Travis Starnes

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 26

“Commander,” the AI’s voice prompted. “This is a repeat of your scheduled wake-up time.”

Ky sat up slowly, rubbing his face. In the years since he’d first gotten his implant and been assigned to flight school, Ky had always gotten up at first notice from the AI. It wasn’t like the alarms he’d set as a young man, training in the batch processing center. The AI did more than simply tell you it was time to get up. Tied into his central nervous system, it a...

Danger Close (John Taylor #7) - Chapter 3

“So, what was that all about?” Whitaker asked.

“The general wanted to make sure we realized that Davis was here specifically to interfere with our investigation, probably to keep us from making the Army look bad.”

“That was pretty obvious already though, right?”

“Yeah. He’s been ordered to not interfere with Davis but he offered us any unofficial help we might need.”

“You’re taking him at his word?”

“For now. He seems annoyed with all th...

Playing by Ear Finished, Fanfare Coming Next

The last chapter of Playing by Ear is done, but that is far from the end of the story (what with all those hanging plot threads).  This will be a long seies and is a serial, so each book should lead into the next.

Book 2, Fanfare, is fully outlined now and you should see the first chapter should be written by next week.

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 38

Chef’s prediction that we’d be busy had been right, we were packed. It was mostly people from school, celebrating the end of the semester and the beginning of their vacation, but there were still a fair number of other locals there as well.

Even though Willie was back, we’d kept the same pattern as when he’d been gone. I played the first set for about an hour and a half and then he took over and played a second set with just him and the band for an hour. I’d tried to have ever...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 37

Kat seemed like a totally different person when we left the trailer, bouncy and smiling instead of the introverted girl on the verge of tears who’d first arrived.

“This next part is going to be hard. Hanna is still really pissed at you, and I think you coming in looking like you just won something isn’t going to help that mood. I’m glad you seem so much happier, but I need you to stay calm and at least neutral while we’re talking to her. Can you do that?”

“Yes. I’m...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 36

Things were fairly uneventful for almost a week, which seemed like a major victory of some type, considering how the past few months had gone. I was making progress in my tutoring, thanks to Kat, and had pulled my math grade up to a D. I wasn’t going to be winning any awards, but I wasn’t failing any classes, which meant I wasn’t in immediate danger of Mom banning me from playing anymore.

Rhonda was still standoffish, eating outside by herself or skipping lunches. I’d offered to...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 35

By Friday, I was starting to get concerned about Rhonda despite what I’d said to Hanna. She hadn’t been to school the rest of the week and I’d started hearing rumors that she was changing schools. I may have been pissed at her, but this had all gone way too far.

What’s worse, her friends had abandoned her instantly. I’d seen Camilla sitting with Aaron’s friends a couple of times, and could only imagine how she’d played into the whole thing, but had no doubt she’d found a...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 34

I was feeling better on Monday, right up until English class. It was the first time I’d seen Rhonda since the party. We’ve moved next to each other early in the year, and normally we sat next to each other. She was already there by the time I got to class, and her desk had a girl I barely knew in it. Rhonda was now on the other side of the room, and wouldn’t make eye contact.

The feelings of loss, betrayal, and anger that I’d been pushing down all Sunday came rushing back. Not a...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 33

“Charlie,” Mom’s voice came through my bedroom door.

I didn’t want to hear it. I just pulled a pillow over my head and ignored her.

“Charlie, I’ll give you five more minutes, and then I’m coming in there for you.”

I didn’t get up. I felt numb.

I hadn’t waited for Hanna when I left the party. The house was on the other side of town, but I’d paid attention enough on the way there I had an idea of how to get back home from there. I just started runni...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 32

Rhonda wasn’t thrilled with me skipping our lunch to go to the choir room with Cameron. She accepted it, but made it clear she didn’t want to give up any more lunches this week.

Things had been a little strange between us since the previous week’s blow-up over my friendship with Kat. She’d backed down and had been overcompensating all week, although not without a few snide comments being thrown in. Not enough to cause another fight but enough to make it clear that she still wasn...

Danger Close (John Taylor #7) - Chapter 2

The follow-up to the meeting ended a few minutes later as the doors to the Oval Office opened and disgorged most of the participants.

