Blachart
I would like to introduce the Galaxii Series to you, starting with the first title in the series, "Blachart".
"Blachart" is set in a distant future in which refugees fleeing Earth after the third world war have settled on an uninhabited world, broken ties with Earth, and while Earth went on in the interceding years to recover and build colonies, these lost colonists decided it is easier to take what they need rather than to make it themselves... they become a pirate threat to fringe colonies and the space ways, known as the Corsairs - a threat so great that they are hunted over decades by the Terran Space Fleet almost to no avail. For as long as the location of their home world is kept secret, the mighty Fleet can do almost nothing.
This story deals with the Corsair threat, and tells the story of a daring mission by Terran operatives to discover their base world, and lead the Terran fleet to it - so that the Corsair menace can be ended once and for all.
This story is the first title in the Galaxii Series, and was released by J. Ellington Ashton Press on Oct 29 2014.
Available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/Blachart-Galaxii-Series-Book-Volume/dp/1503029271/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1415218795&sr=1-1
and at Barnes & Noble.
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/blachart-christina-engela/1120675587?ean=9781503029279
REAR COVER:
"Truthfully, d’Angelo found himself unsurprised that the engines had finally packed up. Weaver – like his predecessors – had been a kind of starship ‘backyard mechanic’ and at the time of the explosion, the stardrive was all but held together by bits of wire and duct tape. Weavers mistake cost him the stardrive – and Fuller and Jang their lives. “Blown up” seemed a little inadequate to describe what really happened, but the engines were now spread over the last light-year or so behind him. Now that really made his calendar cycle.
Life hardly ever turns out the way we expect it to, and for Mykl d’Angelo it had just taken a bad turn for terrible. Stranded in deep space, he is handed a chance to redeem the other shipwrecks in his life - his lost career in the Imperial Starfleet and a lost chance at a relationship with the girl of his dreams.
In order to pull this off, he must confront hordes of Corsairs, a crotchety starship captain, his former girlfriend and a particularly dangerous character called Blachart who will lead him behind enemy lines, where he will learn the meaning of trust – but very likely, never return."
REVIEWS:
1) Review by Sparky Marky (Obooko)
Date: 18/11/2011
Advantages: Great sci-fi from a highly under-rated author!
Disadvantages: None - a great read from start to finish!
"Blachart is another great sci-fi story from the transgender author Christina Engela and set in the same universe as her other books.
This time around the action focuses around Mykl D'Angelo, a Space trader having a VERY bad week! First, most of his crew abandon him during shore leave at his last destination, then his Engineer and Helmsman are both killed in a fatal accident when a couple of crossed wires during routine repairs cause a pulse-wave! Left drifting in space, his only hope of rescue comes when he receives communication from an Imperial Ship patrolling the area.
But when he boards the ship, he discovers that his week is only about to get worse! Communications have been lost from a local Starport and, with the strong suspicion that Corsairs are responsible, the ISS Antares has been dispatched to investigate! Not only that but a certain remember of the crew is someone he once cared about deeply and finds he has feelings for again!
When the Commander discovers Mykl is ex Space Fleet, Mykl is asked to re-enlist and help in the mission and when things go pear-shaped, it is Mykl who saves the day. This results in Mykl being asked to lead the team back on a suicide mission: namely to infiltrate the Corsair home-world, gather reconnaissance and prepare the way for a Space Fleet retaliation. This would be fine and all well and good but he is forced to bring the notorious Blachart The Bloody along with him; a former Corsair and the scourge of the known galaxy, can Blachart REALLY be trusted to do the right thing?
This is another great adventure from a little known writer who definitely deserves more recognition! Though The Time-Saving Agency may have felt a little flawed, Blachart is far more polished and a far more enjoyable romp! The humour from the previous book is still here in droves and yet the sci-fi itself is still dealt with maturely and responsibly. In fact, this has all the ingredients of a very clever Space epic that sows the seeds for many more tales to come. It is important to note that Blachart is set long before The Time-Saving Agency and features characters and events briefly mentioned at the beginning of that book but you don't need to have read anything else by Christina to enjoy this!
In fact, if this is your first experience of Christina Engela my best advice would be to sit back and enjoy!
Summary: A Space Trader in trouble finds his life taking an unexpected turn....."
2) Why are space Pirates so mean? Because they arrrrrrrrrr
Customer rating 5.0/5.0
Amazon Customer Review 6 Nov 2014 By sparkymarky1973
"Blachart is the debut novel from Christina Engela and the first part of an ongoing series of intelligent and well constructed sci-fi adventures set in the not too distant future in a galaxy far, far away, but not that far.
d'Angelo is already having a very bad day when he is picked up by Imperial Starfleet. His crew are all dead and he has been left floating, stranded in deep space when Starfleet hear his distress call.
