by Alan Black
Tasso’s bank balance had shot through the roof with each new chiamra farmer’s contract. The bonus money was staggering. So much so, he had wanted to refuse all commissions on future chiamra plantings on his land. However, the new caretakers, Ndubuka and Mary, insisted he receive no less than ten percent of the credits from each harvest. He left them more than enough credits to get them through to the next harvest and Jeff Kemyss promised to keep an eye on them.
Bruce Menzies was already gone. He broke his neck when he slipped in the shower in the Landing City jail. Tasso knew from experience that showers could be dangerous places.
Tasso wasn’t surprised to meet his paternal grandmother, although he had yet to call her that. He knew Bill Rojo had been on the right trail tracking down his father. There were too many coincidences to be anything other than the truth, and DNA doesn’t lie, although altered program databases were possible. Bill was extremely happy to accept the reward for finding the lost Tomas Ortiz. He was almost as happy as Captain Rojo was in accepting a joint role with the Ortiz in some lucrative shipping lanes.
Tasso spent much of that festival day on Saronno with his newly found grandmother, but she still didn’t feel like family. She smiled and understood. She even understood his desire to stay on the Escorpión Rojo for a while. She wanted him to know he always had a home to come to when he was ready. What she’d done to his bank balance was positively obscene!
He juggled the little box in his hand. Inside was a simple strand of silver chain and an understated, yet tasteful emerald set in matching turquoise. At least the woman in the store said the jewelry was understated and tasteful. Nevertheless, Tasso knew it would match Kendra’s eyes perfectly. He’d been searching for a gift for Kendra’s eighteenth birthday for a month.
He shrugged, the little necklace was more expensive than he originally planned on spending, but what else could you do with your credits when you could afford to buy your own spaceship! He didn’t want another spaceship. He barely knew his way around this one.
Tasso thought about home. He still had the little valley to go back to any time he wanted, he didn’t want it right now. Not only had Marisol Ortiz offered him a home, but not a day passed without some new Ortiz relative sending him a message welcoming him to their family. Many expressed sorrow at the loss of his mother, someone they already considered a lost sister. The Ortiz clan was large, happy, and overwhelmingly welcoming. They were just not his family, yet.
For now, the Escorpión Rojo was family and home.
The End
Books
By
Alan Black
Science Fiction
Titanium Texicans
Metal Boxes
Chewing Rocks
Steel Walls and Dirt Drops
Larry Goes to Space (coming soon)
A Planet with No Name (coming soon)
An Ozark Mountain Series with Bernice Knight
The Friendship Stones (Book One)
The Granite Heart (Book Two)
The Heaviest Rock (Book Three)
The Inconvenient Pebble (Book Four) (coming soon)
The Jasper’s Courage (Book Five) (coming soon)
The King’s Rock (Book Six) (coming soon)
General Fiction
Chasing Harpo
Historical Action/Adventure
Eye on the Prize (coming soon)
Non-Fiction
How to Start, Write, and Finish Your First Novel (coming soon)
Praise for other books by Alan Black
METAL BOXES
The best of new space adventure!
One of the best books of the new breed of scifi writers. Have been a fan of space adventures for the past 40 years and this is by far one of the top ten reads! I cannot remember such a fun and memorable read.
By FDChandler (review on Amazon)
CHEWING ROCKS
A strong female character you can't help but love
Chastity Snowden Whyte had gotten into too much trouble trying to defend her name and so started going by Sno. What a great name. Sno! Isn't that a weather condition, people ask when first introduced to her, many of whom have never seen snow, being born somewhere off planet, planet Earth, that is? Sno, herself, had only heard stories of snow, having been born on a planetoid somewhere between Mars and Jupiter. in the opening chapter, Alan Black paints an out-of-this-world picture of young Sno busy outside her spacecraft in her EVA suit, by herself, mining asteroids for rock and hopefully, a rare metal or two. When she returns to her home base in Arizona City on a small planetoid called, Ceres, she gets in a barroom scrap with 4 fellow miners from a competing operation. Without harming so much as a fingernail, she puts them in their place and then shortly after blasts off into the asteroid belt again to work a claim. It's what happens when they chase after her that makes Chewing Rocks so much fun to read. Great action, wonderful word visuals of the planetoid city, the spaceships and the mining operations along with a multitude of colorful characters made Chewing Rocks hard to walk away from. When I got to the arbitration scenes with Therese Cleasemount, I just simply couldn't put my iPad down; actually found myself chuckling now and then. I think maybe our justice system could learn a little bit from Miss Cleasemount.
Chewing Rocks was simply a joy to read.
By James Paddock (author of Deserving of Death)
STEEL WALLS AND DIRT DROPS
Worth reading as it's a pretty good mil sci-fi with plenty of action
Hard hitting and had a decent plot. I enjoyed the depiction of a mutiny very much. Most times I read any fiction about a mutiny it's usually over fast and rarely gone into detail over…
Over all well worth the read
By Roknar (review on Amazon)
THE FRIENDSHIP STONES
(BOOK ONE OF AN OZARK MOUNTAIN SERIES)
A Heartwarming and Innocent Look at Life
Settle in and get ready to read a heartwarming coming of age story for a young and innocent young girl living in an isolated and poverty-stricken area of the Ozark Mountains in the 1920s. LillieBeth has only known the most basic and simple pleasures of life, food on the table, the love of family, and her unfailing belief in the teachings of God, her teacher and her Sunday Services. She is twelve years old, an age where she starts to notice boys, starts to fantasize of being married, but only in the most innocent of ways. She is still able to enjoy playing outdoors when there is time, but as her life progresses, her responsibilities grow and she becomes determined to do what God would want and share her time with those who are the least likely to have anyone to be their friend, because they need love the most.