“You two follow me,” Solomon said as he came out.

He led them down the west wing offices, whose layout Taylor hadn’t figured out yet. Other than the Oval Office, with its distinctive curved walls, it was impossible to tell what led where. Solomon seemed to know where he was going and led them into a room with glass walls, a large conference ta...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 31

Willie and Mom cut the meeting about my future short since he still had to get Cameron back to his car. Even with that, I was groggy when my alarm went off the next morning. Chef had me come in for early morning training before the lunch rush instead of after, and picked me up on the way to the Sunday farmer market, which meant I was seriously sleep-deprived. Not that I complained to him. He was already doing me a favor with all the training and now he was doing me another one by altering his...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 25

The day was getting late by the time Ky got back. He headed straight to the Emperor’s audience chamber, where they’d arranged for the meeting with the military commanders. Ky had gotten the message back from the Emperor, agreeing to his final notes. With that, he was able to work with the AI while they rode, making the last adjustments to their plan.

The extended back and forth with the Emperor had been the easy part. Now he had to sit down with the military commanders and get every...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 30

Since it wasn’t quite dinner time, there hadn’t been many customers in the restaurant, but the staff for the evening shift had already clocked in when Aaron had pulled his little stunt.

The combination of the kitchen crew crowding around the back door and a police cruiser pulling around the back of the restaurant and then leaving shortly after with teenagers in the back was enough to bring all of them outside to see what was happening. Service workers are a gossipy bunch and Chef’...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 24

After several hours in conversation with Ramirez, Carus, and Taenaris, Ky finally got to leave the Senate. For now, as long as Ky was always at hand, they could block Silo, but they needed to get more loyal Senators in the city at least until the new laws were passed.

In the spirit of delegating out more responsibilities, Ky spoke to all three men about crafting the actual details of the new laws, after making sure all three of them were on the same page. While they didn’t understand ...

Danger Close (John Taylor #7) - Chapter 1

Silver Plains, Texas

“If you look closely, Mr. Dillon, you’ll see all this flooring is hardwood, not that wood paneling you find in new construction,” Britney Stewart said, her hands clasped in front of her, a well-trained smile plastered on her face.

The small two-bedroom house had a musty smell, despite the cookie dough she’d put in the oven to give the house that lived-in, comforting feeling to it. It was an old realtor’s trick and worked like a charm...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 29

“What do you mean you have plans?” Ronda asked.

Rhonda had met me out by the parking lot and we were trying to work out plans for our next date. She’d suggested Sunday, which was already a pretty busy day for me but really the only day that weekend we could make it work. Saturday she had a family thing that looked like it was going late and Saturday I’d be in Ashville with Willie. Since Mom wouldn’t be okay with me going out after my set at the Blue Ridge when I had school the...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 28

Monday I still couldn’t get what happened out of my mind. No matter what I did on Sunday, I kept coming back to Rhonda.

It wasn’t her talking to Aaron, although I didn’t love that. She was her own person and I wasn’t so jealous that I couldn’t deal with her just talking to guys, although I wished she’d picked someone who hated me just a little less to have a conversation with.

It also wasn’t how certain I was that she’d lied to me when I asked how the football play...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 23

Ky woke up early once again. He’d spent the remainder of the day going over specifics with the legates who’d remained at the meeting. Ky found he liked Auspex who, unlike Eborius and Pius, had an open mind and was willing to consider the value of ideas before rejecting them. He actually seemed more flexible than Velius and Aelius, who were generally more traditional and whose decision to listen to Ky had more to do with the exercise during the battle than anything else.

As he had th...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 27

Thursday Rhonda went with us to the Blue Ridge as she had planned. My training time didn’t go well. I was distracted and unfocused to the point that Chef made me run laps around the restaurant followed by a whole lot of sit-ups and push-ups to ‘get my head out of my ass.’ Although it didn’t have anything to do with Rhonda being there specifically, since she spent the whole time sitting inside with Hanna and doing homework, Chef didn’t see it that way.

He made it clear that if ...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 26

I wasn’t surprised to find Mom sitting at the kitchen table when Keenan and Willie dropped me off. It was pretty late and she’d been off work for a while, so I knew she’d be home and, despite giving me permission to go, she hadn’t been wildly enthusiastic about the whole thing.

