Bethany Anne draped a few oversize throw blankets over her arms and went to lean against the kitchen doorway while she waited for Michael to finish plating two thick slices of chocolate fudge cake. “How was Devon?” she asked. “Did you get what you needed from Dad?”
Michael grabbed two forks from the drawer and picked up the plates. “It was interesting,” he told her as he followed her down the hallway. “Your father sends his love and promises to try and sneak a visit on one of the consignments. It is the children who are having the interesting time. I visited them in their new premises. Sabine as had her talk with Akio, and now has gone on a date with Tim Kinley, of all people.”
Bethany Anne snickered. “Could be worse—she could have taken a shine to Rickie. Can you imagine being his father-in-law?”
“I’d rather replace Prometheus on the rock,” Michael assured her flatly. “But as a whole, they’re doing well. They have plans to get into the entertainment industry, and it appears they’re having success with that.”
“That’s good to hear.” Bethany Anne held the door while Michael carried their dessert to the wraparound porch she'd had added to the copy of their family home. “I almost wish there was a point to adding a porch onto the real building.”
Michael rolled his eyes. “We have more important uses for resources right now.”
“Which is why I haven’t had it built.” She grinned. “There’s nothing that says alterations to this place are out of the question, though.”
Michael groaned. “There’s just no stopping you, is there?” He placed their desserts on the side table before going back inside to get their drinks.
“Not even on the day Hell freezes over.” Bethany Anne took her side of the loveseat and checked the scenario menu. She had Alexis and Gabriel's activity bios pinned to the background.
Parental controls were awesome.
The twins were asleep, as they should be after an action-packed day with her and Michael. Bethany Anne hadn’t noticed any physical changes in them yet, and she wondered how she would feel in a couple of weeks’ time when the months inside the game began to fly by and it became obvious they were getting older.
She hesitated over the icon for Tabitha for a second. Bethany Anne had no clue which scenario Tabitha and Peter were running, but they were together. If anything happened with Tabitha, she would know immediately.
Michael returned carrying an ice bucket. “We should enjoy this moment before chaos ensues again.”
Bethany Anne hid her disappointment and smiled at her husband. “No glasses?”
Michael smirked and put the bucket on the floor by the table. “We won’t need any.”
“You’re my hero.” Bethany Anne reached into the bucket and picked up one of the two bottles nestled in the ice. “It’s like you read my mind or something.”
Michael kissed the top of her head on his way to his seat. “I aim to please, my love. Now, what are we going to do about this war?”
Bethany Anne looked at the label before removing the cork and handing it to Michael. “This war and the one after,” she amended. “I’m not walking into this blindfolded. I learned the hard way with the Leath. It dragged on for a hundred years because I played the reactionary instead of using my brain to beat them.”
Michael pressed his lips together in understanding. “You were young and angry. Nothing you had experienced before could prepare you for the magnitude of that war.”
“Not this time. I’m going to make this short and sweet.” Bethany Anne removed the lid from the Coke Michael had snuck into the ice bucket and wiped the condensation off on her jeans. “We’re getting close, Michael. I can feel it. After all this time, I’m finally going to make it so Earth is safe.”
“It does appear that we are getting nearer to clearing out the Kurtherian infestation. There is definitely a link between the Ooken and the Kurtherians. It’s a shame we burned everything on the last planet.”
Bethany Anne raised an eyebrow. “Okay, next time I have a few thousand sets of nasty-ass poisonous tentacles coming at me I’ll just allow them to get on with it. Would that be easier on your conscience?”
Michael chuckled. “You know I meant from an information standpoint. I advocate that we wipe them out completely with no apology. They are too dangerous to the innocent to be allowed to live. But we should do that after we’ve gotten everything they know about Kurtherians out of them.”
Bethany Anne covered his hand with hers. “You’re right. Leaving them just gives them a chance to rebuild and cause more misery, so we fight the Ooken on one front while preparing on another to act on the leads we find.”
“You never make it easy on yourself, my love.” Michael raised his bottle. “But it’s good to see you fired up again. Here’s to moving forward.”
Bethany Anne lifted her bottle and touched it to Michael’s. “That is something I can drink to.”
FINIS
ARRIVING (much) SOONER, TKE04
ALL IS FAIR IN BLOOD AND WAR
The Zoo
HE WAS NOT PREPARED.
Born from the fertile imagination of bestselling author Michael Anderle
Fountain of Youth, or Valley of Death?
While eating his supper of microwave popcorn, PhD student-genius Salinger Jacobs is grabbed from his apartment in California, stuck on a C-130 military plane and sent to the Sahara Desert to witness the reality of the ZOO for himself.
With the life expectancy of untrained scientists working inside the ZOO measured in hours, he has a lot to learn.
Fast.
First order of business?
How do you shoot a gun, and just HOW MUCH is that plant worth?
The government needs the best of the best military and scientific minds working out how to pull the secrets from the ZOO, while keeping the deadly fauna and flora in check.
There is one major problem, Salinger doesn't even have a PhD.
If he can stay alive long enough, he might be able to afford something besides packaged microwave popcorn to eat.
