Snippet for Rules of Redemption

"That's a mighty fine cape he had. Very spiffy," she said, changing the subject. She gave Graydon a once over, taking in the defined muscles even his armor couldn't fully hide. "Why don't you have one like that?"

Graydon's lip curled. "His cape is ridiculous. An opponent can grab it and strangle him with it. No other weapons necessary."

Kira tried to choke back the laugh trying to escape. She was fighting a losing battle, his incredulous expression at her comment too funny to resist.

Graydon watched her with a frown, his jaw ticking.

Kira managed to compose herself, saying with a semi-straight face, "But you would look so dashing."

"All the girls would worship at your feet," Jin assured him.

Graydon's face turned slightly disgusted as he shook his head. He strode off, saying over his shoulder, "Come. They won't be patient long."


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A Name for the Space Adventure

I can't believe it's nearly time for this release, but I'm so excited to finally be sharing this adventure with you. Kira's story has been in my head in one form or another since I was twelve. When we were younger, my sister used to beg me to finish this story. She'd read the first few chapters  (admittedly not well written since I was twelve) and something about the characters had captured her imagination. A good thing too, since they'd done the same to me.

Despite that, the story never felt ready to be written. Then came Wayfarer's Keep and suddenly the characters in Kira's universe could no longer be silenced. I'd originally planned this to be my passion project -- something I tinkered with on the weekends while my weeks remained devoted to my main projects. Of course, my books have a tendency of taking over and after Dawn's Envoy, I knew I couldn't keep this one on the back burner any longer. 

I'm so glad at  least a piece of this story will soon be out there and no longer running amok in my dreams.

 Before you ask, this is planned to be at least a three book series. Knowing me that will probably spiral into five or six. I can't help it. Once I get into a world I have to explore all the hidden crevasses and side characters. 

I sincerely hope you enjoy this new world. It's near and dear to my heart. 

Happy Reading.

Rules of Redemption

The war everyone thought was over is just beginning.

Kira Forrest is a survivor. She’s risen above the pain of her beginnings to become a war hero only to leave it all behind in the pursuit of a simple life. Now a salvager, she makes a living sifting through the wreckage of dead alien ships from a war that nearly brought humanity to its knees.

After her ship takes damage, she’s forced to re-route to a space station where her past and present collide with dangerous consequences.

Kira’s existence holds the key to a faltering peace treaty with the Tuann—a technologically advanced alien race who dislikes and distrusts all humans. Winning her freedom should be easy, but a powerful and relentless Tuann warrior stands in her way. Deceiving him seems impossible, especially when he strays dangerously close to secrets she struggles to hide.

Can Kira reconcile the pain of her past with the possibilities of her future? The fate of two races depends on her success.

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Excerpt

A Tiny Snippet

Here is a very small, unedited snippet from Dragon 4. As always, no guarantee this will make it to the final copy.

“Make sure she doesn’t go anywhere,” the shiny one said, pointing at Ilith. “And for Saviors sake make sure she doesn’t add any more of my treasury to her horde.”

Ilith lifted her head at that. More treasure? Where?

“No,” Ryu told her in a firm voice.

She blew a cloud of smoke at him before putting her head back down. She didn’t have plans to go anywhere anyway. She was entirely too comfortable at the moment.

All the News

I have a couple of exciting announcements to share.

The first-- Amazon has agreed to push the properly formatted version of Dawn's Envoy to everyone who bought it. You should have received an email from them giving you instructions of how to download the new copy.

For all the audio book lovers out there--I've recently contracted with a narrator to turn Mist's Edge into an audio book. If all things go according to plan, it should be done sometime in March or April. Right now, my hope is to do the audio for Wayfarer's Keep after Mist's Edge so that I have the entire series available in audio. However, this will be dependent on several things.

The physical copy of Dawn's Envoy was approved yesterday so it should appear on the product page soon.

The space adventure has at long last made it's way to the editor. I'm hoping for a publication date of late February to mid March.

Lastly, I'm about 40,000 words into Dragon 4 which will hopefully hit the stores by May.

That's it for the announcements for now.

