Today I am delighted to be able to interview Mr Sam Sinclair, star of The Sinclair V-Logs space opera series.  In this first interview, Sam introduces himself and tells us about a couple of his adventures.

Hi Sam, thank you so much for being here to talk to us.  Can you introduce yourself first.

Hi there, yeah sure.  Well umm, my name is Samelan Sinclair, Sam for short.  I’m 40 years old and I’m from a planet called Sigma Prime.  I’m single and work as a Freelance Law Enforcer with the Inter Galactic Law Enforcement Agency out of their Sigma Prime headquarters.

That sounds like a glamorous job.

Oh it isn’t, believe me.  I spend months at a time working alone and travelling between planets in my ship, which can be boring.  It’s a very dangerous job at times, especially when I have to chase some really crazy psycho across the galaxy and he’s constantly trying to kill me to get me off his tail, or when I have to run the gauntlet of all manner of deadly creatures to get to him.  It’s dangerous, dirty and lonely.  Not glamorous at all but people do tend to think of it that way.  Try it for a couple of months and you’ll change your mind.

What is your job exactly?

Well, my job is simple on the face of it.  I have to find and restrain a specific target and then deliver them into the hands of the relevant authorities for trial, sentencing or incarceration.  My targets are wanted criminals, escaped convicts, kidnap victims, missing persons etc.  I sometimes have to use some detective work to find out who may be responsible for something that has happened and in those cases, my job is to first identify who the target is before restraining them and delivering them to the relevant authorities.  I’m not strictly a detective but recently my job has changed slightly and now I do sometimes get jobs that require me to be more of a detective than just a chase, catch and deliver guy.

So are you what they call a Merc?

Oh hell no, please don’t call me that, *laughs*.  I have what is called a Tag, which is an official document identifying me as an officially licensed Freelance Law Enforcer working under the strict guidelines of the Inter Galactic Law Enforcement Agency. I used to be a Law Enforcer a few years ago.  I worked in the Sigma Headquarters.  I had my own office, an untidy desk, great pay and loads of time off.  Now I’m freelance but still work under their official guidelines.  There are strict rules I have to follow and a code of conduct we are all expected to adhere to.  Mercs are unlicensed and work for themselves without any official guidelines or code of conduct.  They’re essentially bounty hunters who are in it for the money and each target is just a payday to them.  They can often be found trailing along behind me when I’m closing in on a target and many times they’ve tried to relieve me of my catch.  They don’t take care to ensure they have the right target or not, they don’t adhere to any code of conduct when restraining a target and their methods are often unnecessarily brutal.  People do tend to lump all of us in this line of work under the same heading and it is annoying but I try to be gracious about it.

Oh jeez I’m sorry.

Don’t worry, I’m not offended, really, *gives a very engaging smile*.

Thank heavens for that.  So we have the first in your series out already,  Floxham Island.  This is a series of your own video logs isn’t it?  What inspired you to make video logs in the first place?

Yeah, they’re all my own personal video logs and I started making them when I was sent to Deligon 2 on a long and complicated job.  I started it as a way of keeping all the convoluted facts of the case together in a way I would find easy to understand.  So I started making a video log, just for my own benefit and use initially.  It was only later that I thought it might be fun to upload one or two of them to the Galactic Web for others to see.  The first one is about my experience on Floxham Island.   There will be another about the job on Deligon 2 which should be available later in the year.

Your time on Floxham Island must’ve been terrifying with all those creatures.  Does that sort of thing happen often?

It was one of the scariest jobs I’ve had in all my twenty years as a Law Enforcer and I still dream about it sometimes.  You can’t begin to imagine what it’s like facing up to something like that, the fear is almost totally consuming.  Luckily I did ten years in the military before law enforcement so I was trained to be self disciplined and to control fear.  I’ve faced death quite a few times and had to fight for my life on a number of occasions but those creatures were almost too much for us to deal with.  There were so many of them in so small an area and we were almost overwhelmed.  I was so thankful to have a few good guys I could rely on; military trained men like myself and several extremely brave civilians who will always have my respect.  I do come into contact with creatures and many of them are not at all friendly but nothing like Floxham has happened again and I hope it never does.

Do you keep in touch with any of them?  You said in the video log that you intended to.

Yeah, I still keep in touch with Dex, Baz and Luggs.  We try and get together once a year, around the time it all happened on Floxham Island, just to celebrate the fact that we got out alive.  And to remember Ronjo, who died there.

