Travis Starnes

Going Home - Chapter 6

As expected, the next day I got the third degree about what happened with Terri. Annoyingly, both my parents thought giving up my car to get the divorce settled was a good deal and somehow I’d gotten lucky. I hadn’t been in the NFL long enough for either to see me, and it had been in storage the one time they’d come to New York, so they’d never actually seen the car. To them, it was just an abstract thing they’d heard mentioned once or twice, and so didn’t really hold any value. 2022-03-31 15:17:11 +0000 UTC View Post

Going Home - Chapter 5

I spent the rest of the weekend dreading the upcoming week. Monday was the first sit-down with Terri’s lawyers, where I was going to find out just how badly I was getting screwed. The guy she was banging must have been a lawyer or had some powerful friends, because the email I’d received came from one of the biggest firms in the city. I, on the other hand, had to shell out for a guy who I was pretty sure nearly failed out of night school to get his degree. I’d at least hoped my guy woul...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 24

Lucilla stayed fairly late, the two of them talking, not just about their official duties, but about everything. Ky’s touch with possible death made them both suddenly realize how quickly things could be taken away, making both reluctant to cut their time together short.

Although Ky could have stayed up all night with little ill-effect, Lucilla still had limitations, even with her refreshed medical nanos Sophus had reapplied now that they were both awake. Reluctantly, she returned to ...

The Trumpets of Mars Cover Reveal

Looking at the poll, the vast majority either want to see the covers or don't care one way or another, so I will start posting up covers as I get them.  The Trumpets of Mars is coming to an end soon (the last chapter should be chapter 29) and should be released in the middle of next month.  Just got the cover back on this and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Do you want to see covers before the book comes out?

A patron asked me today about seeing book covers before a book releases (I usually have the covers done a few weeks up to a month before the book is finished being written). I wasn't sure if this is something you guys would like to see or if you'd find it cluttering up the feed of chapters, making it harder to read. Just trying to gauge interest.

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 23

Ky’s eyes snapped open and then squeezed shut to block out the harsh light from the unshuttered window.

“Sophus?” he said, out loud, his mind still fuzzy and unfocused.

“Consul? You’re awake?” a man’s voice replied next to him after a heartbeat.

Ky opened his eyes again, his wits slowly returning. The last thing he remembered was a crushing crowd of warriors on a snowy northern plain, a large ax swinging towards him, a sudden shouted warning from Sophus, and th...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 22

“Sophus? You’re alive!” She said, all of the exhaustion from her trip instantly leaving her body. “Is Ky awake? Can I talk to him? How is he? Has he fully recovered?”

“Please … slow, down,” the voice said. “I am … having difficulty, still.”

“The integration … thing didn’t work? Did something go wrong?”

She still didn’t really understand what had happened to Ky and Sophus, and the words they’d used still meant nothing to her...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 21

Devnum

Lucilla was exhausted as she finally made her way back into the imperial palace and turned her horse over to the grooms that would take it to the stables. The trip south had been fairly uneventful, since the Romans along the road between Devnum and the border had seen several large formations of Caledonians by now. It was still no easy task to move that many men, their supplies, and the hordes of camp followers across friendly ground without causing undue hardshi...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 20

Although she wanted to ride with Ky’s wagon as she had on the trip back to the Caledonian capital, as leader of this surprisingly large contingent her place was in front of the column. Even though they weren’t headed directly for conflict, Caledonian tradition said the leader always rode at the head of the column, with only scouts and pickets allowed to ride before them. Considering there were almost a thousand Caledonians with her and only a handful of Romans, this was most definitely a ...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 19

Monadhcarden

Lucilla knelt at the little alter she’d asked Modius to set up next to Ky’s bed, whispering prayers to Jupiter. He continued to lay motionless in his nothing state, not awake and yet not asleep. Although she’d made it sound as if she were confident in his recovery when she’d spoken to Talogren, she could feel the fear in the pit of her stomach.

Part of it was the fear of knowing how short the time was coming when they’d absolutely need him. ...

