Merimnae: Homebound

by William Altmann, Conrad Altmann (illustrator)

After rendering what aid they could to an injured planet, Zochoten and Urania, their young daughter Theodora and Natasha, her au pair, have left the home of humanity behind. Now, most of the way back to Physeter—the homeworld that they departed from many years ago—something goes wrong and Natasha is woken from stasis prematurely. She is now alone on a ship hurtling toward a planet she has never known and a people who may not accept her.

But was the error that woke her truly unintended, or a carefully set plan to allow time to formulate a plan for her ulterior motive? One that may change the course of a culture she knows nothing about.

289 pages, Paperback

Published November 27, 2024

About the author

Hello, my name is Bill. I write under my full name, William Altmann. So far, I have 17 books completed and all up on Amazon and most on Apple. Most are available as large print paperbacks because that's what my mother can read. My son (kudos to him) has done all my cover designs.

I've had a forty-plus-year career as an electrical engineer, working for companies large and small, established and not out of the womb. It's been fun (at times), interesting (at times), and paid the bills (all the time, so far). It's also provided me with international travel (I will not brag on my country count...), which I love. Put me on a train going anywhere, and I'm happy.

I've semi-retired and moved to Austin, Texas from California. I enjoy bike riding (road, not trail), hiking (trail, not road), reading, collecting books and slide rules.

I had dreamed of writing a book for more than 20 years. I started a couple, and they're still in the "incomplete manuscript" stage. Then, in Spring of 2020, with not enough to do except stare at the keyboard and curse viruses (bio, not techno), I said to myself, "Why not now?" I cranked out a four-book series beginning with Emperor First and continuing through 3 more novels, about a few Presidents, one-after-the-other, with more or less success in their endeavors. In parallel, I wrote seven (so far) shorter 'novellas' as "cozy friction", The Mary Jane Gang, each set in a senior citizens' residence complex. This one was prompted by phone calls with my mother... Guess which character she is! Then, in the fall last year, my son and I dared each other to write a sci-fi novel each. I finished mine: In On a Comet. When my wife got tired of me rolling my eyes at the evening news in January, I wrote a satirical fiction novel: about a leader trying to escape justice. It has four alternate endings, all in one volume: Escape Pod. And, turning a news story into a short novel, I wrote The Blossomfield Affair, and set it near my home town.

Since 2022, I've added five novels in a sci-fi saga. They tell of an interstellar mission where things go wrong, not outside the spacecraft, not inside the spacecraft, but inside the head of one astronaut. See: Merimnae: Outbound, Merimnae: Inbound , Merimnae: Unbound , Merimnae: Rebound , and Merimnae: Homebound .

I've uploaded a set of short stories to my page on https://vocal.media/authors/william-a....

I have lots more ideas. And I'm having lots of fun.