The Farradae --Alien Blood

In my upcoming release Alien Blood my couple Gema and Kellac find out the wilderness planet they have been on actually has a settlement. A ship called the Farradae made an emergency landing there about two hundred years ago. Mixed ancestry colonists--Terrans and the humanoid Zh Cle' from the Zh Cle' Reservation Worlds carved a settlement out on the isolated planet.


And it is lovely. White sand beaches, clear aqua green water. Graceful homes made for beauty as well as practicality.

 Lorl is one of the secondary characters in Alien Blood. She is from Toph, a high tech world with a PureGen Constitution. Only Lab perfected humans can be citizens. Lorl has rarely even interacted with normal humans of Terran descent, let alone the alien humanoid Zh Cle' (pronounced zhuh clay').

Here is a tiny snippet from Lorl's point of view.


Lorl sat on the periphery of the city square, her son on her lap. A cool ocean breeze wafted their faces, hot in the afternoon sun. Lorl gave Ulric another sip from the mug of fruit tea, which he gulped down in appreciation. This was so much better than the camp at the dark lake. Even being around people with shiny hard wing covers and tails with hidden barbs wasn't making her hyperventilate like the swarms of biting insects and that awful rotting smell that came from the marshy land around that lake.

The forest beyond the city was odd. It scared her. She didn't like wilderness, especially alien wilderness. She kept her gaze on the village, beach and sea beyond.

Her country men had lied--they had lied about the planet being free of inhabitants, and they had claimed the planet was a Seeded world, with flora and fauna similar to Terra. The northern continent was Seeded, it seemed. But this area was alien. Overly large trees, neon bright flowers, eerie animal calls. She'd heard people actually lived in that bizarre forest. It was hard to believe.

 

She hugged Ulric a little closer. What those first families must have experienced, alone in that wild strange forest, trying to keep their little ones safe.

Lorl needed to keep her little ones safe. She had stood before the Grandmother's Circle this morning, and asked for refuge, for herself, Ulric and the two children still asleep in stasis tubes. Her homeworld was devastated by war, she had no funds for travel to a safe place. That left New Prague, with its domes, mining and poisonous spores. Kellac said she could probably find work in the mining district. It didn't sound like a nice place to be a single mother, though. She was hesitant to accept Kellac's view of New Prague because he came from its wealthiest family. She'd be just another mining contract worker.


The Grandmother's had offered her a position as a cook in the communal meal room, with a snug little house. She might also teach mathematics to their older youth. Rivier would speak to her about that. She'd have all the necessities, plus this lovely location. It was her best option.


She shied away from thoughts about Rivier. With his brilliant green eyes and  bright red gold hair he was far more attractive than she expected any Zh Cle' to be. But what did she know about Zh Cle'?  The tales she'd been told on her homeworld didn't resemble this community at all.


 Kellac, Gema and Dooley would be surprised when they learned she was staying. But her little family would be safe here. Safety was more important than Pure Genetics. She was beginning to wonder if Pure Genetics had any real meaning at all.


They would live in that little white house with the arches and patio overlooking the sea. Her son would play in the sand and learn to sail those Farradae solar boats. Someday perhaps Toph would be at peace again and she could attempt to find her parents and sisters.


Considering the situation and the ugliness she'd allowed in her life, her future was better than she deserved.  If any grace of life was being bestowed on her--as the Grandmothers claimed-- it was due to the innocent children in her care.

Six Sentence Sunday: Alien Blood

Alien Blood (coming July 6th to Amazon) is the second book in my Diaspora Worlds Series, following Her  Cyborg Awakes.

Meet Kellac, Kaistril's younger brother:

“Are you serious?” Kellac jumped up and the Game Master and swarm turned to him. “You’re giving a crippled girl a challenge like that? Alone? That’s hardly fair. If your plan is to execute us, why don’t you just use a weapon?”

SFFS: A Snippet about Gema, from ALIEN BLOOD

I missed all the great Scifi Fantasy Saturday Snippets last week so am glad this week has been less hectic!

 This week my snippet is from ALIEN BLOOD, the story that follows HER CYBORG AWAKES. It will be available July 6th!

A little thrill of excitement ran through Gema, which she quickly crushed. He doesn’t mean anything about me being with him. Stars, she could be such a fool!

 “Maybe,” she said. “I thought about going back to my homeworld. I probably still have relatives there…”

You can read more exciting Scifi Fantasy Saturday Snippets by following the links *Here*.

Where the Wild Pony Takes Me

Lookee a new blog layout! I was in the mood for color, so here we are. Also, my nails are green with multi colored sparkles, way too young for a woman my age. If I get a job interview I will change them to a discreet pinkish tan.



To my surprise, Her Cyborg Awakes has been selling. It went live with the $2.99 price last Wednesday. Since then it has made enough to cover my mortgage. Not that it has to--hubby and I both have day jobs, all is well. But it does surprise me. After 6k free downloads (actually more than that if I count UK) I didn't expect actual sales. It also has five reviews, which I have found hard to get for my other books.


Alien Blood, book two of this series--Diaspora Worlds--is in edits. I decided to self publish it also, so have lined up a cover and editor. I plan to release it on July 6th, before the Kindle world forgets who I am. Two other books in the series have plans and beginning chapters roughed out. And two additional books have initial scenes written.

So I'll go with it.

Six Sentence Sunday -- Her Cyborg Awakes

Six Sentences from my latest release, Her Cyborg Awakes:

Sabralia saw the Strafe on his scanview, coming down from somewhere higher above them. She knew it was a space-based weapon. Qy elevated the ship and headed straight for it.

“What are you doing?” she yelped.

“Trust me. This is how we get off-world undetected.”