Happy Holidays

It's hard to believe Christmas is in a few days and New Years right behind it. Somehow, I thought I had so much time at the beginning of December, and now I'm staring down the year and asking myself where did all my time go.

I've never been particularly Christmassy--my sister often refers to me as the Grinch)--but for some reason I thought for sure I would summon the Christmas spirit and finally manage to put up a tree and maybe hang a few lights outside. I didn't set the bar high and aim to put out Christmas cards like half the people I know. I just thought maybe we'd get a Charlie Brown tree, something nice and small that the cats could have fun eating, and put up a decoration or two.

Fail. So far, it's Saturday night and NOTHING has happened. I have a sneaking suspicion we will continue to be Grinch-like for the remainder of this holiday season as well.

I'd like to blame that on us just getting back from our honeymoon, but in all likelihood this would have happened anyway. Sigh, there's always next year. I'm more of a fan of New Years anyway.

Because I totally failed at the holiday cheer on the home front, I figured I'd use some of it here.
So. From my family to yours, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Years. Enjoy the people around you and cherish this time spent with family. I hope you all have a wonderful rest of your year.

Away For A While

We're heading off on our Honeymoon. I'll be back in a week. Until then, happy reading!

Space Adventure Beta

A few weeks/months ago, I posted an excerpt from a space adventure I was toying with completing. The response from you guys was pretty positive, so I've been working on it ever since. I've finally gotten it to a point where I feel comfortable having other people look at it. 

This will be the first book in a new series, and I'm very excited about it. If you're interested in beta reading it for me and giving me your thoughts, please keep reading.

Since I am leaving on my honeymoon tomorrow afternoon, I'm only taking applications until Saturday, Dec. 8 at noon. 

For those unused to the term "beta reader", this is the stage of the process where the author (me) reaches out to readers (you) to get their impression of the book. It's a way to check the story's temperature and make sure it hits all the notes I want it to with readers. At this point, it's still fairly unpolished with odd grammatical and factual errors. I'm not looking for a hardcore grammar edit. Instead, betas help with pointing out inconsistencies in the story line or characters.

For example: Aileen has a gun at the beginning of the scene, then big bad attacks and there is no gun by the end of the scene. What happened to the gun?

Or - I don't understand how we got from point a in the story point b. Something just doesn't feel right.

In Dawn's Envoy I actually rewrote the prologue based on reader feedback, so you're comments could affect the end product.

If the above hasn't scared you off and you're still interested, keep reading. Below is an explanation of my expectations. It's a first come, first serve type of opportunity and priority will be given to those who've beta read for me in the past.

Please, please, please, don't volunteer unless you have the time and attention to do this. You'll take the slot from someone who does. I will be doing advanced reader copies again this time which is a lot less of a commitment.

Beta Reader Guidelines and Caveat

Here's how you can volunteer: Private message me through my Facebook page or email me at info@tawhiteauthor.com asking to be a beta reader and committing to the guidelines posted below. Also please let me know if you'd like a kindle version or other ereader version. I can't guarantee I'll choose you as there has been a lot of interest in this in the past, and I can only wade through so many comments at a time without getting overwhelmed and falling into a dark pit of despair.

Beta Guidelines:

This part of the process for me takes place before I send the manuscript to the editor. That means the copy is a little rough still. I'm not looking for intense grammar editing. I'm more focused on comments on the story- pace, structure, characters, things that don't make sense. That kind of stuff. I will outline these questions in more detail for those who participate.

The other thing I ask is for people to send it back to me in the time allotted. I'm asking for it back by December 21st.

I also ask that you agree not to share the story with anyone or upload it to any sites. I know for most of you that would never cross your mind, but I need to say it anyway.

Also, be aware that I may not use your suggestions as my opinion trumps everyone else's. Sometimes you ask questions that I want asked or a suggestion goes against what I'm trying to accomplish.

One final note: Beta reading is not for everyone. For instance, I don't beta read for people because I like getting caught up in the story and not paying attention to the things that irk me. For that reason, I will be doing advance reader copies that will take place at the end of the process and will require less critical thinking on the reader's part--hopefully.

If you're interested, let me know. If you're not, I hope you enjoy the book when it comes out.