Edward McKeown Author & Editor
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Edward McKeown

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I've enjoyed a life-long love affair with science fiction. I write believable
people in extraordinary situations, balancing romance, humor, adventure and
reasonable extrapolations of science in stories that I believe people will want
to return to. Whether it's in the short stories of my "Lair of the Lesbian Love
Goddess series" or in the Fenaday and Rainhell novels, classic "Planet" tales of
a crews of unlikely companions facing unknown dangers, my intent is to give the
reader the sort of page turning, involving adventure that Andre Norton wrote and
leaven it with the emotional complexity and ambiguity that CJ Cherryh brings to
the field.

While the experiences of the SF Universe are out of reach of those unable to pay for a
rocket ride, I use my own background to try for an underlying verity in my
characters. I've parachuted, flown in gliders, hang gliders and strapped to the  floor of military helicopters. I've been rated as an expert shot and carry a  black belt in the martial arts. I've been paralyzed by fear, exhilarated by love  and walked into fights, both literal and metaphorical, that I knew I could not  win. I have the good fortune to be married to the talented artist  Schelly Keefer
Follow  @EdwardMcKeown1

All my work is available at  ​https://www.amazon.com/Edward-McKeown/e/B004NM9ZU2/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1527353303&sr=8-1 


The Lost by Edward McKeown

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 Maauro rocks on in another expedition to deep space!
A scientific expedition has disappeared in 'trackless space,' and only the 'Lost Planet' agency has a shot at finding them and rescuing the grandson of Shasti Rainhell, secret ruler of Olympia. And so it is that star-pilot Wrik Trigardt and his female android partner Maauro, set off for uncharted stars while enemies known and unknown bar their path.
Wrik and the ancient artificial intelligence 'Maauro' have formed the Lost Planet Agency are commissioned by Shasti Rainhell, greatest creation of the genetic engineers of Olympia, to find her grandson, missing with an expedition seeking the fabled Lost Colony of the first humans to leave the Sol System. But the Confederacy is wracked by enemies within and without and many would just as soon see the lost remain so. Wrik's spaceship, Stardust, lifts for uncharted stars and unknown perils.
The third book in Edward McKeown's The Maauro Chronicles, and set in the same universe as the Robert Fenaday/Shasti Rainhell stories, THE LOST continues Maauro and Wrik’s ongoing adventures as they discover secrets others dare not seek.  Available now in print and soon as an ebook https://www.amazon.com/Lost-Edward-McKeown/dp/1943690146/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508268967&sr=8-1&keywords=the+lost+mckeown



Maauro and Wrik return

Wrik Trigardt, disgraced military pilot, and his companion, the ancient android Maauro, have survived their initial battles with the Guild, Confed government and the ancient Infestor Artifact. With the aid of the beautiful and canny Jaelle and the reluctant service of the former crimelord Dusko, they have established Lost Planet expeditions to go where others dare not.  But the reach of the government is long and they are soon called on to a journey to a gas giant on the edge of Confed space among the utterly alien Ribisans. There they will face an enemy who can twist time and space. Each move could bring interstellar war. Maauro and Wrik's friendship deepens in new and unexpected ways as they must battle their inner limitations as well as this new enemy. Against that Time continues Wrik's search for redemption and Maauro’s quest for identity in this new existence she has begun since being found after 50,000 years on an asteroid in My Outcast State.  

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Today marks the start of a new series for me.  I am proud of all my characters, feeling that it is a privilege to write their stories down but this series introduces characters who I hold a special feeling for.  Wrik Trigardt, a young man struggling with his past failures, hoping to find a new direction in life and Maauro, the only sentient AI ever known, product of a race which disappeared from the starlanes while humans lived in caves.  Maauro the innocent, Maauro the impossibly deadly, who gazes at the stars with her huge green eyes and dreams of an existence free of the war she was originally made for. These two, their struggles and their dreams have moved me more than anything else I have written.  I hope they will do the same for you. 

Now in paperback with an ebook to follow, Outcast State is set in the same universe as the Fenaday/Rainhell series and is my first publication with the Moondream imprint of Copper Dog Publishing.  http://www.amazon.com/My-Outcast-State-Maauro-Chronicles/dp/0979865263/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1424134849&sr=8-1&keywords=outcast+state+mckeown


For those who have asked about my cover artist on My Outcast State it is Pat Ventura http://porksiomai.deviantart.com/
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Shasti Rainhell rides again.  Robert Fenaday's quest for his lost Lisa is complete, but Shasti Rainhell, genetically engineered assassin, is still seeking the meaning of her own life.  Now she commands the privateer Sidhe and faces new adventures, new enemies and some old friends in a voyage beyond known space.  Join her in print or Kindle on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Stars-Edward-McKeown/dp/1500695254/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410710587&sr=8-1&keywords=Hidden+Stars%2C+mckeown  (print)  and  http://www.amazon.com/Hidden-Stars-Edward-McKeown-ebook/dp/B00NJ15PRK/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1410710587&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=Hidden+Stars%2C+mckeown  (Kindle)                           














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The entire Robert Fenaday/Shasti Rainhell cycle is now complete in Points of Departure.  The search for Lisa Fenaday comes to its explosive conclusion.  All books are available on Amazon and Createspace in electronic and paper format.

