Redemption (noun): The action of saving or being saved from error or sin.
We all make mistakes. It’s a human condition, part and parcel of being a fallible mortal creature. Fortunately, most of our errors can be rectified by a heartfelt apology. No big deal, right?
Then there are the biggies. We commit missteps that can’t be fixed by a simple ‘I’m sorry’, a bouquet of roses, or even by prostrating oneself in debased shame before the offended party. I’m thinking of acts which have caused extreme loss or pain to someone—or perhaps multitudes. Grievous crimes against humanity, if you will.
Imagine you’re the one who caused such devastation. You didn’t do so out of any malevolence. In fact, perhaps the fault occurred because you were trying to do the right thing. However, you made a mistake and the worst possible outcome happened. Can you ever be forgiven? Redeemed in the eyes of those you harmed?
Could you find redemption for yourself? Because in the end, you have to face up to what you’ve done. You have to answer to your conscience. Let’s be honest here. In most cases, we are our own worst judges. We hold our actions to impossible standards, criteria we’d never inflict upon those we care about. What we could forgive in them, we can’t pardon in ourselves.
The search for clemency becomes paramount. If we don’t find salvation somehow, we will turn on ourselves or others. You see it in the news every day through stories of physical abuse, alcoholism, and drug addiction. Sometimes even suicide. Or murder. Attempts at atonement that don’t result in forgiveness can sometimes result in extreme acts.
I often examine such issues in my writing. Sure, I’m a romance writer whose characters roam about in a fantastical science fiction universe. A great many of my characters are aliens. Yet it’s the human condition and how it reacts to the best and worst in life that feeds my stories.
In the sixth installment of my Clans of Kalquor series, ALIEN REDEMPTION, remorse for unforgivable deeds drives the plot. It starts with one hero’s deadly mistake. Unable to find redemption for what he’s done, his subsequent actions begin to harm his clanmates. Unfortunately, they have their own sins to contend with, leaving him to battle his demons alone. And what of the heroine, who on the surface seems a likely candidate to offer the damaged heroes a reprieve? Unfortunately, she has past misdeeds to answer for as well.
And let’s not forget about all the dead bodies piling up around the characters as unresolved guilt twists into a lethal rampage.
Who will find absolution? Who will self-destruct? Who will devastate those they love? Can the past be forgiven or are some evils beyond mercy? Come with me on this journey into the psyche and let’s find out.
ALIEN REDEMPTION by Tracy St. John
Only her love can redeem their crimes…if their secrets don’t get her killed.
Imdiko Conyod’s clanmates Dramok Erybet and Nobek Sletran are home from the war. However, he no longer knows these men. Changed by the horrors they’ve seen and done, they are very different people. How can he allow them to clan the traumatised Earther Rachel Hicks, whom he’s come to love so deeply? And how can he not clan her when she’s the only thing right in his life?
Erybet and Sletran keep secret the truth of the terrible crime they committed on the Earther colony of New Bethlehem. The damaged clan tries to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives with Rachel, a woman as passionate as any three men could wish for. But the murders of other Earther women mean Erybet and Sletran must face the monstrous act they thought they had left behind. Someone calling himself the Beast of New Bethlehem is murdering Earther women…and the killer may be closer to the clan’s beloved Rachel than anyone suspects.
Erotica | Science Fiction [Totally Bound Publishing, On Sale: June 20, 2017, Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781786861757 / ]
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About Tracy St. John
Tracy St. John lives in coastal Georgia with her husband and son. You’ll often find her haunting train museums with her locomotive-loving son. Besides writing, she has also worked in video production both in front of and behind the camera. She’s usually cast as the gun-toting bad gal, getting handcuffed in the end. She has no complaints.
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