Shooting Star - Valleylon - and now onto Caraya.

Apologies to the wallpaper art that I ripped from an internet search. It is only to create an impression of the worlds the Shooting Star visits.

Beautiful Carayan landscape.  With an Earth wolf for all we know.

Sunrise over ... neither.  Valleylon has a binary; but no moons and stars. Caraya has 2 moons, but only one single sun. 

Could be - the 7 worlds of Valleylon? 

Valleylon: An ancient, arrogant civilization of immortals. Their biggest problem is boredom. A nice little rescue mission for Federi and his Donegal Troubles.

 But out of boredom, this old civilization also invades other worlds, enslaves other sentient beings, and has a whole slave culture, the central victims being - guess what. Earth humans, because they are biologically closest to the aliens of Valleylon. It's not for nothing Federi & crew "happened" upon these humanoid creatures. So the teenage (really) High King of Valleylon steps aboard the Shooting Star to learn from "Earth's leadership". Ha, I hear Federi nearly choking with laughter, ha, ha! But you can't possibly pass up such an opportunity to mentor the top man of a potentially deadly race. Our favourite pirate has a field day.

 Unfortunately for Federi and his teen crew, things start getting pretty deadly pretty fast, even though the young High King is loyal.

Caraya: A planet that is in the vertical universe. Not populated with any kind of vicious predator, sentient or otherwise - to our knowledge. The little shifters that move around on it, "prehelions", are certainly sentient, but they are gentle and their life habits unknown (and just about undiscoverable).  A perfect pirate haven, if they can only stop others from discovering it.

 *

On another front, I'm working on 3 excellent novels by 3 good authors, editing "Split Decision" by Carmen Capuano (that is, she's doing most of the actual rewriting where I just give pointers because I want it done in her own voice); the next sequel in Les Noble's "Magic Circle" ... circles, "Darx Circle", where again editing needs to happen mainly in the author's voice; and I just proof-read a new submission, "KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE" by Marie Marshall.  There is also a fairy tale lined up by an author who doesn't want her identity revealed just yet; it's written for children and I've had my children split their sides laughing when reading parts to them out loud.  But that one will still take some time to prepare, though the author is hard at work on it.

"KWIREBOY vs VAMPIRE" has that appeal, it's gripping, beautiful dystopian Sci-Fi (though I'm thinking the author might disagree and say it's fantasy).  "Darx Circle" is more a genuine fantasy novel, it reminds of (the best parts of) Stephen Donaldson (ultimately condensed), and some of the more sinister parts of "Lord of the Rings".  Whereas "Split Decision" is a teen romance with a twist... a reality too many young teens face today, darkly anchored in the criminal underworld.  

On the horizon beckons another novel, a gypsy story set in Spain...  :-)  I love gypsy stories, and this one, by (sadly deceased) Hector Cortes, via his daughter taking care of the author angle.  I'll have to go very gently on editing, but luckily there is hardly anything.  "Miura" is the story of two boys who grow up to be men - one, a successful surgeon, the other, hampered by his impoverished origins but with an unchained spirit, a matador.  

Thank you Bookseeker Agency for your great subs!

But I might take a while to get to that last one (saw the list up there?  And I'm driving to get the whole Solar Wind series finished now, the Unicate must GO!  Federi is under time pressure now...).