So what follows?  Stay tuned.  There are rumors that Shasti Rainhell takes command of her own starship in "Hidden Stars" coming in 2014.  Then follows a new series, set in Confederate Space but sixty years later.  Disgraced rebel pilot Wrik Trigardt makes a surprising discovery on an abandoned asteroid base, but will she help him or kill him?  Meet Maauro, an AI created by an unknown alien race.  Coming also in 2014.

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Thanks Creative Loafing for doing this interview with me for the upcoming CPCC
Sensoria event!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOmotRTbDR0

Now Available in Kindle and soon Trade Paperback, the second book of the Fenaday/Rainhell Trilogy

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"Having survived the nightmare world of Enshar, Robert
  Fenaday abandons privateering and his quest for his lost wife to begin life
anew  with the genetically engineered assassin, Shasti Rainhell. But spymaster
Mandela  has other plans for the pair, intrigue and murder on Shasti’s home
planet of  Olympia. Fenaday must fight his way to Shasti, facing her deadly
creator and an  alien mystery that could destroy the Confederacy."

Foreword by Claudia Christian (Susan Ivanova from Bablyon 5)
Fearful Symmetry is  well named.  There is fear, as well  as is hope in this fast-paced tale of action and thoughtful adventure.  Edward McKeown has written a gripping  story of espionage, assassination and interstellar conspiracy. 
It’s also the story of a woman coming back to life metaphorically, in a  tale of resurrection and redemption.   So the book operates seamlessly on two levels at the same  time.
 
Edward told me that  Robert Fenaday was the main character of the Fenaday trilogy which began with Was Once a Hero, but it was Shasti Rainhell who captured my attention, especially in this second book where she is the focus of much of the story.  Maybe I identified with her because, for all her genetically engineered strength and superiority, she is a woman, dealing with the issues that occur in  so many women’s lives: a hard and ungiving childhood, abusive spouse, the fight
to find and retain one’s integrity in world that won’t extend recognition  willingly.  Her struggle spoke to  me, as, if you have read my own book  Babylon Confidential: A Memoir of Love, Sex, and Addiction then you know that I have dealt with more than my share of this. 
  
For me, Shasti is  the sort of character that I see too seldom in fiction.   Many of the“woman warrior” characters do not seem to be actual women.  As one writer I met complained, they just seem like “men with breasts.”   Shasti manages to retain her essential femininity while provoking fear,  sometimes panic in her enemies.   She is powerful, independent, and intelligent, yet there is a longing in her for gentleness, for connection and even for love.  She is at once an uncertain girl and a confident professional
fighter.  Hey, maybe I can play her  when Ed sells the movie rights!  Seriously this is the type of character that appeals to me. 
Like Susan Ivanova from Babylon 5, Shasti has a rich interior life and emotional complexities that make appealing, I sometimes found myself thinking how I would play her… well have to wait for the movie…
 
In the midst of  star-spanning battles and action, Edward makes sure his people, not characters but people, as they seem very real to me, are always aware of the beauty of existence and the fragility of their own lives.  One feels at any moment that each of them, Robert Fenaday, Shasti Rainhell, Telisan and his fiancées , Mmok, are all at hazard, each could be taken from the reader as so many people are taken from us in real life, without warning, or without our being ready for it. So read but be ready.  Don’t look for stock characters who will effortlessly sail through adventures without being scarred, scared or changed by them.  And like those self-same characters, breathe deep when the action pauses, look around at the stars, the ice-ring overhead or the friends that you are so lucky to have with you, protecting your back.  
  
Be grateful for it all.  Enjoy the  read.
I did.
 
Claudia Christian

http://www.amazon.com/Babylon-Confidential-Memoir-Love-Addiction/dp/1937856062 
http://claudiachristian.net

FEARFUL SYMMETRY CAN BE PURCHASED AT
http://www.amazon.com/Fearful-Symmetry-Fenaday-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00ANV9AMK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355521944&sr=1-1&keywords=fearful+symmetry%2C+mckeown
or
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/264990

First Book of the Fenaday/Rainhell Trilogy through Hellfire Publicaton in Kindle and trade paperback

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Reluctant privateer Robert Fenaday searches the stars for his lost love,
Lisa, a naval intelligence officer whose ship disappeared near the end of the
Conchirri War . He?s joined by the genetically engineered assassin, Shasti
Rainhell, whose cold perfection masks her dark past. Both are blackmailed by
government spymaster, Mandela, into a suicidal mission to the doomed planet
Enshar. Leading a team of scientists and soldiers, they must unravel the mystery
of that planet?s death before an ancient force reaches out to claim their
lives.

