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.

I've been told!

I came home from work early since my twins need to be taken to Cheyenne at 4 am. Stuff to do.

I worked on Galactic Game last night. I'm on the last scenes.

I have been in a grumpy mood all afternoon, which really isn't my norml mood. I'm generally pretty cheerful. But not today. It could be the high winds with gusts to sixty mph we are experiencing here in the High Desert. Negative ions etc.

But in the midst of routine chores, Gema, my heroine in Galactic Game, sends me a message. I have one pivotal scene all wrong! Our hero , while hunky and beloved, should be absent in one scene they share. She wants to do it ALONE. So okay. I'm rewriting.

So maybe the bad mood was Gema's. On another plane. Or something

What I'm Reading and Other Stuff

I've been spending time in the Wastelands. I'm not reading them in publishing order and don't think you have to. Dystopian erotic romance with wonderful covers. I will get the other two on my next shopping spree!

Also reading a couple Harlequins:

The intrigue is by a new-to-me author--but I've read lots of Julie Leto and like her.

Road Trip and Mama Brag:

My oldest daughter, who is president of the high school debate team, was chosen to go to Girl's State! I'm proud of her for her hard work.

Yesterday we drove her to Powell, WY. We took the scenic route, because we all love Wyoming scenery. Spring, when everything is still green, is extra special I think. There were lots of antelope-- we had to stop on the highway for a herd to cross. Here are some pictures(from the net, I'm not a photographer!)

Wind River Canyon, Wind River Mountains, and Pronghorn Antelopes.

Powell WY is a small, pretty town not far from Cody. It is about 160 miles from us. The twins and I will drive up early next Saturday to pick her up.

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.