I am so honoured and thrilled that High Flyer won the RUBY Award, given out by Romance Writers of Australia, for Best Speculative Fiction of 2021. High Flyer is part of my Verdant String series, where each book is a standalone, but set in the same world, with some continuity between the books.
Category Archives: Verdant String
Wave Rider is Out Now!
Very happy to announce that Wave Rider, the fifth book in my Verdant String series, is now available in print and ebook format.
About Wave Rider:
Isolated . . . Verdant String scientist, Anja Farucci, is frightened. Her calls for help from her remote coastal research station on the moon Fynian have been going unanswered, and strange things are happening with the leviathan pod she’s studying. Out of options, she sets out on the dangerous three-day journey to Rinc, Fynian’s only city.
Stranded . . . Cal is a wave rider, and if anyone understands leviathans, it’s him, but when Kada, a young leviathan, grabs his boat and strands him on the southern peninsula, Cal is at a loss to understand what is going on.
Thrown together . . . When Cal and Anja cross paths, they discover Anja’s communications have been deliberately sabotaged. Someone doesn’t want anyone coming or going from the southern peninsula. When the people involved start hurting leviathans, though, neither Cal nor Anja can let it go.
What they don’t know, as they get deeper and deeper into the mystery, is that the secret they discover in the cold waters of Fynian’s ocean will change them forever.
High Flyer Up for Pre-order
I’m so happy to say that HIGH FLYER, the next book in my Verdant String series, is now available for pre-order on Amazon and due for a July 24th release.
About High Flyer
Flying the head-of-planet around isn’t a job for the faint of heart. Especially not on Faldine, the planet in the Verdant String whose magnetic fields actively fight against technology, bringing down the ships of the unwary or the incompetent.
Hana thrives on the challenge, though. Thrives on everything about her job. It keeps her from thinking too much about what happened to her during the war, and what she is becoming. A relationship with the head-of-planet himself, though, is more than she wants to deal with.
Iver Sugotti feels like he fell into the role of head-of-planet by default. He knows he’s good at the job, and he’s enjoying the challenge of making tech work on a planet that eats tech for breakfast, but the one thing he really wants–Hana–seems out of his reach.
His pilot has made it clear she’s not interested, and he can only respect the boundaries she’s set. But when someone wants him dead, he and Hana are plunged into an all-out race for their lives. Iver discovers those closest to him have betrayed him, but also, that his pilot is not as disinterested as she seems.
As they try to outwit their enemies, they discover they are far better together than they are apart, and that Hana really is at her best when she’s flying high.
HIGH FLYER is part of the Verdant String series, but can be read as a standalone novel.
Books in the series: Interference & Insurgency (Two Novellas of the Verdant String) | Breakaway | Breakeven | Trailblazer | High Flyer
The planets of the Verdant String, the green, fecund sources of life spanning five solar systems, comprise the Verdant String Coalition. This is the setting for a new science fiction romance series from award-winning science fiction romance novelist Michelle Diener. While the people of the Verdant String know they have a common ancestor, a group of explorers who colonised the planets at the same time a thousand or more years ago, the mysteries of who they were, and where they came from, persist.
Breakaway 99c until March 14th
Breakaway, the first book in the Verdant String series, is now 99c until March 14th.
Trailblazer Available for Pre-order
I’m happy to say that TRAILBLAZER is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Publication date is March 5th. Trailblazer is the third standalone novel in my award-winning Verdant String series.
About Trailblazer
He’s on a mission . . .
She’s running for her life . . .
And if they get off-planet alive, she’ll have to trust he won’t reveal her darkest secret.
Tally Riva is not what she seems, and even she’s not happy about it. Infected, invaded, she’s not quite sure how to describe it, but on a disastrous mission to a ghost ship, something burrowed its way into her body. Into her mind.
When her commander decides the best cure for what he thinks is Tally’s trauma is to send her on the famous Veltos Trail, Tally goes without revealing what’s really behind her mental anguish. Anything to be seen as normal again, anything to ignore what she’s afraid is happening to her.
But Veltos isn’t the safe place it seems. The chosen military personnel lucky enough to be offered the chance to walk the Trail are supposed to be the only people on Veltos. But Ben Guthrie, a captain in Arkhoran Special Forces, knows they’re not. He and his team have been on Veltos for a month already, tracking suspicious enemy activity, and he’s gone undercover on the Trail in search of a satellite his superiors are sure has been shot down.
When Ben’s worst fears become reality, and they find themselves hunted by a cunning enemy through the thick forests of Veltos, Tally and Ben fight together to survive. And Tally has to decide if accepting the changes inside her will save them both, or be her doom.
TRAILBLAZER is part of the Verdant String series but can easily be read as a standalone novel. Other books in the series include Interference & Insurgency (Two Novellas of the Verdant String), and Breakaway and Breakeven.
Breakeven Release Day!
Very happy to say that BREAKEVEN is out today!
BREAKEVEN by Michelle Diener
Eclipse, 8 October 2018
Dee had been fighting one war, only to find herself caught up in another . . .
When circumstances leave Dee stranded on the Breakaway planet of Lassa, she has to choose–take the easy way out, or stand and fight an enemy much like the one she left behind on her home world of Garmen.
For Sebastian, leading the Lassian resistance has come at a heavy price. Forced to gamble the last of his resources on a risky ploy to get some leverage over the Core Companies that run Lassa, he stares defeat in the face when it fails. There’s no backup plan left. Nothing more to work with. And all around him, people are starving, and it looks as if the Cores have entered a deal with a hostile alien force, to enrich themselves even more.
But Dee inspires him. Even though it’s his fault she’s on Lassa to begin with, her courage and steady calm are the assets he needs, and unbeknownst to both of them, she has with her the key to bringing the Cores to their knees.
