Featured Finds: Exile by Toni V. Sweeney

I used to be such a fan of Science Fiction in my youth.  But, as you can imagine, me being the Paranormal Romance writer that I am, I found a new love there.  It took Toni V. Sweeney to get my interest piqued to the space and time genre again.  It all started with her The Rose and the Dragon and then it’s sequel, Dragon in Chains.  Love, love those other galaxy men! 

Well, now she’s caught my attention again with Exile, Book 2 of the kan Ingan Archives, and I've asked her to share how they came to be.


So, without further ado, Toni?

The kan Ingan Archives is an off-shoot of another series I wrote called The Chronicles of Riven the Heretic, all revolving around the royal family of the planet Arcanis.  Where the first series is set in Arcanis’ medieval past, the second is in its far-distant future. 

I hadn’t intended to connect the two but some time after the Chronicles were published, I came across this very ancient manuscript I’d written while I was in college.  It was a fairly amateurish tale of a young man’s first journey into space and the alien who becomes his best friend, and greatly influenced by the original Star Trek.  I wrote two books about Miles Sheffield and his friend Aric the alien before abandoning them.  Now, however, I had this brilliant idea (at least, it seemed brilliant at the time)…I decided to revive the two, and connect them to those other stories which were written almost 30 years later.  How to make that connection?  Simple.  Through their history, as written in the Royal Archives. 

The kan Ingans are a shameless bunch, especially when it came to publishing their adventures and scandals, their foibles and mistakes, for the entire planet to see…it was all there, in the kan Ingan Archives, and there, I decided, would also be found the story of a descendant of Riven the Heretic and his Terran friend Miles, what happened to them, and why, and how they changed the course of history on the planet Arcanis.  The first story was Sinner, centering around how Aric kan Ingan became a Non-Person; the second is Exile, and is set 10 years later.  It was just released this month.

Exile
Book 2 
kan Ingan Archives

Blurb

What do you do if you’re guilty of a crime—but not the one for which you’ve been convicted? 

Aric kan Ingan is a Non-Person, an Exile, stripped of title and citizenship for treason against the Arcanian Empire, crimes of which he is innocent.  Caught in the intrigues  of a secret society determined to overthrow his uncle’s rule, Aric is accused and arrested, then compelled to allow the evidence saving him to be destroyed when the rebels threaten to reveal his affair with his uncle’s Terran wife.  Aric has wandered the Emeraunt Galaxy a lonely decade, and now, destitute and addicted to the two most powerful substances in the Galaxy, he enlists as a guard for a Terran mining colony.  Though he doesn’t know it, he’s about to meet the two people who’ll become the most important in his life.

Book Trailer:

Excerpt

With Miles as a roommate, Aric was now learning life was going to be neither easy nor silent.

In an attempt to make up for his previous behavior, the young Terran was now over-friendly, and about to drive Aric to distraction with his continual questions about the Emeraunt in general and Arcanis in particular, and in the process, nearly driving Aric mad.  Often what he wanted to know bordered on the absurd.  Other times, his questions required considerable thought.  Aric found himself falling into an attitude of amiable tolerance surprising himself most of all, though he often wearied of that continual chatter. 

            Gods, the boy’s truly in love with his own voice.

            To withstall any more questions, he grabbed his towel from the bed, turned and disappeared into the bathroom.  For the next fifteen minutes, the only sound heard in the cell was the gurgle of water splashing in the shower stall.

            Miles recharged while he was gone.

            “Don’t you ever cover yourself?” he demanded as Aric walked naked from the bathroom to his bunk, dripping footprints on the carpet.

            “Does it offend your modesty?”  He began to rub a towel over his hair.  He was looking forward to getting a head start on some sleep tonight, hoping the shower would relax some of the tension he’d experienced from being continually on guard against surprise attacks by amorous nurses, a condition keeping him in a nervous sweat.  All he wanted right now was to get some sleep, with no backtalk from Miles.

            “No, but…”  Not wanting to be called a prude, because he could see the word forming on Aric’s lips, Miles went on, “What if someone comes in?”

            “No one can do that without our permission.”

            “Well, what if I let someone in and then you stalk out here like that?”

            “I guess the important thing would be whether our visitor’s male or female.”  Abandoning his hair, Aric propped one foot against the bunk and began to dry it.  A single wet lock fell over one shoulder and impatiently, he pushed it out of the way.

