well developed personalities! You won't regret buying this series!” – Thank you, Luvs2read. We love that you love to read. Every person that we can turn into a reader helps a great number of other authors. A rising tide floats all boats.

  “I liked both books but can't understand how TH manages to NOT bump uglies with Char... otherwise just your typical werewolf PA adventure story. I hope TH figures out what he's missing by the third book...” – Funny you mention that! I hope the third book didn’t disappoint.

  Peace to all – time to get back to work on Nomad Supreme. TH & Char have nation-states to dismantle and rebuild. So much work to do, but with the power of a bullwhip and keen minds, they have a plan…

  ***

  If you liked this story, you might like some of my other books. You can join my mailing list by dropping by my website www.craigmartelle.com or if you have any comments, shoot me a note at [email protected]. I am always happy to hear from people who’ve read my work. I try to answer every email I receive.

  If you liked the story, please write a short review for me on Amazon. I greatly appreciate any kind words, even one or two sentences go a long way. The number of reviews an ebook receives greatly improves how well an ebook does on Amazon.

  Amazon – www.amazon.com/author/craigmartelle

  Facebook – www.facebook.com/authorcraigmartelle

  My web page – www.craigmartelle.com

  Twitter – www.twitter.com/rick_banik

  Thank you for reading the Terry Henry Walton Chronicles!

  Author Notes - Michael Anderle

  Written February 5th, 2017

  As always, can I say with a HUGE amount of appreciation how much it means to me that you not only read this book, but you are reading these notes as well?

  This book, Nomad Unleashed, is the third book in the series that was first introduced and released with Nomad Found on December 20th, 2016. It is (or will be) February 6th when this book is published, and the fourth is part-way written and is scheduled to drop around February 27th. Should Craig hit that date, then he will have dropped four books in a total of just shy of ten weeks (about 69 days) or one every 2.5 weeks.

  DaaaAAAAAAuuuumnn!

  He really makes me feel slow.

  We use Slack for my publishing company, LMBPN - (The company is kinda small, but there isn’t a name for “company” that equals “Indie Publishing Outlaw that is taking no prisoners…”) I’m building something new I would like to think. A company that takes the best out of what I’ve done with my fans, and elevates it. Trying to bring MORE for the fans.

  Not less.

  Anyway, we use Slack for communications between all of the collaborators (authors), artists, editors and audio talent. At last count, there is something like thirty-plus people in the LMBPN group and even more in the sister JIT group. Think of Slack as a website devoted to texts/chatting where you can create little channels for specific topics and keep things
organized and see the history of the conversation for anyone involved.

  In my group, Steve Campbell is the conductor working in the background with the artists, authors, editors, JIT team(s), beta readers and myself to get the pieces together to push out each book, audiobook and paperback. Those of you who are on some of the JIT teams, will have already met him. Anyway, one day Craig and I are yacking in Slack (technical term for chatting about shit un-related to probably what we needed to be discussing) and Craig (like he normally does) was flexing his proverbial writing muscles (looking in the mirror, I’m sure) and explaining how many damned words he had already accomplished before, like, the cock crowed or something (probably 7,000 words).

  Anywho, Steve happened to read our conversation in the channel and called Craig “Awesome Craig”. Now, I don’t remember if Steve actually meant something like, “that’s awesome, Craig” or meant to name him “Awesome Craig.” But for me, the name stuck. Now, I have a hard time not saying shit like “Good morning, Awesome Craig!” or “Good idea, Awesome Craig,” It’s a longer name to type out, but I can’t help myself.

  In our Slack conversation a couple of hours ago, Craig mentioned he is already at 20,000 words on book 04 and will probably have Book 05 of The Terry Henry Walton Chronicles written (not yet edited) by end of February.

  Way to make me feel like a total wimp writer there, Co-lab buddy! Here people were saying I was dropping books fast, but I can’t hold a candle to this Marine.

  OORAH!

  Ok, I guess I’ve said enough nice things about my collaborator, even if he DOES make me feel insignificant when I only drop a book every 5 weeks.

  On to something that we did that was FUN in this book, Nomad Unleashed.

  Another Indie Author that I met in the 20Books group, and I’ve spent hours on the phone discussing publishing ideas is Michael-Scott Earle. I have (perhaps) mentioned in other notes, or on Facebook or somewhere, that Michael-Scott (or just M-S E) has multiple books under his belt and is someone I’m SURE is going to get me in trouble some day because of his…uh…cavalier way of sending a “how are you” text. (Read - shit you don’t want your wife to read without knowing it’s a guy…)

  I don’t want to go more into it, as it might encourage him to continue this behaviour. The Author’s wife is Latin, I’ll be dead before she realizes M-S E is joking…and is a guy.

  I try to explain this to M-S E, but for some reason he has zero pity for me.

  So, Craig thought it would be fun to have M-S E write a scene related to the Werewolves in this book and since we are Indie’s …Well, we can.

  It’s good to be the King ;-)

  So Craig reached out and M-S E was like…Hell Yeah! (Ok, that’s my interpretation of the conversation. Considering how M-S E will chat, his side might have been a little more colorful.)

