In 1991, Jo Wilkins and Richard Draude began their collaboration on what has become the Tyranny Series of books.

"Tyranny's Outpost" is the first in the series, "Tyranny's Prisoner" the second of the five-book series. "Tyranny's Alliance," the third, will also be available at the Author's Extravaganza scheduled for the Pahrump Community Library March 29.

The heroine of the series is Amanda Callin, a lady craving power and revenge -- revenge for the life she believes others forced her to live, and the power to exact that revenge.

In order to get the upper hand, Callin kidnaps the colonies' foremost computer developer, Alex Ballard. Thus begins a desperate game of cat and mouse that is the basic premise of "Tyranny's Prisoner" and the continuation of the story adapted in "Tyranny's Outpost."

"Tyranny's Outpost" takes place in the year 2368. Callin is the leader of a group of privateers that routinely savage the fleets of interstellar cargo ships that carry freight among Earth's dozen colonies. In one of their attacks their hyper-drive malfunctions and they uncover an unchartered space, an unknown colony that could place the other colonies, as well as the Earth in jeopardy.

My wife reviewed one of the books and said, "It's rather interesting but it sometimes is kind of predictable; on the whole it is a good read and entertaining."

Draude is a Navy Vietnam veteran who while he was stationed overseas developed an insatiable appetite for science and fantasy fiction. The East Coast baby boomer left the snow and cold of his childhood New Jersey and now calls Arizona home. He owns his own consulting business, providing services to small and medium businesses.

Wilkins was born in Glendale, Calif., and is the president and founder of the Henderson Writer's Group and the driving force behind their successful writer's conferences. She suffers from an insatiable hunger for science-related material. She is also an award-winning poet and co-founder of Mystic Publishers.

Have you ever wondered what actually took place after the 1989 Alaskan oil spill, during the beach cleanup?

Author Merle Savage answers that question and many more in her book, "Silence in the Sound."

Savage was the only female general foreman in Task Force 1 in Prince William Sound, called in to clean up the historic oil spill. Her book combines unusual personal experiences with a wide gamut of emotions while working in a hazardous environment replete with demanding political and sexual situations. She raises compelling questions which cannot be ignored.

Living on a "floatel," a modified barge, Savage and the rest of her "oil recovery technicians" dealt with a life of stress, foul odors, weird people, duct tape, Visqueen, and black crude oil. She calls the entire cleanup program a pretentious cover-up.

She also witnessed incompetence, bribery, and embezzlement, and prostitution, drug-dealing and even murder.

Her tale is unvarnished and unpolished.

In 1980, in rural Georgia, Savage was recovering from her second divorce, attending college and beginning a career in office management. She was terrified of heights, water, the dark and being alone. She faced these fears by exercising a strong faith and learning to SCUBA dive, rappel, swim, and write.

After the cleanup she has been inundated with a variety of ailments which have been found in other cleanup workers, from chronic muscle and joint pain and swelling to a large mass on her liver.

All three authors will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the library.