            “When are you going to cut your hair?”  Miles had already decided that the most difficult part of his stay on Pyras was going to be sharing a cell with a seven-foot giant with waist-length hair and an earring.

            “When I’m allowed to go home or decide to break my Vows, whichever comes first. You know that, Miles.” He’d explained at great length about the limitations set forth by his Vows, and how a Priest had counseled him on the contradictions between abstinence from personal comfort, and the benefits he might receive from his employers.  He had been told that to accept the minimum amount of any item, be it food, clothing, or money, would in no way affect his Vows.  Miles remained thoughtful for approximately twenty minutes after Aric finished.

            Now, however, he asked, belligerently,  “Has anyone ever mistaken you for a very tall woman?”

            Hands on hips, Aric turned to face him, nakedly, blatantly male.

            “Forget I asked.”  Miles swallowed and looked away.  The Arcanian sat down on the bunk, swept his hair from under him and, pulling it over his shoulder, began to braid it.  “Look at that.  You can sit on it.  Pretty soon, you’ll have to trim it, at least.”

           “All right, Miles.  You’ve had your quota of questions for today.  Now, I have one."
           “What is it?”
            “As you’ve been so quick to point out, you’ve seen me totally naked.”

            Miles looked startled.  And abruptly apprehensive.  What’s going on in that Terran head? Does he think I’m going to make a come-on to him?

            “So you’ve seen my back, of course,” he went on quickly, before the apprehension changed to near-panic.  “Why haven’t you mentioned it?”

            There was a very long silence.  Miles looked relieved, then turned his attention everywhere except at Aric, taking  a deep breath.  “I-I didn’t want to embarrass you.”

            “Embarrass…me…?”  Did I hear correctly?

            “Elizabeth wrote us when you were injured, and how you probably were going to be disabled.” Miles seemed to be the one who was embarrassed, red patches appearing in each cheek.  “Hell, you didn’t seem the least bit disabled when you hit me.”  He made a dismissing gesture, waving both hands in the air.  “So I decided I wasn’t going to say anything.  You don’t act disabled, so I guess you recovered.  So why dredge up probably very painful memories of when you were?”

            Aric picked up the towel, plucking at the soft nap, not certain what to say to that unexpected bit of delicacy.

            “Aric, what if—”

            “Miles,” Aric’s interruption was heavy with patience.  “Aren’t you going to be late for your…what did you call it…your date?  Didn’t you say you were meeting the young lady at seven o’clock?”

            “Oh. Yeah.”  Miles glanced at his wrist-unit.  “You’re right.”

            He picked up his jacket and started toward the door, thoughts of his meeting with Molly Stuart, whom he’d met on the shuttle and immediately tried to monopolize, replacing everything else in his mind.

            “When will you be back?” Aric dropped the towel across his lap as the sensor swung the door open.

            “Before Lights-Out.  Don’t worry, Mother.”

            “I’m not worried.” Impertinent Terran brat.  “I’m just wondering if I’m going to be waked up by you barging in here in the middle of the night.”

            “I’ll be as quiet as a mouse.  You won’t even hear me.”  With that promise, Miles was through the door and gone.

            Shaking his head, Aric went back to braiding his hair.

You can get your copy of Exile by clicking HERE.

About the author:

Toni V. Sweeney was born sometime between the War Between the States and the Gulf War.  She has lived 30 years in the South, a score in the Middle West, and a decade on the Pacific Coast and now she’s trying for her second 30 on the Great Plains.  Her first novel was published in 1989. An accomplished artist as well as writer, she has a degree in Fine Art and a diploma in Graphic Art and produces videos as well as writing.  Toni maintains a website for herself and her pseudonym Icy Snow Blackstone, and has been associated with the South Coast Writer's Association, the Pink Fuzzy Slipper Writers, several other writer’s loops, myspace, Facebook, and YouTube. She has currently had her 32nd book published.

You can connect with Toni around the web:

Website:  http://www.tonivsweeney.com

MySpace:  www.myspace.com/tvsweeney

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tvsweeney

Twitter:  @tonivsweeney

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Until next time, may your dreams be magical.  

      Charlene

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Charlene A. Wilson is an author of paranormal suspenseful tales that take you to other dimensions. She weaves magic, lasting love, and intrigue into multi-layered story lines to immerse you into the lives of her characters.

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