Jun 30 2015

Celebrating Independence Day This Week for Wednesday Whimsy

I’ve been saving a little group of special Victorian trade (advertising) cards for this July 4th week!

There, I guess King George will be able to read that. John Hancock

I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of deliverance. John Adams

You have to love a nation that celebrates its independence every July 4, not with a parade of guns, tanks, and soldiers who file by the White House in a show of strength and muscle, but with family picnics where kids throw Frisbees, the potato salad gets iffy, and the flies die from happiness. You may think you have overeaten, but it is patriotism. Erma Bombeck

Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed – else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die. Dwight D. Eisenhower

I love this card to the right, about the Louisiana Purchase from the late 1800’s!

Where liberty dwells, there is my country. Benjamin Franklin

May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country! Daniel Webster

Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth. George Washington

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same. Ronald Reagan

It does not take a majority to prevail… but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. Samuel Adams

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect. Eleanor Roosevelt

The boisterous sea of liberty is never without a wave. Thomas Jefferson

I know not what others may choose but, as for me, give me liberty or give
me death. Patrick Henry

I really like this card from 1879, with Uncle Sam!

Jun 28 2015

No One There Weekend Writing Warriors

Here’s the link to the Weekend Writing Warriors central page, so you can visit all the participants sharing excerpts today…a fun way to sample new books and find new authors! (Also welcome to the Sunday Snippet visitors!)

I’m switching gears to my newly released science fiction romance Star Cruise: Marooned. This is from the first moment things start to go wrong, although no one realizes it yet. (See below the excerpt for the story.)

“What did the ranger say?” Meg asked, plating more mini sandwiches.

Shaking his head, Red said, “No one there.”

“What?” She paused in the middle of drizzling artful condiments on the individual Azrigone beef patties. Laughing, thinking perhaps he was kidding, she said, “Are they out to lunch or something?”

“Place is all closed up. I knocked, on the off chance someone was left as a caretaker, but the station shows all the signs of being abandoned.” He ran one hand through the dark maroon hair that gave him his nickname.

“Impossible, the rangers and their families live here year round – I’ll go check for myself later.” Annoyed at his failure to complete the simple task, she said, “Mr. Trever asked to go fishing, and that’s your job.”

The Story:

Meg Antille works long hours on the charter cruise ship Far Horizon so she can send credits home to her family. Working hard to earn a promotion to a better post (and better pay), Meg has no time for romance.

Former Special Forces soldier Red Thomsill only took the berth on the Far Horizon in hopes of getting to know Meg better, but so far she’s kept him at a polite distance. A scheduled stopover on the idyllic beach of a nature preserve planet may be his last chance to impress the girl.

But when one of the passengers is attacked by a wild animal it becomes clear that conditions on the lushly forested Dantaralon aren’t as advertised – the ranger station is deserted, the defensive perimeter is down…and then the Far Horizon’s shuttle abruptly leaves without any of them.

Marooned on the dangerous outback world, romance is the least of their concerns, and yet Meg and Red cannot help being drawn to each other once they see how well they work together. But can they survive long enough to see their romance through? Or will the wild alien planet defeat them, ending their romance and their lives before anything can really begin?

Only 99 cents! Buy Links: Amazon iBooks Kobo Barnes & Noble

I’m very sorry not to have made the rounds last week after all but this move to a new apartment is just taking over my life at the moment! I will be visiting everyone’s excerpt this week, I promise. Looking forward to it! Thanks for all the warm comments last week, which were much appreciated.

Jun 20 2015

The Great Estate of Heron Marsh Weekend Writing Warriors

This week’s excerpt is from my newly released Ghost of the Nile. Jumping ahead, the goddess Ma’at has plunged Periseneb into a tense standoff between a young woman, her servant and a group of bullies.He intervenes of course! So now let’s meet the heroine of this tale:

Apparently recalling she’d not introduced herself, she said, “I’m Neithamun, of Heron Marsh and this belligerent one is my chief cowherd.”

“Lady Neithamun.” The boy’s reprimand was stern.

