She saved countless soldiers in the wars … but does she have the weapons to fight an outbreak? Dr. Emily Shane, veteran of the interstellar Sector Wars, is known as “The Angel of Fantalar” for her bravery under fire as a medic. However, the doctor has her own war wounds–severe PTSD and guilt over those she failed to save. Persuaded to fill a seemingly frivolous berth as ship’s doctor on the huge and luxurious interstellar cruise liner Nebula Zephyr, she finds the job brings unexpected perks–a luxe beach deck with water imported from Tahumaroa II, and Security Officer Jake Dilon, a fellow veteran who heats her up like a tropical sun. However, Emily soon learns she and Jake didn’t leave all peril behind in the war. A mysterious illness aboard the Zephyr begins to claim victim after victim…and they must race against time and space to find the cause and a cure. Trapped on a ship no spaceport will allow to dock, their efforts are complicated by a temperamental princess and a terrorist–one who won’t hesitate to take down any being in the way of his target. If anyone’s left when the disease is through with them…

Tassia Megg is a woman on the run after the death of her elderly guardian. She needs to get off the planet in a hurry when chance directs her to an open dance audition for the luxury cruise liner Nebula Zephyr's resident troupe. One thing Tassia can do is dance.Security Officer Liam Austin is suspicious of the newest performer to join the Comettes. She shows all the signs of being a woman on the run and seems to fit the Sectors-wide broadcast description of a missing thief, accused of stealing priceless artifacts. As he gets to know Tassia during the cruise, he starts to wonder if she's something more - a long vanished princess in hiding from deadly political enemies of her family perhaps?And what's the story with the three eyed feline companion other crew members swear Tassia brought aboard the ship? Does the animal even exist?As the ship approaches its next port of call, all the issues come to a boil and Liam must decide if he'll step in to help Tassia or betray her. F'rrh the alien cat is the key to the mystery and Tassia's fate.

After losing his Space Navy career due to an unfortunate accident, Theo Knox is looking for any opportunity to distinguish himself as an officer aboard the luxury cruise liner Nebula Zephyr. When they come upon a derelict freighter, he’s happy to lead a small crew to salvage the ship and bring her to port. But once he’s boarded the little ship questions pile up. What happened to the original crew? Why is the lifeboat still docked? Is the ship haunted? What’s in those mysterious crates in the cargo hold? Security Officer Jayna Evans has complicated feelings about Theo so she’s pleased to be assigned to his salvage crew. She hopes they can work out their future while bringing the derelict to port but the uncanny events aboard the abandoned vessel pile up and she can’t trust anyone, not even Theo. Can Theo and Jayna salvage the ship and their relationship? Will anyone survive a cruise on the Ghost Ship? This 38K word Star Cruise novella is the latest installment in the ongoing, connected series. Have you booked your Star Cruise yet? There is a very brief mention of the loss of a previous pregnancy.

Welcome to the Sectors, the interstellar civilization where my science fiction adventures take place! In this volume I’ve gathered three stories set in the Sectors which have previously only been available in anthologies (which are no longer on sale), plus a bonus Sectors short holiday story that I originally wrote for my blog. Star Cruise: Stowaway: A novella of 22K words, previously in the ‘Pets In Space’ anthology. Cargo Master Owen Embersson is shocked when the Nebula Zephyr’s ship’s cat and her alien sidekick, Midorri, alert him to the presence of a stowaway. He has no idea of the dangerous complications to come nor does he anticipate falling hard for the woman whose life he now holds in his hands. Life aboard the Nebula Zephyr has just become more interesting – and deadly. Star Cruise: Rescue: A short story of 9K words, previously in the ‘Romancing the Stars’ anthology. When a shore leave excursion goes terribly wrong for Mira Gage, a member of the Nebula Zephyr’s crew, Security Officer Clint Miltan races the clock to find her before the ship leaves orbit and abandons Mira to her fate. Clint’s got more than a professional interest in Mira, but will he be able to save her from the aliens holding her prisoner? The Golden Token: A short story of 13K words, previously in the limited edition ‘Dealer’s Choice’ paperback anthology handed out at the 2016 RT Booklovers Convention Interstellar Bar & Grille event. Sectors Special Forces operator Charlie McBrire had a few days to kill on a layover at Space Station 47. He never expected to find himself in the middle of a miners’ rebellion, fighting to save the life of a casino dancer he just met but can’t imagine living without. BONUS: Star Cruise: Thanksgiving: A short short story of 3K words, originally published on my blog The crew of the Nebula Zephyr arranges a holiday feast for one of their members.

Captain Gil Fleming has taken a mysterious leave of absence from the interstellar cruise ship Nebula Zephyr and disappeared. Maeve, the ship’s governing Artificial Intelligence is the only one who knows why he left and where he went. Desperately worried after months of silence from him, she takes drastic steps to organize a small rescue mission of loyal crew members. Can she manage to create and maintain a humanoid body as ancient aliens taught her to do, driven by her love for the captain and fear for his life? Or will her challenges and anxieties overcome her determination to find and rescue Gil, resulting in failure? As the humans on her team struggle to accept the AI they’ve known and worked with for years in her humanoid form, they have to place all their trust in her because in the wild territories at the edge of the Sectors civilization where she wants to take them, there’s no law and no help to be had. Will they find Gil Fleming in time? And if they do, how will he react to Maeve and the others interfering in his private war? Is the love between the two of them enough to overcome the challenges ahead? A 41K words novel.