But his rescue does not come without a price...
Soon former Space Marine, d'Angelo, finds himself neck deep in space Pirates after being re-recruited by Starfleet to investigate a colony that has gone 'dark'. Teamed up with his former lover and he infamous Blachart The Bloody, d'Angelo ends up going undercover on the Pirates own homeworld, but can he complete his mission and escape with his life, or is his day about to get even worse?
Blachart is a potential future, modern example of the classic sci-fi space opera genre that amuses and entertains from the minute you turn the first page. Having read many of the other books in the series already, it is great to start experiencing this series again from the beginning and I can only wish Christina every success, because with writing like this she really deserves it!
At times tense, at other times funny, Christina manages to maintain a healthy balance between humour and excitement - producing a first novel that is as easy to read as it is a joy to experience.
Truly this is one of the very best sci-fi novels that I have read all year!"
AUTHOR QUESTIONS:
1) "A question for the author, d'Angelo meets the "woman of his dreams" is this character based only on the type of person d'Angelo would like or is it deeper? I"m always fascinated how characters are created. In my own characters I find pieces of me everywhere." - Susan Simone, 20141107.
Hi Susan Yes, you're absolutely right, this is a pretty deep question, with a pretty deep answer.
I write from experience, which I'm sure most writers do as well. This is one of the first stories I started working on as a writer, beginning in the 1980's when I was at high school. Of course the draft that became the version of Blachart that was just published (which first became recognizable as it is now, in 1998) is nothing at all like that first attempt all those years ago. The characters changed and evolved, their names changed, the situations morphed from child-like 2 dimensional representations into more realistic 3 and 4 dimensional experiences. As I grew and evolved, so did the way I told the story, and so did the way I felt about, interpreted or experienced the characters.
Mykl is a typical straight 'good-guy', who gets the girl and settles down and lives happily ever after... Although I wanted to be this, I never was, and so Mykl represents the 'me' that was and wanted to be, aspired to be - but never materialized. Mykl d'Angelo was essentially a character based on the person I was when I was in high school - and his lost love whom he rekindles a relationship with in the story, was based on a girl I knew at high school, who was a high school crush that went wrong. The experiences related in the story are not exactly what happened, but I think you will gather that
To answer your original question, yes, Ripley is the girl I was attracted to at the time I originally wrote the story! She is driven, ambitious, efficient, a powerful woman - but in the beginning of their re-acquaintance, Mykl views her through the lens of his hurtful past experiences with her, focusing on her mannerisms, considering her a 'teacher's pet' etc, and of course, reliving his own pain.
As time wore on, and my experiences in life, both good and bad, continued to shape and sculpt me into the person I became, my perception of self changed - and I began to more gradually resemble Blachart than d'Angelo as a personality. At the time I was also beginning to understand and to accept my sexuality and gender issues, and so in some ways the character of Blachart was the catalyst for me to express myself first in terms of a gay male, and then to understand that this did not quite suit who I was inside, and to embrace my transgender-ness. Essentially, Blachart represents the beginning of my life's journey into the adult universe.
DETAILS:
Kindle Price: $6.83 includes VAT* & free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet
Paperback Price: $8.99
Publication Date: Oct 29 2014
(Paperback) ISBN/EAN13: 1503029271 / 9781503029279
(Kindle) AISN B00P2RBGMW
Page Count: 130
Binding Type: US Trade Paper
Trim Size: 6" x 9"
Language: English
Color: Black and White
Related Categories: Fiction / Science Fiction / General
ABOUT THE GALAXII SERIES:
The Galaxii Series novels and short stories:
Imagine, if you will:
This is how I start each of my novels in the Series, my signature in a way. It's like saying 'long, long ago' or 'once upon a time', and I really do enjoy my writing. I love my characters, and I pour my soul, my passion and my heart into the words I smith, as in the worlds I create.
I started writing stories almost as soon as I was old enough to grasp a pen. I grew up wanting to be a writer, and being around my dad whose short stories were dramatized on a national radio station (Springbok Radio) in the 1960s and 70's (GM on Safari & I'll Tell You A Tale) and on the occasional repeats running through the 1970's and early 80's, made me realize that nothing is as impossible as you think it is.
The Galaxii series started out as a series of false-starts while I was at high school. At that time I learned to master writing effective and sci-fi short stories with whole plots, interesting enough to captivate the reader... but writing longer ones was for some time beyond me. Then, one day in 1988, something clicked into place (and not for the last time), and the Galaxii series was born. I began to churn out draft after draft of titles in the novel series that would become the stories my readers will recognize today.
