Yes this is me

Chris said that people like to read about authors.  Strangely whilst I do keep up a reasonably regular blog, I rarely blog about writing, more about the mysteries of life and the things that happen to me or I notice in passing. I suppose that being a author, I don’t find authors particularly fascinating.

I’m Jim, I’m fifty something (I’ve got to the stage where I’ve got to check what year it is before giving my age) and I’m married with a wife and three daughters. I have no dress sense and a tendency to bluff when I think I’m probably right.

You want more? Well I live in South Cumbria, on the coast just south of the Lake District, so we’re in the most beautiful part of the world but nobody knows it because they’re in such a desperate hurry to get to somewhere else. I’ve farmed livestock pretty much since I was old enough to walk, and since the mid 1970s I’ve also been a freelance journalist. Just to keep busy you understand I’ve also done consultancy and suchlike, but that dried up a couple of years ago. People always pestered me to write something that wasn’t destined to end up wrapping fish and chips, so when the consultancy faded I took the chance to start writing novels. Fantasy initially, I’ve five ebooks out on Amazon, but then a friend told me Safkhet were looking for writers. I approached them and they wanted Science Fiction. The result is ‘Justice 4.1’ (The Tsarina Sector.)

Now that probably sounds a bit organised, and honesty compels me to confess it wasn’t as well planned as that. Tradition and good sense demand that when you approach a publisher you have something to offer them; ideally a book. I merely sent them links to my books on Amazon with an invitation to check the ‘look inside’ feature. I then added the arrogant comment, “This is what I can do, what do you need?”

Fortunately they must have liked what they saw because they put out a challenge with regard to a SF book which I promptly wrote.

This book started with a planet that I’d built earlier. I’m a wargamer, and I needed a background for Science Fiction wargaming, so Tsarina was part of the background for a while. But it also started with a mental image. I had a picture of a spaceship flying at about zero feet along a river. It was obvious that this is the sort of thing that happened on Tsarina and all I needed was a coherent explanation. The book is the coherent explanation.

Oh yes, the book. Well there’s a blurb which you might fancy reading.

“Join intergalactic investigator Haldar Drom as he cleans up criminal scum in Justice 4.1 When a journalist is shot down in a backward area of Tsarina, Haldar Drom of the Governor’s Investigation Office is sent to investigate. He uncovers a hidden medical facility dedicated to the production of Abate, a drug used for population control, as well as evidence of the implantation of pre-created embryos in women brought to Tsarina for the purpose. He also discovers a deeper plot with far reaching political ramifications. A senior member of the Governors family, Doran Stilan is running a personal feud with the major pirate/Starmancer Wayland Strang. Indeed he begins to suspect that Stilan may even be angling to take Strang’s place. The medical facility is destroyed after it is attacked by mercenaries hired by Strang, and Drom has to travel off world to untangle the treads of the conspiracy. Arriving back on Tsarina, he has to deal with a failed Starmancer attack, punish the guilty and arrange for Doran Stilan to get what’s coming without undermining the position of the Governor. To do this, he’ll need skill, know-how and a whole lot of luck to ensure that the guilty face justice.”

And links

Blog

Facebook

Goodreads

Twitter

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Smashwords

Safkhet Publishing

For the book itself:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Would you like to read an excerpt from Jim’s Book?

He has very kindly sent me one ~I can show you 🙂

The flitter was hardly luxurious. It was a spacious workhorse with just enough concessions to comfort to deter personal injury claims from those who hired it. At the moment, it loitered over the northern highlands of the Border Kingdoms at a safe altitude. To their north, the highlands rose steadily until they became snow-capped and were lost in the clouds. Below them was a jumbled badlands of gorges and ridges, twisted rock, frost-shattered and crumbling. Wheeling below them was a pair of great four-winged aradons, keen-eyed carrion feeders. In the distance, perhaps five miles away, Kilonwin Kardoverin could just make out what might be another pair. As far as he could tell, they were the only signs of life in sight. He looked down; even with vision enhancers, the ridges showed virtually no sign of life. He counted three stunted bushes with occasional blades of grass poking through the loose scree.

Kardoverin strapped himself into the co-pilot seat and fiddled with the camera array, determined to get as much footage as possible. Kardoverin had a reputation in the industry as one of the best documentary makers in the sector. This reputation was based on arrogance, a casual disregard for personal safety, and painstaking camera work. He was reputed to get five times as much material as was needed, even for top quality holo work. He turned to the pilot. “Can we get lower? I’d like to film into those gorges.”

“Why?”

“Well, there’s damn all up here.”

“Why not zoom?” The pilot sounded nervous.

“They’re in heavy shadow.”

“Look, this is the Border Kingdoms, it isn’t safe.”

Kardoverin adjusted the central rig and raked the peripheral arrays so that they covered both flanks.

“Take us down fast; we’ll be through and out.”

“They’re barbarians! They shoot at people.”

“With black powder weapons.” Kardoverin’s tone was dismissive as he checked the satellite relay. It seemed to be working perfectly. “Look, just go in, one quick fly-through. It isn’t as if I’m asking you to land, or even hover.”

The pilot muttered something blasphemous under his breath and brought the flitter round. “I’ll take us up that gorge on the left, it’s narrower. Being so overcast, it’s less likely to be inhabited.”

He opened the throttle and brought the bow of the flitter sharply down. The clumsy craft accelerated rather faster than Kardoverin had expected, and he hastily checked the camera focus. This model of vehicle was effectively a rectangular box which flew and had little consideration of style. But for his purposes, the open top meant it had been comparatively easy to fit the cameras. The pilot brought them down sharply, heading south, gaining speed as he lost altitude. Then suddenly, he spun the controls and the flitter turned and banked so sharply Kardoverin felt himself hanging in the harness. Then the pilot pointed the nose of his craft straight into the mouth of the gorge, still dropping and gaining speed. As they entered between the towering rock walls, they were barely twenty feet above the ground and moving faster than Kardoverin would have believed possible. Kardoverin kept his eyes on the monitors, running his fingers over the controls in front of him, altering the zoom, the angle, the filters. They were deep in the gorge now and the boxy craft was travelling at breakneck speed. Kardoverin constantly re-adjusted the controls. “Isn’t this a bit fast?”

The pilot’s answer came through clenched teeth. “If I could go faster, I would. I want us out of here and—” He paused. “Oh hell, we are in deep—”

There was a staccato rattle of automatic weapons fire from one side. The burst struck the pilot, jerking his body against the seat harness. Kardoverin tore his gaze from the monitors and looked towards where the noise had come from. The second burst hit the front of the flitter, and the engine began to whine. Kardoverin frantically unbuckled his harness and stood up to reach over the pilot’s body for the controls. The third burst struck him in the chest, spun him round and left him draped over the side of the flitter. Thirty seconds later, with no one at the controls, the flitter struck the rock wall of the gorge and exploded.