Well, we got a bit of snow and a week of freezing weather so it does feel like we had something of winter. Now its raining hard and my daily runs involve knee-deep sections of brown river (and that's if I stick to the roads). Makes it feel a lot more adventurous!
With my day job now involving many, many hours on a screen, I'm finding I can't face another hour or two on a computer to write. It does mean I'm getting a lot of plotting done in my trusty notebooks. Most of the first book in the Two Democracies: Unity is planned out, taking up events several decades after Fraternity. I've also got large parts of the next Two Democracies: Justice book plotted and an overall arc for a series on Johnson's early career.
And I'm loving this scifiesque rose I got for Valentines...

And here are the books you want...

They call themselves the next step in human evolution. But we call them "scummers". They are hybrids. Humans with alien DNA.
They attacked us. They butchered us. Now we fight back.
Under the leadership of Einav Ben-Ari, our brave soldiers fly to the scummer planet. To war.
But we face a terrifying foe. The scummers are stronger than us. Faster. Fiercer. And their queen is none other than Lailani de la Rosa... Ben-Ari's oldest and best friend.
The two forces clash. The final battle is here. A battle between the old and new. Between humans and those who vow to supplant us.
This is a war between old friends... and a war for humanity's soul.

Now humans and aliens must share this war-torn galaxy. None of this matters to Drake, though, he's just an artist. He's tagging along on the busted up ship Trystero, along with its ragtag crew. Together, they traverse the Demilitarized Zone between Terran and Gra'al borders, taking on any job they can find. Big or small. Human or alien.
The galaxy changes when the crew encounters a derelict alien ship, its crew slaughtered. With his dying breath, a crewman points them to a box. In it? An abandoned alien baby. When their government refuses to get involved, Drake and the crew need to return the baby they've been calling Bruce home, a bloodthirsty warlord on their tail.
His quest? Find Bruce and claim the Gra'al throne, declaring a new war on humanity.
Drake never wanted to be a hero... now he's all that stands in the way of a fragile peace between humans and aliens.

A young woman seeks the truth about her family on a distant world, uncovering secrets that will lead the Interstellar Union into civil war and risk the lives of all who love her.
Sometimes, doing nothing and waiting for the right time takes more courage than doing the wrong thing right away.
But I can’t do nothing. My parents lied to me. About everything. Now is my time. I’m going to Bodens Gate where all of it started, and I’m going to find the truth. About everything.
I am brave. That’s the lie I tell myself when the shaking starts deep inside and my body and mind curl inward from the terror that’s waiting for me. My friends Winona and Sam hold me together. They’re the only ones that can.
I will fight the Tarakana that hide in the shadows, shifting shapes and feeding on us. No one believes the Tarakana exist, but they do. The one inside my mind is good. I call him Merrimac. The bad ones are tearing the Interstellar Union apart to feed on our pain. I’ll stop them, even if they tear me apart while I’m doing it.

Tanya, a techie, is the newest member of the crew of the Queen Anne's Revenge. Her former crewmates considered her as a trouble maker not worthy of keeping her position aboard their cargo ship. They were about to sell her into a life of slavery in the Alliance, but Doc and Nathaniel Roberts rescued her. She made a six-year commitment to Nathaniel, as a bridge officer, in exchange for her freedom. She is loyal to him. Natasha is the name of the starship's AI. Tanya is teaching her avatar on how to act more like humans. That means learning how to lie and cheat. She rarely leaves Tanya's side and serves as her companion.

Nathaniel Roberts recently took over as captain of the Queen Anne's Revenge. During the last three years, the Alliance confiscated everything of value except his ship. That is next. He also lost his extended family and friends. They were either conscripted into the military or brain wiped and given a new personality in their reeducation centers.
Captain Roberts and his crew are at the end of their resources. If he doesn't make the next tax payment, he will lose the starship and maybe his life. The Alliance military is watching him, making sure that he doesn't escape. The next time the Alliance boards his ship will be his last time. His first command decision is escaping the Alliance and crossing the border into the Collation of Free Worlds where he can start a new life.
He and his crew will become exiles; he doesn't care. Nathaniel has no intention of returning to Alliance territory. Now, it is up to Captain Roberts to restore his family wealth and get revenge against the Alliance for what they did to his friends and family.

A race of conquerors from deep space had set their eyes on Earth´s riches. Their invasion slaughtered billions...
But humanity united under a common leadership and fought back. We chased them off Earth and most of the Solar System.
The war still rages on, and every year young people are sent out to die, far away from Earth.
Ethan Wang was born on the day of the invasion, during the chaos and turmoil of war, and now he´s ready to join the fight. But first he has to become a soldier, and survive his initiation into one of the toughest military units Earth ever mustered, the Ghost Legion.