More Six Sentence Selections: http://www.sixsunday.com/

STILL Editing

I did think I would have Urloon ready for submission by now but no! Seems like I've been on this project foreveah. And now I am re-editing Galacatic Game so both are in the same world. It is pleasant writing, because I love both stories and characters. And after the Cybot Awakened issue it is good to have a workable goal for future submissions, since it looks like that publisher is never going to release the book. 

(* Please look up your prospective epubs on *Preditors and Editors* and *Piers Anthony!* And email current authors for their recommendations!*)

The secondary male character in GG, Dooley, is in the batter's box because his romance starts in GG--but he loses her to a cyborg army. Oops.

Every once in a while though I have to take a break from editing and revising to write on a new story. Or pick up an old story out of my files that jumps into my brain. The story right now that is clamoring for attention is a light fantasy romance set in the same world as Faunication.  I know some of my ideas are waaaay out there and suspect this is one of them. Adler, a Griffin-taur(human torso face etc, griffin feet and wings), who is a wizard's apprentice is required to attend the Bridal Faire by his father and find a wife.  He needs to marry out of his 'kind' (long world building issue dealing with fertility) and really had not planned to marry until he reached Master Wizard status, since school keeps him so busy. Calling it Bridal Faire or Faire Reckoning.

I have new music for writing when I need to drown out the family and concentrate--but I can't do that in my quiet bedroom! Firefly soundtrack.

Coffee At Night

The past week I've been craving coffee in the evening after dinner. My parents always had coffee after dinner and never seemed to have an issue with sleepless nights.

When I was in my twenties my asthma was very mild, quite different than it had been in junior high. Sometimes I would feel a little tight and a cup or two of coffee would clear it right up.

Normally I try to avoid caffeine in the afternoons but the past couple evenings I have made a small pot of coffee and enjoyed a cup. I'm editing  and so am staying up a little later than normal. And I seem to sleep the same amount anyway. I rarely sleep eight hours and think I feel better when I sleep between six and seven.

I like dark roast coffee, but I drink it with milk and sweetner. MMMM

Galactic Game is coming along in edits. I still have a couple scenes to  finish, I wrote them so spare. I'm in the finish mode so am not working on any other story right now.

Writing Update

I wrote quite a bit this week, around 4,000 words. That is alot for me, I'm pretty slow! Not all the words were on the same project but mostly I worked on two SFR stories. 

One is Galactic Game, the second in my Sons of the Protectorate series that has gone from a 10k short to a 30k novella. It is almost ready to submit. 

The other is Urloon, which is not part of my Sons series. It is about 3/4 done in a rewrite. It was an 8k short, but I expect it will end in the 30k territory. 

The third is my new idea, a steampunk western space opera. With a shifter widow heroine, her vulnerable child, the lesbian neighbors and their illegal, mostly human pet. And bad guys. Confused yet? I swear, it all makes sense to me!

My Latest Work In Progress

(From my picture file, this story is set on a fantastic water world.) 

I'm not a linear writer. I don't start one story, then write that story through to the end, edit it and submit.

Instead I hop. I'll work on one story, until a snatch of dialog or an issue in another story invades my mind. Then I have to write that, since the invader won't go away until I get it down. I might work on five stories in any given month. And I might write the ending before the middle!

Now, that all changes when I decide it is time to submit. Once I have the full synopsis written, the story begs to be finished.

I'm happy today that I finished a synopsis for a scifi romance. I originally wrote this story as a short short,  a sexy slice of life for two weary war refuges on an exotic planet. A  hopeful life-will-go-on-and-be-great story. 

Later I decided to lengthen it and tell what happens after that sexy slice of life and the challenges they face as new immigrants to a sea world. Not to mention she's pregnant, which complicates everything. The story also has marauders, rebellious youth trying to go back to the sea, an evil cult leader, alien water creatures and second chances.

We've had bad news lately with my lay off and other inconvenient things, so real life has been more of a struggle than usual. I haven't been feeling like my normal cheerful self. I think I need this story. Right now it is titled Refugees on Urloon.

Cybot Awakened now on Kindle!

http://bit.ly/aeOrkQ

I saw some of my other books have had a jump in sales this week. Thank you, readers! This heart's for you!

Cybot Awakened Featured on Galaxy Express

Galaxy Express --one of my favorite blogs--featured Cybot Awakened! And Heather liked it!  What Surprised Me About Cybot Awakened

Where Do We Go From Here? My Muse And Cybots

 

This looks like my asteroid but is actually called Hell's Half Acre. It is about 50 miles from my home here in Wyoming.

I have a novella to edit and a contemporary WIP rough draft to work on. It is a frigid day here in Wyoming with a little snow and slick roads, I'm wearing comfy sweats, my pepto pink snuggie is nearby and I have a diet Dr Pepper for for a tasty refreshment.  All set for a productive writing day.




But my muse can only think about Lirielle. She wakes up wedged in a crevice on an asteroid--and she remembers who she is. Was.


She missed the battle, the one where the cybots were supposed to take over a small base. She's been blacked out for nearly two days. And now she is all alone with a power pack ebbing away.


Lucky for her there are cybot carcases, some with working power packs. She can stay alive for awhile.


And finally help comes, she hopes. It's a ship, at least. A little banged up and painted in garish colors. Odd. She shouts for help with an amplifier, in several languages.


The ship responds by shooting a heavy mesh net. Captured. The net's power field shorts out her power, all goes black again. She wakes up on the floor, the net now magnetized and holding her down as the small ship flips and tosses, evading fire...


Where do we go from here?(That was a song in the Buffy Musical, btw) I'm humming it now.


We know THE HERO captured her. We know he was scavenging tech from the battle field. We know he's hot. Hmmm. This does seem to be going somewhere fun.