Virtual Book Tour + #Giveaway: Inanna Phantom by Hawk MacKinney @HawkMacKinney @GoddessFish

Inanna Phantom

by Hawk MacKinney

GENRE: Science Fiction

BLURB:

The threat of rift invasions seem long passed. Plentiful harvests abound. The Murian first-contact Terato Outpost has grown into the sprawling Terato-Murian Terminus Terato with a hub of relay portals reaching across the vast uncharted galactic expanses and connecting with its eon-extinct Lantaraan prehistory.

An exploratory Terato-Murian Jupiterr outpost is established on the gas giant seventh planet, and its quantum and gravitational energies are used to power outpost portals for an archeological survey of the fourth planet, Eorthe.

The Lantaraan database aboard Terato’s ancient Downday moon shows that one or more planets of the Solaris planets have apparently been lost. Expanded archeological records on other Lantaraan orbital bodies in the Solaris system show the fourth planet from the star—Eorthe—to be a sterile wasteland. Except it is not. Eorthe’s civilization is not to the level of the Murian Empire, but it is far advanced to those of a pastoral Terato. Terato and Eorthe form the confederated United Terran League under the nominal figurehead leader of League High Judikarr Eklam a’Qoc.

Jupiterr outpost expands into a major League stronghold, Jupiterr Base, when civil unrest erupts in the League, the unexpected return of rift intrusions threatens, and the Murian Emperor Klarvko Celo is assassinated.

As they prepare for confrontations with an unknown ancient enemy, the internal tensions on Myr and Eorthe push Murians and Teratoans to dangerous discords.

Excerpt:

The following morning Eklam had a Terminus skimmer shuttle standing by, as he told David. “I want you to see the mining complexes with the new designs in operation.”

As the skimmer sped away, it was the last time David saw Charlotte alive. It was a last time and a first time for more than either of them could imagine. The marauders struck swift and brutal.

         

Eklam and David returned late as evening daylit paled into eventide twilit. As the skimmer shuttle slowed; eased to stop and powered down to a faint-hum idle, David said, “Very impressive.”

         

Eklam barely heard him, as he stepped out of the skimmer and in that moment sensed something amiss. His premonition was quickly shattered by a child’s brittle scream in the deadly stillness.

Stavris burst from the tumble of boulders up the hill where he'd hidden, “Fæder!”

         

The fear in Stavris’ voice told Eklam something was bad wrong. Eklam’s short summer tunic whipped his thighs, the small replica of the Judikarr’s crux ansata thumping his chest, as he ran toward his terrified son. Stavris slammed into his father’s arms clutching tight as tears streamed down his face. A frantic Eklam held his son close and whispered, “What’s the matter?”

         

With short choked breaths and arms tight around Eklam’s neck, Stavris pointed toward the house, “Blood all over—”

         

Eklam flung a look beyond the outer wall, and flinched at the crumpled wreckage of the scarred servmo and the fused jagged blast scars and gouges of debris along the entryway. More blast scars on the lopsided double doors of the main entrance with one door crumpled askew. Nozzles of the bug-scrim emitters on two side windows were twisted, the curls of smoke backlit in the afternoon sunlit. Marleen hated bugs in the house. She never left the bug-scrim deactivated. He took in the blood-splashed scene so different from what he and David had left earlier that morning.

         

“My god,” a fearful David gasped, as he rushed toward a horror getting worse everywhere they looked.

         

Stavris buried his face in the crook of Eklam’s shoulder and neck, “I don't want to go in there.” He pulled tighter into Eklam. “Aunt Charlotte's got blood all over her. She’s not moving and she won’t answer when I call her name.”

         

Eklam held Stavris tight, trying to reassure him even when he wasn’t sure of anything himself. His eyes fastened toward the sprawling rooms facing the canyons, not wanting to think of what the blood spatters on the front doorways and along the foyer could mean.

         

Eklam met a stunned gaunt unseeing David staggering out of the house and stopping at the crumpled entrance. A gray shroud on David’s face, “They blew Charlotte apart. Pieces are everywhere.” Blood-smeared hands propped against the doorframe, steading himself against what he couldn’t make real. Vessels in his neck throbbed, his heartbeat hammered thumps in his ears. “She doesn't have a face.” As he tried to distance himself from the unspeakable, he wheezed more words from a strangling throat, “I can’t find Jeffry.”

         

Stavris pointed up the hill toward Jeffry stumbling around boulders toward them. “Me’n Jeffry hid in the rocks.”

         

How?” Eklam grasping for any kind of meaning into the unacceptable, “Why in the name of Terato’s two suns would anyone do something like this?” His fear choked at him, “Marleen?” Afraid to ask, “The boys?” Not wanting Stavris to see more of the slaughter, Eklam said, “Stay here with Uncle David.”