She laughed, gesturing at her plain blue cotton dress and rude sandals. “Yes, although our visitor probably won’t believe such a lofty claim.”

“I’ve heard of the great estate of Heron Marsh.” Periseneb stared toward the horizon, mixed emotions over her status churning in his gut. In his time, a daughter of the house wouldn’t lower herself to herding cows – why was she allowed or encouraged to do so?

Spine straight, chin held high, Neithamun said, “Not such a great estate these days, but we do our best, land rich and deben poor – are you from this area then?”

“I’ve some familiarity with the area.”

Two things – I’m in the middle of moving, so I won’t be making the rounds today but I promise to get to everyone else’s post during the week to come, if the cable guy shows up on time to reconnect my internet at the new location! And second, my new science fiction romance STAR CRUISE: MAROONED released on Friday, so I’ll probably put up excerpts from that for the next few weeks.

Here’s the story for GHOST OF THE NILE:

1550 BCE

Betrayed, murdered, and buried without proper ceremony, Egyptian warrior Periseneb is doomed to roam the gray deserts of the dead as a ghost for all eternity.

But then the goddess of truth offers him a bargain: return to the world of the living as her champion for 30 days. If he completes his mission, he’ll be guaranteed entry into Paradise. Periseneb agrees to the bargain but, when he returns to the living world, two hundred years have passed and nothing is quite as he expected.

Neithamun is a woman fighting to hang onto her family’s estate against an unscrupulous nobleman who desires the land as well as the lady. All seems lost until a mysterious yet appealing ex-soldier, Periseneb, appears out of nowhere to help her fight off the noble’s repeated attacks.

Meanwhile, Periseneb’s thirty days are rushing by, and he’s powerless against the growing attraction between himself and Neithamun. But their love can never be. For his Fate is to return to the Afterlife, and Death cannot wed with Life…

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Jun 14 2015

Act As Your Heart Dictates Weekend Writing Warriors

This week’s excerpt is from my newly released Ghost of the Nile. The goddess Ma’at has just told Periseneb she only wants him to complete his journey home…Periseneb is speaking:

“That’s all? Show up two-hundred years late and say, here I am? Who would know me now? Who would care? I have no place there, Great One.” His voice cracked a little on the last sentence and he clamped his lips closed, taking a deep breath. Thinking about the simple dreams he’d cherished as a man hurt like a knife to the heart. All gone, turned to dust.

Leaving the chair, she walked to him and the scent of her blue lotus perfume was calming. “Complete the journey and act as your heart dictates.”

The Story:

1550 BCE

Betrayed, murdered, and buried without proper ceremony, Egyptian warrior Periseneb is doomed to roam the gray deserts of the dead as a ghost for all eternity.

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Jun 10 2015

Bits of Egyptiana for Wednesday Whimsy

In honor of my latest romance set in ancient Egypt, Ghost of the Nile, I’m sharing some Victorian trade (advertising) cards and other ephemera I’ve collected. I refer to my collection of odds and ends as “Egyptiana” – I find it hard to resist anything related to the subject of life along the Nile thousands of years ago. You should see my stack of serious research tomes!

I’m in the throes of an unexpected move, so a lot of my items are already packed, but I found a few things to share today. Here are my four Queens and their pets as visualized by Royal Doulton in the 1990’s:

And here’s a gorgeous Queen with cape from Royal Staffordshire – I liked it so much, I was inspired to write a scene in Magic of the Nile involving a cloak that has some similarities, although in my novel real feathers were used.

“An old book smells like ancient Egypt.” Ray Bradbury

“In ‘Plutarch,’ her voice begins to come out; there are actual 2,000-year-old quotes from Cleopatra, and they are sly and saucy.” Stacy Schiff

“I really don’t remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on.” Elizabeth Taylor

Here’s a clipping I own from an 1899 newspaper, of a well known actress playing Cleopatra:

And some real Egyptiana I’ve shared before, a blue steatite amulet bead from the real Princess of the Nile, Meritamun. I wrote a post about acquiring this little item. Which of course, may or may not be real!