Going Home - Chapter 4

My mother was putting food on the table when I got back home. I tried to hide how much discomfort I was in as I washed up and sat at the table while she put out food. Between walking from the bus stop and my walk down Main Street, I knew I’d pushed myself too hard and I didn’t feel like an ‘I told you so’ lecture.

I wasn’t the type that just liked to sit around in one place, to the point where I didn’t often make it through watching an entire game without getting antsy, so s...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 18

She spent the better part of the day questioning the villagers and the captured guards, and the picture they painted of life here after the Romans arrived was bleak. Abuses ranging from regular and rampant raping of the village women to summary execution by the guards for infractions such as being injured while mining or missing quotes. All done under a barrage of threats to the lives of their children, guaranteed to keep the larger collection of Caledonians in check.

It was all she cou...

Going Home - Chapter 3

I spent the next several days going through all of my options. I couldn’t get another job for at least two months, and even then, I wasn’t sure what job I could end up with. The only two jobs I’d ever had were playing football and being a police officer, and I couldn’t do either anymore.

I had managed to get a degree while playing at OU, but I’d done what a lot of guys who thought they’d be playing football and would never actually need a degree did. I went for something eas...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 17

“Talogren, I need to speak with you,” she said, riding up to the chieftain and his advisors.

Although she’d left Ky’s lictore with him, Carus had asked to go with her. At first, she wanted to tell him to stay behind. Unlike a lot of the things she had been dealing with as Ky’s voice while he was gone, this was much closer to her area of expertise and what parts of it were unique were more areas for a Caledonian to advise her on than a Roman.

She’d finally relented sinc...

Just a note on updates

Just a quick note on updates.  I'm traveling for my day job for a week and it's been making it hard to get new chapters out.  You might have noticed I slowed from every other day to 3-4 days between chapters since December.  The first couple of months of the year are the busy season for my day job, so writing slows a bit.

The good news is things should be slowing down and I should be getting back to a chapter every 2 days in about another week, but it will be a couple of ...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 16

Lucilla used the hours before the move to tour the surrendered village. To Roman eyes, all of the Caledonian villages seemed primitive and rudimentary, but Rhaeadr looked just as primitive to Talogren’s home village as that one did to Devnum.

Gone were the permanent wood buildings and large, well-constructed tents. Most of the homes were formed out of mud and dirt mixed in with tents supplementing branches and woven plants to patch the holes. The people were universally thin and had t...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 15

Velius grumbled to himself as he looked over the scrolls, papyrus, and wax tablets stacked on the table in front of him. When he’d been raised to legate, he’d accepted the bureaucracy requirements that came with the position, but since Ky’s arrival, the amount of record-keeping had exploded.

On the one hand, Velius understood the need for all of the documentation. Before his arrival, a legion was a community where the soldiers who served it rarely moved to another legion. They wer...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 14

Devnum

Lucilla ducked back from Cynwrig’s swing, whipping her wooden practice blade around in a slashing motion, coming down under his swing in a counter, and for a second she thought she had him until his knee tapped the side of her temple.

She knew that, if he’d wanted, he could have dropped her with the blow, knocking her out or even smashing pieces of her skull into her brain. The Caledonian who now served as one of her protectors had partially taken over ...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 13

“He’s the son of a local craftsman who we think might be the ringleader of this little band,” Ramirus was saying as she walked into the room.

Lucilla had been woken after only an hour of sleep and taken into her father’s audience chamber, to find him, several key senators and Faenius already there, although each looking as raggedly tired as she felt. The push both by Faenius to get the praetorians in place of the city guard and Ramirus to find the insurrectionists behind the att...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 12

The Village of Pertmig

“Commander,” Sophus’s voice said, ringing through Ky’s head.

It was a vague thing, something far off in the distance. It was impossible to tell if it was imagined or real at first, the hazy first few seconds of consciousness making it seem almost like a dream, or how Ky imagined a dream would be like.

“Commander,” the voice said again.

