It’s live! Let the voting begin!
I mentioned last week about the coming cover contest on You Gotta Read’s web site. Well, it’s here. The You Gotta Read cover contest is now active! If you love the artwork for Sovran’s Pawn, please stop by and vote for #15.
Please, please, Pleeeeeeeez!!!! Thank you! Tell a friend, share it, vote early and often!!
Here’s the link: http://yougottaread.com/category/cover-contest/
Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. Snippets of ten sentences or less are yours for the reading!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles, still in need of a title.
Our intrepid hero, Blade Devon is recovering from serious injuries he sustained in a hovercycle accident. He is recuperating on the isolated planet in the Outland Fringe called Kah Lahtrec; a planet he fell in love with while shooting the holofeature The Life And Times of Cantrell. This scene takes place on his second day. Blade is adjusting to being alone for the first time in a long while.
***
The green waves crested and broke, racing ashore before coyly retreating. Their roar teased Blade, luring him from the cool darkness of the villa. Leaning heavily on Tahar’s gnarled walking stick, he stepped out onto the terrace. The buttery yellow stone pavers already radiated the warmth of the brilliant Lahtrecki sun.
Under his breath, Blade cursed the slow, halting pace as he tested the strength of his leg and found it still unable to bear his weight. The perspiration dotting his upper lip had nothing to do with the heat. He focused on putting one foot in front of the other.
He didn’t look up until he reached the carved balustrade. With a small sigh of relief, he braced his hand on the warm stone and leaned his hip against it. The heat soothed the rising ache in his leg that he couldn’t completely ignore.
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
FINALLY!! An election EVERYONE can agree on! SOVRAN’S PAWN is entry #15 in You Gotta Read Website’s Cover Art contest for August! Voting begins August 21 and runs through August 26. Get your voting fingers ready to click!! You’ve all told me now stunning the cover is, help me (and the delightful artist who created this cover) by voting and taking a friend or two to the polls along with you!
http://yougottaread.com/august-entry-15-sovrans-pawn/
Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. Snippets of ten sentences or less are yours for the reading!
Today’s snippet comes from Book Two of The Black Wing Chronicles, tentatively titled The Watchtower.
***
She hated lying in bed next to him knowing he was going to leave.
The soft, pre-dawn light cast purple shadows inside the well-weathered tent. Though they had both been awake for some time, neither was in a hurry to abandon the warm cocoon of the insulated sleep sack. His touch feather light, he trailed his fingertips along her soft skin, tracing the curve of her shoulder. With a contented sigh, Bo closed her eyes and snuggled closer to him, savoring their last moments together. The folding cot was barely wide enough for one person but they were accustomed to sharing a small sleeping space; her bunk aboard her ship wasn’t much bigger.
“I shouldn’t have come,” she whispered. “I knew you wouldn’t get any sleep.”
“I got enough.”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. On the surface, it’s a web ring of authors who post snippets of their work for comment. In reality, it’s a close-knit group of friends and colleagues working together to support and encourage one another and promote the science fiction and fantasy genres.
Today’s snippet returns to SOVRAN’S PAWN. (Released in paperback this week and still available in e-book and Kindle on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords.) Bo’s brother, Edge is explaining the tenets of his Sub-socia organization to her.
***
“We don’t take part in subversive actions. We leave the gunrunning to less discerning operations. We’re strictly criminals, not revolutionaries. The most radical thing we’ve run has been Olsatien romantic poetry into the Reykik Convent on Lista 5.”
“Sounds pretty innocuous,” Bo offered.
He shrugged. “Possession of Olsatien romantic poetry is a shooting offense on Lista 5. Transportation of it is even worse.”
“Worse than shooting?”
“Yeah, they make you read it aloud in public.”
***
That’s the snippet for the week. Thank you for stopping by. Please take the time to visit the other wonderful authors taking part in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday!
***
If you’re interested in more about:
United by extortion, divided by duty, someone wants them both dead. They want each other. The catch is, nothing is what it seems…
Convicted of treason and sentenced to be executed, Bo Barron is the last person who should be infiltrating a Sub-socia weapons auction. But when her father is kidnapped and the ransom demand is the schematics to an experimental weapon, she has no choice but to go under cover with her uncle to get it.
Nobody counted on former-government-agent-turned-holofeature-hero Blade Devon’s infatuation with her. A botched assassination under the guise of a bar brawl leaves Bo blind and Blade wondering if there isn’t more to this job than he was led to believe.
