The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery) – Chapter 6 (New)

The Alibi – Chapter 6

 
Master Chief Sonar Technician Robin Boyd didn’t look old enough for her job. Her bristle cut around her ears and long blonde locks elsewhere didn’t help. She hadn’t learned the difference between a shipmate referencing her punked hairstyle or calling her “Punk” and when she was anywhere other than her sonar station she didn’t ask for clarification.

Chief of the Boat Torah Jensen had her back.

Which was why Boyd was on station now instead of in the brig.

COB Jensen spoke in a loud whisper. “Seaman Clive had no clue.”

“It helps if you don’t talk right now.”

Jensen folded her harms over her chest and leaned back against the station’s doorjamb.

Boyd’s eyes moved from one diagnostics screen to the next. Recumbrance? Check. Integration? Check. ABFAC Cones? Check. Towed Array? Check? Transform Analysis? Check. AI Separation? Check.

Boyd shook her head. One hand kept her headphones tight to her right ear, her other hand played over dials and switches.

Run another series check?

Why?

She turned to a second set of screen along a wall projecting from the sonar displays.

Jensen looked as well. “Anything on the ES-10?”

“Nothing. Unless somebody’s got something way beyond what we have, this is pure biologic.” Boyd ran diagnostics. “Or the most sophisticated ‘droppers DARPA can come up with suck.”

She turned back to her sonar panel. Two screens showed Sherlock’s – the Henderson James’ AI – progress analyzing the signals, one coming out of Boston harbor, the other out beyond the continental shelf.

It kept coming up blank and asking for help.

You have to be a paying subscriber (Muse level (1$US/month) or higher) to view the rest of this post. Please or Join Us to continue.

Previous entries in The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery)

Rob and Joan Carter’s MEET THE AUTHOR interview Snippet 12 – The Shaman and more

I mentioned Rob and John Carter and I chatting on their MEET THE AUTHOR show in previous blog posts.

This is post #12 in a series of thirteen snippets taken from the full interview video. You can also listen to the interview via podcast

Today’s snippet deals with my upcoming novels beyond the science fantasy The Inheritors. These include the urban-fantasy The Shaman (September 2023 release), an urban fantasy follow up to The Shaman isolating one event in the protagonist’s life and entitled Search (December 2023 release), the medieval murder mystery Tag (March 2024 release), the science fantasy Wounded Healers (June 2024 release) and more.


Enjoy!

 

“DeathSong” now on BizCatalyst360

The kind folks at BizCatalyst360 just published my DeathSong, an excerpt from my forthcoming The Shaman and offered at the prodding of Mark O’Brien who found meaning in my The Paraclete.

The Shaman came about because a good number of people kept asking me about my background and training. I’d meant to write a book for years, and have a really poorly written manuscript dating from the late 1980s to prove it.

Several times I’d take that manuscript out and massage it. Into a different yet equally poorly written manuscript.

Finally, I took it out in late 2019 and asked myself, “What would make this an interesting story?”

That, and getting permission from one of my teachers (who spoke for all of them) was what I needed.

Originally entitled “Shaman Story,” the graphic artist who did the interior and exterior artwork mistakenly wrote “The Shaman” on the bookcover and Shaboom! it was done.

You can also get an idea of an earlier version of the story at DeathSong here on my blog.

For me, it’s always interesting to see how a story changes over time.

And in either case, enjoy.

 
Enjoy!

Rob and Joan Carter’s MEET THE AUTHOR interview Snippet 11 – The Inheritors

I mentioned Rob and John Carter and I chatting on their MEET THE AUTHOR show in previous blog posts.

This is post #11 in a series of thirteen snippets taken from the full interview video. You can also listen to the interview via podcast

Today’s snippet deals with my upcoming science fantasy novel, The Inheritors, scheduled for release this coming June 2023.


Enjoy!

 

The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery) – Chapter 5 (New)

The Alibi – Chapter 5

 
Sean Davitty’s head still ached from Cousin Seamus’ all Irish wedding. He slept most of the flight back from Shannon, although Inis Mór to Shannon was a series of puddle jumpers and windups that hadn’t helped his hangover.

But Seamus was his favorite and he was Seamus’ Best Man and Dia could that man go on about his research and studies.

Archeo-linguistics. First Languages. Paleo-linguistics. Languages before there were languages. Going back before France’s Trois-Freres.

Sean smiled, nodded, and drank up another glass.

Besides, if he couldn’t dive in it, Sean wasn’t interested. Even while back home he twice brought his gear down to the harbor to practice. Seamus helmed his father’s boat out to deep water and Sean would go down down down, deep deep deep, and come up laughing at Seamus’ panic stricken face.

“It’s free diving, Seamus. I’m next in line for ONR’s DSEND testing and this puts me near the top.”

Seamus answered with a thick brougue. “I never thought my cousin would be working for the Yank’s Alphabet City.” But on Sean’s second dive, he drew some symbols on his tablet and told Sean to look for them when he was way deep. “Can you do that for me, Sean?”

“What do I get if I find them?”

“Ah, you’re too long among the Yanks, for sure you are.”

“Is this that Sheila Na Gig thing you use to do when we were kids?”

“Aye, them’s pretty stones we found as childrens were carvings of the Mother Goddess and we didn’t know. I’m still on the hunt, but now with the Uni backing me all the way.”

Sean was thrilled his cousin’s childhood fancies were financing his adulthood quest. And when he met his cousin’s bride-to-be, he smiled and nodded; his cousin’s found his Mother Goddess at last.

But Sean came up from the deep with nothing.

Now back in Boston and with a remedial throbbing head to remind him of his week in na hÁrainneacha, Sean practiced the techniques he spent a year learning from the Bajau. He didn’t have their genetic disposition, but he came close – his best dive was ten minutes at two-hundred feet. His teammates shook their heads at him. “You’ve already got all the certifications you need, Sean. You working at being a whale?”

You have to be a paying subscriber (Muse level (1$US/month) or higher) to view the rest of this post . Please or Join Us to continue.

Previous entries in The Alibi (A John Chance Mystery)