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| The Starfield
Valley Tales |
All my
life I've been trying to design my perfect living space. Once I got
interested in space exploration, development, and settlement (Apollo 11
really got my attention), I started trying to develop ideas for space
settlements. But I had a lot of research to do (after all, terraforming
didn't exist back then as a degree available in college), and I had to
wait for technology
to catch up with me. As a result, I didn't actually start doing scale
drawings of my designs until about 1995, when I got an early version of
Visio (now part of Office 2003). I've spent the last 11 years playing
with ideas about how to create largely self-sufficient villages that
could be built anywhere on Earth, the Moon, Mars, or in space as
orbital cities. You can check them all out in The House of Tomorrow
section
Villages, however, are much more than bricks and mortar. They are also
all the people who live in them, along with all the plants and animals.
Since I lack the funds to build any of my designs for real, but I still
wanted to see what they would be like to live in, I had to rely on my
imagination. So...
There are five completed tales in this story universe, plus one about
two thirds done and one that is complete (I think) but needs fine
tuning. I'll list all of them here, but you'll only be able to download
those which are complete.
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This Little Bit Of
Heaven
Millie (short for Armilda)
Smith is a young single mother with a big problem named Ronnie Blaine.
He wants her to marry him whether she likes it or not. Worse, he is
backed by her Aunt Ethel, who has fingers in every social work pie in
Colorado Springs. What's a poor girl to do?
Be rescued by a tall, handsome
police officer named Bruce Mackenzie and whisked off to Starfield
Valley Ranch, a gated community east of town that serves as the
prototype for a village of tomorrow. Here she finds a home for herself
and her son Brandon among people who care about what happens to her.
But Ronnie and Aunt Ethel have other plans. How can she and her fellow
Villagers keep evil from invading their little bit of Heaven?
Together Millie and Bruce find
their own unique solution.
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To read This
Little Bit Of Heaven, right click here and select "Save
Target
As..." (in Firefox, "Save link target as...") to download the pdf file.
It could take awhile on a 56K modem so be patient.
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Dark Wolf's Odyssey
Jonathan Dark Wolf Cameron
wakes up from a horrible nightmare of screams and blood to find himself
in the Colorado Springs drunk tank--again. His head is killing him, and
it takes him an hour just to remember his name and address. He still
can't remember what he did to land in the drunk tank this time, but it
can't have been good.
He is rescued by Melissa
Silver Fox, backed by two tall men with broadswords at their hips. Who
are they? Jonathan soon finds out when he is whisked away to Starfield
Valley, where Melissa's family helps him recover from the mickey finn
that should have killed him, and then to relive the horrible nightmare.
Once he understands how he's
been used as a catspaw in another man's scheme to get back at the
pedophile who had so abused him as a child, Jonathan must work with
Melissa and the rest of the Villagers to find a way to bring these two
mortal enemies to justice through reconciliation with each other.
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To read Dark Wolf's Odyssey,
right click here
and select "Save Target As... to download the file. Again, it could
take awhile, so please be patient.
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Call Me Cassandra
Jolene Martin is an aging folk
singer no one ever heard of except for the space and Star Trek fans she sings for at their
conventions. But after the violent death of her lesbian partner, she
writes a song that hits the top of the charts--and suddenly finds
herself with a big target on her back. Fortunately her second sight
helps her and her cats escape a firebomb, but she loses everything.
Where can she turn for help?
Reluctantly, she calls a
friend in Starfield Valley, and finds herself rescued by Ben Shelby, a
retired Air Force general who had once served as Vice Chair of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff. As an anti-war activist of long-standing, Jolene
isn't quite sure how to take this as she and Ben tool around the
country. In their efforts to shake off the bad guys who are determined
to kill her, they visit the Heart of Texas Ranch, another Village of
Tomorrow, survive a tornado, deal with several more attempts on their
lives, and help head off a colonels' revolt against the efforts of
President Alan Gordon to turn the country into a socialist paradise.
(This
story is about 2/3rds complete, and not available for download.) |
The
Second American Revolution
James Scott Fitzgerald (aka Jimmy Fitz) has a horrible stomach ache. As
Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President Alan Gordon, who
wants a coup attempt he can put down and use as an excuse to fold the
military into his National Police, Jim must find a way to outmaneuver
both President Gordon and Vice President Bingham. His doctor tells him
he needs to take a vacation to Starfield Valley. He decides that's just
the ticket.