         

Eklam ran across the slab-stone patio and around the fountain with its pink-tinged splashes. He called out, “Marleen? Ek? Korve?” A harsh crack deepened his voice as he called each name again and again and got no response. When he got to an inside doorway, he stopped. The grisly scene of bloody smeared clots splotched across the walls, ceilings and floors hit him full force. Sprawled in front of him was what was left of Charlotte Martin. Beyond Charlotte were three barely recognizable bodies of the house staff. He searched the rooms and the verandas. There was no sign of Marleen or his other two boys.

Book Video:

Interview with Hawk MacKinney

As a writer, what would you choose as your mascot/avatar/spirit animal?

spirit animal guide

How many hours a day do you put into your writing?

4-12 hrs with set-piece breaks…or deadlines I’ve promised to meet.

Do you read your book reviews?

YES

If yes, do they affect what you write in the future?

NO – as to what I write. YES - in the way I use the tools of syntax, character traits, national/international regional, i.e. historical dialects/linguistics and how that is reflected in plot. And behaviorial conflicts, settings to shape the tale being spun & most important, how it’s presented to my readers. Never forget your readers/followers.

Do you leave hidden messages in your books that only a few people will find?

Yes – they’re great tricks to proving copyright.

Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in Inanna Phantom?

Planete Terato - extended families of hamlets & villages/early industrial

Terminal Terato; intergalactic waystation of Terran League-Murian Empire

Eklam a’QOC – High Judikarr of Terran League

          Wife - Marleen, 3 sons, extended a’Qoc kith an’ kin

         

Planete Myr – Murian Empire; united clans under constitutional Clan Klarvkon Autocracy

H.I.Majesty Klarvko Celo XXIV – Clan Klarvkon

          Wife - Zakrinaa Etkaa Klarvkaa Celova & son

Grand Duke HERKLO `Uncle Korvo' KORVO – a Kovion, i.e. Clan Korvon, Chief Oligarch to H.I.M.

          Wife - Klarvkaa Zivnaa Korvaa, sister of H.I.Majesty

Eorthe – Federated parliamentary planete republic

Ping Liu-CHIU – Eorthe Prime Minister

Erwin HUGHES – Gen, A.O.I=Aerospace Office of Intelligence

Planete Jupiterr - Jupiterr Base, Joint League-Murian exploratory base

David Calder MARTIN – Canadian, O.I.Charge Terran League Space Command

          Wife – Charlotte Marie, son Jeffry & Canadian grandparents

Tarquinthia

Blfrrkūū - Tarquinthene saurian

Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the future?

I am completing the final edit of my next mystery as well as working on my next sci fi.

          Sci-fi - The Cairns of Sainctuarie

Vol I – The Bleikovat Event - published

Vol II – The Missing Planets - published

Vol III – Inanna Phantom - published

Vol IV - [galley edit]

          Mystery thrillers - The Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series

          Bk I – Hidden Chamber of Death - published

          Bk II – Westobou Gold - published

          Bk III – Curse of the Ancients - published

          Bk IV – Dead Gold - published

          Bk V – [galley edit]

          Bk VI – [3^rd edit]

          Bk VII – [rough edit]

          Historical Romance - Moccasin Trace - published

Do you allow yourself a certain number of hours to write or do you write as long as the words come

Depends on what is augering at me…setting, plot, twist-double-twist, character(s), diversions…the tools of spinning the yarn.

Do you have a certain number of words or pages you write per day? 

No, that’s built into the editing/expanding/collapsing-deleting or total rewrites. One MUST be a hardnosed editor of one’s work. Without it a writer is in BIG ego-trouble. Stay grounded – stay honest with the person in the mirror.

What inspires you to write?

People watching

Would you rather:

Read fiction or non-fiction?                    

Being a major history buff – non-fiction

Read series or stand-alone?

Depends on the writer’s ability to weave standalone titles that knit together a series.

Read Science fiction or horror?             

That can be the same genre.

Read Stephen King or Dean Koontz              

Isaac Asimov

Read the book or watch the movie?               

Book

Read an ebook or paperback?                        

Paperback

Be trapped alone for one month in a library with no computer or a room with a computer and Wi-Fi only?

Library

Do a cross-country bookstore tour or blog tour online?

Bookstore - when time/commitments permit

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Hawk has authored several works of fiction including a historical romance Moccasin Trace which was nominated for both the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award. His Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series and his Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series have received national and international attention.

With postgraduate degrees and faculty positions in several medical universities, Hawk MacKinney has taught graduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem. His professional writing includes articles on chordate neuroembryology, and aerospace research on muscle metabolic behavior in multi-orbital environments.

Website ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

Buy Links:

Amazon ~ Barnes&Noble

Giveaway:

$20 Amazon or Barnes and Noble GC

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