LillieBeth attempts to befriend a bitter old soldier who trusts no one and makes no bones about not wanting her on his property. Determined, she returns over and over, in spite of a horrendous experience that could have ruined her, had she not been so emotionally strong. When her world comes crashing down and her family is forced to move out of their run down home, perhaps all of the good she has always tried to spread will come back to her through God’s mysterious ways.
The Friendship Stones by Alan Black is one of the most beautifully written tales I have ever read, part historical fiction, part inspirational reading, part coming of age, told through the mind and heart of a twelve-year-old girl, the innocence of youth and the times shines through like a glittering diamond. Alan Black took me to a time and place I have never been to and yet, I could see it plainly in my mind, the simple joys of life and giving and being happy with what one has, while struggling to survive. Let go of your mind’s control and you will experience the dusty roads, the rocky fields and poverty that is all these people have known. There is no fast action, no great adventure, no thunderous preaching, just a journey that can be savored and reveled in through the eyes and heart of young LillieBeth.
Had I missed reading The Friendship Stones I would have missed some of the magic of books.
By Dii at Tome Tender (top 500 Amazon reviewer)
THE GRANITE HEA
RT
(BOOK TWO OF AN OZARK MOUNTAIN SERIES)
I look forward to the next book.
I bought this yesterday! Again, this book, the second in the series of Ozark Mountains, is so refreshing. I was sad that it ended. I look forward to the "next" book. (It's coming soon!)
I shared with my sister, that Alan has expertly woven God in the storyline. She has now bought "The Friendship Stones" (See my review on this book) in the Kindle version at Amazon. The fact that a mother and son could team up together and give us high quality AND fun reading, it's just absolutely wonderful. The glossary at the end of the book is great learning. Made me laugh at how many I knew!
Enjoy reading!
By Frances Villa (review on Amazon)
THE HEAVIEST ROCK
(BOOK THREE OF AN OZARK MOUNTAIN SERIES)
This book is different from the usual crime stories I read in that it takes place in the Ozark Mountains and the characters really stand out. After the main character Grace's husband Clayton is murdered, the story goes on with her and a twelve year old fearless girl begin tracking down his killers. The girl LillieBeth however is sometimes referred to as a woman by Grace which is something I don't get. She's only twelve! But they fearlessly go on the trail of the murderers. LillieBeth heads right in where most people wouldn't go - straight into the Lion's Den, you might say, and it is enjoyable (I almost said "watching her") reading of her antics as the book travels on. Most readers will enjoy this book.
Go get it!
By Lila L. Pinord (author or Skye Dancer)
CHASING HARPO
Enjoyable Read to the end
I really enjoyed Chasing Harpo. I connected well with the characters, especially Harpo the Orangutang. To read some of the story from his POV was delightful and refreshing. The story keeps you immersed from start to finish with believable characters and plot. Well done to Alan on this one!
By Amanda L Mackey (author of She Who Dares Wins)
About the author
Alan Black has been writing novels since 1997 when he started Eye on The Prize. His writing tastes are as eclectic as his reading preferences. Alan admits that he loves writing much more than editing and the whole publishing process. Marketing of his work leaves him as baffled as the whole string theory thing.
Alan was born in central Kansas and grew up in Gladstone, Missouri. He graduating from Oak Park Senior High School and eventually earning a liberal arts degree from Longview Community college. He spent most of his adult life in the Kansas City area. The exception came at the orders from the U.S. Air Force when he was stationed in Texas, California, Maryland, and Japan. He and his wife were married in the late 70s and moved back to Independence, Missouri, but now live in sunny Arizona. He says the dry desert air stimulates his creativity more than the juicy air in Missouri (pronounced here as ‘misery’) and he has yet to shovel sunshine out of the driveway.
His desire to write started in the second grade. He was given an assignment to write a short story about Greek mythology. His teacher took the time to call his parents and express her appreciation of the story. Although neither of his patents remembered the incident, it had an impact on him, eventually leading him to write Eye On The Prize, taking two years to complete. He has gotten faster since then completing a recent manuscript in three weeks
Alan Black is a #1 bestselling author on Amazon and Kindle for Metal Boxes, a young adult, science fiction, military, action adventure. He has published nine novels, with eight still in print. Black is a self-published multi-genre writer. One writer friend called him ‘timeless’ because he wrote historical books, novels based in the present and tales of the future. His main goal is to write story driven novels with scifi novels that are more character and action driven than focused on science, story driven historical that are not history lessons and entertainment based literary fiction.
Alan Black's vision statement: “I want my readers amazed they missed sleep because they could not put down one of my books. I want my readers amazed I made them laugh on one page and cry on the next. I want to give my readers a pleasurable respite from the cares of the world for a few hours.
I want to offer stories I would want to read.”