Struggling with newfound sentience and desperately trying to repair itself, The Indescribable Joy of Destruction is a ship trying to find a new home. In a galaxy torn apart by generations of civil war, that isn't an easy task. Tired of being used as a killing machine, it has a huge decision to make: hide and save itself, or help other artificial intelligences achieve freedom. Unable to make the decision alone, it revives the sole human aboard - the enemy officer who crippled it.
Commander Olivia Johnson wakes to find herself in the infirmary of a strange vessel. Her nightmares deepen when she discovers it is the ship that attacked her destroyer. Even as she recovers from her physical injuries, she can't get past her survivor's guilt. She might have failed to protect her crew, but she vows to take revenge on their killer.
When the ship uncovers a genocidal plot by the commander's own admirals, Johnson realises just what is at stake. Together, the AI ship and the human officer must recruit outsiders from both sides. Training the misfits in battle to prevent the atrocity may be an impossible task, but running and hiding is no longer an option.

She is programmed to kill. He’ll do anything to survive.
Ex-con Captain Caleb Shepperd believes being good is overrated. All he wants is to smuggle illegal cargo through the nine systems and live a prosperous (likely short) life on the wrong side of the law.
But there's a problem with that plan. The priceless synthetic stowaway on his ship is a distraction he doesn't need.
Torn between selling her and tossing her out the airlock, Shepperd fails to realize the synth is a killer, and he's the one locked in her sights.
In a world where only one thousand synthetics were built, synthetic number One Thousand and One should not exist. She is no ordinary synth. Memories locked inside her code could bring Shepperd—and the entire nine systems—to its knees.
Captain Shepperd and the oppressive corporations are about to learn that you can't hide from the sins of your past, especially when that past has orders to kill.

When Earth gets embroiled in the middle of an intergalactic war, humanity's only hope for survival rests with a rag-tag team of unlikely heroes which includes an ace fighter pilot, a stuntwoman, a super-assassin, and an alien prankster.
Jim, a wise-cracking, OCD-suffering fighter pilot, is about to propose to his girlfriend when his friend Kurt surprises them by showing up at his house, wounded and covered in blood. This is just the beginning of Jim's woes because soon after his life is thrown into a galactic conflict that threatens the very existence of the human race.

Thirty-five years of peace. One vicious attack destroys it all.
Reservist Lieutenant Justin Spencer loves every minute of flying fighters through space during his annual two-week tour with the Coalition Defense Force. The job back home isn’t nearly as thrilling as blowing up asteroids with the squadron under his command, but it keeps him close to his wife and daughter. After all, joining the CDF was only for the free education. Justin never expected a battle, much less a war.
With one shot across his cockpit, peacetime fades into memory.
An unexpected enemy emerges with overwhelming force designed to obliterate the Terran Coalition. The League of Sol has a different name, but it’s the same communist regime that chased away much of Earth’s population hundreds of years ago.
Illusions of returning home are shattered in a single instant. Simulated battles become all too real, and it’s full-on engagement or permanent elimination. Death and destruction erupt across the Terran Coalition and leave Justin in a protracted war with only one truth remaining.
The battlefield will leave no one unscathed.

Death stalks the edges of human space.
Cam Alvarez and Vicky Sandoval have pursued the renegade, Tahni Zan-Thint, to his refuge in the outlaw cartels of the Pirate Worlds. On a planet of endless ocean and volcanic fury, Zan-Thint is coming ever closer to learning the secrets of the ancient alien weapons he’s discovered.
And if Cam and Vicky can’t stop him, he’ll unleash the wrath of a long-dead civilization on all humanity.

The gods have been angered.
Hell will rain down.
After Wic and the Phantom’s successful operation on Karkin Four, the team learns of the enemy’s plans for a swift retaliation: an all-out assault on New York City.
Together, Wic must rally the team’s resources to plan an emergency counterassault that will push the Phantoms to their limits. With help from unexpected places, mission success seems all but assured.
But when a new terrifying technology emerges, Wic must face the most challenging choice of all: sacrifice his teammates for the fate of Earth.
Allegiances will be tested, friendships will fray, and the planet will march toward the greatest darkness it has ever encountered.

When a signature has the power to start a galactic war...
Parv Zarinth learned early in life that if he wanted to defy his father, he’d have to do it from somewhere half-way across the galaxy. He does his best on Hettamir to represent his father’s interests. He steers away from any conflict that may threaten the family business which translates into galactic empire.
Hettamir is a world with no other than hospitality industry. It’s a pleasure to do business on Hettamir, in every sense of the word. And Parv has been mixing business with pleasure for five years now, flying under the radar of his tyrannical father. The business is to expand his father’s business empire. The pleasure has a name: Arun Dyem. She is as beautiful as she is crafty, having risen from the ranks of sex industry to lead her people in a ‘velvet’ revolt.
As the champion of her people’s rights and freedom, she is relentless in lobbying the Galactic Confederation for a treaty that will bring Hettamir protection. It is the last thing the warlords of New Hebrides want.
Parv watches the preparations for the grand event, even as he tries to shake off the feeling that something... or everything is going to go wrong. He finally has what he’s always wanted—a woman he loves and means to keep. She is his whole life, his destiny. And he will fight to his last breath to hold on to his future...