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The Proverbial Crock Pot
Space Station Halcyon follows a middle-aged gambler coerced into managing a derelict space station as he faces both mob pressure and a doomed government inspection. Where did the idea behind this story come from?
Hoo boy. Bits and pieces fell into the proverbial crock pot over the course of a few weeks. Daryl the manatee came from an awkward encounter I once had with a real life manatee in a beach bar (I don’t want to talk about it). Hali the AI was inspired by that time Chat GPT made me cry (for reasons I’ve now totally forgotten). Joey is basically a better version of me, but also a raging alcoholic.
All of this marinated for a few weeks in a midlife crisis, and voila! Space Station Halcyon was served!
Do you think comedy makes violence hit harder, or softens it?
Comedy is like the soothing back rub on the tense shoulders of deadly violence. It should be used lovingly, sparingly. Otherwise, it’s just a nuisance.
Do you see the station as a kind of found family, even if it’s a dysfunctional one?
The station is more like a high security cell block of felons who are so socially stunted, so painfully outcast, they need an AI to prompt them not to kill each other. So, yeah, they’re just like family.
What kind of reader do you hope finds this book?
The kind who will buy lots and lots of copies of my book and sprinkle them freely about their favorite watering holes, fitness centers, and places of worship.
Author Website
(Management is not responsible for anything that happens to you)
Joey Mumbai’s down on his luck and over his head. To pay off his gambling debts, he’s forced to run an old space station at the end of the galaxy as a “legitimate business” for the mob. All Joey has to do is make money—and not attract any attention. But Space Station Halcyon is like a floating death trap, with a rage-filled manatee, a psychotically cheerful computer, and a sports bar that may or may not be possessed.
When a government code inspector and her enforcerbot drop by the station, Joey must bluff, bribe, and connive his way through interstellar bureaucracy, laser gun fights, and the worst beer in the galaxy. Can Joey turn his derelict station and degenerate crew into something resembling legality? Or is the whole place going to explode in a cloud of code violations? Or maybe both?
Space Station Halcyon is a wild and raucous sci-fi comedy about bad luck, worse decisions, and the cosmic horror of being put in charge. A Hitchhiker’s Guide-esque romp that answers the eternal question: “Who’s in charge around here?”
Space Station Halcyon: “Now Under New Management!”
Space Station Halcyon opens with Joey Mumbai, a middle-aged gambler with a gift for wisecracks and a talent for catastrophe, getting dragooned by a murderous insectoid bookie into running the derelict space station he inherited from his father. What follows is a comic scramble involving mob pressure, an impending government inspection, a gloriously ramshackle station orbiting a planet called Cold Fart, and a crew that seems stitched together from grievance, loyalty, and leftover cosmic grease. It is, in essence, a novel about a loser walking into the worst management job in the galaxy and finding that the dump may have more soul than he does.
I liked this book most when it trusted its own lunacy. Author Matthew C. Lucas does not write jokes as decorative garnish; he writes as if comedy were the station’s oxygen supply. The voice is fast, filthy, self-lacerating, and weirdly nimble, with similes that arrive half-drunk and still land cleanly. Joey’s narration gives the book its voltage: he is slippery, vain, frightened, opportunistic, and yet difficult not to root for. I enjoyed the way the novel lets absurdity and menace coexist in the same breath. A scene can pivot from a strangling to a punchline without feeling coy about either one. That tonal brazenness is harder to pull off than it looks, and here it gives the whole book a scrappy combustion.
What surprised me was that beneath the racket, there is a real emotional undertow. The station is not just a joke-machine; it gradually feels like a cracked habitat for disappointment, inheritance, and accidental belonging. Joey’s relationship to the place, and to the people and entities orbiting within it, gives the comedy a ballast it would not otherwise have. I would not call the novel sentimental, because it has too much bite for that, but it does become unexpectedly tender in the margins. Even when the humor turns maximalist, the book keeps a grubby human pulse. It is worth noing that readers who dislike relentless comic velocity may find it a bit overclocked. Still, I found the excess more often exhilarating than exhausting.
