Legacy (Preview Chapters)

Introduction by Jernard

“Do you know the difference between a hero and a villain, Jernard?” Paronis asked as he took his boot and made a line in the wet sand between us.

Everything seemed real as I glanced around—the scent of saltwater, the waves breaking on the shore just before ebbing near my left foot. I even felt the sand squish between my toes as I took a step toward the line Paronis had made. Looking down, I realized I was barefoot—and that my feet were those of a child.

At that moment, I knew that I was dreaming. Paronis had died almost a thousand years before Rhaynan and I left for Earth. Yet here I was looking up at him in his black Hannarian Guard uniform, and my mind refused to let me wake up. Having no other choice, I decided to play things out.

“A hero has a solid moral line that guides him,” I replied, hesitating for a moment because my voice sounded childlike as well. “He can push himself to that line and get right to the edge of it—but if he crosses it, it will wreck the very core of his identity.”

Paronis forced a smile and nodded like my answer was acceptable but not what he’d wanted me to say. He then took the flat part of his boot and smoothed the line to blend into the rest of the sand.

“A villain doesn’t need to worry about crossing a line he doesn’t have,” he replied then looked at me. “Not unless he creates one by choice…”

He took several steps closer to the ocean and made another line in the sand. The waves overtook it within seconds, and he made another one just like it. After he did this several times, I sighed and walked up to next to him.

“So what happened to you?” I asked, the resurfacing feelings of guilt and anguish making me forget none of this was even real. “Was the wave that hit you too big, or did you just get tired of drawing that line over and over again?”

“It was both, kid,” he replied, and he turned away from me and looked out at the horizon. “I took for granted that because I was doing a lot of good that I didn’t have to maintain that line anymore. The earthquake was bad timing, but my choices were still—”

At that moment, he groaned in pain and clutched his chest, collapsing face-first into the ocean. I rushed over to help him out of the water but stepped back as his body started to convulse and mutate.

“This isn’t real,” I said to myself, but my defense system wasn’t convinced as I felt a surge of energy hit my body. “Paronis is dead, and I’m on Earth. I have to wake up.”

“You stopped me,” Paronis growled as he rose up out of the water, now towering over me at almost nine feet tall. “The question now is can you stop yourself?”

The monster leaned over to where we were face-to-face, water dripping off its gold reptilian skin. Its exhale blew my hair backwards, and my heart pounded as I saw my adult reflection in its shiny black eyes. Its eyelids narrowed into a glare, and my own eyes glowed blue in terror. My friend was gone—replaced by this evil creature that had killed at over a thousand of our people before we stopped it.

“I’m not you!” I shouted at the monster’s face, furious at my own subconscious. “You hear me? I’m never going to be like you!”

The monster rose up, and for a moment it just looked down at me without making a sound. Then it smirked, and I realized it wasn’t Paronis inside it anymore.

The monster was me.

Introduction by Detective Matthew Verin

I’ve dealt with monsters before in my position, but they were always of the human variety. Last month I met something that wasn’t human. It acted like one, and under other circumstances he probably would’ve fooled me just like he did everyone else.

I’ve tried to track him for the past few weeks, but he’s learned how to cover his tracks now and destroyed all the previous evidence I had of his existence. This thing is intelligent—clever—and I still have no idea what it really is or what it wants. All I know is that I have to try to stop it before it kills again, but if you’re reading this, it means I failed.

I hope one day you’ll forgive me and understand. I love you, Ashley, and I’m sorry my obsession over this has hurt you and the boys so much. That was never my intention.

Tyler and Will—I’m so proud of both of you, and I love you. Take care of your mother, and be careful who you trust. I don’t want to scare you, but it’s possible this thing may come back to Washington. After everything that’s happened, I’m sorry I’m not going to leave you both a better legacy than what’s going to seem like the rants of an insane man.

If you are someone who has the ability to do something about this, here is what I’ve learned that may help:

1) You are looking for what appears to be a white human male between the ages of 17-22. He uses the same first names often—Jernard, Jerry, and Simon. His last name always matches someone in the surrounding neighborhood that people know and trust. This gives him credibility as most people just assume they’re related.

2) Although he will act inept and vulnerable at times, he does this for a reason—so you will let your guard down. Don’t trust anything he tells you.

3) Bullets won’t kill him. Running him over with a truck won’t kill him. At this point, I don’t know if—

I have to go. It’s here.

