White Crystal Butterflies | Wattys 2021 Shortlist | ✔

❖ Interstellar pilot and ex-adventurer Alex Gallegos must keep their team safe on an icy moon as sentient storms threaten to repeat the tragedy that ended their last career. ❖ Everyone in the United Inhabited Solar Systems (for some reason, UIS for short) knows to stay away from Mahaha. The icy moon is notorious for failed probe landings and research missions that end in tragedy: the only people to ever venture to its surface needed rescuing after just two weeks. When a prestigious research group decides they want a turn, they ask Alex Gallegos to lead the team. Perfectly qualified and haunted by their past, Alex accepts, hoping to make up for old mistakes and get just a little further from the earth they've left behind. Two months into the seven-month mission, the team is struggling with discontent, damaged equipment, and blizzards acting less and less like normal weather. As Mahaha moves out of range of help and the storms take on a more malicious character, Alex must face the one foe they could never have prepared for. Mahaha may or may not be alive. ❖❖❖ Complete. Wattys 2021 Shortlister. Standalone sequel (Rocks Can Dance) coming in 2023. Comments and critiques are both welcome and appreciated. I write characters from many different backgrounds, with many different experiences. If you share those traits and find that I have misrepresented anything, please let me know! I am feedback-friendly and here to learn :)