Maintenance Matters

Alexis Glynn Latner is the author of “Mascot,” one of the 12 science fiction romances in the Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 anthology.

A lot of writers have had odd jobs which enriched our understanding of the world and supplied us with plot devices. I’m no exception. My checkered career includes being an apprentice electrician at Rice University, after I graduated from Rice. A research university is a fascinating place as to what can go electrically or mechanically wrong, how it can impact research, and how researchers react to maintenance problems. (Sometimes not very sensibly.)

Years later I was Maintenance Chief at Soaring Club of Houston—not because I was an aircraft mechanic myself, but because I was able to organize preventative maintenance teams and arrange for annual inspections. And I was willing to tell eager club members this glider is grounded for preventative maintenance and no it is NOT available for you to fly!

Maintenance makes the modern, mechanical world go round—or come to a screeching stop. It collides with the desire of machine users not to have to stand down for maintenance. Maintenance done wrong is a genuine breeding ground for fatal errors. And maintenance deferred too long is slow disaster—witness a house falling down around elderly homeowners who can’t keep the place up.

My story “Mascot” in the Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2 anthology has a version of that last scenario as a setting. Star Corner Station is slowly and inexorably falling into ruin—starved of sufficient funds and personnel to keep it in good repair. To say the least, it’s time something changed. And in “Mascot,” things change drastically.

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Mascot (An Aeon’s Legacy Novella)
By Alexis Glynn Latner

A space station manager and an interstellar auditor must work through their antagonism and attraction to each other while the station comes under attack. Then the station mascot enters the fray!

About the Author

Alexis Glynn Latner writes science fiction and fantasy romantic adventure, teaches creative writing, and works at the Rice University Library in Houston, Texas. For fun and the romance of flight, she is a sailplane pilot. Her website is www.alexisglynnlatner.com.

Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2

The pets are back! Embrace the Romance: Pets in Space 2, featuring twelve of today’s leading Science Fiction Romance authors brings you a dozen original stories written just for you! Join in the fun, from the Dragon Lords of Valdier to a trip aboard award-winning author, Veronica Scott’s Nebula Zephyr to journeying back to Luda where Grim is King, for stories that will take you out of this world! Join New York Times, USA TODAY, and Award-winning authors S.E. Smith, M.K. Eidem, Susan Grant, Michelle Howard, Cara Bristol, Veronica Scott, Pauline Baird Jones, Laurie A. Green, Sabine Priestley, Jessica E. Subject, Carol Van Natta, and Alexis Glynn Latner as they share stories and help out Hero-Dogs.org, a charity that supports our veterans!

SPECIAL NOTE: 10% of the first month's profits go to Hero Dogs, a charity that supports U.S. veterans. Read all about the wonderful work they do, matching very special service dogs with very special veterans who need a helping paw.

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