Never able to resist playing the hero, Blade tends her injuries and delves deeper into the intrigue only to find this mission isn’t about a weapon at all. It’s about two Sovrans’ maneuvering for control, with Bo and Blade as their pawns.
All Bo and Blade have to do is figure out how to survive the game they didn’t know they were playing.
If you follow me, you know I’m devoted to participating in Science Fiction/Fantasy Saturday. This past weekend, I included a snippet from a book I started writing twenty-five years ago. One of the authors who commented on the snippet pointed out that he wouldn’t develop an idea that was twenty-five years-old. I have to say the comment got in my head and won’t leave me alone.
How old is too old for an idea?
I have many completed novels that for one reason or another never got published. I think cyberpunk was all the rage at the time. One is a romantic thriller, contemporary in the early 90’s, and very reliant on the prevalent technology of the time: pay phones, floppy disks, slow modems, fax machines, 35mm photography
negatives, and that’s just off the top of my head. Drawn from my experiences writing for the Tampa Tribune newspaper at the time, the story itself is pretty good. It’s paced well. The characters are well developed. I could publish today… except for the fact that the dated technology is integral to the plot. Perhaps I’ll publish it at some point as a period piece.
My point is, that it’s an idea I wouldn’t make a priority out of developing due to its dated content. But the science fiction romance I posted on Saturday is another story entirely. Drawing inspiration from Terminator, Flash Gordon, and Total Recall, it was an idea I’d toyed with, off and on, since 1987 before it got archived with The Black Wing Chronicles in 2002. For that matter, I first conceived of The Black Wing Chronicles in 1980. Sovran’s Pawn only published this year. That’s a thirty-two year-old concept that got developed.
If a story is compelling and interesting to the writer, shouldn’t it see the light of day? A good premise is timeless and resonates. Sure, Star Wars was exactly what sf fans everywhere needed at the time. Most sf of the period had become painfully socially conscious, with accusatory messages of total annihilation and the inherent evil of humankind. Star Wars was a breath of fresh air — a lighthearted adventure. It was the Hero’s Journey. Would it be successful if released for the first time today? If you take into account how very groundbreaking it was in special effects technology, I believe it would be. No one had seen anything quite like it. Star Wars made science fiction fun again, taking it out of the hands of the ivory tower bunch and putting back into the hands of adventurers, pirates, cowboys and damsels in distress. Would it be a blockbuster? I don’t know, but if the cult success of Joss Whedon’s Firefly can be used as a measure, Star Wars would find a devoted audience.
How old is too old for an idea?
I suppose that for every writer, that’s a personal decision. For myself, I believe that good ideas are timeless. As far as The Lost Domina is concerned, I’ll let YOU decide. Here is the blurb. Tell me what you think.
***
Riding high on the sale of her first novel, science fiction author Analise Trujold tries to rescue her failing marriage with a trip to the countryside with her husband to watch a meteor shower. A close encounter with an alien hit squad who murders her husband, and the sudden appearance of Admiral Faran Hagon, the hero in her novel, ensnare Analise in a hotbed of interstellar intrigue. Characters from her book are more real than she ever could have believed and her mundane life on Earth has been nothing more than implanted memories to keep her safe during her exile.
The Universal Congolmeration of Systems is under attack from within. As the Lost Domina, Ana is the only one who can hold it together. But with her memories suspect, she’s not sure who she can trust. Even though she’s drawn to Faran, she can’t help but wonder if he isn’t somehow angling to rule in her stead. If she hopes to survive, Ana must rely on her wits and creativity to uncover the truth behind the fiction.
Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. On the surface, it’s a web ring of authors who post snippets of their work for comment. In reality, it’s a close-knit group of friends and colleagues working together to support and encourage one another and promote the science fiction and fantasy genres.
This week’s snippet is a complete departure from THE BLACK WING CHRONICLES. I present for your amusement a lost story from a completely different universe. This story dates back to 1987 and was never completed beyond the first few thousand words. It’s currently in development.
A Science Fiction writer discovers that the characters and premise of her book are real. She makes this discovery the night her enemies find her.
***
At first, Analise thought her mind was playing tricks on her. On the roadway, not twenty meters away, a group of five men faced Andy. He backed slowly away from them. Analise called out to him. He shouted for her to run. The leader of the group took advantage of Andy’s divided attention and fired. A red light flashed and Andy doubled over. He collapsed onto the pavement and never moved again.
