Steve Umstead has been the owner of a Caribbean & Mexico travel company for the past ten years, but never forgot his lifelong dream of becoming an author. After a successful stab at National Novel Writing Month, he decided to pursue his dream more vigorously...but hasn't given up the traveling.

Steve lives in scenic (tongue-in-cheek) New Jersey with his wife, two kids, and several bookshelves full of other authors' science fiction novels. More information is at SteveUmstead.com, and you can always find him on Twitter (@SteveUmstead).

Website: http://www.SteveUmstead.com
Twitter: SteveUmstead

• @KreelanWarrior w00t
• Today's view for the morning. I swear, this job wears me down man... http://t.co/vSzDS8za92
• I suppose my work view could be worse today... http://t.co/VS2ZnwjMlW

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LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/stephenumstead
Wattpad: SteveUmstead

• Gabriel's Redemption, Chapter One

Blog: http://steveumstead.com

• The Royal Gibraltar Regiment performs…INSIDE the Rock
• First time traveling without a Mac. My plan is as follows:
• Welcoming back Robert Swartwood to the Author’s Cafe with his new release, Walk The Sky (and a book giveaway)
• My son and Philadelphia Boys Choir are performing at Carnegie Hall today. Yes, THAT CARNEGIE HALL
• Kicking off “Author’s Cafe” on the blog with an interview with Leah Petersen, author of Cascade Effect

adventure    alien    aliens    blind date    facebook    ferry    fiction action adventure    gabriels redemption    ghost    horror    invasion    island    military    military action    mission    mystery    paranormal    planets    science fiction    scifi    scifi action    scifi action adventure    scifi adventure    short stories    short story    social network    soldier    space    starship    suspense    trilogy    wormhole   

Robert Swartwood
Latest book: Real Illusions: Stories. Published on January 13, 2013.
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• Chasing Filthy Lucre on April 13, 2011
  
  When a greedy corporate power threatens the status quo in Weber Rexall’s town and he’s tasked to do something about it, nothing will stand in his way. Tough guy Rexall, his underground fighting ring cohort Berger, and a synthetic Serve-O named Simmer are just three of the incredibly interesting characters Rush writes into Chasing Filthy Lucre, the first part in a novella series, one that entertains right from the first page. Rush seamlessly blends cyberpunk technology and post-apocalyptic settings with deep characters the reader can truly feel for. The tech itself is fascinating; without giving anything away, when Rush describes the hothouse and its patrons, the remarkable imagery he puts together could easily have been pulled from a scene in today’s world. The scene descriptions, such as the underground fighting and the ‘package delivery’ scene (again without giving too much away) are rich, and really paint a detailed picture in the reader’s head. The story is fast-paced and progresses logically, with a couple of twists, and an exciting climax, then easily feeds into the next novella in the series. Definitely a page-turner, and very well edited for a self-published work. Absolutely worth the download, I’m looking forward to the next in the series! -Steve Umstead
  
• Loose Ends on April 17, 2011
  
  Cleaning up loose ends may have unintended consequences... A hired hit man who previously worked for the mafia. An innocent friend by his side. A corrupt corporation with leak. A gruff CEO with a mysterious and beautiful security agent. A target with questionable morals and a shady lifestyle. This is the cast of characters put together in Loose Ends, a thriller novella from debut author AJ Powers. It's a short novella, borderline long short story (sorry for the oxymoron), but a very entertaining read. A hitman is sent to clean up a loose end, but finds he gets closer to the job than he expected. Good story flow, page-turning, and realistic dialogue and settings. Powers has extensive knowledge of weapons, but doesn't overwhelm the reader with technical details. Good character development, getting inside the main character's head in first person point of view, something I've seen many debut authors fail miserably at (first person isn't as easy as one might think). And of course, a nice twist at the end, leaving the reader wanting more of the story (sequel, perhaps?) This is an absolute no-brainer priced at $.99; I'd certainly recommend Loose Ends for a quick, entertaining thriller. Oh, and Powers designed and created the cover art from scratch - an enviable talent to have.
  
• Unspoken Stories on Sep. 28, 2011
  
  I’m not normally a short story reader; I prefer my time to be spent with full length, involved works, but the concept of Unspoken Stories (according to the author’s blog, named because without some friendly motivation and a new outlook on writing itself, he may never have written them) sounded fascinating. Five separate, unrelated, stories, all based in a different science fiction niche (some more scifi than others), all in one volume. I’m very glad I took the chance. Unspoken Stories consists of Copy Bird, Going Home, Josie Dorri and the Coffee Ban, The Present, and Running to Keep Her. The author explained he wrote each one in a fairly short time frame; as such there are some minor editing issues, but nothing that would pull the reader from the story. One by one, my thoughts on each: Copy Bird: A very unique present tense telling of a post-apocalyptic world. A man awakens in a burned out future society, thinking he’s alone, only to hear the call of a bird, speaking to him, pulling him along to an unknown destination. This was probably my favorite of the five. Great emotion and feelings of the protagonist, and a heartwarming ending. Going Home: A young man has leave from military service against an alien invasion sweeping the human populated worlds, and takes time to visit his family and tries to keep his promise to them. This story started and ran slow for me, but when I completed it, my thoughts on it completely turned around. Looking at it as a whole, knowing the way it ends, made it an excellent tale. Josie Dorri and the Coffee Ban: A different way of looking at the future Big Brother type society, one where cofee is banned, both for drinking and possessing. Easy to relate to, as well as easy to compare to some of today’s odd rules and regulations. The Present: A view on time travel from a personal perspective, and a twist on “what would you do if you could” with the added facet of how it affects others. Good flow, and relatively (no pun intended) easy to follow the timeline. Running to Keep Her: A touching story about loss and what a man does to remember, and how that affects his life going forward. Overall I enjoyed the volume. B. C. Young has a knack for storytelling and keeps the reader interested from start to finish. Even though each story was completely unrelated and stands on its own, they all have similarities and common threads that show Young can write. Looking forward to a few more short stories from him (never thought I’d say that…)