On the way to Starfield Valley by train, he meets Michelle Baker,
acting now as PR director for Starfield Valley. She has been struggling
to keep President Gordon from coming down on the Villages with all 15
feet. She's also been handed a copy of President Gordon's real plans
for turning the country into a socialist state. If he knew she had it,
he'd stop at nothing to get it back.
With the help of three old friends who are also retired generals, plus
the rest
of the Villagers and a few secret weapons, Jim and Michelle find a way
to turn the plans of the president and vice president on their heads.
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To read The Second American
Revolution, right click here and select
"Save Target As..." to download the file. As mentioned above, it could
take awhile.
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Sister of the Sword
Valerie Andersson is a tall, rawboned Air Force MP tasked with helping
clean up the mess following the attack on Starfield Valley (detailed in
The
Second American Revolution). This includes presenting the
casualty report to President Alan Gordon and Vice-President Mark
Bingham, now under guard at the arbitration hearing in Starfield
Valley. They refuse to admit they've done anything wrong until she
grabs them by the ties and makes them listen to her. Even so, both must
be sentenced to the sword for their refusal to be reconciled. No
Villager wants to see them die, so every possible effort must be made
to wake them up to the need to accept responsibility for their actions.
In the process of working out how to get their attention, Val crosses
paths with Rami Sabharwal, a world-renowned physicist and master
gamesman who lives in Starfield Valley. With his help, not only does
Val shape the reconciliation of these two hard-hearted men, she goes on
to build the Sisters and Brothers of the Sword as an organization of
peace-keepers authorized by UN mandate to bag assorted bad guys for
arbitration hearings at the Apollo 11 site on the Moon.
While Val must give up her dream of making general in the Air Force,
she finds her new dream far more interesting and challenging.
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To read Sister of the Sword,
right click here and
select
"Save Target As..." to download the file. As mentioned above, it could
take awhile.
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The Gordian Knot
Andrea Dixon, one of the original Sisters of the Sword, is pregnant and
depressed. Fortunately her step-daughter helps her realize why she's
depressed. The mother who had drowned her best childhood friend and his
siblings has just been released from the mental institution. She has a
need for reconciliation with this woman and her ex-husband.
To complicate the situation, the Middle East is about to blow up again,
so the Sisters and Brothers of the Sword, along with Jim and Michelle
Fitzgerald (known now as the Sword of the Most High), must find a way
to prevent that nastiness. Before Andy knows it, her personal need for
reconciliation gets thoroughly tangled up with the need for
reconciliation between the Children of Hagar and the Children of Sarai.
With help from the unlikeliest cast of characters, Andy and her beloved
Harmon find a way to slice through the Gordian Knot.
This novel is complete, but I'm not entirely satisfied with it yet, so
it is not currently available for download.
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Never Too Late
Tom Kestral helped build the International Space Station as an
astronaut. Now he flies Rotons to Stardust Station, where his bosses
are building something they'd rather the world, especially Starfield
Valley, didn't know about in furtherance of their plans to settle the
Moon.
He went to Stardust because he blames Starfield Valley for the death of
Kaitlyn, his first love, during the Second American Revolution. When he
overdoses on his sleeping pills in hopes of avoiding Kaitlyn's ghost,
he finds himself forced to relive his introduction to her and to Heart
of Texas Ranch, as well as the problems caused by President Gordon's
hatred for the Villages of Tomorrow.
He is rescued by Sharonda Phillips, his old detox counselor. As he
works through his memories, both good and bad, he discovers Stardust
isn't at all what he thought it was, and that he's been working for the
enemy for nearly three years.
Together, he and Sharonda find a way to turn the plans of the CEO
of
Stardust inside out and save Armstrong-Aldrin City from attack.
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To read Never Too Late,
right click here and select
"Save Target As..." to download the file. As mentioned above, it could
take awhile.
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If you like these tales,
please feel free to pass the link along, and let me know if you'd like
to see more of them. Just email me at tkholmes1951@hotmail.com
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