Now they just have to turn the lock in time.
The Verdant String Series
BREAKEVEN is the sequel to BREAKAWAY, the first full length novel in the Verdant String series. There is a box set of two novellas which precede it, entitled Interference & Insurgency.
The planets of the Verdant String, the green, fecund sources of life spanning five solar systems, comprise the Verdant String Coalition. This is the setting for a new science fiction romance series from award-winning science fiction romance novelist Michelle Diener. While the people of the Verdant String know they have a common ancestor, a group of explorers who colonised the planets at the same time a thousand or more years ago, the mysteries of who they were, and where they came from, persist.
Breakaway is available!
So excited to have the first book in my Verdant String series out. This book was so much fun to write. I hope my readers love it as much as I do 🙂
About Breakaway:
Sofie lives in the shadow of Felicitos–the tethered way station built to funnel Garmen’s mineral wealth up to the top of the atmosphere, where it’s loaded onto space ships. Because Garmen is a breakaway planet, not part of the Verdant String Coalition, the companies that control it are free to run things as they see fit, and Sofie is part of the resistance that wants to end their rule.
Her main goal, though, is to get away from Garmen altogether, and leave the drudgery and violence behind her. That goal is complicated by her involvement with Leo Gaudier, a shadowy crime lord whose ability to cheat the companies that own Garmen is something she admires. And when she stumbles on a terrible new direction the companies are taking, a secret alliance that will endanger everyone she cares about, she sees her chances of escape slipping away.
Leo is all too aware he doesn’t know enough about Sofie, something his own security detail is not slow to point out, but he can’t keep away. When Sofie reveals her links to the resistance, and shows him those in control of Garmen have begun swimming in dangerous waters, he realizes his plan to overthrown them in a careful operation of a thousand cuts is no longer workable.
The time has come for a single, lethal strike–and that will not be without consequences . . .
The Verdant String Series
BREAKAWAY is the first full length novel in the Verdant String series. The two novellas which precede it can be bought together in the Interference & Insurgency Box Set.
The planets of the Verdant String, the green, fecund sources of life spanning five solar systems, comprise the Verdant String Coalition. This is the setting for a new science fiction romance series from award-winning science fiction romance novelist Michelle Diener. While the people of the Verdant String know they have a common ancestor, a group of explorers who colonised the planets at the same time a thousand or more years ago, the mysteries of who they were, and where they came from, persist.
New Release (with giveaway): Interference and Insurgency: Two Novellas of the Verdant String
Very happy to announce that my new book, Insurgency, has just released, and I’ve packaged it together with Interference, the novella that was included in the Orphans in the Black anthology in June 2017.
For all my new release notification subscribers, please feel free to enter the following Rafflecopter giveaway. There are five copies of Interference & Insurgency up for grabs!
The Verdant String Series
The seven planets of the Verdant String, the green, fecund sources of life spanning five solar systems, comprise the Verdant String Coalition. This is the setting for a new science fiction romance series from award-winning science fiction romance novelist Michelle Diener. While the people of the Verdant String know they have a common ancestor, a group of explorers who colonised the planets at the same time a thousand or more years ago, the mysteries of who they were, and where they came from, persist.
Buy the box set of Inference & Insurgency: Amazon | iBooks | Kobo | Nook
Interference (A 25,000 word novella introducing the world of the Verdant String)
Interference can go either way . . .
The tiny moon of Cepi is on a countdown to destruction, and while Nyha Bartali has been persuaded to take her four wards for a final look at the archaeological wonder, now she’s eager to leave. The only problem is, someone has other plans–plans to exploit Nyha and her girls’ status as the betrayed orphans of the Verdant String in order to give them time to steal Cepi’s secrets.
Nyha and her wards’ value as survivors of the destruction of Halatia means it would be political suicide for any leader of the Verdant String to endanger them again–something the hostage-takers know very well. What the hostage-takers don’t know is that Nyha and her girls have more help than they realize.
Mak Carep knows his team’s presence on Cepi is the last flex of Arkhor’s muscle before the moon is blown to bits. Arkhor has interfered on Cepi since it discovered the ruins four hundred years ago, but sometimes, interference can have unexpected consequences. When Nyha and her girls are taken hostage, Mak and the rest of his special forces team are the only ones who have any hope of rescuing them, and they’re ready and willing to do what Arkhor does best . . . Interfere.
Interference was first published in the Orphans in the Black Anthology in July 2017.
Insurgency (Insurgency is a 45,000 word short novel set in the Verdant String series)
The Parnian city of Var is under siege. Buildings are being targeted by insurgents whose only aim seems to be destruction. Nick Bartega is part of the Protection Unit team investigating the explosions, but with no discernible pattern, and no one taking responsibility, he and his colleagues have hit a blank wall.
That is until his neighbor, Tila, is caught up in the first real mistake the insurgents have made. Cornered, forced to take Tila’s whole office hostage, the insurgents are surrounded and out of options, until they use Tila as their shield.
Tila sees herself as Parnian first, Halatian second, but her dark blue hair, and the strong emotions her very existence provokes in others means the insurgents see her as the perfect hostage. No one on Par wants to give the order that might catch her in the crossfire. They’d rather let the insurgents get away.
But Nick, and his commander, Drake, see the first glimpse of a pattern in the insurgents behavior. Not that long ago, Halatians were used as hostages in another incident on the tiny moon of Cepi, and the parallels are hard to ignore. So is this attack on Var an isolated incident, or is there a bigger conspiracy at play?
Whatever the truth, Nick isn’t prepared to leave Tila in the insurgents hands. And he’s prepared to break any rule, and disregard any order to do it.
NEW IN THE VERDANT STRING SERIES:
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