- What was the weirdest thing you had to Google for your story?
Edible bugs! Leif is a former army ranger with a history of missions in the middle of nowhere. In the earlier books in the series, he has talked about eating all sorts of things out of necessity. I figured it was time for him to do some of that and came up with a situation in which it would happen. Then, in the course of various drafts, one of the kids at the farm came up with a prank. Maybe part of getting even would be closer the mark than prank. In any case, I needed edible bugs and not just any edible bugs. The timing of the scenes was late fall, almost winter and they were set in the western part of Pennsylvania. Enter Google. Normally, I stick to published material such as texts and scientific literature for my world-building, however, for this bit I was able to cross-check my findings on Google. I actually found a lot more gastronomic detail than I needed. A fair amount of it had to be cut in the end because of pacing, but the work was worth it. And I can do an amazing barbecue in my backyard! Want to join me?
- How do you combine all the different worlds of your life in your works?
During the course of my career, I’ve been a physician and a biochemist. I’ve also been involved in martial arts going back to the late 1970’s. Pieces from all of these areas show up in the Leif the Lucky books.
On the medical front, Leif became a paramedic after he left the service. I’ve made sure to provide him with one or more medical emergencies, often under less-than-ideal conditions, in each of the books. These have ranged from the sucking chest wound in Starman’s Saga to the drainage of an abscess from an infected wound in The Lucky Starman. (He is not always successful, and the patient doesn’t always survive.) Also on Leif’s resume is being a lab tech in a research lab studying hibernation. The hibernation technology is a key piece of the world-building for the Leif the Lucky books. It is a critical component of starflights since, even with ships that can accelerate to near lightspeed, several years will pass in the ship during the journey. This is because the acceleration is limited to what the human crew can tolerate and, from the equations that give the time-slowing, until the ship is quite close to the speed of light, the slowing is pretty minor. Leif’s experience with the detailed workings of the hibernation technology is important to the story in both Starman’s Saga and The Lucky Starman. Medicine and biochemistry go well with science fiction stories.
What about martial arts? Well, Leif is very skilled based on his service history. Since I like placing him in difficult situations, I’m able to give him an opportunity to show off some moves. Where I write about a specific technique or self-defense, it’s one that I know or at least have seen. For example, in The Lucky Starman, Leif takes down Constant with a rapid sequence of three flashy kicks. That is a combination that I know (although I can’t do it with nearly the speed or grace that it needs), and I have seen it done in a match (with the same results Leif gets in the book). I also have the advantage (maybe advantage is the wrong word) of having been hit with these techniques. That makes for good fight scenes for Leif.
Is Leif really lucky? Stranded in orbit, viewing a destroyed civilization on Earth through the screens of a starship almost out of fuel and food, he doesn’t feel that way.
It wasn’t supposed to be like that.
As the starship Dauntless returns from a successful mission to the planet called Heaven, Earth holds no attractions for Exoplanetary Scout Leif Grettison. He wants only to complete the mission and leave for another star, along with ace pilot Yang Yong. In fact, he would be happy spending the rest of his life flying the starways with her.
But they and the rest of the ship’s skeleton crew awaken from hibernation to find Earth’s solar system dark and silent—no signals, no responses to their transmissions. When they make orbit, the magnitude of the disaster becomes clear: An apocalyptic war has killed billions and destroyed every last source of power and tech that 22nd-Century humans relied on to survive.
Getting down to Earth is only the beginning of Leif’s problems. Those few who survived the apocalypse are still divided, fighting over what’s left. The disastrous re-entry to Earth leaves him with no resources or allies. He lands in the middle of a makeshift family that needs him more than he’s comfortable with and hears stories—even nursery rhymes—that speak of a lucky starman. For once, he’s the only person with tech—but if he’s caught using it, they might kill him.
Can a man back from the stars end the warfare on Earth, or will he make it worse? Can he save a family that might become his? Is he everyone’s lucky starman?
Warnings: Combat situations (one-on-one and armies), named characters die
About the Series:
These are the adventures of Leif, who some have called the Lucky. They begin in the year 2069, when humanity’s last chance for peace is the first ever interstellar mission. However, when you believe you have thought of everything, the universe has a way of showing that you haven’t.
What do you do when it goes wrong, when you can’t call for help, and when adventure leads to deaths? If you survive one journey, what do you do next?
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I heard Charley’s voice as if from a great distance. The post-hib blur was a dense fog in my mind. I recognized the words but could not grasp their meaning. In my defense, I hadn’t even sat up in the hibernation unit yet; its bath was still draining.