Hand-written letter by Detective Matthew Verin, found in his abandoned car on October 14th, 1999—just under 114 years before the official contact date with the Hannarians. Verin was never found, and no body was ever recovered. The note was later released to the Verin family by the FBI but never made public.

Chapter 1—Jernard
Hannarian Transport Olemdi
October 7th 201 B.C. Earth Time

“You’re crazy—you know that, right?” Paronis said with a grin as he checked my wrist cuffs then shook his head at me. “After this, I think Ashner will do well to get reassigned to guarding the palace restrooms. How did you get past him anyway?”

He sat down in the pilot’s seat to my left and started the transport’s engines. Considering how close they had seemed when I was younger, I was surprised that Paronis wasn’t more upset that I had caused his brother so much torment.

Paronis and Ashner were the only set of identical twins I knew, though Paronis always claimed to be the older brother because he was born first. Their personalities couldn’t have been more different however. I couldn’t stand Ashner, and part of me hoped Paronis had been pulled from border patrol to go back to his old assignment of keeping me out of trouble. At least he hadn’t been a jerk about it, whereas Ashner approached the position like I was a prisoner—not the Ambassador to Aliond’s son.

“Are these necessary?” I asked as I held my hands up and jingled the cuffs, which were strung through the armrest of the co-pilot chair. “It’s not like I can go anywhere once we reach orbit.”

“Let me think about it,” Paronis replied then focused his attention back on the transport controls. “So have you figured out your big mistake yet?”

I looked away from him and out the front window as the ship lifted off from Kydena’s main spaceport. I’d been hiding on the planet for almost six months with no one from Hannaria knowing I was there. I could’ve stayed there indefinitely, but the price of keeping my secret would’ve been too high.

“I wouldn’t call rescuing Rhaynan a mistake,” I replied, having to lean over to take the yellow-tinted contacts I’d been wearing out of my eyes. “We almost died. I even thought I was dead at one point. I didn’t know I could heal until this happened.”

“Then you’re even crazier than I thought—both of you,” Paronis said as he leveled the transport then put it on autopilot so he could turn around to look at me. “Why in the world did the girl go inside in the first place? It’s like you two were made for each other…”

“It honestly didn’t look that dangerous when Rhay went inside—just a small brushfire,” I replied in a defensive tone, trying to ignore my face heating in embarrassment as he gave me a skeptical look. “She was just going to let some animals out to keep them from getting killed. By the time I caught up to help her, the whole place had gone up. I don’t know how it spread so fast, Paronis, but we were just lucky to have found that empty feed tunnel. If it had been full…”

Paronis nodded, and his expression turned more serious. He took his DMR out of his pocket and pressed a button. The cuffs unlocked and fell to the floor. I could already see Hannaria in the distance, and we were going to reach it within thirty minutes. A wave of dread swept over me as I realized just how much trouble I was about to face. Kydenan investigators had already determined the fire had been caused from an electrical short, but I’d lied about so many other things that it wasn’t much of a comfort. Worst of all, I wasn’t going to get a chance to explain myself to Rhaynan—and after what had happened I wondered if she was ever going to want to see me again for the rest of our lives.

“I know you want to be there when she wakes up, but I promised Cryuse I’d bring you back,” Paronis said as he glanced back and forth between me and the controls in front of him. “It’s nothing personal. In fact, Ashner had been bragging so much about replacing me at the palace that I was getting tired of hearing him. He needs to learn not underestimate people—and that includes spoiled brats like you. Out on the border, that kind of arrogance can get you killed. At least you have some excuse for it. I can’t see how Cryuse expects you to turn out right without any adult guidance…”

If it’d been six months earlier, I’d have been offended and made sure word got back to the Emperor and my father on what he’d said. Having a greater degree of responsibility and freedom on Kydena had changed me however, and I hoped it was for the better.

“You’re right,” I replied as I leaned forward in my seat and stared down at the floor. “Except maybe now I’m tired of having an excuse. So was that my big mistake that got me caught—arrogance?”

He didn’t answer at first but had an odd expression on his face like he was trying to fight from laughing.

“Your girlfriend’s mother is Jicah’s aunt. Cryuse has known where you were this entire time.”

I rolled my eyes, now realizing this had nothing to do with the fire like I’d thought. Looking back with this new knowledge, I had been arrogant—and just plain stupid.

