Recently I was a guest on my friend Pauline Baird Jones’s blog, discussing why I wrote GABE my latest novel in the Badari Warrior scifi romance series…here’s part of the post and you can hop over to her blog to read the short excerpt I shared with her…

Gabe’s been an important supporting character since the first book in the series. He’s fun to write, since he’s an ex-Special Forces soldier from the Sectors and also a daredevil pilot. I always knew he’d have his own book at some point and relish his time to be completely in the spotlight. I don’t plot in advance, although I do have the overall series arc in my head. I try to make sure each novel supports the series arc and with this novel I’ve thrown in a new factor and a complication. I usually start a novel knowing the hero, the heroine, the beginning, the ending and a few events in between, which is how I wrote GABE. The book flows for me once I sit down to write.

Teeny tiny spoiler for the major plot development that gets revealed really early in the first chapter – Gabe’s lady love isn’t human. She’s something everyone on the planet believes doesn’t exist, which if you’ve been reading the series will probably give you a huge clue.

SPOILER

SPOILER

SPOILER: Keshara is a female Badari.

I always knew I was going to write at least a few female Badari into the series plot somehow. They were an irresistible development to me and who better to have a mate bond with than my dashing human,  Gabe? So when the time came as I was writing this latest book, I had to really ponder under what circumstances a small pack of these women might have been created by a Khagrish scientist despite the fact their alien customers didn’t want any females to be in existence. I even had two senior Khagrish scientists talk a little bit in MATEER (book two) about the rumor there might have been female Badari and dismiss it with a laugh.

I needed to know why there was absolutely no hint anywhere that Badari females did exist, or were even possible, and that set up some intriguing stuff for me about the scientist in charge of this particular experiment and the whys and wherefores. I also had some fun with the fact these ladies are more like Generation One or Two, and hence aren’t exactly like the Generation Eight Badari males who are the heroes in the other books. Aydarr, Mateer and the others are the result of eight generations of heavy experimentation by the Khagrish scientists whereas Keshara and her sisters come from much earlier in the process.

An author must have her challenges!

Fiona Jayde gave me her usual gorgeous cover and I have to say that inspired me – I think Gabe on the cover is an excellent embodiment of my sexy hero.

Here’s the blurb:

Gabe Carter, hotshot pilot and ex-Special Forces soldier, is far from his home in the human Sectors, kidnapped by alien scientists to be the subject of horrifying experiments.  Shot down by the enemy over desolate territory far from his Badari allies and gravely injured, Gabe’s only hope is a mysterious woman on the run herself.

Keshara has to decide whether to abandon the human to die of his injuries on a windswept mountain top or give up her own quest for freedom and take him to a place he can be helped. The undeniable spark between them complicates matters.

His attraction to her is off the charts but when she betrays him to the Khagrish enemy, Gabe doesn’t know what to believe. Trapped inside an alien lab bursting with mysteries and lies, his only hope may be to trust her…again.

Because the renegade alien scientist running her own private experiments wants to use him to accomplish her goals and perpetuate the evil, no matter what she has to do to ensure his compliance. Keshara’s life hangs in the balance and Gabe has to make a choice.

This is the sixth book in the Badari Warriors world (and the fifth book in the series) and each novel has a satisfying Happy for Now ending for the hero and heroine, not a cliffhanger. Some overarching issues do remain unresolved in each book since this is an ongoing series but romance always wins the day in my novels!

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