I wrenched off the mask and cannula and removed the port from my arm. Then I sat up with a profound groan. Nearly four and a half years’ hibernating did more than blur the brain. Every muscle was stiff. I was surprised my joints didn’t squeak. Multiyear hib did not get better with repetition. I blinked and tried to bring Charley’s face into focus. Dr. Charles Osborne, I told myself. Our ship’s physician. He was supposed to be with me when I came out of hib. He had dark brown skin on a kindly round face, short black hair, and a closely cropped beard.
“Leif, we have a problem,” he repeated. “Yang needs you on the bridge.”
Why did there always have to be a problem? Why couldn’t someone say, Leif, life is great, and the world is beautiful. Why don’t you come share it? But, no, that’s not the way my life goes.
I groaned again and managed to say, “What?”
Charley shook his head. “I don’t know. Look, I’m sorry I didn’t get your equipment off first. I’m, I don’t know, worried. Here’s your OJ. Yang asked you to skip the gym. She really wants you on the bridge as soon as you can get there.”
That bit penetrated the blur. Yong had woken me early on the flight to High Noon, the very first starshot, when the ship’s computer tried to abort the mission after a hib failure. What was it this time?
I downed the orange juice with sugar in one fast chug. Having come out of four previous multiyear hib stretches on starflights, I had learned that the best way to return to the status of a functional human was to follow a carefully escalating workout routine in the gym. It felt awful while I was doing it, but it worked. There would be a good reason if Yang Yong wanted me to skip it. And the good reason would be something bad. Count on it.
I blinked again. “Can I at least get dressed and grab a couple of protein bars from the caf?” I did manage to get the croak out of my voice.
“I’m sure,” Charley said. “Just grab ’em and go to the bridge.”
“I’m on it,” I said. “Where’s the famous laxative pack?”
Charley had that in his other hand. The constipation from hib on an interstellar flight would not, in fact, kill you, but there were times I wished it would.
Once Charley left, I pulled myself out of the unit and stood up, shivering. My muscles shook trying to hold me upright. At least I’d done this often enough to know what would hurt most and how to manage it. The biggest problem was the knee that had been surgically rebuilt after I was wounded on Mindanao back in 2062. That was why I had left the Rangers and the service, and with each long hib, it got harder and harder to return it to normal.
No help for that. I settled for cursing long and loud while I toweled off. Then I pulled on the ship’s polo shirt with its NASA emblem over the left breast and my name, Grettison, embroidered below it. The starshot emblem of a gloved hand clutching a star above STARSHOT xv was stitched over the right breast. Ship pants, ankle socks, and ship boots completed the outfit. We were obviously decelerating at one gee because my weight felt normal, so I didn’t need the SureGrip soles for the StickStrips on the deck.
I pulled open the privacy screen around my unit and stepped out onto the hib deck. All the other units I could see were off. My adrenals squeezed immediately and I felt a sense of panic. Then my mind pulled its memories through the post-hib blur. Of course nearly all the units were empty and off. We had put the colonists down on the planet called Heaven, meaning only seven of us were on the Dauntless for the return to Earth.
I did a set of breathing exercises and got my heart rate and blood pressure under control. It wouldn’t do for me to have a stroke before I heard Yong’s problem. Maybe afterward, if it was bad enough.
With my legs wobbling under me, I took the lift to the deck where the caf was and grabbed energy bars. I took the time to eat one of them and chug another sugared orange juice. I needed to get to the bridge, but I also needed to not fall on my face when I got there.
When I entered the bridge, two energy bars swallowed and two more in my pocket, one of the chairs swiveled around. Yang Yong, pilot-in-command of the Dauntless, stood to greet me. She was a petite and slender woman with high cheekbones and brown hair cropped as short as mine. Small, yes, but there was nothing soft or delicate about her. She’d been a crack attack plane pilot for China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force during the Troubles, which meant we had been on opposite sides of the fighting. Opposite sides, hell. She had damn near killed me on Mindanao when she bombed my platoon’s position the day the world almost ended.
Fortunately, our relationship had evolved from there. We were now two sides of the same coin and had decided to spend our lives flying through the universe together. It’s not that either one of us ever used the L‑word, but we knew what we meant to each other.
She did not smile at me. She did not even give me her tight little grin. I knew her well enough to tell that she was tense, though no one else would see any difference in the way she held herself.
If Yang Yong was tense, something was very, very wrong.
“What’s the problem?” I asked.
“I don’t know. We are not receiving anything.”
“Nothing?” I tried to wrap my mind around that and let my hand drop from the pocket with the energy bars. They could wait.
“Nothing,” she repeated. “We are inside the orbit of Pluto, and there is no signal from the International Space Commission. I have sent transmissions to Earthbase, NASA, and CNSA. We have received no response, and enough time has elapsed for a reply to reach us. Before you ask, I have checked over our equipment. It is fine. The solar system is silent.”
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