Fiction, Science Fiction

The economies of Earth’s nations were tanking. It was a world full of desperate people; the homeless and dispossessed were everywhere. It was a world ripe for human Separatists, whose survival depended on building a legion of human fighters, to go recruiting. The Separatists broke away from the rest of humanity centuries ago and developed their own technology, but now they must return to the home world in order to build an army.

Lieutenant Commander Edgar Fitzpatrick is sent to begin the recruiting effort, right under the noses of Earth’s governments. A twenty-nine-year-old escaped prisoner, 1553441, who had been a college professor before he annoyed the government, was one such man. The sixteen-year-old runaway, Argentina de la Fuentes, was another such perfect recruit.

Two strangers from backgrounds worlds apart, along with thousands of other undesirables are to be trained to fight a terrible enemy, huge Reptilian beings who live to fight. Yet the Separatists, who recruited them, have their own dark secret, a secret that would threaten them all and could lead to the destruction of worlds including Earth.

Born in Anderson South Carolina, William discovered early on, a desire to see the world. While in the Army, he lived on the economy in Germany and worked on his German while making friends with the locals. He backpacked the Black Forest, visited the World War II concentration camp at Buchenwald, drank excellent beer at Oktoberfest in Munich, day hiked in the Swiss Alps, met a beautiful girl in Paris, consumed fish and chips in London, and stood on the Acropolis in Athens. Later, William traveled by ship to Antarctica on a magazine assignment, flew cargo jets, and traveled in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico. He received a MS in geology from the University of Texas at El Paso and now teaches geology at Weatherford College in Texas when not bow hunting, kayak fishing, or writing. He somehow managed to marry the prettiest Mexican girl and best cook west of the Pecos. He and Maria have a son. All these experiences and the people met are woven into his tales. These stories often deal with men and women struggling to live their lives free of the statists-collectivists.