CONDITION OF WAR preorder is up!

Believe it or not, it’s coming out on June 3. Here’s the blurb:

Accused of destroying a Corps warship, the crew of the starship Galileo must prove sabotage—or face the wrath of what’s left of Central Gov.

When the Central Corps warship Capricorn—silent and unresponsive, light-years from her last reported position—threatens a civilian space station, the former Corps starship Galileo comes to the station’s aid. But Commander Elena Shaw’s attempt to disarm the warship culminates in its destruction, and despite evidence Capricorn was sabotaged, Central is happy to direct public ire at Galileo.

To vindicate their ship, the crew must reconstruct Capricorn’s final journey, seeking proof of what really destroyed her. But Elena finds an alarming pattern in the evidence they uncover. It seems Capricorn’s fate has roots not in sabotage, but in a weapon Central has been keeping secret—a weapon Elena has encountered before. A weapon whose origins may not be entirely human.

Turns out Galileo has a stowaway, hiding in plain sight. And that stowaway might link Elena to Capricorn’s destruction after all.

It’s been seven and a half years since Breach of Containment was released. For my characters, it’s been six weeks.

I started writing this book in the fall of 2016, but an awful lot has interrupted my progress. It’s not even just The World[tm], although that’s a big piece of it, for me and everybody else.

I’ve been through two agents. I’ve self-publisehd an anthology and a standalone novel. I’ve learned more about marketing than I thought I’d need to know, and I’ve actually enjoyed it, which is extremely weird.

Covid turned up and turned everybody’s lives upside down.

I’ve had a whole lot of family Stuff. Both my parents were diagnosed with dementia. We moved them out of their home, cleared the place our, and sold it. (Right before covid hit. One small bit of luck.) My father died. My mother doesn’t know who I am anymore.

The Kid has gone off to college. We have acquired a third cat (my mother’s). When The Kid is home for breaks, she brings her own cat, so even when she’s here we’re all outnumbered by felines.

This country has broken my heart, and that will never go away.

I gotta say, I’m tired of having my heart broken. Heartbreak is for kids; it should involve a few nights of ice cream and too much wine, and then fade away into sad nostalgia. It shouldn’t remove enormous chunks of our hopes and dreams and leave a bleeding, cavernous wound. But here we are.

I have read this book so many times now I have absolutely no sense of it anymore. It takes my people further along on their journey. Everybody grows and changes, which isn’t a big shock. I’m not the writer I was when Elena, Greg, and Jessica first started this journey.

I’m just as idealistic, though. I expect that shows.

Anyway. The link above is to Amazon US. For now, it’s available at all Amazon geographies, and at barnesandnoble.com. Getting the others up is a touch more complicated, but that should happen over the next couple of weeks. I’ll update links as they become available.

The prologue is up on my author site, if anybody wants to give it a shot. CW for violence, death, and lots of cussing, so I guess I haven’t changed that much.