I don’t know how much sense the blog will make this morning. I’m being attacked by an excess of cuteness — and tiny claws. You see, our household expanded by one yesterday. Yes, there is a new cat in residence. Or, rather, a new kitten. A very active and playful kitten who also misses his litter mates and is, therefore, more than a bit clingy. The end result is that he cried for more than a little bit last night and then decided we all had to be up early this morning. So, I’m letting him play for a bit in hopes he wears himself out and I can catch a nap and maybe get the brain to wake up.

Now, a new kitten in a house is always an adjustment. A new kitten in a house that already has one female alpha — AKA Athena, her royal pussiness — and a neurotic dog who thinks he is a cat (a very big cat at almost 55 pounds) is “interesting” and not always in the fun way. Toss in the even more neurotic cat from next door who thinks he also lives here and, well, it’s like waiting for one shoe to drop after the other. It will work out but the breaking in process is full of hissing and spitting (from the kitten), looks of disdain (from Thena) and everything in between. The good part is that the dog wants to be friends and is just waiting for the kitten to figure out that he really is one of the good guys.

So, right now, my brain is fogged and in just a few minutes I have to leave to take my mother to the airport. I promise when I get back I will do a “real” post about the Harlequin sale and more. In the meantime, I’m going to pimp some of the works by our MGC folks and friends.

***

One of my all-time favorite books is The Forlorn by Dave Freer.

Across the one human colony world, a place technologically regressed to near medieval, possibly the last place humans still survive, a desperate search continues. Scattered across the deserts, tangled jungles, and alien fortresses, lie the core sections of the matter transmitter.

These sections hold the key to vast wealth, power, or… the fulfilment of the colony’s purpose: to help humankind survive the rabidly xenophobic alien Morkth who will tolerate no other intelligent species. The Morkth managed to follow the colony ship, and, despite their mothership being shot down and their queen being killed, they continue their relentless struggle to destroy humankind… and to reconstruct that incredibly valuable matter transmitter. If they succeed, they’ll be able to return to the hive with the location of the colony of vile humans, and have a new world to occupy. If they fail, they’ll destroy the planet.

The search has gone on for centuries, and it is all reaching an end point. The future hangs in the balance.

The Morkth have lasers, aircraft, nukes. Those who want the core sections for their own ends… have vast armies. Against them are three unlikely reluctant heroes: A street child thief, a dispossessed spoiled brat of a princess, and a confused, amoral Morkth-raised human, armed only with 14th century weapons and their own wits.

It’s a lost cause, a forlorn hope.

But it’s all humans have.

***

Then, because I’m not above pimping my own work, there is my latest (written under the pen name Sam Schall). Vengeance from Ashes is military sci-fi with a dash of space opera mixed in.

First, they took away her command. Then they took away her freedom. But they couldn’t take away her duty and honor. Now they want her back.

Captain Ashlyn Shaw has survived two years in a brutal military prison. Now those who betrayed her are offering the chance for freedom. All she has to do is trust them not to betray her and her people again. If she can do that, and if she can survive the war that looms on the horizon, she can reclaim her life and get the vengeance she’s dreamed of for so long.

But only if she can forget the betrayal and do her duty.

***

Sarah has her first indie novel, Witchfinder, out.

In Avalon, where the world runs on magic, the king of Britannia appoints a witchfinder to rescue unfortunates with magical power from lands where magic is a capital crime. Or he did. But after the royal princess was kidnapped from her cradle twenty years ago, all travel to other universes has been forbidden, and the position of witchfinder abolished. Seraphim Ainsling, Duke of Darkwater, son of the last witchfinder, breaks the edict. He can’t simply let people die for lack of rescue. His stubborn compassion will bring him trouble and disgrace, turmoil and danger — and maybe, just maybe, the greatest reward of all.

***

Because I am shamelessly trying to poke Kate into finishing the next Con book, here’s ConVent, the first in the series.

A vampire, a werewolf, an undercover angel and his succubus squeeze. Whoever picked this team to save the world wasn’t thinking of sending the very best. But then, since this particular threat to the universe and everything good is being staged in science fiction conventions, amid people in costume, misfits and creative geniuses, any convetional hero would have stood out. Now Jim, the vampire, and his unlikely sidekicks have to beat the clock to find out who’s sacrificing con goers before all hell breaks loose — literally.

ConVent is proof that Kate Paulk’s brain works in wonderfully mysterious ways. A sarcastic vampire, his werewolf best buddy, an undercover angel and his succubus squeeze. The “Save the world” department really messed it up this time.

***

Cedar has the second book in her “Pixie for Hire” series out now. So check out Trickster Noir.

After the battle of Tower Baelfire ended, Lom lay dying. Bella was tasked with not only the job she never wanted, but the one she did. Could she keep Lom alive long enough for him to come to the rescue when their kingdom needed them? And what did Raven, mysterious trickster spirit and honorary uncle to Bella, want with them? If the threat was big enough to have the trickster worried, Bella knew she needed to have Lom at her side. Underhill might look like a soap-bubble kingdom, but Bella and Lom knew there was a gritty underside. Why else would fairyland need a dark man willing to carry a big gun and be the Pixie for Hire?

***

Jason Cordova has a new novel out with Eric S. Brown — Kaiju Apocalypse.