Star Wars for Christmas? Why yes I WILL have some

Between the election and the start of the holiday season, we’ve been stresspuppies in my household. So given that our blog is fond of romance and SF/F and often the two of them together, I clearly need to divert myself from both of those contentious topics by sounding off about space opera for a bit.

And by space opera, I mean Star Wars!

Christmas means a lot of things to a lot of people, of course—but to me and my beloved, it’s one of the quieter holidays of the year. Since I live a great distance from my family and air travel is not really an option for me these days, my wife and I usually spend that particular holiday on dinner and a movie. Last year, the movie was The Force Awakens (and if you’re one of the five people on the planet who hasn’t actually seen this movie yet, fair warning, my post I’m linking to IS chock fulla spoilers).

This year, I’ll say right out, I’m looking forward to yet another Star Wars movie to enjoy. I’ve been trying very, very hard to avoid too many news items and spoilers and even trailers about Rogue One, as I want to go in as unbiased as possible. Because it ain’t like I’m not going to see the film—so I figured it’d be nice to be as surprised as possible when I get there.

Still, though, this is a Star Wars movie we’re talking about here, so avoiding tidbits about it is nigh impossible. I have picked up on some small number of things. So first, here are a couple of said things that make me a little twitchy about the movie:

1. Wait WHAT John Williams isn’t doing the score? WHAT MADNESS IS THIS? Okay, I’ll be grudgingly willing to buy this if Williams is busy working on scoring Episode VIII… but it’s going to be weird watching a Star Wars film that doesn’t have his music involved.
2. There’s no opening title crawl?! That’ll be almost as weird!

(Source for these two items: this article over on The Mary Sue.)

But really, these two items are outnumbered by what does have my interest, namely:

1. Jyn Erso! Another female-led Star Wars story! Looking forward to getting to know this heroine!
2. Alan Tudyk, best known to all Browncoats as Wash, voicing the droid K-2SO.
3. The return of Darth Vader.
4. Getting to see Bail Organa on camera, and appreciating the continuity of having the same actor that played him in the prequel trilogy. I’m going to be VERY curious as to whether this’ll mean we might get a glimpse of Young Leia.
5. Ditto for Mon Mothma! Due to my history as a roleplayer on Star Wars MUSH and another Star Wars-themed game called Galaxy, I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for this character as an established female leader of the Rebellion, and later of the New Republic.
6. What promises to be a nice mix of diverse faces in the cast, in addition to a female lead role.
7. Seeing more of what the new canon timeline is going to fill in between Episodes 1-3 and Episodes 4-6. While I know a lot of Star Wars fandom was very upset about the relegating of the Expanded Universe to non-canon status, and while I myself am a bit sad about that, I’m still quite intrigued both as an author and as a fan to see what new possibilities are going to unfold with the new tales to come!

What about the rest of you out there? Any other Star Wars fans in the house? Who’ll be seeing Rogue One over the December holidays and what are you looking forward to about the movie? Sound off in the comments!

—
Angela, in addition to being a giant Star Wars nerd, writes as both Angela Highland and Angela Korra’ti. Come say hi to her (and geek out about Star Wars if you like) on angelahighland.com, or follow her on Facebook or Twitter!

Busting Cosmic Dust Bunnies

In space, no one can hear you sneeze. Of course, I don’t recommend leaning out of the airlock while sweeping dust bunnies into the void. Parts of you might freeze or boil—are we actually clear on what happens when you lean into a vacuum? I just looked it up and…really gross things happen to bodies exposed to a vacuum. Apparently the lack of pressure lowers the boiling point of your blood, so it does that and then explodes out of all the surrounding tissue. Awesome.

That’s not what I wanted to write about.

Have you ever wondered how we’ll go about spring cleaning in space? The ship that your crew has been zipping about in is going to collect a lot of dust, even with all the hatches sealed and locked. Skin particles, hair, whatever the engineer picked out of his nose and flicked behind the power core when he thought no one was looking. The stuffing from that suspiciously Klingon-featured teddy bear that is just a keepsake. Powdered rations spilled and not properly cleaned up. The residue in the pipes leading to the water recycler.

Oh, God. I don’t even want to think about what else is in the water recycler. I bet that engineer pees in the shower, too. Then again, he might as well. All the water in his ship probably funnels to the same place, and the filters on that unit will need a regular cleaning.

I suppose you might land once in a while, throw open all the hatches and get the brooms out. Flush the tanks, take a risk on the local water. But what if your craft isn’t equipped for atmospheric reentry. It’s the bargain model—sleek enough to skip from star to star without too much hassle, not quite robust enough to actually land anywhere. Or…what if spring on Planet Bazooka is the season of the tank crab? Militant buggers the size of a Mini Cooper that like to scuttle through open cargo hatches and have crab babies on your just swept floor?

There’s got to be a better way to bust cosmic dust bunnies.