Jicah was a few years older than me and second-in-line to the Emperor. My dad had been mentoring him on trade relations since before I was born, which had never bothered me until my mother died from cancer. I was a small child at the time—my family’s youngest son—and Dad had still not sat down with me and talked about it. Since Mom’s death, it almost seemed like he’d been avoiding me on purpose—staying on Aliond to mentor Jicah and only coming to Hannaria about once a month to make sure I still existed.

All of this had hurt so much that I’d been willing to do almost anything to get attention—even stealing Ashner’s transport and taking it to another planet. Though I was thankful Paronis had been sent for me instead of Ashner, I was still disappointed that Dad hadn’t come himself. Even if he’d been furious, it would’ve meant some actual communication.

“So what’s going to happen to me?” I asked. “If Ashner has restroom guard duty, I hate to think what I’m going to be assigned—Ambassador to the Marimoots?”

“Those fur balls are annoying enough to not need any representation from you,” Paronis replied then paused for a moment like he was debating whether to tell me something. “The Emperor does have a project for you. It’s surveying some planet beyond the border that doesn’t even know we’re out here yet. It sounds too dangerous in my opinion, and I’m not sure why they’re in such a rush to send you instead of your father or maybe Covey.”

“The Emperor wants me to leave soon?” I asked, shaking my head. “I can’t—Rhaynan…”

Paronis sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

“You’re talking to the wrong guy, Bardin. I wish I could do something about this, but I can’t. Even at your age, you have more political power that I’ll ever have. You’re what—fortieth-in-line now or something?”

I looked around the ship for a second, now aware because of what Paronis had called me that I was in the middle of reliving a memory—not a dream or nightmare. Bardin was a shortened version of my real name, but I never liked using it on Earth. I turned back around to face Paronis, hoping this particular memory would end soon now that I realized what was coming next.

“I think I was somewhere around ninety-fifth at this point,” I replied, and I noticed he seemed relieved by this. “Don’t worry, I never want to be in charge. Being an ambassador is going to be more than enough to handle…”

I could’ve said anything to him at that point, but my brain wouldn’t have changed his responses or the outcome of the memory. I wondered if there was a reason behind this—like my brain was trying to show me something. I wasn’t even sure what had triggered the memory or where I had been when it happened. My main hope was that it wasn’t in the middle of a busy intersection.

“You’re a smart kid,” Paronis said with a concerned expression on his face. “You just need a lot more training. Cryuse should have been mentoring you along with Jicah this entire time. I don’t know what he’d think of the idea, but if you’re willing to accept my help I have some leave time built up. That could at least stall things long enough for Rhaynan to heal up and for you to go to that planet together—if that’s what you both want.”

I sat in a stunned silence—realizing that despite everything else that happened later, Rhaynan and I wouldn’t have married and gone to Earth together if Paronis had not helped me. If I had gone on the mission alone at fifteen like our previous Emperor had intended, most likely I wouldn’t have survived on Earth for a month. Why had they wanted to send me to Earth that soon? It still didn’t make any sense.

“Thank you,” I managed to say as we started to enter Hannaria’s outer atmosphere and headed toward the palace city. “I don’t understand, though. Why do you even care? I’m not even related to you.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Maybe because I was an arrogant brat once, too,” he replied as he slowed the transport down to prepare for a vertical landing. “Look, I know what you’re going through. Ashner and I lost our father when we were twelve, and our mother had a hard time, too. Cryuse does love you. He’s just a wreck right now and doesn’t realize it. It’s not anything you’ve done or haven’t done. He’s just going to have to deal with all of this—hopefully before he damages his relationship with you beyond repair.”

“How do you know all of this?” I asked in a skeptical tone, trying hard not to lose my composure in front of him. “Did Ashner tell you?”

Paronis hesitated for a moment like I’d caught him on something, but I wasn’t sure what.

“I read Cryuse’s mind when he asked me to bring you back,” he replied, pausing a moment when he saw my expression. “Look, most of the time I leave that ability turned off as a courtesy to people’s privacy. In this case, I made an exception. Ashner just leaves his on all the time, which is why I’m wondering how you still managed to escape and steal this thing.”

I smirked.

“I think I’ve found a loophole in your abilities,” I replied. “I’ll show you when—”

“When what?” Paronis asked, and then his eyes grew wide and began to glow bright green in horror as he turned to where I was looking.

