The Tesserene Imperative (Book Two of The Imperative Chronicles) is now available on Amazon

It was supposed to be a routine prospecting mission, but in an asteroid belt nothing is routine. 

With 43 billion souls crammed together on Mother Earth and using up natural resources at an unsustainable rate, the essential minerals that support human civilization are in desperately low supply. Tesserene, the mineral that makes starflight travel possible, is especially critical. Without it, humans are effectively imprisoned in their home system. 

When prospecting ship Shamu is almost destroyed in a distant asteroid belt, Swede Johansen and rest of the crew of five are left with three days of air, little water, a smashed starflight drive, and no hope of rescue. It will take every ounce of ingenuity and stubborn pigheadedness they possess to find a way to survive. 

In the shadows of a small moon, an amazing discovery leads to first contact. Will it open the galaxy to human exploration, or doom mankind to extinction?

The Tesserene Imperative is available for Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MCYMMJ4.  (You can read the first 10% of the book in Look Inside.)

To find out more about the author and his works, visit his website at http://markterencechapman.com, his blog at http://tesserene.blogspot.com, or follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/MarkTerenceChap.

The Tesserene Imperative (Book Two of The Imperative Chronicles) is now available on Amazon

The Mars Imperative (Book One of The Imperative Chronicles) is now available on Amazon

With 38 billion people choking Planet Earth, civilization is near a breaking point. Mankind's only hope for long-term survival is to expand to the stars; but until then, Earth must mine the solar system for iron, copper, and the many other raw materials needed in daily life.

Enter James McKie, a 23-year-old with a degree in Areology (Martian geology), on his way to his first job in space. Starry-eyed, he looks forward to making his mark on the Red Planet. But first he has to survive the trip there. A mysterious fire aboard his ship leads to a crisis on the giant space elevator high above Mars. When he arrives, he still has to survive the perils of Mars itself: rocks slides and planet-wide dust storms that leave unwary travelers blind in red-out conditions, unable to find their way home before their oxygen runs out. 

And then there's the terrorist. 

In the end, there's an incredible discovery waiting to be made: the key to terraforming the planet for human habitation--if it doesn't kill everyone first.

The Mars Imperative is available for Kindle at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LTATR22. 

To find out more about the author and his works, visit his website at http://markterencechapman.com, his blog at http://tesserene.blogspot.com, or follow him on twitter at http://twitter.com/MarkTerenceChap.

The Mars Imperative (Book One of The Imperative Chronicles) is now available on Amazon

Inspiration

It’s been said that inspiration can come from anywhere, if only you pay attention. I can certainly attest to that. You can't plan for it, you can't force it. It comes when it comes. You just have to take advantage when it happens.

One Friday afternoon, while driving home from work, I decided to come up with a catchy name for a character. I didn’t have a character in mind; neither did I have a story. I merely decided that I wanted a catchy character name—along the lines of Luke Skywalker or Indiana Jones—for a future story.

So there I was, driving along, and I passed a breakfast restaurant called the Sunrise Biscuit Company. I thought, “Hmm, Sunrise might be an interesting surname for a character. But I need an equally interesting given name to go along with it.” Within seconds, I came up with Donatello. I have no idea why. But as soon as I said “Donatello Sunrise,” I knew it was the name I was looking for.

Then I got to thinking about what sort of character would have a name like that. I immediately thought of a private detective. Then I thought “’30s/’40s private dick, gun moll, organized crime.” I decided instead to set the story in the near future, but have him be something of a throwback to the days of Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe. I actually started writing dialog in my head, hearing Humphrey Bogart speaking the lines.

In the fifteen minutes it took me to reach home, I had the first few scenes outlined in my head. I wasn’t sure whether it would end up being a short story or something longer, and I didn’t really have a story outline, just a premise: a futuristic private detective, with a neural implant to help him, is investigating a series of kidnappings—but I started writing. By Sunday night, I had two chapters written and was well on my way to finishing my third novel.

The resulting 101,000-word novel is called Sunrise Destiny. It'll be available shortly on Amazon.com. And it all came from one word: Sunrise. How’s that for inspiration?

Mark.

Web: http://markterencechapman.com; Blog: http://tesserene.blogspot.com

Inspiration