I’d hand Space Station Halcyon to readers who like comic science fiction, space opera farce, absurdist sci-fi, and blue-collar galactic satire, especially people who enjoy shabby worlds, hostile bureaucracies, and characters who fail with style. It sits somewhere between Douglas Adams and Futurama, though Lucas is earthier and more splenetic than Adams, with less elegance and more grime under the fingernails. For the right reader, this is exactly the kind of novel that feels beamed in from a disreputable but beloved corner of the universe. A battered little chaos-engine of a book: vulgar, funny, and far more endearing than I thought it would be.
Pages: 194 | ASIN : B0GJ7GCSHF
The Darker Stuggles Within
The Shards of the Conduit follows a man in command of an elite strike team who is forced to improvise his way through a nightmare of a mission.
Malek is skilled but flawed, often on the edge of making the wrong call. How did you approach building a protagonist who is both competent and unstable?
I hate to say it, but from personal experience, and knowing people in my life who held such a dichotomy as well. It’s a skill in itself to remain composed, professional, and competent whether you are a field operative or a mom of 3 juggling small humans at home. The truth is, many of us have these internal struggles. Malek obviously has many, and much darker struggles, but he’s learned over the years that the safest option for him often to keep his head on straight and avoid making mistakes. Struggling in silence is, as I said, unfortunately a survival mechanism while folks depend on you.
Military structure and culture feel very grounded. Did you draw from specific historical or contemporary influences when building the Alliance?
I did, I drew from some modern examples as SotC is very near-future feeling. I learned a lot of friends who served, as well as my own research in how to establish structure and common themes for language.
Can you give us a glimpse inside Book 2 of the Eiden Ascendant series? Where will it take readers?
Without revealing spoilers, Malek and Nikita face new challenges as the consequences of their actions bear down on them. Readers will experience tension, desperation, and grief, while also celebrating new alliances and an epic, jaw-dropping climax. Many of the unanswered questions from Book 1 are resolved, even as new ones emerge, setting the stage for the final installment and a satisfying conclusion to the series.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website
Commander Malek Reza leads an elite strike team across the reaches of their world in search of ancient shards—fragments of a long-lost device with the power to create or annihilate entire civilizations. Tasked with retrieving them before a ruthless enemy does, Malek knows the mission is more than a tactical operation. It’s a race against extinction.
But Malek harbors a dangerous secret: anomalous abilities that defy physics and explanation. If the truth surfaces, it could cost him everything, including the fragile unity of his crew… And one of them already knows too much.
Nikita didn’t volunteer for war, but she refuses to be silent in the face of it. Determined to keep her expertise from becoming a weapon, she challenges every decision that edges them closer to catastrophe…even if it means putting herself in Malek’s crosshairs. Her relentless questioning forces Malek to confront the true nature of himself and their mission, forcing them to navigate the treacherous path between duty and morality.
As the team closes in on the shards, the line between savior and perpetrator begins to blur, forcing them all to confront a haunting question: on the planet Eiden, where survival is at stake, what justifies the right of any species to endure—and at what cost?
The Shards of the Conduit
The Shards of the Conduit is a military science fantasy novel that knows exactly how it wants to introduce its world: at a sprint, under pressure, with one soldier dropped into a nightmare and forced to improvise his way through it. The book opens with Malek, call sign Specter, heading into a mission gone horribly wrong, and that opening gives the novel its identity right away. It’s tense, tactile, and deeply invested in how fear feels inside the body. One of the smartest things author Sarah Yusuf does is give Malek a simple recurring line, “Don’t lose your head,” and turn it into a window into his trauma, discipline, and survival instinct. That line tells you a lot about the book as a whole. It’s interested in action, sure, but it’s even more interested in the cost of action.
What makes the novel work for me is that it’s not just built on combat set pieces. It’s built on a volatile political and emotional landscape. The mission starts as a hunt for a Fireborne attacker, but it quickly becomes a story about uneasy alliances, inherited hatred, and the dangerous meaning of the shard everyone wants. Malek begins the book with a hard, almost reflexive view of the Elemnai, shaped by military training and old prejudice, and the story keeps pressing on that worldview. The epigraph, “None of us are free, until all of us are free,” feels less like decoration and more like the book quietly telling you where its heart is. Beneath the firefights and covert ops, this is a story about empire, fear, and whether people raised inside a brutal system can learn to see each other clearly.