“Hey,” I said, closing the door behind me.

I was nearly positive she wanted to talk so I set my guitar down and took the seat next to her at the small kitchen table.

“How was it?”

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 15

The next day was a whirlwind. Packer could practically taste the PR value of Taylors’ on-air apprehension of a mad bomber. Taylor wanted to tell the man to go screw himself, but Caldwell still somehow convinced him to give one interview after another. Taylor decided then and there that he never wanted to be in the spotlight again. He’d truly hated the attention he’d received after his takedown of Qasim, but that paled in comparison.

Most of the news crews had been live when Taylor...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 14

Washington, D.C.

The time for the Senator’s speech at the hotel came and went, and Taylor couldn’t get anyone on the phone to tell him if anything had happened. Thankfully, they at least had working TV on the plane. News coverage was enough to confirm that Hubbard hadn’t taken his shot by the time they landed and had to shut the TV off.

She hadn’t left, so there was still time, but Taylor was pretty sure if Hubbard was going to do something, he would have ...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 13

It turned out the wait for the subpoena was longer than the wait on the lab. Taylor had spent most of the day out, tracking down leads on his own, and it was already fairly late by the time they started hunting around for a judge to sign off on their subpoena. They knew where they needed to check next, since only one company made Dinitrophenol, but that was only the starting point. Once federal law enforcement starts asking questions companies tend to shut down all communication and direct ev...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 12

Taylor made calls on the drive back to D.C. He was familiar with Northbridge Services Group as they were a major defense contractor back when he was in. They specialized in basic equipment like body armor, harnesses, weapons mountings, and the like. Half the shit Taylor carried on him in the field had been manufactured or at least sub-contracted out by Northbridge.

Taylor hadn’t actually dealt with the company before, but it didn’t take long for him to figure out they weren’t goin...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 11

Taylor and Whitaker were almost outside when their next obstacle showed up. He’d heard Cole mention Caldwell’s campaign manager, but he’d hoped Packer had just talked to Cole over the phone since Caldwell wasn’t home. As usual, Taylor’s luck hadn’t held.

“Mr. Taylor, a word please,” the man said, stomping up to Taylor and Whitaker.

“Packer, we don’t have time for this. Hubbard almost got your boss tonight, and he’s still close.”

“That’s what I wan...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 10

Taylor took the stairs three at a time, clearing the first floor in seconds, Whitaker’s footsteps echoing close behind him. He’d just made it to the second floor when he heard a crashing sound coming from Kara’s bedroom.

Taylor exploded through the partially opened door, only to find Kara alone, sitting up in bed, the gun he’d given her in her hands. She’d been pointing the weapon towards the remains of the shattered window when he came in. To her credit, she’d reacted quick...

The Sword of Jupiter (Imperium #1) - Chapter 22

While the commanders went back to their camps to rest and prepare for the meeting that evening, Ky’s work continued. That afternoon he was meeting with the head tax collectors, who assigned tax districts to the workers who did the actual collection.

The Emperor wasn’t needed to add weight to what he said, since generally, the tax collectors were favorable to the man who appointed them to their position. Instead, he met up with Lurio, the man responsible for Roman finances. Ky headed...

Playing by Ear (Country Roads #1) - Chapter 25

I showered, grabbed my stuff, and headed out towards the front porch where Willie normally sat when he wasn’t on stage. Sure enough, he was in his favorite chair, relaxing, when I came out.

Sitting next to him, however, was a guy I hadn’t seen before.

“There he is. Charlie, this here’s my nephew Keenan,” Willie said, getting up and gesturing towards the guy who’d been sitting next to him.

Looking closer, there was somewhat of a family resemblance, although the ag...

Election Day (John Taylor #6) - Chapter 9

Both he and Whitaker fell asleep quickly. It had been a long day already with the promise of several longer days to come, at least until they found Hubbard. Normally, Whitaker would have been up worrying about how to deal with their apartment, dealing with the insurance, and finding a new place to live. The fact that she was able to just go to sleep spoke volumes about how tired she was. Taylor, on the other hand, was always able to just go to sleep, regardless of what was going on. It was on...