I thought about sonic cleaners, but they just loosen the dust and grime. It’s still there, just no longer attached to whatever you were cleaning. It might also be pulverized, but still part of the universe. Ultra violet light can be used to disinfect the dust, but the dust is still there. The fact is, that unless you have a handy, pocket sized black hole, whatever you bring onto your ship is going to stay on your ship until you take it off again. That’s, like, a law of physics or something. So, while we might be able to clean smudges off the shiny bits with newfangled solvents and tech, we still have your nail clippings and sloughed skin to do away with. Eventually, all that dust is going to make the place smell a bit, maybe tickle a sinus or two. And every time you sneeze, more stuff is going to enter your closed and fetid atmosphere—unless you’re leaning out of an airlock at the time.

I have come up with a solution. We could install vacuum ports. Program a sequence, hit a switch and a tidy (short and tidy, we want to be able to breathe afterward) current sucks anything loose toward a vent in the floor, through a duct and into a collection chamber. The chamber can then be vented outside (space dust!) or, for the environmentally conscious, emptied in a responsible manner. Um…incarnated at a station, then turned into space dust? Compacted and…burned? Mixed with the sludge from your water recycling unit and served in the staff cafeteria? Used to stuff upholstery? Ideally, we could find a way to turn it into fuel. Yeah, I like that.

Small animals (fur emitting, litter busting, flea bags!) should be kept away from vents during operation. Toes, fingers and other delicate naked bits shouldn’t get too close to the vents, ever. You don’t want to lose a testicle if someone accidentally starts the cleaning cycle. Likewise, any keepsakes should be kept strapped down. A blocked vent will not effectively clean a room.

It’s not a perfect system, but I’m open to suggestions. How would you go about spring cleaning in space?

=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=

On the Chaos, the crew play poker for pennies and chores. Loser cleans the bathrooms and Felix is the worst poker player in the galaxy. He's also not that dedicated to cleanliness. Probably a good thing they have a doctor on board!

Chaos Station (Chaos Station #1) is available now. 

Amazon | Amazon UK | B&N | Kobo | iBooks | Carina Press

To read the first chapter and learn about the rest of the crew, visit http://chaosstation.com

Something Old, Something New...

It's one of those fun times for authors when events collide in a glorious smash-up of events... so let me share them with you!

First, I'm pleased to announce the release on September 3rd of the print release of "Heroes Lost and Found", the third and last book in the "Blaze of Glory" trilogy!

Some will rise, others will fall…

Jo Tanis is still recovering from her near-death experience in Las Vegas when she receives a mysterious postcard from Harris Limox, who claims to have a promising lead on the whereabouts of the Controller. Over her boyfriend/guardian Hunter’s objections, she sets off to a sleepy Oregon town to ferret out the truth.

The Controller is more than just a disgruntled super. He’s a rogue Guardian who was presumed dead and is now armed with a slew of high-tech hardware that not only makes him physically superior to the supers—and therefore almost impossible to destroy—he’s got the ability to detonate the implants in the back of all supers’ necks.

In Oregon, Jo meets a surviving Alpha super, Kit Masters, whose wild plan to capture the Controller could put an entire town of innocents at risk. But instead of successfully talking her former idol out of his disastrous bid to regain former glory, Jo finds herself betrayed and trapped in her worst nightmare.

Fight her former teammates, or die.

And a cover reveal! For "Battle Scars", the fourth book in the "Blood of the Pride" series! Coming out October 28th but available for pre-order at Amazon and Barnes & Noble right now!

P.I. Rebecca Desjardin is surprised when two seemingly unrelated missing-teen cases land in her lap on the same day. Her cat-shifter instincts tell her there's more to the story, and when she uncovers a bitter feud between the two families, she suspects Romeo and Juliet runaways. She turns to her lover, Brandon Hanover, a man who knows the underground better than most.

Brandon is determined to help the woman he loves outwit ruthless enforcers and bring two missing kids to safety, but when a woman from his past resurfaces he finds himself caught between two worlds once again.

As the claws come out and the war between the shifter families turns deadly, the two will have to stand together or fall separately—and even that might not be enough to save them.

And I'm thrilled to announce that I've signed a two-book contract with Carina Press for a new series...  final title TBA but here's the blurb so far!

Tales of the Bonnie Belle

Sam Keller is a woman running from her past, landing as a captain on a Mercy ship—ferrying courtesans from stop to stop to indulge the sexual fantasies and needs of distant mining colonies. She thought she'd left the violence behind but when one of her crew is brutally murdered she has to find the killer before the Bonnie Belle loses enough money to be put out of commission. Marshal Daniel LeClair arrives on base to investigate and the sparks between the two fly both professionally and personally. As the pair weave through corruption and the sensual world of the professional courtesan they find themselves drawn together not only by a need for justice but also for survival in a world where Sam knows the shadows hold dangerous secrets.

This new series will be starting out in 2014 so it's going to be a heck of a finish to 2013 and a jump with both feet into the New Year! I hope some of you will come along for the ride and enjoy a good read with old and new friends!