First Page-Oxygen by Authors Randy Ingermanson & John Robinson

OXYGEN by Authors Randy Ingermanson & John Robinson features a very strong woman as the lead character, Valkerie Jansen, who has the opportunity to be the "first man on Mars" -- if she can survive the trip.

Chapter One


Valkerie woke up screaming. A viper bat clung to her face with fishhook claws, smothering her with its thin, leathery body. She tore at her face, but the creature had dug in too deep. She could already feel its venom burning into her lungs, constricting her chest in a long, convulsive cough. Struggling for control, she traced the contours of her face with tingling fingertips. Slowly, the clinging creature melted into her skin, fading back into the world of dreams.

The nightmare gradually faded, giving way to a new, more gripping terror. Valkerie was wide awake now. There was no such thing as a viper bat. But she still couldn't breathe.

Valkerie flung herself from the camping cot and thudded to the floor. She lay on her back, gasping for breath. She was hyperventilating, but the burning in her lungs grew worse. An acrid stench filled the cabin-the smell of sulfur dioxide-SO2.

"Oh no." The volcano was venting. "Oh God, please ..." Valkerie rolled over and fought her way up onto her hands and knees. Dim red light filtered in through the cabin window, illuminating a large duffel bag in the middle of the room. She crawled slowly toward the bag, struggling through the coughs that wracked her body.

"Please, God." Squeezing her eyes shut against the pain in her cramping muscles, Valkerie inched forward until she felt the heavy canvas. She dug underneath a metallic thermal suit and pressed her breather to her face. Her lungs choked shut at the rush of acidic gas. Idiot! She flung the mask across the room. Gina-Marie had warned her about the filter, but Valkerie had insisted it would be good for one more trip.

Her mind raced. If Mount Trident was venting, the whole valley could be filled with sulfur dioxide. She had to get out of there. Fast.
I'm attaching a photo of me and my coauthor John Olson and the cover art for OXYGEN.

Randy's web site is at
http://www.ingermanson.com

John's web site is at:
http://www.litany.com

Randy's web site about writing fiction is at:
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com

And
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com/blog

Author Randy Ingermanson & The 1st Woman on Mars!

A writer who has taught me quite a bit about writing and about websites and Internet Marketing is Author Randy Ingermanson. Today he's going to share the strength of his heroine, Valkerie, the first woman on Mars in his (and co-author John Robinson) ebook reissue of their Christy Award winning sci-fi, OXYGEN. Here's Randy:

"OXYGEN features a very strong woman as the lead character, Valkerie Jansen, who has the opportunity to be the "first man on Mars" -- if she can survive the trip.
Valkerie is cool under pressure and is able to think clearly when everybody else is going nuts. In OXYGEN, she shows this strength on a voyage to Mars when an explosion causes most of the air in her ship to leak out into space while two of her comrades are doing a spacewalk. She does an unscheduled spacewalk, hauls in one of her friends who's unconscious, and puts an emergency patch in place to save what little air remains in the ship.

Where does Valkerie get her strength? From two places. First, her faith in God helps her to not fear death, because death is not the end. Second, Valkerie has a strong relationship with her father, and she wants to act in a way that'll make him proud of her.

In OXYGEN, both of those sources of strength receive a severe trial. It's easy to act heroically in moments of high danger, but it's not so easy to continue to act heroically when those moments stretch out for days, weeks, or months -- and you have time to reflect on the fact that you are probably going to die very soon. When that happens, Valkerie is forced to ask whether her faith is real . . . or just an act."--Randy

BTW, Randy has a PhD from Berkley in physics (I think!) so the science is all factual not made up.


Drop by
http://www.ingermanson.com

And also co-Author John Robinson's website:
http://www.litany.com

Randy's web site about writing fiction is at:
http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com

Randy has written a great book called Writing Fiction for Dummies and is known for his "Snowflake" characterization plan which he gives away free on his Advanced Fiction Writing website. He also has a free ezine for fiction writers which is AMAZING!--Lyn