This was like a nightmare—too unreal and terrible to be something that could ever happen. Only it was real, and it had happened. I had to keep telling myself it was all a memory as the entire city began collapsing right in front of us. Ancient skyscrapers were topping over, and cracks were developing in the surface right in the middle of the main road and trailing through the surrounding countryside.

People were running out of the buildings, but there was still nowhere for them to go to escape the debris. Even over the sound of the transport’s engines, I could hear them screaming and calling out for help. We could sense thousands of people already trapped in the rubble below us. Paronis pushed the override button on the transport’s landing system then pulled up using the manual controls just before we reached the ground.

“What is this?” I asked, my heart pounding faster as my defense system kicked in. “Some kind of Liozi attack?”

“No, I think it’s an earthquake,” Paronis replied, but his tone was unsure. “I need you to fly this thing. Just keep circling until it’s over then find a safe place out in the fields to land. Got it?”

Before I could protest, he jumped up from his seat and ran back to the cargo bay. I moved over to the pilot’s seat just as I heard the back door opening. The entire ship depressurized, and I kept my hands on both of the main controls as the ship began to tremble. A few seconds later the door closed back, and the shaking stopped.

When I circled around the first time, I spotted Paronis outside what used to be the palace’s west courtyard entrance. He had leapt out of the transport and landed on his feet without having any device to slow him down—yet another thing I didn’t know he and Ashner could do.

“Can you hear me?” he asked over the communication system, and at the time it had taken me a moment to find the right control I needed to respond.

“Yeah, I can hear you,” I replied. “Are you all right? Is it over?”

“I’m fine,” he said, but his voice was shaking. “Listen—once you’re on the ground I need you to bring me as many medical supplies out of the back as you can carry. There are two large kits underneath the back passenger seats you should get first. I have no idea where the other guards are, but we don’t have a lot of time to get people out.”

“I’m on my way,” I said, then spotted an area just outside the city that looked safe to land. “How do you get this thing switched back to automatic again? I’ve never done a manual landing before—I don’t know how.”

“You don’t want to switch it to auto—” he started, but I had just located and pressed the button as he said it.

The transport’s engines changed positions too fast, and the ship spun around and toppled out of control. I tried to pull up but became disoriented by the streaks of color in front of my vision. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the impact.

When the transport hit the ground, I felt something sharp jab through my stomach. The metal plating around the control section creaked and closed in around me, and a sharp pain shot through every nerve in my body before my defense system could dull it. When I opened my eyes, the only light I could see was coming from behind me. I couldn’t move anything below my waist. I was either pinned, paralyzed, or both.

“Help!” I shouted. “Can anyone hear me? I can’t move!”

My nose crinkled at the smell of fuel, some of which was dripping from a leak right above me. Then the ground began to shake again—an aftershock—and I felt the entire ship drop down about another ten feet. I screamed out in pain from the movement and shivered as my body began to feel colder.

My defense chemical was keeping me alive, but the wound I had wouldn’t heal until whatever was in me was taken out. I had an hour for that to happen—maybe two if I was lucky. What was worse was I now yet another victim to rescue, and Paronis was on his own with no—

“What part of ‘you don’t want to do that’ did you not understand?” an annoyed voice said above me, and I heard metal began to bend above me until Paronis had pealed back the last piece of the transport’s plating. “Are you all right?”

“I can’t move,” I replied then I looked down in shock at the now visible steel beam that had impaled me.

“Great…” Paronis said with sigh, and it was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

Chapter 2— Matthew Verin
Valleywood Apartment Complex
Washington, DC
September 20th, 1999

“Are you sure he’s home?” I asked as I knocked on the door again, louder this time. “I’ll be back later and can try again.”

“Well, that’s his car right there,” the property manager Curtis Zander insisted in a confused tone, nodding at a shiny black Corvette convertible parked behind us with its top down. “Normally he’s right at the door before I can even knock a second time. Maybe he’s—”

“I’ll be right there!” a voice on the other side of the door shouted. “Just give me a minute!”

Closer to two minutes later, the door opened.

“Sorry,” a blond-haired teenage boy said as he held up a pair of headphones. “I had these on, and I didn’t hear you at first. Can I help you with something?”

I glanced at Zander, unsure if this was Simon Woods or his son. This kid could have been eighteen, but it was close. With his hair all over his head and t-shirt inside out, he looked younger than my son Tyler who was a senior in high school.

