New cover for “Secrets in the Stars”

Some more “They Said it would be Easy” unedited snippet

“That was brilliant to give Huian coffee,” Jeff said. “April constantly has to advise me on social things. I probably wouldn’t have thought of it. I read in a banking journal that there was a period of time when banks gave gifts for opening an account. It seems they were legally limited what interest they could pay, so they’d throw in a toaster as a prize to get around that.”
“What sort of a toaster?” Irwin asked, not sure he wasn’t joking.
“The sort you plug in the wall socket and put sliced bread in it,” Jeff said. When Irwin looked dubious he explained further. “It was a post war period and there was a lot of pent up demand for simple consumer goods, and the prices for such things was much higher than later when productivity increased a great deal. They put prizes in boxes of laundry detergent and snacks even. So you sort of reinvented that.”
“I wish I had more, and some bottles of liquor,” Irwin said. “I could create some serious goodwill among my important customers before supply gets back to normal.”
“I’m making whiskey, but by the time it’s ready to taste we’ll have Earth whiskey again,” Jeff said.
“Why didn’t you tell me? How much are you making?” Irwin demanded.
“I have two hundred liters circulating through charcoal to age it,” Jeff said. I expect I’ll have that much every three or four months for the near future. It should increase as our food production goes up and I have more waste to work with.”
“If you get to where you are making more alcohol than you can sell as whiskey you can sell the straight clear stuff for mix, or add some simple flavoring and call it vodka.
“Heather demanded ten liters for herself. I have no idea how she flavored it,” Jeff said.
“You can sell it right now you know. Just like the water from the snowballs, that’s all sold ahead before they return,” Irwin urged him. “Premium Earth whiskey was going for near a thousand dollars a seven hundred fifty milliliter bottle, before the flu.”
“I’m not sure it’s going to be any good, much less premium,” Jeff said. “I’ve never done this and it’s an experiment at this point. It would be a huge embarrassment to sell futures and then it is crap nobody wants to drink.”
“You’re not a big drinker are you?” Irwin asked.
“Not at all. I may have a few drinks with friends when we go to a club, but I don’t care for a lot of it. It has to taste good. I think I had something at April’s place, the Fox and Hare, five or six months ago. That’s how long it’s been since I had a drink.”
“I can assure you… if it doesn’t make you blind or kill you somebody will buy this stuff.” Irwin said.
“That’s horrible. I don’t want to be associated with an inferior product. People will probably make fun of it, and that reputation will rub off on the other things you do. I’d much rather make good beer or champagne, but this is what I had the materials to try. If it is any good I’ll make more money holding it back and letting it age,” Jeff pointed out. “I don’t even consider myself qualified to taste it. When it has a little more color and smells better I’ll have somebody taste it that knows whiskey. I’m not sure if it’s even going to resemble any Earth whiskeys.”
“I will assemble a few friends, who happen to know about such things, and volunteer myself to help you. We have enough group experience to give you an expert panel,” Irwin assured him.
“I’m not going to bring the whole lot until I’m sure it’s ready, but I’ll fetch a liter from the moon when it has some color,” Jeff decided.
“Most of it is bottled in three quarters of a liter units,” Irwin said, “so a full liter will be fine. It’ll make it stand out as different in the market too. Just being from the moon will make it a novelty.”
“Good, I already have some bottles designed,” Jeff said. “I’d hate to change them. Thank you, Irwin. I appreciate the help,” Jeff said.
“That’s what friends are for,” Irwin assured him, keeping a carefully controlled face.

Just a little snippet of “They Said it would be Easy” raw – unedited

The yard manager stood and stared, unbelieving, at the boarded up ports and hastily patched holes.
“We had a spot of trouble,” Li admitted, walking along after the man as he continued along the deck looking at the damage.
“I’m concerned my yard may be considered complicit in this ‘spot of trouble’ if the authorities come around looking for a boat with a lot of bullet holes. For all I know you have been engaged in piracy,” the manager said. “Unless you filed a police report already, as the victimized party?”
“Actually we were threatened. And they intended to board us. But it happened far off in the North Pacific. Not even in this hemisphere, so there is no report with any authorities you could call. I don’t think anyone is looking for us. If they are, well, it didn’t happen in Australia’s jurisdiction. In fact, it really did happen in international waters.”
The man looked at him hard. “And what of this other boat? What happened to it? Did you manage to outrun it?” he inquired.
“Best not to ask about that,” Li admitted.
“Tell me why I should get involved in this massive… can of worms?” he asked.
“We can pay in gold,” Li said.
The shipyard manager stood frowning, looking down at a cluster of thirty caliber holes awhile.
“That must have been one hell of a hail storm,” he said.

A snippet from “They Said it would be Easy” Raw unedited copy as all snippets are here

“If we’re going to do much business on Home I have a sneaky feeling we should know who that man is,” the second in charge on their team said as they walked away.
“Because he had automated security?” the leader asked. “Dude, anybody stacking gold bars in his entry has reason to have some serious security. We may never see him again. In fact if the lady had been home we’d have never seen him today.”
“We don’t know they were gold bars.”
“Yeah, somebody dropped a few hundred thousand dollars to kick priority freight off the pre-paid queue on the next shuttle lifting, and have it couriered by crew for never-leave-your-sight delivery to their door, for tungsten bars. That’s the only other thing that would be that heavy.”
“Well, probably gold bars,” the second admitted. He was the sort who would argue the sky wasn’t blue if he hadn’t seen it today. “I’d still like you to ask. You have helmet pix of him don’t you?”
“Yes, I’ll ask just to humor you,” he said. His pad had a one touch to contact his superiors.
“Control this is Thad. Coming off armed escort to a delivery on Home for Larson Lines. We are done and no problems. There was a person of interest to us. He made my partner nervous,” he said, getting a dig in. “No name was given, but here is his face off my helmet camera.”
They had run searches on faces before. Sometimes it was hours before they got a reply. This time they got as far as the lift at the end of the corridor and Thad get a priority squeal in his ear.
“This is Earl Sasser, Vice President for Operations Asia. The gentleman in your images is regarded as a DO-NOT-TOUCH. That includes anyone associated with him or any location or activity observed. You are not to engage him or interfere with him, nor associate the company with him in any way even if in your opinion it is in a positive manner. Actions on behalf of a client do not extend to interacting with this man for them. You are instructed to wipe your camera memory of him, forget you saw him and do not engage in idle gossip or conversation about him on or off duty in the future. Do you have any other questions?”
It seemed like a really bad time to have any questions. “No sir. Thank you.”
The contact ended without any more pleasantries.
“Dude, wipe your camera, then wipe your brain. We don’t know the guy, we never saw him or his, and we don’t ever want to have anything to do with him. VP Ops says he is do-not-touch. Got it?”
“Wow… Got it.”

April series / Family Law series

Although Family law #3 – “Secrets in the Stars” s ties the two series together I am having Henchman Press handle the Family Law series and take them to paper. I’m waiting to hand the April series off to him until I see how he performs on the other. I’ll still be doing beta readers and handle my own cover and posting for April #7.