New Release: Contact Unknown

A Starship Valkyrie Short Story Collection

Hello, readers! We interrupt our regularly scheduled serialization of sci-fi romance and MOTE Responses for some very exciting news! Today, Contact Unknown, a Starship Valkyrie short story collection entirely by this author, released to the general public on Amazon!

Members of the Starship Valkyrie community here in SoCal have already been requesting and picking up their copies from me in the past week, and now, you can as well! If you’ve enjoyed my writing here on Substack or elsewhere, such as an anthology, you’ll very much enjoy this collection. If you’ve been reading here and want a better sense of what’s happening in the wider world of Starship Valkyrie, this collection is for you. If you’d like to help support and elevate the career of a small indie author and an indie game like Starship Valkyrie, please do consider grabbing a copy and leaving a review on Amazon and/or Goodreads. We appreciate every little bit of support from the wider Valkyrie fam—and whether you’re a player or a reader, thank you for being on this journey with us and for your continued interest.

What do readers think of Contact Unknown?

Reviews are already coming in! Here’s a five-star review from a reader on Amazon who received an early copy:

This is an absolutely fabulous collection covering and exquisite range of subgenres. Some favorites include:

All Hands, which is a gripping and emotionally moving space battle on one of the worst days for it’s characters and, separately, the Star Navy.

Au Paired, an absolutely charming tale of a battle robot retiring from war to serve as a nanny for a toddler in the immediate aftermath of robotic liberation.

Star Groomsman and Saturnian Masquerade, which follow a stunningly effective jokester of a former officer during his brother’s highly eventful wedding, and then while he and his boyfriend interrupt relationship problems to solve a murder.

Trip Hazard, a far flung adventure about young heroes, finding themselves unlikely virtual adventures.

Throughout the collection. T.A. Leederman’s prose shines, remaining eloquent and evocative while simultaneously adapting to the capabilities, the viewpoints and environments of the characters.

While not obvious on first inspection, the story All Hands is a particular feat in that it manages to really capture the both feel and mechanical accuracy of gameplay without ever getting tripped up or showing the simulation behind the curtain.

This collection had the benefit of reads, comments, and suggestions from a wide variety of beta readers, both folks who have played the game and folks who haven’t, to make sure it’s widely accessible. Many thanks to my beta readers for their assistance and input, including Xander Hark, Parrish Baker, and Marissa Marinello. You can find my additional heartfelt thanks for the whole Valkyrie community and all my beta readers in the Acknowledgements section of the collection.

Sneak Peek: From “Au Paired”

I’m really thrilled to be able to bring this story to readers at last. I wrote it originally in response to a prompt for a short story collection, and while it was not accepted, the beta readers very much loved it. The story is also a particular crystallization of a moment in my son’s life, capturing his toddler essence in that season, so just reading it again makes me smile. If you’re a parent, this story—even though it’s told by a robot nanny—might really speak to you.

Please enjoy this sneak peek into “Au Paired” from Contact Unknown.

RUR 2270 had once experienced an Apex starfighter disintegrating under enemy fire around him, floated in space for hours waiting for pickup by a Star Destroyer, and almost been left to melt on a hell planet made of diamond and methane.

All that, broadly speaking, was fine. The Earth Republic built RUR units for circuit-slagging terror; RUR 2270 had it in his code.

Now that he found himself a structural pillar under a nearly capsized pantry shelf of incredible weight, ominous waterfalls of hulled rice and dried beans streaming beside his auditory sensors like the sands of time, with packages of flour smacking him in the flimsy new android head on their way down… he began to question his life choices.

Client Progeny, Subject Jami Belanger, now chased the cat with a sinister squeal of delight, paying no heed to the mess he’d created nor RUR’s predicament. In his old chassis, lifting the entire shelf off his back would’ve been trivial. Now an android in a bottom-Versa chassis leased for work to domestic robots on an emergency basis, RUR struggled to lift the toddler… let alone the shelf. If he let it drop, he would never get it righted again, and his Belanger adult client would find the mess, irremediable.

So, RUR remained structural, wondering what to do. Jami chased the cat, and the cat climbed the curtains straight up a three-meter-tall window… where she promptly began to cry out alarmed mews, as if confused about how she got stuck.

Query: How did I get myself into this?

I loved writing from the perspective of RUR 2270. He was so different from his brother, RUR 8192, a long-running character from the ERS Odyssey storyline in Valkyrie. One could argue they’re from different product generations, and they are, but RUR 2270 has something special about him. He experienced incredible trauma and terror in the Star Navy, and he broke open instead of apart, opting to leave the service with his freedom and care for children instead.