And this late 1800’s drawing based on tomb art was one of the inspirations for Heron Marsh, the estate that figures prominently in Ghost of the Nile.And the key to the Book of the Dead from the movie “Mummy” (one of my all time favorites), which sadly is only a reproduction of the movie prop and doesn’t actually open:

Jun 6 2015

Events Are In Motion Weekend Writing Warriors

This week’s excerpt is from my newly released Ghost of the Nile, which hit two Amazon Romance Best Seller lists last week so my thanks to everyone who might have purchased it :-). I’ve skipped a bit since the place where last week’s excerpt ended. The goddess Ma’at is speaking. (The provinces of Egypt were known as nomes.)

“…. I need a champion to go to the Nome of the Shield…”

“My home province,” he said, knowing his voice was unsteady.

Ma’at nodded. “Events are in motion there. I wish to influence the outcome, but it isn’t the kind of situation I can affect directly.” She tapped the table with her stylus, “Nor can I be absent from my duties here for so long as this task may require.”

He found it hard to imagine a goddess walking in his home province for any time at all. Shield Nome was dry, dusty, and far removed from Thebes and the known places of power. “What do you need done?”

Head tilted, smile on her ruby red lips, she said, “You to complete your interrupted journey home.”

The Story:

1550 BCE

Betrayed, murdered, and buried without proper ceremony, Egyptian warrior Periseneb is doomed to roam the gray deserts of the dead as a ghost for all eternity.

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Jun 3 2015

Interviewing Laurie A Green and Donna S Frelick SciFi Romance

Over at USA Today Happily Ever After, I’m doing a joint interview of two debut authors in the world of science fiction romance – Donna S. Frelick, Unchained Memory (The Interstellar Rescue Series Book 1), and Laurie A. Green, Inherit the Stars (Inherited Stars Series). These two are already well known in the SFR universe, as they blog together at The Spacefreighters Lounge, along with other authors.

We had a few questions left over when the USAT/HEA interview was done, so here’s a bit more from Laurie and Donna, after the short bios:

Donna S. Frelick was an RWA® Golden Heart® Double Finalist in 2012 in the Paranormal category for the first two novels in her SFR Interstellar Rescue series. She currently lives in Virginia with her husband and two talkative cats. Find her at http://donnasfrelick.com; blogging at http://spacefreighters.blogspot.com; and on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/DonnaSFrelickAuthor.

Laurie A. Green is a three-time RWA® Golden Heart® finalist and science fiction romance enthusiast who founded the SFR Brigade community of writers. Her extended family includes her husband, David, four dogs, three cats and several horses, all who reside on a ranch in beautiful New Mexico. When she’s not writing, networking, or searching out the perfect cup of Starbucks, she’s usually busy exercising her left brain as a military budget director. Visit her website here: http://www.laurieagreen.com

Veronica: What’s next for you, writingwise?

Laurie: Later this year, the next novel in The Inherited Stars Series, The Outer Planets, is slated to release, as well as a print version of Inherit the Stars. I’m excited about my next because it’s a Near Future Romance set on a planetary research vessel in the 2040s and the romance is between two members of a Combined Joint Task Force crew—a civilian vid-reporter with a life-altering secret, and an Army Captain who serves as aide de camp to the vessel’s commanding officer. I describe it as a “Military Romance with cooler tech” but it also has a dark mystery/conspiracy that threatens the MCs and the mission. After that, I’ll be releasing four more novels in this series in the next 24 months, as well as several shorter works.

Donna: Book Two in the Interstellar Rescue series, Trouble in Mind, launches in Fall, 2015. In this science fiction suspense romance an FBI agent must forge a bond with a half-alien tracker to find a boy who is the key to an interstellar power play. Book Three of the series, Fools Rush In, will be a little bit of a departure. It’s Sam and Rayna’s story (two characters who figure in the other stories), set before the time of the previous books in space opera noir style. That’s due out in Spring, 2016.