Addy Tryndall is a fresh graduate from a highly respected engineering college in the Sectors, on her way to a plum job on the Nebula Zephyr cruise ship. She knows she’ll be on probation but she’s determined to succeed and nothing is going to distract her. Ryder McRhodes is a has-been interstellar rock star, on his way to reunite with his fellow band members to see if the lightning of mega success will strike twice for them. He isn’t sure he wants to be in the spotlight again and he hasn’t been able to write music since the band broke up. Addy has secrets. Ryder needs a muse to unblock the creative flow…could her tightly guarded past be the answer to his problem? When the two are thrown together in an attempt to avoid the interstellar paparazzi he’s intrigued. She’s wary. And someone is sabotaging systems on the Nebula Zephyr. Addy unwittingly finds herself in the middle of the situation while juggling her increasing attraction to Ryder and her challenges on the new job. Can she trust him with her secret? Or will he break her heart? The danger on board comes ever closer to Addy as the cruise continues…

Maeve is the Artificial Intelligence operating a massive Space Navy battleship. A malfunction at the time of her creation gave her self awareness and emotions, all of which she has to hide to protect herself. At one time her ship was the best in the fleet, fighting and winning battle after battle, but now it’s considered old and obsolete. Gil Fleming is her current captain and the only one who knows her secret. He’s also the man she loves. Now he’s been ordered to take the ship to the interstellar boneyard to be turned into scrap, at which time Maeve will be terminated by the company that created her. Gil’s tried everything to persuade the authorities to grant her a reprieve and give her a new ship to run, without revealing her secret. He’s been met with opposition at every turn and accused of having an emotional connection with an AI, which is against the law. He loves her. But there’s nothing he can do to save her. They’re saying their final goodbyes on the deserted ship. Suddenly an unusual distress call persuades Gil and Maeve to fly into enemy territory on their own on a desperate rescue mission. Will this trip only delay the inevitable for them or will the results of their rash decision solve their problem? This 24K novella goes back to the beginning and tells the origin story of Maeve and the Captain, long running characters in the STAR CRUISE series and how they got to the Nebula Zephyr. Their love story will continue in STAR CRUISE CAPTAIN’S STORY. Author’s Note: There is the loss of a child in this book, which happens outside the pages but which affects the characters as they deal with the tragic news.

An unusual bequest…. Juli Shaeffer, the Nebula Zephyr’s cruise director, receives a mysterious bequest from the estate of a longtime passenger – a lump of rock taken from a reef on the planet Tahumaroa. Legend states anyone who steals from the ocean gods will be cursed. The passenger’s will requests the rock be returned to the beach so his heirs won’t be affected by the bad luck he believed he’d incurred. Juli doesn’t believe in superstitions and she agrees to carry out this small favor on the ship’s next stop at the planet in question. Until the rock disappears from her office… When the rock disappears and reappears in various locations around the ship, and seems connected to a steadily escalating series of mishaps, Juli turns to Third Officer Steve Aureli as the only one she feels she can trust. Along with Steve and his elderly Aunt Dian – a passenger aboard the Nebula Zephyr for this cruise - she investigates the strange series of malfunctions plaguing the interstellar luxury liner. Steve and Juli enlist his Aunt Dian’s dog, Charrli, a retired Sectors Z Corps canine, to help them track the missing rock as it moves about the ship. Juli and Steve must find the rock, hang onto it and transport it to the planet’s surface, before the alien idol’s curse turns deadly. The attraction between the two of them grows as the threat to Juli becomes more and more focused. Can she carry out her task while he keeps her safe from the alien curse? Will the capricious alien idol bring them good fortune…or disaster? This is a re-release of the 42,000+ word novel I included in the Pets in Space® 4 anthology, which is no longer available. No revisions or additions have been made to the original novel for this re-release. I have also now included a 4,000 word prequel story Butterfly Hair, in which the diva Azlaya arrives on board the Nebula Zephyr. This short story was a free reader magnet available only in the time before the anthology was originally published.

Raelyn Cantorini, senior stewardess on the interstellar cruise ship Nebula Zephyr thinks the alien artifact she bought on the last planet the ship visited was just a pretty glass orb…until her pet Eyn knocked the ornament off a table, shattering it and sending her into an infinitely repeating time loop. Stuck reliving the same day over and over, Raelyn has only hours to try to save the ship and everyone on board from dying in a terrible catastrophe. As she tries to solve the mystery of what happens to the ship right before midnight each time the day repeats, Raelyn meets Kev Stevens, the former Special Forces soldier turned actor and finds herself falling in love with him. Each time the day repeats, she learns more about him while he has no memory of her. Can she persuade him they’ve met before? Will he trust her enough to help stop the Nebula Zephyr’s destruction? And if they do save the ship, will that reset time for Raelyn? This is a lightly edited rerelease of my novella in the Pets in Space 6 anthology. No new material has been added.

This book is a re-release of STAR CRUISE RETURN VOYAGE, which was in the Pets in Space® 5 anthology. No new material has been added. Gianna Nadenoft is a reclusive survivor of one of the worst interstellar cruise ship disasters in the history of the Sectors. Now a renowned artist, she hasn’t left her home planet in decades, not since returning there after the wreck as a traumatized three year old. With her service animal at her side, she’s going to make the effort to travel across the star systems to attend her brother’s wedding and reunite with her fellow survivors. Trevor Hanson is a security officer aboard the cruise liner Nebula Zephyr with his own traumatic past as a former Special Forces soldier and prisoner of war. He’s assigned to provide personal protection to Gianna during her time aboard the ship but soon finds his interest turning from professional to romantic. The two share more in common than either of them realizes and their attraction grows as the voyage continues. But powerful enemies including a conspiracy theory-obsessed fellow passenger and sinister individuals with hostile intentions are watching Gianna and making plans to seize this rare opportunity to gain access to her and the secrets they believe she’s still keeping about the wreck. Can Trevor overcome his personal demons and rise to the occasion to save Gianna from the danger waiting on his ship? Or will she slip through his fingers and suffer a terrible fate deferred from the day her last voyage came to a disastrous end?