Here’s another peek from the story…

After intake paperwork and a quick tour of the residence, MP Belanger led RUR upstairs.

“Let me introduce you to Jami. My mother’s been here nonstop, watching out for him while I’ve been working.”

RUR followed along behind, watching the MP carefully. “Does your mother live here, or nearby?”

Belanger laughed. “I wish. Or maybe not, after the last couple of weeks. She came over from Indoc 3 to help, after we lost our last au pair. She’s given me a stern deadline—wants to get back to working nights at Indoc Hospital.” Belanger turned back to RUR with a half-smile. “You hear that? She’d rather work graveyard as a Med Tech than keep waiting on her grandson hand and foot.”

RUR released a tiny beep of alarm, immediately embarrassed as Belanger laughed.

Belanger had tucked the nursery away on the second floor, level with the streetlight. It had a padded seat in the window and some sensory board books arrayed among pillows and blankets. A lettered rug in bright colors, appropriate to child development, splashed the center of the room and undergirded a child-sized table with rainbow chairs. Several plushies shaped like dinosaurs and, to RUR’s chagrin and astonishment, chubby representations of fictional robots dotted the play space. More plush dinosaurs hung from a mobile on the ceiling… a leftover from infancy, perhaps. Even the lamp featured a simple, smiling T-rex. RUR found this ominous; why surround such an impressionable child with extinct predacious megafauna?

Client Progeny himself, Jami Belanger, aged thirty-three months, stood manipulating colorful salt dough at his table, rolling it out and cutting shapes as if preparing to bake. Client Grandmother perched nearby in a rocking chair, holding a tablet and watching RUR approach with a steady, illegible expression.

“Kiran… what is this?”

RUR experienced a coded shimmer of amusement through multiple processes. MP Belanger didn’t even hesitate, revealing the bullheaded, cheerful confidence of a born politician.

“This is RUR, Mom—our new au pair. Right on time for you to head back to work on Sunday.” Belanger then pivoted to the child, who only glanced up for a moment before returning to his dough. “Jami, this is RUR. Can you say hello, please?”

Jami gazed back at RUR with big brown eyes. He looked like the cherubs in Renaissance paintings, with auburn curls and a chubby-cheeked face. RUR had downloaded a large quantity of such classical images when he wished to contemplate human artforms.

“Wo-bot.” The child accentuated the T triumphantly, as if to say, I know what a robot is! You!

“My designation is RUR 2270. You may call me RUR.”

Jami Belanger fixed large brown eyes on him, seeming to consider.

“Wur-bot.”

And so “Wur-bot” it remained.

You can read the rest of “Au Paired,” along with nine other excellent stories of Starship Valkyrie—including novellas and novelettes!—in Contact Unknown, available today in ebook or gorgeous paperback. I worked hard on this fella, including a glossary of terms for Valkyrie newcomers and an introduction to everything in the collection. I hope folks will check it out! You can get your very own copy here, or you can come meet me in person at my author signings for an autographed copy, complete with bookmark and swag.

Podcast Highlight

You all probably guessed by now that I co-host the Illicit Liaisons podcast with Jenna Harte for Tender and Tempting Tales, but this week, I'm the guest! We talked about what folks can expect for submissions to my zine, Sapphics of Saturn, about my serializing sci-fi romance novel Vox Protocol which you can read here every week, and, of course, about Contact Unknown. Also spicy hot takes, because we can’t help ourselves, and book drama. I hope folks will listen on their commutes or while folding laundry. Let us keep you company!

You can find it over on the T&TT Substack here:

Illicit Liaisons: Sci-Fi Romance Tara Leederman, plus book drama and more

New Stuff Around Here

What Remains will be leaving Ghost and coming here to Substack this fall; I’ll begin the transition once kiddo is done with camp. I’ll also begin serializing Elysium Sands soon on Substack, possibly after I get through this next five weeks’ worth of events. I’ll be at LFG Con in Burbank, World Con in Anaheim promoting Stratcon, and at Strategicon at the LAX Hilton between now and Labor Day weekend. If you’re in SoCal, I would love to see you! Come on by for a book, some anthologies, Valkyrie swag, an autograph, and maybe play a game of Valkyrie! We’ll be running at both LFG Con and Strategicon.

Thanks for coming by! More MOTE response material and Vox Protocol coming later this week. :)