Veronica: What’s on your To Be Read list?

Donna: Oh, Lord, the list is too long! I’m in the middle of reading Rachel Bach’s series starting with Fortune’s Pawn, because I HATE cliffhangers and I have to know what happens next and Devi is just a great character. I have a stack of books by my Firebird Golden Heart® sisters across all subgenres that I can’t wait to get to—just keeping up with that bunch is enough to keep a whole library in books. I have some erotica from Barbara Elsborg that I’m keeping for an (ahem) special occasion. And I just couldn’t resist picking up In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson (Devil in the White City) when I was in the bookstore yesterday. Can you tell I have eclectic tastes? 😉

Laurie: Where to start in my Leaning Tower of TBR? I’m really looking forward to reading all the other offerings in the Sing a Song of the Stars SFR book bundle, Kate Corcino’s Ignition Point, a prequel anthology to her phenomenal Spark Rising, and another re-read of Sharon Lynn Fisher’s fabulous Echo 8. Then I’m itching to get to some other great romances by Kimberly Kincaid, Barbara Elsborg, Tamra Baumann and Heather Ashby, to name just a few.

And the books by these two authors that we’re discussing over at USAT/HEA are:

Inherit the Stars (courtesy of Array Press), which is actually Laurie’s second published book by about a month: To escape the merciless Ithian Alliance, Sair, a fugitive slave, makes a desperate deal with Drea Mennelsohn, captain of the prototype ship, Specter. But putting his life in the hands of a woman as mysterious as she is beguiling could turn out to be the biggest mistake of his life, especially when the price on his head begins to escalate.

Drea seems to want far more from the fugitive than just payment for his passage on her ship. Though neither can deny the sizzling chemistry and growing bond between them, Sair must soon make an agonizing decision that could result in the loss of the remarkable woman he has fallen in love with—and their chance to inherit the stars.

Amazon

The story for Donna’s Unchained Memory (courtesy of the author): Three hours ripped away her past. His love promised her the future. From the night she wakes up in her pickup on the side of the road, three hours gone and everything of value lost to her, Asia Burdette is caught in a clash of invisible forces. She has only one ally in her struggle to understand why–Ethan Roberts, a man she shouldn’t love, a psychiatrist who risks everything to help her.

With black ops kidnappers dogging their trail, the lovers race to navigate a maze of mind control, alien abduction and interstellar slavery. If they keep following the signs, they’ll find a battle that’s been raging since the first silver saucer was spotted in the skies above Earth

Amazon

Jun 1 2015

SFR Brigade Summer Cafe Blog Hop Giveaway

The giveaway on my blog is now CLOSED and S. A. Hoag, Nicole Luiken and Ed Hoornaert were my three randomly selected winners. Thanks for all the great comments and out of this world dining recommendations!

Welcome to my post for the Science Fiction Romance Brigade’s Summer Cafe. I’m giving away three prizes on my blog, to randomly selected commenters. The question to answer in the comment is where in the Universe (real or scifi) would you want to go for dinner and why? The pub in Hobbiton? The cantina on Tatooine? The rings of Saturn? The Twilight Zone? Your imagination is the only limit here!

My prizes on THIS blog only are three $10.00 Amazon gift cards. I’ll randomly select my winners after midnight on June 7th, no substitutions, no cash equivalent.

Here are the prizes for the overall Summer Cafe Hop as listed on the “Menu Card” below, which can be entered at the Rafflecopter HERE. NOTE: All prizes are available internationally but are NOT exchangeable for any cash or other alternatives.
Here are the links to go check out all the other SFR authors on the Bog hop. (NOTE: same list of participating authors at either site.):
SFR Brigade OR SFR Station
Here’s an excerpt from my most recent scifi romance, Mission to Mahjundar, where the hero and heroine discuss a ‘recipe’ for a potion to temporarily restore the heroine’s eye sight. The group is in her mother’s tomb, deep in a cave.