***
Well, that’s the Saturday Snippet for this week! Please don’t forget to comment by clicking on either the blog title or the little quotation balloon in the upper right hand corner. Tell your friends. Stop back here next week for another!
***
If you’re interested in more about:
United by extortion, divided by duty, someone wants them both dead. They want each other. The catch is, nothing is what it seems…
Convicted of treason and sentenced to be executed, Bo Barron is the last person who should be infiltrating a Sub-socia weapons auction. But when her father is kidnapped and the ransom demand is the schematics to an experimental weapon, she has no choice but to go under cover with her uncle to get it.
Nobody counted on former-government-agent-turned-holofeature-hero Blade Devon’s infatuation with her. A botched assassination under the guise of a bar brawl leaves Bo blind and Blade wondering if there isn’t more to this job than he was led to believe.
Never able to resist playing the hero, Blade tends her injuries and delves deeper into the intrigue only to find this mission isn’t about a weapon at all. It’s about two Sovrans’ maneuvering for control, with Bo and Blade as their pawns.
All Bo and Blade have to do is figure out how to survive the game they didn’t know they were playing.
While I’m off roughing it on top of a mountain in the Sumter National Forest listening for the sound of Dueling Banjos, author Krystal Brookes kindly offered to guest post for me until I can work my way down the river where Deliverance was filmed and find my way safely back to civilization again. So here is Krystal with an interesting perspective on her writing.
***
Hi, I’m Krystal Brookes and I’d like to thank JC for inviting me to her blog today. At first I was unsure what I was going to write about and I asked my friend on Facebook what she thought. She suggested I write about how I go about world building in my stories. I was slightly stricken. You see, the friend is also my editor and she edited my short story, Bounty, which I will tell you about later. Was now the time to confess that as a pantser I don’t do any world-building. I pretty much make it up as I go along.
Bounty was my first attempt to be published and was accepted. My acceptance email sits proudly on a frame next to my desk. It states that the editor “loved the world building in this short story.” So I confessed that I didn’t know a thing about it, and my editor told me that I am able to world-build even if I don’t think of it as a technical process.
I realized that I usually start with a utopian government. I probably choose that because I first got into science fiction watching Star Trek. And the Federation of Planets is pretty utopian, even if they do have to fight Klingons, Cardassians and the Dominion. The different inhabited planets are usually linked through alliances or confederacies: a peaceful galaxy with a few baddies to spoil it.
For Bounty, I had to create some kind of criminal and legal system. In space a police force would probably not be practical. I had to think of something else. Paid bounty hunters seem to be a better way to capture criminals. Because it is a utopian society, the criminal justice must be fair—but that’s not to say they never make mistakes.
Then I had to decide what kind of planet to make the prison planet Alcatraz. Coming from freezing cold and wet Scotland, the idea of a desert area is a bit disturbing to me. I’m sure people who come from Arizona don’t see it that way. To me, that would be the height of discomfort and no one wants to see the baddies living in the lap of luxury. So Alcatraz became a hot, sandy, desert planet.
So it seems that I did build a little world of my own, even if I didn’t realize that it was what I was doing. It was great to think up new technology and consider what living in such conditions would do to criminals. Bounty is a short novella so I didn’t have time to explore it in great detail. But I’m currently working on a new project and an entirely different type of planet. I hope you like the excerpt of Bounty.
***
Bounty – Excerpt
“I see you’re awake,” a gruff male voice stated.
Gemma looked in the direction of the voice. Wherever she was, it was dark and damp smelling. Her mind was struggling to make sense of what had happened. She could tell there had been an accident but the immediate events before the accident were extremely fuzzy.
“Where…?”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re safe–for now. How are you feeling?”
“Sore and groggy,” she replied quietly.
She couldn’t quite make out the man in the dim light. She didn’t recognise his voice or where she was. Her memory was still fuzzy but something in the back of her mind scared her. She seemed to be alone with this man and she certainly was not in a hospital.
“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you crashland your shuttle into a planet Ms. Scott.”
“How do you know my name?”
“Your ID was in your pocket. And your phase gun was in your holster.”
“Where is my gun now?” Gemma asked, trying to stop the fear in her voice.
“It’s safe.” The man moved forward into the thin shaft of light coming from the dim overhead light on the ceiling of the hut they seemed to be in. The man was tall, muscular and tanned, with a shock of medium length brown hair. She recognized him, but couldn’t quite recall from where.
“I’d prefer it if you returned my gun. I need it.”
“I said it’s safe,” he returned.