His death affected you didn’t it?

It did.  He was a minister of religion and not at all the sort to fight and put his life on the line but he came through his fear and stood beside us as we fought those awful flying creatures and died saving me from one of them.  He died horribly and in terrible agony and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it.  He was amazing and I feel honoured to have known him.

Another good thing to come out of your experience at Floxham Island was that an innocent man was spared incarceration.  That must make you feel good.

Oh sure it does and y’know, right from the start there was something about Professor Nembier that just got to me.  I wasn’t at all surprised when things turned out the way they did.  I’ve been doing this job a long time and I’m an expert at reading people and I just knew there was something off about that job the moment I set eyes on Nembier.  I heard through my boss not long ago that he’s back working again and happy.  I’m glad for him.

And what of the clones?  What happened to them?

The kid was euthanised under Agrillian law but Kit still lives.  He did a short prison sentence and after thorough medical testing to ensure he was no danger, he was given a new identity and a new home away from Agrillia.  He is closely monitored as  folks are a little wary of clones after what happened on Agrillia but the last I heard he had a job and was making friends in his community.  I feel sorry for him.  He had a terrible life and then the trouble with the kid; it’s a wonder he kept his sanity.

To change the subject, we first met you when you helped Vincent and Farra Domenico rescue their son.  We know the story from the fourth volume of The Lilean Chronicles.  Where does that story fit in the timeline of your video logs?

Ahh the Domenico’s, yeah they were great folks.  What a guy Vincent is.  Well, that happened a couple of years after my time on Deligon 2, which is the next of my video logs you’ll see.  Since you already know the story of my time with the Domenico’s, I won’t bother to release that particular video log.

You teamed up with a guy you met during you time with Vincent didn’t you?  How’s that going?

Yeah I teamed up with Tip Danso, who was part of the whole adventure I was on with the Domenico’s.  He’s a great guy and his size certainly comes in handy at times.  He’s a quick learner and will make a good law enforcer.  I had the job of mentoring him for two years, after which he was partnered up with another freelancer for a further two years.  After that, if the boss is happy with him, he can then choose to work alone or with another, permanent partner if he wants.

What can you tell us about the next of your video logs?

The next one you’ll see is about my time on Deligon 2.  As I said before, that job required me to be a detective rather than just a chase, catch and deliver guy and I was there for weeks undercover, working my way in until I found out what was going on and could then do something about it.  I don’t want to give too much away or spoil it for anyone but it concerned a scientific research station.  Certain things were going on that got people worried about their legitamacy and then several deaths came to light.  It was my job to work my way in and find out what was going on, if anything, and then make my own decisions as to what to do about it, how to do it and when.

That job cost you a friend didn’t it?  Do you mind talking about it?

It did cost me a friend, yeah, and of course I’m happy to talk about it.  My job involves me moving around all the time, I spend weeks and months away from home and often undercover and in dangerous circumstances so I can’t really sustain a family or circle of friends.  I would be forever letting them down so I’ve always worked alone and kept myself detached from any attachments, but during my time on Deligon, my partner Ren became the first best buddy I ever had.  He taught me so much and when he lost his life  it tore me up for a while.  He was so wise and insightful and I became a more complete person than I’d ever been due to his friendship and understanding.  We were going to partner up after that job was done too and work as a team.  I miss him.

You pay a high price for the work you do Sam.

Yeah, you’re right.  It’s a job I’m proud of doing.  I’m good at it and I don’t regret a moment of it but there is always a cost and sometimes that cost is high.

So when can we expect the next video log?

I’m aiming to have it available by October of this year if all goes to plan.  By the way, I recently had occasion to spend time with Jake Elloway, the actor.  He was spending some time aboard an inter galactic freighter as some kind of research for a movie he was planning to make and he got into a spot of trouble.  I’m quite a fan of his so it was kinda cool to meet him, even though the circumstances weren’t that good.  The book of that story is coming out in June, so you’ll all get to see me briefly there.

The famous Jake Elloway?  The handsome hunky guy with the blue eyes?

That’s the one, yeah.

Will you come back when that book comes out?  Maybe we can get you both to come in together for an interview?

That would be cool, yeah I’d love to.

Thank you so much for being here Sam, it’s been a pleasure to meet you.

Thank you for inviting me and I look forward to coming back.