Contact Information:
Email Address: altonkremer@gmail.com
Books By Colin Alexander
Word Count: 153000
Summary: A long-dead genius. A hidden invention that could save—or doom—humanity. Can Leif find it before it falls into the wrong hands? The Martian Girl is a myth, some people say, created in the dark years after an apocalyptic global war. Perhaps she was a genius in mathematics and the greatest theoretical physicist since Einstein and Hawking. She may have made a mathematical breakthrough or a powerful weapon. No one knows for sure. In AD 2726, Leif Grettison, former army ranger and exoplanetary scout, returns from the stars a weary man. Four and a half centuries have passed since he was last on Earth. Now, statues honor him, and history books extol the almost-accurate legends of Lucky Leif. But all he really wants is a small cottage on a hill with a good view and no neighbors. (Good luck with that, Leif!) Leif knows nothing about the Martian Girl. But when he agrees to a simple request, his path leads to a relationship he never expected, two teens nobody wants, and a scheme to revive the Martian Girl’s former home, a dead city on Mars. Suddenly, discovering what the Martian Girl did is the center of Leif’s life. Bringing a city on Mars back to life is hard enough, but some of the team are agents of competing powers, each determined to find what the Martian Girl created. They will resort to anything, even murder, to possess it. If there is a weapon and Leif cannot secure it, his friends will be in danger, the shaky peace on Earth will collapse, and the world may plunge into devastating wars. Can a legend still gripped by his past save our future? Or will the Martian Girl’s invention push humanity over the brink?
Word Count: 125000
Summary: A distant star is calling us. Will it end in tears? Could the first contact between humanity and an intelligent species from outer space come at a worse time? The signal arrives when Earth is only beginning to recover from an apocalyptic cyber- and nuclear war. Transportation is by horse. New construction relies on salvage from ruined cities, and indoor plumbing is a thing of the past. Leif Grettison was an army ranger and then an exoplanetary scout who survived two interstellar missions. He thought he had finally found a home and family to call his own when a rider appeared in town, looking for help to deal with a message received from another star system—a message nobody understands. To Leif, this message is the most important event he can imagine. He wants to learn what it says, who sent it, and have humanity respond to it. It is important enough for him to embark on horseback across what used to be the eastern United States to reach Earthbase, the birthplace of humanity’s former interstellar exploration program. At Earthbase he discovers an insular small town in the wilderness, its inhabitants riven by internal politics and preoccupied with day-to-day survival. Tech is almost nonexistent, and even those who want to respond to the mysterious star signal are not sure how. Worse, Leif’s arrival upsets the precarious balance that exists among the factions vying for control. Can Leif reconnect humanity to the stars, or will he start a civil war? If we do reach out to the stars, will we find the stuff of our dreams…or unleash Earth’s biggest nightmare yet? Will Leif regret the decisions he makes?
Word Count: 125000
Summary: Is Leif really lucky? Stranded in orbit, viewing a destroyed civilization on Earth through the screens of a starship almost out of fuel and food, he doesn’t feel that way. It wasn’t supposed to be like that. As the starship Dauntless returns from a successful mission to the planet called Heaven, Earth holds no attractions for Exoplanetary Scout Leif Grettison. He wants only to complete the mission and leave for another star, along with ace pilot Yang Yong. In fact, he would be happy spending the rest of his life flying the starways with her. But they and the rest of the ship’s skeleton crew awaken from hibernation to find Earth’s solar system dark and silent—no signals, no responses to their transmissions. When they make orbit, the magnitude of the disaster becomes clear: An apocalyptic war has killed billions and destroyed every last source of power and tech that 22nd-Century humans relied on to survive. Getting down to Earth is only the beginning of Leif’s problems. Those few who survived the apocalypse are still divided, fighting over what’s left. The disastrous re-entry to Earth leaves him with no resources or allies. He lands in the middle of a makeshift family that needs him more than he’s comfortable with and hears stories—even nursery rhymes—that speak of a lucky starman. For once, he’s the only person with tech—but if he’s caught using it, they might kill him. Can a man back from the stars end the warfare on Earth, or will he make it worse? Can he save a family that might become his? Is he everyone’s lucky starman?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Nothing is new under another sun. Not even murder. This mission should be simple. Exoplanetary scout Leif Grettison and ace pilot Yang Yong are off to deliver a load of supplies and reinforcing settlers to a recently colonized planet. It’s as routine as a starflight can be. Famous last words. Something is wrong with the colonists. They are astonishingly ill-suited for the task of settling a new world. The planet, too, is a poor place to plant a town for humans. Even if everything goes right, the colony might not survive. Then one of the colonists is found dead. Murder is a possibility. Not long after, another one dies—and this time, it’s definitely murder. In a world with only two hundred people, there’s at least one killer. Meanwhile, the colony’s new leader has a plan—but Leif has doubts. Will this man save the settlement, or use his power to become a dictator? Leif and Yong’s mission is clear: they must leave the colony in shape to survive. Leif is a retired soldier, not a detective, and when it comes to investigating a crime, he doesn’t have a clue. Literally. Still, it falls to him to follow the evidence and find the killer. He also needs to deal with the leader and the leader’s plan. If Leif fails, the only mystery may be how long it will take for everyone to die.