The book’s center of gravity is Malek, and Yusuf gives him enough rough edges to keep him interesting. He’s capable, sarcastic, stubborn, and often one bad decision away from disaster, which makes him a good anchor for a story that depends on forward motion. His dynamic with Kei is especially strong because it develops under fire rather than in safety. Their banter never feels like it wandered in from a different book. It feels earned by exhaustion, injury, and necessity.
I also liked how confidently the book commits to scale. It gives you the sense of a much larger world without stopping every few pages to lecture about it. The map, the different Elemnai groups, the Alliance structure, the languages, the shifting borders, and the references to past wars all help Eiden feel inhabited rather than assembled. By the time the novel moves toward its later setup, with Malek being pushed into a new command and a new hunt involving the Earthborne and another shard, the story has already earned that expansion. It feels like the natural next step for a series opener, not a trailer for a different book. The shift into a broader mission works because the first part has already established that every shard carries political consequences, not just mystical ones.
The Shards of the Conduit is a sharp, fast-moving series opener with a strong sense of atmosphere and a clear emotional core. It’s a book about soldiers, but also about memory, identity, and the slow cracking open of inherited certainty. Yusuf writes action with urgency, but the book’s staying power comes from the way it ties that action to character and ideology. By the end, it feels less like one mission completed than a world pried open. I came away thinking that this book’s biggest strength is its conviction. It knows the story it wants to tell, and it tells it with heat, momentum, and enough moral tension to make the next installment feel worth following.
Pages: 313 | ASIN : B0G4XTRRKM
Unsolved Mystery
Hypocrisy drops readers right into a wild mix of government secrets, alien power plays, and strange visions that blur the line between what is real and what is imagined. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I have been intrigued by the UAP disclosure activity in Congress and the ongoing mystery and debunking of the entire UFO phenomenon. I felt that would be a terrific background to create conflict and have different points of view to set the story against, since it still remains an unsolved mystery.
When you first sat down to write this story, did you know where you were going, or did the twists come as you were writing?
The characters came first, and I wanted them to be distinct and different, and from that came the outline of the story.
How did you balance the action scenes with the story elements and still keep a fast pace in the story?
I think it was Dean Koontz who said, “Put a character in a terrible situation and keep making it worse,” and that helped serve as a guideline for how things go wrong to maintain the tension and active plot.
Will this novel be the start of a series, or are you working on a different story?
This will be the start of a series. I intentionally set it up so that the characters could have an ongoing life full of adventure, chaos, and immense conflict. With a little bit of humor and self-reflection thrown in on the side.
Author Links: GoodReads | Ghost Town | Instagram | Facebook | IMDB | X (Twitter) | Amazon
In the world’s most remote outpost—Antarctica—a covert excavation unearths something ancient, intelligent, and alive. CIA asset Charisma, her teenage protégée Leticia, and enigmatic xenoanthropologist Alen Innocent are drawn into a web of deception that spans governments, galaxies, and the very fabric of human consciousness. As shadow factions fight for control of the mysterious Veil of Hypocrisy, the boundaries between truth and illusion collapse.
From Milan’s glittering runways to military tunnels buried under polar ice, Hypocrisy blends science fiction, espionage, and moral satire in a gripping tale of identity, power, and survival. As alien technology exposes the lies that bind humanity, Charisma and Alen must decide whether saving the world means revealing its greatest hypocrisy—or becoming part of it.
Science-fiction fans will be drawn to this mind-bending, character-driven thriller where the ultimate battle is not between species, but between truth and self-deception.
