Oct 6 2013

Nightmares: a Snippet from Escape From Zulaire SciFi Romance

From ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE, after the group has scavenged some things they need from a burned out village and, hours of marching later, set up camp on a plateau overlooking a lake. Nightmares of the events earlier in the journey keep Andi from sleeping so she’s gone to sit with Captain Deverane, who’s got the guard duty.

Andi rewrapped her shawl more tightly as she said, “You’re surprised I’m having bad dreams after everything we saw today? What time is it?”

Reaching over, he tucked the fabric more securely around her shoulder as he said, “Still middle of the night, I’m afraid – a long time to go until sunrise chases away the nightmares.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. I’m drowsy but scared to risk closing my eyes for more than a second. These kinds of things don’t affect soldiers, I suppose.” Leaning back, she tilted her head to look at him.

Deverane continued to gaze across the rippling water and said nothing for a long minute. When he did speak, his voice was low and measured. “I went into the military because the abuse and slaughter of innocent civilians does bother me – at least in the service, I can do something to prevent atrocities.”

ESCAPE FROM ZULAIRE by Veronica Scott

A standalone scifi romance novel…

Andi Markriss hasn’t exactly enjoyed being the houseguest of the planetary high-lord, but her company sent her to represent them at a political wedding. When hotshot Sectors Special Forces Captain Tom Deverane barges in on the night of the biggest social event of the summer, Andi isn’t about to offend her high-ranking host on Deverane’s say-so—no matter how sexy he is, or how much he believes they need to leave now.

Deverane was thinking about how to spend his retirement bonus when HQ assigned him one last mission: rescue a civilian woman stranded on a planet on the verge of civil war. Someone has pulled some serious strings to get her plucked out of the hot zone. Deverane’s never met anyone so hard-headed—or so appealing. Suddenly his mission to protect this one woman has become more than just mere orders.

That mission proves more dangerous than he expected when rebel fighters attack the village and raze it to the ground. Deverane escapes with Andi, and on their hazardous journey through the wilderness, Andi finds herself fighting her uncomfortable attraction to the gallant and courageous captain. But Deverane’s not the type to settle down, and running for one’s life doesn’t leave much time to explore a romance.

Then Andi is captured by the rebel fighters, but Deverane has discovered that Zulaire’s so-called civil war is part of a terrifying alien race’s attempt to subjugate the entire Sector. If he pushes on to the capitol Andi will die. Deverane must decide whether to save the woman he loves, or sacrifice her to save Zulaire.

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Oct 4 2013

Science Fiction Romance Brigade Presents Wreck of the Nebula Dream

(The link is here to find other excerpts from novels or WIP written by Science Fiction Romance Brigade group members.)

I thought I’d switch gears this week a bit and excerpt my 2013 SFR Galaxy Award winning novel WRECK OF THE NEBULA DREAM, which is a loose retelling of the Titanic sinking, set in the far future on a spaceliner. Nick Jameson, Sector Special Forces operator, has been awakened in the middle of the night, thrown from his bed by some violent maneuver of the ship. Here’s the 200 word excerpt and the story blurb is below the picture:

The deck pitched violently underneath him, and Nick was thrown the other direction, fetching up against the bed platform shoulder first with bruising force.

Rubbing his shoulder, Nick glared around the cabin. “Ship, what the hell is going on?”

No answer.

The Nebula Dream pitched to starboard, but not as drastically, and then slowly returned to near vertical. Getting cautiously to his feet, Nick grabbed for his scattered clothes, pulling them on as fast as possible.

“Ship, I want status.” Nick fastened his blue shirt as the deck wobbled underfoot again. The engines are down again, for one thing. Determined to wrest some information from someone, he made his way to the interface panel.

Just as he got there, clinging to the molded desk as the ship shuddered again, the image of Captain Bonlors appeared. Flickering once, the holo stabilized. Amazingly, the captain continued to project unshakable calm. If I hadn’t met the man, I’d be wondering if he was nothing but a well-designed hologram. Reassuring to the passengers or not, no one should be this serene while in charge of a ship pitching and rolling in space like the Nebula Dream.

“Again, I must apologize to you, my passengers,” the image was saying. “We have experienced a small malfunction –”

“Not from where I’m standing, pal,” Nick said grimly. “Small is not the word for it.”

VE sez: Need I add the situation goes downhill from there?

Here’s the story:

Traveling unexpectedly aboard the luxury liner Nebula Dream on its maiden voyage across the galaxy, Sectors Special Forces Captain Nick Jameson is ready for ten relaxing days, and hoping to forget his last disastrous mission behind enemy lines. He figures he’ll gamble at the casino, take in the shows, maybe even have a shipboard fling with Mara Lyrae, the beautiful but reserved businesswoman he meets.

All his plans vaporize when the ship suffers a wreck of Titanic proportions. Captain and crew abandon ship, leaving the 8000 passengers stranded without enough lifeboats and drifting unarmed in enemy territory. Aided by Mara, Nick must find a way off the doomed ship for himself and several other innocent people before deadly enemy forces reach them or the ship’s malfunctioning engines finish ticking down to self destruction.