“Hi, Simon,” Zander said as he gestured at me. “This is Detective Matt Verin. Have you heard about what happened to Duncan Perry?”

Woods nodded. By then I was sure the whole complex knew from all the patrol cars that filled the outer parking lot.

“I just have a few questions to ask you, Mr. Woods,” I added as I held out my hand to him. “It won’t take long.”

“Sure,” he replied, and he shook my hand with a sudden confidence that didn’t match his sloppy appearance. “Would you two like to come inside? The place is a bit of a mess, but I have some coffee started.”

“Thanks, but I need to get back to the office,” Zander replied then looked at me. “Poor Casey has never had to handle something like this, and some of the other tenants are already bombarding her with questions. If you need me for anything else, Detective, just stop by before you go.”

I nodded then followed Woods into the apartment. The living room was stacked up with half-filled cardboard boxes like we’d interrupted him in the middle of packing. I took a seat on the couch, which seemed to be the only flat surface that didn’t have a box on it.

“How do you take your coffee, Detective?” Woods asked as he grabbed two ceramic cups from the counter above the stove before turning around. “We also have soda and orange juice if you want.”

“Coffee’s fine—black,” I replied, now noticing from his ring and a wedding photo on the end table next to me that he was married. “I won’t keep you long. I’m not holding you up from going to work or anything, am I?”

“No, I’ve been working nights for the past several months,” he said as he set both coffee cups on the table in front of me then removed a box from the living room chair so he could sit down. “I don’t know if Curtis told you or not, but I’m a drummer—freelance at the moment, but I just got an offer in Nashville that looks promising. My wife and I are ready for a change anyway. Curtis is a nice guy, but for obvious reasons we don’t want to stay here anymore. I was going to talk to him later today, but with the whole murder thing last night I didn’t want to bother him.”

“Were you or your wife home last night around eleven?” I asked, anticipating part of his answer due to the fact it had rained for most of the night. “I did notice the top was down on your car, but we’re trying to follow up on any leads that we can at this point. Vanessa and Whitney Perry are missing, and given the circumstances of Duncan’s death I don’t believe we have a lot of time to find them.”

He frowned at this and started to say something, but then he hesitated.

“I’m sorry, but we’re not going to be of much help,” he replied then took a sip of his coffee before continuing. “Rhaynan left for Nashville yesterday to start searching for us another apartment, and I was playing at this little hole-in-the-wall bar called The Oasis in front of about forty sloshed patrons and one sober bartender. I didn’t get home until three this morning.”

Everything about his story seemed to fit, which made it difficult to reconcile that he’d been seen threatening a man twice his size and age. I stood up from the couch.

“There’s just one last thing I need to ask you about,” I said as I took out a card out of my jacket. “One of your neighbors said they saw you and Duncan exchange some words last Tuesday. You’re not being considered as a suspect, but I do need to know what happened.”

For the first time, I saw a brief emotional reaction on his face—a flash of anger—but he recovered as he took my card and stared at it at a moment.

“He wasn’t a good man, Detective,” he replied as he looked up at me with an intensity in his eyes. “I didn’t kill him, but I won’t pretend to be sorry that he’s dead. On top of whatever else he did, he was beating his wife and little girl—and this little brigade you have here for his murder investigation was nowhere to be found when they needed help. It just reached the point that I told him he’d wish he was dead if I ever caught him laying a finger on either of them again. Why was he being protected, Detective? What made him so important that no one bothered to step in when they knew what he was doing?”

I hesitated as he stood up and met me at eye level, caught off-guard by his sudden change in demeanor. It was at that moment I realized I had underestimated him. Woods wasn’t just some kid, and he seemed to know a lot more than he first let on.

“I’m sorry, but there are details of this case I can’t discuss at this point,” I said as I started walking to the door, not hiding that I was now in a hurry to leave. “There are still a few other tenants I need to speak with, so I need to go. Thank you for your time and the coffee, Mr. Woods. If you think of anything else that might be helpful, don’t hesitate to call me.”

“Of course,” he replied, and his expression relaxed as he followed me outside. “Can I ask you just one more question, Detective?”

“Sure,” I replied, but it came out in a much more reluctant tone than I’d intended.

“From a hypothetical standpoint,” he said as he walked over to his car and leaned on the driver’s side door. “If you knew his wife and daughter were safe, could you catch the people who killed Aaron Gable a lot faster?”