“Yes,” Ky sub-vocalized, and then stopped, taking stock of th...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 44

Monday, it was weird waking up and having nowhere to be. My first year of public school was over and I’d more or less survived it. I spent most of the day at Hanna’s just hanging out with her and Kat, not really doing anything in particular.

Since the audition was over, the daily practice sessions had ended, which meant the only thing I had to do was go train with Chef. I honestly felt a little at loose ends, since my schedule had suddenly gone from completely packed to empty litera...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 43

Mom was pissed when I got home super late, but I’d wanted to celebrate, and for once I had nothing to do until the next evening. We could probably stand a practice before our show at the prom, but we’d gotten a lot done leading up to the audition, and I was already starting to tighten up pretty good after a night on stage.

If I was going to be any good the next night, I needed to spend the evening relaxing for a while, and I’d decided that started with sitting on the porch at the ...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 11

The Village of Pertmig

Ky was once again looking down on a village scrambling to get women and children to safety as the warriors formed up to meet the oncoming host at his back. This was the third village they’d come to in the last four days and Ky’s soul was tired. He’d tried to reason with each of them, convince them to join Talogren and forestall what was going to happen. And both had refused him.

The massacres that followed each had been complete. Not a...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 10

Caledonii Training Camp, Outside Devnum

Lucilla was out again, watching men train. Although she had been given Ky’s proxy and had been feeding him reports, she found that it hadn’t added that much to her actual schedule. Since shortly before the insurrection, Ky had been handing off more responsibilities to the commanders and business leaders overseeing the tasks needing to be done, and not getting involved in the day-to-day business of any of them.

That had m...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 42

The next morning I woke up in agonizing pain as my back started spasming, the muscles clenching and unclenching to the point it felt like my spine was going to snap in half. Thankfully, Mom hadn’t gone to work yet and heard me screaming. She’d gone to the pharmacy at some point while I’d been asleep and picked up the muscle relaxers and pain medication.

The muscle relaxers did the job and at least made the spasming stop, although it couldn’t do anything about the rest of me. Eve...

Going Home - Chapter 2

They hooked me up with some fluids in the ambulance, but I couldn’t get anything for the pain until we got to the ER. At least I was wearing the uniform, which meant they pushed me through the line, since a simple bullet wound in New York doesn’t always get you fixed up right away.

They took some X-Ray’s and the bullet was a through and through, but they didn’t like what they saw on it and scheduled me for surgery. Once I’d heard that the bullet passed through and wasn’t sti...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 41

“Charlie! Charlie, can you hear me?” a voice was saying above me, although I was having trouble focusing on it at all. “Someone call an ambulance!”

I felt a hand on my shoulder, followed by pain from the bruised muscle where the bat had hit, and then things slipped into black again.

I think I may have woken up a few more times, although they were mostly just flashes and impressions. I think someone picked me up and sat me on something flat and hard, although softer than th...

The Trumpets of Mars (Imperium #2) - Chapter 9

Northern Border

Ky was anxious as they neared the border. Even though the agreement between the Caledonii and the Romans was all but certain - since Talogren had agreed to most of the provisions before Ky had returned south - this was still a linchpin in Ky’s long-term plans. If they fell through so would most of his plans for Rome’s survival.

He was enough on edge that he visibly jumped when the comm in his head chimed, indicating Lucilla was trying to get a ...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 40

The next morning I was feeling every hit I took at the competition. As much as I wanted to make Chef proud, trying to roll out of bed without touching any of the parts that hurt made me definitely sure it wasn’t worth it to go again. The whole point of learning from Chef to defend myself had been to keep from getting hurt like I had at the beginning of the year.

I made my way to the bathroom and was a little horrified at what I saw in the mirror. I hadn’t taken any serious shots to ...

Fanfare (Country Roads #2) - Chapter 39

Thursday we were back playing ball, this time playing away at their field. We were still in the district and were up against Murphy again. We’d lost to them in the regular-season game, although it had been close. They were a really solid team, so we’d been preparing for it all week, watching game tape and trying to fix some of the problems that tripped us up last time.

Thankfully, from everything we could see on the tapes, they didn’t have a pitcher like the monster we played the ...