A Night on Isvalar

 

A Night on Isvalar, a 26,200 word novella, is now available as an Amazon ebook for $.99 and on Kindle Unlimited where it can be read for free. The story began its life as the first story in my “The Starfaring Life” serial in Amazon’s Vella service. After 30 days Amazon allows complete stories on Vella to be published as books, and I am taking them up on that.

This will be an Amazon exclusive story for now. I’ve been tempted to release one of my books as an Amazon exclusive to see what, if any, traction it might generate in the Kindle Unlimited program, but I never could bring myself to do that. This story, however, being more or less an Amazon exclusive already, makes it an easy choice for that experiment. I keep my expectations low, so I am not easily disappointed, so this, like the Vella experiment is mostly an exercise in free promotion for my other books. The Vella program, to date, has produced nothing for me in the way of anything, so the bar is low. And, just so you know, its $.99 price is about half of what anyone would pay to read the same story on Vella as a serial, as those readers pay a penny per 100 words rounded down, so they would end up paying nearly $2.00.

Here is the blurb for A Night on Isvalar:

It was supposed to be a quiet night. It was anything but.

Riel Dunbar grew up and sailed out of the little moon of Isvalar, the interstellar port of Aeroday, for many years. But the restless life of a starfarer took him away for decades. Chance had now brought him home with a promised long leave ashore. But it was not to be. He found that he had only a few hours to spend on Isvalar.

His plan was simple. He’d dine at an old haunt of his youth, and then, after a brief nap, he’d visit the starfarer dives of Isvalar for real spree before sailing. But Riel hadn’t counted on crossing orbits with Cera Marm, the power mate of a rival ship. Somehow he found himself entangled in her plans – plans that included not paying a gambling debt to a very persistent bookie and his hired thugs. Riel’s night on Isvalar turned into a hectic chase and escape across the little moon, with encounters with neuro-blade wielding thugs, a snake obsessed shadow-rat gang, an auton, and the bookie himself. It didn’t end well.

A Night on Isvalar is a 26,200 word novella. A version of this story first appeared in Vella under the title of The Starfaring Life & A Night On Isvalar.

C. Litka writes old fashioned stories with modern sensibilities, humor, and romance. He spins tales of adventure, mystery, and travel set in richly imagined worlds, with casts of colorful, fully realized characters. If you seek an escape from your everyday life, you will find no better company, nor more wonderful worlds to travel and explore, than in the stories of C. Litka.