My first speculative fiction novel, Immersion, has launched on bookgrabbr.com and goodreads.com with giveaways. You can read a preview and leave a review on both websites. It is also available on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, and the ArchwayPublishing.com. bookstore.

I am including an excerpt below for your enticement.

The sun is already setting on Xylanthia, a small planet teetering on the outer edges of a blue dwarf star in the Canis Major constellation. This is my favorite time of the day: before the open-air market shuts down but after most of the small business owners count their profits and stow their wares in anticipation of the next day. Customers linger behind, carrying on casual conversations with the various vendors who sell goods and services from across the galaxy. Most are homesick and grateful to satisfy their yearnings for companionship with a familiar life-form. Others are eager to share their unique rituals of culture and comradery with someone not so like themselves. What I enjoy watching most from my panoramic view are the transplants from other worlds communicating in manners I know I will never comprehend. I’m intrigued by it all. I watch as the sky slowly becomes riddled with stars, some boasting a brilliant pageantry of multicolored gases creating an interstellar dance unlike any I’ve seen anywhere in the reaches of the universe. Xylanthia, nestled in the outer regions of the Milky Way, has been home for most of my life, and the castle compound in which I live, work, and play is filled with memories I share with the natives, transients, and merchants who live and vacation within the compound walls. The compound and the vacation resort on the opposite side of our small planet are family retreats for those who are weary and need a familiar place to relax and regroup. Most of my grandfather’s progeny have spent time there at some point in their lives. This is also the place where we come to get educated and indoctrinated into the familial responsibilities as patrons of the realm—the realm where order and chaos are locked in a delicate balancing act that continues to maintain and perpetuate the universe as we know it.I lived on the family estate with my grandfather. After he passed on, over a year ago, I had little contact with other family members. The last time I saw my father was about five years earlier, when he came to help me squelch an uprising created by some organisms that commandeered a ride with an unsuspecting interstellar traveler. They were nasty little virus-like globular vermin that plundered their way from one planet to the next, each time in search of life on which they could feed.From the moment my father took his leave, I’ve submerged myself in my quest to learn more about the universe and beyond. I read everything I can get my hands on and venture into realms that, until recently, remained uncharted, all the while garnering more armed forces and allies from across the universe. In return I offer my patronage and protection from adversaries to inhabitants who pledge their allegiance and resources toward maintaining the balance between order and chaos.I use the family estate as my base of operation, because the castle guard serves me well in repelling unintended threats from invaders who follow me home from worlds far beyond my own. For the moment, my interstellar calculations are focused on the transportation of my sister, Ayizan, from her home planet, Earth, to somewhere that can serve as a temporary holding facility.I know the help have retired for the night, so I won’t be disturbed. I can take advantage of this quiet time before turning in. But first I’ll need to retrieve my tarot cards. I’ll take one last glimpse at the image representing the young woman I’ve been watching for almost a year. Because I trust no one, the deck remains under lock and key until I need it. I can’t risk losing the cards, because there are very few decks like them in the universe. And because their creator is unknown, they can’t be replaced. As I proceed down a long, dimly lit hallway that leads to the formal dining facility—the one used for diplomatic affairs and family celebrations, and often serves as my office—I ponder Ayizan’s fate.