Don't you ever wonder...

Why don't the movie dinosaurs or monsters eat the people they kill?

Why is it, on TV, when a couple have just finished making love and they climbed out of bed they're still dressed? Especially when the man's wearing pajama bottoms?

Why do bugs scream when they die in movies?

Why do developers bulldoze a forest flat then put up cookie-cutter houses and call it Fox Glen? Or Deer Grove or White Oaks Estate?

Why, again on TV or movies, does a guy get shot anywhere on his body and he dies? And if he's the hero it won't matter where he's shot either -- okay, maybe not a head shot. I've seen people shot in the stomach and in seconds is dead when the reality is getting gut shot is a very slow and painful death. Lee Loffland, over at his blog, the Graveyard Shift, will tell you that shooting a person doesn't mean they'll go down either. Not right away. He's experienced men shot multiple times, even ones with fatal injuries, who keep on coming. The only sure fire instant death is hit the heart or sever the spinal column at the base of the brain. This why cops routinely handcuff the dead man. Also because cops can't declare someone dead, only the coroner can. Caveat. This is LA I'm talking about. It's the only police force I know a fair bit about.

Why does every hero in fiction ride a black stallion? Are they less of a man if they ride a bay gelding or an old gray mare?



BLURB

Fall Into The Night is an epic science fiction, a journey of discovery. Captain Terik u Selhdun has known darkness all of his life. Captain of the Necromancer, the ruler of Tiamat, his ancestral home, he is coerced into taking a small group of scientists in search of the legendary birthplace of humanity. Earth -- Terra -- was lost to history during the Exodus. From the beginning trouble dogs the expedition, from a failed assassination attempt to the manipulations of a despotic Suzerain and a brutal Navy Admiral who have no intention of letting Selhdun or his mission succeed.

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EXCERPT    

"Two planets, so far," Benin said. "Both gas giants. We're pretty sure one is Neptune. The other appears to match the data we have on Saturn, but the ring system is badly degraded. Nothing to account for the degradation, either."

He frowned over something on his screen, then entered some more figures and watched the image change. "Mining was heavy in this sector prior to the Exodus. We're checking out the Trojans to see what's accumulated in there. When is Pakal going to move us in? Or is he going to wait until the captain comes out?"

"Don't know," Lyssra said. "He's not saying much. Just be thankful we have access to all the bridge instruments." She didn't want to talk about Pakal and what he might or would do. "Any sign of the other gas giant? What was the name? Jupiter? I understand there was a heavy mining and military presence there. At least one of the moons held a major colony. Find it, and assess the viability of a flyby on our way in--whenever that happens."

"Something here, Lyssra," Nikoli said. "Another gas giant. In past the one Benin says is Saturn."

"That would be Jupiter," Benin said. He bent back over his instruments. "Unfortunately it's out of our way, as far as attempting a flyby. Ship is running an automatic scan--no sign of an artificial power source."

A minute later Kaari approached Nikoli's station. She crouched by his seat.

"What do you make of this, Niki? The noise on the 'Tech reserved channel has strengthened steadily. I'm going to talk to Pakal about switching our 'Techs to another channel, they're having a hard time communicating over it. What do you think it could be?

Nikoli frowned, and even Lyssra bent closer to look at the readouts Kaari had called up on his screens.

"Weird," he said. "But it's just noise. Even Ship can't seem to make much of it. Ever hear anything like it before?"

"'Techs sound that way sometimes when they're busy running some program. Otherwise..." She shrugged. "It's just gibberish. Solar activity?"

"Could be." Nikoli frowned. "Still, it is odd."

"Odd how?" Lyssra asked.

"Hard to say, exactly. Solar activity is more...random. This almost has a pattern to it. Almost..."

Not very helpful. Was it something they had to pay attention to now? Or could it wait? Lyssra frowned. Decisions like that had to be made fast. She just hoped she made the right ones.

"Let's take a look at those Trojans," she said. "If this area was as heavily mined as our records indicate, then we should be able to find some sign of that activity. Anything they put in there should still be there, right?"

"Sure," Kaari said. "The masses are right. Those points are stable."

"Let's see if we can get lucky then," Lyssra said.

Soon they were studiously bent over blinking instruments, checking out the nearest leading Trojan. Not that Lyssra expected to find anyone useful still around those points of stable equilibrium where the gravitational forces of each local planetary body balanced. Trojans were great collection points and all kinds of interesting garbage might still be there. Maybe even something that would tell them what had become of the original Terrans.

"Now that's really odd," Nikoli said. "Kaari, come look at this."

Lyssra went, too. She leaned over his shoulder. At first she saw nothing, then she gradually grew aware of where she was looking. A Trojan point. But--

"They've been stripped clean." She met Kaari's eyes. "Who would go to all the trouble of cleaning everything out of a Trojan point? To what purpose?"

No one, it seemed, had any answers.

They went on with their search.


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Bio

Born in Canada, Pat Brown's approach to life was tempered in the forges of Los Angeles and after eight years in the City of Angels she was endowed with a fascination for the darker side of life and the professionals who patrol those mean streets. She considers those eight years a life time's worth of experience that she mines regularly in her novels. She is not afraid to explore the darker sides of her characters and the streets they inhabit, including the ones most people are afraid to walk down alone at night.

Her vision of L.A. can be found in books like L.A. Heat, L.A. Boneyard, and her latest, Latin Boyz, set in East L.A., it is a story of love and tragedy, and acceptance. In L.A. Heat, in-the-closet LAPD homicide detective David Eric Laine has to face his own desires to find a vicious serial killer targeting young gay men and in L.A. Boneyard he faces a human trafficker ring. L.A Storm, a techno thriller, Los Angeles itself is the potential victim of a shadowy hacker that would bring the city to its knees will be released later this year..

She wrote her first book at 17 and fortunately for readers everywhere, it was lost in time. She was first published for pay was in 2007, her first novel in 2006.

Her first novel, L.A. Heat was published in 2006 by Alyson Books, it was reprinted in ebook form by Bristlecone Pine Press and in print by MLR Press. Bristlecone also published the second book in the series, L.A. Mischief in both ebook and print. L.A. Boneyard has been revised and is now available in ebook. The rest of the L.A. series will be re-released over the next few months. Geography of Murder and its sequel Forest of Corpses have been re-released in ebook form. Other books included Between Darkness & Light and Man's Best Friends will also be revised and released.

In 2009 she was solicited by AmberQuill Press to submit to them. They subsequently published Memory of Darkness, Lynx Woods, Fall Into the Night, The Bear and Placing out.