The Meaning Wars Omnibus: A Queer Space Opera The Meaning Wars Book Six by Michelle Browne - Science Fiction, Space Opera - Two best friends search the galaxy for love – while an oppressive human government hunts for them.
Welcome to JB’s Bookworms with Brandy Mulder
Tell us about your newest book.
A Jade’s Trick is Book 5 of the Meaning Wars series, and I’m
releasing the omnibus edition simultaneously with the last book – so that
readers have a thrifty option for getting the whole series at once! The Meaning
Wars follow two best friends as they deal with life and love under the
tyrannical reign of the authoritarian Human Conglomerate. Sarah – a behavioural
criminal – and Crystal, a wormhole engineer, have everything stacked against
them. But with a few friends, they’re fighting to matter, make a change, and
make a difference.
Tell us a little bit about your writing career.
I’ve been writing since my teen years on and off, and my
primary employment is as a freelance editor. I’ve been doing that for about a
decade, and I love it. However, after a few years of hiatus due to mental
health and other disasters, I’ve been itching to get back to business. I’m so
happy to be writing again.
They say Hind-sight is 20/20. If you could give advice to
the writer you were the first time you sat down to write, what would it be?
Don’t worry about writing the prettiest, most literary
sentences. Just write the words, make room for them to possibly be bad, and
keep going. Quantity is the road to quality. Also, don’t be scared of edits or
revisions. Revisions are your friend! Also, choose your writing friends and
colleagues carefully – there will be times when they give you great advice, and
times when you have to follow your instincts.
Is there a release date planned?
Sure is! November 10th is the date when the
omnibus (and the fifth book) drop. You can buy it now!
What are you working on now?
The sequel, which is long overdue, to a different post-apoc
project. It’s called Monsters and Fools, and it’s the sequel to The
Underlighters, in the Nightmare Cycle. Following Janelle Cohen’s marriage
to Una and Nathu, she finds herself at the heart of political intrigues – and
desperately unprepared for it. Janelle will be torn between her allegiance to
Underlighter City and her bonds with the new, strange Sandmen – as well as
other members of the city’s most oppressed, rejected strata. It’s going to get
dark and complicated.
What are your plans for future projects?
I’m really looking forward to finishing up The Nightmare
Cycle and returning to the world of the Memory
Bearers. I’ve really realized that cozy, found-family stories featuring
queer characters navigating difficult political situations are my Thing, and
exploring that in a variety of different ways is very exciting. I’m also
planning on some urban fantasy work in the near future, and at some point, I’d
like to get another short story collection out. Watch my space, because I plan
to stay busy!
Good luck with your newest release, and thank you for being with us today.
Excerpt:
“Good job back there,” said Sarah in a whisper. “I thought you were gonna crack, to be honest.”
“Me too. But I kept thinking, ‘What would Sarah do?’ and I just tried to look bored,” Toby whispered back. He shot her a smile that started a bit wan, but gradually brightened. “Hey, we did it. And now we’re going to rescue someone.”
“Speaking of,” said Paulo, stumping over, “I finally got this shit figured out. Goddamn map was in really poor resolution and didn’t account for this fucking river valley having a flooded area. They sent me archived shit. I just figured out the discrepancies.” He sighed. “Sorry for snapping at both of you. I’m just worried and stressed.”
Sarah inhaled and let out a long breath. “You and me both. It’s not like I’m rescuing someone who’s basically my hero or anything, while caked in mud and preparing to flee for our lives—oh wait, yes I am. This is a nightmare.”
Toby bumped her shoulder and wiggled his feet in his boots, sluicing the mud off. “At least you’re not having this nightmare alone.”
Paulo pointed. “C’mon. Over there. Who knows how long we have before there are guards or a collection force? Those fake identities won’t hold forever.”
A cold pit formed in Sarah’s stomach. What if this was an elaborate trap? She’d seen that letter, sure, but did they know for certain that Patience was still alive? What if the guards had found her already?
“We’re in disguise,” Toby ventured, a tremor in his voice. “Um. Just so you know. That’s why we look like guards. But we’re not.”
There was a rustling. Didn’t sound like anything bigger than a rabbit—if those had even been introduced here.
The two guards circled them both, the person with sideburns keeping their gun trained right at Sarah and Toby’s faces.
“Wait. There’s supposed to be a woman here that Patience talked to,” said the one on the right.
Silently, a third person crept out of a hidey-hole Sarah hadn’t even noticed. Moss and a snarl of brush against the arch of a tree root parted and revealed a rather small woman with dark skin and large, anxious eyes, and a larger gun.
And then, abruptly, Sarah was face-to-face with her—Patience Ngouabi.
For many reasons, she was one of the most beautiful women Sarah had ever met, known, or heard of. Her skin was perhaps duller and less perfectly even in tone than it looked in interviews, but was still the glorious brown of fresh clay, with a hint of rust.
Still, she had the angelic features Sarah had seen in so many interviews: that heart-shaped face, broad, gentle nose, soft cheekbones, and full, plush lips. Her wide, dark eyes searched Sarah’s face in momentary confusion.
She had really been hoping to meet Patience under different circumstances—not while going by a dead woman’s name. If she took Patience’s hand, she thought, Patience would be touching the skin of a dead woman, not Sarah’s.
“I’m Sarah Jean White,” she said, just managing to hold her voice steady, trying to pretend she wasn’t starstruck.
“I’m afraid we’ll have to do the formal introduction later. There are soldiers on the way!” said Patience, without much of her name.
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