In this newsletter…
🏴☠️ The story behind A Mutiny of Pirates!
🧑🏻👩🏿👧🏼 My found family sci-fi KINFOLK for just $0.99!
⚔️ A smorgasbord of speculative freebies!
Far into the future, in a galaxy close to home…
If you’ve never gone down the rabbit hole that is the crowd-funded PC video game Star Citizen… well, to be honest, you aren’t missing too much yet. However, if they can make good on all their ambitions, the game will be the most comprehensive multiplayer RPG of all time, sci-fi or otherwise.
In the meantime, the promise of a massive open world fires up fan imaginations. You’ll find a rich array of fan-generated videos, publications (this one was ours!), and more all across the internet—an outlet for players pining for their epic life in space.
Enter the Damn Shames.
My husband and I and two of our close friends got quite excited about Star Citizen in 2015. We each acquired ships, named them, and flew them in the limited environments that were available at the time. We spent a lot of time talking about the game, playing the game, and thinking about the game.
And, of course, creating original characters.
Our cast was a space pirate crew called the Damn Shames (a name we shamelessly copied over from our organization in GTA Online), led by idealistic Freyja “Fray” Sintre. The Shames fought side by side in a military unit before their collective honorable discharge into citizen life, so they trust each other with their lives as they navigate the galaxy.
Fray (purple hair, above) is the captain (or regent, in Star Citizen gang terminology) of the Damn Shames, having formed them as a crew for her ship, the Truly, Truly, after they all left the military. She’s fierce, extremely protective of her gang, and unwilling to bow to a law simply because it exists. If she were a quote, she would be this one: "A strong woman looks a challenge in the eye, and gives it a wink."
Rahab (the blonde above) is the Shames’ short, fiery master-at-arms. She’s quick to press her own advantage in any situation; her compass doesn’t exactly point due north. She’s more comfortable manning the Truly’s turret than discussing her feelings, but she’ll do anything for her chosen family. Well, most of them.
Riph can’t remember his real name. His foster parents called him “peripheral damage” and he put “Riph” on his ID when he gained his legal freedom. He’s Fray’s second-in-command, a mystic and a dreamer, in tune with the thrum of the universe. Riph believes there are wrongs and rights, and that everybody gets a few of each.
Kin is the conscience of the gang, a pirate solely because he sees it as the only viable financial route to his goal of returning to his son and his home planet. He loves the Shames, and takes it on himself to ensure everyone makes it back from every mission—but Kin follows his own map, even when it takes him away from his family of choice.
There are other Shames, too—Dragon, Dog, and Rabbit. (Eventually Ox, too, but that’s for the sequel to KINFOLK, HERE BE DRAGONS.) I very intentionally created two sets of four characters: one set based on the friend group’s ideal selves, and one set based on their more realistic traits. An ambitious ensemble cast, to say the least…
In my first Shames trilogy, A Mutiny of Pirates, I’ve tackled the ensemble chaos by “zooming in” on 3-4 of the Shames in each book. In the first of the trilogy, KINFOLK, I focus on Kin, Fray, Rabbit, and Rahab. (In HERE BE DRAGONS, you’ll get a closer look at Dragon, Dog, and Ox.)
OH! And I can’t forget to mention that the Mutiny trilogy is loosely based off Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island. Which, of course, means that Disney’s Treasure Planet was a big inspiration as well. Kidnapping, stowing away, majestic ships, isolated treasures… I’ve found ways to work all of these into Mutiny.
What classics would you enjoy seeing as speculative fiction? Hit reply and tell me… maybe I’ll write one someday!
🤔 Intrigued? Hoping to read more about the Damn Shames? 🤔
Dive into this emotionally rich sci-fi world for just $0.99, only until March 2!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“The crew- the Damn Shames- are the best. The best people to be more accurate.”
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“This crew’s captain clearly collects oddballs and makes a family out of them.”
“This book was not what I expected – but a grand tale!”
Readers looking for flawed protagonists like Maggie Stiefvater’s Ronan Lynch of the Dreamer Trilogy, Ann Aguirre’s Sirantha Jax, or Leigh Bardugo’s Kaz Brekker from the Six of Crows books, will love this first novel of the Damn Shames!
Chase down your $0.99 copy of Kinfolk now! (Or buy it from me directly for the same price!)
You know what else is $0.99?
The Free-zer
It’s another installment of THE FREE-ZER—the section where you’ll find something that will cost you zero monies. (That’s no dollars, cents, pounds, pesos, Republic credits, Monopoly money, latinum, or dubloons.)
I’ve got a big collection of freebies for you today, so buckle up!
👉 Fans of Leigh Bardugo and Sabaa Tahir should check out The Cantor by H.B. Reneau. Keira Altman accidentally travels to a war-torn land of magic after a horrible car accident—and then must learn to trust her grounder, Danny, and navigate an intricate tapestry of magic, intrigue, and slow burn romance.
👉 Sample Brandon Castillo’s YA dystopian sci-fi novel Modus with this free excerpt. Follow 20-year-old Brandon Muñoz as he faces heart-wrenching news and grapples with a dangerous decision in the face of a plan to decrease the population.
👉 Prepare yourself for some more FREE FANTASY & SCI-FI from the Caffeinated Fantasy Tribe with this bundle, where you’ll not only find my collection SPELLBREAKERS, but also striking covers like The Scarecrow Hunters… 🐦⬛ Daughter of Blood… 🩸 and The West Road… ⛈️
👉 Not quite sure what kind of book you’re looking for? Peruse the FREE BOOKS bundle for a smorgasbord of unusual finds… for free! Alongside SPELLBREAKERS, you’ll also find romance, reads for the little ones, and thrillers!
👉 Need to fill up that e-reader? You’ve still got time to snag freebies from these bundles!
And you can get even more goodness from the SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND EPIC STORIES—more on this bundle in a future newsletter, but suffice it to say: 🚲🌳🧑🚀
Until next time!
August
Peripheral damage is both the best and most tragic thing I've ever heard!!