But can Nick conquer the demons from his past that tell him he’ll fail these innocent people just as he failed to save his Special Forces team? Will he outpace his own doubts to win this vital race against time?

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This Best Selling Science fiction Adventure is Available from Smashwords , Amazon Barnes & Noble All Romance eBooks and iTunes

Also available from Amazon as trade paperback here

Audiobook, narrated by Actor Michael Riffle – Available Now at Amazon and iTunes

Oct 2 2013

When the Gods Of Ancient Egypt Are In Your Romantasy Novels

VS Note: Portions of this post first appeared on the Paranormality blog…

They always say you should write the book you can’t find enough of on the shelf and for me, that would be romances set in Ancient Egypt, with the gods actively taking part in events. I write in the 1550 BCE time frame, a period of great change for the Egyptians as they threw off a foreign invader. The true events of history create many plot opportunities. I do tons of research in order to put my characters in a setting which feels real and evocative of the time but I also take some deliberate liberties with history. My Pharaoh is a composite of several men who sat the throne at this time, for example.

Cover by Fiona Jayde

One of the best things about employing the Egyptian gods as characters is that there were many varying legends and beliefs about each deity, so I can pick and choose the aspects that work best for my story. A true lightbulb moment for me was when I was studying a statue of Sobek, the Crocodile God, in his half human form and realized I was looking at a shifter. While the Egyptians never depicted him in full human guise, what if that was just because they never happened to see him that way? And what if he enjoyed walking as a human on his favorite part of the Nile’s riverbank at twilight and happened to hear a priestess singing one of his favorite paeans? (Crocodiles have very sensitive hearing as it turns out.) Romance ensues…that was the beginning of my debut novella, Priestess of the Nile (originally from Carina Press, a Harlequin imprint). Sobek has his challenges, understanding the human heart and what it means to truly love.

I will say that aside from Priestess of the Nile the gods aren’t the romantic partners in my books. The Egyptians didn’t mythologize human-immortal relations the way the Greeks did in later centuries and I’ve respected that (but I did feel Sobek needed a romance).

For Warrior of the Nile, I started with opposing sister goddesses, Isis and Nephthys. What if Nephthys was trying to solve a problem and needed humans to assist her? She’s a goddess of death, a fierce deity with the power to incinerate enemies of Pharaoh, one who can wield significant magic. In my world, she’ll do anything to protect Egypt from a black magic threat, but she’s not very sympathetic to individual men and women. “Humans are but tools to accomplish the goal, pawns to play in the game,” the goddess said (in my novel). Isis, on the other hand, is willing to intervene on occasion. She was regarded by the Egyptians as the ideal mother and wife and everyone felt they could ask her to help them with their individual problems, despite her lofty role in the pantheon of gods. (Did I mention she appears in Priestess of the Nile as well?). Here’s what she had to say in my novel, in part: “Perhaps I believe there can be an even better outcome. Perhaps I argued with my sister to no avail about the deliberate sacrifice of human lives and immortal souls, no matter how noble the cause. Such actions are the start of a slippery path. Perhaps I think oaths shouldn’t be sworn for all time, levied on innocent descendants of the oath giver.”

And finally for today, in Dancer of the Nile I had great fun with Renenutet the Snake Goddess. She was particularly involved with the harvest but as a woman with the head of a cobra, she has her deadlier aspects, believe me. Some Egyptian myths designated her as the wife of Sobek, but I chose to go with the idea they’d been lovers at some point, not married. As Sobek says, “Snakes and crocodiles, we’re among the oldest creatures. We took pleasure together from time to time. “ Yes, I’ve made Renenutet the ex girlfriend in effect. In the sequel Return of the Dancer of the Nile Renenutet makes another appearance but it’s Shai, the god of Fate who plays a more major role. Horus the Falcon appears in both books.

Other books in the series feature gods and goddesses ranging from Hathor to Khonsu as being involved in the matters at hand.

Here’s the story for Warrior of the Nile:

Lady Tiya is bound to the service of the goddess Nephthys, who plans to sacrifice Tiya’s body to protect Egypt from an ancient terror. She embarks to meet her grim fate alone but for the hardened warrior Khenet, who is fated to die at her side. Tiya’s dreams of love and family now seem impossible, and Khenet, who is the last of his line, knows his culture will die with him. Struggling with the high cost of Nephthys’s demands, both resolve to remain loyal.

Neither expects the passion that flowers when Tiya’s quiet courage and ethereal beauty meet Khenet’s firm strength and resolve. On a boat down the Nile, their two lonely souls find in each other a reason to live. But time is short and trust elusive.

Without the willing sacrifice of Tiya and Khenet, a great evil will return to Egypt. How could the gods demand their deaths when they’ve only just begun to live?

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Note: Harlequin retained the rights to the audiobook and the original cover for Warrior.

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