Tara Maya's Tales

Space Jockey is ready to download for only $0.99!  Tomorrow the price goes up to $2.99. A science fiction anthology about that classic career of the future… space pilot. A young pilot thinks he knows the cost of war. Until he opens a forbidden door… If you’re piloting a cargo of convicts on Titan, you’re already in trouble. Things can still get worse. After the war, humanity gave up dreaming of the stars. But not him. Can a fleet of ships run by citizens stop famine from being used as a weapon? Every time he traveled to another world, he lost a little more of himself. Now they wanted him to make one last trip.... And more! The anthology includes ten short stories, two novelettes, and one full novella, featuring stories by: Scott Whitmore | Ethan Rodgers | Algis Budrys | Steve Brady Jonathan Von Post | Adrian Tymes | M. Pax | Tara Maya | Jack Skillingstead George Zhao | Jillian Romanowski | Philip K. Dick | Andrew Vu | Josef...

The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) …shunned them, but everyone needed them. He left the bodies beneath the skull stone. After a slight hesitation, he relieved one corpse of legwals and a spear. The legwals stank of sour milk and blood, a stench that reminded him of the first time he’d killed a man. Though Kavio had only been ten, not yet past Initiation into manhood, he’d already been Tested and proved a Tavaedi. During the fight, he’d been so sacred he pissed himself, and because of that so embarrassed, he hadn’t told Father what happened. His stupid fear, his stupid pride, had almost started a war. Was this the meaning of his journey omen? He’d spent his whole life trapped in the literal and political mazes of the Rainbow Labyrinth tribehold. This was his chance to shed those restrictions, grow himself anew. He didn’t want to be his father’s shadow, or his mother’s reflection, but neither did he care to be a rov...

I'm honored to be able to re-post this from one of the authors featured in Space Jockey. Ethan talks about that point that most aspiring writers reach -- when you've been rejected so many times, you think you should just give up. I know he he felt... I've been there too. If that's where you are now, don't give up. I'll let Ethan tell you why.... Farsider, my first sale as an author - Don’t give up by Ethan Rodgers In March of this year I told myself that it was time to face facts. I’d always written casually — it’s been a favorite hobby of mine since grade school — but nothing had ever come of it. I’d started novels and given up. I’d written short stories and let them collect dust in the deep, untouched folders of my laptop. I’d entered writing contests, wasting 15$ a pop to hear someone say “Sorry, this just isn’t what we’re looking for.” There were plenty of negative thoughts overwhelming me. “This is a waste of time,” “You’ll never be successful,...

Sarajane Anderson is your regular twenty-one year old with family, friends and a normal job. She also happens to be the only person who can save Saskia, a parallel world to earth. When Sarajane is taken to Saskia, she could never have imagined the reality of the world that she is stepping into -- a world where magical abilities are in everyone's possession. She must face a father she never knew, a world that is beyond her belief, a guardian who captures her heart; and a darkness that wants to take it. On her journey, Sarajane discovers her magical abilities, and realizes too that they come with a price. Sarajane is truly tested as her own loved ones are put at risk -- the ultimate question she is forced to ask herself is, how do you choose who lives and who dies? Download Eden Forest , Part One of The Saskia Trilogy , on Amazon and Synergebooks . Find more from Aoife on her website , blog , Facebook and Twitter .

"Detail 2" by Junalik The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) …on their backs, though they did not wear their mud and ashes, and he assumed had no compunction against carrying out more of the crimes which had won them expulsion. To his surprise, the rovers didn’t attack. They invited him back to their campfire. Shrugging, he accepted—was he any better than they? He found their lack of either resentment or awe oddly refreshing. “Do you know who I am?” Kavio couldn’t help but ask them. The noseless, earless one grinned. “I don’t care, Exile. Don’t you understand? This is your chance to escape who you are, become who you want.” In their camp, they had a captive, some toothless old man, whom they’d tied to a tree. Taking turns, each rover sliced a piece of flesh off the old man’s thigh, ignoring his piteous howls, then tossed the meat on a rock in the fire and ate it. “We eat first,” the leader, the earl...

Aurora Keys has dreamed of the Vanderlind Castle ever since she was a little girl. But the fiercely private Vanderlinds keep the massive structure strictly off limits to visitors. Until one night, the wealthy family throws a party—not just a small soiree, but a huge black-tie affair. No one from the town of Tiburon, Ohio, is invited—not even the mayor. But Aurora’s best friend, Blossom, has a foolproof plan for the two of them to sneak in. At first, everything goes smoothly: the girls enter the castle undetected, and there is free champagne. But then the handsome Jessie Vanderlind sweeps Aurora into his arms, crushing her to his chest and whispering, “I knew you’d come back to me.” Aurora understands it is a case of mistaken identity, but she feels connected to him somehow. And the boy is so beautiful, she believes she would be happy if he never let her go. Once Jessie realizes he is mistaken, his smile quickly changes to a scowl. “You must leave,” he tells her in a low, urgent...

"Little Girl" by  Ragnhidcharly The Unfinished Song: Initiate ( Start at the Beginning of the Novel ) Rthan …glowing faintly blue by his side. The six with him were all Blue Tavaedies, and they could see her, not as Meira, but as an azure radiance too brilliant to bear. They knew he sometimes called her by his dead daughter’s name, and because of that and because her power frightened them, her pres- ence spooked them. They backed away now, shielding their eyes. “Should we break camp?” asked Rthan’s second in command, Dorthamo. The man’s gaze slipped past the shimmering blue girl, back toward the lean-tos and campfire along the shore of the frozen tarn. “If we don’t leave now, we won’t have time to do the primary hex.” “If we hex the Yellow Bear tribehold, but leave their allies unmo- lested, their allies will still be free to come to their aide during the attack,” Rthan said. Dorthamo’s face sagged. “Yes...” “But if we stay longer, the pass ...