I return to Urloon

Urloon is a waterworld planet, quite remote. It was settled in the First Diaspora by Terran settlers and developed in isolation for a long time. The people of Urloon have adapted to life in the warm seas using dna adaption science. Now most children are born with gills and fins and off worlders can choose an adaption procedure to live in the domed cities in the sea.

Refugees on Urloon tells the story of a couple who are part of a Center Worlds military ship, stranded on far away Urloon. It will release in April 2012 from Lyrical Press.

My heroine in Refugees has a grown daughter, mentioned but never seen in the story. In my plans I wanted to tell her story as she leaves the high tech Center World planet and travels to Urloon, but I had not really started plotting--thought I would wait until fall or winter.

This weekend I took a bubble bath and semi drowsed instead of reading(my daughter had my Kindle, she is reading a ginormous fantasy series so I may not have it for awhile!) and the battery was out on my pda. So I snoozed--and up popped a great idea.

On Urloon there is a group of people called Wilders. They believe the Urloon should live on the land, outside of the domes, and are a little like survivalists/homesteaders in our present day. Very self sufficient. This group has its extreme fringe, a group of Wilders,  Jakkon's Followers, who undergo an additional adaption procedure. The procedure mottles their skin in shades of blue and green, it gives them superior strength,  and increases their diving depth and ability to stay in cold water. It also shortens their lifespan, generally to ten years following the procedure. Women  who undergo the procedure have miscarriages or still births.

Martine had this additional procedure when she was nineteen. The following year she gave birth to a still born daughter, and soon after that her husband died. She moved to a remote northern island and lives simply as a weaver, trading goods each summer, avoiding the extreme Wilders and also her family in the domes. It has been eight years since she had the procedure. She feels different now and knows her life is coming to an end. She doesn't want to die alone, leaving her flock of dye producing hens called fuzzies to die, too

Lord Voltair of Tuma, of the Asha High Command, is done with war. After the battle of Adrazine, where his entire tier was destroyed, he resigns his commission, turns his estate over to a cousin, and manages to slip away from Asha as the Center Worlds military starts the process of taking over the planet. He follows a rumor that his wife gave birth to a son years ago on a space station, a hub for ships traveling through a jump stream. He finds his child, a small boy, living in an orphanage run by Star Women, a  religious order that has spread through the galaxy. The kindly sisters insist he take another child with him, they have been like siblings. 

He has a small ship, docked inside a larger jump ship, heading out to the rim worlds. He doesn't trust the crew and looks forward to getting to his destination. Toward the end of the journey, the ship they travel on joins several other ships, turns aggressive and is shot down and crashes in the sea of Urloon.

Martine rescues Voltair and his children from the sea. She can turn her northern island home, livestock and weaving business to the Stranger,if he will care for her through these next difficult months. Volt has nowhere else to go. The Asha are not welcome anywhere. This might be the best chance for his children.