Starflight by Melissa Landers (Audiobook) In this science fiction adventure, Humans have inhabited worlds far beyond our galaxy. A young orphan girl, hoping to erase past mistakes, sells herself as a six-month indentured servant in exchange for passage to the outer realm, where she can work as a mechanic and start a new life. 
Things go wrong along the way, though, entangling her with a crew of smuggler-types who send her through a race through space from pirates, bounty hunters, and the police. This is a fun story about finding friends, and maybe even love, in the most unexpected places. Lots of action, a fantastic cast of well-rounded, believable characters, and an entertaining plot. (Right down to the sugar glider ship mascot).
I really like how the author had a complete backstory for every character, and each quirky personality stood on their own. Also, we had Solara, Doran (the guy who indentures her) and the crew, each with their own stories/personal/legal issues, and all these wove together to keep complicating each other’s problems, yet the group always bound together to get through it all. I really appreciated the complexity in this one. Tons going on, but it never got confusing. Great for science fiction adventure lovers.
This book is about a realm called Fallhollow in a parallel universe to earth where there is a dragon called Einar that attacks the good kingdom of Hirth.
J. Keller Ford (known to all as Jenny) is a scribbler of Young Adult and New Adult speculative fiction. As a young Army brat, she traveled the world and wandered the halls of some of Germany’s most extraordinary castles in hopes of finding snarky dragons, chivalrous knights and wondrous magic that permeated her imagination. What she found remains etched in her topsy-turvy mind and oozes out in sweeping tales of courage, sacrifice, honor and everlasting love.
Wow. What a journey! First of all, I have NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, to thank for finally getting me to write this novel, and many more. After writing and revising this novel for three years, I decided to query the manuscript to agents. It was a long process with many revisions and rejection letters. At the end of the day, I realized that I may have let my impatience and excitement get the better of me, and I sent out the project before it was ready. It was a learning experience.
Even though my series, The Watcher Saga, is about angels and fallen angels, can honestly say I didn’t specifically approach this series as a fantasy. I had a story in my head that I had to get out.
As I ask questions of my characters, I take into account what kind of species the character is and what special qualities they would have. For instance, if you’re working with angels, or fallen ones, there are certain traits they all have. They have wings and can fly. They are also immortal and may serve a higher being (or not. In some cases, they may do the opposite). How would that affect their world view? If they are immortal, were they born? How would it feel to live for thousands of years? How would flying affect their view of traffic? That sort of thing.
All characters exist within a setting of some sort. As you ask questions about your character, you start to get ideas of how their direct surroundings have affected them.
Lisa is also a technical writer, a meditation teacher with the Training in Power Academy, and the leader of the Young Writer’s Club, a local writing group for teens in her home town. A self-proclaimed coffee lover, she can usually be found writing in a local café. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her meditating or hiking in the mountains to counteract the side effects of drinking too much caffeine!
In the world of The Selection, the USA is now a dystopian country ruled by a monarchy. The future queen is chosen from the ranks of commoners. If you are old enough when the prince comes of age, you can enter the lottery, and if you are picked for your state, you go to the capital with the 60 other “winners” and end up in something akin to a bachelor/Miss America competition—winner gets the prince, and the crown. America (Yes, the heroine has this incredibly cheezy name) does not want to be in the competition, but she tries to stay as long as possible, because each day she stays, her family is compensated handsomely, and they are very poor (so this is a pretty good gig for her.)
The roles of men and women are key. Is it male dominant? Female? Or neutral in gender roles? How are children viewed and what are there expectations as they mature? How are marriages performed? What influence do religious traditions have on daily life?
It seems daunting but I’ve found it’s rather fun to sit down and ponder it out. For instance, Maldobarian culture is very much like the standard Western European Medieval culture. Males are dominant, generally. People act and dress modestly. There’s a code of chivalry that one should adhere to. The gray elves of Luntharda, however, are very different. Their culture is more gender neutral, but with family lines being traced through the mother’s bloodlines.
People bathe together as a common social interaction because that kind of nudity isn’t viewed as scandalous. I suppose you could say that they almost have a “Garden of Eden” mentality where they don’t know they should be ashamed of their nudity. Children are raised by families and villages as a whole rather than only by individual parents.
Nicole is the author of the children’s fantasy series, THE DRAGONRIDER CHRONICLES, about a young boy’s journey into manhood as he trains to become a dragonrider. TRAITOR is the third and final book.
Jennifer M Eaton 