  Anyway, Craig took care of the integration of about 500 words (490) that M-S E wrote for a scene with the Werewolf pack. I’ve copied it out of the book and dropped them below. Now, M-S E sells his books ‘wide’. That means that he is on all EBook retailers, but he isn’t in Kindle Unlimited for his Destroyer series. That ISN’T a problem, as his first in the series (a HUGE book, by the way) is FREE.

  As in… you know… Free? Doesn’t cost anything? Nada…Zilch…Zippo? Ok, I type these things because I can’t freaking remember if the term “Free as in Free Beer” applies here. So, yeah, doesn’t cost anything.

  We have included the Book Cover and Blurb after this plus a link to the book if you care to check it out. He’s another kick-ass Indie Author so if his book interests you, click the link to find out more about it on Amazon.

  On another subject, it was just three days ago that I wrote the Author Notes for my own book, Never Submit. I was blessed when it hit #55 in the Kindle Store, my highest ranking to date. Right now, it is sitting at #92 in the Kindle Store (Quick! Everyone go buy another copy…Let’s keep that guy up HIGH!)

  LOL - No, you don’t have to go do that. I wrote that because I thought it was funny.

  Huh, I guess I shouldn’t write these Author notes late at night in an El Fenix Restaraunt. The caffeine buzz from my Dr. Pepper fix (no, no Coke) is wearing off. I’d like to apologize, in advance, for anything I’ve written tonight. No idea if it will make ANY sense at all.

  Anyway, stupid jokes aside that seem funny to me at the moment, I want to thank you for reading our little stories set in a Universe where the technology that we happen to be messing with today, in our own real world, runs amok. The Genie has WELL and truly been let out of the bottle and while it can be scary, let’s maybe all cross our fingers and pray to whoever you wish that mankind doesn’t fuck it up.

  Because, you know, we have such a good history of doing the right thing, right?

  Here is that promised scene - check out more of Michael-Scott Earle’s book after this ;-)

  Scene from Nomad Unleashed Guest-Written by Michael-Scott Earle

  **Timmons took the lead during the trek, and tried to swallow his nagging fury. He wanted to be the leader, the alpha, and he knew he’d need the respect of the pack’s members. He’d been trying to vocal his way in, but his strategy wasn’t working. The only other strategy he knew was leading by strength, and by example.

  So Timmons set the example.

  He didn’t growl, or talk, or waste time asking for the opinions of the others. He just put paw to sand and ran out in front. The miles turned to leagues, and the leagues turned to a shit-ton of distance that would have been excruciating long, even by car.

  The rest of the crew followed him. Of course they complained by growl when the pace didn’t let up, but when Timmons didn’t break, the rest of them fell in line and the miles began to blur. When their paws hurt, Timmons kept going. When their sides ached, Timmons kept pushing. When the hunger came to overwhelm them, Timmons got lucky and managed to catch a deer. They ate the corpse wordlessly, while it still twitched, and their transformation to animal began to take over their minds.

  The days rolled by endlessly until the pack was of one mind.

  Then they hit what used to be New Mexico.

  “Fuck this shit! It goes on forever!” Merrit snarled after the pack had collapsed from exhaustion and changed into their human forms.

  The old Timmons would have cursed back, but instead he just stood in his wolf form and stared at the other man. He was tired, so fucking tired, but he knew that any sign of weakness would erode the leadership he had shown for these past few...days? Weeks? Years? He didn’t know how long it had been. All he knew was the agony of his paws and the ache of his limbs.

  Fucking vampire on a fucking boat. It would have been so much easier to do this run on the coast.

  “Are you going to say something? You’ve been driving us for—”

  “Shut up!” the normally mild-mannered Sue hissed. “And get some firewood so we can set up camp, or hunt, or do something useful. Timmons has been working overtime to set up the draft so we could run easier. Pull your own goddamn weight for once.”

  The rest of the pack’s eyes opened wide, and it was obvious that they were surprised by Sue’s stinging words.

  For a second, Timmons thought Merrit would snap at her, or snap at him, but instead the man just grunted, struggled to his feet, and walked into the small grove of oak trees they camped under. A few minutes later he returned with an arm full of sticks, and a small hill rabbit. No one asked how he had caught the thing, and he didn’t explain his luck when he began to build the small fire. **

  MICHAEL-SCOTT EARLE

  After untold centuries of absence, the evil Ancients have returned.

  Their magic appears unstoppable and their hunger for conquest is insatiable. To protect the country of Nia, Duchess Nadea and Scholar Paug make a desperate journey to find a human legend: A man known to have destroyed these Ancient foes with a powerful army.

  But legends can lie.

  When Paug and Nadea revive their hero from sleep, his virtue is far from clear.

&
nbsp; Is he really their Savior or their Destroyer?

  Check it out (FREE!) On Amazon Here:

  http://kurtherianbooks.com/Destroyer_By_Michael_Scott_Earle

  WWDE... World's Worst Day Ever.

  I mean, the day really, really sucked.

  The story behind this very short story I'll save for another day, but suffice to say that we have a pretty interesting document for the collaborators which explains how a few mistakes can have grave consequences.

  Unfortunately, the technology in the following short story (link below) is real. Yes, this could happen.

 

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