He smirked as I stared at him. There was no way he should have known that the Gables were under witness protection and using the last name Perry—not without being involved somehow, either in the investigation or the murder itself.

“Who are you?” I asked. “How do you know all of this?”

“I’m sorry, but there are details of this case I can’t discuss at this point,” he replied, the smirk still not leaving his face as he threw my own words back at me. “What you need to know is that I’m on your side, but there’s a leak somewhere in your department. That’s the only way they could’ve been found this fast.”

“Then how did you find them?” I asked, now contemplating the possibility Woods was FBI, though he still looked much too young even to be a field agent. “How do you know it’s not a leak in your own organization?”

“I don’t have an organization, Detective,” he replied as he reached into his pocket and handed me a card. “If you ever need a drummer though, give me a call.”

“Find anything out, Matt?” a voice said behind me, causing me to jump before I turned around. “Whoa, you need to lay off the coffee before you shoot somebody.”

It was Drew Harris, a homicide detective who had been brought in on the case.

“I just didn’t hear you come up behind me,” I replied, glancing at Woods for a second before turning back to face Harris. “I don’t have much to go on so far. What about you?”

“Got a lot of selectively blind and deaf people here,” he replied in a frustrated tone, forcing a smile as he glanced at Woods. “No one wants to get involved.”

“They never do,” Woods said as he began to walk back toward his apartment door and then turned around. “I do hope you find out who did this. Sorry I couldn’t be of more help.”

Harris and I watched as Woods walked back inside and shut the door behind him.

“Nice car,” Harris said as he looked at it then back at the apartment door. “Wonder how a kid that young can afford it—drugs?”

“He’s a drummer,” I replied, gripping the card Woods had given me in one hand and realizing I still had the coffee cup in the other.

Harris nodded.

“Must be a good one or in a lot of debt. Is he someone I would’ve heard of? What’s his name?”

“Simon Woods,” I replied as I walked out to my own car, which now seemed pitiful compared to the Corvette. “He sounds like an up and coming—told me he just got some big offer in Nashville.”

“Never heard of him,” Harris replied, shrugging his shoulders as he turned to walk away from me. “Hey, I’m going to see what forensics has got. Do you want a ride over?”

I shook my head.

“I’ll be back in about an hour,” I replied. “There’s another case I need to follow-up on, too. It won’t take long.”

“All right,” Harris said as we parted directions. “I’ll call you if they find anything interesting.”

I got into my car and shut the door, then looked down at the card Woods had given me. The name on it was different—Jernard Wallace.

I took out my cell phone, but I didn’t call the number on the card.

“Hello?” a familiar voice said as I took the coffee cup and placed it in a plastic evidence bag.

“Kevin—this is Matt. I need a favor.”

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Legacy is the second book of the Hannaria Series, featuring Jernard, Matt Verin, and Adam Verin as narrators. It is currently available in Kindle, nook, and paperback formats. Purchasing through the following links also supports Writing.com:

ASIN: B003U4WVRI	The Hannaria Series: Novels 1-3 Bundle Pack     Product Type: eBooks
	List Price: $ 9.99          Amazon's Price: $ 9.99	Buy Now!

ASIN: B002XDR244	The Hannaria Series Book 2: Legacy     Product Type: eBooks
	List Price: $ 4.99          Amazon's Price: $ 4.99	Buy Now!

ASIN: 1451529694	The Hannaria Series: Legacy     Product Type: Book
	List Price: $ 9.99          Amazon's Price: $ 9.99	Buy Now!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sci-fi novelist Patricia Gilliam is the author of the Hannaria Series: Out of the Gray (April 2009), Legacy (Nov 2009), and No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (June 2010). Beginning her career as an online content writer, she has written over 1,000 non-fiction articles and 40 fiction short stories since 2006. She has been a preferred author on Writing.com since 2007, offering free help and resources to the site's community.

Outside of writing, she and her husband Cory are broadcast camera operators for the Christian television show Power of the Word in the Knoxville, TN area. In 2009, they adopted a rescue greyhound (racing name Lucius Malfoy) and are active volunteers for the local adoption group.

Book 4 of the Hannaria Series, Something Like the Truth, is in progress with an expected release in early 2012.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To preview No Good Deed Goes Unpunished, continue to this link:

1299401

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished (Preview)  [13+] Book 3 of the Hannaria Series by Patricia Gilliam