Welcome to the official website home for Odessa Moon, the author of “The Steppes of Mars” books from Peschel Press.
The series concerns a terraformed Mars, set hundreds of years into the future. Although supported by Olde Earth, the planet’s limited resources results in a combination of high technology imported from the home planet, centered on the capital city of Barsoom, and a rural life revolving around agriculture. A world designed by engineers, half of the planet is occupied, inhabiting vast squares of land called demesnes, ruled by families headed by a daimyo. Each family rules their demesne, while the Martian government controls the free cities and oversees the railroads that link the demesnes. In the vast Northern and Southern areas ride the horsemen, while the back half of the planet is largely empty and unexplored.
The first book in the series “The Bride from Dairapaska,” concerns Debbie, who flees into the steppes with her three children to escape a brutal marriage. There on the lonely plains, she encounters a tribe of horsemen, and their journey will create unexpected changes among the rulers of Mars.
The second book, “The White Elephant of Panschin,” concerns Airik, the daimyo of Shelleen. Enriched by the discovery of Red Mercury on his lands, he visits a mining conference in the domed city of Panschin. To avoid fortune hunters (including the mothers of marriageable daughters), he stays under an assumed name in a boarding house called the White Elephant. Its owner, the daughter of a disgraced businessman, is forced to stay afloat by opening her home to boarders. She is curious about the mysterious stranger staying with her, but she is wrapped up in her concerns, including an gallery showing being held in her ballroom, and a dangerous man making an offer she might be forced to accept.
The third book, “The Vanished Pearls of Orlov,” is available now! Facing a forced marriage to a brutal nobleman, Lannie DelFino searches for a way out.
At the same time, Fenrick HighTower, the younger son of a leader of a destitute horse clan, must journey through dangerous territory on his family’s behalf. In the capital city of Barsoom, Lannie and Fenrick collide, their destinies tied to the richest and most dangerous treasure on Mars: the Pearls of Orlov.
“Escape to HighTower” continues the story begun in “The Vanished Pearls of Orlov.” Lannie DelFino is free from her overbearing, grasping noble family and a dangerous marriage to the daimyo of Orlov, but she faces an uncertain future. She’s escaping north with Fen HighTower, the youngest son of his demesne’s ruling family. Although he willingly helped spirit her out of the capital city of Barsoom, they’ll be riding away from civilization and into the open country where the horse lords rule. Is he up to protecting her? Does he want to? And what will happen at night if their attraction to each other leads to something more?
Odessa Moon has at various times painted, sewed, served in the Navy, worked as a sales clerk and cashier, taken care of her family, and gardened with enthusiasm. Her house and garden are a piece of performance art; a meditation on time, change, and entropy. She reads extensively, particularly on subjects like medieval history, the class struggle, colonization, and resource depletion. While growing up, she read plenty of science-fiction and fantasy and wondered what the authors hand-waved away about how difficult it really would be to terraform another planet. She read plenty of romances and wondered where the characters’ relatives were and how they paid the bills. The series The Steppes of Mars is her attempt to combine all those interests.