The Solar Current Is Nuptially Tuned
Thomas M. Miovas, Jr.’s The Solar Current Is Nuptially Tuned is a lively, old-school science fiction adventure filled with invention, romance, and a touch of satire. The story follows Spencer Harling, a fiery engineer exiled from Lunar Industries who discovers that the so-called “alien ship” that crashes on the Moon is not an alien vessel at all; it’s piloted by his lost love, Adrian Lunar, the daughter of his former employer. What starts as a mysterious space exploration tale becomes a heartfelt reunion between two brilliant minds who combine science, love, and courage to outwit bureaucracy and rediscover their shared purpose. It’s an inventive mix of hard science fiction and playful romance, framed within the optimism of human ingenuity.
Reading this book, I felt like I’d stepped into a retro sci-fi movie from the golden age of the genre. The writing has that earnest energy, long paragraphs that brim with ideas, characters who speak in grand tones, and technology that’s both ambitious and oddly personal. Spencer is a classic idealist, the kind of scientist who believes knowledge and reason can solve anything, and I found that sincerity refreshing. Miovas has a knack for building tension in quiet moments, especially when Spencer debates the nature of communication and consciousness. The reunion with Adrian felt a little melodramatic, but in a way that fit the tone, like a satisfying reveal in an old pulp serial. The story’s heart lies in its belief that exploration, both scientific and emotional, is what makes life meaningful.
Some exchanges between characters feel a bit formal, which adds a unique charm. It is worth noting that the exposition can sometimes be heavy, but there’s also charm in that thoroughness. I could tell Miovas cares deeply about the science and the philosophy behind his fiction. I liked that the story wrestles with moral ideas, authority versus curiosity, fear versus discovery, and even what it means to be human when faced with the unknown. Beneath the space battles and romance, there’s a clear message about individual thought and integrity.
I’d recommend The Solar Current Is Nuptially Tuned to readers who love classic sci-fi with a philosophical edge, or anyone who appreciates a bit of romance mixed into their cosmic adventure. It’s a thoughtful and imaginative ride through human ideals and relationships. If you enjoy stories where love, reason, and invention all share the same orbit, this one will feel like a rare find.
Pages: 38 | ASIN : B0BRGCQBMR
An Ocean Life
T.R. Cotwell’s An Ocean Life is a character-driven novel chronicling the emotional and physical journey of Mark, a stressed-out tech entrepreneur, as he attempts to unwind with his family during a long-awaited trip to Maui. The story moves fluidly between vivid underwater exploration, tense family dynamics, and quiet introspection. While Mark tries to reconnect with his wife Cecilia and their daughters, old habits and personal ambitions resurface, threatening the fragile balance he’s trying to hold onto. At its heart, the book is about reckoning with aging, love, guilt, memory, and the pull of the ocean.
What I liked most about Cotwell’s writing was its intimacy. The prose is sharp but unpretentious, and there’s a warmth in the way he describes both the mundane and the majestic. The dialogue felt natural and unfiltered. Scenes like the failed dinner reservation or the late-night beach encounter made me cringe and laugh at the same time. I felt for Mark, even when he was being a bit stubborn. Cotwell doesn’t paint his protagonist as a hero, and that’s what makes him believable. The underwater scenes are particularly special. There’s a kind of reverence in the way Cotwell writes about the sea. It’s calm, awe-filled, and precise.
Some sections about startup life or diving gear got a bit long. I appreciated the detail, but occasionally it slowed the momentum. I enjoyed Mark’s inner monologue, and I wished Cecilia’s voice came through more. She’s clearly grappling with a lot. Still, their tension is what kept me hooked. They’re two people still in love, trying to remember how to show it, trying to find each other again in the chaos of family, work, and life.
An Ocean Life is tender and thoughtful. It’s for people who have ever felt torn between what they want and what they’ve promised. I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys quiet stories with emotional depth, especially readers who have weathered a few storms of their own.
Pages: 347 | ASIN : B0D2L2SBBL
An Accusation
Planet of the Rapes follows fighter pilot Major Olivia Freeh into a high-stakes mission where a mysterious alien object challenges humanity’s understanding of the cosmos—and itself. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I’m sure it’s no surprise that Planet of the Apes planted the seed of this story. The 1968 film had a tremendous influence on my formative years, not just watching the movie but its constant presence in popular culture. I wanted to write something to express that influence. “Rapes” was an obvious rhyme for “apes,” but I wasn’t sure that title would lead to a story I wanted to write. Then I thought of the famous, shocking twist at the end of the movie, of Charlton Heston on the beach screaming out his heartbreak and rage. That moment was a condemnation of nuclear arms proliferation, and I realized my story could be a condemnation too. “Planet of the rapes” isn’t titillating or salacious. It’s an accusation.