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Once upon a time, it was a tough world for a young princess. What happens to the world when the princess decides to get even? Aeryn Stonebreaker is the Princess of Shadows, second in line to the throne of the Light, Shadows, and Dark. The singsong her nursemaids give her is, “Gimlé is wide and bleak, Aeryn is small and weak.” It’s a hard life on Gimlé, a strange world with a red sun that does not move in the sky. Generations before, Aeryn’s warrior-king ancestor, Arthur the Hammer, unified the land and established a detailed Code of governance and behavior. But while Aeryn is a child, obedience to Arthur’s Code is fraying and the kingdom is ripped apart by rebellion and war. She grows up amid the ebb and flow of fighting and the losses it causes. What is the fate of a young girl in a patriarchal world where a princess is nothing more than a token on the game boards of powerful men? However, this is a princess who stops playing by the rules and picks up her own weapons. What happens then?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: Saoirse Kenneally is on a mission to save the people of a distant world. But first, she has some problems of her own to deal with. Saoirse is an alcoholic and an addict who has been disowned by her family. None of the rehabs she has been in will take her back. And she just woke up in jail. Again. To avoid doing time she commits to a two-year term of off-planet service, one that will take her to Saturn's moon Titan and then to a faraway star. The first hurdle is making it through training because Saoirse has a way of finding trouble even when she's trying to behave. Then she's posted to Titan, where every move she makes leads her deeper into a web of corruption, interstellar drug smuggling, violence, and power politics that is likely to end in disaster. Can a twenty-year old woman with a checkered past, a tenuous grip on sobriety, and an on-again off-again relationship with the truth save an entire world from a bloody power grab? And can she save herself in the bargain?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: In the year 2069, humanity’s last chance for peace is the first ever interstellar mission. A multi-national crew of the most talented scientists and pilots has been chosen based on their expertise and skill. The final spot aboard the craft is assigned as a prize in a global “BerthRight” lottery, and Leif Grettison is the “everyman volunteer” who won. However, Leif isn’t really an “everyman.” He’s a helicopter paramedic, a lab tech and a former army ranger who fought in The Troubles – a decade plus war that brought the world to the brink of apocalypse. He’s the perfect brawn to the brains aboard the ship and quickly finds himself playing the role of security and handyman as the crew begins to fragment and divide by country, just as they had during the war. Little is known about the world circling the distant star that is the target for the voyage and the journey will take almost fourteen years, Earth-time, each way. To deal with the unexpected, the crew has the finest equipment and the planners believe they have thought of everything. However, when you believe you have thought of everything, the universe has a way of showing that you haven’t. What do you do when it goes wrong, when you can’t call for help, and when adventure leads to deaths?
Word Count: Information not available
Summary: A college party lands freshman Hal Christianson in an America that could have been: no smartphones, no cars, no flush toilets. What he finds is a squabbling bunch of states, the consequence of the colonies having grown up on their own after European civilization collapsed from plague in the 1670s, and they are poised on the brink of war. For a socially awkward young man, who takes refuge in online games, this is a bad situation. He has no knowledge or experience that is useful in this world. He does, however, have one skill of value in a world where the rifle is a new invention – he is a competitive fencer. What do you do when the world is strange and you have no way to control your own fate? Can Hal grow up fast enough to survive in this world and can he find a way home?