THAT IS A BIG IF.
----
Join Salinger Jacobs as he learns about the ZOO, how to stay alive and the opportunities that being a part of the ZOO has brought him.
The future is looking interesting and humorous, except for the death part.
Available at Amazon
Author Notes - Michael Anderle
November 25, 2018
THANK YOU for not only reading this story but these Author Notes as well .
(I think I’ve been good with always opening with “thank you.” If not, I need to edit the other Author Notes!)
RANDOM (sometimes) THOUGHTS?
So, life has been crazy. Good—mostly—crazy, but crazy nonetheless. Three weeks ago, we were just about to hold the second annual 20Booksto50k Indie Writers convention. It is the convention Craig Martelle got off the ground (HUGE shout-out to him, since it has gone worldwide now), and during the event, I was able to meet some of the JIT (Just In Time), Beta Readers and collaborators (second time for a few, first time for a couple of members.)
What you might know, or might not, is LMBPN (my company) engages with people from all over the world. At this event, I was able to meet people who are now friends who came from Canada, the US (of course), Scotland, England and other places (I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten because I suck at face and names… And countries.)
Cooler than me meeting these fine folks was the nice feeling of them meeting each other. There are some friendships which have grown up between people from all over the world because of just one woman.
Bethany Anne*.
Bethany Anne has given a legacy of friendships, love, work, and opportunity to so many people that I just have to give her a HUGE SHOUTOUT to being damned awesome.
When I grow up, I hope I’m like Bethany Anne.
We even had an English couple (Mickey Cocker and her husband) who came to Las Vegas for the Con and met everyone. They then had their wedding vow renewal (
by Elvis no less!) The party that was put on for her by so many people in the group who pitched in with supplies and cleanup and well wishes was one of the highlights of the week itself.
I’d like to shout-out also to Nat Roberts, who I couldn’t do this book without. She has helped take a huge load of the story, and we hope you understand that sometimes life throws a curveball and it took us both a while to get this book finished.
Right now, we have ten percent of TKE04 written (and about twenty percent of that reviewed). I hope to have the next Bethany Anne book in your reading hands by the end of December 2018…
Yes, you read that right… December. Like, the month after the day we released TKE03.
I don’t KNOW if we are going to make it. Life throws those damned curve balls, but we are trying.
There are an additional nine books so far scheduled for the Kurtherian Endgame. We shall see what happens at that time for Bethany Anne.
I’m not saying we believe she is done. Nope, already had that discussion with the fans of The Unbelievable Mr. Brownstone and I don’t need a new tsunami of comments from wonderful fans threatening me with all sorts of ugliness for even suggesting BA might end sometime in the future.
She will end when its time.
If we have the ideas—and the stamina—we will continue if you want us to.
HOW TO MARKET FOR BOOKS YOU LOVE
We are able to support our efforts with you reading our books, and we appreciate you doing this!
If you enjoyed this or ANY book by any author, especially Indie-published, we always appreciate if you make the time to review a book, since it lets other readers who might be on the fence to take a chance on it as well.
AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS
One of the interesting (at least to me) aspects of my life is the ability to work from anywhere and at any time. In the future, I hope to re-read my own Author Notes and remember my life as a diary entry.
Back at home, in the Vegas Condo.
I sometimes think about how other authors have these cool names for their writing location. The dungeon, the nest…you get the idea.
I don’t have a cool name for my Las Vegas place. I write all over this town (although typically close to the Veer, so at the Aria restaurants or something near me.)
I could just name it “The Condo” and leave it at that. Those of you who know the Condo is in Vegas would now know… But that seems a little bland?
Condo Nest? No, that sounds like Conde Nast. I’m not into magazines…yet.
The ZOO? Nope.
Although, did you hear The ZOO is Coming? If not, I’ve sucked at my marketing (#probably.)
We have three series all starting right now. The first, The Birth of Heavy Metal (about a merc company which eventually creates and uses body armor, then mech armor) is coming out Monday December 3rd. (Amazon URL is here: My Book )
In all, we will have six or seven ZOO books come out in December.
These are different stories, all around one tough sonofabitch area in the Sahara that is both the darkest of dark places and yet offers the answer to all of mankind’s problems…
Healing and food for everyone.
The problem? The ZOO is where you go to get rich or die trying.
Sometimes, you don’t even get asked if you want to go. You just get snatched by government agents and tossed on a C-130 and sent to the Sahara.
That will teach Salinger Jacobs to be good at what he does… NO Ph.D. FOR YOU!
Salinger starts off as a reluctant hero. Perhaps one with a questionable compass, but we see across his stories that in his heart, he has a compass that points true north. NOTE: Salinger’s stories are by penname MICHAEL TODD, not Michael Anderle. The stories tend to be a little racier than Michael Anderle —just warning you.
FAN PRICING
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Ad Aeternitatem,
Michael Anderle
*And my wife, who will still ask me what I think about her outfits even though I don’t have a stitch of fashion sense to my name. No, really. I like black t-shirts and blue jeans.
Books By Michael Anderle
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Through The Fire and Flame (The Kurtherian Endgame Book 3) Page 29