Even so, I didn’t follow through with the idea at first. The title was too harsh, too ugly. Even for me. Then came the US Presidential Election of 2024. I watched in horror as my country failed to learn from the past and continued to lurch, zombie-like toward becoming the worst version of itself. In the many years since I’d first thought of the title, the real world had moved closer to a “planet of the rapes” instead of further away. I decided harsh and ugly things needed to be said after all.
Major Olivia Freeh is an interesting and well-developed character. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?
First and foremost, Olivia is angry. With her fiery red hair, she is the personification of the anger many of us feel right now. And rightfully so. She is mistreated from the first paragraph. Justified as it is, her anger often gets the better of her. She lashes out in ways that are sometimes amusing, sometimes counterproductive. I had hoped to give her a chance to release some of that anger as the story went on. When she is able to take positive action, rescuing herself and others, it gradually eases her fury. And eventually, Olivia finds someone who needs her, which convinces her to allow herself to need another person in return. She finds peace in that relationship which I think was missing in her life even before this story began.
Olivia is also strong. This is true literally and figuratively. She’s athletic and fit but also has the determination to not give up when obstacles block her path. She would have needed both to succeed in her military career and even more to endure this latest adventure. She isn’t the toxic kind of “strong” either. She sees others suffering and suffers too.
She isn’t perfect, of course. Olivia is someone who takes herself very seriously. She’s a pilot and considers that the best thing a person could be. She values knowledge and intelligence but has little time for topics she isn’t already an expert in.
What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?
Misogyny and toxic masculinity are obviously major themes in the book. I had hoped to draw a straight line connecting Olivia’s mistreatment in contemporary times – being underestimated, devalued, and discarded – with the dystopian nightmare to come.
I also wanted to say that looks can be deceiving. You have to look past appearances to see the truth. Like all women, Olivia is constantly judged based on her appearance. Her strength and skills are underestimated at every turn. But I also wanted to turn that around, and show that sometimes appearances are intentionally deceptive. Olivia is brought to live in a magnificent palace, gaudy and ornate on the outside but rotting and ruined on the inside. She sees that wealth, piety, and social standing are a carefully constructed facade concealing greed, corruption, and hate. Likewise, a bully depends on the appearance of strength to get what they want but cowers in fear when someone finally stands up to them. Ironically, this book itself is something other than it might first appear.
Finally, this is a story about the stubbornness of love. Like a persistent weed, love can spring up where you’d least expect.
How did you approach balancing technical aerospace details with accessible storytelling for readers?
I tried to find the balance by giving out technical details on a need-to-know basis. Getting the full technical specs of the experimental space plane all at once would overwhelm a reader, not to mention it would be boring as hell. Instead, I would dole out technobabble as things came up in the story. The details are more relevant to the reader at that point and more digestible. This also stopped me from including a bunch of technical information that didn’t really have any purpose in the story. I also worked on the assumption that qualitative data would be more well-received than quantitative data. For example, rather than saying something like “8 million pounds of thrust” I said “more thrust than a Saturn V rocket.”
It’s also helpful to have an editor to watch your back on that stuff. Getting other points of view makes a big difference.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
Astronaut Olivia Freeh wants nothing more than to repair her spacecraft and get back home. Before she can, however, Olivia is kidnapped, sold into slavery, and forced to serve the son of a wealthy businessman. Even worse, things here are not as they seem. Long-buried secrets from the planet’s past reveal the ultimate villain is frighteningly close to home.
Can Olivia escape this brutal patriarchy? Or will she do the most unexpected thing of all – fall in love?
If you enjoy erotic romance combined with science fiction adventure, are a mature adult, and believe rapists belong in prison not the White House, this story is for you.
