Maud Demille is a daughter of Innkeepers—a special group who provide ‘lodging’ to other-planetary visitors—so she knows that a simple life isn't in the cards. But even Maud could never have anticipated what Fate would throw at her. Once a wife to a powerful vampire knight, Maud and her young daughter, Helen, were exiled with him for his treachery to the desolate, savage planet of Karhari.Karhari killed her husband, and Maud—completely abandoned by his family—has spent over a year a...

DAVID R. RUSSELL English Department of Iowa State University, U. S. A. I was fortunate to attend, as a visitor from the U. S. , the first European Association for the Teaching of Academic Writing (EATAW) conference in 2001 at Groningen. I was struck by the similarities in the challenges higher education faces on both sides of the Atlantic in terms of developing students’ academic writing, and students’ learning through writing. It is indeed an international ‘problem. ’ But I was equally st...

Lady Cecelia is to mysteries what a pack of foxhounds is to a fox... and her interference brings her to disaster. But Captain Serrano isn't about to let her employer—and now her friend—be destroyed. With the help of Lady Cecelia's nephew and his friends, including Lord Thornbuckle's adventurous daughter, Heris plots a rescue, while trying to re-balance her own life and recover relationships with some of her former crew. In the process, she and Lady Cecelia bring down a government.

Esmay Suiza wasn't a member of a great Navy family like the Serranos. She'd had to make her way on grit alone, which meant it wasn't likely she'd ever make admiral and "hoist her own flag." Well, that was fine with her: all Esmay wanted was a secure berth where she could be part of something greater than herself, and otherwise just live her life in peace. But what we want or think we want from life and what we get are seldom the same—and one day Esmay found herself in the middle of a space...

Rejuvenates fear the backlash caused by bad drugs: they want nothing to interfere with their pursuit of long life—or the profit that comes from promising it to others. Neighbor states fear the aggressive expansion of the Familias Regnant, fuelled by population growth and extended lifespan. Within the Regular Space Service, those who have received experimental rejuvenations fear they may have been intentionally given bad drugs. Esmay Suiza's family fears that her marriage to an offworlder w...

Higbee, Colorado, population 147, is about to become a boomtown. The visionary General Wade Garrison is building a railroad to connect Higbee to the renowned Santa Fe Rail. But a rancher named Ike Clinton has his own selfish reasons for making sure these bands of steel go nowhere--and he'll go to any lengths to derail Garrison's plans.Falcon MacCallister owes a war-time debt to the General and answers the call to aid the man in his fight with the Clinton brood.The proud lit...

Restored to her former state of health (and determination) Lady Cecelia goes in search of fresh bloodstock—she's had enough of politics. But once again she manages to put herself—and Heris Serrano—at the point where lightning will strike. This time it's invasion from the neighboring empire: The Benignity of the Compassionate Hand. Heris is only a civilian now, with a space yacht—what can she do in the face of a full-scale fleet of warships? But she is also a Serrano—born to lead.

Esmay Suiza and Brun Meager should be friends—they're both bright, brave, likable and adventurous. But true friendship doesn't run any smoother than true love. Brun thinks Esmay's a stuck-up prig, and Esmay thinks Brun's a spoiled rich brat who's making a play for Barin Serrano, Esmay's first love. So when Brun falls into the hands of a repressive religious militia movement, Esmay finds herself n disgrace, suspected of conniving at the capture. Even Barin, now being pursued by the beautifu...

The worst has happened: Fleet is tearing itself apart. Some of the mutineers see injustice in the unequal spread of the rejuvenation drugs that offer virtual immortality to the rich; others are simply thirsty for power, or for blood. The Loyalists, meanwhile, fight desperately to preserve the rule of law in Familias Regnant space. But when Esmay Suiza-Serrano is unceremoniously booted out of Fleet, the apparent victim of family politics, she has no idea of the whirlwind of conflict into wh...

Kylara had to leave a bright future as a military cadet, and was thrown into the brutal world of off-world trading. This subsequent career in the family business was tough: marked by war, mutiny and attempted assassination. But then her home was attacked and her parents killed - their trading empire left in ruins. Now she must save what is left of the family and the business, with few friends and too few assets.She must make full use of her hard-won experience to not just survive, ...

Frank Morgan, a gunfighter known to many simply as “the Drifter”, finds himself adopted by man's best friend and by a wide-eyed young fortune-seeker who seems to have more talent for finding trouble than gold. Two vicious outlaw gangs have kidnapped Frank's own son to lure him into a trap, providing the Last Gunfighter with his latest deadly challenge.

Some say they are a cursed people. But those who try to find them will be just as unlucky... Working on a dig on the southern coast of India, the last thing Annja Creed expects is to be hit by a tsunami. Or to strike archaeological gold. But that's exactly what happens when several objects wash ashore in the storm.The relics carry unfamiliar markings that hint at a legendary city. Excited by the prospect of discovering a culture believed lost to civilization, Annja embarks on a per...