Showing results by author "C. Litka" in All Categories

"The red 8:25 tram crossed Crane House Lane and disappeared behind Villiers House, sealing my fate. I’d be late for work. I slowed to a walk and took another bite of toast. I found I didn’t care. It was that kind of day." – Henri Hardy, The Girl on the Kerb It took several months for Henri Hardy to discover just what type of day it really was. It was more than a day when his alarm clock failed to ring. It was more than an unusually mild day in early spring. It was a prelude to undreamed of changes in his life as an analytical engineer in the Ministry of Innovation. It was a prelude to...

Be good. Or some dark night the sorcerers of Vente may come for you. On the islands of the Tropic Sea, parents caution naughty children to behave, or risk that some dark night the sorcerers of the Vente might come to carry them off as well. The reputed fate of these very naughty children varies from island to island, but it is often whispered that they could well end up in a stew. Navy lieutenant Taef Lang must have been a very naughty boy, for one soft, tropical night the Vente came and carried him off. And he certainly ended up in some very hot water. Sailing to Redoubt is the story of ...

Taef Lang must set out on his grand quest… … To find a job. Now a married man, the time has come for Taef to begin his long-delayed career as a professor of Island archaeology and/or Island history. To do so, he and Lessie, along with Sella and Carz, set sail for the Island and the University of Jarpara. Passage to Jarpara is a travelogue of that journey. It’s an account of islands called on, old friends and acquaintances met, new ones made, as well as potential pirates, curse-beasts, haunted Tiki palaces, fire islands, and a hidden race of immortals. In short, it’s an episodic ...

The best laid plans “gang aft agley” as Robert Burns noted. As did the hopes of Sella, Lessie, the Meys, and Taef Lang. The Prisoner of Cimlye, a novel of some 54,000 words, is the sequel to Sailing to Redoubt. It takes up the story of Sella, Lessie, and Taef six months after the end of that first Tropic Sea novel, and ties up many of the loose ends left dangling at the close of that story. For instance, was Lieutenant Taef Lang able to convince his commanding officer that duty required him to spend several months sailing the Tropic Sea in a 12 meter yacht with two beautiful girls – ...

No good deed goes unpunished. When the son of the ruler of the Empire of Azere, Lefe Sol, is told, to his dismay, that he is to marry the eccentric fourth daughter of the Empress of Jasmyne, his friend, Kel Cam, offers to stand by and help him meet this challenge. Kel, however, soon finds himself entangled in the affairs of two great empires, and discovers, to his own dismay, that no good deed goes unpunished. Beneath the Lanterns is set in an imaginary world of colorful cities, wide steppes, and valleys littered with the ruins of a long lost civilization. It’s a world with 16 days of ...

“I’d like to believe that I can take the rough with the smooth. I didn’t complain about the hundred petty inconveniences of the Iron Kingdom. Not too much. It was the werewolves, super-humans, and mad scientists who haunted its black forests and ruined castles that got to me. Still, what did I expect in the company of Vaun Di Ai?” – Rafe d’Mere from Shadows of an Iron Kingdom. Rafe d’Mere and Vaun Di Ai return in this sequel to The Secrets of Valsummer House. Rafe d’Mere, after turning the Fix-it-all Shop back over to its owner, follows his heart instead of his head. ...

It was supposed to be a quiet night. It was anything but. Riel Dunbar grew up on the little moon of Isvalar, the interstellar port of Aeroday, and sailed out of it for many years. But the restless life of a starfarer took him away for decades. Chance had now brought him home along with a promised long leave ashore. But it was not to be. He was left with only a few free hours to spend on Isvalar. His plan was simple. He’d dine at an old haunt of his youth, and then after a brief nap, he’d visit the starfarer dives of Isvalar for real spree before sailing. But Riel hadn’t counted on ...

The past is the future. A young physicist, Sandy Say, is dispatched to a Scottish highland estate to secretly decipher a decrepit manuscript that may hold the key to reinventing the 21st century, devastated by a series of solar storms. There he finds whispers of a reincarnated wizard, a hidden laboratory that is said to be the gate to the Otherworld, and a girl. A Summer in Amber is set in Scotland and England in the not too distant future, after a series of extremely powerful solar storms has laid to waste the modern world of cell phones, computers satellites, and even the power grids. ...

Keiree is a 34,000 word novella set on Mars. Yet another Mars story. It almost seems as if every writer of speculative fiction pens at least one Mars story. I suspect that one of the reasons Mars stories are so popular with authors is that to be even considered for membership in the Fraternal Order of the Aether, a writer must submit a Mars story to the committee. It’s in their bylaws. So… Keiree is my Mars story. Keiree is the story of the brilliant and wealthy engineer, Keiree Tulla, her chauffeur and love, Gy Mons… (Ssh! I’m getting to you.) ...and the silka cat, Molly. Deciding ...

Be careful what you wish for. Wishes sometimes come true. University student Hugh Gallagher discovers this when the girl of his dreams, the “incomparable” Selina Beri shows up at his door seeking his geeky expertise for her last final exam. Can Hugh, the classic shy geek, avoid making a fool of himself with the girl he has loved from afar? Some Day Days is a rather experimental memoir of the first few months of a long romance. It is set in Oxford, London, and Cambridge and explores, in a set of twelve pieces; short stories, novelettes, and an essay, the joys and sorrows of a dream come ...

It is always the captain’s fault. So when a shipping container is offloaded to the wrong lighter – hijacked by the local crime syndicate – Captain Sing of the Rendezvous Moon knew she’s be blamed, even though they had followed all the proper procedures. She had no intention of being blamed. She intended to track down the hijacked container. Red Tew, her chief engineer, volunteered to accompany her as “muscle” and invited Rafe d’Mere to tag along as well, since he was an old hand at dealing with the pirate princes of the Alatzian System. Because he was an old hand in dealing ...

The small resort town of Pine Cove has its little secrets. And one very dangerous one. It takes Patrol Lieutenant JG Intelligence Analyst Vaun Di Ai to discover the dangerous one. It would. In The Secrets of Valsummer House, sequel to The Secret of the Tzarista Moon, we once more return to the Nine Star Nebula of The Bright Black Sea in a new mystery adventure featuring Patrol Lieutenant Vaun Di Ai and the spaceer, Rafe d’Mere. Rafe d’Mere is still repairing Pine Cove’s toasters, bots, and appliances, when a possibly illegal robot arrives in a bugged crate, to be collected by an ...

“I signed aboard the Tzaritsa Moon as her second engineer. I ended up a toaster repairman. I was very lucky.” – Rafe d’Mere, from The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon. The Secret of the Tzaritsa Moon marks the long awaited return to the Nine Star Nebula of the Bright Black Sea. This story takes place in the Alantzia star system, the most remote of the eight solar systems. The Alantzia system is known for its many little worlds, moons, and rocks that are reputed to be more like the “lawless” drift worlds than the staid worlds of the Unity. Old spaceers convinced Rafe d’Mere that to ...