The classic Planet Stories of S/F have suffered abandonment,
without a rescuer, until now. Edward McKeown's "Was Once A Hero" combines
adventure and romance with the dark humor and human complexities absent from a
more black-and-white age. Robert Fenaday and Shasti Rainhell are real people.
They make mistakes, they hurt, they stumble in the dark emotionally, and they
save the world. They are flawed, wounded heroes, and they make you realize, as
you hungrily turn each page, that the best fiction contains excitement and
passion; and the best aspect of life is the possibility of personal redemption.
Was Once a Hero provides both." Tim McLoughlin, author of "Heart of the Old
Country" (Movie Title: The Narrows) and Editor of "Brooklyn Noir"

http://www.amazon.com/Was-Once-A-Her...6144528&sr=1-1

https://www.createspace.com/3765878

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/120464

http://www.hellfirepublishing.com/hero.html

Announcements,
review and interviews
SFWA http://www.sfwa.org/2012/02/was-once...dward-mckeown/
SFSCOPE
http://sfscope.com/2012/01/edward-mc...+%28SFScope%29

Flames rising http://www.flamesrising.com/?s=mckeown&.x=0&.y=0
The
Examiner   http://www.examiner.com/fringe-artis...as-once-a-hero

Press
release http://www.prlog.org/11771900-join-t...e-romance.html


Radio
http://newscliptv.com/podcasts/books/edwardmkeown1.html
Radio
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/page-re...as-once-a-hero
TMV
Cafe Free Pie Show  http://ia600805.us.archive.org/10/it...nEdMckeown.mp3

Blog
Interviews and Other
http://hellfireherald.blogspot.com/2....html?spref=fb
http://www.robinreneeray.blogspot.com/
http://www.inspirationforum.co.uk/sh...d.php?tid=2131
http://wredhead.blogspot.com/2012/02....html?spref=fb
http://wredhead.blogspot.com/2012/02....html?spref=fb
http://thereforyoumelissa.blogspot.c....html?spref=fb
http://rueview.moonfruit.com/#/archived/4558190570
 
  
 
 

NOW AVAILABLE

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The Second Book in the adventures of Shasti Rainhell and Robert Fenday  http://www.amazon.com/Fearful-Symmetry-Fenaday-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B00ANV9AMK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1355521944&sr=1-1&keywords=fearful+symmetry%2C+mckeown 

http://www.hellfirepublishing.com/coming_soon.html

NOW AVAILABLE

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The Third Book in the adventures of Shasti Rainhell and Robert Fenaday due out from Hellfire Publications in 2013 http://www.hellfirepublishing.com/coming_soon.html


THE PREQUEL

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Regrets and Requiems is the very first adventure of Robert Fenaday and the
  deadly, genetically engineered Shasti Rainhell.   This short story also contains the first three chapters of Was Once A Hero to whet your appetite for the trilogy.

What price would you
pay  for love? When do you stop chasing a dream and start over? How far will you
go?  Robert Fenaday, master of the Privateer Sidhe, is haunted by these
questions on  his long search through the stars for his lost wife  http://www.amazon.com/Regrets-Requiems-Robert-Fenaday-ebook/dp/B008GY6W68/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1341347385&sr=8-3&keywords=regrets+and+requiems

Available Now!

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The adventures of Jeremy LeClerc, Knight Templar, his angelic sidekick
Shadowheart and the hordes of mostly evil.... http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00B9XMUG4

The Original

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The Lair of the Lesbian Love Goddess Series:The Lair of the Lesbian Love Goddess Series- The Lair series
features Brian McManus, everman cop and later private detective, and his sexy partner, Regina Del Mar, and transgender sidekick Freddie Bouvier as they defend the 22nd Century spaceport of New York from alien bad guys. 
 



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Covers by Michael Church

FREE PODCAST

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http://dunesteef.com/2011/07/24/episode-107-must-have-own-weapons-by-edward-mckeown/

Free Podcast

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http://dunesteef.com/2009/12/07/page-67-final-exam-by-edward-mckeown/

FREE PODCAST

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http://dunesteef.com/2010/09/04/episode-80-open-twenty-four-hours-by-edward-mckeown/

Free Podcasts from Beam Me Up Podcast

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From the Beam Me Up Podcast this link should take you to the multiple stories of mine that they have  done.
http://www.beammeuppodcast.com/category/ed-mckeown 

The Templar first of the Jeremy Leclerc Knight Templar series

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http://dunesteef.com/2013/05/12/episode-143-the-templar-by-edward-mckeown/ 
Jeremy Leclerc is a Knight Templar in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his journeys, he’s encountered many  supernatural beings, some friendly, some less-than-friendly. But now, women have  been disappearing throughout Charlotte because of a hideous, soul-sucking creature. Has he met his match this time?

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