The guardsman withdrew a small leather pouch from his broad belt and placed it safely in her cupped hands. Unknotting the cords by touch took her a moment of fierce concentration, but then she withdrew an object swathed in rolls of velvety cloth. While Saium hovered, making small hand motions as if he wanted to take the bundle from her and open it himself, Shalira extracted a small glass vial. An emerald-green stopper flashed in the smoky torchlight. Even in the gloom of the “gazebo,” the liquid contents of this unique container shone and glowed golden.

“What do you have there?” Mike stepped to her side.

Shalira tilted her head in the direction of his voice. “My mother’s nurse was a wise woman, a healer, an initiate in the goddess Pavmiraia’s secrets. After my brother was killed and I was left blind, she worked tirelessly to gather the ingredients for this potion. Some she had to commission from across the Great Sea, which took several years to acquire. When she had the recipe complete, she secretly left the palace to brew this mix. Whether from the sorcery involved, or whether it was a coincidence, she was near death when she returned, dying within a sevenday.” Shalira shook the vial in her hand. “All for the liquid in this bottle.”

“What’s it supposed to do?” Mike had a sneaking suspicion what Shalira was going to say.

“Restore my sight for the space of an hour. She bade me to keep it safe and use it only if my life depended on my eyes.”

“Then perhaps you should save it. Tell me and Saium what to do,” Mike suggested urgently, not liking the ominous appearance of the bottle, golden glow or not.

“Don’t fear for me.” Shalira regarded him so warmly he forgot what he’d planned to say next. “My life does depend on this. If I fail to get the clan insignia, Bandarlok won’t marry me. Then I’m doomed to return home and enter the Abbey of the Obedient Sisters, which is a virtual death sentence. The empress will have me killed.”

“Shalira—” He stopped, shaking his head. What am I planning to say? Am I going to offer to take her away from all this, go back to my home world with me? Mike swallowed hard, surprised into silence by a flood of unexpected emotion choking him.

Not waiting to hear more of his opinions, she unstoppered the little flask, sucked in a breath and held it, drinking the contents in one quick swallow.

Gagging, Shalira staggered backward, dropping the bottle, hands rising to her throat. The vial shattered on the stone floor, spraying shards and droplets of moisture everywhere. Mike rushed to her side, catching her one-handed as she swooned toward the cold floor. “Bring me the cloak to wrap her in. She’s convulsing.”

Avoiding the broken glass, Mike sat on the freezing stone floor, cradling the unconscious princess while she shook. “Damn it, we never should have let her drink that stuff. What if it’s poison?”

“Her nurse would never have poisoned Shalira,” the older man answered, his face calm, voice low. “Have faith, as Her Highness does, and wait, outworlder.”

Skidding on the stone floor, Johnny came running into the chamber, gun in hand. “We got major troubles.” He stopped short at the sight of the unconscious Shalira. “Lords of Space, now what?”

Holding the princess tight against the tremors racking her body, Mike frowned. “She drank something she believes will restore her vision and the side effects are pretty bad. What’s happening in the valley?”

“We’ve been double-crossed….”

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The story:

2015 SFR Galaxy Award Winner

An attempted assassination left Princess Shalira blind as a child and, now that she’s of marriageable age, her prospects are not good because of her disability. She’s resigned herself to an arranged marriage rather than face life under the thumb of her cold stepmother. But then she meets Mike Varone, a Sectors Special Forces officer sent to Mahjundar by the intergalactic government to retrieve a ship lost in her planet’s mountains. After Mike saves Shalira from another assassination attempt, she arranges for him to escort her across the planet to her future husband. She’s already falling hard for the deadly offworlder and knows she should deny herself the temptation he represents, but taking Mike along to protect her is the only way she’ll live long enough to escape her ruthless stepmother.

But what should have been an easy trek through Mahjundar’s peaceful lands swiftly turns into an ambush with danger around every turn. Shalira’s marriage begins to seem less like an arranged union and more like yet another planned assassination. The more they work together to survive, the harder it becomes to stop themselves from falling in love. Caught in a race against time, can they escape the hostile forces hunting them and make it off the planet?