She sat for a few moments trying to remember what had happened. She knew she had to get her gun back from this man but her head was too befuddled to form a coherent argument for now.
As the details of the accident came back to her, she squinted again at her rescuer, trying to recall how she knew him. She felt her blood drain as she remembered.
“I need to fix my shuttle,” said Gemma, hoping that he hadn’t realized who she was.
“It’s dark outside, you won’t be able to do anything just now.”
She tried to sit up but a shard of intense pain ripped through her shoulder and made her fall back on the pillow.
“You dislocated your shoulder, so I had to put it back in the socket. It’s going to be sore for a while.”
She rubbed her shoulder and grimaced.
“Thanks, I think.”
“If I’d left you in that shuttle, believe me, you would have been murdered or worse.”
“What’s worse than being murdered?”
“On this planet? Not being murdered and being kept alive long enough to be aware of what they’re doing to you.”
She shuddered.
***
Bounty—Description
When Gemma Scott’s shuttle crash lands on Alcatraz prison planet, she’s sure of one thing. If the impact doesn’t kill her, the inmates will. She wakes up in the hut of a convicted terrorist and wonders how long it will be until the handsome but dangerous man finds she was the one who arrested him two years earlier. As their attraction grows, they work together to help Gemma escape the dangerous planet. But they can’t deny the sparks that fly between them.
Contact Links:
Web/blog: http://krystalbrookes.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KrystalBrookes
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Krystal-Brookes-Author/305059372898922
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrystalBrookes
Welcome to Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday. On the surface, it’s a web ring of authors who post snippets of their work for comment. In reality, it’s a close-knit group of friends and colleagues working together to support and encourage one another and promote the science fiction and fantasy genres.
This week’s snippet is a backhanded return to the ‘verse of THE BLACK WING CHRONICLES. This is from UNDERNEATH DEAD STAR. This is the novel tie-in for Blade Devon’s breakout holofeature role. I have two incomplete manuscripts which provided the titles and storylines for Blade’s holofeatures UNDERNEATH DEAD STAR is the one I’m sharing here. It’s currently in development and may or may not ever see the light of day.
Without further ado, I introduce you to Rubicon P. Schuyler, “Rube” to his friends. What is the “P” for? Effect.
***
Hello, my name is Rubicon P. Schuyler, and I’m a grunt. I hate when I have to introduce myself to a new supervisor. I always feel like one of those ultra-dependent types at a self-help meeting. The only difference is that being a grunt is not exactly a condition, it’s more along the lines of a disease. It’s the military’s term for perpetual screw-up. If I had enlisted thousands of years ago, they’d have made me a foot-soldier. I’m a man with no talent or ambition beyond surviving and propagating the species. Well, let’s just say I try to propagate the species whenever the opportunity presents itself.
They, the evil military leaders who decide assignments and transfers for the good of the Galactic Commonwealth, sent me to certain death at the asteroid station they called Dead Star.
***
Well, that’s the Saturday Snippet for this week! Please don’t forget to comment by clicking on either the blog title or the little quotation balloon in the upper right hand corner. Tell your friends. Stop back here next week for another!
***
If you’re interested in more about:
United by extortion, divided by duty, someone wants them both dead. They want each other. The catch is, nothing is what it seems…
Convicted of treason and sentenced to be executed, Bo Barron is the last person who should be infiltrating a Sub-socia weapons auction. But when her father is kidnapped and the ransom demand is the schematics to an experimental weapon, she has no choice but to go under cover with her uncle to get it.
Nobody counted on former-government-agent-turned-holofeature-hero Blade Devon’s infatuation with her. A botched assassination under the guise of a bar brawl leaves Bo blind and Blade wondering if there isn’t more to this job than he was led to believe.
Never able to resist playing the hero, Blade tends her injuries and delves deeper into the intrigue only to find this mission isn’t about a weapon at all. It’s about two Sovrans’ maneuvering for control, with Bo and Blade as their pawns.
All Bo and Blade have to do is figure out how to survive the game they didn’t know they were playing.
From the start, Jessica E. Subject’s BENEATH THE STARRY SKY had me hooked. I loved the way these two damaged people, Tamara and Josh, were brought together for what was supposed to be one night of guilt-free pleasure and ended up finding the acceptance they were both looking for.
The characters were well-rounded with all the little faults and foibles of people we all know. By the time they met, I was already rooting for them to find each other. The love scenes were very hot. They were also poignant, fun and funny. It was a quick read and I was sorry to reach the last page. I would love to know what happened between these two after the sun came up.
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