Being a perfectionist, I was always redrafting and revisiting my work - something much harder to do in the days before PC's, and I still have boxes of old note books and papers covered in sketches in my basement - the remains of earlier drafts that were long ago digitized. However, I longed to write from experience, and for a long time, I remained too "young" to get it all on paper. It took me until 2003 before my writing matured and settled into a recognizable style - and of course, having heaps of life experiences obtained in the interceding years, made for much more realistic and I think interesting reading!
The Galaxii Series is set in what might be considered the not too distant future, perhaps in a parallel dimension, and is marked by my own special warped and twisted sense of humor and irony. It also includes some elements of the fantasy genre, such as vampires (which show up in some of the short stories and the later titles, which are still in process). I may also be accused to a degree of moralizing or even attempting a form of human rights advocacy through my writing... since as an individual I have a strong sense of fairplay and social justice - but then, as an Aquarian, I have a right to be weird - and it is a "write" I exercise frequently!
What really crystallized my vision of the series was writing Black Sunrise - because that is where I hit upon the perfect, PERFECT setting for my characters and the situations I wanted to create. No longer would they need to be confined to the same old setting of a starship as I had done in the past... That was far too limiting and now I had the freedom to do ANYTHING with them! If Deanna is the world that set my writing spirit free, then Ding and Dong really put the Ramalama into my song!
The Galaxii series consists of the following titles in sequence:
Christina Engela
The Galaxii Series novels and short stories:
Imagine, if you will:
This is how I start each of my novels in the Series, my signature in a way. It's like saying 'long, long ago' or 'once upon a time', and I really do enjoy my writing. I love my characters, and I pour my soul, my passion and my heart into the words I smith, as in the worlds I create.
I started writing stories almost as soon as I was old enough to grasp a pen. I grew up wanting to be a writer, and being around my dad whose short stories were dramatized on a national radio station (Springbok Radio) in the 1960s and 70's (GM on Safari & I'll Tell You A Tale) and on the occasional repeats running through the 1970's and early 80's, made me realize that nothing is as impossible as you think it is.
The Galaxii series started out as a series of false-starts while I was at high school. At that time I learned to master writing effective and sci-fi short stories with whole plots, interesting enough to captivate the reader... but writing longer ones was for some time beyond me. Then, one day in 1988, something clicked into place (and not for the last time), and the Galaxii series was born. I began to churn out draft after draft of titles in the novel series that would become the stories my readers will recognize today.
Being a perfectionist, I was always redrafting and revisiting my work - something much harder to do in the days before PC's, and I still have boxes of old note books and papers covered in sketches in my basement - the remains of earlier drafts that were long ago digitized. However, I longed to write from experience, and for a long time, I remained too "young" to get it all on paper. It took me until 2003 before my writing matured and settled into a recognizable style - and of course, having heaps of life experiences obtained in the interceding years, made for much more realistic and I think interesting reading!
The Galaxii Series is set in what might be considered the not too distant future, perhaps in a parallel dimension, and is marked by my own special warped and twisted sense of humor and irony. It also includes some elements of the fantasy genre, such as vampires (which show up in some of the short stories and the later titles, which are still in process). I may also be accused to a degree of moralizing or even attempting a form of human rights advocacy through my writing... since as an individual I have a strong sense of fairplay and social justice - but then, as an Aquarian, I have a right to be weird - and it is a "write" I exercise frequently!
What really crystallized my vision of the series was writing Black Sunrise - because that is where I hit upon the perfect, PERFECT setting for my characters and the situations I wanted to create. No longer would they need to be confined to the same old setting of a starship as I had done in the past... That was far too limiting and now I had the freedom to do ANYTHING with them! If Deanna is the world that set my writing spirit free, then Ding and Dong really put the Ramalama into my song!
The Galaxii series consists of the following titles in sequence:
01 Blachart
02 Demonspawn
03 Dead Beckoning
04 Space Sux (a compilation of short stories in the same timeline)
05 Black Sunrise
06 The Time Saving Agency
07 Dead Man's Hammer
08 Loderunner
Although there are several more books in the workings, the completed books in the Galaxii series were available on Lulu.com from 2005 until August 2014 when my self-publishing days ended. I was fortunate enough to receive a contract with J Ellington Ashton Press (JEA), a fairly new traditional publisher based in the USA. They contracted with me to publish all 8 of my current titles in the Galaxii Series.
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Swapping bodies with a young female demon had not been part of the planned vacation.
A Body Swap Book by Amy Mah
Swapping bodies with a young female demon had not been part of the planned vacation.
Nor was having to attend a demonic high school for the magically gifted.
When the most magical thing you could do was set your own underwear on fire.
Life was not going to be easy, even less so with a painful tail that everyone trod on.
Owning a magic sword that always tried to look up your skirt when fighting was not helpful.
But then nor was having a telepathic diary that corrected your thinking instead of your spelling.
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